Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the very point which we are endeavouring to establish. The death of Jesus Christ is widely different from that of the martyrs. The martyrs found death already disarmed: Jesus Christ died to disarm this king of terrors. The martyrs presented themselves before the throne of grace; Jesus Christ presented himself at the tribunal of Justice. The martyrs pleaded the merits of Christ's death: Jesus Christ interceded in behalf of the martyrs.

Let the great adversary, then, do his worst to terrify me with the image of the crimes which I have committed; let him trace them before my eyes in the blackest characters which his malignity can employ; let him collect into one dark point, all that is hideous and hateful in my life; let him attempt to overwhelm me with dismay, by rousing the idea of that tremendous tribunal, before which all the actions of men are to be scrutinized, so that like "Joshua the high-priest," I find myself standing in the presence of God, "clothed with filthy garments," Zech. iii. 1, &c. and Satan standing at his right hand to expose my turpitude; I hear, at the same time, the voice of one pleading in my behalf: I hear these reviving words: "is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?. Take away the filthy garments from him Let them set a fair mitre upon his head and I will clothe him with change of raiment."

SERMON LXXX.

ON THE FEAR OF DEATH.
PART III.

and proportions; nature, with her overflowing treasures; society, with its enchanting delights; the church, with its triumphs; eternity, with its unfathomable abysses of joy. Of all these ingredients blended, we compose a faint representation of the celestial blessedness.

The soul of man constitutes one ingredient, and we say, In heaven your soul shall arrive at its highest pitch of attainable perfection: it shall acquire expansive illumination, it shall reach sublime heights of virtue, it shall "behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory," 2 Cor. iii. 18.

The body furnishes a second ingredient, and we say, In heaven your body shall be exempted from all the defects by which it is at present disfigured, from those diseases which now prey upon and waste it, from that death which destroys the fabric.

Nature supplies a third ingredient, and we say, In heaven all the stores of Nature shall be displayed in rich profusion: "the foundations of the holy city are of jasper, its gates are of pearl, its walls are of pure gold," Rev. xxi. 21.

Society supplies a fourth ingredient, and we say, In heaven shall be united, in the tenderest social bonds, kindred spirits the most exalted; souls the most refined; hearts the most generous and enlarged.

The church supplies a fifth ingredient, and we say, In heaven shall be exhibited the triumph of the faithful over tyrants confounded, the saints shall be enthroned, the martyrs shall appear with palms in their hands, and with crowns upon their heads.

Eternity supplies a sixth ingredient, and we say, In heaven you shall enjoy a felicity infinite in its duration, and immeasurable in its degree; years accumulated upon years, ages upon ages, shall effect no diminution of its length: and so of the rest.

HEBREWS ii. 14, 15. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bond-which swallows up all your possessions, your

age.

WE now come in the

III. Third and last place, to consider death rendered formidable, from its being attended with the loss of titles, honours, and every other earthly possession, and in opposition to this, we are to view the death of Jesus Christ as removing that terror, by giving us complete assurance of a blessed eternity. We are going to contemplate death as a universal shipwreck, swallowing up all our worldly fortunes and prospects. We are going to contemplate Jesus Christ as a conqueror, and his death as the pledge and security of a boundless and everlasting felicity, which shall amply compensate to us the loss of all those possessions, of which we are about to be stripped by the unsparing hand of death.

This day, Christians, in which we are representing death to you as a universal wreck

We

titles, your greatness, your riches, your social connexions, all that you were, and all that you hoped to be; this day, while we are attempting to convey to you an idea of the celestial felicity, capable of strengthening you to behold, without dismay, this universal wreck, in which you are going to be involved; this day we could wish you to conceive the heavenly world, and the blessedness which God is there preparing for you under another idea. mean to trace another view of it, the lustre of which effaces all the rest. We build upon this foundation of 'St Paul: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. The heavenly blessedness is the purchase of the death of Jesus Christ. Here collect, my brethren, every When we attempt to stammer out a few thing that is capable of enhancing to your apwords from the pulpit, respecting the felicity prehension the unspeakable greatness and imwhich God has laid up for his people in ano-portance of that death.

ther world, we borrow the images of every View the death of Christ relatively to the thing that is capable of touching the heart, and types which prefigured it; relatively to the shaof communicating delight. We call in to our dows by which it was adumbrated; relatively assistance the soul of man, with all its exalted to the ceremonies by which it was representfaculties; the body, with all its beautiful formsed; relatively to the oracles which predicted it.

View the death of Christ relatively to the tempests and thunderbolts which were levelled at the head of the Redeemer. Behold his soul overwhelmed with sorrow; behold that blood falling down to the ground; that cup of bitterness which was given him to drink; hearken to that insulting language, to those calumnies, to those false accusations, to that unjust sentence of condemnation; behold those hands and feet pierced with nails, that sacred body speedily reduced to one ghastly wound; behold that licentious rabble clamorously demanding the punishment of the cross, and increasing the horror of it by every indignity which malice could invent; look up to heaven itself, and behold the eternal Father abandoning the Son of his love to so many woes; behold hell in concert with heaven, and heaven with the earth.

