5. The unwatchful Christian, at the hour of death, has the pain and anguish of reflecting, that he has omitted many duties to God and man, and these can never be performed now;' that he has done scarce any services for Christ in the world, and those must be left for ever undone: There is nó further work or device, no labours of zeal, no activity for God in the grave,' whither we are hastening. Eccl. ix. 10. 'Alas! I have brought forth but little fruit to God, and it is well if I be not cast away as an unprofitable servant. My talents have lain bound up in rust, or been but poorly employed, whilst I have lain slumbering and unactive: The records of my life in the court of heaven, will shew but very little service for God amongst men: I have raised few monuments of praise to my Redeemer, and I can never raise them now. I shall have but few testimonies for my love and zeal, to appear in the great day of account, when the martyrs, and the confessors, and the lively Christians, shall be surrounded with the living ensigns of their victories over sin and the world, and their glorious services for their Redeemer. Wretch that I am! That I have loved my Lord at so cold a rate, and lain slumbering on a bed of ease, whilst I should have been fighting the battles of the Lord, and gaining daily honours for my Saviour!'

6. As such sort of Christians give but little glory to God in life, so they do him no honour in death; they are no ornaments to religion while they continue here, and leave perhaps but little comfort with their friends when they go hence:' Doubtings and jealou

sies about their eternal welfare, mingle with our tears and sorrows for a dying friend; these anxious fears about the departed spirit swell the tide of our grief high, and double the inward anguish. They are gone alas! from our world, but we know not whither they are gone, to heaven or to hell. A sad farewel to those whom we love! A dismal parting-stroke, and a long heart-ake!

And what honour can be expected to be done to God or his Son, what reputation or glory can be given to religion and the gospel, by a drowsy Christian departing, as it were, under a spiritual lethargy? He dies under a cloud, and casts a gloom upon the Christian faith. St. Paul was a man of another spirit, a lively and active saint, full of vigour and zeal in his soul: It was the holy resolution and assurance of this blessed apostle, "that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether by life or death." Phil. i. 20. He spent his life' in the service of Christ, and he could rejoice in 'death as his gain.' It is a glory to the gospel, when we can lie down and die with courage, in the hope of its promised blessings. It is an honour to our common faith, when it overcomes the terrors of death, and raises the Christian to a song of triumph, in view of the last enemy. It is as a new crown put upon the head of our Redeemer, and a living cordial put into the hands of mourning friends in our dying hour, when we can take our leave of them with holy fortitude, rejoicing in the salvation of Christ. No sooner does he call but we are ready, and can answer, with holy transport, 'Lord I come,'

This is a blessing that belongs only to the watchful Christian. May every one of us be awake to salvation in our expiring moments, and partake of this glorious blessedness!

I proceed now to a few remarks, and particularly such as relate to the necessity and duty of constant watchfulness, and the hazardous case of sleeping souls.

1. Remark. To presume on long life is a most dangerous temptation, for it is the common spring and cause of spiritual sleep and drowsiness.' Could we take an inward view of the hearts of men, and trace out the springs of their coldness and indifference about eternal things, and the shameful neglect of their most important interests, we should find this secret thought in the bottom of their hearts, that we are not like to die to-day or to-morrow.' They put this evil day afar off, and indulge themselves in their carnal delights, without due solicitude to prepare for the call of God. There is scarce any thing produces so much evil fruit in the world, so much shameful wickedness amongst the sensual and the profane, or such neglect of lively religion among real Christians, as this bitter root of presumption upon life and time before us. Matth. xxiv. 48, 49. The evil servant" did not "begin to smite his fellows and to eat and drink with the drunken," till he "said in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming:" It was "while the bridegroom tarried," and they imagined he would tarry longer, that even the wise virgins fell into slumbers. Ask your own hearts, my friends, does not

this thought secretly lurk within you, when you comply with a temptation, surely I shall not die yet, I have no sickness upon me, nor tokens of death, I shall live a little longer, and repent of my follies?' Vain expectation and groundless fancy! When you see the young, and the strong, and the healthy, seized away from the midst of you, and a final period put at once to all their works and designs in this life. Yet we are foolish enough to imagine our term of life shall be extended, and we presume upon months and years, which God hath not written down for us in his own book, and which he will never give us to enjoy.

We are all borderers upon the river of death, which conveys us into the eternal world, and we should be ever waiting the call of our Lord, that we may launch away with joy, to the regions of immortality: But thoughtless creatures that we are, we are perpetually wandering far up, into the fields of sense and time, we are gathering the gay and fading flowers that grow there, and filling our laps with them as a fair treasure, or making garlands for ambition to crown our brows, till one and another of us is called off on a sudden, and hurried away from this mortal coast: Those of us who survive, are surprised a little, we stand gazing, we follow our departing friends with a weeping eye for a minute or two, and then we fall to our amusements again, and grow busy as before, in gathering the flowers of time and sense. how fond we are to enrich ourselves with these perishing trifles, and adorn our heads with honours and

withering vanities, never thinking which of us may receive the next summons to leave all behind us, and stand before God; but each presumes, it will not be sent to me.' We trifle with God and things eternal, or utterly forget them, while our hands and our hearts are thus deeply engaged in the pursuit of our earthly delights: All our powers of thought and action, are intensely busied amongst the dreams of this life, while we are asleep to God, because we vainly imagine he will not call us yet.

2. Remark. Whatsoever puts us in mind of dying, should be improved to awaken us from our spiritual sleep.' Sudden deaths near us should have this effect; our young companions and acquaintance snatched away from among us in an unexpected hour, should become our monitors in death, and teach us this divine and needful lesson: The surprising loss of our friends who lay near our hearts, should put us in mind of our own departure, and powerfully awaken us from our dangerous slumbers. Sinners when they feel no sorrows, they think of no death; but when the judgments of God are in the earth,' his Spirit can awaken 'the inhabitants of the world to learn righteousness.' At such seasons it is time for the sinners in Zion' to be afraid,' and 'fearfulness to surprise the hypocrites.' Even the children of God have sometimes need of painful warning-pieces, to awaken them from their careless, their slothful, and their secure frame: And as for those souls who are indeed awake to righteousness, and lively in the practice of all religion and virtue,

Z