Death and Heaven I: The Conquest over Death

DESCRIBED IN A FUNERAL DISCOURSE IN MEMORY OF THE LADY HARTOPP.

THE INTRODUCTION.

I PERSUADE myself that none of you are unacquainted with that mournful providence that calls me to the service of this day* The words which were borrowed from the lips of the dying, I am desired to improve for the instruction and comfort of those that live. They are written in 1 Cor. xv. 26: —

“the last enemy that shall be destroyed, is death.”

When a nation hath lain for whole ages under the power of some mighty tyrant, and has suffered perpetual ravages from his hands, what gladness runs through the land, at the sure prediction of his ruin! and how is every inhabitant pleased while he hears of the approaching downfeU of his great enemy! “For this is he that has slain my father or my mother, my children, or my dearest relatives, and is still making havoc of the remnant of my friends, while 1 myself stand in hourly danger.” This pleasure grows up into more perfect joy, when we are assured this is the last tyrant that shall arise, Ac last enemy ilmt shall afflict us; for he shall have no successor, and we shall be for ever free. Such should be the rejoicing of all the saints, when they hear so desirable and divine a promise as the words of niy text; The last enemy that shall he destroyed is death.

To improve this glorious proposiiion, let us consider these four things, wnth a reflection or two upon each of them:

I. How death appears to be an enemy to the saints.

II. Why it is called the last enemy, or the last that shall be destroyed.

III. How it is to be destroyed, and what are the steps or gradual efibrts towards its destruction.

IV. What are the advantages that the saints receive by the destruction of this last enemy.

* Nov. 9, 1711, the lady Hartopp died, and this discourse was delivered at Stoke Newington, Nov. 25, following.

Section I. — death an enemy even to good men.

The first enquiry is, how, or in what sense death appears to be an enemy to the saints? That it is in general an enemy to human nature, is sufiiciently evident from its fiist introduction into the world; for it was brought in as an execution of the first threatening given to Adam in paradise, Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die. It came in as a punishment for sin, and every punishment in some respect opposes our interest and our happiness. When it seized on man at first, and planted the seeds of mortahty in his nature, he then began to be deprived of that peace and health, that vigor and im mortahty which he possessed before his f dl, till at last it brought him down to the dust; and ever since, all the sons of Adam have found and felt it an enemy to their natures.

To sinners, indeed, it is an enemy in a more dreadful sense, and its attendants are more terrible a thousand fold. For, besides all the common miseries of the flesh which they sustain, it delivers over their spirits into everlasting misery; it finishes their reprieve and their hope for ever; it plunges them at once into all the terrors of a most awakened conscience, and cuts them ofl” from all the amusements and cares of this life, which laid their guilt and their conscience asleep for a season. Death consigns over a sinner to the chains of the grave, and the chains of hell together, and binds and reserves him a prisoner of despair for the most complete torments of the second death.

But I would confine my discourse here, only to believers, for it is with respect to them this chapter is written. I know death is often called their friend, because it puts an end to their sins and sorrows; but this benefit arises only from the covenant of grace, which sanctifies it to some good purposes to the children of God. It is constrained to become their friend in some instances, contrary to its own nature and its original design: But there is reason enough, if we take a survey of its own nature, and its present appearances, to call it an enemy still, upon these following accounts:

1. Death has generally many terrible attendants and forerunners when it comes; terrible to nature and the flesh of the most exalted Christians.

Here, should I begin to describe the long and dismal train of death, the time would fail me. Shall I mention the sickness and the pain, the sharp anguish of the body, and sometimes the sharper methods of medicine to relieve it, all which prove useless and vain in that day: Shall I recount the tedious and uneasy hours, the tiresome and sleepless nights, when the patient longs for the slow return of the morning; and still when the light breaks, he finds new uneasiness, and wishes for the shadow and darkness again? Shall I speak of the dulness of the natural spirits, and the clog’s that hang heavy upon the soul in those hours; so that the better part of man is bound and oppi’essed, and shut up, and cannot exert itself agreeable to the character of an intellectual being?

Besides, all the designs of the mind are interrupted and broken in death; all that the saint intended to do for God, is cut oft” at once, and his holy purposes are precluded, which often adds to the trouble of a dying Christian: Psalm cxlvi. 4. When man returns to his earthy in that very day his thoughts perish.

Shall I put you in mind of the sighs and sorrows of dearest friends that stand around the bed all in tears, and all despairing? Shall I speak of the last convulsions of nature, the sharp conflict of the extreme moments, and the struggling and painful efforts of departing life, which none can know fully but those that have felt them, and none of the dead come back to give us an account? Is it possible for us to survey these scenes of misery, and not to believe that the hand of an enemy has been there? The bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and the members of Christ; 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19. Death murders these bodies, these members of the Lord, and ruins these temples to the dust, and may well be called their enemy upon this account.

2. Death acts like an enemy, when it makes a separation between the soul and the body, It divides the nature of man in halves, and tears the two constituent parts of it asunder.

Though this becomes an advantage to the soul of the saint through the covenant and appointment of grace, yet to have such an intimate union dissolved between flesh and spirit carries something of terror in it; and there may be an innocent reluctance in the nature of the best Christian against such an enemy as this: therefore St. Paul, in 2 Cor. v. 4, does not directly desire to he unclothed but rather to be clothed upon, that mortality might he swallowed up of life; that is, to be translated at once into an immortal state. The soul and body have been long acquainted with each other, and the soul has performed almost all its operations by the use of the senses and the limbs: It sees by the eye, it hears by the ear, it acts by the hands, and by the tongue it converses. Now to be separated at once from all these, and to be at once conveyed into a new strange world, a strange and unknown state both of being and action, has something in it so surprising, that it is a little frightful to the nature of man, even when he is sanctified and fitted for heaven.

