Chapter XXXIV: Part 34

VIII. Repentance and godly sorrow for our past offences, belong only to this life. Converting grace works only on earth; we are called to repent in order to be forgiven: _Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out_; Acts iii. 19. And the exercise of this grace is not only necessary at first conversion, (though it most eminently appears at that season) but it must run like a thread through the whole course of this mortal life, till death shall put an utter end to sin. Let every known sin therefore which we are guilty of be attended with some new and sensible exercise of shame, and sorrow, and holy indignation against ourselves. Let us live in a daily, constant, penitent frame, for we are daily sinners. This painful sense of sin, this holy mourning, is an honour done to the law of our God. It is the living, the living who are called to this work; for _there is no repentance in the grave_: Shew your hatred of sin therefore continually, and your sincere love to the law of holiness by such an humiliation as becomes an imperfect saint.

You will ask me, “Do no saints in heaven repent that they have ever sinned here on earth?”

I answer, that whatsoever regret they feel in the memory of their past transgressions, it is not attended with such sensible shame and inward pain at the heart, as are necessary to that duty of repentance that is required here on earth; for there is nothing must break in upon their perfect peace or joy in heaven. As God is said not to remember their iniquities, because he does not remember them in order to punish, so the saints above are not said to repent of sin, because they have no such shame and grief accompanying it as whilst they dwelt upon earth, and which are some of the most remarkable ingredients in our repentance.

But we may suppose there is among them some sort of holy self-displicency, and something of a sacred regret, that ever they offended such a God, and such a Saviour? There will be surely an inward and hearty disapprobation of their former sinful ways whenever they think upon them: And, indeed, without some reflection on their former guilt and misery, they can never give due glory to Christ their Redeemer, who rescued them from their sorrows and their sins. But all the painful and shameful attendants of this grace of repentance must be banished from heaven, because it is a state of perfect joy and peace.

IX. Patience and submission to the will of God under all manner of painful providences, gives glory to God here on earth, such as the saints in heaven cannot give him. We are taught indeed to say, _Lord, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven_: But it is the preceptive will of God, or the will of his commands, which is here signified, not his providential will, whereby he punishes; for there is no affliction in heaven, and therefore there is no such sort of submission, no exercise of patience there: They obey the will of his commands in perfection there, and God himself has no will that they should suffer, or endure sorrow.

Shew then, O believers, your submission to the will of God, here, as dear and obedient children, when your heavenly Father sees it needful to chasten you; Heb. xii. 6-11. _If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Give him reverence therefore when he corrects you, and be ye in subjection to the Father of spirits and live._ It is only children under age that their earthly fathers scourge and chastise; such are christians in this world, the sons of God in their infant state: but when the children are grown up to manly age, they have no more chastisement; such are the saints in heaven, who are _grown to the fulness of the measure of that stature_ which God designs for them in Christ. This life therefore is the only time when you can honour the sovereignty and the wisdom of God your Father, when he sees fit to take his rod in hand, and to instruct you in righteousness.

X. A sacred compassion for perishing sinners, and longing desire and labour for the conversion of souls, is a business that belongs to this life only. When we are past the line of time, and entered into eternity, we can add no new subjects to the kingdom of our Lord: This is a service that can be performed no where but in the present state: It is the living, and they alone that have this work intrusted with them. When the lips are closed in the grave they cannot speak for God, nor exhort sinners to be saved.

Let ministers call up all their powers then to the blessed work of the gospel. Let them stir up all their gifts, and employ them all for the welfare of immortal souls. What is the furniture of human learning? What are their talents of oratory, their flowing language, and their art of persuasion? What is their vivacity of spirit, their sweetness of voice, their penetrating force of elocution? What are all these but weapons of warfare to fight against the kingdom of Satan among men, and instruments to build up the church of God on earth? What are they all but consecrated gifts to win souls to Christ out of the kingdom of this world? They are given only for service in the present life. Let us use them then with our utmost skill for these holy purposes: For, _Whether there be tongues they shall cease: Whether there be knowledge_ and human learning, _that shall vanish away?_ 1 Cor. xiii. 8, 9. These poor imperfect talents are not made for heaven. Let our zeal therefore employ them to the utmost on earth.

O let us be _instant in season and out of season_, and proclaim the terrors of the law to awaken the stupid and impenitent, to make them fly from the wrath to come. Let us publish the glad tidings of the gospel, and by all the methods of compassion and tenderness, let us beseech and intreat sinners to be reconciled to God. Let us set the unsearchable riches of Christ before them, the all sufficiency of his righteousness, and the power of his grace; and study and contrive how we may address their consciences in the most successful manner, till we have won their hearts over to Christ and salvation.

