I would farther observe, that many prophe- | so far from abating their joy, will heighten cies have a gradual and increasing accoin- their gratitude and praise to him who loved plishment, and may be applied to several pe- them, and washed them from their sins in his riods; though their full completion will only own blood, Rev. i. 5. Their happiness prinbe at the resurrection and last judgment. cipally consists in a perception of his love to This passage, as it stands in the prophecy of them, and in their returns of grateful love to Isaiah, (chap. xxv. 8,) from whence the apos- him. And they love him much, because for tle quotes it, appears to have a reference to his sake, much has been forgiven them, the comparatively brighter light and glory Luke vii. 47. of the gospel-state beyond what was enjoyed by the church under the Levitical dispensation; and especially to the privileges of those happy days, when the fulness of the Gentiles, and the remnant of Israel shall be brought in, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. I would not exclude these subordinate senses; I have already considered them. But my text calls our attention to the end of all things. Then, in the most emphatical sense, Death will be swallowed up of victory. Let us endeavour to realize the great scene before us, to contemplate the redeemed of the Lord when they shall return with him to animate their glorious bodies. Let us ask the question which the elder proposed to John, Who are these clothed with white robes, and whence came they?" Rev. vii. 13. They came out of great tribulation, they were once under the power of death, but now death, as to them, is swallowed up in victory. In every sense in which death ruled over them they are now completely delivered. II. Once they were dead in sin. They were destitute of the knowledge and love of God. They were foolish, deceived, and disobedient, enslaved to divers lusts, (Titus iii. 3,) to inordinate, sensual, unsatisfying pleasures. They lived in malice and envy; they were hateful, and they hated one another. In a word, they were dead while they lived, 1 Tim. v. 6. But by the power of grace they were awakened and raised from this death, and made partakers of a new, a spiritual, and divine life. Yet the principle of sin and death still remained in them, and their life upon earth, though a life of faith in the Son of God, was a state of continual warfare. They had many a conflict, and were often greatly distressed. They sowed in tears, to the end of their pilgrimage, but now they reap in joy, Psalm cxxvi. 5. This death is also swallowed up in victory. They are now entirely and for ever freed from every clog, defect, and defilement. By beholding their Lord as he is, in all his glory and love, without any interposing veil or cloud, they are made like I. They were once dead in law. They him, and to the utmost measure of their cahad revolted from their Maker. They had pacity conformed to his image. Now they violated the holy order of his government, are absolutely spotless and impeachable; for and stood exposed to his righteous displea- though mutability seems no less essential to sure, and to the heavy penalty annexed to a creature than dependence, yet they cannot the transgression of his commandments. But change, because their Lord is unchangeable, mercy interposed. God so loved them, that for their life is hidden with Christ in God, he gave his only begotten Son to make an Col. iii. 3. They cannot fall from their hoatonement for their sins, and to be their wis-liness or happiness, because he has engaged dom, righteousness, sanctification, and re- to uphold and maintain them by his almighty demption, 1 Cor. i. 30. They received grace power. to believe in this Saviour, and now they are III. One branch of the death due to sin is delivered from condemnation. They are ac- the tyranny and power of Satan. For a time cepted in the Beloved. They are considered he ruled in their hearts, as in his own strongas one with him, and interested in all that he hold; and while they were blinded by his indid, and in all that he suffered. Now they fluence they were little affected with their are the children of God, and heirs of his king- bondage. Hard as his service was, they did dom. Though they were afar off, they are not often complain of it. They were led by brought nigh, and admitted to a nearer re-him according to his will for the most part lation than the holy angels, to him who sit teth upon the throne. For he took upon him, and still he pleased to wear, not the nature of angels, but the human nature. Their former guilt is cancelled, blotted out, and swallowed up. All their sins are covered. Sunk in his precious blood as in a deep sea, so that even if sought for, they can no more be found. That they have sinned, will always be a truth; and probably they will never lose a consciousness of what they were by nature and practice while in this world. But this, without resistance, or, if they attempted to resist, they found it was in vain. But in his own hour their Lord, who had bought them, dispossessed their strong enemy, and claimed their hearts for himself. Yet after they were thus set free from his ruling power, this adversary was always plotting and fighting against them. How much have some of them suffered from his subtle wiles and his fiery darts! from his rage as a roaring lion, from his cunning as a serpent lying in their path. and from his attempts to deceive them under the semblance of an angel of light! 