SERMON XLIII. Deatha Blessing to the Saints. WE Con. iii. 22.Whether lifeor death, all are yours. Vr E have already seenmany divinecomforts, anda rich variety of blessings derived from the formidable name of DEATH : One would scarce have thought that a word of so much terror should have ever been capableof yielding so much sweetness ; but the gospel of Christ is a spring of wonders : It has consecrated all the terrible things in nature, even death itself, and every thing beside sin, to the benefit of the saint. Death, in all its appearances, may furnish the mind of abe- liever with some sacred lesson of truth or holiness. When it ap- pears in the extent of its dominion, and bringing all mankind down to the dust ; when it lays hold on an impenitent sinner, and fills his flesh and soul with agonies ; when it assaults a saint, and isconquered by faith; when it makes awide ravage among our acquaintance, when it enters into our families, and takes away our near and dear relatives from the midst of us, still the Chris- tian may reap somedivine advantage by it. But can our own deathbe ever turned into a blessing too ? Nature thinks it hard to learn such a strange lesson as this, and has much ado to be persuaded to believe it. How dismal are its attendants to flesh and blood ! What languishings of the body ! What painful agonies ! What tremblings andconvulsions in na- ture frequently attendthe dying hour evenof the best of Christi- ans! Can thatbe a blessing which turns this active and beautiful engine of the body into loathsome clay ; which closes these eyes in long darkness, and deprives us of every sense? Can death become a blessing to us, which cuts us off from all converse with the sun andmoon, and that rich variety of sensible objectswhich furnish out such delightful scenes all around us, and entertain the whole animal creation ? Can that be a blessing which divides asunder those two intimate friends, theflesh and the spirit, that sends one of them to the noisome prison of the grave, and tmrrics away the other into unknown regions ? Yes, the gospel of Christ has power and grace enough in it to take off all these gloomy appearances from death, and to illuminate the darkest side of it xr2
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