And let this not only be the labour of the sanctuary, and the work of our public offices in the church, but let the houses where we dwell, and the families where we visit, be witnesses for us in the great day, that we have instructed and warned the souls of men, that we have carried on the business of the pulpit in the parlour, and have spread the savour of the knowledge of Christ through all our conversation.

Let parents that are solicitous for the eternal welfare of their offspring, and love their sons and daughters as their own souls, let them seize the present opportunity for this sort of work. Let them make use of all the language of gentle authority, and of constraining love, to win the hearts of their children to God, to persuade them to accept of the grace of Christ, and snatch them as brands out of the burning. Let friends and dearest relatives, let masters and rulers of families, lay hold on every just occasion to speak of the things of God to those that are near them.—Life is the only time to express our zeal for God, and love to souls, in such a manner as this. When we pray, _Thy kingdom come_, we should awaken our endeavours to gain some new subjects to Christ.

Come, let us all engage our own consciences in this sacred and compassionate work, while we consider, that _to-day is the accepted time, now is the hour of salvation_. God may put an end to our own lives, or the lives of our friends to-morrow, and either their death or ours will prevent this sort of work for ever. Then we can speak no more, or they can hear us no more: They will be for ever out of the reach of our compassionate desires to save them. We may send our bitter sighs, and our fruitless groans, after them, when they are gone down to darkness without hope; and we may feel the inward anguish of a sharp and painful repentance, while, through our neglect, and their own folly and wickedness, they are cursing the day of their birth and crying out, in full despair, under the torture of divine vengeance.

XI. Another grace which can be exercised only in this life, is holy zeal, and boldness in the profession of christianity, with courage in suffering for Christ. These are virtues that belong only to our mortal state; these are made necessary to the saints, by the opposition that is raised against true religion by the men of this world. Here in this world, _they that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution_; 2 Tim. iii. 12. Our Saviour himself, in the first publication of his own gospel, _endured the contradiction of sinners against himself_; he sealed his doctrine with his own blood, and has given his followers a glorious example of a suffering zeal and holy fortitude. Imitate him who _endured the cross, and despised the shame_; Heb. xii. 2, 3.

This sort of virtues doth not belong to the heavenly state; for there is no opposition made to truth and holiness: There are no such trials of our zeal and courage in heaven; courage to speak boldly for Christ, and zeal to give him public glory, by maintaining his gospel in the face of terror and death; for there are no infidels, no sinners, no enemies in all the heavenly regions. There are no threatening tyrants, no persecuting powers, no penal laws in the upper world: No prisons, no fires, no gibbets nor axes there for the followers of the Lamb; no cruel mockings nor so much as a reproachful word: but the greater our zeal is for the service of God and our Saviour in the heavenly state, the greater shall be our honour and applause among the inhabitants of that country.

Endure then for a season, ye disciples of Christ, grow bold in the profession of his name, and exult with holy _joy, that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for his sake_; Acts v. 41. It is here on earth only, that it is in your power to shew, how much you love your Saviour more than your life, and that your love to your Lord is stronger than death with all its terrors. Upon this account shall I exhort you to practise what the apostle James expresses; James i. 2. _Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into divers temptations; for the proof or trial of your faith shall appear honourable and glorious when Christ comes_; 1 Pet. i. 7. It was a frequent and sacred ambition among the primitive christians to contend for the crown of martyrdom. This world is the only stage for such bloody conflicts, and this life is the only season wherein we can obtain the addition of this ornament to our crown of glory.

XII. May I add in the last place, that a calm and chearful readiness for a removal out of this world, is an honour done to Christ and his gospel here on earth, which belongs not to the heavenly state. Death, in the course of nature, as well as by the hands of violence, hath always something awful and formidable in it. Flesh and blood shrinks and trembles at the appearance of a dissolution, and Christ delights to see the grace that he has wrought in his saints gain the ascendency over flesh and blood, and conquer the terrors of death and the grave. He loves to see his followers maintain a serene soul, and venture upon the invisible world upon the merit of his blood, with holy fortitude and a chearful faith. It is only the living christian that can die, and glorify God his Saviour in that great and important hour. The saints, who are arrived at heaven, _dwell in the temple of God, and shall go no more out_; Rev. iii. 12. They are for ever possessed of life and immortality. There are no more deaths or dangers for them to encounter, no more terrors to engage their conflict. Death is the last enemy of the saints; and when the christian meets it with sacred courage, he gives that honour to the Captain of his Salvation, which the saints in glory can never give, and which he himself can never repeat. Dying with faith and fortitude is a noble conclusion of a life of zeal and service. It is the very last duty on earth; when that is done, then heaven begins.

Thus I have made it evident, in many instances, that there is a rich variety of virtues and graces to be exercised in this life, which have no place after death, and upon this account the living christian may be said to have some advantage beyond the dead. Here an objection or two will arise that may require an answer.

