( which ended in his dissolution, he said, "Let all who "come to inquire after me, be allowed to fee me. 1 " ought to be an example of religion, dying as well as "living; and Christ shall be magnified in my body, "whether it be by life or by death." "Let me die "the death of the righteous, and let my last end be " like his." But in order to this it will be necessary for us, There III. To examine the condition upon which this privilege is suspended, and which is obviously here implied; "For fo an entrance shall be ministered " unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom "of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chrift." There are two things which it will be proper for us briefly to premise. First, There are cafes in which Christians may be affected all through life by bodily causes, having fomething morbid and atrabilarious in their constitution, which subjects them to various changes and depressions with which religion has no concern. is no reasoning from these instances. Secondly, It is not for us to determine what God may do in particular cafes; for he does not always deal with his people according to their defert; he is flow to anger and ready to forgive. Nevertheless he has given us a rule by which we are to walk; and has wifely established a connection between duty and privilege. And I am perfuaded that there is not an individual in this affembly, who would not rationally and scripturally expect to find one course of life attended with a more favoured and happy death than another; nor can there be much dispute in determining the nature of this course; this being one of those cafes in which men are very nearly agreed. It would be well if their knowledge and their practice equally harmonized; but, alas! what ignorance and infidelity cannot make us deny, fin and the world can make us neglect ! this course requires, that you should habituate yourselves to familiar thoughts of Death. This will diffipate the terrors which arife from distance and imagination; this will break the force of surprise; this will turn a frightful precipice into a gentle flope. He who can fay, " I die daily," is the most likely to die comfortably. It requires, that you should loofen your affections from the world. A gentle breeze, a flight effort will bring down the tree around which you have dug, and whose larger roots you have cut off. And the less powerfully you are attached to earthly things, the more easy will be your separation from them. This is the man to die, whose mind advances with his time; who feels himself a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth; whose treasure is in heaven; and who views dying as only going home. It requires, that you should obtain and preferve the evidences of pardon; without these you cannot be fearless and tranquil in the near views of eternity, fince " after death is the " judgment." It requires you to keep a confcience void of offence towards God and towards man. Is he in a condition to die, who has lived in the practice of some known fin, and in the omission of fome known duty? Is he in a condition to die, who has worn a mask of hypocrify, which will now drop off and expose him in his true character? Is he in a condition to die, who by artifice, unfair dealing, grinding the faces of the poor, has amaffed gain which will difhonour him if restored, and damn him if retained? It requires us to live in the exercise of brotherly kindness and charity. Of all we do for Him, nothing pleases him more than this, this we know he will acknowledge in the day of judgment, and why not in the day of death? "Blessed is he that consider"eth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of "trouble." "The Lord will strengthen him upon "the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed " in his fickness." Many are praying for him; the widows and the fatherless cry, and their cry entereth "the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." It requires an attention to religion in your families. I pity that father, who will be furrounded when he dies with children, whose minds he never informed, whose difpofitions he never curbed, whose manners he never guarded; who fees one an infidel, another a profligate, and all irreligious. I know that you are not answerable for the conversion of your offspring, but you are responsible for the use of all proper means; and if these have been neglected, you will plant your dying pillow with thorns; whereas if you have feriously and perfeveringly attended to them, your dying repose shall not be disturbed by want of fuccefs; but you shall be able to fay, "Although my house be not fo with God, " yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, " ordered in all things and fure; for this is all my "salvation and all my defire, although he make it not "to grow." In a word, it requires you to live in the strenuous cultivation of practical and progressive religion. 1 " And befides this, giving all diligence, add to your "faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to " knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, pa" tience; and to patience, godliness; and to godli"ness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kind"ness, charity. For if these things be in you, and "abound, they make you that ye shall neither be " barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord "Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is "blind, and cannot fee far off, and hath forgotten " that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore "the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your " calling and election fure; for if ye do these things "ye shall never fall: for fo, an entrance shall be min" istered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting " kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." My Brethren, If there be fuch differences among Christians in dying, we may be assured that there will be inequalities in heaven. If there be fuch diversities in the order of their admiffion, who can suppose they will all be upon a level as foon as they have entered? There are various ranks and degrees among our fellow-fervants and elder brethren, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers. The works of God on earth and in the visible heavens are diftinguished by a pleasing variety; "All flesh is not the fame. "flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, anoth " er flesh of beafts, another of fishes, and another of "birds. There are alfo celestial bodies and bodies " terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, " and the glory of the terreftrial is another. There is "one glory of the fun, and another glory of the Ccc 66 moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star " differeth from another star in glory. So also is the " refurrection of the dead." Let us therefore " look to ourselves that we receive a full reward." It is impossible to close without asking you in the prefence of God, What preparation have you made for a dying hour ? Surely you do not expect to live here always; you know that you must die; and if ever you think of it, you cannot help wishing to die in peace. But can you hope to conclude in comfort, a life pafsed in guilt? "Be not deceived; God is not " mocked: for whatsoever a man foweth, that shall " he alfo reap. For he that foweth to his flesh, shall " of the flesh reap corruption: but he that foweth to "the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." You are not in a state to die even SAFELY. You have only heard what you have to lose. To you NO entrance will be administered. But I address myself to Christians; and call upon you to think much of a dying hour. The care of dying well, will influence you to live fo. Value things according to the views you will have of them, when you look back from the borders of the grave. You fee the blessedness we speak of does not depend upon genius, learning, earthly riches, worldly distinctions. But fome things have a favourable influence over a dying hour; value, select, pursue thefe. By fuch a death, regulate your plans of living. Be piously ambitious; feek after spiritual profperity; be rich in faith; be filled with the fruits of righteousness; give all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Happy is the man who is no longer " in bon : |