And as the soul is dismissed by death into a state of separation, so the body, like a fallen tabernacle, is forsaken, lies uninhabited and desolate. Shall I lead your thoughts back to the bed where your dear relatives expired? and give you a sight of the dead, whose beauty is turning apace into corruption, and all the loveliness of countenance fled for ever? The body, that curious engine of divine workmanship, is become a moveless lump: Death sits heavy upon it, and the sprightliness and vigor of life is perished in every feature and in every limb? Shall we go down to the dark chambers of the grave, where each of the dead lie in their cold mansions, in Ueds of darkness and dust? The shadows of a long evening are stretched over them, the curtains of a deep midnight are drawn around them, the worm lies under them, and the worm covers them.

A saint is no more exempted from all these frightful attendants of death than a sinner is. Those eyes that have been perpetually lilted up to the God of heaven in prayer, lie closed under ground. That tongue that has spoken much for God in the world, lies silent in death. Those hands that have ministered to the necessities of the saints, and those feet that have gone often to the house of God, death has confined them in his chains. Those natural powers that have been active in the service of the gos{)el, can speak, can move, can act no more. But I need not recite these things to you, the images of them are too fresh and painful, and sit too heavy upon your remembrance.

3. Death is an enemy to the saint, so far as it hinders him from the enjoyment of his perfect heaven, for it keeps one part of him in the grave for many years or ages.

Let us think of the dust of the ancient martyrs, the dust of the fipostles, and the holy prophets: Let us look many ages backward to the dust of David, and Abraham, and Noah, to the dust of Adam, the first of men: How long have their souls waited in heaven, as it were in a widowed estate? How long has their flesh been mingled with common earth, and laid confined under the bands of death, useless to all the glorious purposes of their formation an i their being? A tedious extent of time! Four or five thousand years, wdiei-ein they have done nothing for God in the body, and in the body received nothing from God? For death hinders a believer from some of the business of heaven, and some of the blessedness of it.

1. From some of the business of heaven: It is only the soul that is then received to o’loiy, and dwells there alone for a season, while dcalh keeps the body piisoner in the grave; it is only the soul that ii’lorifies its jNIaker in that upper world, the world of spirits, for the il’-.’sh lies silent in the dust: The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee O Lord; Isaiah xxx. 18. The body is redeemed with the blood of Christ, as well as the soul, but death puts fetters upon it, and forbids it to serve its Redeemer.

2. The believer is restrained also by death from some of the blessedness of heaven; it is only the soul enjoys the delight, and that too only in its abstracted nature, and pure intellectual capacity; it is cut off by death from all that rich variety of pleasure which rises from its communion with so noble a frame as the body of man is. It has no senses to receive the satisfactions that arise from the material part of heaven: It has no eyes to behold the glorified flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ; no ears to hear his voice; no tongue to converse with its Saviour. And though we are sure there is a holy correspondence between Christ Jesus and separate souls, for we are said to he present icith the Lord when we are absent from the body; 2 Cor. v. 8. yet this correspondence cannot be so complete and glorious, as it shall be, when with our eyes we shall see God in the form of a man.

3. It is granted, that the separate heaven of souls is abundant pleasure beyond what we can now conceive or expiess; and our frienrls, departed in the faith, enjoy the delightful presence of their Lord, and the heavenly converse of their fellow-spirits. That honored and deceased saint, wdiom we this day mourn, dwells with that Jesus with whom she had long been acquainted; She converses with him in heaven, whom she loved much upon earth: She finds herself safe for ever in his hands, to whose care she committed her immortal concerns; and she rejoices in the sight of him above, with whom she held many houry of sweet correspondence by faith here below. Doubtless also, she holds sweet conversation with the holy souls that went to heaven before her. A soul so greatly desirous of spiritual discourse as she was, so constantly prepared for pious conference and mutual communications of sacred knowledge, must needs enjoy that privilege, and that pleasure, in that upper world, where there is nothing all round her, but what is holy and divine. But it is certain she cannot enjoy that perfection of humble society with Christ in his glorified human nature, nor with fellow-saints, while she is deprived of one part of herself, her body lying silent and moveless in the prison of the grave: and she yet waits for the more complete satisfaction of all her hopes, when death her last enemy shall be destroyed, and her body redeemed from the dust, together with the bodies of all the saints. This leads me to the next particular:

4. Death is an enemy to believers, because it divides them for a season from the company of their known and valuable friends, and parts the dearest relatives asunder.

Though dying saints be transmitted into better company, even to the spirits of the just made perfect yet it is a mournful thought to be separated so long from those whom they loved with so strong and just an affection. It adds a sharpness even to the last agonies, when we think we must leave parents, children, or friends behind us, whom we love so tenderly; that we must leave them amidst the sorrows and the temptations, of a vain world and a corrupt age; that we must leave them struggling with all the difficulties, the hardships, and the dangers that attend a Christian in his travels through this wilderness, and not see their faces again in the flesh, nor converse with them in the manner we were wont to do, till the heavens be no more.