View the death of Christ relatively to the dreadful signs by which it was accompanied; relatively to that earth seized with trembling, to that sun shrouded in darkness, to those rocks rent asunder, to those opening graves, to those departed saints returning to the light of day.

View the death of Christ relatively to the greatness of God, and to the littleness of man, in whose behalf all this bloody scene was transacted.

Collect all these various particulars, and still say to yourself, The death of Jesus Christ is all this. The death of Jesus Christ is the body of the figures, the original of the types, the reality of the shadows, the accomplishment of the prophecies. The death of Jesus Christ is that great event which darkened the sun, which opened the tombs, which rent asunder the rocks, which made the earth to tremble, which turned nature and the elements upside down. Follow up these reflections, and on these let your imagination settle.

The death of Jesus Christ conceived thus, apply it to the subject which we are treating. The death of Jesus Christ conceived thus, let it serve to assist you in forming an idea of the heavenly blessedness. Still build on this foundation of St. Paul; say with that apostle, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" You regret the world; you who are advancing on your way heavenward. And what is heaven? It is the purchase of Christ's death. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" If the means be thus great, what must the end be! If the preparatives be thus magnificent, what must be the issue! If the conflict be thus sharp, what must be the victory! If the price be thus costly, what, O what, shall be the bliss which this price is intended to purchase.

After that, my brethren, return to the world. What is it you regret? Are you regretting the loss of palaces, of sceptres, of crowns? It is to regret the humble crook in your hand, the cottage which covers your head. Do you regret the loss of society, a Society whose defects and whose delights are frequently an equal source of misery to you? Ah! phantom of vain desire, will you still preVOL. II.-30

sent illusion to the eye? Will you still maintain your ground against those solid blessings which the death of Jesus Christ has purchased for us? Ah! "broken cisterns," will you still preserve a preference in our esteem to "the fountain of living waters?" Ah! great High Priest of the new covenant, shall we still find it painfully difficult to follow thee, whilst thou art conducting us to heavenly places, by the bloody traces of thy cross and martyrdom. Jesus Christ is a "conqueror," who has acquired for us a kingdom of glory and felicity; his death is an invaluable pledge of a triumphant eternity.

Death, then, has nothing, henceforward, that is formidable to the Christian. In the tomb of Jesus Christ are dissipated all the terrors which the tomb of nature presents. In the tomb of nature I perceive a gloomy night, which the eye is unable to penetrate; in the tomb of Jesus Christ I behold light and life. In the tomb of nature the punishment of sin stares me in the face; in the tomb of Jesus Christ I find the expiation of it. In the tomb of nature I read the fearful doom pronounced upon Adam, and upon all his miserable posterity: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," Gen. iii. 19; but in the tomb of Jesus Christ my tongue is loosed into this triumphant song of praise, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?.... Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. xv. 55. 57. "Through death he has destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; that he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage."

THE APPLICATION.

But if these be our privileges, is it not matter of reproach to us, my brethren, that brought up in the knowledge and profession of a religion which furnishes arms so powerful for combating the terrors of death, we should still, for the most part, view it only with fear and trembling? The fact is too evident to be denied. From the slightest study of by far the greatest part of professing Christians, it is clearly apparent that they consider death as the greatest of all calamities. And with a very slender experience of the state of dying persons, it will be found that there are few, very few indeed, who die without regret, few but who have need to exercise all their submission, at a season when it might be expected they should give themselves up to transports of joy. A vapour in the head disconcerts us; we are alarmed if the artery happens to beat a little faster than usual; the least apprehension of death inspires us with an unaccountable melancholy, and oppressive dejection.

But those apprehensions and terrors, my brethren, surprising as they may appear to us, have nothing which ought really to fill us with surprise. If to apply to a man's self the fruits of the death of Jesus Christ were a simple act of the understanding, a simple movement of the heart, a simple acknowledgment of the tongue; if to apply to a man's self the fruits of the death of Christ were nothing more than what a hardened sinner is capable of

figuring to himself, or than what is prescribed | ception upon ourselves; the grand conclusion

to him by an accommodating casuist, you would not see a single Christian afraid of death. But you know it well, the gospel assures you of it, and the dictates of your own conscience confirm the truth, to make application of the fruits of Christ's death is a complication of duties, which require attention, time, labour, intenseness of exertion, and must be the business of a whole life. The greatest part of those who bear the Christian name, neglect this work while in health; is it any wonder that they should tremble when overtaken by the hour of death?

Call to remembrance the three ways in which Christ has disarmed death. He has spoiled the king of terrors, by demonstrating to us the immortality of the soul, by making atonement for our transgressions, by acquiring for us an eternal felicity.

But what effect will the death of Christ have upon us, as a proof of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, unless we study those proofs, unless we seriously meditate upon them, unless we endeavour to feel their force, unless we guard against the difficulties which the unhappy age we live in opposes to those great principles?

What effect can the death of Christ have upon us, as a sacrifice offered up to divine justice for our sins, unless we feel the plenitude of that sacrifice, unless we make application of it to the conscience, unless we present it to God in the exercises of a living faith; above all, unless by the constant study of ourselves, unless by unremitting, by persevering exertion, we place ourselves under the terms, and invest ourselves with the characters of those who have a right to apply to themselves the fruits of this sacrifice?

