vanquished? Our text affords here an anfwer of sweet joy and the ftrongest confolation, that this univerfal deftroyer fhall be deftroyed." The laft enemy that fhall be deftroyed *is death." Tho' he is an enemy, and the laft enemy, yet his conqueft and deftruction is certain. This is a precious hope and a tranfporting confideration, that tho' he hath and will reign long, yet he will not reign always. This our glorious Saviour and all conquering king hath done, and will infallibly accomplish. Thus the captain of our falvation hath declared, "O death, I will be thy plague, O grave, I will "be thy deftruction." His arm is almighty, and he goes forth conquering and to conquer. And the laft enemy he will vanquish and fubdue is death. But in leading your attention particularly thro' this fubject, we fhall endeavor to fhow,

First, how death is an enemy.

Secondly, establish this truth, that this enemy shall be deftroyed.

First, let us confider this chief of all enemies. It is ufual for the facred volume to employ fenfible images to communicate to our minds fpiritual ideas. Hence our ruin by fin, and recovery by the redemption of Chrift, are often exhibited to us in warlike or military terms. Thus Satan is faid to lead us captive; Chrift is filed the captain of our falvation; fin is fpoken of as bondage, chains, imprisonment; religion, as liberty, freedom, deliverance, victory, &c. Therefore all obftructions and impediments which interrupt our pafiage to everlasting blessednefs and felicity, are denominated enemies. Death is reprefented as the laft of these enemies, because he is the laft with which we have to engage in this world, and it is the laft which will be destroyed. For he never will be compleatly and perfectly conquered until the refurrection, when he muft furrender up all thofe he hath confined in his cold prison for

But in

thousands of ages. He himself muft then die and ceafe fore. ver, for after this event there will be no more death. this world he reigns and triumphs, and will hold his dominion as long as it endures. Death is an enemy to the whole hu man nature; an enemy to every individual of the race of man; an enemy to the body; an enemy to the foul; an enemy to the finner; and an enemy to the faint.

First, he is an enemy to the body. This curious machine, which was fearfully and wonderfully made, he renders it as though it had never been. He removes the pins of this grand tabernacle, and reduces it to its primitive duft. This glorious frame, which had been long in rearing, and on which the pains and labour of years had been expended to bring to maturity and perfection, is in an inftant tumbled into ruin. So that in which we much delighted, and from which we entertained the highest expectations, immediately is made fo difagreeable to us, that our friends wish it buried out of their fight. What care, attention and toil doth it take to rear fuch a creature as man? and when finished in our fond apprehenfions and fitted for service and usefulness, then does death quickly blaft our hopes, and deftroy in a moment the labour of a number of years. Truly it may be faid, "All flesh is as grafs, and "all the glory of man as the flower of grafs, the grafs wither. "eth and the flower thereof falleth away." How fuperior and noble a creature doth death destroy? To day the body is beautiful, all the parts performing their several functions; the heart moving, the lungs playing, the blood circulating, the fpirits fine, but to-morrow death comes, touches fome muscie or nerve, difconcerts fome wheel, cafts an invifible particle of infection into the infpired air, and all ftands ftill. We breathe, we speak, we think, we act no more. Our pulfe ceates to beat, and our eyes to behold the light. Our ears will hear the voice of melody no more; our ftrength is gone; our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold, and our comelinefs iuto ghaftly deformity. This mighty change doth death perform. The

prince cannot refift him by his majefty, nor the ftrong by his might. Commanders must here obey, and conquerors are here conquered. The rich cannot bribe him, the learned orator with all the profufion of his eloquence cannot perfuade him to pass him by, nor can the fkilful phyfician fave himfelf from the mortal stroke. All have finned, all muft die. "Duft we ❝are and to duft we must return."

