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ward Man, and colour over themselves with fome Performances of religious Duties, and smooth themselves with Civility in Carriage; yet, alas! how few are they who are renewed in the Spirit of their Mind, and have put on Chrift in their inward Man, who have opened the Secrets of their Hearts, and received him to ly all Night between their Breafts? How few are bufied about their Hearts, to have any new Impreffion and Dye upon their Affections, to mould them after aus, Chrift without, delivering from new Manner, to kill the Love of this Wrath, and Chrift within, redeeming World, and the Lufts of it, and caft out from all Iniquity, thefe cannot be parted, the Rottennefs and Superfluity of Naugh more than his Coat that had no Seam. It tinefs which abides within? But fome is a heavy and weighty Word of this Athere are, who are perfuaded thus to do, poftle's, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Examine your to give up their Spirits to Religion, and felves, whether you be in the Faith: all their Bufinefs and Care is, to bave Know you not your felves, that Chrift is Chrift within, as well as without. Now, in you, except you be reprobates ? I if the rest of you will not be perfuaded to wish you would lay it to Heart, who have be of this Number, confider what you never yet returned to your Hearts: If prejudge your felves of, of all the Com- Chrift be not formed in you, as Gal. ir. fort of Religion; and then Religion is no 19. you are as yet among the Refufe, Religion, and to no Purpose, if you have Drofs, and that which must be burnt noBenefit by it. And certainly, except with Fire: You camot but be caft away Chrift be in you, as a King to rule you, in the Day when be makes up bis and a Prophet to teach you, to fubdue Jewels. Where Chrift is, he is the your Lufts, and to difpel your Darkness, Hope of Glory, he is an immortal Seed when he appears, he cannot appear to of Glory. How can you hope for Christ, your Comfort and Salvation. You are who have nothing of him within you? deprived of this great Cordial againft Death, and Death muft feize upon all that is within you, Soul and Body, Gince Chrift the Spirit of Life is not within you. Happiness without you, will not make you happy: Salvation round about you will not fave you. If you would be faved, there must be a near and immediate Union with Happiness, Cbrift in the Heart, and Salvation cometh with him. A Chriftian is not only Chrift without not imputing his Sins to him, clothing Aim with his Righteoufaefs; but Cbrif

within too, cleaning the Heart from the Love of Sin, perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God. Do not think you have any Share in Chrift without you, except, you receive Chrift within yon; because Chrift is one within and without, and his Gifts are undivided. Therefore true Faith receives whole Chrift, as a compleat Saviour; even as he is entirely offered, fo he is undividedly received: As he is without faving us, and within fanctifying

Now, the other Touch-ftone of true Religion, is, the great Comfort it furni fees to the Soul: And of all Comforts the greateft is that, which is a Cordial to the Heart, against the greatest Fears and Evils. Now, certainly the Matter of greatest Fear is Death, not fo much be caufe of itself, but chiefly because of that Eternity of unchangeable Mifery, that naturally it tranfmits them uuto. Now, it is only Chriftian Religion poffeffing the Heart, that arms a Man compleatly a gainft the Fear either of Death itself, or

the

the Confequents of it: It giveth the most powerful Confolation, that not only everCometh the Bitterness, and taketh out the Sting of Death, but changeth the Nature of it fo far, as to make it the Matter of Triumph and Gloriation.

There is fomething here fuppofed, the worst that can befal a Chriftian, it is the Death of a Part of bim, and that the worst and ignobleft Part only, the Body is dead because of Sin. Then, that which is oppofed by Way of Comfort to counterballance it, is, the Life of bis better and more noble Part: And befides we have the Fountains both of that Death and this Life, Mans Sin the Cause of bodily Death, Chrift's Righteousness the Fountain of fpiritual Life.

Of Death many have had Tweet Meditations, even among these that the Light of the World hath not thined upon: And indeed they may make us afhamed who profefs Christianity, and fo the Hope of the Refurrection from the Dead, that they have accounted it only true Wisdom and found Philofophy, to meditate often on Death; and made it the very principal Point of living well, to be always learning to die; and have applied their whole Studies that Way, neglecting prefent Things that are in the by have given themselves to search out fome Comfort against Death, or from Death. Yea, fome have fo profited in this,that they have accounted Death the greateftGood that can befal Man, and perfuaded others to think fo. Now, what may we think of our felves, who scarce apprehend Mortality, efpecially confidering that we have the true Fountain of it revealed to us, and the true Nature and Confequents of it.