2 Cor. xi. 14. But now they are placed out of his reach. Death and Satan are swallowed up. The victory is complete. The wicked one shall never have access to touch or disturb them any more. Now he is shut up in his own place, and the door sealed, no more to open. While he was permitted to vex and worry them, he acted under a limited commission which he could not exceed; all was directed and over-ruled by the wisdom and love of their Lord for their advantage. Such exercises were necessary, then, to discover to thein more of the weakness and vileness of their own hearts, to make them more sensible of their dependence upon their Saviour, and to afford them affecting proofs of his power and care engaged in their behalf. But they are necessary no longer. Their warfare is finished. They are now where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest, Job iii. 17. IV. While they were in the world, they had a share, many of them a very large share, of the woes and sufferings incident to this mortal state: which, as they are the fruits and effects of sin, and greatly contribute to shorten the life of man, and hasten his return to dust, are, as I formerly observed, properly included in the comprehensive meaning of the original sentence, death. They belong to its train, and are harbingers of its approach. None of the race of Adam are exempted from these; but especially the servants of God have no exemption. Their gracious Lord, who frees them from condemnation, and gives them peace in himself, assures them that in this world they shall have tribulation, John xvi. 33. This is so inseparable from their calling, that it is mentioned as one special mark of their adoption and sonship, Heb. xii. 6—8. If the prosperity of the wicked sometimes continues for a season without interruption, their day is coming, (Psal. xxxvii. 13;) but the righteous may expect chastisement and discipline daily. Thus their graces are refined, strengthened, and displayed, to the praise of their heavenly Father. There is no promise in the Bible that secures the most eminent and exemplary believer from participating in the heaviest calamities in common with others, and they have many trials peculiar to themselves. Thus, while upon earth, they endure hardship for his sake. Because he chose them out of the world, and they would no longer comply with its sinful inaxims and customs, the world hated them, John xv. 19. Many of them were the mark of public scorn and malice, accounted the offscouring of all things; they were driven to deserts, and mountains, and caves; they suffered stripes, imprisonment, and death. Others had trials of pains, sickness, and poverty, of sharp bereaving dispensations. Their gourds withered, and the desire of their eyes was taken away with a stroke. They had fightings without, and fears within. So that if their pressures and troubles were considered, without taking into the account their inward supports and the consolation they derived from their hopes beyond the grave, they might be deemed of all men the most miserable, 1 Cor. xv. 19. But they were supported under these exercises, brought safely through them, and now their sorrows are swallowed up in victory. Now the days of their mourning are ended, Is. lx. 17. They now confess, that their longest afflictions were momentary, and their heaviest burdens were light, in comparison of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, (2 Cor. iv. 17,) which they have entered upon. Sorrow and sighing have taken their everlasting flight, and joy and gladness have come forth to meet them, and to dwell with them for ever, Is. li. 11. V. In their collective capacity, the seeds of sin often produced bitter fruits. Through remaining ignorance and prejudice, they often mistook and misunderstood one another. They lost much good which they might otherwise have enjoyed, and brought upon themselves many evils. Through their intemperate heats and unsanctified zeal, which divided them into little parties and separate interests, the children of the same family, the members of the same body, were too often at variance, or at least cold and distant in their regards to each other. Yea, Satan could foment discord and jealousies among those who lived in the same house, or met at the same table of the Lord. But now grace has triumphed over every evil; sin and death are swallowed up in victory. Now all is harmony, love, and joy. They have one heart and one song, which will never more be blemished by the harshness of a single discordant note. May this prospect animate our hopes, and awaken, in those who have hitherto been afar off, a desire of sharing in the happiness of the redeemed! Awful will be the contrast to those who have had their portion in this world! Is it needful to address any in this auditory, in the language which our Lord used to his impenitent hearers! "Wo unto you that are rich; for you have received your consolation. Wo unto you that are full; for ye shall hunger. Wo unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourn and weep!" Luke vi. 24, 25. When the rich man, who had lived in honour and affluence here, was torn from all that he loved, and lifted up his eyes in torment, the remembrance of his former state, that he once had his good things, (Luke xvi. 25,) but that they were gone, for ever gone, could only be a keen aggravation of his misery. Dreadful will be the condition