Objection I.—But is not heaven always represented as a state of perfection? Is not grace and holiness more complete there than ever they have been, or can be in the time of our mortal life? And yet how can it be a state of greater perfection, if so many graces are wanting there?

Answer.—These graces which belong to the living saint, and have no place among the happy dead, are but the various exercises of a sanctified mind, arising from some imperfections in our present state. Faith is owing to our want of sight: Hope is owing to our want of enjoyment: Patience, courage, compassion, forbearance, forgiveness, repentance, and such like graces, are owing to the sins, the sorrows, or the temptations that are found in this world only. The follies, the mistakes, the infirmities of ourselves, or our fellow-christians, or the wickedness of the world wherein we live, are the only things that give occasion for the exercise of such graces as I have now mentioned; therefore in a perfect state there is no room for them.

Yet every saint in heaven has a sanctified nature, which is the root and spring of all these graces, and they would appear in glorious exercise again, if there were any objects, or occasions, or seasons proper to excite them. Therefore the saints above are not defective in any virtue or grace, though they have no actual exercise of several of them in heaven. So God himself would not be in himself less merciful if he appeared in any province of his dominion where there was no creature in misery, and consequently no proper object for mercy. He is a God of infinite compassion and forgiveness still, though he has no immediate new exercises of them in heaven, in a world where no sinners are: for sin and misery are the only proper occasions of forgiveness and mercy. Thus the saints in heaven are perfect in grace and holiness, even though there are no proper objects or occasions, for this holiness or this grace to manifest itself in such peculiar instances as I have been describing in this discourse.

II. How can it be said, that a living christian has any advantage above the dead? Is not heaven better than earth? And upon that account, is not death often represented to us under most pleasing colours in the gospel, as it is an escape from the sins and sorrows of this present state, and as it conveys us into the world of blessed spirits, where there are infinite advantages above any thing to be enjoyed in this life!

Answer.—Though the living saint has some advantages which the dead cannot partake of, yet it is very true, that the honours, the pleasures, the joys, the perfections, and the advantages of heaven, when summed up together, are far more and greater, and are infinitely preferable to those on earth; but they are not at all of the same kind. When we compare the state of grace and the state of glory together, we may boldly say, the state of glory has vastly the preference; and St. Paul himself thought so, Phil. i. 21, 23. _To be dissolved, and to be with Christ, is far better_ than to dwell in this sinful world. He asserts it, that death would be his own gain; yet still he allows there are some advantages of this life, which death would deprive him of; for, says he, _for me to live_ in the flesh, will be for the honour of Christ in his churches; and I shall have this fruit of my life, even the _furtherance of your faith and joy_; verses 22, 25.

When we are encouraging christians to live above the fear of death, we represent to them all the glories and felicities of the future world, which are infinitely superior to all things we can enjoy in this life. But while we continue here on earth, under the difficulties and hardships of the present state, _we have need of patience, that when we have done the will of God, we may receive the promises_; Heb. x. 36. And we have need of all those peculiar advantages to be set before us, which can belong to our stations here on earth, on purpose to support our patience, to bear us up under present burdens, and make us active in present duties: Although it must be still confessed, that all those advantages of this life, joined with our present sins and sorrows, are much inferior to the actual taste and fruition of the joys of heaven, where sin and sorrow are known no more.

This thought very naturally leads me to the improvement and conclusion of my discourse, which I shall wind up briefly in these four practical inferences:

Inference I.—Since there are many virtues and duties which belong only to this present life, “let us lose no opportunity for the practice of them, for the next day, or the next hour, may put it for ever out of our power to practise them.” Eternity is a long duration indeed, but it will never afford us one season for visiting the sick, for feeding the hungry, or for charity and meekness towards those who injure us: Eternity itself will never give us one opportunity for the pious labours of love toward the conversion of sinful acquaintance and relatives. O let us not suffer this precious lamp of life to burn in vain, or weeks, and days, and hours to slide away unemployed and useless. Let us remember, that while we are here, we work for a long hereafter; that we think, and speak, and act with regard to an eternal state, and that in time we live for eternity. Let us call up all our powers to action and diligence, that not a day of our short lives may pass away, but what may turn to our account in the years of eternity. While God is pleased to delay our heaven, let our continuance on earth be filled up with the various exercise of such graces as are suited to our present stations. Let this be a new spring and motive to our zeal, that we are doing such honours to God and our Saviour here on earth, of which none of the saints above are capable, and for which this life is the only season: And let it appear in the day of retribution that the length of our life here on earth, has been a great, and real, and everlasting advantage to us, by preparing us for a higher station after death, and a fairer inheritance in that world which is everlasting.

