Saviour; they are sown in corruption, to be raised in incorruption; sown in dishonour, raised in glory, 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43. It cannot hurt their souls. It is with the souls of the saints at death, as with Paul and his company in their voyage, whereof we have the history, Acts xxvii. the ship was broken in pieces, but the passengers got all safe to land. When the dying saint's speech is laid, his eyes set, and his last breath drawn, the soul gets safe away into the heavenly paradise, leaving the body to return to its earth, but in the joyful hope of a re-union at its glorious resurrection. How can death hurt the godly? It is a foiled enemy; if it cast them down, it is only that they may rise up more glorious. Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished DEATH, 2 Tim. i. 10. The soul and life of it is gone; it is but a walking shade that may fright, but cannot hurt saints; it is only the shadow of death to them, it is not the thing itself; their dying is but as dying, or somewhat like dying. The Apostle tells us, It is Christ that died, Rom. viii. 34. Stephen the first Christian martyr, though stoned to death, yet but fell asleep, Acts viii. 34. Certainly the nature of death is quite changed with respect to the saints. It is not to them, what it was to Jesus Christ their head: It is not the envenomed ruinating thing, wrapt up in the sanction of the first covenant, Gen. ii. 19. "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” It comes to the godly without its sting; they may meet it with that salutation, O death where is thy sting? Is this Mara? Is this bitter death? It went out full into the world when the first Adam opened the door to it; but the second Adam hath brought it again empty to his own people. I feel a sting may the dying saint say; yet it is but a beesting, stinging only through the skin, but, O death where is thy sting, thine old sting, the serpent's sting, that stings to the heart and soul? The sting of death is Sin; but that is taken away. If death arrest the saint, and carry him before the Judge, to answer for the debt he contracted, the debt will be found paid by the glorious Cautioner; and he has the discharge to shew. The thorn of guilt is pulled out of the man's conscience, and his name is blotted out off the black roll, and written among the living in Jerusalem. It is true, it is a great journey to go through the valley of the shadow of death; but the saint's burden is

taken away from off his back, his iniquity is pardoned, he may walk at ease; "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast ;" the redeemed may walk at leisure there, free from all apprehensions of danger.

Lastly, They shall have a joyful entrance into the other world. Their arrival in the regions of bliss will be celebrated with rapturous hymns of praise to their glorious Redeemer. A dying day is a good day to a godly man. Yea, it is his best day; it is better to him than his birthday, or than the most joyous day he had ever on earth. "A good name," says the wise man," is better than precious ointment; and the day of death, than the day of one's birth," Eccl. vii. 1. The notion of the immortality of the soul, and of future happiness, which obtained among some Pagan nations, had wonderful effects on them. Some of them when they mourned for the dead, did it in women's apparel; that being moved with the indecency of the garb, they might the sooner lay aside their mourning. Others buried them without any lamentation or mourning, but had a sacrifice, and a feast for friends upon that occasion. Some were wont to mourn at births, and rejoice at burials. But the practice of some Indian nations is yet more strange, of whom it is reported, That, upon the husband's decease, his several wives were in use to contend, before the judges, which of them was the best beloved wife; and she, in whose favour it was determined, with a cheerful countenance, threw herself into the flames prepared for her husbands corpse, was burned with it, and reckoned happy, while the rest lived in grief, and were accounted miserable. But, howsoever lame notions of a future state, assisted by pride, affectation of applause, apprehensions of difficulties in this life, and such like principles, proper to depraved human nature, may influence rude, uncultivated minds, when srengthened by the arts of hell; O! what solid joy and consolation may they have who are true Christians, being in Christ who hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel! 2 Tim. i. 10. Death is one of these all things, that work together for good, to them that love God, Rom. viii. 28. When the body dies, the soul is perfected; the body of death goes off at the death of the body. What harm did the jailor to Pharaoh's butler, when he opened the prison door to

him, and let him out? Is the bird in worse case, when at liberty, than when confined in a cage? Thus, and no worse, are the souls of the saints treated by death. It comes to the godly man, as Haman came to Mordecai with the royal apparel and the horse, Esth. iv. 11. with commission to do them honour, howsoever aukwardly it be performed: I question not but Haman performed the ceremony with a very ill mein, a pale face, a down look, and a cloudy countenance, and like one who came to hang him, råther than to honour him. But he, whom the king delighted to honour, behoved to be honoured; and Haman Mordecai's grand enemy, must be the man employed to put this honour upon him. Glory, glory, glory, blessing and praise to our Redeemer, our Saviour, our Mediator, by whose death, grim devouring death is made to do such an office to those, whom it might otherwise have harried away in their wickedness, to utter and eternal destruction! A dying day is, in itself, a joyful day to the godly, it is their redemption-day, when the captives are delivered, when the prisoners are set free. It is the day of the pilgrims coming home from their pilgrimage; the day in which the heirs of glory return from their travels to their own country, and their Father's house; and enter into the actual possession of the glorious inheritance. It is their marriage-day; now is the time of espousals; but then the marriage is consummated, and a marriage-feast begun, which has no period. If so, is not the state of the godly in death a hopeful state?