Upon this account also death is a worse enemy to those that survive, for they sustain the biggest loss: It deprives them of their dear and delightful relatives without any recompense, for the world grows so much the more undesirable to a saint by ,the death of every friend. Children are torn away from the embraces of their parents, and the wife is seized from the bosom. This is, at it were tearing the flesh asunder of those whose hearts are joined; this gives occasion to bitter sorrows, to long and heavy complaints. How suddenly are we sometimes deprived of the desires of the eyes, and the comforts of life, the ornaments and the supports of our earthly state? And we have lost all their love, and their counsel, and their care; all their sweet sympathy of joys and sorrows, all their agreeable conversation and heavenly advice. What a tedious way have we to walk through without such a guide or helper? We have lost the benefit of their watchful eye, their holy jealousy for our souls, their fervent and daily prayers. But there are records in heaven, where all the prayers of the saints are kept; and God often turns over his register, and, in distant successive years, pours down blessings upon the posterity, and multiplies his graces amongst them, in answer to the requests that were off’ered up on earth by the saints that are now with God.

5. The last reason I shall mention to prove death an enemy to the saints, is the terror that it fills the mind with long before-hand. There are but few that, in their best estate on earth are got quite above these terrors, and there are none can say, I have been always free from them; so that in the younger days of their Christianity at least, all have been afraid of death; and these fears are enemies to our peace. Some spend all their lives in this bondage of fear and that upon ditiereut accounts,

A Christian of weaker faith cries out within himself, “How shall I pass that awful moment that sets my soul Daked before the eyes of a holy God, when I know not whether I am clothed with the righteousness of his Son or no, whether I shall stand the test in that day? I dread that solemn, that important hour that shall put me into an unchangeable state of miseries that are infinite, or of infinite blessedness. How shall I, that am a sinner, stand before that tribunal and that Judge, in whose sight no mortal can be innocent? My evidences for heaven are dark and cloudy, that I cannot read them; they have been often sullied with fresh guilt, and I doubt whether I am new born or no, or reconciled to God. And what if I should be mistaken in this affair of the greatest moment? The mistake can never be rectified; therefore I shake at the thoughts of death, that hour of decision; for my faith is weak.”

Another saint of a strong and lively faith, but of a timorous temper, cries out, “How shall I bear the agonies and the pangs of death? I am not afraid to enter into eternity; the grace of Christ, and his gospel, have given me hope and courage enough to be dead; but I am still afraid of dying; it is a hai“d and painful work, how shall I sustain the sharp conflict? I shiver at the thoughts of venturing through that cold flood that divides betwixt this wilderness and the promised land.”

Another Christian is too much unacquainted with the world of of spirits, with the nature of the separate heaven, with the particular business and blessedness of holy souls departed; and he is afraid to venture out of this region of flesh and blood, into a vast and unknown world. Though he has good hope through grace, that he shall arrive safe at heaven; yet the heavenly country is so unknown a land, and the valley of entrance to it so dark, that he fears to pass into it through the shadow of death.

Another is terrified at the thoughts of death, because he knows not how to part with his dear relatives in the flesh, and to leave them exposed to an unkind age and a thousand dangers. “If I had none to leave behind me, I could die with cheerfulness; but while I think of such a separation, the thought of death has terror in it.”

Thus upon various accounts a good man may have fearful ap» prehensions of dying; and that which carries so much terror about it, may well be called an enemy.

Before we proceed any further, let us make two reflections on the first general head:

I. If death be an enemy to the best of men in so many respects, then we may infer the great evil of sin: For it was sin that brought death into this our world; Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all, for that all have sinned.

We are too ready to conceive a slight opinion of the evil of sin, because it is so common to the best of men, and so constant an attendant on human nature daily and hourly; we entertain too gentle and harmless thoughts of it, because its biggest evil is of a spiritual kind, and invisible; we see not that infinite Majesty which it dishonors, that spotless holiness of God which it offends, the glory and perfection of that law which is broken by it: We can take but short and scanty notices of the injury that it does to God the supreme Spirit, while we are shut up in tabernacles of flesh. But here in these scenes of death, we may survey the sensible and mighty injury that sin has done to the nature of man, and thence inter how offensive it is to God. By our eyes and our ears, we may be terribly convinced, that it is no little evil that could occasion such spreading and durable mischief.

We cannot frame a just notion of what man was in his state of perfect innocency, in his original beauty, and honor, and immortal frame; and therefore we carjnot so well judge of the vastness of the loss which we sustain by sin: but we can see and feel the formidable attendants on death, and learn and believe that it is a root of unknown poisoned bitterness, that has produced such cursed fruit: Especially if we remember that all the sorrows before described, fall upon the saints themselves, even where sin is pardoned, and death has lost its sting. But if we descend in contemplation to the endless and unknown misery that waits upon the death of a sinner, and say, all these are the effects of sin; how inexpressibly dreadful will the cause appear? The wise man has pronounced them fools, by inspiration, that make a mock at such mischief; Prov. xiv. 9.

II. We may here learn the greatness of the love of Christ, that would venture into the land of death, and conflict with this mighty enemy, and yield to the power of it for a season, for our sakes. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life

for his friends; John xv. 13. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he died for us; 1 John iii. 16. Rom. v. 3.

Many terrible attendants of death did our Lord meet and struggle with beyond what any of his saints can feel. Death, like a lion, ran furious upon him, as it does upon a sinner, its proper prey. He met death in its full streno-th and dominion, for he had all our sins upon him; and death had its own sharp stino; when our Lord entered the combat. There was the wrntli of God which was threatened in the broken law to mingle with his pangs and agonies of nature: This made his soul exceeding sorrowful j all his inward powers were amazed, and his heart oppressed with heaviness; Mark xiv. 33, 34. He was almost overwhelmed in the garden, before the thorns or the nails came near him; and on the cross he complains of the forsakings of God his almighty friend, when death his nu’ghty enemy was just upon him; and all this, saith he, to every believer, I bore for thy sake: My love was stronger than death.