II. “Though your hopes of heaven be never so well grounded, yet be not too impatient of dwelling longer on the earth: And though your burdens and sorrows may be very great in life, yet be not too hasty and importunate in your desires of death.” Support yourself under all the fatigues, trials and difficulties of the present state, with this consideration, that you are now employed in such service for God, and paying such a tribute of honour to him in your suffering circumstances, as all the saints in heaven cannot do. Some of the children of God in this world have been too impatient of life, and too eager in their importunities for death and the grave. Job and Elijah were great favourites of heaven, but they failed a little in this point: And God, in the course of his providence, afterward made it appear what eminent service he had for them both to do before they left this world. Elijah was designed to reform the whole nation of Israel from idolatry, and Job to be parent of a new large family, and give the world an example of God’s rewarding providence. _If life be yours_, O christians, and be numbered among your possessions, be not too hasty to part with it, nor to throw away that talent which may yet in days to come be employed to the signal honour of thy God and Saviour.

III. “If life be almost spent, and you have done little for God, see that in your last, your dying hours, if possible, you speak and act for his glory. Let not the whole season of life quite pass away, and be turned over like a blank leaf which has none of the praises of God[41] written upon it. A word of warning from a death-bed may make a deep and happy impression on those that hear it, and through divine grace may save a soul; and if so, thou shalt hear of it again with honour and applause in the great day. The thief that was converted upon the cross, spoke a word for Christ in his last moments, and it has been blessed to rescue many from the jaws of despair: That dying creature had done nothing for God in his life; a vicious life, and a wicked creature! But the profession of sincere faith and repentance which he made at his death, hath been richly honoured in the kingdom of grace; and I am persuaded it has helped many a fearful christian on toward the kingdom of glory.”

IV. If so many valuable works are done, and so many graces are exercised on earth, which have no place in heaven, then the lives of the saints are worth praying for. Precious in the eye of God is the life of his saints, and they should be precious in the eye of man too. When an active, useful christian, when a pious magistrate, when a zealous and faithful minister goes down to the dust, alas! how much good ceases from the earth for ever? The world knows not what it loses by such a death.

Let not children be impatient at the length of life which their holy parents enjoy: You know not, children, what benefit ye may reap from their example, their counsel, their earnest prayers, and secret wrestlings with God for your souls: Let us have a care that we do nothing, that may break the spirits of our pious friends, or that may hasten the departure of holy persons from this lower world, whose virtues and graces are of eminent use among us. Let us rather pray earnestly, that God would lengthen out the days of those, who speak and act with a useful zeal for the honour of Christ, and for the welfare of the souls of men. When death once has put a period to their days, all this sort of service is finished for ever; and we ourselves may sustain unknown loss by their speedy departure out of this world.

The Recollection.—“Is not this a strange doctrine which I have heard to-day, that a christian on earth has many privileges which can never belong to the saints in heaven? Is it not strange tidings to hear, that there are many graces to be exercised in this life, which neither saints nor angels can practise in the holy and heavenly world? And yet the evidence is so strong, and the truth is so plain and certain, that I see it, and I must believe it. Remember then, O my soul, thou hast one more motive to diligence in all the duties of life than ever thou hadst before; And thou hast also one more support under all thy sorrows, beyond what thy former days were ever acquainted with. A delightful support it is under sufferings, and a noble motive to duty. Awake, awake all my active powers, let every grace be in exercise, and every talent be employed to bring this revenue of honour to my God and my Saviour in this life, which the saints above cannot give him, and which, at the moment of death, must for ever cease.”

Blessed Spirit, lead me to the practice of the most useful duties, that my service may be of a large extent both to God and man. Now let me study and contrive, wherein I may best promote the interest of Christ and his gospel here on earth. Let me bear the burdens of life with a holy satisfaction: Let me endure the fatigues of labour with a sacred pleasure: Let me resist the temptations, let me sustain the sorrows of life like a good soldier of Christ in the present field of battle. Heaven will have other business for me, and proper work of its own: That is the place of joy and triumph.

“Forgive, O my God, all my slothfulness in duty, and my impatience of suffering. Let this new and glorious motive possess my spirit powerfully, and influence all my future conduct, that when the messenger of death shall tell me, I must be employed in this sort of work no more, I may look back from the borders of eternity, and rejoice that I have been assisted by divine grace, to do so much for God on earth; and when I am called away from the present stage of action, I may be received by my great Master at the gates of heaven, with a _Well done good and faithful servant, come, enter into the joy of thy Lord_. _Amen._”

HYMN FOR SERMON XL.
_The Privilege of the Living above the Dead._

Awake my zeal, awake my love,
And serve my Saviour here below,
In works which all the saints above,
Which holy angels cannot do.

My faith and hope may see the Lord,
Though veils of darkness lie between:
Hope shall rest firm upon his word,
And faith rejoice in things unseen.

