Safety in the Grave, and Joy at the Resurrection

Job. xiv. 13, 14, 15. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me in secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me! If a man die shall he live again 1 All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work ot thy hands.

Before we attempt to make any improvement of these words of Job for our present edification, it is necessary that we search out the true meaning of them. There are two general senses of these three verses, which are given by some of the most considerable interpreters of Scripture, and they are exceedingly different from each other.

The first is this. Some suppose Job under the extremity of his anguish to long after death here, as he does in some other parts of this book, and to desire that God would cut him off from the land of the living, and “hide him in the grave,” or, at least, take him away from the present stage of action, and conceal him in some retired and solitary place, dark as the grave is, till all the days which might be designed for his pain and sorrow were finished: and that God would “appoint him a time” for his restoration to health and happiness again in this world, and raise him to the possession of it, by calling him out of that dark and solitary place of retreat; and then Job would answer him, and appear with pleasure at such a call of Providence.

Others give this sense of the words, that though the pressing and overwhelming sorrows of this good man constrained him to long for death, and he entreated of God that he might be sent to the “grave as a hiding-place,” and thus be delivered from his present calamities, yet he had some divine glimpse of a resurrection or living again, and he hopes for the happiness of a future state when God should call him out of the grave. He knew that the blessed God would have ‘a desire to’ restore ‘the work of 30 u2 233 his own hands’ to life again, and Joh would ‘answer the call’ of his God into a resurrection with holy pleasure and joy.

Now there are four or five reasons which incline me to prefer this latter sense of the words, and to shew that the comforts and hope which Job aspires to in this place, are only to be derived from a resurrection to final happiness.

1. The express words of the text are, “0 that thou wouldst hide me in the grave!” Not in a darksome place like the grave; and where the literal sense of the words is plain and agreeable to the context, there is no need of making metaphors to explain them. There is- nothing that can encourage us to suppose that Job had any hope of happiness in this world again, after he was gone down to the grave, and therefore he would not make so unreasonable a petition to the great God. This seems to be too foolish and too hopeless a request for us to put into the mouth of so wise and good a man.

2. He seems to limit the continuance of man in the state of death to the duration of the heavens, ver. 12th, “man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more.” Not absolutely for ever does Job desire to be hidden in the grave, but till the dissolution of all these visible things, these heavens and this earth, and the great rising-day for the sons of men. These words seem to have a plain aspect towards the resurrection.

And especially when he adds, “they shall not be wakened nor raised out of their sleep.” The brutes when dying are never said to sleep in Scripture, because they shall never rise again; but this is a frequent word used to signify the death of man both in the Old Testament and in the New, because he only lies down in the grave for a season, as in a bed of sleep, in order to awake and arise hereafter.

3. In other places of this book, Job gives us some evident hints of his hope of a resurrection, especially that divine passage and prophecy, when he spake as one surrounded with a vision of glory, and filled with the light and joy of faith. Job xix. 25, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and Ih’at he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me.” But in many parts of this book the good man lets us know, that he had no manner of hope of any restoration to health and peace in this life. Job vii. 6, 7, 8, “My days are spent without hope: mine eye shall no more see good: the eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.” Ver. 21. “Now shall I sleep in the dust, thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be.” Job xvii. 15. “Where is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?” He and his hope seemed “to go down to the bars of the pit together, and to rest in the dust.” And if Job had no hope of a restoration in this world, then his hopes must point to the resurrection of the dead.

4. If we turn these verses here, as well as that noble passage in Job xix, to the more evangelical sense of a resurrection, the truths which are contained in the one and the other, are all supported by the language of the New Testament: and the express words of both these texts are much more naturally and easily applied to the evangelical sense, without any strain and difficulty.

The expressions in the xixth of Job, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” &c. have been rescued by many wise interpreters from that poor and low sense which has been forced upon them, by those who will not allow Job to have any prospect beyond this life: and it has been made to appear to be a bright glimpse of divine light and joy, a ray or vision of the sun of righteousness breaking in between the dark clouds of his pressing sorrow. And that the words of my text demand the same sort of interpretation, will appear further by these short remarks, and this paraphrase upon them.

Job had been speaking, ver. 7, &c. that “there is hope of a tree when it is cut down that it will sprout again” visibly, and bring forth boughs; but when “man gives up the ghost” he is no more visible upon earth. “Where is he?” Job does not deny his future existence, but only intimates that he does not appear in the place where he was; and in the following verses he does not say, a dying man shall never rise, or shall ‘never be awakened out of his sleep;’ but asserts that “he rises not till” the dissolution of “these heavens” and these visible things: and by calling death a sleep, he supposes an awaking time, though it may be distant and far off.

Then he proceeds to long for death, “0 that thou wouldst hide me in the grave! that thou wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past!” till these times and seasons ot sorrow be ended, which seem to be the effect of divine wrath or anger. But then I entreat “thou wouldst appoint me a set time” for my tarrying in the grave, “and remember me” in order to raise me again. Then with a sort of surprise of faith and pleasure he adds, “If a man die shall he live again? Shall these dry bones live?” And he answers in the language of hope; “All the days of that appointed time” of thine “I will wait till that glorious change shall come. Thou shalt call” from heaven, “and I will answer thee” from the dust of death. I will appear at thy call and say, “Here am I. Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands,” to raise me again from the dead, whom thou hast made of clay, and fashioned into life.

