“Miserable the sinner who hardens his heart and resists the divine calls: His heart shall be as hard as a stone and as firm as a smith’s anvil. Instead of yielding to the graces and inspirations of God, and being softened by them, the unhappy man becomes more obdurate, as the anvil is hardened by repeated strokes of the hammer. In punishment of his resistance to the divine calls, he will find his heart in the same miserable state at the very hour of death, at the moment of passing into eternity. ‘A hard heart shall fare evil at the last.’ ‘Sinners,’ says the Lord, ‘you have, for the love of creatures, turned your back upon Me.’

They will have recourse to God at death; but He will say to them: ‘Why do you invoke me now? Call on creatures to assist you; for they have been your gods.’ The Lord will address them in this manner, because, in seeking Him, they do not sincerely wish to be converted. St Jerome says that he holds, and that he has learned from experience, that they who have to the end led a bad life, will never die a good death.”

— St. Alphonsus de Liguori, “The Sinner at Death“

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