All Men muft needs know, that Death is the most univerfal King in the World, that it reigns over all Ages, Sexes, Con

ditions, Nations and Times: Though
few be willing to entertain Thoughts of
it; yet fooner or later they must be con
ftrained to give it lodging upon their
Eye-lids, and fuffer it to ftorm the very
ftrongest Tower, the Heart, and bat
ter it down, and break the Strings of it,
having no Way either to fly from it, or
refift it. Now, the Confideration of the
general Inundation of Death over all
Mankind, and the certain approaching of
it to every particular Man's Door, hath
made many ferious Thoughts among the
wife Men of the World: But being
deftitute of this heavenly Light that thin
eth to us, they could not attain to the O-
riginal of it; but have conceived that it
was a common Tribute of Nature, and
an univerfal Law impofed upon all Man-
kind by Nature, having the fame Reason,
that other Mutations and Changes among
the Creatures here below have; and fo
have thought it no more ftrange Thing,
than to fee other Things diffolved in their
Elements. Now indeed, feeing they
could apprehend no other bitter Ingredi-
ent in it, it was no wonder that the wifeft
of them could not fear it, but rather wait
and expect it as a Reft from their La
bours, as the End of all their Miferies.

But the Lord hath revealed unto us in his Word, the true Cause of it, and fo the true Nature of it. The true Cause of it is Sin, Sin entred into the World, and Death paft upon all, for that all bave finned, Rom. v. 12. Man was created for another Purpofe, and upon other Conditions, and a Law of perpetual Life and eternal Happiness was paft in his Favours, he abiding in the Fa vour and obeying the Will of him that gave him Life and Being. Now, Sin interpofing, and feparating between Man and God, loofing that bleffed Knot of

Union

membrances of our Sins? Is not every Day prefenting our primitive Departure from God, our firft Separation from the Fountain of Life by Sin, to our View, and in fuch fad and woful Effects pointing out the Hainoufnefs of Sin? Do you not fee Meas Bodies every Day diffolved, the Tabernacle of Earth taken down, and the Soul constrained to remove out of it? But what Influence hath it upon us, what do the multiplied Funerals work upon us? It may be, Sorrow for our Friends, but little or no Apprehenfion of our own Mortality, and bafe Impression of Sin, that feparates our Souls from God. Who is made fadly to reflect upon his Original, or to mind seriously that Statute and Appointment of Heaven, in that Day thou foalt die? It is ftrange that all of us

Union and Communion, it was this other Law that fucceeded, as a fuitable Recomvence, thou fbalt die: It is refolved in the Council of Heaven, that the Union of Man fhall be diffolved, his Soul and Body feparated, in juft Recompence of the breaking the Bond of Union with God. This is it that hath opened the Sluice, to let in an Inundation of Mifery on Mankind: This was the just Occasion of that righteous but terrible Appointment, It is appointed that all Men once bould die, and after Death come to Judg. ment, Heb. ix. 27. That fince the Body had inticed the Soul, and fuggefted unto it fuch unnatural and rebellious Motions of withdrawing from the bleffed Fountain of Life, to fatisfy its Pleasure, the Body fhould be under a Sentence of Deprivement and Forfeiture of that great Bene-fear Death, and few are afraid of Sin, fit and Privilege of Life it had by the Soul's indwelling, and condemned to return to its first base Original, the Duft, and to be made a Feast of Worms, to lodge in the Grave, and be a subject of the greatest Corruption and Rottennefs, because it became the Inftrument, yea, the Incitement of the Soul to Sin againft that God that had from Heaven breathed a Spirit into it, and exalted it above all the Duft or Clay in the World. Now, my Beloved, do we not get many Re

that carries Death in its Bofom. That we are fo unwilling to reap Corruption in our Bodies, and yet we are so earneft and laborious in sowing to the Flesh. Bo not deceived, for you are daily reaping what you have fown. And, O! that it were all the Harveft; but Death is only the putting in of the Sickle of Vengeance, the first cut of it: But O! to think on what follows, would certainly restrain Men, and cool them in their fervent Purfuits after Sin.

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SERMON XXVII

Verf. 10. And if Chrift be in you, the Body is dead becaufe of Sin: But the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness.

THE Sting of Death is Sin, and the Strength of Sin is the Law, faith our Apoftle, 1 Cor. xv. 56. These two concur to make Man mortal, and thefe two are the bitter Ingredients of Death. Sin procured it, and the Law appointed it: And God hath feen to the exact Execution of that Law in all Ages; for what Man livetb and ball not taste of Death? Two only escaped the common Lot, Enoch and Elias; for they pleafed God, and God took them: And befides, it was for a Pledge, that at the laft Day all fhall not die, but be changed. The true Caufe of Death is Sin, and the true Nature of it is penal, to be a Punishment of Sin: Take away this Relation to Sin, and Death wants the Sting. But in its firft Appointment, and as it prevails generally over Men, aculeata eft mors, it hath a Sting that pierceth deeper, and woundeth forer than to the Defolation of the Body, it goeth in to the innermoft Parts of the Soul, and woundeth that eternally. The Truth is, the Death of the Body is not either the firft Death, or the laft Death: It is rather placed in the middle between two Deaths; and 'tis the Fruit of the first, and the Root of the laft. There is a Death immediately hath enfued upon Sin, and it is the Separation of the Soul from God, the Fountain of Life and Blessedness ́: And

