O what a new and unspeakable pleasure will it be to the disciples of Christ, and the ministers of the gospel, that have been tired and worn out in tedious controversies in this world, and sorely perplexed amongst the difficult passages of scripture, when they shall arrive at that region of light and glory, where the darknesses of the mind shall be all scattered, the veil shall be taken off from sacred things, and doubts and difficulties shall vanish for ever!

Alas! What desolation and mischief has the noise and clamour of controversy brought on the church of Christ in all ages ! What quarrels and sharp contests has it raised among fellowchristians, and especially, where zeal and ignorance have joined together, and brought fire and darkness into the sanctuary! This has banished charity and love out of the house of God, and made the Spirit of God himself to depart grieved. Surely death carries a considerable blessing in it, as it delivers us from these disorders, these bitter quarrels, and appoints us a place in the temple of God on high, where the axe and the hammer never sound, where the saw of contention is never drawn, where the noise of war is heard no more, but perfect light lays a foundation for perfect and everlasting love.

III. Death makes an utter end of sin, it delivers us from a state of temptation, and conveys us into a state of perfect holiness, safety, and peace. The spirits of the just are made perfect in holiness, when they leave this sinful and mortal flesh, they stand without spot or blemish, without fault or infirmity of greater or lesser size, and appear pure and undefiled before the throne of God; Rev. xiv. 5. Their robes are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, and they serve him without sin, day and night, in his temple; Rev. vii. 14, 15. When death carries them away from this world, it carries them out of the territories of the devil; for he has no power in that land whither happy souls go: And all the remaining lusts of the flesh, that had their death's wound given them by renewing grace, are now destroyed for ever; for the death of the body is the final death of sin, and the grave is, as it were, the burying-place of many unruly iniquities, that have too often defiled and disquieted the spirit.

And as the corrupt affections which are mingled with our flesh and blood, and which are rooted deep in animal nature, are left behind us in the bed of death, so when we ascend to heaven, we shall find no manner of temptation to revive them. There is no malice or angry resentment to be awakened there, no incitements to envy, intemperance, or the cursed sin of pride, that cleaves so close to our natures here on earth. When we are encompassed with those blessed creatures, angels and saints made

perfect, we shall meet with no affront, no reproach, no injury to provoke our anger, or kindle an uneasy passion. Most perfect friendship is ever practised there; it is a region of peace, a world of immortal amity.

Nor shall we find any temptation to envy, in that happy state; for though there are different ranks of glorified creatures, yet each is filled with a holy satisfaction, and hath an inward relish of his own felicity suited to his own capacity and state, and they have all a general relish of the common joy, and a mutual satisfaction in each others happiness. Envy, that fretful passion, is no more. In heaven there are no provocations to those unruly appetites, which break in upon our temperance, and pollute our souls.

Pride and haughtiness of spirit have no room in that blessed world: The superior order of saints, which are nearest the throne, shall not despise the meanest; for the nearer they ap proach to the perfect image of Christ, the more intense and diffusive is their love. Besides, every saint in glory shall see himself in his own nothingness, and infinitely indebted to divine grace for all things: This shall for ever forbid all vanity and conceit of merit. In heaven we shall see God in the fulness of his glory, and shall have so penetrating a sense of his saving grace, that a creature rescued from hell cannot be proud there.

Rejoice then, ye poor feeble christians, that have been long wrestling with your indwelling sins, and maintaining a holy and daily fight, with strong and restless corruptions in your nature; Lift up your heads at the thoughts of death, for the day of your redemption draws nigh; Luke xxi. 28. Death is your deliverer. It is like the angel that Christ sent to Peter, to knock off his fetters, and release him from the prison; it may smite and "surprize you, and it has indeed a dark and unlovely aspect; but its message is light and peace, holiness and salvation.

IV. Death is ours, for it takes us away from under all the threatenings of God in his word, and places us in the actual possession of the greatest part of the blessings, that God has promised us. The saints that are dead are thus described; they are those, who through faith and patience, inherit the promises; Heb. vi. 12.

Whilst we are in this life, there are many threatenings in the bible that belong to the saints as well as to sinners. I shall mention that great and general one that is annexed to the covenant of grace; Ps. lxxxix. 30. If the children of Christ for sake my law, and walk not in my judgments; then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes; but when

death has conveyed them into the presence of their heavenly Father, they shall forsake his law no more; there are no more trausgressions for the rod to correct, the stripes of chastisement cease for ever; and their Father, and their God, shall be angry

no more.

The best part of the promises are fulfilled when a soul arrives at heaven. The promise of the resurrection of the body yet remains unaccomplished indeed; but every separate spirit in heaven waits for it with full assurance of accomplishment. "I have found," says the holy soul," so many rich promises of the covenant fulfilled already, and I am in the possession of so many divine blessings that God once foretold, that I am well assured that my God is faithful who has promised, and the rest shall be all fulfilled."