From the words thus expounded, we may draw these several observations, and make a short reflection upon each of them, as we pass along.

Obs. I. This world is a place wherein good men are exposed to great calamities, and they are ready to think the anger or wrath of God appears in them.

Obs. II. The grave is God’s known hiding-place for his people.

Obs. III. God has appointed a set time in his own counsels for all his children to continue in death.

Obs. IV. The lively view of a happy resurrection, and a well-grounded hope of this blessed change, is a solid and divine comfort to the saints of God, under all trials of every kind both in life and death.

Obs. V. The saints of God who are resting in their beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their I:-avenly Father.

Obs. VI. God takes delight in his works of nature, but much more when they are dignified and adorned by the operations of divine grace.

Obs. VII. How much are we indebted to God for the revelation of the New Testament, which teaches us to find out the blessings which are contained in the Old, and to fetch out the glories and treasures which are concealed there?

Let us dwell a while upon each of these, and endeavour to improve them by a particular application.

Obs. I. ‘This world is a place wherein good men are exposed to great calamities, and they are ready to think the anger or wrath of God appears in them.’ This mortal life and this present state of things, are surrounded with crosses and disappointments; the loss of our dearest friends, as well as our own pains and sicknesses, have so much anguish and misery attending them, that they seem to be the seasons of divine wrath, and they grieve and pain the spirit of many a pious man, under a sense of the anger of his God. It must be confessed in general that misery is the effect of sin, for sin and sorrow came into the world together. It is granted also, that God sometimes afflicts his people “in anger, and corrects them in his hot displeasure,” when they have sinned against him in a remarkable manner. But this is not always the case.

The great God was not really angry with Job when he suffered him to fall into such complicated distresses; for it is plain, that while he delivered him up into the hands of Satan to be afflicted, he vindicates and honours him with a divine testimony concerning his piety. Job i. 8, “There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and avoideth evil.” Nor was he angry with his Son Jesus Christ, when it “pleased the Father to bruise him and put him to grief,” when he “made his soul an offering for sin,” and he was “stricken, smitten of God and afflicted,” Isai. liii. To these we may add Paul, the best of the Apostles, and the greatest of Christians, who was abundant in labours and sufferings beyond all the rest. See a dismal catalogue of his calamities, 2 Cor. xi. 23, &c. What variety of wretchedness, what terrible persecutions from men, what repeated strokes of distress came upon him by the providence of God, which appeared like the effects of divine wrath or anger? But they were plainly designed for more divine and blessed purposes, both with regard to God, with regard to himself, and to all the succeeding ages of the Christian church.

God does not always smite his own people to punish sin and shew his anger; but these sufferings are often appointed for the ‘trial of their Christian virtues and graces, for the exercise of their humility and their patience, for the proof of their steadfastness in religion, for the honour of the grace of God in them, and for the increase of their own future weight of glory. “Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him,” Jam. i. 12. “The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” Rev. ii. 10. “Our light afflictions which are but for a moment, are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” 2 Cor. iv. 17.

However, upon the whole, this world is a very troublesome and painful place to the children of God. They are subject here to many weaknesses and sins, temptations and follies; they are in danger of new defilements; they go through many threatening perils and many real sorrows, which either are the effects of the displeasure of God, or, at least, carry an appearance of divine anger in them. But there is a time when these shall be finished, and sorrow shall have its last period: there is a time when these calamities “will be overpast,” and shall return no more for ever.

Reflection. Why then, 0 my soul, why shouldst thou be so fond of dwelling in this present world? Why shouldst thou be desirous of a long continuance in it? Hast thou never found sorrows and afflictions enough among the scenes of life, to make thee weary of them? And when sorrow and sin have joined together, have they not grievously embittered this life unto thee? Wilt thou never be weaned from these sensible scenes of flesh and blood? Hast thou such a love to the darknesses, the defilements, and the uneasinesses which are found in such a prison as this is, as to make thee unwilling to depart when God shall call? Hast thou dwelt so long in this tabernacle of clay, and dost thou not “groan, being burdened?” Hast thou no desire to a release into that upper and better world, where sorrows, sins and temptations have no place, and where there shall never be the least appearance or suspicion of the displeasure of thy God towards thee?

Obs. II. ‘The grave is God’s known hiding-piace for his people. ‘It is his appointed shelter and retreat for his favourites, when he finds them overpressed either with present dangers or calamities, or when he foresees huge calamities and dangers, like storms and billows, ready to overtake them; Isa. lvii. 1, “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” God our heavenly Father beholds this evil advancing forward through all the present smiles of nature, and all the peaceful circumstances that surround us. He “hides his children in the grave from a thousand sins, and sorrows, and distresses of this life, which they foresaw not: and even when they are actually beset behind and before, so that there seems to be no natural way for their escape, God calls them aside into the chambers of death, in the same sort of language as he uses in another case, Lsa. xxvi. 20, “Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment till the indignation be overpassed.”

And yet perhaps it is possible, that this very language of the Lord in Isaiah may refer to the grave, as God’s hiding-place, for the verse before promises a resurrection. “Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” And if we may suppose this last verse to have been transposed by any ancient transcribers, so as to have followed originally verse 20, or 21, it is very natural then to interpret the whole paragraph concerning death, as God’s hiding-place for his people, and their rising again through the virtue of the resurrection of Christ as their joyful release.

