of life, even in the time of health! Perhaps, some of you, well know this to be true. But in health, people can, in fome measure, run away from themselves, if I may so speak. They fly to bufinefs, company, and amufements, to hide themselves from their own reflections. Their fears are tranfient, occafional, and partial; they would tremble indeed, if they knew all; or if they were ftedfastly, and deliberately to contemplate, what they do know. How fin is the fting of death, is best discovered, when conscience is alarmed in a time of sickness; when the things of the world can no longer amufe, and death is approaching with hasty strides. These scenes are mostly kept fecret. And, very often, they are not understood, by those who are fpectators of them. Perhaps, the unhappy terrified finner is confidered as delirious, because the sting of death in his confcience, extorts from him, fuch confeffions and complaints as he never made before. What was once flighted, as a fable, is now feen and felt, as a reality. Such cafes, I am afraid, are more frequent than we are in general aware of. But they are fuppreffed, afcribed to the violence of VOL. II. Y the the fever, and forgotten as foon as poffible. Yet they do fometimes transpire. I believe, there is no reafon to doubt the truth of what we have heard, of one, who, in the horrors of defpair, vainly offered his phyficians many thousand pounds, to prolong his life but a fingle day. The relation is in print of another, who pointing to the fire in his chamber, faid, If he were only to lie twenty thousand years in fuch a fire, he should esteem it a mercy, compared with what he felt, and with what he faw awaiting him. It is not always thus. Many perfons die, infenfible as they lived, and can, perhaps, trifle and jest in their last moments. But the fcripture affures us, that when they who die in their fins, breathe their laft in this world, they open their eyes, in the other world, in torments. For the fting of death, the defert of fin, unless timely removed by faith in Jefus, will fill the foul with anguifh for ever. It derives a ftrength, an efficacy, and a continuance from the law. This law, which gives ftrength to fin, and fharpens the fting of death, is the law of our creation, as connected with the penalty, which, God has annexed to the breach of it. Our relation to God, as we are his creatures, requires us, according to the very nature of things, fupremely to love, ferve, trust, and obey him, who made us, and in whom we live, and breathe, and have our being *. And our revolting from him, and living to ourfelves in oppofition to his will, is such an affront to his wifdom, power, authority, and goodness, as muft neceffarily involve mifery in the very idea of it; if his perfections, the capacity of our fouls, and our abfolute dependance upon him, be attended to. And they must be attended to, fooner or later. Though he keep long filence, and the finner prefumes upon his patience, and thinks him Such a one as himself, he will at length reprove him t, and fet his fins in order before him, in contraft with the demands of his law. The nature, authority, extent, and fanction of this law, all combine to give efficacy to the fting of death. 1. The law, to which our tempers and conduct ought to be conformed, is not an arbitrary appointment; but neceffarily refults from our state as creatures, and the capacities and powers, we have received from our *Acts xvii. 28. + Pf. 1. 21. Y 2 Creator. Creator. It is, therefore, holy, wise, and good; indispensable, and unchangeable. To love God with all our heart and strength, to depend upon him, to conform to every intimation of his will, was the duty of man from the first moment of his exiftence; was the law of his nature, written originally in his heart. The republication of it, as it stands in the Bible, by precepts and prohibitions, would not have been neceffary, had he continued in that state of rectitude in which he was created. It became neceffary, after his fall, to restrain him from evil, and to convince him of fin; but could not properly increase his primitive obligation to obedience. 2. We are bound to the obfervance of this law, by the highest authority. It is the law of God, our Maker, Preferver, and Benefactor, who has every conceivable right to govern us. His eye is always upon us, and we are furrounded by his power, fo that we can neither avoid his notice, nor escape his hand. Men are ufually tenacious of their authority; they feldom allow their dependants, to difpute or disobey their commands with impunity. It is expected that a fon should 8 fhould honour his father, and a fervant his master *. And when men have power to execute the dictates of their pride, they frequently punish disobedience with death. But how will these haughty worms, who trample upon their fellow-worms, and think they have a right to the most implicit obedience from their inferiors; how will they tremble, when they shall appear before God, who is no refpecter of perfons, to answer for their contempt of the authority of the fovereign Lawgiver, who, alone, is able to fave or to deftroy? That we ought to obey God rather than man †, will, perhaps, be allowed as a fpeculative truth; but whoever will uniformly make it the rule of his practice, must expect, upon many occafions, to be deemed a fool or a madman, by the world around him. But fovereignty, majesty, authority, and power, belong to God. He is the Governor of the univerfe, and his throne is established in righteousness. He is longfuffering, and waits to be gracious, but he will not forego his right. Sin is the sting of death, indeed, when the authority of him * Mal. i. 6. + A& v. 29. Y 3 against |