As the devil labours by all means to keep out other things that are good,
so to keep out of the heart as much as in him lies, the thoughts of
passing out of this life into another world; for he knows if he can but
keep them from the serious thoughts of _death_, he shall the more easily
keep them in their sins.
Nothing will make us more earnest in working out the work of our
salvation than a frequent meditation of mortality; nothing hath a greater
influence for the taking off our hearts from vanities, and for the
begetting in us desires for holiness.
O! sinner, what a condition wilt thou fall into when thou departest the
world; if thou depart unconverted, thou hadst better have been
_smothered_ the first hour thou wast born; thou hadst better have been
plucked one limb from the other; thou hadst better have been made a dog,
a toad, a serpent, than to die unconverted; and this thou wilt find true
if thou repent not.
A man would be counted a fool to slight a judge before whom he is to have
a trial of his whole estate. The trial we are to have before God is of
_otherwise_ importance; it concerns our eternal happiness or misery, and
yet dare we affront him.
The only way for us to escape that terrible judgment is to be often
passing a sentence of condemnation upon ourselves here.
When the sound of the trumpet shall be heard, which shall summon the dead
to appear before the tribunal of God, the righteous shall hasten out of
their graves with joy to meet their Redeemer in the clouds; others shall
call to the mountains and hills to fall upon them, to cover them from the
sight of their judge; let us, therefore, in time be _posing_ ourselves
which of the _two_ we shall be.