Many a time God is pleased to shorten the labours, and travels and fatigues of good men in this wilderness, and he opens a door of rest to them where he pleases, and perhaps surprises them into a state of safety and peace, “where the weary are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling;” and holy Job seems to desire this favour from his Maker here.

Sometimes indeed, in the history of this book, he seems to break out into these desires in too rude and angry a manner of expression; and in a fit of criminal impatience he murmurs against God for upholding him in the land of the living: but at other times, as in this text, he represents his desires with more decency and submission. Every desire to die is not to be construed sinful and criminal. Nature may ask of God a relief from its agonies and a period to its sorrows; nor does grace utterly forbid it, if there be also an humble submission and resignation to the will of God, such as we find exemplified by our blessed Saviour, “Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

On this second observation, I desire to make these three reflections.

Re flee. 1. Though a good man knows that death was originally appointed as a curse for sin, yet his faith can trust God to turn that curse into a blessing. He can humbly ask his Maker to release him from the painful bonds of life, to hasten the slow approaches of death, and to hide him in the grave from some overwhelming sorrows. This is the glory of God in his covenant of grace with tho children of men, that he “turns curses into blessings,” Deut. xxiii. 5. And the grave, which was designed as a prison for sinners, is become a place of shelter to the saints, where they are hidden and secured from rising sorrows and calamities. It is God’s known hiding-place for his own children from the envy and the rage of men; from all the known and unknown agonies of nature, the diseases of the flesh, and the distresses of huznan life, which perhaps might be overbearing and intolerable.

Why, 0 my fearful soul, why should st thou be afraid of dying? Why shouldst thou be frighted at the dark shadows of the grave, when thou art weary with the toils and crosses of the day? Hast thou not often desired the shadow of the evening, and longed for the bed of natural sleep, where thy fatigues and thy sorrows may be forgotten for a season? And is not. the grave itself a sweet sleeping-place for the saints, wherein they lie down and forget their distresses, and feel none of the miseries of human life, and especially since it is softened and sanctified by the Son of God lying down there? Why shouldst thou be afraid to lay thy head in the dust? It is but entering into ‘God’s hiding-place,’ into his chambers of rest and repose: it is but committing thy flesh, the meaner part of thy composition, to his care in the dark for a short season. He will hide thee there, and keep thee in safety from the dreadful trials which perhaps would overwhelm thy spirit. Sometimes in the course of his providence he may find it necessary that some spreading calamity should overtake the place where thou dwellest, or some distressing stroke fall upon thy family, or thy friends, but he will hide thee under ground before it comes, and thus disappoint all thy fears, ard lay every perplexing thought into rest and silence.

Reflect. 2. Let it be ever remembered, that the grave is God’s hiding-place, and not our own. We are to venture into it without terror when he calls us; but he does not suffer us to break into it our own way without his call. Death and life are in the hands of God, and he never gave the keys of them to mortal men, to let themselves out of this world when they please, nor to enter his hiding-place without his leave.

Bear up then, 0 my soul, under all the sorrows and trials of this present state, till God himself shall say, it is finished; till our blessed Jesus, who has the keys put into his hands, shall open the door of death, and give thee an entrance into that dark and peaceful retreat. It js a safe and silent refuge from the bustle and the noise, the labours and the troubles of life; but he that forces it open with his own hands, how will he dare to appear before God in the world of spirits? What will he answer, when with a dreadful frown the great God shall demand of him, “friend, how comest thou in hither?” Who sent for thee, or gave thee leave to come? Such a wretch must venture upon so rash an action at the peril of the wrath of God, and his own eternal destruction.

Our blessed Jesus, who has all the vast scheme of divine counsels before his eyes, by having the books of his Father’s decrees put into his hands, he knows how long it is proper for thee, 0 Christian, to fight and labour, to wrestle and strive with sins, temptations and difficulties in the present life. He knows best in what moment to put a period to them, and pronounce thee conqueror. Fly not from the field of battle for want of holy fortitude, though thy enemies and thy dangers be never so many; nor dare to dismiss thyself from thy appointed post, till the Lord of life pronounce the word of thy dismission.

Sometimes I have been ready to say within myself, why is my life prolonged in sorrow? Why are my days lengthened out to see further wretchedness? Methinks the “grave should be ready for me, and the house appointed for all the living.” What can I do further for God or for man here on earth, since my nature pines away with painful sickness, my nerves are unstrung, my spirits dissipated, and my best powers of acting are enfeebled and almost lost? Peace, peace, Othou complaining spirit! Dost thou know the counsels of the Almighty, and the secret designs of thy God and thy Saviour? He has many deep and unknown purposes in continuing his children amidst heavy sorrows, which they can never penetrate or learn in this world. Silence and submission becomes thee at all times. “Father, not my will, but thy will be done.”

