Whofe heart is not ready to fail him in the profpect? Who does not find his reafon and sometimes his faith too, ready to fink, when he is going to encounter the king of terrors, and pass through his dark and gloomy regions to an unknown and unalterable ftate? And in vain we call to reafon, and afk philosophy to furnish us with fufficient armour of defence, and to fortify our minds against the attacks of this ftern invader. It is the peculiar glory of the gofpel of Chrift to affift our reason, and increase our faith in proportion to the strength of the enemy, and the different impreffions which the apprehenfions of it make upon our minds. And this it does by the discovery it makes of a future ftate, a glorious refurrection, and a final everlasting triumph over death.

Having thus briefly viewed the frightful features of the enemy, let us turn our eyes to a more bright and agreeable scene; and obferve

II. True Chriftians fhall obtain a compleat victory over death.

The text informs us that a victory shall be gained, and it fhall be fo compleat, that death may be faid to be even fwallowed up

in

in it, quite destroyed, and no traces or remainders of it be found. This is confirmed by the paffage already mentioned; verse 26. The last enemy that shall be deftroyed is death. The word (xalayla) rendered deftroyed, fignifies being divested of an authority it had before, and being reduced to an incapacity of exerting any further power +. Thus after the fame apoftle had been speaking of perfecution, peril, and fword, of being killed all the day-long, as the lot of himself and his fellow-chriftians, he adds, nay in all thefe Rom. viii. things we are more than conquerors, compleat, glorious, triumphant conquerors-And this is agreeable to what God himself declares concerning this formidable enemy, with fo much grandeur and majesty. I will ransom Hof. xiii. them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy deftruction; repentance fhall be hid from my eyes.

For the further illuftration of this comfortable truth, let us obferve, that the victory is in fome measure obtained in the prefent life-but it shall be perfected in the future.

1. The victory is in fome measure obtained even in the present life.

Chrift

+ Compare verfe 24. where the fame word is rendered. put down.

37.

14.

10. com

pared with

Rom. iii. 3.31.

1 Cor. i. 28. xiii. 8. Eph. ii.

15.

Christ gained a victory by his own resurrection, and the revelation and promife of a happiness beyond the grave; for he hath abolifked death, (abolished its tyranny, destroyed its force, and rendered it, compara2 Tim. i. tively, of none effect,) and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He has affured us of the certainty and eternity of the future ftate, and largely explained its nature. He has not indeed removed the natural fears of death which are Heb. ii. 14. wrought into our very conftitution, and are the springs of many of our actions; nor is it his intention entirely to remove from the minds of good men that fear of death, which has an apparent tendency to promote seriousnefs and watchfulness, an heavenly difpofition which keeps them always prepared for the coming of the Lord. But he has taken away the flavish apprehenfions of it, and delivered them, who, through fear of death, were all their life long fubject to bondage. Death has now, in effect, changed its nature. It only hurts the body, not the foul. It only puts an end to those pursuits, employments, and entertainments, which are fuited to the body, and this prefent world; but not to those, about which holy fouls are engaged, and with which they are delighted

and

and improved. Nay, it is become, on many accounts, a benefit; as it puts an end to their temptations and conflicts, doubts and fears; as it hides their bodies in the grave, for ever shelters them from the pains and forrows to which they are here expofed, and transports their separate spirits to everlasting purity and peace.

A present victory is obtained by the calmnefs with which the faints die; and that joy unspeakable, and full of glory, with which the Spirit of Chrift fometimes replenishes their hearts, when the flesh is finking into the duft.-Are they not conquerors, when, with fmiles in their pale coutenances, and fongs of praise upon their quivering lips, they calmly yield to the ftroke of death, and, through Christ who ftrengtheneth them, triumph over all its frightful powers, faying, O death, where is thy fting? O grave, where is thy victory? Let me add, this is death's laft attack. It ftrikes once, but can never strike more; and "all the hurt it can pof"fibly do them, is to put it abfolutely out "of his own power ever to hurt them any "more *" which leads me to add further. *Mr.Hows 2. The victory fhall be perfected in the future world.

And this will appear, when we confider,

that all the faithful fervants of Chrift hall be raised again; their bodies shall be tranfformed into the likenefs of Chrift's body; and they shall be fixed in a state of compleat and everlafting happiness.

1. All the faithful fervants of Christ shall be raised again.

They are laid in the grave, but not one of them fhall be loft there. Death feeds in them, but at the great day they shall have the dominion. That there fhall be a resurrection of the dead, that their bodies, which are turned to corruption, fhall be redeemed, and fo much of each, as fhall be fufficient to denominate it their own body, collected and united by the almighty power of God, is certainly declared in the holy fcriptures. We have fome intimations of this in the old teftament, upon which the Jews grounded their belief, that there fhould be a refurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unActs xxiv. just. But it is plainly revealed in the new. The hour is coming when all, that are in their graves, shall bear the voice of Christ, and come forth. This (fays he) is the will of him that fent me, that every one which feeth

15.

John v.

28.

vi. 40.

the Son, and believeth on him, may have ever

lafting life, and I will raife him up at the last

day.