DISCOURSE XI. 233 approaches of death', and to hide him in the grave from some overwhelming sorrows. This is the glory, of God in his cove- nant of grace with the children of men, that he turns curses into blessings; Dent. xxiii. 5. And the grave which was design- ed as a prison for shiners, is become a place of shelter to the saints, where they are hidden and secured. from rising sorrows and calamities. it is God's known hiding -place for his own chil- dren from the envy and the rage of men, from all the known and unknown agonies of nature, the diseases of the flesh, and the distresses of human life, which perhaps might be overbearing and intolerable. Why, O my fearful soul, why shouldst thou be afraid of dying ? Why shouldst thou be frighted at the dark shadows of the grave, when thou art weary with the toils and crosses of the day'? "'Hest thou not often desired the shadow of the evening, and longed for the bed of natural sleep, where thy fatigues and thy sorrows may be forgotten' for a season ? And is not the grave itself a sweet sleeping -place for the saints, wherein they lie down and forget their distresses, and feel none of the miseries of human life, and especially since it is softened and sanctified by the Son of God lying down theere? Why shouldst thou he afraid to lay-thy head in the dust? It is hut entering into God's hitt- ing place, into his chambers of rest and repose It is but comp Sitting thy flesh, the meaner part of thy composition, to his care in the dark for a short season : He will hide thee there, and keep thee in safety from the dreadful trials which perhaps would overwhelm thy spirit. Sometimes in the course of his providence he may find it necessary, that some spreading calamity should overtake the place where thou (liveliest, or some distressing stroke fall upon thy family, or thy friends, but he will hide thee under ground before it comes, and thus disappoint all thy fears, and lay every perplexing thought into rest and silence. Il. Let it be ever remembered, that the grave is God's hid- ing- place, and not our own : We are to venture into it without terror when he calls us but he does not suffer us to break into it our own way without his call. Death and life are in the hands of God, and he never gave the keys of them to mortal men to let themselves out of this world, when they please, nor to enter into his hiding -place without his leave. " Bear up then, O my soul, under all the sorrows and trials of this present state till God himself shall say, It is finish- ed ; John xix. 20. till our blessed Jesus, who has the keys put into his hands, shall open the door of death, and give thee an entrance into that dark and peaceful retreat. It is a. safe and silent refuge from the hustle and the noise, the labours and the troubles of life ; but he that forces it open with his own hands, how will he dare to appear before God in the world of spirits ?
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