drive a soul to despair: Nor can they turn their eyes away from the horrid sight, for their criminal practices beset them around, and the naked soul is all sight and all sense; it is eye and ear all over; it hears the dreadful curses of the law, and the sentence of the Judge, and never, never forgets it. This is the character, these the circumstances of an obstinate sinner, that awakes not till the moment of death, and "lift up his eyes in hell," as our Saviour expresses it: These will be the consequences of our guilt and folly, if we are found in a dead sleep of sin, when our Lord comes to call us from this mortal state.

Secondly, Let us spend a few thoughts also upon the dangerous and unhappy circumstances of those of whom we may have some reason to hope, they have once begun religion in good earnest, and are made spiritually alive, but have indulged themselves in drowsiness, and worn out the latter end of their days in a careless, secure, and slothful frame of spirit.'

1. If they have had the principle of vital religion. wrought in their hearts, yet by these criminal slum. Ibers, they darken and lose their evidences of grace, and by this means, they cut themselves off from the sweet reflections and comforts of it on a dying bed, when they have most need of them.' They know not whether they are the children of God or no, and are in anxious confusion and distressing fear: They have scarce any plain proofs of their conversion to God, and the evidences of true Christianity ready at hand, when all are little enough to support

their spirits: They have not used themselves to search for them by self-enquiry, and to keep them in their sight, and therefore they are missing in this important hour: They have not been wont to live upon their heavenly hopes, and they cannot be found when they want them to rest upon in death: They die therefore almost like sinners, though they may perhaps have been once converted to holiness, and there may be a root of grace remaining in them; and the reason is, because they have lived too much as sinners do: They have given too great and criminal an indulgence, to the vain and worldly cares, or the trifling amusements of this life; these have engrossed almost all their thoughts and their time, and therefore in the day of death they fall under terrors and painful apprehensions of a doubtful eternity just at hand.

If we have not walked closely with God in this world, we may well be afraid to appear before him in the next. If we have not maintained a constant converse with Jesus our Saviour, by holy exercises of faith and hope, it is no wonder if we are not so ready with cheerfulness and joy, to resign our departing spirits into his hand. It is possible we may have a right to the inheritance of heaven, having had some sight of it by faith as revealed in the gospel, having in the main chosen it for our portion, and set our feet in the path of holiness that leads to it; but we have so often wandered out of the way, that in this awful and solemn hour, we shall be in doubt, whether we shall be received at the gates, and enter into the city.

Such unwatchful Christians have not kept the eternal glories of heaven, in their constant and active pursuit, they have not lived upon them as their portion and inheritance, they have been too much strangers to the invisible world of happiness, and they know not how to venture through death into it. They have built indeed upon the solid foundation, Christ Jesus' and the gospel, but they have mingled so much hay and stubble' with the superstructure, that when they depart hence, or when they appear before Christ in judgment, "they shall suffer great loss by the burning of their works, yet themselves may be saved so as by fire," 1 Cor. iii. 10-15. They may pass as it were by the flame of hell, and have something like the scorching terrors of it in death, though the abounding and forgiving grace of the gospel, may convey them safe to heaven: They escape as a man that is awakened with the sudden alarms of fire, who suffers the loss of his substance, and a great part of the fruit of his labours, and just saves his own life. They plunge into eternity, and make a sort of terri. ble escape from hell.

2. They can never expect any peculiar favours from heaven at the hour of death, no special visitations of the comforting spirit, nor that the love of God, and the joy of his presence, should attend them through the dark valley.' It is not to such unwatchful or sleepy Christians, that God is wont to vouchsafe his choicest consolations. They fall under terrible fears about the pardon of their sins, when they stand in most need of the sight of their pardon; and

Christ as the ruler of his church, sees it fit they should be thus punished for their negligence. They lay hold of the promises of mercy with a trembling hand, and cannot claim them by a vigorous faith, because they have not been wont to live upon them, nor do they see those holy characters in their own hearts and lives, which confirm their title to them. They have no bright views of the celestial world, and earnests of their salvation, for it is only for watchful souls, that these cordials are prepared in the fainting hour: It is only to the watchful Christian, that these fore-tastes of glory are given. "The fruit of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance for ever," Isai. xxxii. 17. "Blessed is he which watcheth, and keepeth his garments" clean, that he may enter with triumph into that city, where nothing shall enter that defileth.

3. Slumbering and slothful Christians are oftentimes left to wrestle with sore temptations of Satan, and have dreadful conflicts in the day of death :' and the reason is evident, because they have not watched against their adversary, and obtained but few victories over him in their life. These temptations are keen and piercing thorns, that enter deep into the heart, of a dying creature. The devil may be let loose upon them with great wrath, knowing that his time is but short; and yet there is great justice in the conduct of the God in heaven, in giving them up to be buffetted by the powers of hell. What frightful agonies are raised in the conscience, by the tempter, and the accuser of souls, on a sick or dying

bed, can hardly be described by the living, and are known only to those who have felt them in death.

4. Such drowsy Christians make dismal work for new and terrible repentance on a death bed;' for, though they have sincerely repented in times past of their former sins, yet, having too much omitted the self-mortifying duties, having given too much indul. gence to temptation and folly, and having not maintained this habitual penitence, for their daily offences in constant exercise, their spirits are now filled with fresh convictions, and bitter remorse of heart. The guilt of their careless and slothful conduct finds them out now, and besets them around, and they feel most acute sorrows, and wounding reflections of conscience, while they have need of most comfort. What a glorious entrance had St. Paul into the world of spirits, and the presence of Christ? He had made repentance and mortification and faith in Jesus, his daily work: "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I run, I fight, I subdue my body, and keep it under; I am crucified to the world, and the world to me; the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God:" When he was "ready to be offered up, and the time of his departure was at hand," from the edge of the sword, and the borders of the grave, he could look back upon his former life, and say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righte ous Judge will give me." 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

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