209 / 674
S£Rhi.%I.I.j
DEATH IMPROVED
TO OUR
ADVANTACE.
1$9
formidable extent
of
power,
and
with
relation
to
a1l
its
victories
;
and
shew
how, even
in
this
largest
sense,
it
is
appointed
to subserve
the
glory
of
God, and
the kingdom
of
Christ,
and
by
the grace
of
the
new
covenant, it
is
rendered
useful and beneficial
to
every
true
christian
;
on
this
account therefore it
may be
numbered amongst
his
possessions.
"
Death
is
yours."
With this
view
I
shall
endeavour
to
run
through these
five
general heads
following,
and improve each
of
them,
in
a
few
particulars,
to the benefit
of
christians,
agree-
ably to the design of
my
text.
Death
is
made
useful to a saint, when
we
consider
it.
I.
As
reigning over
all
mankind
in
general.
II.
As seizing
on
impenitent and
unpa.rdoned sinners.
III.
As
taking captive the bodies
of
the
saints.
IV.
As
depriving
us
of our dear
relations and
kin-
dred. And
V.
As
bringing
our
own bodies down
to the dust.
I
confess,
I
was
very unwilling
to
leave
the death
of
Christ out of
this
catalogue
;
for
his
death
is
not
only
the most
eminent
blessing to
every christian,
but it
is
also
the price
that
purchased
all
other
blessings
in time,
and
in
eternity.
It
is
the
death
of
Christ
that
may
be
called
the
Christian's
richest treasure, for it procures for
him
all
the treasures
of
grace and
glory.
It
is
the
fruit of
his
death,
that
"
all things
are
ours,
whether Paul, or
Apollos,
or
Cephas, or things present;
-or,
things to
come."
It
is
his
death
that
gives
truth and virtue
to
the
words
of my
text,
and to
all the rich
and spreading
coin
-
ments upon
it,
that
faith can make here on
earth,
and
and
that our
souls
shall taste
and
enjoy
hereafter
in hea-
ven.
Yet
when
I
consider,
that
the
death
of
Christ
is
more
directly expressed
in
many
other scriptures, and
does
not
seem
at
all
to have been
the
design
of
St.
Paul
in this
text
;
and when
I
survey
what a vast
and copious subject
I
must
enter
into,
if I
recount
the riches
of
blessing
that
are derived
from this spring,
I
chuse
to
refer
that
Subject to
another
season.
I
proceed
therefore according
to
the
order
I
have
pro-
posed, to
treat of
the various advantages to
be
derived
from
this
proposition,
" Death
is yours."