358 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATA! ED75C. I. hisfriends; John 'xv. 13. Hereby perceive we the love of 'God, because he died för us; ' John iii. 16. Rom.v. 8. Many terrible attendants of death did our Lord meet and struggle with beyond what any of his saints can feel. Death, like a lion, ran furious upon him, as it does upon a sinner, its proper prey. He met death in its full strength and dominion, for he had all our sins upon him; and death had its own sharp sting when our Lord enter- ed the combat. There was the wrath of God which was threatened in the broken law to mingle with his pangs and agonies of nature : This made his soul exceeding sor- rowful ; all his inward powers were amazed, and his heart oppressed with heaviness; Mark xiv. 33, 34. He was almost overwhelmed in the garden, before the thorns or the nails came near him; and on the cross he com- plains of the forsakings of God his almighty friend, when death his mighty enemy was just upon him ; and all,this, saith he, to every believer, I bore for thy sake : My love was stronger than death. SECTION II. Death is the last Enemy. I proceed now to the second general proposed, and that is to enquire, in what sense death is said to be the last enemy, or the last that shall be destroyed; For we mayjoin this word last, either to death, or to destruction; and in each sense it affords comfort to the saints. 1. It is The last enemy that the saints have to grapple with in this World. The three great adversaries of a Chris- tian are the flesh, the world, and the devil, and they as- sault him often in this life. Death comes behind, and brings up the rear; the saint combats with this enemy, and finishes all the war. Every believer has listed himself under the banner of Christ, who is the Captain of his Salvation. When he first gives himself up to the Lord, he renounces every thing that is inconsistent with his faith and hope, he abandons his former slavery, undertakes the spiritual warfare, and enters the field of battle. It is a necessary character of the followers of Christ, that they fight with the flesh, subdue corrupt nature, sup- press their irregular appetites, give daily wounds to the bodyof sin ; Col. iii. 5. Rom. viii, 13, They fight against
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