the Author of all grace, for what he has done; and seek still to grow in every grace that will ripen you for the inheritance of the saints in light. As to those who are conscious that no such change has passed on them, let me warn them against a very common and a very fatal delusion. Very many persuade themselves that, somehow or other, almost all seamen escape hell. They think there is little or no harm in doing as others do, and in defiance of all those Scriptures which declare the evil nature of every man's heart, they will have it that their hearts are good; and that, at all events, they shall be made fit for heaven when they are dying, or directly after the breath is out of the body. Now, there is no change after death; as the tree falls so it lies. He that dies in his carnal state, remains in that state to all eternity: the only change he will experience will be from bad to worse. There is no re pentance in the grave. There is no re pentance or reformation in hell. Nor is there any safe ground to hope that the man who has lived all his days contentedly as an unholy, unrenewed, carnal being will receive conversion and the new birth when he is just on the point of death. We know that all things are possible with God. And we know that the Lord may, if he sees good, do that great work at the eleventh hour, and even in the latter end of that hour; but if any one goes on contentedly in sin during his years of health, still disregarding the calls and invitations of the Gospel, still continuing to disbelieve, or to mock at all that is said about the new birth; if any man continues, year after year, to indulge in his lusts and uncleanness, until he finds himself sinking into the ocean, or, through sickness, on the borders of the grave on shore, we tell that man that he is in the greatest danger possible. There is little room to hope; but much room to expect the Lord will pronounce these awful words on him, "Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hands, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh : when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." Prov. i. 24-31. Oh, then, let me beseech such to take warning in time. Believe the text is a truth declared by God the only Saviour, and who is to be the Judge of all flesh. Seek, then, poor unhappy sinner, seek in earnest prayer, that grace which can renew and make you what you should be. Fly to the atoning blood of the Lamb of God for pardon for the past, and cry aloud, and cease not, for the Holy Ghost to make you a new creature for the time to come, that you may be found in Christ Jesus, born again of the Spirit, and fitted for the kingdom of heaven. Many are the great and precious promises given for your encouragement by him who hath said, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Ezek. xi. 19, 20. God grant it may be so, to your everlasting good, and the divine glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. "Jesus, the sinner's friend, to thee, "Pity, and heal my sin-sick soul; "Awake, the woman's conquering seed, Awake, and bruise the serpent's head! Tread down thy foes, with power control The beast and devil in my soul. "The mansion for thyself prepare, "At last I own it cannot be That I should fit myself for thee: "What shall I say thy grace to move? Lord, I am lost, but thou hast died." |