we live in this safety; and when we die, may we depart in peace, and stand in the judgment boldly, and be indeed like doves who are fled to the clefts of the rock, and are saved.

Grant this, O most dear Saviour, to all here, for thy tender mercy's sake. Amen.

DISCOURSE XXXI.

DELIVERANCE FROM DEATH.

JOHN viii. 51.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my sayings,

he shall never see death.

HESE words of our Saviour, like many other

TH

of his sayings, are too lightly passed over, and not regarded, as being difficult to be understood, and appearing a sort of parable, although nothing concerns us more, or is more certain and true.

Whoever reads the holy scriptures, must needs observe that many such places as this are found therein; and no doubt many, like the Jews, are offended with them, and serious people, who dare not reject any part of the oracles of God, and yet see daily the just and unjust fall alike a prey to the grave, must wondering think, "How can this be?"

I will therefore in this discourse, treat of this matter freely, and shew what properly death is; what it is to keep his sayings; and confirm this blessed doctrine out of the scriptures," that whosoever keeps his word shall not taste of death;" or, as once he said to Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, at another time, 66 they shall never die."

It is very certain that, in this place, by death, is not meant the departure of the soul out of the

body,

body, nor is it the language of the Holy Ghost, either in the Old or New Testament, to call our leaving this world, death; but, on the contrary, it is generally said of such as die in faith among the patriarchs and prophets, "such an one was gathered to his people;" or, " slept with his fathers;" slept with his fathers;" or, " gave up the ghost:" so Daniel saith, "they that sleep in the dust:" and very seldom it is said they died, unless spoken of unbelievers, or such as were not people of God; and herein the nice distinction of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls is to be observed in the New Testament, for speaking of the decease of Lazarus, to his disciples, he saith, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;" and only on account of the weakness of his followers, who did not understand him, he said, "He is dead." After the same manner he said in the house of the ruler, when the mourners were lamenting over a departed child, "Give place, she is not dead, but sleepeth." Matth. ix. 24. Thus the Lord would have us look upon the natural change which good and bad experience. The apostles followed our Saviour in this way of speaking, and so wrote of Stephen, "That he fell asleep." And St. Paul calls such as were departed in Christ, persons "who sleep in Jesus," 1 Thess. iv. 14. But what properly then is death? When God had blessed Adam and Eve in paradise, he forewarned them not to eat of one tree, saying, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die ;" and this undoubtedly came to pass, according to the word of the Lord; for though Adam lived some hundred years after he had eaten the forbidden fruit, yet that same day, in which he sinned, the life which God breathed into his heart, when he became a living soul, departed from him, and he became dead to God while he lived. Thus death entered the world temporal

temporal and spiritual; and in this sense it is said, "In Adam all died," i. e. all were robbed of divine life, and lost that which is the image of God, and which is only recovered by faith in Christ, who came to be a quickening spirit, and to give life to the world.

I know that some think the death threatened to Adam, was only temporal, and that his sin only rendered him subject to die, or made him mortal; and that because a thousand years are, with the Lord, as one day; so it might, in a certain sense be said, he died, that day he sinned, because he died before he had seen a thousand years; but this sense is far too shallow, and serves only to please such as would not willingly allow of all becoming sinners, and dying spiritually in Adam; which is a doctrine most surely true, and according to the scriptures. I cannot look upon temporal death as a curse, or that we suffer any thing through God's ordering the cherubim to guard the tree of life, that Adam might not eat of it, and live for ever; but I think it was the tender mercy of our Saviour, who after sin had entered, and death and hell followed, designed we should not live for ever in that fallen state, but let our poor bodies return again to dust, from whence they were formed, and rest there till he should create all things new, in which day they might rise again in Jikeness of his glorious body. And thus, if a man by mischance, had let some goodly grain, such as wheat or barley, fall into some nasty ditch, or dirty place, so that it was no longer fit for use; his best way would be to sow it, and he would nevertheless lose nothing by it, but get a good harvest out of it. Even so the good Husbandman does with our mortal and vile bodies: He sows us in likeness of his death, that we may be raised in likeness of his resurrection,

And,

And, indeed, one can easily see that temporal death, is now of no harm to us; for how miserable would our lives be, after we had passed some hundred years, and were sickly, infirm, and a burden to ourselves, and all round about us? It is better, as I said before, that we can lay down our poor spoiled tabernacles, and rest till the Lord comes: and this must be looked upon in no other light, if we believe, than that the weary pilgrim has laid by his staff and accomplished his warfare in a good age, and is now resting in the same bed, in the same earth from whence they were born, and where once their dear Lord lay. A believer cannot have such ideas of the grave as those under the law had; for we cannot dread it as a pit, or a prison, but as our beds, out of which we surely awake, and sing, "O grave! where is thy victory?"

But this is not an easy matter to a person unconverted, I mean one who was never quickened by Jesus Christ, or ever knew what it meant, to get eternal life by believing in his name. These are dead indeed and however far they have advanced in the form of godliness, and can make their boast how well they have lived, how little evil they have done, how much they have served God, and are educated and brought up in the best church, yet God shall say of such, "I know thy works s; thou hast a name to live, but thou art dead." A man departing this life, loaded with the sins of his youth, a soul taking its flight into eternity, who does not know the Saviour, who has never received its pardon, who does not know its name is written in heaven, but has madly gone on in the world, and slighted the precious blood and merits of Jesus Christ, or foolishly contented itself with being strictly honest, and having lived a moral life in the sight of men, such a one can taste of

death,