this is the Death often spoken of, you who
were dead in Sins and Trefpaffes, &c.
Epb. ii. 1. Being past Feeling, and a
lienated from the Life of God, Eph. iv.
18, 19. And truly this is worfe in itself
than the Death of the Body imply,
though not fo fenfible, becaufe fpiritual:
The Corruption of the beft Part in Man,
in all Reafon is worse than the Corrupti
on of his worft Part: But this Death,
which confifts especially in the Loss of
that bleffed Communion with God, which
made the Soul happy, cannot be found
till fome new Life enter, or else till the
laft Death come, which adds infinite
Pain to infinite Lofs. Now the Death of
the Body fucceeds this Soul's Death, and
that is, the Separation of the Soul from
the Body, moft fuitable, feeing the Soul
was turned from the Fountain-spirit to the
Body, that the Body fhould by his Com-
mand return to Duft, and be made the
moft defiled Piece of Duft. Now, this
were not fo grievous, if it were not a
Step to the Death to come, and a Degree
of it introductive to it. But that Statute
and Appointment of Heaven hath thus
linked it, after Death comes Judgment:
Becaufe, the Soul in the Body would not
be fenfible of its Separation from God,
but was wholly taken up with the Body,
neglecting and miskenning that infinite

Lofs

whom Chrift is, he hath this fovereign Antidote against the Poifon of Death, he hath the very Sting of it taken out by Chrift, Death itself killed, and of an mortal Ene my made the kindest Friend. And fo he may triumph with the Apostle, O Death, where is thy Sting, O Grave, where is thy Victory! Thanks be to God in Jefus Chrift, who giveth us the Victory, 1 Cor. xv. 55. The Ground of his Triumph, and that which a Chriftian hath to oppofe to all the Sorrows and Pains and Fears of Death muftred against him, is threefold, one, that Death is not real, a fecond, that it is not total, even that which is, and then that it is not perpetual. This last is contained in the next ver. the second expreffed in this ver. and the firft may be understoodor implied in it. That the Na

Lofs of God's Favour and Face. there fore the Lord commands it to go out of the Body, that it may then be fenfible of its infinite Lofs of God, when it is feparated from the Body; that it may then have Leifure to reflect upon itself, and find its own furpaffing Mifery: And then indeed infinite Pain and infinite Lofs conjoined eternal Banishment from the Prefence of that bleffed. Spirit, and eternal Torment within itfelf: Thefe two concurring, what Pofture do you think fuch a Soul will be into? There are fome Earnest of this in this Life, when God reveals his Terror, and fets Mens Sins in order before their Face. O how intolerable is it, and more infupportable than many Deaths? They that have been acquainted with it, have declared it, the Terrors of God are like poifonable Arture of Death is fo far changed, that of a rows funk into Job's Spirit, and drink ing up all the Moisture of them. Such à Spirit as is wounded with one of these Darts fhot from Heaven, who can bear it? Not the moft patient and most magnanimous Spirit, that can fuftain all o ther Infirmities, Prov. xviii. 14. Now, my beloved, if it be fo now, while the Soul is in the Body, drowned in it, what will be the Cafe of the Soul feparated from the Body, when it shall be all one Senfe, to reflect and confider itfelf.

This is the Sting of Death indeed, worse than a Thousand Deaths, to a Soul that apprehends it; and the lefs it is apprehended, the worse it is; because it is the more certain, and must shortly be found, when there is no brazen Serpent to heal that Sting Now, what Comfort have you provided against this Day? What Way do you think to take out this Sting? Truly, there is no Balm for it, no Phylician for it, but one; and that the Chriftianis only acquainted with: He in

Punishment it is become a Medicine, of a Punishment for Sin it is turned into the laft Purgative of the Soul from Sin; and thus the Sting of it is taken away, that Relation it did bear to the juft Wrath of God. And now the Body of a Chriftian under Appointment to die for Sin, that is, for the Death of Sin, the eternal Death of Sin. Chrift having come under the Power of Death, hath gotten Power over it, and fpoiled it of its ftinging Vertue, he hath taken away the poifonable Ingredient of the Curfe, that it can no more hurt them that are in him, and fo it is not now vefted with that piercing and wounding Notion of Punishment. Though it be true that Sin was the first In-let of Death, that it first opened the Sluice to let it enter and flow in upon Mankind; yet that Appointment of Death is renewed, and bears a Relation to the Deftruction of Sin, rather than the Punishment of the Sinner, who is forgiven in Chrift: And, O! how much folid Comfort is here,

that

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