213 / 674
SERM.
XLL,
THE DEATH
OP
MANKIND
IMPROVED.
193.
of
their
crimes.
And
even
though
he
pardons the
sins
of
his own people, so as
to secure them from
eternal
ven-
geance, yet they
must
pass
through death,
that
they may
learn
what an
evil
and
bitter thing it
is
to have offended
against
their
Maker
and their God.
When
we see
a church-yard
filled
with
little
hills
of
mortality, the
ruins
of a
parish,
or a
spacious
town,
and
the dust
of
many
generations,
we
naturally cry
out,
as in
Veut.
xxix.
24.
"
Wherefore hath the
Lord
done thus
unto this
land, and
what meaneth the
heat
of
all
this
great
anger
?"
The next
verse
will
give
you an
answer to
it
;
yea,
every
man
may
answer
himself,
"
because they
have
forsaken the
Lord their God
:
they have
forsaken
his
covenant
of
life,
and sinned against him."
Those
dread-
ful
words,
"
In
the day thou eatest, thou shalt
die,
have
been
putting into execution almost
six
thousand years,
and the Lord's anger
is
not
yet
turned
away,
but
his
hand
is
stretched
out
still
;"
Is.
v.
25.
the vengeance
of
the
Lord
is
not yet
fully
executed according to the
just
de-
-merit
of
sin.
Though
saints
are
saved from the dismal
consequences
of
death, yet
God
would
not
rescue them
from
dying,
that
they might
always
remember what
sin
deserved.
Thus
the death
of
all
mankind discovers to
us
the
aw-
ful Majesty
of God
our
Maker,
who
will
not
be
affronted
by
his
creatures,
without terrible resentment;
he
is
a
holy
and
jealous
God.
(3.)
It
teaches
us
the
high value
that God
has for
his
own
law,
that
he
will
rather
dash
a
whole
creation to
pieces,
than
suffer his holy law
to
be
insulted
and
broken,
without
some
reparation of
the
honour of
it.
The
race
of
Adam
is
doomed to death, for the sake
of
sin against this
law,
and mortality and
a
curse
spread
over
this
lower world.
Let
us
enure our thoughts
to such
reflections
as
these,
that
we
may
ever
keep
our
souls in awe
of
the
Majesty
of
God, and
dread the
thoughts
of
breaking
his
laaw,
which
he values
above a whole world
of
amen.
O
that
sin may
become the most hateful object
in
out
eyes
;
it
is
this
that
has laid cities desolate, and
fills
the
graves
;
it
is
this
that
has
corrupted
and destroyed
our
natures
;
it
has
turned
millions
of
strong and well.
formed bodies
into dust
:
it
has
ruined the
Omit heauti>
VOL.
II.
Q