Section II. — death is the last enemy

I proceed now to the second general proposed, and that is to enquire, in what sense death is said to be the last enemy, or the last that shall be destroyed: For we may join this word last, either to death, or to destruction; and in each sense it affords comfort to the saints.

1. It is the last enemy that the saints have to grapple with in this world. The three great adversaries of a Christian are the flesh, the world, and the devil, and they assault him often in this life. Death comes behind, and brings up the rear; the saint combats with this enemy, and finishes all the war. Every believer has listed himself under the banner of Christ, who is the Captain of his Salvation. When he first gives himself up to the Lord, he renounces every thing that is inconsistent with his foith and hope, he abandons his former slavery, undertakes the spiritual warfare, and enters the field of battle. It is a necessary character of the followers of Christ, that they fight with the flesh, subdue corrupt nature, suppress their irregular appetites, give daily wounds to the body of sin; Col. iii. 5. Rom. viii. 13. They fight against this world; they refuse to comply with the temptations of it, when it would allure them astray from the path of duty; they defy its frowns and discoiu’agements, and break through all its oppositions in their way to heaven; James iv. 4. They resist Satan when he tempts them to sin, and vanquish him by the sword of the Spirit, the sword of God; Eph. iv. 11, 12, lY. and when he accuses them, and attempts to bring terror into their souls, theg overcome him, and cast him down by the blood of the Lamb; Rev. xii. 10, 11. They are made conquerors over these adversaries in the strength of Christ. Now the pangs of death are the last troublers of their peace; death is the last enemy that attacks them, and some have very terrible conflicts with it.

It was in these agonies, in this sharp contention, the words of my text were uttered by that honored saint whose memory will be always precious, and whose loss we this day mourn. This cheerful language of hope, among many other scriptures, broke out ft’om her lips. Thus lively was her faith in a dying hour. Methinks I hear her speaking the words with a firm trust in the promise; The last enemy that shall he destroyed is death. And this encouraged her onward through the few remaining struggles of life and pain. It is as if she had said, “I have given myself up long ago to Christ, I engaged myself young in his service, I have fought with sin, I have learned to subdue flesh and sense, and to live by the faith of the Son of God: I have not courted the flatteries of the world, the vain shows of life; and I have been enabled to despise the frowns of it, and been kept stedfast in my profession, in the most discouraging and the darkest times. Through the grace of Christ / have overcome the evil one y there remains but one enemy more, whose name is death; and I trust in the same grace still to obtain complete victory.” Rejoice, ye dear relatives, let all the friend* of the deceased rejoice, her name is now written down in heaven amongst the overcomers.

2, Death may be called the last enemy, because it is not utterly destroyed till the resurrection, till Christ hath done all his work upon earth, till he has subdued all his other adversaries, and made use of death as his slave, to destroy many of them. It is in this sense especially that the words of my text are written by St. Paul; 1 Cor. XV. 24, 25. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and all power; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall he destroyed, is death. With regard to each particular Chris-’ tian, all other enemies are destroyed when he dies, for whither he goes, they cannot come; he puts oft’ the body of flesh and of sin together; he leaves every corruption behind hira, when he ascends to the company of the spirits of the just made perfect. The smiles and the frowns of this vain and vexing world, are too far off” to influence the inhabitants of heaven; and Satan, the tempter and accuser, is for ever forbid entrance at the gates of that holy city. But death holds one part of the saint in his prison, the grave: And though the departed soul has overcome the terrors of this enemy, and triumphs in thia expression, 0 deat where is thy sting? yet the body is confined as a prisoner under his power: But the hour is coming when those that are dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live. All the prisons of the saints shall be broke to pieces, and burnt up, and the keeper destroyed for ever.

Let us make these two reflections on the second general head of til is discourse:

I. What abundant encouragement may Ave derive from hence, to e.iigage us betimes in a war with all the other enemies of our salvation, that having overcome them, we may be assured death is the last enemy we shall meet with: And then also we may face death with a braver courage, may conflict with it with better success, may vanquish it by a lively faith, and rejoice in the prospect of its final destruction. The same armor of God, the same divine weapons, and the same almighty assistances by which we have subdued our former adversaries, sin, Satan, and the world, shall be sufficient to gain this conquest too. We cannot begin the holy warfare too soon; none of us are too young to be assaulted by death; but let it come never so early in the morning of our days, it is the last enemy that we can fear, if we are listed in the army of Christ, and have begun the glorious war.

I would address myself to the younger branches of the mourning house, and say, have ye had such a noble example of victory over sin and death in vain? Will ye basely submit to the slavery of the flesh, and yield tamely to the oppositions of this world, which were so bravely resisted by her that is gone before you? Will ye love this world, which is at enmity with Ood, and has ever been at enmity with all the saints? Are ye content to have your names for ever excluded from that honorable list of conquerors, where the names of your ancestors shine before the throne of God, and are recorded with honor in the memory of his churches? Think how dreadful a moment that will be, when you shall look death in the face, if ye have not begun to wage war with sin and Satan before! How dreadful to have many enemies at once assaulting you! the lusts of your own heart, raging desires after the enjoyments of this world, the horrors of conscience, the buffetings of the devil, and the pangs of death. What will ye do in the day of such a visitation? And remember, that though death be the last enemy of the saints, it is not thus with sinners; it does but transmit them into the world of damned spirits, where enemies multiply upon them, and grow more outrageous. Besides the bitter anguish of their own conscience, they have the wrath of a God whom they have long provoked, and the malice of evil angels their tormentors, to conflict with to all eternity. But ive hope better things of you, and things that accomi:)any salvation, though we thus speak; Heb. vi. 9.

