DISCOURSE L 355 given to Adam in paradise, Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die. It came in as a punishment for sin, and every pu- nishment in some respect opposes our interest, and our happiness. When it seized on man at first, and planted the seeds of mor- tality in his nature, he then began to be deprived of that peace and health, that vigour and immortality which he possessed be- fore his fall, till at last it brought him down to the dust ; and ever since, all the sons of Adam have found and felt it an enemy to their natures. 'ro sinners indeed it is an enemy in a more dreadful sense, and its attendants are more terrible-a thousand-fold. For besides all thecommon miseries of the flesh which they sustain, itt delivers over their spirits into everlasting misery; it finishes their reprieve and their hope for ever; itplunges them at once into all the ter- rors of a most awakened conscience, and cuts them off from all the amusements and cares of this life, which laid their guilt and their conscience asleep for a season. Death consigns over a sin- ner to the chains of the grave, and the chains of hell together, and binds and reserves him a prisoner of despair for the most complete torments of the second death. But I would confine my discourse here only to believers, for it A with respect to them this,chapter is written. I know death isoften called their friend, because it puts an end to their sins and sorrows ; but this benefit arises only from the covenant of grace; which sanctifies it to some good purposes to the children of God. It is constrained to become their friend in some instances, con- trary to its own nature and its original design : But there is rea- son enough, if we take a survey ofits own nature, and its presents appearances, to call it an enemy still, upon these following ac- counts : L Death has generally many terrible attendants and fore- runners when it comes ; terrible to nature and the flesh of the most exalted christians. Here, should I begiti to describe the long and dismal train of death, the time would fail me. Shall I mention the sickness and the pain, the sharp anguishof the body, and sometimes the sharper methods of medicine to relieve it, all which prove useless and vain in that day ? Shall I recount the tedious and uneasy hours, the tiresome and sleepless nights, when the patient longs for the slow return of the morning ; and still when the light breaks, he finds new uneasiness, and wishes for the shadow and darkness again ? Shall I speak of the dulness of the natural spirits, and the clogs that hang heavy upon the soul in those hours ; so that the better part of man is bound and oppressed, and shut up, and cannot exert itself agreeable to the character of an intellectual being ? Besides, all the designs of the mind are interrupted and z2
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