BERM. RLIIt.7, DEATH A IiLESSI'NG TO THE SAINTS. 231 and take a fair and inviting prospect of the promised land Inference II. How glorious and how dreadful is the difference, between the death of a saint and that ofa sin- ner, a soul that is in Christ, and a soul that has no inter- est in him ! The death of every sinner, has all that real evil and terror in it, in which it appears to an eye of sense ; but a convinced sinner beholds it yet a thousand times more dreadful. When conscience is awakened upon the borders of the grave, it beholds death in its ut- most horror, as the curse of the broken law, as the ac- complishment of the threatenings of an angry God. A guilty conscience looks on death with all its formidable attendants round it, and espies an endless train of sor- rows coming after it. Such a wretch beholds death rid- ing towards him on a pale laorse, andhell following at his heels, without all relief or remedy, without a Saviour, and without hope. But a true christian, when he reads' the name of death among the curses of the law, knows that Christ his Sa- viour and his Surety, has sustained it in that dreadful sense, and put an end to its power and terror. I-Ie reads its name now in the promises of the gospel, and calls it a glorious blessing, a release from sin and sor- row, an entrance into everlastingjoy. The saint may lie calm and peaceable in the midst of all the attendants of death like Daniel in the den of lions, 'for it cannot hurt or destroy him : But when a sinner is thrown to this de- vourer, it does, as it were, break all his bones, it tears both his flesh and his spirit as its proper prey : " Death feeds upon him," as the scripture expresses it; Ps. IKEA. 14. and fills his conscience with immortal anguish. Who can bear the thought of dying in such a state un- der the dominion of death, without Christ, and without -hope ? Inference III. How. much does'the religion of the New :Testament transcend all other religions, both that of the light of nature, and all the former revelations of grace; for it better instructs us how to die. The reli- gion ofthe ancient patriarchs, the religion, of Moses and the Jews, as well - as the religion of the philosophers, all come vastly .short of christianity, in the important bui siness of dying, Q4
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=