Page images
PDF
EPUB

ful man faith, There is a lion without, I fhall be flain in the streets." Their floth mufters up difficulties to them, forming fome that are groundlefs, imaginary ones, and aggravating real ones, fo that they conclude before hand that they will not be better, their endeavours will not fucceed, and therefore they lie ftill, and will do nothing for their own help; this ruins many.

(3.) A forrowful defpair, which arifeth from ftrong fears, which raife fuch a mift in the foul, that grounds of hope in its cafe, are hid out of fight, and they are in their foul's cafe as in Acts, xxvii. 20. neither fun nor ftars for many days appear, no fmall tempeft lies on them, and all hope'that they shall be saved is then taken away. There are different degrees of this; fometimes it is filent and fullen, making little noife, but is fmothered in one's breast like a burning fire. In fuch a cafe, one would do well to give it a vent before God, his fervants, or godly experienced Christians, lest it ruin them. This is the way David took when in fuch a cafe, Pfal. xxxix. 2.-4. " I was dumb with filence, I held my peace even from good, and my forrow was stirred; my heart was hot within me; while I was mufing, the fire burned, then fpake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am." Sometimes it is raging, as in Judas, who, under horror laid upon his fin, did miferably end his life.

Beware of all thefe, and refift the beginnings of defpair, and if it has faftened on any foul, let them ftrive to quench it, as they would do a fire. The former makes way for the latter, and all together make way for remedilefs defpair in hell. I fhall only fay two things of it.(1.) It is defiling, and

makes

makes the foul moft loathsome before God; for it conceives most bafely and abominably of God and Chrift, directly oppofing itself to the grand defign of the gofpel; it blafphemes the power of God, and the efficacy of his Son's blood and Spirit. (2.) It is ruining, for it makes the finner flee from God, and caft away the means of recovery, and fo enfures their deftruction; befides that it often drives the finner to put an end to his torment here, by leaping into endless torments before the time, as in the cafe of Judas. And while we fee how Satan is ready to take advantage, we had need to take heed.

2. Beware of prefumption. Take heed that ye do not flee from the one rock to dash on the

other. Indeed defpair is tormenting, while prefumption is eafy. Neverthelefs, though none of them is good, yet a person prefuming is ordinarily in greater hazard than one defpairing; for the prefumptuous fees not his cafe as the other does; the one is well pleased with his damnable condition, the other is weary of his, and wishes to have it changed; fo that many more perifh by the one than by the other.

To conclude: Remember, on the one hand, God is a holy jealous God, who cannot away with fin, or a state of fin, but the fire of his jealousy burns against it. On the other band, remember that the blood of Chrift takes away all guilt, his Spirit overcomes the most hopeless cafe, and his mercy reaches wide for every condition. Fear him, ye that hope in him; hope in his mercy, ye that fear him; for the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Amen.

VOL. I.

N

JESUS

JESUS VICTORIOUS OVER DEATH.*

SERMON IX.

ISAIAH, XXV. 8.-—He will swallow up death in victory.

SUCH

UCH as are defirous duly to manage this folemn communion-occafion, will have in their view the other world. We are all on a journey towards it, and, if fuitably exercifed, will improve this occafion to lay down our measures for eternity. Betwixt us and that other world, lies the great gulf of death; through it are two paffages; one deep and devouring, where the finner paffes alone; there the waters flow with all that force and ftrength which they acquired by the breach of the covenant of works. By this paffage, finners are thrown out into the land of utter darknefs and mifery. The text fhews us the other paffage, which is fhallow and fafe, where the finner paffes on at the Mediator's back, the waters being dried up by the foles of his feet, whofo paffeth

*Delivered Saturday, October 4. 1718.

paffeth this way, enters into Immanuel's land, the land of life; for he will fwalluw up death in victory.

In these words, we have a prophecy of the happy fuccefs of a battle fought by the Mediator on account of elect finners. The fuccefs is most certain; therefore it is in the Hebrew, He hath fwallowed up, &c.Here confider,

1. The combatants; the two mightiest that ever encountered. Upon the one hand is Death, with his devouring mouth, a champion who never yet could find his match among the children of men, til the great HE, in the text, entered the lifts against him, even Jefus Chrift, who being man, was capable of feeling the force of death but, being the Lord of hosts also, ver. 6. could not but be conqueror at length. So Death and the Mediator are the combatants.-There is,

;

2. The encounter of the combatants, implied in these words, HE will fwallow up death in victory. Death attempting to prey upon that elect world which was given to Chrift by the Father, HE, as Mediator, to pluck that prey out of Death's devouring mouth, encounters the terrible enemy while he is making havock of poor finners; and, having taken upon him the guilt of his elect, which gave death a power over them, death advances against him, and attacks him, and he abides the conteft. No fooner was he born, than Death mounted on his pale horse, advanced against him, and striking at him, filled Bethlehem with the blood of babes, and the fhrieks of parents. Though it could not then reach him the deadly blow, it pursued him ftill, fhot out its poisonous arrows against him all along, till they came to a clofe engagement on the crofs, where it wreftled him down even into the grave, the proper place of its dominion. So the Mediator got the first fall.

N 2

3. But

3. But behold the iffue of the battle. Death, who in all other battles wins whatever party lofes, lofes the day here; the victory is on the fide of the flain Mediator. The flain Saviour again revives, gets up upon death, ftands conqueror over it, even in its own territories, breaks the bars of the grave, takes away the fting it fought with against him, and puts it and all its forces to the rout; fo that it can never fhew its face against him any more, Rom. vi. 9. "Knowing that Chrift being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him."

4. The Mediator's purfuit of the victory, till it be complete for these that are his, as well as for himfelf: He will fwallow up death in victory. The vanquished enemy has yet many ftrong-holds in his hand, and he keeps many of the redeemed ones at under; fome of them as prifoners, that they cannot stir; others of them, though they can ftir, yet can go no where, but they muft drag the bands of death after them. But the Mediator will purfue the victory till he swallow up death, totally abolish it out of his kingdom, that there fhall no more of it be feen there for ever, as a thing that is fwallowed up is feen no more at all; our Lord is cutting it down daily, and the last of it fhall go over at the last day, 1 Cor. xv. 54. “So when this corruptible fhall put on incorruption, and this mortal fhall have put on immortality, then fhall be brought to país the faying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.-Thefe words contain in them this

DOCTRINE, That our Lord Jefus, having fought death, and obtained the victory, will purfue the victory, till death be utterly abolished out

of

« PreviousContinue »