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III. Death sets us, in a more immediate and sensible manner, in the presence of God, a glorious and holy God, God the Judge of all; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is willing to stand before this God to be brought into his presence: This is what he hath longed and prayed for, to be for ever with God. It is the blessedness that he hath sought with incessant labours and tears, with holy diligence and daily devotion, and blessed is the pure in heart, who hath watched against the pollutions of the world, for he shall see God; Mat. v. 8.

It is certain, that when the soul departs from the body it returns to God who gave it; Ec. xii. 7. And probably to God, as a Judge too; Heb. ix. 27. after death, judgment. There is some sort of determination of the state of each single person at death before the great and general judgment-day, because that day is appointed rather for the public vindication of the equity of God, in his distribution of rewards and punishments, and is particularly put into the hands of our Lord Jesus: Now, since the separate soul returns to God, who gave it, it is of vast importance, that we be then prepared to come before him.

Some of us here would be mightily afraid of appearing before a prince, or a great and honourable person in an undress; but for our souls, in a naked state, or in a garment of sinful pollution, to be surprized by the great and holy God, to be set on a sudden in his presence, what terror is contained in this thought! Now the watchful christian hath this blessedness, that he is washed from his defilements, in the blood of the Lamb, he is clothed with the robe of righteousness, and the garments of salvation; Is. lxi. 13. He is prepared to appear before a God of infinite holiness without terror, for he is made like him, he bears his image, he appears as one of his children, and he is not afraid to see his Father.

However some commentators may confine and impoverish the sense of David, in the end of the xvii. Psalm, yet I am persuaded, the Spirit of God in him designed to express his faith and joy, either at the hour of death, or in the morning of the resurrection, I shall behold thy fuce in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness: When the Psalmist had described what were the satisfactions of the men of this world in death, yerse 14. viz. that they had filled their houses with children, and leave their substance, or riches to them, he then declares what was his support and hope in his dying hour," As for me, saith he, I have other views: I am not afraid, O my God, to appear before thee in the other world, for I shall see thy face, not as a criminal, but as a person approved and accepted, and righteous in thy sight: I shall awake from this world of dreams and shadows into thy complete image, and perfect holiness; or I shall awake from the dust of death, and shall be fully

satisfied; and rejoice to find myself made so like my God, and to dwell for ever in his presence.

IV. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that lets the soul out of the body, for he hath the keys of death, and of the unseen world, and blessed is the watchful christian, who waits for the coming of his Lord, for he can meet him gladly when fulfilling this part of his glorious office. He shall be introduced by him into the pre- : sence of God his Father, and shall receive most condescending instances of mercy from Christ himself. See the text; Luke xii. 36, 37. Be ye yourselves like men that wait for the Lord, that when he cometh, and knocketh, ye may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: Verily, I say to you, he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and come forth, and serve them. He shall condescend, as it were, even below the office of a steward, he shall bring out the heavenly provisions of his Father's house, and make them sit down in his kingdom, and give them divine refreshments after their labours; he shall feed them as a shepherd, shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and afford them his presence for ever.

The watchful christian is blessed indeed, when he shall be absent from the body, and be at once present with the Lord; 2 Cor. v. 8. The Lord Jesus, whom he hath seen by faith in his gospel, whose voice he hath heard in his word, and obeyed it; Jesus, whom he hath touched, and tasted in the appointed emblems of his supper on earth, in whom he hath believed through the word of grace, and whom he hath loved before he saw him, shall now receive him into his presence, and the disciple shall rejoice for ever to meet his Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

V. At the hour of death we are sent at once into an invisible world, we shall find ourselves in the midst of holy or of unclean spirits; borne away at once into an unknown region, and into the midst of unknown inhabitants, the nations of the saved, or the crouds of damned souls; and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is ready to enter into the unseen regions: He knows he shall not be placed among those, whose company and whose character he never loved here on earth; "his soul shall not be gathered with sinners, nor his dwelling be with the workers of iniquity;" Ps. xvi. 3. but with the saints, the excellent in the earth, in whom was all his delight. xxvi. 9. Every one when dismissed from the prison of this body, must go as the apostles did, when released from the prison of Jerusalem, to their own company; Acts iv. 23. Judas the traitor went to his own place; Acts i. 25. And the watchful christian will be disposed among spirits of the just made perfect, he will find himself in that blessed society at his dismission from flesh and blood. Read

and see, what a glorious society it is; Heb. xii. 22, 23. To the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. The apostle says, we are come to them already, that is, by the covenant of grace, as administered under the gospel, we are brought into a blessed union with them, in spirit and in temper, even in this life, we are members of the same body, we are united to the same head, and made parts of the same household, though we are not yet brought home: But at death we are actually present with them, and dwell and converse among them with holy familiarity, as citizens of the same heavenly Jerusalem, as parts of the same sacred family, and at home, as children of the same God, and in their Father's house. The watchful christian is at once carried into the midst of the blessed world by ministering angels, the world where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwell, aud made a speedy partaker of their blessedness: Luke xvi. 22.

