The Eighty-Second Sacrament, February 6, 1737

I OPENED the ordinance with some reflections on those words, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matt, xxviii. 6. Look into the grave of Christ. See how low the justice of God hath laid him! Amazing sight, that the Lord of life should thus become as a dead corpse. Think how he lay in the abasement of the tomb. This his lowest humiliation; this the lowest state in which the human creature ever appears until putrefaction takes place. To this an eye of sense would have thought that he had been tending; but see from whence the faithfulness of God exalted him. He broke the bonds of death, by which it was impossible that he should long be held. Vain were the impotent attempts of sealing the sepulchre, and setting a watch. The angel broke the tomb, and dissipated the astonished guard; the sleeping Conqueror arose! Arose, to return no more to death. Not like Lazarus, therefore, coming forth in the dress of the dead; but, on the contrary, clothed with immortal life and vigour. He lives! He reigns! and has the keys of death and of the unseen world. Delightful thought! See the place where we must lie. Be it so. Death has no terror. The grave has lost its darkest gloom since Christ was laid in it. He left a perfume behind him, which, instead of the prison of the Divine justice, makes it an easy bed to the believer. Well may we be willing to lie down in it, for he will surely bring us up again. He rose as a public signal; and when we have lain refining a while in it, he will surely bring us up again. This table has often changed its guests; many are fallen asleep in Christ, but they have not therefore perished. God is their God, although they lie in the dust, and will appear to be so. O blessed assembly and congregation! Thus shall the risen saint look down upon the grave like Israel on the Red Sea. Come, see the place where the people of Christ lay. See how entirely all the spoils are recovered, and not a fragment left behind.

In breaking the bread, I mentioned those words, “He hath abolished death.” 2 Tim. i. 10. He has made it as nothing. Compare the death of the saint, and of the sinner. See the sinner trembling like cardinal Beaufort, who, when he died, did not lift up his hand to express any hope, with what we have seen, and I hope shall feel, of the saints’ triumphing over death, and rejoicing in Christ, when breathing out their souls into his hands, and saying, “Lord, now lettest now thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Luke ii. 29, 30.