II. What divine comfort is there in my text for aged Christians and dying saints, who have been watchful and vigorous in their war with sin, and gained many victories over this world and Satan, who is called the god of it! What a delightful view such persons have, when upon the borders of life! Bear up with divine boldness, ye heirs of glory, for you have but one adversary more to fight with: Let your faith and patience, and holy courage, hold out a little longer, and victory and triumph are yours for ever. There is no enemy lies in ambush behind the tomb; when you have passed the bars of death, you are out of the reach of all adversaries. Beyond the grave, the coast is all clear for ever: the country flows with rich and untasted pleasures; every inhabitant is an inward friend; and peace, and joy, and love smile in every countenance. Will an old saint complain that he finds many infirmities attend his age, that his senses are feeble, that his eyes are dim, that Satan now and then arises from hell, and casts a gloom and darkness around his soul, and buftets him sorely in that darkness? Will he complain that his natural spirits are heavy, that the world is troublesome to him, and every thing in life painful? Methinks it is a consolation equal to all these sorrows, that he is just entering into the last field of battle; the last hour of controversy is begun; a few strokes more will decide the strife, and make him an eternal conqueror. Behold, I come quickly, saith our Lord, hold fast that which thou hast gained, that no man take thy crown; Rev. iii. 11.

Section IIL — the destruction of death.

The third thing we are to inquire is, how death is destroyed, and what are the steps, or gradual efforts, towards its destruction.

The person that has this honor put upon him to subdue this universal tyrant is our Lord Jesus Christ; so the words inform us all round my text. Though his mediation for sinners was sufficient to have prevailed with God to destroy death at once, yet it was agreed upon in the eternal counsels, that for wise ends and purposes it should be done by degrees. His blood was of suflacient value to have procured for his elect a deliverance from every enemy at once, and a translation to heaven as soon as they were born; but it was wisely concerted betwixt the Father and the Son, that we should pass through temptations, diificulties, and death itself; that by feeling the sharp assaults of our enemies, we might

De better acquainted Avitb the greatness of our salvation, and pay a larger tribute of thanks and honors to our deliverer. The steps whereby death is destroyed, are these:

1. It is subdued by the death of Christ; its sting was then taken away, that is, the guilt of sin; 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God toho giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. AVhich verses may thus be explained: Death was the punishment threatened by the law of sin; but Christ, as our surety, having sustained the execution of that thieatening, and answered the law by a satisfaction equal to the offence, death has no more power over him. God has raised him up having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it; Acts ii. 24. And as Christ by his dying is said to finish transgression, and make an end of sin, because he has taken away its power to condemn believers, though he has not yet utterly destroyed its being, so he is said to have abolished death; 2 Tim. i. 10. Because he has so far diminished, and made void its power, that it shall not do any final mischief to the saints. It is like a serpent .whose sting is taken away, and whose teeth are broken out; it may fright us, and do us some injury, but it cannot intlict a venomous or fatal wound. Now the believer, by a lively faith, shares in this Anctory of Christ over death, and gives thanks to God for it. He knows that though it may hui t his body, and bring it down to the grave tor a season, yet it cannot send the soul to destruction, nor confine the body to the dust any longer than Christ shall permit.

2. Death is taken captive and enslaved by Christ at his resurrection and ascension, and made to serve his holy purposes; Psalm lxviii. 18. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captiritg captive. This is spoken of our Lord Jesus, who has taken into his own dominion death and the devil, who led the world captive. The enemy is not escaped out of the hands of this conqueror, but is put under his yoke, and constrained into his service. Death, in its first character, was the very threatening and curse of the law of God, and includes in it all misery: but Christ having borne the curse, has redeemed his people from it; 6^a/. iii. 13. And now he has taken as many as he pleases of the threatenings and terrors of the law into his own new covenant, the covenant of grace; and h;is sanctified their nature, and made them blessings to the saints; he has turned the curse into a blessing; Deut. xxiii. 5; so that afflictions, and pains, and sorrows, and death itself, are no longer a curse to them, for they are ordained l)y the V)isdom and grace of Christ to promote their best interest.

Death, in its original design, was the under-servant of God’s avenging justice; it was the jailor to bring the soul out of the body before the divine tribunal, there to receive its condemnation to hell. It was the executioner both to torment and to destroy the flesh, and send the spirit into everlasting misery. But Christ having answered all the demands of this avenging justice, has also purchased the sovereignty over death; and though sometimes, when it seizes a saint, it may for the present signify his displeasure, as in 1 Cor. xi. 30, yet it always fulfills the designs of his love, and conveys them into his own delightful presence; therefore, as soon as we are absent from the hody we are said to be present tvith the Lord; 2 Cor. v. 8; and when we depart from the flesh, it is to he with Christ; Phil. i. 23. Death was ordained at fii’st to be a slave to Satan, by the righteous appointment of God, both death and’ the devil are executioners of his wrath; and Satan is said to have some power over death; Heh. ii. 14. But Christ, by djnng, has subdued Satan, spoiled him of his destroying weapons, has made void his authoi’ity, especially with regard to believers; he has taken death out of his power, and manages it himself; and thus he delivers them who through fear of death were held in a long and painful bondage; ver. 15.