And let it be hinted to thee, 0 my soul, that it is much more honourable to be weary of this life, because of the sins and temptations of it, than because of the toils and sorrows that attend it. If we must “groan in this tabernacle being burdened,” let the snares, and the dangers, and the defilements of it be the chief springs of thy groaning and the warmest motives to request a release. God loves to see his people more afraid of sin than of sorrow. If thy corruptions are so strong, and the temptations of life so unhappily surround thee, that thou art daily crying out, “who shall deliver thee from the body of sin and death,” then thou mayest more honourably send up a wish to heaven, “0 that I had the wings of a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest! 0 that God would hide me in the grave” from my prevailing iniquities, and from the ruffling, and disquieting influence of my own follies and my daily temptations! But never be thou quite weary of doing or suffering the will of thy heavenly Father, though he should continue thee in this mortal life a length of years beyond thy desires, and should withhold thee from his secret place of retreat and rest.

A constant and joyful readiness at the call of God to depart hence, with a cheerful patience to continue here during his pleasure, is the most perfect and blessed temper that a Christian can arrive at: it gives God the highest glory, and keeps the soul in the sweetest peace.

Reflect 3. This one thought, that the ‘grave is God’s hiding-place,’ should compose our spirits to silence, and abate our mourning for the loss of friends, who have given sufficient evidence that they are the children of God. Their heavenly Father has seized them from the midst of their trials, dangers and difficulties, and given them a secure refuge in his own appointed place of rest and safety. Jesus has opened the door of the grave with his golden key, and hath let them into a chamber of repose. He has concealed them in a silent retreat, where temptation and sin cannot reach them, and where anguish and misery can never come.

When I have lost therefore a dear and delightful relative or friend, or perhaps many of them in a short season are called successively down to the dust, let me say thus within myseli, “It is their God and my God has done it. He saw what new temptations where ready to surround them in the circumstances of life wherein they stood. He beheld the trials and difficulties that were ready to encompass them on all sides, and his love made a way for their escape. He opened the dark retreat of death, and hid them there from a thousand perils which might have plunged them into guilt and defilement. He beheld this as the proper season to give them a release from a world of labour and toil, vanity and vexation, sin and sorrow. They are taken away from the evil to come, and I will learn to complain no more. The blessed Jesus to whom they had devoted themselves, well knew what allurements of gaiety and joy might have been too prevalent over them, and he gave them a kind escape lest their souls should suffer any real detriment, lest their strict profession of piety should be soiled or dishonoured. He knew how much they were able to bear, and be would lay upon them no further burden. He saw rising difficulties approaching, and new perils coming upon them beyond their strength, and he fulfils their own promises, and glorifies his own faithfulness, by opening the door of his well-known hiding-place, and giving them a safe refuge there. He keeps them there in secret from the corruptions of a public life, and the multiplied dangers of a degenerate age, which might have divided their hearts from God and things heavenly: and perhaps he guards them also in that dark retreat from some long and languishing sickness, some unknown distress, some overbearing flood of misery, which was like to come upon them had they continued longer on the stage of life.

“Let this silence thy murmuring thoughts, 0 my soul; let this dry up thy tears which are ready to overflow on such an occasion. Dare not pronounce it a stroke of anger from the hand of God, who divided them from the tempting or the distressing scenes of this world, and kindly removed them out of the way of danger. This was the Wisest method of his love to guard them from many a folly and many a sorrow, which he foresaw just at the door.”

Will the wounded and complaining heart go on to groan and murmur still, ‘But my son was carried off in the prime of life, or my daughter in her blooming years; they stood flourishing in the vigour of their nature, and it was my delight to behold their growing appearances of virtue and goodness, and that in the midst of ease, and plenty, and prospects of happiness, so far as this world can afford it?’ But could you look through the next year to the end of it? Could you penetrate into future events, and survey the scenes of seven years to come? Could your heart assure itself of the real possession of this imaginary view of happiness and peace? Perhaps the blessed God saw the clouds gathering afar off, and at a great distance of time, and in much kindness he housed your favourite from unknown trials, dangers and sorrows. So a prudent gardener, who is acquainted with the sky, and skilful in the signs of the seasons, even in the month of May, foresees a heavy tempest rising in the edge of the horizon, while a vulgar eye observes nothing but sunshine; and he who knows the worth and the tenderness of some special plants in his garden, houses them in haste, lest they should be exposed and demolished by the sweeping rain or hail.

You say, ‘these children were in the bloom of life, and in the most desirable appearance of joy and satisfaction:’ but is not that also usually the most dangerous season of life, and the hour of most powerful temptation? Was not that the time when their passions might have been too hard for them, and the deluding pleasures of life stood round them with a most perilous assault? And what if God, out of pure compassion, saw it necessary to hide them from an army of perils at once, and to carry them off the stage of life with more purity and honour? Surely when the great God has appointed it, when the blessed Jesus has done it, we would not rise up in opposition and say, ‘But I would have had them live longer here at all adventures: I wish they were alive again, let the consequence be what it will.’ This is not the voice of faith or patience; this is not the language of holy submission and love to God, nor can our souls approve of such irregular storms of ungoverned affection, which oppose themselves to the divine will, and ruffle the soul with criminal disquietude.

There are many, even of the children of God, who had left a more unblemished and a more honourable character behind them, if they had died much sooner. The latter end of life hath sometimes sullied their brightness, and tarnished the glory they had acquired in a hopeful youth. Their growing years have fallen under such temptations, and been defiled and disgraced by such failings, as would have been entirely prevented had they been summoned away into God’s hiding-place some years before. Our blessed Jesus walks among the roses and lilies in the garden of his church, and when he sees a wintry storm coming upon some tender plants of righteousness, he hides them in earth to preserve life in them, that they may bloom with new glories when they shall be raised from that bed. The blessed God acts like a tender Father, and consults the safety and honour of his children, when the hand of his mercy snatches them away before that powerful temptation comes, which he foresees would have defiled and distressed, and almost destroyed them. They are not lost, but they are gone to rest a little sooner than we are. Peace be to that bed of dust where they are hidden, by the hand of their God, from unknown dangers! Blessed be our Lord Jesus, who has the keys of the grave, and never opens it for his favourites but in the wisest season!

