CHAP. V.] Preparation for Death. [DEATH. 6 lusts; and to perform holy duties with freedom, alacrity and zeal, in such a manner as is acceptable to God. In short, saving grace is distinguished from that which is common to the unregenerate, by its prevalency and constancy. There may be a declination in the saints tending to a downfall; but the seed of God,' that supernatural grace which ' remains in them,' will by the power of the holy Spirit recover the supremacy. Others may be enlightened, and feel some good motions and transient touches, as Saul had his rapture among the prophets; but they are not truly, entirely and perseveringly converted to God. They are not proof against the allurements or terrors of the world. They make a fair profession till they are tried by temptations. Congealed drops of water appear like solid crystal, till the warm beams of the sun dissolve them, and discover the hypocrisy of the crystal. False jewels may seem to have the lustre of diamonds, till they are broken by a fall, and discovered to be only glass. Thus the riches, the honours and pleasures of the flesh melt some, and temporal evils break the resolution of others, and make it evident they were not sincere converts. But where the holy Spirit savingly works, he is said to 'dwell;' he is not like a passenger, or a tenant at will that neglects the house, and suffers it to fall into ruin; but as the proprietor and owner he keeps perpetual residence in true christians, and DEATH.] Preparation for Death. CHAP. V. by his continual influence preserves them from final apostasy. From hence we may judge whether we have an interest in Christ and his benefits. For the apostle clearly tells us, that f any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Rom. viii. 9. By this sacred signature we are appropriated to Christ, and visibly distinguished from the world; for though the secret and pure influences of the Spirit in the soul are only known to the person that feels them, yet his active inspirations are declarative of his presence and power in the outward conversation. As the wind that is of so thin and subtile a nature as to be invisible in itself, though we certainly know from what point it blows by the course and way that the ship makes; so the Spirit of God, who is compared to the wind, is discovered by an infallible indication, namely, his fruits and effects in a holy life. And those who have communion with Christ by his spirit, have a share in his victories, and may with confidence meet the last enemy, death: for we are assured, ‘If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in us, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken our mortal bodies, by the Spirit that dwelleth in us.' Rom. viii. 11. A preparative conformity to Christ in grace, will be followed with a consummation in glory. But those who never felt the sanctifying efficacy of the Spirit in their hearts and lives, though they are CHAP. V.] Preparation for Death. [DEATH. christians in profession, yet they have no other union with Christ than a dead branch with a tree that receives no sap and virtue from it; or an artificial member joined to the body, that may have the outward clothing and ornaments proper to that part, but derives no life and sense from it. Whoever is in Christ, is a new creature. 2 Cor. v. 17. And only those who partake in the first resurrection from sin, shall be exempted from the power of the second death; and upon just grounds are freed from the terrors of the first. Obligations to our Redeemer, who frees us from the fear and dominion of death-Motives to overcome the fear of death-Reconciliation with God necessary so it-The infinite danger of delaying repentance-The presumption of long life is vainContinuance in sin from the hope of pardon renders us unworthy of it. ET us first consider our obligations to our blessed Saviour, who to free us from the sting and enslaving fear of death, submitted to it with all its terrors from God and wicked men. He felt a sadness and an agony in his soul, and suffered the equal extremities of ignomiry and torment in his body. The favour of God was intercepted from him, that it may shine upon us in that gloomy hour. And all his terrible sufferings, though foreknown by his enlightened mind, could not weaken his determined will to undergo them for us; but when Peter with a more tender eye regarded his life than our salvation, he was repelled with indignation. Unparalleled love, no less than divine, transcending all the instances of human affection. The highest kind and excess of love amongst men is to die for one another, and the highest degree in that kind is to die to save an enemy; and of this our Saviour is the singular example. Love CHAP. VI.] How to overcome Death. [DEATH incomprehensible; it passes knowledge, and all understanding but his who expressed it. His love was equal to the height of his glory from whence he descended, and the depth of those sufferings he sustained in our stead. By washing us from our sins in his blood, he makes us kings; dignifies us with spiritual sovereignty over every defiling and disturbing passion. The freest and most confident sinner in the world, who rebels against the divine laws without restraint, is a slave not only under the chains of his imperious lusts, but in that he is liable to the scourgings of conscience whenever awakened, and to the servile fear of death every day. But the sincere christian possesses a sweet peace, a blessed tranquillity, from the tormenting apprehensions and fears of death, that are the just consequences of guilt. One of the ancient Romans highly celebrates the astronomers who discovered the true causes of the eclipses of the sun and moon, and freed the world from the double darkness of ignorance and fear; for before that discovery, men believed the obscuring of those great lights were the fainting fits of nature, and mortal symptoms threatening a universal calamity. But what praise and blessing is due to our Saviour, who hath given us infallible assurance that the death of the righteous is not, as the heathen world imagined, an irreparable loss of life, but a short eclipsing of this low and mean light that is common to sensitive creatures, to be restored more excellent and perma G |