It is in such views of these that the apostle says to the Corinthian believers, all things are yours things present and things to come, this world in the joys and sorrows of it, life and death, all are yours, and ye are Chrisfs; 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. You have an interest and a share in the possessions and the power of Christ over all things so for as may promote your happiness; Christ makes all things, even death itself, 2vork together for the good of his people; Bom. viii. 28. By death he puts an end to the body of sin, and frees the soul from all those ruffling passions, those inquietudes of the blood, and disorders of nature; those strong and perverse appetites that cost the Christian so much toil to subdue, and brought him so often under guilt, darkness, and sorrow. By death he delivers the believer from the pains and infirmities of the body, the perpetual languishings of a weakly constitution, and the anguish of acute diseases, lie constrains death to give the weary saint release from all the miseries of the present state, and to hide him from the fury of the oppressoi-. The grave is God’s hiding place from the storms and tumults of the world; there the weary are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling: and instead of consigning us over to the full mahce of the devil, death is made a means to con-ISAAC W AT T S, D.D. Gl

vey us away from all his assaults, and translate us into that country, where he has no power to enter. And when the soul is dismissed into the bosom of a reconciled God, by the ministry of death, the body is put to rest in the grave; the grave, which is sanctified into a bed of rest for all the followers of Christ, since the Lord and Master has lain there.

In the gospel of Christ, the name of death is altered into sleep. Christ, who has subdued it, seems to have given it this new name, that it might not have a frightful sound in the ears of his beloved. Though it was sometimes called sleep in the Old Testament, yet that chiefly regarded the silence, and darkness, and inactivity of that state; whereas in the New Testament, and in the xiith of Daniel, it is called sleep, to denote that there is an awaking-time. The ancient Christians, upon this account, called the church-yard, where they buried the dead, ;;^oij(17;r7)piov, a sleeping-place. And though the grave may be termed the prison- of death, yet death is not the lord of the prison; he can detain the captives there but during the pleasure of Chiist, for he who is alive for evermore, has the keys of death and hell, that is, of the separate state; JRev. i. 18. Now this is the true reason why Christians have spoken so many kind things of death, which is the king of terrors to a natural man. They call it a release from pain and sin, a messenger of peace, the desired hour, and the happy moment. All this is spoken while they behold it with an eye of faith in the hands of Christ, who has subdued it to himself, and constrained it to serve the designs of his love to them.

3. When it has done all Christ’s work, it shall be utterly destroyed. After the resurrection, there shall be no more dying. The saints shall rise innnortal, and dwell in heaven for ever, in the complete enjoyment of all that is included in the name of life. As the angel in prophecy lifts up his hand, and swears by him that lives for ever and ever, that time shall be no longer; Rev. x. 6. So Christ Jesus, the Lord of angels, shall, as it were, pronounce with a sovereign voice, that death shall be no more. He shall send the great archangel with the trumpet of God; it shall sound through the deepest caverns of the grave, and shall summon death from its inmost recesses. The tyrant shall hear and obey, and restore all his captives out of prison; the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live, John v. 25, 28, 29. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. After this our Lord has no employment for death, his slave; the bodies of men shall die no more: There shall be no more any state of separation between the flesh and spirit; Rev. xx. 14. And death and hell or Ilades, were cast into the lake of fire; that is, there shall be no more death, no grave, no separate state of souls, all these shall be for ever destroyed.

I. We may infer from this third general head, the great power and gloiy of our Lord Jesus Christ; we may learn the honor that is due to him from mortals; it is he that hath subdued death, and that by his own dying. A wonderous method of victory! a surprizing conquest! and he lives for ever to destroy it in his appointed time. How great and honorable must he be in the eyes of all mankind, who has vanquished so universal a conqueror? How desirable is his person, and how delightful the sound of his name to every believer! for he suppresses all their enemies and shall destroy them even to the last. How well does he fulfil the great, engagement! Hosea xiii. 14. I will ransom them from, the imwer of the grave: I will redeem them from death; 0 death I will he thy plagues; 0 grave I will be thy destruction; repentance shall he kid from mine eyes. Let us salute him the Prince of life, Acts iii. 15, and adore him under that character. He dispossesses death of all its dominions. He approves himself a complete Saviour of all his saints, and a Redeemer of his captive friends.

IL We may learn also from this head of discourse, the power and excellency of the gospel of Christ, for it discovers to us how this great enemy is vanquished, and when it shall be destroyed; and thus it lays a foundation for courage at death, and gives us assurance of a joyful rising-day. Death being abolished by the mediation of Christy immortality and life are brought to light by his gospel; 2 Tim.. 10. That is, there is a brighter discovery of the future state, and of everlasting happiness, than ever before was given to the world.

Here, in the name of Christ, and of his gospel, we may give a challenge to all other religions, and say, which of them has borne up the spiiit of man so high above the fears of death as this has done? or has given us so fair, so rational, and so divine an account how death has been overcome by one man, and how by faith in his name we may all be made overcomers? How vain are the trifles with which the heathen priests and their prophets amused the credulous nmltitude? What silly and insipid fables do they tell us of souls passing over in a ferry-boat to the other world, and describe the fields of pleasure, and the prisons of pain in that country of ghosts and shadows, in so ridiculous a manner, that the wise men of their own nations despised the romance, and few were stupid enough to believe it all. If we consult the religion of their philosophers, they give us but a poor, lame, and miseraLle acoouni of the state aher death. Some of them denied it utterly, and others rave at random in mere conjectures, and float in endless uncertainties. The courage which some of their heroes professed at the point of death, was rather a stubborn indolence, than a rational and well-founded valor; and not many arrived at this hardiness of mind, except those that supposed their existence ended with their life, and thought they should be dissolved into their first atoms. Aristotle, one of the greatest men amongst them, tells us that futurity is uncertain, and calls death the most teriible of all terribles.

