SECT. 1.1 'THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 257 Reflection I. If .death be an enemy to the best of men in so many respects, then we may infer the great evil of sin for it was sin that brought death into this our world ; Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,; for that all have sinned. We are too ready to conceive a slight opinion of the evil of sin, because it is so common to the best of men, and so constant an attendant on human nature daily and hourly ; we entertain too gentle and harmless thoughts of it, because its biggest evil is of a spiritual kind, and invisible ; we see not that infinite majesty which it dis- honours, that spotless holiness of God which it offends, the glory and perfection of that ,law which is broken by it: We can take but short and scanty notices of the in- jury that it does to God the supreme Spirit, while we are shut up in tabernacles of flesh. But here in these scenes of death, we may survey the sensible and mighty injury that sin has doné to the nature of man, and thence infer how offensive it is to God. By our eyes and our ears, we may be terribly convinced, that it is no little evil that could occasion such spreading and durable mischief. We cannot frame a just 'notion of what man was in his state of perfect innocency, in his original beauty, and honour, and immortal frame ; and therefore we cannot so well judge of the vastness of the loss which we sustain by sin : but we can seeand feel the formidable attendants of death, and learn and believe that it is a root of un- known poisoned bitterness, that has produced such cursed fruit : Especially if we remember that all the sorrows be- fore described, fall upon the saints themselves, evenwhere sin is pardoned, and death has lost its sting. But if we descend in contemplation to the endless and unknown misery that waits upon the death of a sinner, and say, all these are the effects of sin; how inexpressibly dreadful will the cause appear? The wise man has pronounced them fools, by inspiration, that make a- mock at such mischief; Prov. xiv. 9. Reflection II. We may here learn the greatness of the love of Christ, that would venture into the land of death, and conflict with this mighty enemy, and yield to the power of it for a season, for our sakes. Greater love fiath no man than this, that a man lay down his lifefor 2A 3
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