Obs. III. ‘God has appointed a set time in his own counsels for all his children to continue in death.’ Those whom he has hidden in the grave he remembers that they lie there, and he will not suffer them to abide in the dust for ever. When Job entreats of God that he may be hidden from his sorrows in the dust of death, he requests also that “God would appoint a set time” for his release, “and remember him.” His faith seems to have had a glimpse of the blessed resurrection. Our senses and our carnal passions would cry out, where is Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the ancient worthies, who have been long sleepers in their beds of repose for many thousand years? But faith assures us, that God numbers the days and the months of their concealment under ground, he knows where their dust lies, and where to find everv scattered atom against the great restoring day. They are unseen indeed and forgotten of men, but they are under the eye and the keeping of the blessed God. He watches over their sleeping dust, and while the world has forgotten and lost even their names, they are every moment under the eye of God, for they stand written in his book of life, with the name of the Lamb at the head of them.

Jesus, his Son, had but three days appointed him to dwell in this hiding-place, and he rose again at the appointed hour. Other good men, who were gone to their grave not long before him, arose again at the resurrection of Christ, and made a visit to many in Jerusalem. Their appointed hiding-place was but for a short season; and all the children of God shall be remembered in their proper seasons in faithfulness to his Son to whom he has given them. The Head is raised to the mansions of glory, and the members must not forever lie in dust.

Reflection. Then let all the saints of God wait with patience for the appointed time when he will call them down to death, and let them lie down in their secret beds of repose, and in a waiting frame commit their dust to his care till the resurrection. “All the days of my appointed time (says Job) I will wait till my change come.” The word ’ appointed time’ is supposed to signify warfare in the Hebrew: as a centinel, when he is fixed to his post by his general, he waits there till he has orders for a release. And this clause of the verse may refer either to dying or rising again, for either of them is a very great and important change passing upon human nature, whether from life to death, 01 from death to life.

It is said by the prophet Isaiah, chap, xxviii. 10, “He that believeth shall not make haste,” i. e. he that trusts in the wisdom and the promised mercy of God will not be too urgent or importunate in any of his desires. It is for want of faith that nature sometimes is in too much haste to die, as Job in some of his expressions appears to have been, or as Elijah perhaps discovered himself when he was wandering in the wilderness disconsolate and almost despairing, or as the prophet Jeremiah sufficiently manifested, when he cursed the day of his birth, or as Jonah was, that peevish prophet, when he was angry with God for not taking away his life; but the ground of it was, he was vexed because God did not destroy Nineveh according to his prophecy. These are certain blemishes of the children of God left upon record in his word, to give us warning of our danger of impatience, and to guard us against their sins and follies. And since we know that

God has appointed the seasons of our entrance into dea&i, and into the state of the resurrection, we should humbly commit the disposal of ourselves to the hand of our God, who will bestow upon us the most needful blessings in the most proper season.

Do not the “spirits of the just made pei’fect” wait in patience for the great and blessed rising-day which God has appointed, and for the illustrious change of their bodies from corruption and darkness to light, and life, and glory? God has promised it, and that suffices, and supports their waiting spirits, though they know not the hour. The “Father keeps that in his own hand,” and perhaps reveals it to none but his Son Jesus, who is exalted to be the governor and judge of the world. There are millions of souls waiting in that separate state for the accomplishment of these last and best promises, ready to shout and rejoice when they shall see and feel that bright morning dawning upon them.

Wait therefore, 0 my soul, as becomes a child of God in the wilderness among many trials, darknesses, and distresses. He has stripped thee perhaps of one comfort after another, and thy friends and dear relatives in succession are called down to the dust; they are released from their conflicts, and are placed far out of the reach of every temptation; and it is not thy business to prescribe to God at what hour he shall release thee also. Whensoever he is pleased to call thee to lay down thy flesh in the dust, and to enter into God’s hiding-place, meet thou the summons with holy courage, satisfaction and joy, enter into the chamber of rest till all the days of sin, sorrow and wretchedness are overpast. Lie down there in a waiting frame, and commit thy flesh to his care and keeping till the hour in which he has appointed thy glorious change.

Obs. IV. ‘The lively view of a happy resurrection, and a well grounded hope of this blessed change, is a solid and divine comfort to the saints of God, under all trials of every kind, both in life and death.’ The- faith and hope of a joyful rising-day has supported the children of God under long distresses and huge agonies of sorrow which they sustain here. It is the expectation of this desirable day that animates the soul with vigour and life to fulfil every painful and dangerous duty. It is for this we expose ourselves to the bitter reproaches and persecutions of the wicked world; it is for this that we conflict with all our adversaries on earth, and all the powers of darkness that are sent from hell to annoy us; it is this joyful expectation that bears up our spirits under every present burden and calamity of life.

