Think seriously on what you chiefly apprehend were you this moment to die, and regulate it immediately. Accustom yourself from this moment, to perform every action, as if you were to die instantly after it. Above all things, observe this practice in the use of the sacraments.
"Death and I are divided but a single step." 1 _Kings_, xx.
"There is no to-morrow for a Christian." _Tertullian._
1. _I must one day appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, to be there judged upon the good or evil I shall have done_. There is nothing more formal nor express in the gospel than this truth; I believe it as firmly as if the last trumpet had already sounded to call up all the dead to judgment.
2. What shall we say at the sight of so many bad thoughts, of so many criminal actions, of so many graces despised? O what a terrible day is the day of God's wrath! where the inmost recesses of the heart shall be openly exposed; where every fault shall be strictly examined! If the just themselves shall be hardly found just, what must become of unhappy sinners.
3. What sentence must an impenitent sinner expect from an offended and inexorable God? O tremendous condemnation! _Depart ye accursed, &c_, Alas! where shall these miserable wretches go, to whom you thus give your malediction? To what part of the world shall they retire when they withdraw from you? Where can there be so miserable a dwelling? To be banished from the presence of God! to be accursed of God! O what a shocking destiny!
Imagine yourself now before the tribunal of Christ. What are you most ashamed of at this very moment? Reflect seriously on it, and remember that all your secret sins shall be exposed at the day of Judgment, if you do not here efface them by a sincere repentance.
"Who shall be able to stand before the face of his wrath?" _Nahum_, i.
"Wo even to the praiseworthy life, if without mercy, O God, thou shalt examine it." _St. Augustine_.
1. How great would be our horror, if the shrieks of the damned--if their groans and blasphemies could reach us! They roar like wild beasts; they accuse themselves of their sins; they bewail--they detest them. But it is too late; their tears but add new strength to the fire that torments them. O repentance of the damned! how rigorous art thou! but ah! how fruitless!