If we search into the religion of the Jews, which was a scheme of God’s own contrivance and revelation to men, we find the affairs of a future world lay much in the dark; their consciences were not so thoroughly purged from the guilt of sin, but that some terrors hung about them, as appears from Heh. x. 1, 2, 3, and having so faint and obscnre notices of the separate state of souls, and of the resun-eclion, these were the persons, who in a special manner, through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage; Heb. ii. 15. But Christianity lays a fair and rational foundation for our confidence and triumph in the dying hour. It shews how guilt is removed by an all-sufficient sacrifice; and makes it evident that no hell, no vengeance, no shadows of misery await the believer in that invisible woiid. This makes the Christian venture into it with a certain boldness, and a becoming presence of mind. The doctrine of Christ shews us how the sting of death is taken away, and calls us to fight with a vanquished enemy, a serpent without a sting; it gives us assurance that we shall rise again from the dust with bodies fresher and fairer, glorious in their frame, and their constitution immortal; for death shall be no more. Exalted by so sublime a hope, what is there in death sufficient to depress our spirits, if our faith were but equal to this admirable doctrine? The holy apostles are witnesses, the noble army of martyrs are witnesses, and many a saint in our day is a witness to this truth, and gives honor to this gospel. How many thousands have met dejith, and all its trightful attendants, with a steady soul, and a serene countenance, and have departed to heaven with songs of praise upon their lips, a smile upon their face, and triumph in their eyes? And this was not owing to any extravagant flights of enthusiasm, nor the fires of an infiamed fancy, but it has been performed often, and may be done daily by the force of a regular faith, on the most solid and reasonable principles, for such are the principles of the gospel of Christ.

Section IV. — blessings gained by the destruction of

DEATH.

The fourth and last general head of discourse, is an inquiry into the advantages which the saints receive by the destruction of this last enemy. This is a large and endless field, for it includes a gi-eat part of the happiness of the final heaven. But I shall attempt to mention briefly a few of the benefits that attend my text, and that without a nice distinction of particulars.

When death is destroyed, we shall share in the joy and triumph of Christ for absolute conquest over all his enemies; for there is scarce any glory given to Christ, considered as man, but the saints are said to be humble partners in it, or at least to enjoy the resemblance. Is he appointed the Jude of all? It is promised also to the saints that they shall judge angels, and the twelve tribes of Israel. Do we suffer with him? we shall also reign with him. If we conquer death by faith, we shall rise and triumph. Here we labor and fight with many adversaries, and we think we have routed them, but they rally again, and give us fresh vexation, so that we hardly know how to attempt a song of victory on this side the grave. Besides, death still remains for our trial and conflict; but there we shall rejoice over all our enemies, subdued, destroyed, and abolished for ever.

Then God will be all in all to his saints. This is a consequent which St. Paul mentions in the verses where my text is: God will manage the affairs of his heavenly kingdom in a more immediate way than he has managed his kingdom on earth. Christ having destroyed all the enemies of his church, and presented it safe before the Father, has finished all those divine purposes for which the mediatorial kingdom was entrusted with him; then he shall resign his commission to the Father again; and the ever blessed God shall, in a more immediate and absolute manner, reign over all the creation. He shall more immediately impress devils and damned spirits with a sense of infinite wrath; and with a more immediate sense of his love and eternal favor, shall he for ever bless all the inhabitants of heaven. So much as this seems to be implied in the words of the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25, &c. But it is impossible that in this state we should know either the full extent, or the just limitations of that promise, God shall he all in all. Our honored and departed fnend had these words dwelling upon her heart; these were often in her lips in the days of her faith and hope, and in the hours of her passage through the dark valley: She enjoys part of the pleasure of them in her present

Leaven, and with pleasure she expects the more absolute accomplishment, when the resurrection shall complete the blessedness of all the saints.

Another consequent of the destruction of death, is the employment of all the powers of human nature in the service of God, and they shall be neither weak nor weary. For all the inconveniences that attend mortality shall be swallowed up and lost for evei-.

Alas, how poor and imperfect is the service which our bodies yield to God in this world! How heavily do our souls complain of the clog of this flesh, and move onwards heavily in the discharge of duty! and in the grave the body is quite cut off from all service. But when death shall be dispossessed, when we shall arise from the dust, and put on bodies of glory, then with our whole natures, and with all their powers, we shall do honor to God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our King. The time will come when we shall hunger no more neither thirst any more, and the refreshments of sleep shall be no more necessary to support life. When death shall be destroyed, sleep, the image and picture of death, shall be destroyed too. There shall be nothing that looks like death in all that vital world, that world of immortality. We shall serve the Lord day and night in his temjole; that is continually, for there shall be no night there; Rev. vii. 15, 16. and xxii. 25. Then we shall taste all the true blessedness that human nature is capable of, and that without danger of excess or sin. When God first united these two pieces of his workmanship, the soul and body, and composed a man, he designed him the subject of various pleasures, wherein each part should have been subservient to the other, to render the felicity of the creature perfect. It is sin and death that have entered into our natures, and prevented this noble design in our present state; but the counsel of the Lord shall stand. And when he raises up the body from the grave, it shall leave all the seeds of death behind it. The feculties and the senses shall awake in all their original sprightliness and vigor, and our future heaven shall be furnished with objects suited to entertain those powers, and to convey intense pleasure to glorified minds without danger of satiety or weariness. When the time comes that there shall be no more death, God shall ivi2)e away all tears from our eyes; there shall be no sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain; for the former things are passed away, and he that sits upon the throne shall say, behold I make all things new; Rev. xxi. 4, 5.

