CHAPTER XI.

THE FINAL CAUSE OF REPUGNANCE TO DEATH.

The last source of repugnance to death is a dread of the judgment of God, before whose tribunal death conducts us. We know that the moment after we expire, we must appear before this formidable judge, and shall be obliged to render him an exact account of our actions. As we fear the event of this judgment, and are in dread of condemnation, it is not strange that we should shrink from its approach, and that we should be filled with horror at the idea of death, which conducts us to it. This reason, it must be admitted, is not by any means as insufficient as the preceding; it is often very substantial: but to judge soundly of it, it must be considered with reference to the state of those who are inspired with this repugnance.

We

may arrange them in three different orders: the first have reason to believe that they are in a state of grace, and that their peace is made with God. The second, on the contrary, that their present state is a state of sin and condemnation. The third are ignorant what is their state, either because they have taken

no pains to acquaint themselves with it, or used only partial and insufficient endeavors. If the first apprehend the judgment of God, and if this apprehension creates the repugnance they feel to death, which it is rather difficult, if not impossible to relieve, their fear is very unworthy of them, and exhibits at least a weakness of faith which cannot but be criminal: for how can they doubt, that having obtained already remission of their sins, being adopted and renewed, living and dying in a state of grace, they shall surely be saved and admitted to the enjoyment of eternal blessedness. There would be something so strange and unreasonable in such an apprehension, that I can scarcely believe it possible.

In fact, a man who knows he is in a state of grace, knows that he has faith; there being nothing more essential to such a happy state than this virtue. Notwithstanding this, he fears. He dares not assure himself, even dying in the faith and love of God, that he shall escape death and eternal condemnation. But doubting a truth so clearly and incontestibly revealed as this is, can such a person have faith? What can there be more contrary to faith than such an apprehension? This supposition is, therefore, impossible, and involves a manifest contradiction.

I can also say with truth, that I never saw a person in whom I have ever remarked such strange apprehensions. All of those who have appeared to me fearful of the divine judgment, to which death was conducting them, have given me to understand, that their fears have proceeded solely from the fact, that they could not find in themselves sufficient evidence of the renewal of their minds. This first description of fear, being thus impossible, it is not necessary to delay the reader by any further attention to it.

Not so with the second. They who know their present state to be one of sin and condemnation, are not blameable in fearing death; they are much more so in not fearing it sufficiently; and above all, in not laboring effectually to deliver themselves from the uneasiness which this fear gives them, by placing themselves in a state which may give them a solid ground of hope. Not to fear in such a state is not fortitude, nor the assurance of hope, but profanation, security, stupidity. It is a state above all others the most frightful, and which gives the least hope of salvation for those who are found in it. In fact, it does not appear difficult to bring the greatest sinners to repentance, provided they have strong remorse of con. science. But what can we do for those who have found means in such a degree to stupify conscience

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that they no longer reproach themselves for the greatest sins, and fear nothing, whatever cause they may justly have to tremble. It remains for me to consider the last, who are ignorant of their present state.

In this uncertainty it is not surprising that they fear. Why should they not fear, since they see themselves threatened with an evil infinitely formidable, and which they have no reason to hope they can escape. What is astonishing is, that they can allow themselves to remain in a state so uneasy and inconvenient as this. They are in suspense between hope and fear: they see an eternity which awaits them, and they know not whether this shall be an eternity of bliss or an eternity of misery. Can it be that this uncertainty does not disturb them? Yet they may deliver themselves from it, as well by careful selfexamination, as by banishing from the heart that which occasions this fear, and by obtaining that which will afford them good ground of hope. If they will not do this, have they a right to claim any sympathy? I hence conclude in the first place, that these two descriptions of fear, having nothing in them exceptionable, but capable of being very useful and very salutary, we should not seek to suppress them, but rather to remove their cause.

I conclude, secondly, that nothing is more rea sonable than the method pursued by those who, to assure the hopes of the dying, reason at large with them to show that death, far from being fatal to the children of God, is very advantageous to them: that it transfers them from earth to heaven; from combat to triumph; from misery to bliss. They set before them those passages

of Scripture which speak of the happiness and glory of such as die the death of the righteous; and they suppose that all this gives them a right to conclude that they have no occasion to fear death, and that they should rather meet it with joy. But to reason in this way is to delude them; it is to labor to establish truths which are generally acknowledged, and to say nothing whatever of the only thing which creates doubt, or gives foundation for fear. Death is doubtless an advantage, but for whom is it so? Is it for all without exception? Is it so for the ungodly? Is it so for those who die in sin? Quite the contrary : it is the greatest calamity that could possibly befal them. Certainly it is not a favorable change to any but true believers ; for those who are children of God; for those who die with his grace and in his love. This is a point which no one disputes. Either then nothing is suitably said, or it is presumed that the dying person whom we endeavor.