What could we do in such a painful and dying world, or how could we bear with patience the long fatigues of such a wretched life, if we had no hope of rising again from the dead? Surely “we are the most miserable of all men” in days of public persecution, “if we had hope only in this life,” 1 Cor. xv. 19. It is for this that we labor, and suffer, and endure whatsoever our heavenly Father is pleased to lay upon us. It is this confirms our fortitude, and makes “us steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord,” 1 Cor. xv. 58. It is this that enables us to bear the loss of our dearest friends with patience and hope, and assuages the smart of our sharpest sorrows. For since we believe that “Jesus died and rose again,” so we rejoice in hope that “they which sleep in Jesus shall be brought with him” at his return, and shall appear in brighter and more glorious circumstances than ever our eyes were blessed with here on earth, 1 Thes. iv. 13. This teaches us to triumph over death and the grave in divine language, “0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?”

Reflection. What are thy chief burdens, 0 my soul? Whence are all thy sighs and thy daily groanings? What are thy distresses of flesh or spirit? Summon them all in one view, and see whether there be not power and glory enough in a resurrection to conquer and silence them all, and to put thy present sorrows to flight?

Dost thou dwell in a ‘vexing and persecuting world,’ amongst oppressions and reproaches? But those who reproach and oppress are but mortal creatures, who shall shortly go down to the dust, and then they shall tyrannize and afflict thee no more. The great rising-day shall change the scene from oppression and reproach to dominion and glory. When “they lie down in the grave like” beasts of slaughter, “death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, when God shall redeem thy soul from the power of the grave.” Thy God shall hide thy body from their rage in his own appointed resting-place, and he shall receive thy soul, and keep it secure in his own presence, till that blessed morning break upon this lower creation; then shalt thou “arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

Do the ‘calamities which thou sufferest proceed from the hand of God?’ Art thou disquieted with daily pain, with sicknesses and anguish in thy flesh? or art thou surrounded with crosses and disappointments in thy outward circumstances? Are thy spirits sunk with many loads of care and pressing perplexities? Canst thou not forget them all in the vision that faith can give thee of the great rising-day? Canst thou not say in the language of faith, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us?” Then the head and the heart shall ake no more, and every circumstance around thee shall be pleasing and joyful for ever.

Or art thou tenderly affected with the ‘loss of pious friends,’ who have been very dear and desirable? Perhaps thy sensibilities here are too great and painful: they are such indeed as nature is ready to indulge, but are they not more than God requires, or the gospel allows? Do not thy thoughts dwell too much on the gloom and darkness of the grave? 0 think of that bright hour when every saint shall rise from the dark retreats of death with more complete characters of beauty, holiness and pleasure than ever this world could shew them in! They are not perished, but sent a little before us into ‘God’s hiding-place, where though they lie in dust and darkness, yet they are safe from the dangers and vexations of life; but they shall spring up in the happy moment into immortality, and shall join with thee in a mutual surprise at each other’s divine change.

Or dost thou feel the ‘corruptions of thy heart’ working within thee, and the sins of thy nature restless in their endeavours to bring defilement upon thy soul, and guilt upon thy conscience? Go on and maintain the holy warfare against all these rising iniquities. This thy warfare shall not continue long. Thou shalt find every one of these sins buried with thee in the grave, but they shall rise to assault thee no more. The saint shall leave every sin behind him when lie breaks out of the dust at the summons of Christ, and thou shalt find no seeds of iniquity in thy body when it is raised from the grave. “Holiness to the Lord” shall be inscribed upon all thy powers for ever.

Or art thou perplexed, 0 my soul, ‘at the near prospect of death,’ and all the terrors and dismal appearances that surround it? Art thou afraid to lie down in the cold and noisome grave? Does thy nature shudder at it as a gloomy place of horror? These indeed are the prejudices of sense; but the language of faith will tell thee, it is only ‘God’s hiding-place,’ where he secures his saints till all the ages of sin and sorrow are overpast. Look forward to the glorious morning when thou shalt rise from the dust among ten thousand of thy fellows, every one in the image of the Son of God, with their “bodies formed after the likeness of his glorious body,” and rejoicing together with divine satisfaction in the pleasure of this heavenly change. Try whether the meditation of these glories, and the distant prospect of this illustrious day, will scatter all the gloom that hovers round the grave, and vanquish the fiercest appearances of the king of terrors.

What is there, 0 my soul, among all the miseries thou hast felt, or all that thou fearest, that can sink thy courage, if the faith of a resurrection be but alive and wakeful? But this leads me to the

Obs. V. ‘The saints of God, who are resting in their beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their heavenly Father.’ “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee,” said holy Job. The command of God creates life, and gives power to the dead to arise and speak. ‘I come, 0 Lord, I come.’ When Jesus, the Son of God, as with the trumpet of an archangel, shall pronounce the word which he spake to Lazarus, “Arise and come forth,” dust and rottenness shall hear the call from heaven, and the clods of corruption all round the earth shall arise into the form of man. The saints shall appear at once and answer to that divine call, arrayed in a glory like that of angels; an illustrious host of martyrs and confessors for the truth; an army of heroes and valiant sufferer’s for the name and cause of God and his Son; an innumerable multitude of faithful servants who have finished their work, and who are laid down at rest.