V. Death raises us above the mean and trifling pleasures of the present state, as well as delivers us from all present pains, and brings us into a world of perfect ease, and superior and refined delight. It divides us from the pains and pleasures, that we derive from the first Adam, and sets us in the midst of superior blessings, which the second Adam has purchased for us. We shall hunger no more, we shall thirst no more, neither shall the scorching heat of the sun light upon us, or any painful influence from the elements of this world: The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us with celestial food, suited to our purified natures, and lead us to drink full draughts of unknown pleasure, which is described by living fountains of water. We shall see

God himself, the original beauty, and the spring of all delight; We shall see our Lord Jesus Christ, the most illustrious copy of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and God himself shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; Rev. vii. 16, 17. Though the wages of sin is death by the appointment of the law of God; Rom. vi. 23. yet this very death is constrained to serve the purposes of our great Redeemer; and it brings us into the possession of that eternal life, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

VI. Death not only gives us possession of promised blessings, but it banishes all our fears and doubts for ever, by fixing us in a state of happiness uncliangeable. They that are once entered into the temple of God on high shall no more go out of it; Rev. iii, 12. For they are established in the house of God, they are as pillars there, they become a part of that vast and living temple, in which God dwells for ever in all his glory.

Death is ours; for it finishes our fears, it fulfils, our wishes and our hopes, and leaves us no more room to fear to all eternity. When we behold the face of God in righteousness, and awake

out of this world of dreams and shadows, in the world of happy spirits with the likeness of God upon us, we shall find sweet satisfaction; Ps. xvii. 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Death leaves a saint, as it were, but one thing to wish or hope for, and that is the resurrection, or the accomplishment of this text in its completest sense, viz. that their bodies may awake out of the grave with the likeness of Christ upon them, and be made conformable to his glorious body, in vigour, beauty, and immortality.

VII. Death is a happiness to a christian; for it divides him for ever from the company of sinners and enemies, and places him in the society of his best friends, his God, and hi Saviour, his fellow-saints, and the innumerable company of angels. O how sorely has the soul of many a saint been vexed here on earth, as the soul of Lot was in Sodom, with the conversation of the wicked! How have they often complained of the hidings of the face of God, of the absence of Christ their Lord, and the sensible withdrawings of the influences of the blessed Spirit!

There is a great partition-wall betwixt us and the happy world, whilst we are in this life; the veil of flesh and blood divides us from the world of spirits, and from the glorious inhabitants of it. With what surprizing joy, shall a poor, humble, watchful christian, that has been teased long, and long tormented with the company of the wicked, enter into that illustrious and blessed society, when death shall break down the partition-wall, and rend the veil of flesh and blood that divided him from them, and kept him at a painful distance! "It is better, infinitely better, shall the departed soul say, to see God without the medium of such ordinances, as I have used on earth: It is better to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord Jesus. It is better to ascend, and worship in the midst of the heavenly Jerusalem, and amongst that blessed assembly of the first-born, tlan to be joined to the purest churches on earth, or to be engaged in the noblest acts of worship, which the state of mortality admits of. Farewell sins and sinners for ever: Temptations and tempters, farewell to all eternity. And ye my dear holy friends, beloved in the Lord, my pious relatives, my companions in faith and worship, farewell but for a short season, till you also shall be released from your present bondage and imprisonment by the messenger of death: Fear it not, for it is your Lord, and my Lord, your Saviour and mine, who sends it to release you from all the evils which you have long groaned under, and to bring you to our Father's house, where the businesses the pleasures, and the company are infinitely agreeable and entertaining."

Thus have I shewn in various instances, how the death of a believer in general is appointed to work for his good, and becomes an advantage to him through the grace of Christ. I proceed to shew how the death of a christian in all the particular circumstances that attend it, has something in it that may be turned to his benefit.

Christ has the keys of death and the grave; he was dead, and is alive, and behold he lives for evermore; Rev. i. 18. And he knows how to manage all the circumstances of the death of his saints for their profit: He appoints the time when, the manner how, and the place where they shall die, and determines all these things by rules of unsearchable wisdom, under the influence of his faithfulness and his love.

1. The time when we shall die is appointed by Christ: If he calls us away in the days of our youth, he secures us thereby from many a temptation, and many a sin; for our life on earth is subject to daily defilements. He prevents also many a sorrow and distress of mind, many an agony and sharp pain to which our flesh is subject, and saves us from all the languishing weaknesses of old age, and from tasting the dregs of mortality.

When our blessed Lord foresees some huge and heavy sorrows ready to fall upon us, or some mighty temptations approaching towards us, he lays his hand upon us in the midst of life, and hides us in the grave. This has been the sweet hiding place of many a saint of God, from a day of public temptation and overspreading misery.

If he lengthens out our life to many years, we have a fair opportunity of doing much more service for our God, and our Redeemer; and we also enjoy the longer experience of his power, his wisdom, and his faithful mercy, in guiding us through many a dark difficulty, in supporting us under many a heavy burden, and delivering our souls from many a threatening temptation. Oftentimes he sweetens the passage of his aged saints through the dark valley, with nearer and brighter views of the heavenly world: He gives them a strong and earnest expectation of glory, and some sweet foretaste of it, to bear them up under the langours of old age and sickness: The haven of rest becomes sweeter to them, when they have passed through many tedious storms: The hour of release into the world of light, is more exquisitely pleasing, after a tedious imprisonment in the flesh, and long years of darkness.

2. The manner, how we shall die, is appointed also by Christ our Lord, for the benefit of his saints. If death smite us with a sudden and unexpected stroke, then we are surprized into the world of pleasure at once, and, ere we are aware, our