DISCOURSE II. 09 shew immediately : IIe can leave his dying flesh behind him, and commit it to the dust, in joyful hope of the great rising-day, and he bath a better mansion at present provided for him on high in his Father's house, while he lives far separate from all earthly dwellings ; 2 Cor. v..1. We know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God1 not :. made with hands, eternal in the heavens. II. The moment of death finishes our state of trial, and fixes us unchangeably in the state of sin or holiness, in which we are then found; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is prepared to have his trial thus ended, and his state thus fixed, and made unchangeable. As the tree falls so it lies, whether to the north or the south.; Ec. xi. 3. At the soul parts from the body, so it. remains, whether fitted for heaven or hell. It is there- fore a matter of the last importance to be prepared, and ready for such an eternal sentence and unchangeable determination. Were any of us to be surprized some moment this day, and forced to continue all our lives in that very posture of body hi which we are then found, should we not be awake, and keep ourselves in the most natural and easy gestures all that day, lest we be seized at once, and fixed in, some distorted, painful, and uneasy situation all our months and years to come ? Or, if we were to be bound down to one single thought or passion all the rem- nant of our life, in which we were found in any uncertain minute in this hour, should we not watch with utmost care, and guard against every unpleasing thought, and every fretful and vexing passion, lest it should be fixed upon us till we die ? Now this is the case at death : The almighty voice of God then- pronounces, Ile that is unclean and unholy, must for ever be unholy and Unclean; but he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, shall be for ever holy. Rev. xxii.: 11. I will not precisely determine, that this is the sense of that text, yet since the apostle- speaks there concerning the coming of Christ, it may be very applicable to the present case. Now how dreadful soever this thought is to a guilty' sinful creature, it is no terror to a wakeful christian : He is ready to have these words, pronounced from heaven, for they will etablish him in eternal holiness and eternal peace : He bath endeavoured to secure to himself an interest in the, love of God through the faith and love of Jesus the blessed Mediator, and at death he is fixed for ever in their love. He hats loved God in time, and in this visible world, and there is nothing in all the unseen worlds, nothing through all the ages of eternity, shall ever separate him from the love of God 7,t,á Christ Jesus. The moment of death Bath fixed him .,for ever a holy and beloved soul, beyond the jAower of-creatures to change his temper, or his state. This't t te; blessedness of the watchful christian. E3
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