Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.2

bISCOURSE 1. 367 body is put to rest in the grave ; the grave, which is sanctified into a bed of rest for all the followers of Christ, since their Lord and Master has lain there. In the gospel of Christ, the name of death is altered intd sleep. Christ, who has subdued it, seems to have given it this new name, that it might not have a frightful sound in the ears of his beloved. Though it was sometimes called sleep in the Old Testament, yet that chiefly regarded the silence, and darkness; and inactivity of that state ; whereas in the New Testament, and in the xiith of Daniel, it is called sleep, to denote that there is an awaking time. The ancient christians, upon this account, call- ed the church-yard, where they buried the dead, x,ogµnrnp.ov, a sleeping-place. And though the grave may he termed the prison of death, yet death is not lord of the prison ; he can detain the captives there but duringthe pleasureof Christ, for he who is gltvefor evermore, has the keys ofdeathand hell, that is of the se- parate state ; Rev. is 18. Now this is the true reason why chris- tians have spoken somanykind things of death, Which is the king of terrors to a natural man. Theycall it a release from pain and sin, a messenger of peace, the desired hour, and the happy mo- ment. All this is spoken while they behold it with an eye of faith in the hands of Christ, who has subdued it to himself, and con- strained it to serve the designs ofhis love to them. 3. When it has done all Christ's work, it shall be utterly de- stroyed. After the resurrection, there shall be no more dying. The saints shall rise immortal, and dwell in heaven for ever, in the complete enjoyment of all that is included in thename ofLIFE. As the angel in prophecy lifts up his hand, and swears by Him that livesfor ever andever, that tirite shall be no longer ; Rev. x. 6. So Christ Jesus, the Lord of angels, shall, as it were, pronounce with a sovereign voice, that death shall be no more. He shall send the great archangelwith the trumpet of God ; it shall sound through the deepest caverns ofthe grave,and shall summon death from its inmost recesses. The tyrant shall hear and obey, and restore all his captives out of prison ; the dead shall hearthe voice ofthe Son ofGod, and live, John v. 25, 28, 29. They that have done gooduntot he resurrectionoflife, and they that have done evil unto the resurreetinn of damnation. After this our Lord has no employment for deathhis slave; the bodies ofmen shall die no more : Thereshall be no more any state of separation between the flesh and spirit Rev. xv. 14. And death and hell, or Hades, were cast into the lake' offire'.; that is, there shall be no more death, no grave, no separate state of souls, all these shall be for ever destroyed. . I. We may infer from this third general head, the great power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; we may learn the honour that is due to him from mortals; it is he that hath sub-

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