Let

to practice they ought seriously to alarm us. all those, therefore, who, being at all advanced in life, see reason to be dissatisfied with themselves, with their disposition of mind, and their general conduct, be alarmed; for there is certainly the greatest reason for it, probably much more than they are themselves aware of. Persons in this state of mind always flatter themselves with a time when they shall have more leisure for repentance and reformation; but, judging from observation on others, which is the surest guide that they can follow (infinitely better than their own imaginations) they may conclude, that it is almost a certainthat such a time will never come.

If they should have the leisure for repentance and reformation which they promised themselves, it is not probable that sufficient strength of resolution will come along with it. Indeed, all resolutions to repent at a future time are necessarily insincere, and must be a mere deception; because they imply a preference of a man's present habits and conduct, that he is really unwilling to change them, and that nothing but necessity would lead him to make any attempt of the kind. In fact, he can only mean that he will discontinue particular actions, his habits, or temper of mind, remaining the same.

Besides,

:: Besides, a real, effectual repentance, or reformation, is such a total change in a man, as cannot, in the nature of things, take place in a short space of time. A man's habits are formed by the scenes he has gone through, and the impressions which they have made upon him; and when death approaches, a man has not another life, like this, to live over again. He may, even on a death-bed, most sincerely wish that he had a pious and bene volent disposition, with the love of virtue in all its branches: but that wish, though it be ever so sincere, and earnest, can no more produce a proper change in his mind, than it can restore him to health, or make him taller, or stronger, than he is.

The precise time when this confirmed state of mind takes place, or, in the language of scripture, the time when any person is thus left of God, or left to himself, cannot be determined. It is necessari. ly various and uncertain. But in general, we may say, that when any person has been long abandoned to vicious courses, when vice is grown into a habit with him, and especially, when his vices are more properly of a mental nature, such as a disposition to envy, malice, or selfishness (which are the most inveterate, the most difficult to be eradicated, of all vices); when neither health nor sickness, prosperity

prosperity nor adversity when neither a man's own reflexions, the remonstrances of his friends, nor admonitions from the pulpit, have any visible effect upon him; ; when, after this, we see no great change in his worldly affairs, or connexions, but he goes on from day to day, from month to month, and from year to year, without any sensible alteration, there is reason to fear that he is fallen into this fatal security, that he is, as it were, fallen asleep, and that this sleep will be the sleep of death.

However, a shadow of hope is not to be despised. One chance in a thousand is still a chance; and there are persons whose vigour of mind is such, that, when sufficiently rouzed, they are equal to almost any thing. Let those, therefore, who see their danger at any time of life, be up and doing, working out their salvation with fear and trembling, that, if possible, they may flee from the wrath to

310

DISCOURSE

ON THE

RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept...

W1

T

E cannot imagine any question more interesting to man, than whether he shall survive the grave, so that he shall live, and especially live for ever, after he has been dead. Every question re- • ཊུ ུ ཏཱ ; lating to our condition here is of no moment at all when compared to this.

Nothing that we see in nature can lead us to form any such expection. I say expectation. For though some appearances may lead us to indulge a wish, and in some persons perhaps encourage a hope, of another life after this, yet if we were left to the mere light of nature, it would remain improba

ble

ble upon the whole; so that we could not, in this situation, die with any reasonable prospect of liv ing again.

2

The constitution of man very much resembles that of other animals. They have the saine senses of body, and the same faculties of mind, differing from us only in degree; man being more intelligent than they, and therefore capable of greater refinement in his passions and affections, and having greater comprehension of mind, so as to take into his view more of the past, and of the future, together with the present, than they can. This, however, amounts to no difference in kind; and the dif ference that we see among other animals in these respects, is as great as that which subsists between us and the highest of them, the oyster, for example, and the elephant. Consequently, it would be natural to conclude that one fate awaits us all, the superior kinds of animals as well as the inferior, and man as well as them all. When we die, we are equally subject to corruption, and a total dissolution of the parts of which we consist, without any appearance of their ever being re-assembled, and re-arranged as they were before, or of any Being, in a new form, resulting from them. Death

other

is a