How shall Adam, the father of our race, together with the holy men of his day, be surprised, when they shall awake out of their long sleep of five thousand years? How shall all the saints of the intermediate ages break from their beds of darkness with intense delight? And those who lay down but yesterday in the dust shall start up at once with their early ancestors, and answer to the call of Jesus from one end of time to the other, and from all the ends of the earth. They shall arise together to ’ meet the Lord in the air, that they may be for ever with the Lord.’

Never was any voice obeyed with more readiness and joy than the voice or trumpet of the great archangel, summoning all the children of God to awake from their long slumbers, and to leave their dusty beds behind them, with all the seeds of sin and sorrow, which are buried and lost there for ever. Never did any army on earth march with more speed and pleasure, at the sound of the trumpet, to attend their general to a new triumph, than this glorious assembly shall arise to meet their returning Lord, when this last trumpet sounds, and when he shall come the second time in the full glories of his person and his offices, as Lord and Judge of the world, to bring his faithful followers into complete salvation.

Reflection. Whensoever, 0 my soul, thou feelest any reluctance to obey the summons of death, encourage thy faith, and scatter thy fears, by waiting for the call of God to a blessed resurrection. Jesus himself lay down in the grave at his Father’s command, and he arose with joy at the appointed hour as the head of the new creation, as the first-born from the dead; and he has orders given him by the Father to summon every saint from their graves at the long appointed hour. Because Jesus arose and lives, they shall arise and live also. 0 may my flesh lie down in the dust with all courage and composure, and rejoice to escape into a place of rest and silence, far away from the noise and tumult, the hurry and bustle of this present life; being well assured that the next sound which shall be heard is the voice of the Son of God, “Arise ye dead!” Make haste then, 0 blessed Jesus, and finish thy divine work here on earth: I lay down my head to sleep in the dust, waiting for thy call to awake in the morning.

Obs. VI. ‘God takes delight in his works of nature, but much more when they are dignified and adrned by the operations of divine grace.’ “Thou wilt have a desire,” saith the good man in my text, “to the work of thy own hands.” Thou hast moulded me and fashioned me at first by thy power, thou has created me by thy spirit, and though thou hidest me for a season in one of thy secret chambers of death, thou wilt raise me again to light and life, “and in my flesh shall I see God.”

When the Almighty had created this visible world, he surveyed his works on the seventh day, and pronounced them all good, and he took delight in them all before sin entered and defiled them. And when he has delivered the creatures of his power from the bondage of corruption, and has purged our souls and our bodies from sin and from every evil principle, he will again delight in the sons and daughters of Adam whom he has thus cleansed and refined by his sovereign grace, and has qualified and adorned them for his own presence. “He will sing and rejoice over them, and rest in his love,” Zephan. iii. 17.

He will love to see them with his Son Jesus at their head, diffusing holiness and glory through all his members. Jesus the Redeemer will love to see them round him; for he has bought them with his blood, and they arc a treasure too precious to be for ever lost. He will rejoice to behold them rising at his call into a splendour like his own, and they’ “shall be satisfied when they awake” from death “into his likeness,” and appear in the image of his own glorious body, fit heirs for the inheritance of heaven, fit companions for the blessed angels of light, and prepared to dwell for ever with himself.

Reflection. And shall not we who are the work of his hands have a desire to him that made us? to him that redeemed us? to him that has new created and moulded us into his own likeness? Do we not long to see him? Have we not a desire to be with him, even though we should be “absent from the body” for a season? But much more should we delight to think of being “present with the Lord,” when our whole natures, body and soul, shall appear as the new workmanship of almighty power; our souls new created in the image of God, and our bodies new born from the dead, into a life of immortality.

VII. The last observation is of a very general nature, and spreads itself through all my text, and that is, ‘how much are we indebted to God for the revelation of the New Testament, which teaches us to find out the blessings which are contained in the Old, and to fetch out the glories and treasures which are concealed there?’ The writers of the gospel have not only pointed us to the rich mines where these treasures lie, but have brought forth many of the jewels and set them before us. It is this gospel that “brings life and immortality to light by Jesus Christ.” 2 Tim. i. 10. It is this gospel that scatters the gloom and darkness which was spread over the face of the grave, and illuminates all the chambers of death. Who could have found out the doctrine of the resurrection contained in that word of grace given to Abraham, “I am thy God,” if Jesus, the great prophet, had not taught us to explain it thus, Matth. xxii. 31? “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

We who have the happiness to live in the days of the Messiah, know more than all the ancient prophets were acquainted with, and understand the word of their prophecies better than they themselves; for “they searched what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow,” 1 Pet. i. 1 1. But we read all this fairly written in the gospel. Do you think that good David could have explained some of his own Psalms into so divine a sense, or Isaiah given such a bright account of his own words of prophecy, as St. Paul has done in several places of the New Testament, where he cites and unfolds them? Could those illustrious ancients have given us such ‘abundant consolation and hope through the Scriptures,’ which they themselves ’ wrote aforetime,’ as this Apostle has done, Rom. xv. 4? Do you think Job could have read us such a lecture on his own expressions in this text, or in that bright prophecy in the xixth chapter, as the very meanest among the ministers of the gospel can do by the help of the New Testament? For in point of clear discoveries of divine truths and graces, “the least in the kingdom of the Messiah is greater than John the Baptist and all the prophets,” and our blessed Jesus has told us so, Matth. xi. 11. 13. And by the aid and influences of his Spirit we may be taught yet further to search into these hidden mines of grace, and bring forth new treasures of glory.

