SERMONXLIII. 819 and all the former revelations of grace ; for it better instructs us how to die. The religion of theancient patriarchs, the religion of Moses and the Jews, as well as the religion of the philoso- phers, all come vastly short of christianity, in the important business of dying. The philosopher, by the labours of his reason, and by a certain hardiness of spirit, persuades himself not to tremble at. the thoughts of death ; for it may be, there is no hereafter ; or if there be, he would fain hope for an happy one : And thus he ventures into death, with some sort of courage andcomp- sure.of mind, like a bold man, that is taking an immense leap, in the dark, out of one world into another : but he can never know certainly, that there are no terrible things to meet him in that unseen state. The religion of the Jews and patriarchs, which God himself revealed to men, enabled many of them to resign their lives with patience and hope, and to walk through the valley of death with- out much dismay, when the appointed hour was come. A few of them I confess, havebeen elevated by a noblefaith above the level of that dispensation : Yet some of them seem to make bitter mourning, because of the shadows of darkness that covered the grave, and all the regions beyond it. They were all their life-time subject to bondage through thefear of death; Heb. ii. 14. It is our Jesus alone, who has brought life andimmortality into so glorious a light by the gospel; 2 Tim. i. 10. He dwelt long in heaven before he came into our world, and again he went as a fore-runner into those unseen worlds, and came backagain and taught his disciples, what heaven is : And thus we learn to overcome death with all its terrors, by the richer prospect, which he has given us, of the heavenly country that lies beyond the grave : He has taught his followers to rejoice in dying, and to possess the pleasures that are to be derived from death, as it is an entrance into the regions of light and joy. Bles- sed be Gad! that mewere horn in the days of the Messiah, since Christ returned from the dead, and that we were not sent either to the schools of the philosophers, or even to Moses, to teach us how todie., IV. Learn from these discourses, what a sweet and delight- ful glory belongs to the covenant of grace, that turns a curse into a blessing. When the broken law, or covenant of works attempts to curse thee with death, O believer, (as Balaam did Israel) the Lord thy God turns the curse into a bles sing to thee by this new covenant, because the Lord thy God loveth thee; Deut. xxiii. 5. So afflictions are turned into mercies by the virtue of this covenant, they mortify our sins, they wean us from the
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