Awake my charity and feed
The hungry soul, and clothe the poor;
In heav’n are found no sons of need,
There all these duties are no more.

Subdue thy passions, O my soul,
Maintain the fight, thy work pursue,
Daily thy rising sins controul,
And be thy vict’ries ever new.

The land of triumph lies on high,
There are no fields of battle there;
Lord, I would conquer till I die,
And finish all the glorious war.

Let ev’ry flying hour confess
I gain thy gospel fresh renown,
And when my life and labours cease,
May I possess the promis’d crown.

Footnote 41:

It was a custom in former days for merchants in their books of
accounts to have “Laus Deo, or Praise to God,” written in the
beginning of every leaf, and it stood on the head of the page in large
and fair letters, to put them always in mind, that in their human
affairs they should carry on a divine design for the glory of God.

SERMON XLI.
_Death improved to our Advantage._
1 COR. iii. 22.—Whether life or death,—all are yours.

The chief thing which the apostle has in his eye in these verses, is to represent the glory and grandeur, the treasures and possessions that every believer is a partaker of, by virtue of his interest in Christ: and to shew, that whatsoever persons or affairs a christian has to do with in the natural, the civil, and the religious life, they shall all turn to his benefit some way or other. All the circumstances that attend him while he continues here in this world, and even his departure out of it too, shall work for his good. Death is numbered among his possessions as well as life. Death may be terrible to flesh and blood, for it is a curse in its original nature and design, and sinners will find and feel the curse of it; but it is transformed into a blessing to the saints by the abounding grace of the gospel.

I confess, it is a christian’s own death, that the holy writer seems chiefly and most particularly to design and intend here: And this I shall most largely insist upon. But since death in all its circumstances and attendants, in all the extent of its dominion, and with all its power, is under the sovereign management of God our heavenly Father; it is constrained to subserve his kind and gracious purposes to his own people, in all its forms and appearances. And I think upon this account, that I shall not transgress the apostle’s great and general design, if I take the dreadful name of DEATH, in its widest and most formidable extent of power, and with relation to all its victories, and shew how, even in this largest sense, it is appointed to subserve the glory of God, and the kingdom of Christ, and by the grace of the new covenant, it is rendered useful and beneficial to every true christian; on this account therefore it may be numbered amongst his possessions. _Death is yours._

With this view I shall endeavour to run through these five general heads following, and improve each of them, in a few particulars, to the benefit of christians, agreeably to the design of my text.—Death is made useful to a saint, when we consider it.

I. As reigning over all mankind in general.—II. As seizing on impenitent and unpardoned sinners.—III. As taking captive the bodies of the saints.—IV. As depriving us of our dear relations and kindred. And,—V. As bringing our own bodies down to the dust.

I confess, I was very unwilling to leave the death of Christ out of this catalogue; for his death is not only the most eminent blessing to every christian, but it is also the price that purchased all other blessings in time, and in eternity. It is the death of Christ that may be called the christian’s richest treasure, for it procures for him all the treasures of grace and glory. It is the fruit of his death, that _all things are ours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or things present, or things to come_. It is his death that gives truth and virtue to the words of my text, and to all the rich and spreading comments upon it, that faith can make here on earth, and that our souls shall taste and enjoy hereafter in heaven.

Yet when I consider, that the death of Christ is more directly expressed in many other scriptures, and does not seem at all to have been the design of St. Paul in this text: and when I survey what a vast and copious subject I must enter into, if I recount the riches of blessing that are derived from this spring, I chuse to refer that subject to another season. I proceed therefore according to the order I have proposed, to treat of the various advantages to be derived from this proposition, _Death is yours_.

_First_, The death of mankind in general shall be made profitable to believers. The death of all the sons and daughters of Adam, shall promote the improvement of the children of God, in knowledge, grace, and holiness; for it instructs them in three most useful lessons.

1. It gives them a most powerful and sensible lecture on the vanity of man. A burying place filled with tombs, is a lively book of human frailty: It repeats the melancholy lesson in every leaf. Each little grave-stone becomes a preacher of vanity to the living, even in the profound silence of the dead. This is the doctrine of every rising hillock, this is the universal theme: And every stately monument there strikes the beholder with the same mortifying truth: though perhaps it swells with many pompous titles and images of honour. And this lesson of vanity stands written there still in fair and indelible characters, though the name of the dead, and all their praises be quite worn out. Dust and ashes, even without an inscription, and without a monument, are silent but powerful teachers.