Reflection. Awake, 0 my soul, and bless the Lord with all thy powers, and give thanks with holy joy for the gospel of his Son Jesus. Jesus by his rising from the dead has left a divine light upon the gates of the grave, and scattered much of the darkness that surrounded it. It is the gospel of Christ which casts a glory even upon the bed of death, and spreads a brightness upon the graves of the saints in the lively views of a great rising-day. 0 blessed and surprising prospect of faith! 0 illustrious scenes of future vision and transport! When the Son of God shall bring forth to public view all his redeemed ones, who had been long hidden in night and dust, and shall present them all to God the Father in his own image, bright and holy, and unblemished, in the midst of all the splendors of the resurrection! 0 blessed and joyful voice, when he shall say with divine pleasure, “Here am I, and the children which thou hast given me:” ‘we have both passed through the grave, and I have made them all conquerors of death, and vested them with immortality according to thy divine commission! Thine they were, 0 Father, and thou hast given them into my hands, and behold I have brought them all safe to thy appointed mansions, and I present them before thee without spot or blemish.’

And many a parent of a pious household in that day, when they shall see their sons and their daughters around them, all arrayed with the beams of the Sun of righteousness, shall echo with holy joy to the voice of the blessed Jesus, “Lord, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me.” ‘I was afraid, as Job once might be when his friends suggested this fear; I was afraid that my children had sinned against God, and he had cast them away for their transgression: but I am now convinced, when he seized them from my sight, he only took them out of the way of temptation and danger, and concealed them for a season in his safe hiding-place. I mourned in the day-time for a lost son or a lost daughter, and in the night my couch was bedewed with my tears. I was scared with midnight dreams on their account, and the visions of the grave terrified me because my children were there. I gave up myself to sorrow for fear of the displeasure of my God both against them and against me. But how unreasonable were these sorrows? How groundless were my fears? How gloriously am I disappointed this blessed morning?

I see my dear offspring called out of that long retreat where God had concealed them, and they arise to meet the divine call. I hear them answering with joy to the happy summons. My e)^es behold them risen in the image of my God and their God: they are near me, they stand with me at the right hand of the Judge; now shall we rejoice together in the sentence of eternal blessedness from the lips of my Lord and their Lord, my Redeemer and their Redeemer.’ Amen.

Among my papers I have found a speech spoken at a grave, which I transcribed almost fifty years ago, and which deserves to be saved from perishing. It was pronounced many years before at the funeral of a pious person, by a minister there present, supposed to be the Rev. Mr. Peter SteTry; and the subject of it being suited to this discourse, I thought it not improper to preserve it here.

“Christian friends, though sin be entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; yet it seems not wholly suitable to our Christian hope, to stand by and see the grave with open mouth take in, and swallow down any part of a precious saint, and not bring some testimony against the devourer. And yet that our witness may be in righteousness, we must first own, acknowledge, and accept of that good and serviceableness that is in it.

“For through the death and resurrection of our dear Redeemer, death and the grave are become sweetened to us, and sanctified for us: so that as death is but a sleep, the grave through his lying down in it and rising again, is become as a bed of repose to them that are in him, and a safe and quiet hiding-place for his saints till the resurrection.

“And in this respect we do for ourselves, and for this our dearly beloved in the Lord, accept of thee, 0 grave, and readily deliver up her body to thee; it is a body that hath been weakened and wearied with long affliction and anguish, we freely give it unto thee; receive it, and let it have in thee a quiet rest from all its labours; for thus we read it written of thee, there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.

“Besides, it is, 0 grave, a body that hath been sweetly embalmed by a virtuous, pious, peaceable conversation, by several inward openings and outpourings of the spirit of life, by much patience and. meekness in strong trials and afflictions. Receive it, and let it enjoy thee, what was once deeply impressed on her own heart, and in a due season written out with her own hand, a sabbath in the grave: for thus also we find it recorded of our Lord and her Lord, that enjoyed the rest of his last sabbath in the grave.

“But we know thee, 0 grave, to be also a devourer, and yet we can freely deliver up the body into thee.

“There was in it a contracted corruptibility, dishonour and weakness; take them as thy proper prey, they belong to thee, and we would not withhold them from thee. Freely swallow them up for ever, that they may appear no more.

“Yet know, 0 grave, there is in the body, considered as once united to such a soul, a divine relation to the Lord of life; and this thou must not, thou canst not dissolve or destroy. But know, and even before thee, and over thee be it spoken, that there is a season hastening wherein we shall expect it again from thee in incorruption, honour and power.

“We now sow it into thee in dishonour, but expect it again returned from thee in glory; we now sow it into thee in zveakness, we expect it again in power; we now sow it into thee a natural body, we look for it again from thee a spiritual body.

“And when thou hast fulfilled that end for which the Prince of life, who took thee captive, made thee to serve, then shalt thou who hast devoured be thyself also swallowed up; for thus it is written of thee, O death, Iivill be thy plague, 0 grave, I will be thy destruction. And then we shall sing over thee what also is written of thee, O death, where is now thy sting? O grave, where is now thy victory? Amen.”

Note. A line or two is altered in this speech, to suit it more to the understanding and the sense of the present age. — Watts.