Page:Life and transactions of Jane Shore, concubine to King Edward IVth.pdf/23

23 misery of the sinner, and who was disposed to do what he could to save a soul from death Had the case been otherwise, she would very likely have fallen into the deepest guilt and depravity. She might have become hardened in iniquity, the victim of disease, and death, and everlasting misery. Notwithstanding her providential rescue from infamy, indeed, she came early to the grave. But what a differerce between her death and that of one who dies in her sins. There are many poor creatures, whose names are unknown except in their own abandoned circle, who, having past a few years, perhaps only a few months, living, or rather starving on the wages of iniquity, are reduced to the deepest wretchedness, and suffered to die without any caring for them, a terror, and a loathing to themselves, and to all around them.

But it is in death itself, and what follows, that the difference will most strikingly appear. For one that dies in sin, there is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever-the gnawing of the worm that shall never die, and the fury of the fire that never shall be quenched. The moment such aone breathes his last, his soul, covered with guilt, appears before the righteous Judge. who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon sin. That soul must, therefore, be banished from his presence for ever. It is sent away into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. When a saved sinner dies, his soul also goes immediately into the presence of God, not, however, like that of the other, covered with guilt, but clothed with a perfect righ-