SERMON VIII.

On DEATH.

PSALM Xxiii. 4.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy ftaff they comfort me,

TH

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HIS Pfalm exhibits the pleafing pic- SER M. ture of a pious man rejoicing in the goodness of Heaven. He looks around him on his state, and his heart overflows with gratitude. When he reviews the past part of his life, he contemplates God as his Shepherd, who hath made him lie down in green pastures, and led him befide the fill waters. When he confiders the prefent,

SER M. he beholds his divine benefactor preparing

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a table for him in the presence of his enemies, and making his cup run over. When he looks forward to the future, he confides in the fame goodness, as continuing to follow bim all the days of his life, and bringing him to dwell in the boufe of the Lord for ever. Amidst these images of tranquillity and happiness, one object prefents itself, which is fufficient to overcaft the minds and to damp the joy of the greatest part of men; that is, the approach of death. But on the Pfalmift it produced no fuch effect. With perfect compofure and ferenity, he looks forward to the time when he is to pass through the valley of the fhadow of death. The prospect, inftead of dejecting him, appears to heighten his triumph, by that fecurity which the presence of his almighty guardian afforded him. I will fear no evil, for thou art with me: and pursuing the allufion with which he had begun, exults in the hope that the fhepherd who had hitherto conducted him, would fupport him with his ftaff, while he paffed through that dark and perilous region, and

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with his rod, or paftoral crook, would guard SER M. him from every danger.

Such is the happy diftinction which good men enjoy, in a fituation the most formidable to human nature. That threatening fpectre which appalls others, carries no terrour to them. While worldly men are justly faid through fear of Death to be all their life-time fubject to bondage, to the righteous only it belongs to look on death, and fmile. Since then it is in the power of religion to confer upon us fo high a privilege, let us adventure to contemplate fteadily this last foe whom we must all encounter. Let us confider what death is in itself, and by what means good men are enabled to meet it with fortitude. Though the fubject may be reckoned gloomy, it must be admitted to be interefting. The clofe of life is a folemn and important event, to which every wife man will have regard in the general tenour of his conduct. No one can act his part with propriety, who confiders not how it is to terminate; and to exclude from our thoughts what we

. VIII.

SERM. cannot prevent from actually taking place, is the refuge of none but the timorous and weak. We are more encouraged to enter on this meditation, by reflecting on the fuperiour advantages which, as Chriftians, we enjoy for overcoming the fear of death, beyond that holy man whofe sentiment is now before us. Thofe great objects, which he beheld through the medium of types and figures, are clearly revealed to us. That difpenfation of grace, which in his days began to open, is now completed. That life and immortality, which then only, dawned on the world, have now fhone forth with full light and splendour,

DEATH may be confidered in three views: as the feparation of the foul from the body; as the conclufion of the present life; as the entrance into a new ftate of existence. In the firft view, it is regarded as painful and agonizing. In the second, it is melancholy and dejecting. In the third, it is awful and alarming. One of the firft enquiries which occurs concerning it is,

for

for what purposes it was clothed with all thefe terrours? Why, under the government of a gracious Being, the termination of life was loaded with fo much forrow and diftrefs? We know that, in confequence of the fall, death was inflicted as a punishment upon the human race. But no unneceffary feverities are ever exercifed by God; and the wisdom and goodness of the divine plan will be much illuftrated, by obferving that all the formidable circumftances which attend death are, in the prefent fituation of mankind, abfolutely requifite to the proper government of the world. The terrours of death are, in fact, the great guardians of life. They excite in every individual that defire of felf-prefervation, which is nature's first law. They reconcile him to bear the diftreffes of life with patience. They prompt him to undergo its useful and neceffary labours with alacrity; and they restrain him from many of those evil courfes by which his fafety would be endangered. While they are in so many respects beneficial to the individual, they are,

SER M.

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