of all who die in their sins; but the case of those SERMON XLIV. TRIUMPH OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. xv. 55-57. who are now frequently envied by the ignorant, in the view of a mind enlightened by the truth, must appear doubly and peculiarly pitiable. They have the most to lose, they have the most to account for. Alas, how terrible, how sudden the change! From a state of honour and influence amongst men, to fall in a moment under the contempt and displeasure of the holy God-to pass, from a crowd of dependents and flatterers, to the company of Satan and his angels; from grandeur and opulence, to a state of utter darkness and horror, where the worm dieth not, THE christian soldier may, with the greatand the fire cannot be quenched, Mark ix. est propriety, be said to war a good warfare, 44, 46, 48. These are sensible images, it is 1 Tim. i. 18. He is engaged in a good cause; true; the things of the unseen world cannot he fights under the eye of the Captain of his be described to us as they are in themselves; salvation. Though he be weak in himself, but we may be certain that the description and though his enemies are many and mighty, falls unspeakably short of the reality. The he may do that which in other soldiers would malicious insults of the powers of darkness, be presumption, and has often been the cause the mutual recriminations of those who, of a defeat; he may triumph while he is in having been connected in sin here, will be the heat of battle, and assure himself of vicsome way connected in misery hereafter, tory before the conflict is actually decided; (Matt. xiii. 30,)-remorse, rage, despair, a for the Lord, his great Commander, fights for total and final exclusion from God the foun-him, goes before him, and treads his enemies tain of happiness, with an abiding sense of under his feet. Such a persuasion, when his indignation:-this complicated misery solidly grounded upon the promises and encannot be expressed in the language of mor- gagement of a faithful unchangeable God, tals-like the joy of the blessed, it is more is sufficient, it should seem, to make a cowthan eye hath seen, or ear hath heard, or canard bold. True christians are not cowards; possibly enter into the heart of man to conceive, 1 Cor. ii. 9. Add the ideas of unchangeable and eternal to the rest, that it will be a misery admitting of no intermission, abatement, or end; and then seriously consider, what can it profit a man should he gain the whole world, if at last he should thus lose his soul? Matt. xvi. 26. No longer make a mock at sin: it is not a small evil; it is a great evil in itself, and, unless pardoned and forsaken, will be productive of tremendous consequences. No longer make light of the gospel: it points out to you the only possible method of escaping the damnation of hell. To refuse it, is to rush upon remediless destruction. No longer trust in uncertain riches: if you possess them, I need not tell you they do not make you happy at present, much less will they comfort you in the hour of death, or profit you in the day of wrath, Prov. xi. 4. Waste not your time and talents (which must be accounted for) in the pursuit of sensual pleasure; in the end it will bite like a serpent. For all these things God will assuredly bring you into judgment, unless in this day of grace you humble yourselves to implore that mercy which is still proposed to you, if you will seek it sincerely and with your whole heart; and which I once more entreat, charge, and adjure you to seek, by the great name of Messiah, the Saviour, by his agonies and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his precious death, and by the consideration of his future glorious appearance, to subdue all things to himself. VOL. II. 2 Z yet, when they compare themselves with their adversaries, they see much reason for fear and suspicion on their own parts; but when they look to their Saviour, they are enlightened, strengthened, and comforted. They consider who he is, what he has done; that the battle is not so much theirs as his; that he is their strength and their shield, and that his honour is concerned in the event of the war. Thus out of weakness they are made strong; and however pressed and opposed, they can say, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us!" Rom. viii. 37. The whole power of the opposition against them is summed up in the words Sin and Death: but these enemies are already weakened and disarmed. It is sin that furnished death with his sting; a sting sharpened and strengthened by the law. But Jesus, by his obedience unto death, has made an end of sin, and has so fulfilled and satisfied the law on their behalf, that death is deprived of its sting, and can no longer hurt them. They may therefore meet it with confidence, and say, "Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." We have here two unspeakably different views to take of the same subject,-Death armed with its formidable sting; and Death rendered harmless, and its aspect softened, by the removal of the sting. I. The first is a very awful subject: I entreat your attention. I am not now about to speak upon a point of speculation. It is a personal, a home concern to us all. For we must all die. But should any of you feel not only the stroke, but the sting of death when you leave this world, it were better, for you that you had never been born. The love of life, and consequently a reluctance to that