23 DEATH A BLESSING TO THE SAINTS. [SERM. XLIII. learn thereby the frailty of our natures : let us learn so to " numberour days, as to apply our hearts to wisdom; 'Ps. xc. 12. and be awakened to an active and immediate preparation for the day of our own death. If we see im- penitent sinners dying under the anguish ofa guilty con- science, let us gain a sensible lesson of the dreadful evil of sin : let it raise such a religious fear of the wrath of God, and such a sacred gratitude for our deliverance, from the torments of hell, as may quicken every grace into its warmest exercise, and its brightest evidence. If death seize upon our Lord Christ himself, his dying groans lay a foundation for our immortal hopes : Let us meditate on the thousand blessings we receive fromhis cross and his tomb. Do the saints around us lie down and die ? We should learn to follow them boldly into the dark valley, and to fall asleep in the dust with the same chearful hopes of thejoyful rising-day. Does death come near us into our own family, and tear our dear re- latives from our arms ? Even this may be turned to our advantage too : it should render the world and the plea- sures of it more insipid and worthless : it should loosen our heart- strings from the fond embraces of the creature; for it calls our eyes and our souls heaven-ward andhome- ward, and that with a loud and sensible voice, if nature and grace are awake to hear it. If death and the grave be ours, and we make no use of this privilege, we are like misers, who have treasure in their possession, but never employ it to any valuable purpose. Has Christ our Lord taken death among his captives, and made it his own property ? Let us look upon ourselves as humble sharers in the victory ; he has appointed it to serve the interest of all his followers : He has put it into the inventory of our treasures. Let us im- prove it then to these divine purposes, let us seizeand en- joy the spoils which Christ, the Captain of our Salvation, has taken from the hands of the prince of darkness. II. Is death become your possession, O believers, through the grace of the covenant : Fear it not then, but ever look upon it with an eye of faith as a conquered ad- versary : Behold it, as reduced to your service ; wait for it, with holy courage and pleasure ; it is a messenger of mercy to your souls from Christ, who bath vanquished it in the open field of battle, and reduced it to his subjec=
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