the tares, and arranged at his right hand. When the Lord fhall come, attended by his holy angels, his redeemed people will re-affume their bodies, refined, and freed from all that was corruptible; and those of them who fhall be then living, will be changed, and caught up to meet him in the air. He will then own them, approve and crown them, before affembled worlds. Every charge that can be brought against them will be overruled, and their plea, that they trusted in him for falvation, be admitted and ratified. They will be accepted and justified. They will shine like the fun in his train, and attend, as affeffors with him, when he shall pafs final judgment upon his and their enemies. Then he will be admired in and by them that believe. Their tears will be for ever wiped away, when he shall fay to them, Come ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world *. Beloved, if these things are fo, what manner of perfons ought we to be in all holy converfation and godliness +? Should we not give all diligence to make our calling and election † 2 Pet. iii. II. * Matt. xxv. 34. fure, fure, that we may be found of him in peace? He who will then be feated upon the throne of judgment, is, to us, made known as feated. upon a throne of grace. It is time, it is high time, and bleffed be God it is not yet too late, to seek his mercy. Still the gospel invites us to hear his voice, and to humble ourselves before him. invited, some of you, Once more you are perhaps, for the last time; how know you, but sickness, or death, may be at the very door? Confider, Are you prepared? Examine the foundation of your hope and do it quickly, impartially and earnestly, left you fhould be cut off in an hour when you are not aware, and perif with a lie in your right hand. SER SERMON XLIII. DEATH SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. I COR. XV. 54. Then shall be brought to pass the Saying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory! D' EATH, fimply.confidered, is no more than a privative idea, fignifying a cesfation of life; or, that what was once living, lives no longer. But it has been the general, perhaps, the universal custom of mankind, to perfonify it. Imagination gives death a formidable appearance, arms it with a dart, fting or scythe, and represents it as an active, inexorable and invincible reality. In this view death is a great devourer; with his iron tongue, he calls for thousands at a meal. meal. He has already swallowed up all the preceding generations of men; all who are now living are marked as his inevitable prey; he is ftill unfatisfied, and will go on devouring till the Lord fhall come. Then this destroyer fhall be destroyed; he shall fwallow no more, but be fwallowed up himself, in victory. Thus the fcripture accommodates itself, to the language and apprehenfions of mortals. Farther the metaphorical usage of the word, Swallow, still enlarges and aggrandizes the idea. Thus the earth is faid to have opened her mouth, and fwallowed up Korah and his accomplices*. And thus a pebble, a mill-ftone, or a mountain, if caft into the ocean, would be swallowed up, irrecoverably loft and gone, as though they had never been †. Such fhall be the triumphant victory of MESSIAH, in the great day of the confummation of all things. Death, in its caufe, and in its effects, fhall be utterly deftroyed. Man was created upright, and lived in a paradife, till, by fin, he brought death into the world. From that time, death has reigned by fin, and evils abound. But MESSIAH came to make an Numb. xvi. 32. + Rev. xviii. 21. end |