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SEEM
3LIILI
VPATII
A
BLESSING TO
THE SAINTS.
235
tion. When
you
labour
and groan
under
sins
and temp-
tations,
under
pains and sorrows,
remember Christ has
appointed death
to
be
his
officer
for 'your relief.
It
is
like
the porter
that
opens the
door of
his
repository, the
grave, where
your
bodies
shall
take
a sweet
slumber
till
the resurrection-day
;
and it
is
appointed
also to
open
the gates
of
heaven
for your
spirits,
and
to let
them
into
a
world
of
unknown
felicity.
Death
has
so
many
things
belonging
to
it,
which
are
afflictive
to
nature,
and formidable
to the eye
of
sense,
that
we
have need
of
all
manner of
assistance to raise
our
souls above
the
fear of
it.
.
The
very
thought
of
dying makes many a
christian shudder, and
sweat,
and
tremble, and awakens
all
the springs
of
human
infirmity;
O
may
the grace
of
faith
gain
a more glorious ascen-
dency
in
our
souls
!
We should often
meditate
on
such
doctrines
as these, which
place
that
dreadful
thing death
in
the
most easy
and
pleasing
light;
we
should behold
it
as
changed from
a
curse into
a
blessing,
and numbered
among
our treasures. Christians
should accustom
them-
selves
to look
at
it
through the
glass
of
the gospel, which
casts fair colours
upon what
is
in itself
so
dark and for-
midable.
The
gospel
is
that
glass which
discovers
to
us the
flowery blessings
that
grow in
that
gloomy
val-
ley,
and
gives
a
fair and delightful prospect
of
those-hills
of
paradise and pleasure
that
lie beyond the grave.
Why
should
we
let
this blessed gospel lie neglected,
and
live
still in
bondage to the fear
of
dying
?
THE RECOLLECTION.
"
Come
now,
and let
us
learn
by this
discourse,
to
shame ourselves
out
of
these weaknesses, these
unrea-
sonable
fears.
Let
us
talk
to
our
own
souls
in
the
lan-
guage
of
faith. Why, O
my
soul, why
art
thou afraid
to
let this
body die
?
Hast
thou
not endured
labours
and
trials
enough,
and
art
thou unwilling to
come to
the
end
of
them
?
Hast
thou
not yet
been
tempted enough?
Hast
thou
not
been
foiled too often,
and too
often thrown
down in
the conflict
?
Think
of
thy many wounds
of
conscience, the bruises
of
thy spirit,
the defilement
of
thy
garments,
and
the
loss
of
thy
purity
and
thy peace.
Canst
thou bear,
that
all these should
be
repeated
again
and
again?
Art
thou unwilling this
war
should
have
an
end
?
Art
thou afraid
of
victory
and triumph
?
What
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