dissolution of the intimate union between soul and body, which we call death, seems natural to man. But, if there was no hereafter, no state of judgment and retribution to be expected; if there was no consciousness of guilt, no foreboding of consequences upon the mind; if we only considered death as inevitable, and had no apprehensions beyond it; death would be divested of its principal terrors. We see that when conscience is stupified, or when the mind is poisoned with infidelity, many people, notwithstanding the natural love of life, are so disgusted with its disappointments, that a fit of impatience, or the dread of contempt, often prevails on them to rush upon death by an act of their own will; or to hazard it in a duel, rather than be suspected of wanting what they account spirit. But death has a sting, though they perceive it not till they feel it, till they are stung by it past recovery. But usually, and where the heart is not quite hardened, men are unwilling and afraid to die. They have some apprehension of the sting. Death can sting at a distance. How often and how greatly does the fear of death poison and embitter all the comforts of life, even in the time of health! Perhaps some of you well know this to be true. But in health people can in some measure run away from themselves, if I may so speak. They fly to business, company, and amusements, to hide themselves from their own reflections. Their fears are transient, occasional, and partial; they would tremble indeed, if they knew all; or if they were steadfastly and deliberately to contemplate what they do know. How sin is the sting of death, is best discovered when conscience is alarmed in a time of sickness; when the things of the world can no longer amuse, and death is approaching with hasty strides. These scenes are mostly kept secret; and very often they are not understood by those who are spectators of them. Perhaps the unhappy terrified sinner is considered as delirious, because the sting of death in his conscience extorts from,him such confessions and complaints as he never made before. What was once slighted as a fable, is now seen and felt as a reality. Such cases, I am afraid, are more frequent than we are in general aware of. But they, are suppressed, ascribed to the violence of the fever, and forgotten as soon, as. possible. Yet they do Sometimes transpire. I believe there is no reason to doubt the truth of what we have heard, of on who, in the horrors of despair, vainly offer his physicians many thousand pounds, to pr ng it a single day, The relation is in print, of another, who, pointing to the fire in his chamber, said, If he were only to lie twenty thousand years in such a fire, he should esteem it a mercy compared with what he felt, and with what he. saw awaiting him. It is not always thus. Many persons die insensible as they lived, and can, perhaps, trifle and jest in their last moments. But the scripture assures us, that when they who die in their sins breathe their last in this world, they open their eyes in the other world in torments. For the sting of death, the desert of sin, unless timely removed by faith in Jesus, will fill the soul with anguish for ever. It derives a strength, an. efficacy, and a continuance from the law. This law, which gives strength to sin and sharpens the sting of death, is the law of our creation, as connected with the penalty which God has annexed to the breach of it. Our relation to God, as we are his creatures, requires us, according to the very nature of things, supremely to love, serve, trust, and obey him, who made us, and in whom we live, and breathe, and have our being, Acts xvii. 28. And our revolting from him, and living to ourselves in opposition to his will, is such an affront to his wisdom, power, authority, and goodness, as must necessarily involve misery in the very idea of it, if his perfections, the capacity, of our souls, and our absolute dependence upon him, be attended to, And they must be attended to sooner or later. Though he keep long silence, and the sinner presumes upon his patience, and thinks. him such a one as himself, he will at length reprove him, (Psalm 1. 21,) and set his sins it order before him, in contrast with the demands of his law. The nature, authority, extent, and sanction of this law, all combine to give efficacy to the sting of death. 1. The law, to which our tempers and conduct ought to be conformed, is not an arbitrary appointment; but, necessarily results from our state as creatures, and the capaci ties and powers we have received from our Creator. It is therefore holy, wise, and good; indispensable, and unchangeable. To love God with all our heart and strength, to depend upon him, to conform to every intima, tion of his will, was the duty of man from the first, moment of his existence; was the law of his nature, written originally in his heart. The republication of it, as it stands in the Bible, by precepts and prohibitions, would not have been necessary had he continued in that state of rectitude in which he was created. It became necessary after his fall, to restrain him from evil, and to convince him of sin; but could not properly increase his primitive obligation to obedience. 