Alas, what is man in his best estate! A poor and mortal dying creature! When we read the histories of past ages and foreign nations, and find that those whole nations and ages are all dead and mingled with the dust, and even those, who once made a great bustle and figure in this world, are now but an empty name, we cry out, “What vain creatures we are!” When we behold our neighbours and our acquaintance on the right-hand, and on the left, dropping away all around us; when we see one following another daily down to the grave of silence, it is a very natural and just reflection: “Alas, how frail is man!” When we behold the young, the healthy, the fair, and the strong, the rich, and the powerful, together with the poor, the feeble, and the slave, all yielding to the common law of death, and turning into earth and rottenness, we have just occasion to cry out, “What a vain empty thing is human nature, even the best of it: A piece of pretty mouldering clay: These bodies of ours are fine and curious engines but made of the dust, and to dust they return again.”

This is the common state, situation, and view of things in all seasons, and in every generation. But when we fix our thoughts on some special seasons or causes of mortality, when we think of a famine or a pestilence that sweeps away thousands in a few days, that empties the whole streets in a night or two, and lays towns or cities desolate; when we read of wars and battles that overspread the mountain with slaughter, and cover vast plains with human carcases; when we hear of storms at sea that drown many hundreds at once, and perhaps some thousands sink down to death in their floating habitations, then we are more feelingly penetrated with a sense of our vanity, then we sigh and groan aloud and break out into this mournful language? _O Lord! hast thou made all mankind in vain?_ Ps. lxxxix. 49. How awful is thy government! How terrible are thy judgments, thou Almighty Sovereign of life and death! The ancient saints have made such remarks often, and mixed these scenes of mortality with their pious thoughts, and turned them into devotion: They have drawn many serious and pathetic inferences from such meditations on death, and vented their musings of thought in holy language.

(1.) “Shall man compare himself with God? Mortal man _that dwelleth in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who is crushed before the moth! Shall he set himself to contend with the eternal God his Maker_;” Job. iv. 17-19. Again:

(2.) “What little reason have we to be proud and boastful! Poor dying mushrooms, who start up for a few hours, but cannot assure ourselves of to-morrow! To-day we swell and look big among men, to-morrow we are a feast for worms. _Our days are as a hand’s breadth; verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity_;” Ps. xxxix. 5. Again:

(3.) “How vain and fruitless a thing is it to _put our trust in princes, or in the son of man in whom there is no help_? _His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day, his thoughts perish_; Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. Man is too weak a thing to encourage or support our confidence.” And:

(4.) “What a necessary duty is it then to fix our constant dependance upon God, even in all the common affairs of life! _Let us not say therefore, that to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what will be on the morrow? For what is your life?_ _It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away; for that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live to do this or that_; James iv. 13-15. And it is the same inference that holy David makes more than once upon a survey of the mortality of man, in the Psalms just before cited, _Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee_; Ps. xxxix. 11. _Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who keepeth truth for ever_; Ps. xlvi. 5, 6. The Lord is an everlasting friend, he lives when creatures die, and fulfils his word of truth, when the words of princes perish with their breath.”

2. The death of mankind in general shews us the dreadful evil and desert of sin. It discovers to us the awful holiness and terrible Majesty of God; and it teaches us what a sublime value he puts upon his own law, and how fearfully he avenges the violation of it. I join these three things together, because they stand so nearly connected in the divine economy.

(1.) The universal death of mankind shews us, what a dreadful and heinous evil there is in sin, and, what wide destruction it has deserved. _By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned_; Rom. v. 12. _For the wages of sin is death_; Rom. vi. 23. Man was made innocent, and while he continued obedient, he was immortal: Transgression and death came in together: A formidable pair! Two dreadful names, big with mischief and ruin to human nature. When we see the dying agonies of poor mankind, our fellow-creatures, our brethren in flesh and blood, let us remember the sin of our common father, that first subjected him and all his posterity to death; and let us reflect upon the dreadful evil that is contained in the nature of every sin; for it deserves death at the hand of God. Alas, how often has the best of us deserved to die, for our transgressions have been multiplied without number.

(2.) The death of all mankind makes a solemn discovery to us of the terrible Majesty of God and the justice that attends his government. He will not pass by the guilt of his rebellious creatures, without a due resentment of their crimes. And even though he pardons the sins of his own people, so as to secure them from eternal vengeance, yet they must pass through death, that they may learn what an evil and bitter thing it is to have offended against their Maker and their God.

When we see a church-yard filled with little hills of mortality, the ruins of a parish, or a spacious town, and the dust of many generations, we naturally cry out, as in Deut. xxix. 24. “Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and what meaneth the heat of all this great anger?” The next verse will give you an answer to it; yea, every man may answer himself, _because they have forsaken the Lord their God_; they have forsaken _his covenant of life and sinned against him_. Those dreadful words, _In the day thou eatest, thou shalt die_; have been putting into execution almost six thousand years, and the _Lord’s anger is not yet turned away, but his hand is stretched out still_; Is. v. 25. the vengeance of the Lord is not yet fully executed according to the just demerit of sin. Though saints are saved from the dismal consequences of death, yet God would not rescue them from dying, that they might always remember what sin deserved. Thus the death of all mankind discovers to us the awful Majesty of God our Maker, who will not be affronted by his creatures, without terrible resentment; he is a holy and jealous God.

