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THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO DIE IN THE LORD.

REVELATION, xiv. 13.

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may reft from their labours, and their works do follow them.

A MOURNFUL providence hath determined my choice of this passage: a providence in which I myself am chiefly concerned. God most wise and righteous hath seen meet to remove an affectionate and tender mother by death!

The gloomy tidings were received the day past. I feel the stroke. Nature recoils; but religion teacheth to say, All is well. In such a case, who can help feeling, seeing the connexion was near and mutually binding? Yet, O my soul, dismiss every murmuring thought, and adore the hand that strikes!

The deceased ever acted a tender, a provident, and an indulgent part. While properly thoughtful of the body, and its concerns, she manifested a prevailing solicitude for the immortal soul: making it evident to all that were about her, that she "travailed in birth again, till Christ should be

Delivered April 17, 1768, occasioned by the death of the author's mother, Mrs. Mary Stillman, who died March 17, 176 in Charleston, (S. C.) aged 57.

formed in them." A reflection on such repeated acts of kindness, tends to make the wound the deeper, and to increase the sense of loss in him, who feels that he has the affection of a son.

Had I been on the spot, it would have been expected, that I should make some improvement of the dispensation. It appears no less proper, when so far removed from the place of her death. The parent is no less a parent, for being above a thousand miles distant, neither is the stroke the more tolerable; rather this circumstance is an aggravation. We all esteem it a felicity to be near to them we love; and are ready passionately to wish, when any such die at a distance from us, that we might have seen the last of them, and have been among the number of their friends, who took part in their affliction, and contributed all that was in their power to make their death-bed easy. Had inclination made the disposal, this circumstance would have been prevented but the Lord fixes the bounds of our habitation. We are not left to choose for ourselves, and it is well we are not; seeing we should follow our own way, till it would either prove our ruin, or our very great disadvantage. We have a striking instance of this in the conduct of Jonah, that disobedient prophet. In obeying the dictates of his own mind, he ran from God; and was soon brought to the sad dilemma, either that the mar iners with him must suffer shipwreck, or he be cast into the sea. An instance this, that may lead us to reflect on our happiness, in being disposed of by an all-wise God; and at the same time, to justify his dealings with us, even when exercised with heavy trials.

Confident that you, an affectionate people, amongst whom I esteem myself happy, will bear with me on the present occasion, and give me a share in your prayers and sympathy, I shall go on to improve this righteous providence of God.

The passage I have read to you, will naturally lead us to a variety of suitable reflections; such as are calculated to give support and comfort, under the death of those relatives, who, we have reason to believe, have slept in Jesus. Therefore I shall not be called to preach altogether to myself; inasmuch as what may be suggested from the text, will be no less suitable to you, who have lately lost near and pious relations: yea, it may be received and treasured up against the time to come. flictions await us, and we know not how soon God may make a breach in our families, or among the number of our bosom friends.

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St. John having spoken of the rise, power and cruelty of antichrist, in the preceding chapter, proceeds to foretel his destruction, and the punishment that would be inflicted on all such as should worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in their forehead and in their hand. But with respect to those, that should endure the great fight of affliction, and maintain their integrity, in the midst of temptation and bloody persecution, he highly commends their conduct, and pronounces them blessed in death. Ver. 12, 13. "Here is the patience of the saints: Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." q. d. In these distressing times of antichristian cruelty, their patience having been severely tried, did shine conspicuously; they chose rather to part with their lives, than to

deny their Master. And the text seems to beintroduced with a design to encourage such pa tience in tribulation, by setting before the saints a prospect of enjoying immortal blessedness, as soon as they should finish their course: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." Let us attend to the following particulars :

I. An inquiry into the import of the phrase, "dying in the Lord."

II. A consideration of the blessedness of such; "Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."

I. We are to inquire into the import of the phrase, "dying in the Lord:" which is an inquiry of importance, seeing the blessedness here predicated is confined to such.

1. Some die in the comforts of the Lord; being favoured with the most lively manifestations of the love of God, and clear and soul-reviving discoveries of that glory to be revealed. Many believers have had such realizing views of heaven and its ineffable felicities, by faith, through the medium of eternal truth, and the Spirit of God so sensibly witnessing with their spirits their adoption, that they have been anxious to be gone. Death and all its terrors have been swallowed up in the divine prospect of the all-surpassing glory; and from hence they have, upon the verge of eternity, cried out like the mother of Sisera in another case, "Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots-?"

We have had numerous instances of those triumphant deaths, which adorn religion and confirm the hope of such of the children of God who have still to submit to the like event. With what pleasure and tranquillity have some waited for their dissolution, under the growing imfirmities of the body, and have often spoke of the period when they should be dissolved with an evident satisfaction? I have never read the letter of which the following is an extract, written by the devout Mrs. Rowe to the Rev. Dr. Watts, without delight. After she had requested that he would look over, and prepare certain of her papers for the press, she adds, I have now done with mortal things, and all to come is vast eternity. Eternity! How transporting is the sound! As long as God exists, my being and my happiness is secure. These unbounded de

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sires, which the wide creation cannot limit, shall be satisfied forever. I shall drink at the fountain head of pleasure, and be refreshed with the emanations of original life and joy. I shall hear the voice of uncreated harmony speaking peace and ineffable consolation to my soul.

'Through the blood of the Lamb, I hope for an entire victory over the last enemy; and that before this comes to you, I shall have reached the celestial heights; and while you are reading these lines, I shall be adoring before the throne of God, where faith shall be turned to vision, and these languishing desires satisfied with the full fruition of immortal love.'* Thus lived that ingenious, pious Christian in the glorious prospect of immortality.

* Prefixed to Mrs. Rowe's Devout Exercises of the Heart.

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