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.