VI. Death brings with it a most amazing and inconceivable change of all our present circumstances and thoughts, our actions and pursuits, our sensations and enjoyments, I mean, all those that relate to this life only, such as eating, drinking, buying, selling, &c. It dislodges us from these bodies, and thereby finishes all those affections, concerus and troubles which belong to the body, and sends us into another sort of world, whose affairs and concerns are such only as belong to spirits, whether sinful or holy: A most delightful, or a most dreadful change! A world of unknown happiness! Luke xxiii. 43. This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke xvi. 22. The rich man died, and in hell he lift up his eyes. And indeed, the change is so vast, that comparatively speaking, we know not what sorrow or happiness is till this day comes. Now it is very foolish and dangerous thing, at best, to pass into such an extreme change of states infinitely worse, or infinitely better, while we are asleep and at all uncertainties: What if it should be the miserable state, and we should awake in hell? But the watchful christian is blessed, for he is ready for this amazing change. He hath long lived upon it by faith and hope, though he knows not so well what the particular enjoyments of heaven are; and he is well satisfied, that he is prepared for that happy world by God himself. 2. Cor. v. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God: He is well-pleased to have his faith changed into sight, and his hope into fruition: He hath been long pained and burdened, in this sinful world, with the vain trifles, the poor low cares and amusements of it; the sins, and sefrows, and temptations that surround him in it, give him continual disquietudes, and he hath been training up in the school of Christ, by devo

tion and good works, for those higher services of heaven. Since he can trust the promises of the gospel, and has had some small foretaste of these pleasures, he knows that the actions and employments, the businesses and the joys of the upper world, are incomparably superior to any thing here on earth, and free from all the uneasy and defiling circumstances of this life. He is awake to receive this change: He rejoices in his removal from world to world His vital and active powers are ready for the business of paradise, and he opens his heart to take in the joy.

VII. Death makes its approaches, oftentimes, and seizes us in such a manner as to give no room for prayers or repentance, then the blessedness of the watchful soul appears, that if he is earried out of the world and time, in such a surprizing way, he is safe for eternity.

Sometimes the messenger of death stops all our thoughts and actions, at once, by a lethargic stroke, or confounds them all by the delirious rovings of a fever; the light of reason is eclipsed and darkened, the powers of the mind are all obstructed, or the languishings of nature have so enfeebled them, that either we cannot exercise them to any spiritual purposes, or we are forbid to do it, for fear of counter-working the physician, increasing the malady, and hastening our death. Thus we are not capable of making any new preparation for the important work of dying; we can make use of none of the means of grace, nor do any thing more to secure an interest in the love of God, the salvation of Christ, and the blessings of heaven.

This is a very dismal thought indeed. But the watchful christian hath this blessedness, that he is fit to receive the sen-. tence of death in any form; nor lethargies, nor deliriums, nor languors of nature can destroy the seed of grace and religion in the heart, which were sown there in the days of health; nor can any of the formidable attendants of death cancel his former transactions with God and Christ about his immortal concerns. That great and momentous work was done before death appeared, or any of its attendants. He was not so unwise as to leave matters of infinite importance, at that dreadful hazard: He is not now to begin to seek after a lost God, nor to begin his repentance for past sins; He is not now a stranger at the throne of grace, nor beginning to learn to pray: He is not now commencing his acquaintance with Jesus Christ, his Saviour, in the midst of a tumult and hurry of thoughts and fears; nor are the works of faith, and love, and holiness to be now begun. Dreadful work indeed, and infinitely hazardous! To begin to be convinced of sin on the borders of death, and to make our first enquiries after God and heaven upon the very brink of hell! To begin to ask for pardon when we can live in sin no longer; to cry out, Jesus, dave me, when the waves of the wrath of God are breaking in

upon the drowning soul! Hopeless condition, and extreme wretchedness! To have all the hard work of conversion to go through under the sinkings of feeble nature, and to begin the exercises of virtue and godliness under the wild disorders of reason! What a madness is it to leave our infinite concerns at such a horrible uncertainty !

["Here this discourse may be divided.”]

But these are not thy circumstances, oh wakeful christian! Nor was this the case of our young departed friend, though her distemper soon discomposed her reasoning powers, and gave her very little opportunity to make a present preparation for dying. But she had heard the voice of Christ, in his gospel betimes, and awoke to righteousness at his call, that she might be always. ready for his summons in death. Religion was her early care, a fear to offend God possessed and governed her thoughts and actions from her childhood, and heavenly things were her youthful choice. She had appeared, for some years, in the public profession of christianity, and maintained the practice of godliness in the church and the world; but it began much more early in secret. Her beloved closet, and her retiring hours, were silent witnesses of her daily converse with God and her Saviour: There she devoted her soul to her Creator betimes, according to the encouragements and rules of the gospel of Christ, and there she found peace and salvation. It was there she made a conscientious recollection of the sermons she heard in public from her tender years, and left behind her these fruits of her memory, and her pen, to attest what improvements she gained in knowfedge, by the ministrations of the word; and her cabinet has now discovered to us another set of memoirs, wherein she continually observed what advances she might make in real piety, by those weekly seasons of grace.

It was under these influences she maintained a most dutiful and affectionate behaviour to her honoured parents, and with filial fondness, mingled with esteem, submission and reverence, paid her constant regards to the lady, her mother, in her widowed estate. It was by the united principles of grace and nature, she lived with her younger sisters in uncommon harmony and friendship, as though one heart and soul animated them. all. It was under these influences, she ever stood upon her guard, amongst all the innocent freedoms of life, and though she did not immure herself in the walls of a mother's house, but indulged a just curiosity to learn some of the forms of the world, the magnificence of courts, and the grandeurs of life, yet she knew how far to appear among them, and when to retire. Nor did she forbid berself all the polite diversions of youth agreeable to her rank; nor did reason, or religion, or her superior relatives forbid her; yet she was still awake to secure all that belongs to

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