232 DEATH A BLESSIAG TO THE SAINTS. [SERM. XLIII. The philosopher, by the, labours ofhis reason, and by a certain hardiness of spirit, persuades himself not to tremble at the thoughts of death ; for it may be, there is no hereafter; or if there be,' he would fain hope for an happy one : And thus he ventures into death, with some sort ofcourage and composure of mind, like a bold man, that is taking an immense leap, in the dark, out of one world into another; but he can never know certainly, that there are no terrible things'to meet him, in that un- seen state. , The religion of the Jews and patriarchs, which God himself revealed to men, enabled many of them to resign their lives with patience and hope, and to walk through the val y of death without .much dismay, when the ap- pointed hour was come. A few of them, I confess, have been elevated by a noble faith above the level of that dis- pensation : Yet some of them seem to make bitter mourning' , because of the shadows of darkness that co- vered the grave; and all the regions beyond it. They were all their life-time subject to bondage, through the fear of death ;" Feb. ii. 15. It is our Jesus alone, who has " brought life and im- mortality into so glorious a light by the gospel ;"- 2 Tim. i. 10. He dwelt long in heaven before he came intoour world,' andagain he went as afore-runner into thosenn- seen worlds, and came back again and taught his disci- ples, what heaven is : And thus we learn to overcome death with all its terrors, by the richer prospect, which he has given us, of the heavenly country, that lies beyond the grave : He has taught his followers to rejoice in dying, and to possess the pleasures that are to be derived from death, as it is an entrance into the regions of light and joy. Blessed be God ! that we were born in the days of the Messiah, since Christ returned from the dead, and that we are not sent either t6 the schools of the philoso- phers, or even to Moses, to teach us how to die, Inference IV. Learn from these discourses, what a sweet and delightful glory belongs to the covenant of grace, that turns a curse into a blessing. When the broken law, or covenant, ofworks attempts to curse thee with death, O believer, (as Balak,tn did Israel) " the ,Lord thy God turns the curse into a blessing to theeby this new covenant, because the Lord thy God loveth
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