done on your death bed may be, to die tranquil and

serene.

As for you who have received the grace of God, be not remiss in your conflict against sin; be not negligent in perfecting your sanctification, in the fear of God. Think not that you may finish the remainder of your work on your sick bed, and there make up any deficiency in your account, before it is finally closed. Do ye then know how many hours you will have for your preparation on your death bed? Are ye assured that your distemper will be of such a nature, as to leave you in full possession of your understanding till the last moment? Habituate yourselves in due time to the performance of those duties, on which your mind will be employed in your last hours; so that, if the Lord is pleased to grant you time, your last hour may be an hour of triumph; and that if, on the other hand, you should be suddenly surprised by death, yet your souls shall suffer no detriment, but pass calmly into life.

As for you, ye timerous, but believing and upright souls, be not cast down with the apprehension of death, and ask whence should joy come in a dying hour, after such long and severe conflicts with dejection, fear, and dread? God can suddenly roll the weighty stone of the fear of death from your hearts, and comfort you with the hope of a glorious resurrection.

Look unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith, and obey his divine precepts in the time of your life; and this will be the most effectual means not only for dying happily but joyfully; so that in the hour appointed for your last in the counsel of your heavenly Father, you may say with joy, 'It is finished! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit !'

THE PRAYER.

Now all praise be to thee, O faithful and ever living Saviour, for sanctifying our last hours by thine, and

leaving us therein a glorious pattern for our imitation. Behold the last moments of our lives are still before us, and none of us know how many steps they have to the end of their journey. Grant therefore, to every one a wise and understanding heart, not to put off his preparation for death, till the last moments of his life; but that in the days of health, he may give up his heart to thee, disentangle himself from the accursed snares of sin, and endeavour by thy grace to transplant himself from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light; so that he may know whither to fly for refuge when the terrors of death assault his soul. Those who are already passed from death unto life, and in whom the foundation of a lively hope of a blessed eternity is laid, do thou daily animate, and every morning awaken them with the thoughts, that every day may be their last; so that thus they may always keep their loins girded, and their lamps burning. Graciously stand by them in their last conflict, so that all who attend their death bed may behold their joy and tranquility, and learn to prepare for such an exit. Grant this for the sake of thy glorious name. Amen.

CONSIDERATION X.

THE PRODIGIES WHICH HAPPENED AT THE DEATH OF THE LORD JESUS.

'AND behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened; and the bodies of many saints who slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion who stood over against him, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw that

he so cried out, and the earthquake, and those things that were done; they feared greatly, and glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man; truly this was the Son of God. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. And all his acquaintance, and the women that had followed him from Gallilee, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less, and the mother of Joses, and Salome, and the mother of Zebedee's children, who also, when he was in Gallilee followed him and ministered unto him, and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem, stood afar off beholding these things,' (Matt. xxvii. 51-56. Mark xv. 38-41. Luke xxiii. 45.-49.)

In explaining these words we shall consider,

First, The miracles which followed our Saviour's death.

Secondly, The effect which those miraculous events had on the spectators.

I. No sooner had the blessed Jesus bowed his head, and commended his soul into the hands of his Father, than a most extraordinary scene of wonders opened to the unbelieving Jews, to certify that the person who was just departed, was he, whom Isaiah emphatically stiles WONDERFUL, (Isaiah ix. 6.) As our blessed Saviour's birth was attended with a giorious apparition of the heavenly host, which descended from heaven praising and glorifying God; so now at his death, our earth felt strange convulsions, unknown at the death of any person before.

In considering these wonderful phenomena, we shall in general observe the two following particulars. First, The end and design of them.

Secondly, The signification of these miraculous

events.

The first general observation is this: As God in all the extraordinary operations of his omnipotence has

always the wisest views; so had he likewise some wise design in exhibiting these wonders. If we reflect a little on the causes and end of them, we may learn,

1. That by these extraordinary phenomena, God intended to awaken the attention of stupid, thoughtless men; and to induce them to consider the death of this extraordinary person, and enquire into the cause of it.

2. It was God's design, by these miracles, to retrieve the honour of his Son, which had been extremely injured by an ignominious crucifixion, and to give a public testimony of his innocence. The Lord Jesus, when he was nailed to the cross, would give no proof of his miraculous power, nor deliver himself from suffering death, as his enemies required; but referred the manifestation of his innocence to his Almighty Father. And this amiable temper he had already shewn, when he said, 'I seek not mine own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth,' (John viii. 50.) Now this saying of Christ was here verified. For when the Son of God had expired on the cross in the utmost ignominy and reproach, the Father came forth from his secret sanctuary, and vindicated the honour of his Son who had been numbered among the transgressors, by commanding even the inanimate creation, in an extraordinary manner, as it were to celebrate his obsequies.

3. By these wonderful events, not only our blessed Saviour's innocence, but likewise his Divine majesty and glory were eminently displayed. He had been sentenced to die for falsely pretending to be the Son of God, as his infatuated enemies imagined: But now, all nature by an extraordinary tremor shewed, that the Lord of nature expired; that God manifested in the flesh was departed; that the Prince of life was put to death; and that the Lord of glory was crucified.

4. This manifestation of the Divine power, which fell out at the crucifixion of our Saviour, is a salutary antidote against the offence of the cross. To reason, indeed, it may at first sight appear something strange, to believe in one who died on the cross, and to expect eternal life from him. But if a rational man reflects, how signally God himself glorified this crucified person at his death, it will inspire him with better thoughts of him, and make him look on the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus in a very different light, from that of an evil doer.

The second general observation relates to the signification of these prodigies; which are of such a nature, as, at the same time, to have a certain signification, relatively to the unbelieving Jews, and also to believers. They are so particularly ordered by the Divine wisdom, as very significantly to represent the power and effect of our Saviour's death; and this will the more plainly appear, on considering each of these prodigies in their order.

The first miraculous event, which followed our Saviour's death, was the rending the vail of the temple: And behold,' says the evangelist, (Matt. xxvii. 51.) the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.' In the temple were two vails, one of which hung before the door leading into the sanctuary*, and the other before the door, or opening, into the Holy of Holies, and these were made of azure, purple, and scarlet silk threads curiously interwoven, and embroidered with the most beautiful flowers and cherubims. But the latter of these vails only is here spoken off. If one considers that, ac

* See Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, B. VIII. C. 3.

↑ This vail, which St. Paul mentions in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (Chap. ix. v. 3.) in the second Temple, supplied the place of the partition wall, which divided the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple, mentioned 1 Kings vi. 16. For in the second Temple, there were two vails that hung down from two large beams, one towards the Sanctuary, and the other towards the Holy of Holies.