Secondly, Death is alfo an enemy to the foul. The body and foul in their orignal formation were defigned to dwell perpetually together. Therefore these intimates have the ftrongest inclination and attachment to each other. The feparation cannot be made but by the unnatural violence of a cruel enemy. Yea, the foul of the faint clings to the body. They, who poffels the fullest affurance of a tranflation to glory, feel great defires that the body should be taken along. The apostle himself "Did not defire to be uncloathed, but rather to “be cloathed upon, that mortality might be fwallowed up of "life." That is, be tranflated at once into the celeftial ftate without the horrid pains of a diffolution. A feparation was terrible even to the human foul of Chrift himfelf, hence he earneftly prayed that this cup might pafs from him. Therefore we have perfe& affurance that death, as death, must be unwelcome as it is unfriendly to every creature. It is a natural evil in itself, abhorred by foul and body. There is no principle in human nature, on which there can be grafted a reconciliation. The highest degree to which grace can raife the faint in this life is only a fubmiflion to the divine will, and to fay, "Not my will but thine be done." Death is ftill hated as an enemy, though there is a fweet acquiefcence in the will of heaven. The faint moft willing to die, wills not death; and all his willingness to die is merely as the reconciliation of a fick man to the hateful prefcriptions of the phyfician that he may obtain health.

Thirdly, to the guilty, unpardoned, and unrenewed finner

death is an enemy indeed. He is to him the king of all ima ginable terrors, terrible in itself, and more terrible in its confequences; it is here a mere paffage from tolerable to intolerable mifery. Could the unhappy foul be fure that there is no vengeance to feize it after death, that there is no more forrow or anguifh to be felt only the expiring agony, that he hath nothing to fuffer but the lofs of existence, this would feem an evil that might be endured. But it is the living death, fays one, the dying life, the endless woe, to which death leads the. guilty foul, which makes it unfpeakably terrible. The utter darknefs, the unquenchable fire, the living and gnawing worm, the eternal flames of Jehovah's wrath, thefe are the horror, thefe are the fling of death to the ungodly. Thus to impenitent finners he is an enemy cloathed with inconceivable

terrors.

Fourthly, he is an enemy to the faints themselves. Of thofe who are truly fanctified the apostle is here principally speaking, and of the advantages which they receive by Chrift, among thefe, this is one, that the enemy death fhall be deftroyed, which fully affures us that death is an enemy to them as well as others. By accident it is rendered friendly to them, thro' the conquest Christ has obtained over it, yet in its own nature, and in many respects, it is an enemy ftill. It is a monfter full. of horror, if we confider the ghaftly palenefs, the stiff cold, the forbidding visage, diftorted eyes and convulfed limbs of the dying; and afterwards if we think of the corruption of the grave, the putrefaction of the flesh, all things vifible are expreflions of enmity in the extreme. It is an enemy as it removes them from the converfation and intimacy of their agreeable friends, as it imprisons one part of them in the earth, and as it prevents their complete bleffednefs and felicity,. which they will not enjoy till after the refurrection. Thus it is death is an enemy to the whole nature and race of manBut, glory to God, this enemy fhall deftroyed; death itfelf

fhall die. Altho' it is the laft enemy, yet it fhall furely be conquered. "The last enemy that fhall be destroyed is "death."

This brings me to the

Second thing propofed, which was to enablifh this truth, that this enemy fhall be destroyed. As we have seen the inimical vifage of death, let us contemplate the conqueft of it by the all powerful love of the Redeemer. We have confidered what fin hath done, let us contemplate what grace will do. As we have noticed the ftrength of the enemy, we will now obferve the irrefiftible power and victory of the Saviour, the glorious conqueror of death. The beginning of the victory is in this world, but the perfection of it will be in the refurrection, when death fhall live and reign no more. The firft mortal wound which the king of terrors received was by the death of Chrift on the cross. Hereby it is rendered a tolerable evil to true believers, in the hopes of everlasting life. Its ftrength was hereby weakened and its fting was taken away. "The fting of death is fin, but thanks be to God who giveth "us the victory thro' our Lord Jefus." It never was the intention of Christ to deliver us from the firoke of death, only from its dominion and power, and finally to recover us from its fetters by a glorious refurrection. "For fince by man "came death, by man came alfo the refurrection from the "dead." As he merited life for all who believe, fo he actually conquered death by his own refurrection from the tomb. On this important day, he led captivity captive, and triumphed gloriously. It was then demonftrated to heaven, earth, and hell, that death was vanquifhed. By his arifing from the dead he hath conquered the powers of darknefs, fo fhall we rife thro' him and die no more. "For becaufe he liveth, if "we believe inh-im, we fhall live alfo."