330 coca TEST a7EIC DEATn. bróken in death ; all that the saint intended to do for God, is cut off at ,once, and his holy purposes are precluded, which often adds to the trouble of a dying christien ; Ps. cxlvi. 4. When man returns to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. Shall I put you in mind of the sighs and sorrows of dearest friends that standaround thebed all in tears, and all despairing ? Shall I speak of the last convulsions of nature, the sharp con- flict of the extreme moments, and the struggling and painful ef- forts of departing life, which none can know fullybut those that have felt them,.and none of the dead come back to give us an ac- count? Is it possible for us to survey these scenes of misery, and not to believe that the hand of an enemy has been there ? The bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and the members of Christ; 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19. Death murders these' bodies, these members, of the Lord, and ruins these tem- pies to the dust, and may well be called their enemy upon this account. 2. Death acts like an enemy, when it makes a separation between the soul and the body. It divides the natureof man in halves, and tears the two constituent parts of it asunder. Though this becomes an advantage to the soul of the saint through the covenant and appointment of grace, yet to have sách an intimate union dissolved between fleshand spirit carriessome- thing of terror in it ; and there may be an innocent reluctance in the nature of the best christian against such an enemy as this therefore St. Paul, in 2 Cor. v. 4. does not directly desire to be uncloatlied, but rather to be clouthed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life; that is, to be translated at once into an im- mortal state. The soul and body have been long acquainted with each other, and the soul has performed almost all its opera- tionsby the use of the senses and the limbs : It sees by the eye, it hears by the ear, it acts by the halals, and by the tongue it con- verses. New to be separated at once from all these, and to be at once conveyed iuta a new strange world, a strange and unknown state both of being and action, has something in it so surprising, thatit is a little frightful to the nature of man, even when he is sanctified and fitted for heaven. And as the soul is dismissed by death into a state of separa- tion, so the body, likea fallen tabernacle, is forsaken, lies unin- habited and desolate. Shall I lead your thoughts back to the bed where your dear relatives expired ? and give you a sight of the dead, whose beauty is turning apace into corruption, and all the loveliness of countenance fled for ever ? Thebody, that curious engine of divine workmanship, is become a moveless lump : Death sits heavy upon it, and the sprightliness and vigour of life is perished in every feature and in every limb ? Shall we godown to the darkchambers of the grave, where each of the dead lie iu
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