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E
DEAMH OP
SINNERS
IMPROVED.
195
But
I
proceed
to the
next
general head
which
I
pro-
posed
;
Secondly. As
the death
of
mankind
in
general,
gives
these
divine lessons
to
a
saint,
so
the
death
of impenitent
sinners, which
hath something
in
it
very
terrible,
may
be
turned
to
the advantage
and
profit
of
believers, these
three or
four
ways
:
1.
If
we
are true
christians, and
persecuted and in-
jured
here
on
earth, then the death
of
the wicked delivers
us from
our
enemies,
and
releases
us
from
the wrath
of
our
oppressors.
In
the grave
"
the
wicked cease
from
troubling,
as well as
the weary are
at
rest
;"
Job
iii. 17.
Look
back to
the distance
of three thousand
years,
and
see
the
children of Israel
on
the banks
of
the
red
sea.,
re-
joicing
in
the
Lord their deliverer,
when an army
of
Egyptian
carcases
floated on
the waters,
or
were
cast up
in heaps upon the shore
:
These
were the
cruel oppress-
ors
of
the people
of God
.
They
were
drowned
in
the
evening,
and the morning light discovered the havoc
that
death had
made,
and the salvation
it
wrought for
Israel,
in
the
xiv.
and
xv.
of
Exodus.
See
the
whole city
of
Jerusalem, and Hezekiah
at
the
head
of
them,
triumphing
in
the Lord,
when he
sent
the
angel
of
death, and destroyed the
besiegers:
"
A
hun-
dred
and four -score and
five
thousand
Assyrians lay
dead
on the
border of
the
city
;"
Is.
xxxvii. 36.
"
By
terrible
things
in
righteousness God answered the
prayer of
his
saints
;"
Ps.
lxv. 5.
And
at
the death of
Herod, the
father and
mother
of
our
blessed
Lord
were
glad,
fur
they
returned
from
their
flight
;
they came from the
land
of
Egypt, and dwelt
in
their
own
land
again and
the
child
Jesus
was
saved from the
murderous
designs
of
that
cruel Man
;
Mat.
ii. 19.
Such
examples
of
advantage
which
the saints receive
from the
death of
the men
of
violence,
their
impious
and
bloody enemies
are
frequent
in
sacred history
:
And
we may
remark
in
our
day, how
many
a
time
God hath
saved
us
in
Great
Britain,
when
we
have
been
on
the
borders of destruction,
by
the
death of persecutors
at
home
and abroad. The monarchs
of
the earth,
have
been
turned
down to
their
graves, one
year
after
another,
and the churches
of
God,
in
many nations, have
found
rest and
deliverance.
o