OBJECT. But if the state of the godly in their death be so hopeful, how cometh it to pass that many of them, when dying, are full of fears, and have little hope?ANSW. It must be owned, that saints do not all die in one and the same manner; there is a diversity among them, as well as among the wicked; yet the worst case of a dying saint is indeed a hopeful one. Some die triumphantly, in a full assurance of faith; "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. They get a taste of the joys of heaven, while here on earth, and begin the songs of Zion, while yet in a strange land.

Dd

Others die in a solid fiducial dependance on their Lord and Saviour; though they cannot sing triumphantly, yet they can and will say, The Lord is their God. Though they cannot triumph over death, with old Simeon, having Christ in his arms, and saying, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation," Luke ii. 29, 30, yet they can say with dying Jacob, " I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," Gen. xliv. 18. His left hand is under their head to support them; though his right hand doth not embrace them; they firmly believe, tho' they are not filled with joy in believing. They can plead the covenant, and hang by the promise, although their house is not so with God, as they could wish. But the dying-day of some saints may be like that day mentioned, Zech. xiv. 7. not day, nor night. They may die under great doubts and fears; setting as it were, in a cloud, and going to heaven in a mist. They may go mourning without the sun, and never put off their spirit of heaviness, till death strip them of it. They may be carried to heaven through the confines of hell, and may be pursued by the devouring lion, even to the very gates of the new Jerusalem; and may be compared to a ship almost wrecked in sight of the harbour, which yet gets safe into her port, 1 Cor. iii. 15. "If any man's works shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." There is safety amidst their fears, but danger in the wicked's strongest confidence; and there is a blessed seed of gladness in their greatest sorrows: "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart," Psalm xcvii. 11.

Now, saints are liable to such perplexity in their death; because, though they be Christians indeed, yet they are men of like passions with others; and death is a frightful object in itself, whatever dress it appear in : The stern countenance, with which it looks at mortals, can hardly miss of causing them shrink. Moreover, the saints are of all men the most jealous of themselves. They think of eternity, and of a tribunal, more deeply than others do: With them, it is a more serious thing to die, than the rest of mankind are aware of. They know the deceits of the heart, the subtilities of depraved human nature, better than others do. And, therefore, they may have

much ado to keep up hope on a death-bed; while others pass off quickly, like sheep to the slaughter; the rather. that Satan, who useth all his art to support the hopes of the hypocrite, will do his utmost to mar the peace, and increase the fears of the saint. Finally, The bad frame of spirit, and ill condition, in which death sometimes seizeth a true Christian, may cause this perplexity. By his being in the state of grace, he is indeed always habitually prepared for death, and his dying safely is insured; but there is more requisite to his actual preparation, and dying comfortably; his spirit must be in good condition too.

Wherefore there are three cases, in which death cannot but be very uncomfortable to a child of God, (1.) If it seize him at a time when the guilt of some particular sin, unrepented of, is lying on his conscience; and death comes on that very account, to take him out of the land of the living; as was the case of many of the Corinthian believers, 1 Cor. xi. 30. "For this cause," namely, of unworthy communicating, " many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." If a person is surprised with the approach of death, while lying under the guilt of some unpardoned sin, it cannot but cause a mighty consternation. (2.) When death catches him napping. The mighty cry must be frightful to sleeping virgins. The man who lies in a ruinous house, and awakens not till the timber begins to crack, and the stones to drop down about his ears, may indeed get out of it safely, but not without fears of being crushed by its fall. When a Christian has been going on in a course of security and backsliding, and awakens not till death comes to his bedside, it is no marvel if he get a fearful awakening. Lastly, When he has lost sight of his saving interest in Christ, and cannot produce evidences of his title to heaven. It is hard to meet death without some evidence of a title to eternal life at hand; hard to go through the dark valley, without the candle of the Lord shining upon the head. It is a terrible adventure to launch out into eternity, when a man can make no better of it, than a leap in the dark, not knowing where he shall light, whether in heaven or hell.

Nevertheless, the state of the saints, in their death, is always in itself hopeful. The presumptuous hopes of the