2. We are bound to the observance of this law by the highest authority. It is the law of God our maker, preserver, and benefactor who has every conceivable right to govern us. everlasting fire." We cannot now conceive what it will be to lose the only good which can satisfy a soul: to be shut out from God, whose favour is life, and in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and to be shut up where neither peace nor hope can enter. The images of fire unquenchable, and a neverdying worm, are but faint emblems of that despair and remorse which will sting the sinful soul in a future state. This is the second death: this is eternal death; for the wicked, and all they who forget God, when thrust into hell, will for ever desire to die, and death will for ever flee from them, Rev. ix. 6. His eye is always upon us, and we are him, and they cannot be happy without him. surrounded by his power, so that we can nei- They are not so even in this world, which ther avoid his notice nor escape his hand. they love. How miserable then must they Men are usually tenacious of their authority; be, when, torn from all their attachments, they seldom allow their dependants to dispute pleasures, and possessions, having no longer or disobey their commands with impunity. It any thing to divert them from a fixed attenis expected that a son should honour his fa- tion to their true state, they shall be made ther, and a servant his master, Mal. i. 6. And keenly sensible of what is implied in that when men have power to execute the dic-sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into tates of their pride, they frequently punish disobedience with death. But how will these haughty worms, who trample upon their fellow-worms, and think they have a right to the most implicit obedience from their inferiors; how will they tremble when they shall appear before God, who is no respecter of persons, to answer for their contempt of the authority of the Sovereign Lawgiven, who, alone, is able to save or to destroy? That we ought to obey God rather than man, (Acts v. 29,) will, perhaps, be allowed as a speculative truth; but whoever will uniformly make it the rule of his practice, must expect upon many occasions to be deemed a fool or a madman by the world around him. But sovereignty, majesty, authority, and power belong to God. He is the Governor of the universe, and his throne is established in righteousness. He is long-suffering, and waits to be gracious, but he will not forego his right. Sin is the sting of death indeed, when the authority of him against whom it was committed is perceived by the conscience. 3. The extent of the law adds to the strength by which sin acts as the sting of death. Human laws can only take cognizance of words and actions. But the law of God reaches to the thoughts and inward recesses of the heart. It condemns what is most specious and most approved amongst men, if not proceeding from a right intention, and directed to the right end, which can be no other than the will and glory of him who made us. It condemns the sinner not only før the evil which he has actually committed, but for every sinful purpose formed in his heart, and which was only rendered abortive for want of opportunity, Matt. v. 28. It likewise takes exact notice of every aggravation of sin arising from circumstances, from the abuse of superior light and advantages, and from the long train of consequences, increasing in proportion to the influence which the rank, wealth, or extensive connexions of the offender give to his example. 4. The sanction of the law, which thus strengthens the malignity of sin, is the very point, if I may so express myself, of the sting of death. This is the displeasure of the Almighty. His holy, inflexible love of order will exclude those who violate it from his favour. They must be miserable, unless they are reconciled and renewed by the grace of the gospel. They must be separated from II. Let us turn our thoughts to a more pleasing theme, and attempt to take a view of death as softened into a privilege by him who has brought life and immortality to light. Jesus died. His death was penal; he died for sin, though not for his own, and therefore suffered the penalty due to sin, the curse of the broken law. The torment and shame of his crucifixion were preceded and accompanied by unknown agonies and conflicts, which caused him to sweat blood, and to utter strong cries and groans. Death stung him to the heart; but (as it is said of the enraged bee) he lost his sting. The law having been honoured, and sin expiated, by the obedience and sufferings of the Son of God for us, and in our nature, death has no longer power to sting those who believe in him. They do not properly die-they fall asleep in Jesus, Acts vii. 60; 1 Thessalonians iv. 15. To them this last enemy acts a friendly part. He is sent to put an end to all their sorrows, and to introduce them into a state of endless life and joy. 1. Dying believers can sing this song be fore their departure out of the world. We expect it, when we are called to attend them in their last hours; and if their illness leaves them in possession of their faculties and speech, we are seldom disappointed. Yet I believe a full knowledge of this subject cannot be collected from what we observe of others, or hear from them, when they are. near death. We must be in similar circumstances ourselves, before we can see as they see, or possess the ideas which they endeavour to describe, and which seem too. great for the language of mortals to convey. We know, by the evidence of undeniable. testimony, that many faithful servants of God, when called to suffer for his sake, have not、 |