WHAT THEY SHOULD DO WHO, AFTER CAREFUL SELF EXAMIN ATION, CANNOT ASSURE THEMSELVES OF THEIR TRUE STATE, These are some of the principal duties of believers firmly and strongly persuaded of their reconciliation with God. But all the dying have not this persuasion. There are those who are convinced to the contrary, and who doubt not but that they may be always in a state of sin and of condemnation. There are others who know not what is their state, as well because they have never taken the pains to inquire, as because, having attended to it, they have found nothing which might determine their mind, and which might give them occasion to assure themselves whether they were children of God, or whether they were not so. These last are doubtless much to be deplored; nothing is more sad than their condition. These belong not to the ungodly, who take no interest in their salvation; they desire to be saved, and dread to be lost. I may even be allowed to suppose that they have some love for God, since if they loved him not at all they would find it difficult to doubt what was their condition. They would pronounce without hesitation, that it is deplorable. Yet they doubt. They know not whether they are the objects of the hatred or of the love of God, and whether they may expect the punishments of hell, or the bliss of heaven, to which he reserves them. They know that their destiny is to be soon decided, but they know not in what manner this shall be. This uncertainty is very troublesome during life, and it is surprising that they who realize it take not the requisite pains to deliver themselves from it. Nevertheless, two things occasion it to be by no means as intolerable as it ought to be: one, that we are distracted and occupied by other thoughts, which occasion this not to enter deeply in the mind; the other, that we flatter ourselves with the hope, that some day we will take other cares and other measures to enlighten ourselves upon this important subject. All this leads us to trouble ourselves but little for this uncertainty, although in fact the method should be such that we would never permit ourselves to lose a moment to extricate ourselves from it. But it is not thus at the approach of death. We think of it then spite of all our reluctances. The a danger which we run, and the inability we realize to fly and avoid it, powerfully impress the mind, and excite in the soul all that it can feel of fear, of terror and of uneasiness. There wants but little, indeed, to prevent it from falling absolutely into despair. These disquietudes arise not only from the consideration of the danger to which we find ourselves exposed; they spring besides from self-reproach for not taking early all the necessary precautions to avoid falling into such a perplexity. We see the injury we have done in allowing a whole life to pass without performing that single thing to which it ought to have been devoted. We comprehend all the extravagance of this conduct; and this it is which occasions that we cannot pardon it. These self-reproaches are surely very just; but we must not, nevertheless, abandon ourselves to them. We must employ all our remaining time not in lamenting our misfortune, but in an endeavor to repair it. This is what might appear difficult, but it is not impossible. There are two courses which we may take to deliver ourselves from this embarrassment. The first is to examine ourselves entirely anew, and to weigh more exactly than we have done, the reasons which we had both to fear and to hope. For finally, the question which we must decide is not so obscure as that it should be impossible to know with certainty on which side the truth rests, provided we receive it as we ought, and that we observe the precautions which it is never permitted to neglect upon any subject. But as all are not in a state to take these precautions, and as, besides, the subject is of pressing concern, it is better to observe the rule which good sense suggests on these occasions. It is, to adopt always that (measure) which is most sure, and consequently, to do all that we should if we doubted not we were in a state of sin and of condemnation. It is to endeavor to obtain reconciliation with God, and for this to omit none of those acts of faith, of contrition and of repentance which are necessary to obtain the favor of God during this life, and his glory in the life to come. In fact, admit that we have done this without knowing it: admit that we have obtained the mercy of God, the remission of all the sins we have committed : what do we hazard by once more imploring it, and in laboring to excite in ourselves the dispositions which are necessary to obtain it? Can those who even doubt not their justification, fail in performing these acts ? and ought they to fail, not merely to do them, but renew them as often as possible ? Let us suppose, on the contrary, that he who doubts his reconciliation with God should be, in fact, an object of his wrath and vengeance, as it is possible he might be, is he not lost if he uses no endeavors to become reconciled to him, and if he does not all with this desire that might afford him the means of success ? Thus these cares possibly being necessary, and never possible to do any injury, good sense allows not that they should be neglected. Both they, then, who doubt their reconciliation with God, and they who are convinced that they no longer possess this great advantage, have the same cares to take, and the same precautions to observe. Thus it is by no means necessary to make of this two distinct cases; one will suffice; and all who find themselves in either of these two states can take to himself what I am about to say |