(3.) It teaches us the high value that God has for his own law, that he will rather dash a whole creation to pieces, than suffer his holy law to be insulted and broken, without some reparation of the honour of it. The race of Adam is doomed to death, for the sake of sin against this law, and mortality and a curse spread over this lower world. Let us inure our thoughts to such reflections as these, that we may ever keep our souls in awe of the Majesty of God, and dread the thoughts of breaking his law, which he values above a whole world of men. O that sin may become the most hateful object in our eyes; it is this that has laid cities desolate, and fills the graves; it is this that has corrupted and destroyed our natures; it has turned millions of strong and well-formed bodies into dust: It has ruined the most beautiful part of God’s lower creation, and is sending thousands daily to the pit of corruption and noisome darkness. It is sin has filled our nature with diseases, and sown the poisonous seeds of mortality and death in every son and daughter of Adam. A malignant and fatal poison, that has destroyed all the nations upon earth, and buried them under ground, heaps upon heaps, in above a hundred successions! But I now go on to another distinct lesson, that the death of all mankind teaches us.

3. It informs us, in a very sensible and affecting manner, that we ourselves must shortly die, and awakens the soul to actual preparation for its departure. Heb. ix. 27. _It is appointed for all men once to die, and after death the judgment_, Joshua and David, saints and kings, tell us they _go the way of all the earth_: “The grave is the house appointed for all the living;” Job xxx. 23. When we behold one after another, made of the same flesh and blood as we are, going down to the dust in a long continual succession, we have a solemn warning, that we must shortly follow: There is no ransom in this case, no hope of safety, no door of escape, and as Solomon expresses it, _there is no discharge in this war_; Eccl. viii. 8.

A true christian takes notice of this with a pious awe upon his spirit; and when he is ready to grow drowsy and secure, the sight of a funeral, or a grave, shall rouse him out of his sleepy temper, and awaken religion into life again: When he hears of a neighbour’s death, he asks his own soul, “Art thou ready? For the next summons may come to call thee away into the world of spirits, to stand before God the Judge of all.”

Thus a child of God reaps some advantage by the spreading empire of death over all mankind; he makes a sacred improvement of the terrible waste that the king of terrors has made over all the earth: He learns the vanity and emptiness of man in his best estate: He grows humble and dependant on the eternal God: He reads the dreadful evil of sin on every tomb-stone: The death of every man calls him aloud to prepare for his own, and to be in actual readiness for his entrance into the invisible world. Happy souls, who take this warning, and stand ever prepared!

But I proceed to the next general head which I proposed;

_Secondly_, As the death of mankind in general, gives these divine lessons to a saint, so the death of impenitent sinners, which hath something in it very terrible, may be turned to the advantage and profit of believers, these three or four ways:

1. If we are true christians, and persecuted and injured here on earth, then the death of the wicked delivers us from our enemies, and releases us from the wrath of our oppressors. In the grave “the wicked cease from troubling, as well as the weary are at rest;” Job iii. 17.

Look back to the distance of three thousand years, and see the children of Israel on the banks of the Red-sea, rejoicing in the Lord their deliverer, when an army of Egyptian carcases floated on the waters, or were cast up in heaps upon the shore: These were the cruel oppressors of the people of God: They were drowned in the evening, and the morning light discovered the havoc that death had made, and the salvation it wrought for Israel, in the xiv. and xv. of Exodus. See the whole city of Jerusalem, and Hezekiah at the head of them, triumphing in the Lord, when he sent the angel of death, and destroyed the besiegers: “A hundred and four score and five thousand Assyrians lay dead on the borders of the city;” Is. xxxvii. 36. “By terrible things in righteousness God answered the prayer of his saints;” Ps. lxv. 5. And at the death of Herod, the father and mother of our blessed Lord were glad, for they returned from their flight; they came from the land of Egypt, and dwelt in their own land again; and the child Jesus was saved from the murderous designs of that cruel man; Mat. ii. 19.

Such examples of advantage which the saints receive from the death of the men of violence, their impious and bloody enemies, are frequent in sacred history: And we may remark in our day, how many a time God hath saved us in Great Britain, when we have been on the borders of destruction, by the death of persecutors at home and abroad. The monarchs of the earth, have been turned down to their graves, one year after another, and the churches of God, in many nations, have found rest and deliverance.