Then shall we enjoy the constant society of our best friends and dearest acquaintance; those that have arrived at the New Jerusa-

72 C II O I C fi W 0 R K S O F

lem themselves, and Lave assisted us in our travels tbitlier. And we shall delio-Iitfully entertain and be entertained with the mutual narratives of divine grace, and the wise and holy methods of providence, whereby we have been conducted safe through all the fatigues and dangers of the wilderness to that heavenly country. And that which shall add an unknown relish to all the former blessings, is the full assurance that we shall possess them for ever; for eveiy one of our enemies are then destroyed, and the last of them is death. Here on earth it is a perpetual pain to the mind to think that those whom we love are mortal; the next moment may divide them from us far as the distance of two worlds. They are seized on a sudden from our eyes, and from our embraces; and this thought allays the delight that we take in their company, and diminishes the joy; but in that world all our friends are immortal; we shall ever be with the Lord, and ever with one another too; 1 lliess. iv. 17.

May I be permitted here to make a short reflection on that mournful providence that has joined two lovely relatives in death,* and given occasion for the sad solemnities of this day? The pious mother led the way to heaven but a few days before the pious daughter followed, each of them the parent of a reputable family, and the descendants from a progenitor,! whose name is in honor among the churches. As mutual atlection joined their habitations in life, so the care of surviving friends has laid them to rest in their be(.ls of earth together. We ti’ust they are also joined in the world of blessed spirits on high, and they shall be joined again in the woild of glorified saints in the morning of the resurrection. Death, their coiMmon enemy, has taken them both captives together; has bound in his chains the mother and iliQ daughter; but they are prisoners of hope, and together they shall obtain a glorious release.

I would copy a line from that most beautiful elegy of David, and ap])ly it here with more justice than the Psalmist could to Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. 23. Lovely and ‘pleasant were they in their lives, and in death they were not divided. Silent were they, and retired from the world, and unknown except to their intimate Iriends; but God was a witness of their hours of divine retirement.

* The Lady Hartopp, daughter of Charles Fleetwood, Esq., and wife to Sir John Ilai-topp, of Newington, Baronet, died November 9, 1711. Mrs. Gould, their daughter, and wife to Mr. Gould, now Sir Nathaniel Gould, of Newington, died six days after, viz. November 15, and left their households behind them oppressed with double sorrows.

f Charles Fleetwood, Esq., of Norfolk.

The c’races of Christianity, and the virtues of domestic life, which are the proper ornaments of the sex, were the marks of their utmost aim and ambition; nor did they seek the flatteries of the court or the city, nor aftect the gaities of a degenerate age. Humble they weie, and averse from public show and noise; nor will I disturb their graves by making them the subject of public praise. In the hearts of their families, their memory, their image, and their example will live. Oh may the brightest and best parts of their image and example live in the character and practice of all that are left behind!

What a dreadful and overwhelming thought is it to suppose, that any of that honored and numerous household should be divided asunder at the last day! Give all dihgence then, my worthy friends, to miake your calling and your election sure; devote yourselves to the God of your predecessors; trust in the same Saviour; tread in the same paths of holiness; and puisne the same glory. What a joy will it be to that pious lady that is gone before, to find, that those that were dear to her as her own soul have overcome sin and death, and in a blessed succession arrive at the same heaven I Let me entreat you to give her this satisfaction, and not disappoint her prayers and her hopes. Let your venerable surviving parent, who is now confined at home under sorrows and sharp pains, obtain this pleasure. Let that dear partner of her joys and cares behold the power of religion appearing and reigning in all your hearts before his eyes are closed in death. Give both of them this consolation at the a[)pearance of Christ, that they may say, ‘■’Lord here we are, and the children that thou hast given us. Here we are with our ancestoi’s, and our off’spring, and our kindred around us, adoring thy i-icli grace together, and entering together into the state of peifect glory which thou hast prepared.”

It remains only that I should propose some reflections on the last head of discourse for the meditation of this whole assembly, and especially for those that are engaged in the spiritual wai-fiire, and proceed to daily conquests.

Shall death, with all its attendants, be destroyed for ever? And are these the blessings that shall succeed? Then enter into this joy beforehand by a lively faith, and begin the song of triumph — 0 death, zi’here is thy sting, 0 grave, where is thy victory? 1 Cor. XV. 55. Rejoice not over me 0 mine enemy, when I shall fall I shall arise; Mic. vii. 8.

After you have fought many battles with Satan, subdued many sins, and encountered a thousand temptations with success, perhaps you find new adversaries still arising; look forward then to this joyful hour, and say, “But I shall one day be for ever free from all these toils and labors of war, for all my enemies shall be overcome, since death, the last of them, shall be subdued.” When you feel the infirmities of this mortal body hang heavy upon your spirits, and damp your devotion, read the words of this promise, and rejoice, “These pains and these languors of nature shall one day vanish and be no more; for death, with all its train, must be destroyed,”

When some of your dearest friends are seized by this tyrant, and led away to the grave in his chains, while you are wounded to the very soul, remember that Christ, your Captain and your Saviour, shall revenge this quarrel upon your last enemy; for he has appointed the hour for his destruction. Mourn not, therefore, for the dead, as those that so7’row without hojye, for those that sleep in Jesus, the Lord shall bring with him when he comes; 1 Thess. iv. 13. And he shall join you together in a blessed and durable friendship, where it shall be eternally impossible for enemies to brealv in upon your peace; for death, the last of them, shall be then destroyed. And the Lord has left us this comfort in the end of his sacred writings, Surely I come quickly. Let each of us with a cheerful heart reply, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.