What effect can the death of Christ produce upon us, considered as the pledge of a blessed eternity, unless the soul be powerfully impressed with that eternity, unless the heart be penetrated with a sense of what it is; if we are at pains to efface the impression which those interesting objects may have made upon us; if hardly moved by those great truths which ought to take entire possession of the mind, we instantly plunge ourselves into the vortex of worldly pursuits, without taking time to avail ourselves of that happy disposition, and, as it were, purposely to withdraw from those gracious emotions which seemed to have laid hold of us? Ah! my brethren, if such be the conduct of the generality of professing Christians, as we are under the necessity of admitting, when, not satisfied with observing their deportment in the house of God, and from a pulpit, we follow them into life, and look through those flimsy veils of piety and devotion which they had assumed for an hour in a worshipping assembly; if such, I say, be the conduct of the generality of professing Christians, their terror at the approach of death exhibits nothing to excite astonishment.

The grand conclusion to be deduced, my brethren, from all these reflections, is not an abstract conclusion and of difficult comprehension: it is a conclusion easy, natural, and which would spontaneously present itself to the mind, were we not disposed to practise de

to be deduced from these reflections is this: If we wish to die like Christians, we must live like Christians. If we would wish to behold with firmness the dissolution of this body, we must study the proofs which establish the truth of the immortality of the soul, so as to be able to say with St. Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day," 2 Tim. i. 12. Would we wish to have a security against fear at that tremendous tribunal, before which we must appear to receive judgment, we must enter into the conditions of the covenant of grace, that we may be able to say with the same apostle, "I am the chief of sinners, a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy," 1 Tim. i. 13. Would we be strengthened to resign, without murmuring, all the objects around us, and to which we are so fondly attached, we must learn to disengage ourselves from them betimes; to place our heart betimes where our treasure is, Matt. vi. 21, that we may be able to say with the Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee," Ps. lxxiii. 25.

If after we have exerted our utmost efforts, we still find our frail flesh and blood complaining at the prospect of approaching dissolution; if the heart still repines at the hard necessity imposed upon us of dying; let us strive to recover confidence, not only against this apprehension, but likewise against the doubts which it might excite against our salvation. This fear of death is, in such a case, not a crime, but an infirmity. It is indeed a melancholy proof that we are not yet perfect, but it is not a blot which obliterates our Christianity. It is an expression of timidity, not of mistrust. It is a calamity which prevents our enjoying all the sweets of a triumphant death, but not an obstacle to prevent our dying in safety. Let us be of good courage. What have we to fear? God is an affectionate friend, who will not desert us in the hour of adversity. God is not a cruel being, who takes pleasure in rendering us miserable. He is a God whose leading characters are goodness and mercy. He stands engaged to render us happy. Let us not distrust his promise; it has been ratified by the most august zeal which suspicion itself could exact, by the blood of the spotless Lamb, which is sprinkled, not on the threshold of our doors, but on our inmost conscience. The exterminating angel will respect that blood, will presume to aim no stroke at the soul which bears the mark of it.

After all, my dearly beloved brethren, if the most advanced Christians, at the first glimpse of death, and in the first moments of a mortal distemper, are unable to screen themselves from the fear of death; if the flesh murmurs, if nature complains, if faith itself seems to stagger; reason, religion, but especially the aid of God's spirit, granted to the prayers, to the importunities ascending to heaven from the lips of such a Christian, dissipate all those terrors. The mighty God suffers himself to be overcome, when assailed by supplication and tears. God resists not the sighs of a be

bed of death is transformed into a field of victory. Many of your pastors, Christians, have been the joyful spectators of such a triumph.

May all who hear me this day be partakers of these divine consolations! May that invaluable sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered up to his father in our behalf, by cleansing us from all our guilt, deliver us from all our fears! May this great High Priest of the new covenant bear engraven on his breast all these mystical Israelites, now that he is entered into the holiest of all! And when these foundations of sand, on which this clay tabernacle rests, shall crumble away from under our feet, may we all be enabled to raise our departing spirits out of the ruins of the world, that they may repose

liever, who from his bed of languishing stretches | out his arms towards him, who entreats him to sanctify the sufferings which he endures, who implores his support in the agonies of death, who cries out from the centre of a soul transported with holy confidence, "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth," Ps. xxxi. 5. Receive it, O my God. Remove from me those phantoms which disturb my repose. Raise me up, take me to thyself. Teach my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. Draw me, I shall run after thee." Kindle my devotion; and let my inflamed desires serve as a chariot of fire to transport me to heaven. The clouds, thickened around me by "Him who had the power of death," are scattering; the veil which cov-in the mansions of immortality! Happy, beyond ered eternity insensibly withdraws; the understanding is convinced; the heart melts; the flame of love burns bright; the return of holy meditations, which formerly occupied the soul, disclose the grand object of religion, and the

expression, beyond conception happy, to die in such sentiments as these! God of his infinite mercy grant it may be our blessed attainment! To him be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

« AnteriorContinuar »