2. The death of impenitent sinners has been many a time, the happy occasion of the conversion of a saint. There is many a holy soul, now in heaven, that was first awakened to fly from the wrath to come, by the death of some of his wicked companions in his younger years. When a snare falls suddenly, and seizes a little bird or two of the flock, the rest take wing toward heaven, and fly for safety. And happy are those souls, who take the terrible warning, who fly to the sacred refuge, and lay hold on offered grace.

When a vile wretch is seized in the midst of his companions, and his sins, and sent down to hell and destruction in a moment, the very gates of hell seem to open before our faces, to receive the rebel; such a spectacle fills the hearts of those that are near him, with amazement and terror, and hath often been the first means of sending them to the throne of grace; and, by degrees, to the gates of heaven. The story of Peter Valdo is famous on this occasion, who was a rich merchant at Lyons in France, but had no sense of inward religion, or true piety. When in the midst of feasting and merriment, he saw one of his companions struck with sudden death, he was awakened to serious thoughts of eternity: Upon this he applied himself to study the scripture, and discover the errors of the Roman church; he acquainted his friends with them, and instructed the poor, who were continual partakers of his bounty. Then being excommunicated by the popish clergy, he retired, with some of his disciples, to the vallies of Piedmont, where he found some christians of an ancient and primitive stamp, and joining with them, established those churches which are called the Vaudois, and are famous in history, even to this day.

Bishop Burnet also tells us, in the life of the Lord Chief Justice Hale, that in his younger years he gave himself up to much frolic and vanity, till one of his loose companions fell down on a sudden, and they thought him dead: which surprizing providence sent Mr. Hale to his knees, to pray earnestly for the recovery of his companion, and laid a foundation for that life of eminent virtue and religion, which is described in those memoirs. Thus not only the death of profligate sinners, but even the appearance of their death, has been blessed to gracious purposes, for the conversion and salvation of others.

3. The death of the wicked gives the children of God glorious matter for praise to his distinguishing grace. When they see or hear of a hardened and impenitent sinner cut off in his guilt and obstinacy, and in the pursuit of his lusts, the holy soul cries out with thankfulness and zeal, “Glory be to that grace which has made the difference betwixt him and me!”

And this is still more remarkable, when a sinner dies with all the terrors of God upon him, when the sting of death enters into his heart, and sharpens all his last agonies, when conscience is awakened with all its horrors, and the soul is plunging with its eyes open into a gulf of everlasting misery. O how sensibly does this affect the heart of a true christian! He stands and wonders, and adores that rich mercy that has snatched him as a brand out of the burning. “What am I,” says he, by nature more than another, that God should have called me by his grace, and given me repentance unto life, while this poor wretch continued obstinate and impenitent? We were both sons of Adam the sinner, alienated from the life of God, and enemies to all that is holy: We were both favoured with the means of grace, and sat under the ministrations of the same gospel. Who, or what am I better than my neighbour, that God should powerfully incline my heart to accept the offered salvation! That he should have prepared me as a vessel of mercy, to be filled with glory, while my old companion has now made himself a complete _vessel of wrath_, and fitted himself for swift destruction; Rom. ix. 22, 23. By nature I was a _child of wrath_, as well as he, a rebel, and a vile transgressor, _without God_, without Christ, _and without hope_: And why was not I seized by divine justice, in those days of my rebellion, and made a sacrifice to the indignation of God? What merit was there in me, that I should be spared, while my companion suffered under speedy vengeance? Let the freedom and riches of grace be adored for ever: It was rich and sovereign grace that spared me. And now, through the abounding mercy of God, I hope I have fled to lay hold on the refuge set before me; my heart is, in some measure, sanctified, my nature renewed, and my sins pardoned. Blessed be the Lord who hath given me _hope in death, while the wicked are driven away in their wickedness, driven far away_ from hope and heaven; Prov. xiv. 32.

4. The death of impenitent sinners does another service also for the saints, in that it sensibly excites their pity and their prayers for the living. It awakens the exercise of pious charity for the souls of their friends, that are yet _in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity_. A true christian, that has tasted of the grace of God, can hardly be supposed to see his impenitent neighbour seized with sudden death, and sent away to darkness, but it touches the springs of holy tenderness within him, and constrains him to speak a word to others in the same danger, and to lift up a cry to God upon their account for grace and salvation. Surely that christian is not in a right temper of mind, who can see or hear of impenitent and guilty souls seized away from his neighbourhood or his acquaintance, and plunging into eternity with horror and despair, and yet have no compassion awakened in him, no bowels of pity moving for those of his acquaintance that are involved in the same iniquities, and are yet in the land of the living, and on this side hell. Such an awful providence is like a warning-word which heaven puts into our mouths, that we may echo it with solemn horror round the neighbourhood, and try to rouze stupid sinners from their dangerous and fatal lethargy.

[Here is a proper pause in this Sermon, if it be too long to be read at once.]

But it is time now to leave this general head, and go on to the next.