Page images
PDF
EPUB

plied to this object, it will be found unquestionably and universally just.

Enjoyments, it is to be remembered, are what the mind finds, or makes, them. Plain food is delightful to the palate, by which it is relished; while the daintiest viands are lost upon a sickly appetite. The spirit of a good man disposes him to consider, and enables him to receive, all his enjoyments as gifts from the best of all friends; and to exercise continually, gratitude to that Friend; the most pleasing of all emotions. On this Friend also, he perpetually relies, as perpetually able, and inclined, to befriend him; as present wherever he is; as knowing whatever he needs; as exercising towards him everlasting loving-kindness; and as having given his own immoveable promise, that all things shall work together for his good. This train of considerations, regularly attending his whole course of enjoyments, cannot fail to enhance the value of every blessing, in which he shares; and to spread warmth and light, and life, around him in his journey towards Heaven.

At the same time, he is at peace with himself. He has submitted to God: he has yielded himself to the Redeemer. The war between his inclinations and his conscience, the tumult of his passions and his fears, has in a great measure subsided. To this state of agitation, has succeeded the peace of forgiven sin, and an approving conscience. The long night of darkness and storm has retired; and a serene and cheerful morning has arisen upon the world within; a happy presage of perpetual day. A mind, at peace with itself, is the only mind at ease: and a mind without ease is ill prepared to enjoy. Whatever good the world gives, must be imperfectly tasted by him, who is unsatisfied with himself, conscious of his exposure to the anger of God, and terrified by expectations of future wo. An exemption from these evils is the first great step towards sincere happiness, and confers a capacity for enjoyment, which, without it, must be for ever unknown. But the present state is far from being a state of enjoyment only. The means of soothing sorrow are at least as necessary to us, as those of enhancing comfort. In this important privilege, the superiority of the good man's choice is perhaps still more conspicuous. Peace of mind blunts, in a great measure, all the shafts of adversity. A strong sense of the universal Government of God, and of his friendship to the soul, change the very nature of afflictions; and transmute them from curses into blessings. At the same time, the Hope of the Gospel, always present to the mind of such a man, administers to him the richest consolation in every sorrow; reminds him daily, that in this life only will he be a sufferer; and directs his eye to that world of approaching peace, and prosperity, where his afflictions will finally flee away.

In Death itself, all these privileges will be his. Hope, particularly, and peace, will sooth all the sufferings of a dying-bed, and illumine his passage into Eternity. Or should he, as is some

times the case, find fears and sorrows await him at this period; this is his last enemy, and possessed of power over him but for a

moment.

Thus the good man goes through the present life, possessed of a happier character, and of a happier lot, than any, which can be challenged by bad men. His enjoyments are superior in kind, in number, and in degree. He possesses alleviations of trouble, to which no bad man can make any pretensions. Death itself is to him often peaceful; and often filled with hope and consolation. Whenever it is not; it is still the termination of all his sorrows.

In the future world, the difference is infinite. When the good man resigns his body to the grave, and his spirit to the hands of God who gave it; he enters immediately into the joy of his Lord. Sin and suffering, time and death, hold their dominion over him no more. The dawn of his future being is to him the dawn of everlasting day. In this immense duration, his life will be an uninterrupted progress of virtue, honour, and enjoyment. Fixed for ever in the world of glory, and surrounded by the General assembly of the first-born, a companion of angels, and a child of God, he will look back with ineffable delight, on that choice, which accomplished the end of his being, and made life and death blessings to him; and will stretch his view forward with transport to joy succeeding joy, and to glory surpassing glory, throughout ages, which cannot end.

SERMON CLXIV.

THE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH.

ECCLESIASTES xii. 7.—Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

IN my last discourse, I made several observations concerning Death, considered as the last Dispensation of Providence to man in the present world. The immediate Consequences of Death furnish the next subject of our investigation.

In the text we are told, that, when man goeth to his long home, the dust, or body, shall return to the earth, of which it was formed, and that then also, the spirit shall return to God who gave it. In considering this subject, I shall follow the order of discourse here presented to us; and examine those things which, immediately after Death, respect,

1. The Body; and,

II. The Soul.

Under the former of these heads, I observe,

1. That the body is changed into a corpse.

Death is the termination of all the animal functions of our nature. So long as these continue, life, the result of them, diffuses warmth, activity, and beauty, throughout our frame. In this state, the Body is a useful, as well as pleasing, habitation for the soul; and a necessary, as well as convenient instrument, for accomplishing the purposes, to which it is destined in the present world. But, when these functions cease, life also ceases. The Body then becomes cold, motionless, deformed, and useless. The form, which once gave pleasure to all around it, now creates only pain and sorrow. The limbs are stiffened; the face clouded with paleness; the eye closed in darkness; the ear deaf; the voice dumb; and the whole appearance ghastly, and dreadful. In the mean time, the spirit deserts its ruined habitation, and wings its way into the unknown vast of being.

2. The Body is conveyed to the grave.

Necessity compels the living to remove this decayed frame from their sight. Different nations have pursued different modes of accomplishing this purpose. By some nations the Body has been consumed with fire. By others it has been embalmed. By some it has been lodged in tombs, properly so called. By some it has been consigned to vaults and caverns; and by most has been bu ried in the grave. All nations, in whatever manner they have disVOL. IV.

53

posed of the remains of their departed friends, have with one consent wished, like Abraham, to remove their dead out of their sight.

In this situation the body becomes the prey of corruption, and the feast of worms. How humiliating an allotment is this to the pride of man! When the Conqueror, returned from the slaughter of millions, enters his capitol in triumph; when the trumpet of fame proclaims his approach, and the shouts of millions announce his victories; surrounded by the spoils of subjugated nations, and followed by trains of vanquished kings and heroes; how must his haughty spirit be lowered to the dust by the remembrance, that within a few days himself would become the food of a worm, reigning over him with a more absolute control, than he ever exercised over his slaves. Yet this will be the real end of all his achievements. To this humble level must descend the tenant of the throne, as well as of the cottage. Here wisdom and folly, learning and ignorance, refinement and vulgarity, will lie down together. Hither moves with an unconscious, but regular step, the Beauty that illumines "the gay assembly's gayest room;" that subdues the heart even of the Conqueror himself; and says, "I sit as Queen, and shall see no sorrow." All these may, and must ultimately say to corruption, Thou art our father, and to the worm, Thou art our mother, and our sister. But we are not yet at the end of the progress. The next stage in our humiliation is, to be changed into dust. This was our origin: this is our end. The very clods on which we tread, were once not improbably parts, to a greater or less extent, of living beings like ourselves. Not a small part of the surface of this world has, in all probability, been animated, and inhabited by human minds: and the remains of man are daily perhaps, as well as insensibly, turned up by the plough, and the spade.

II. The Events which immediately after Death concern the Soul, are the following.

1. At Death the Soul quits the body, to return to it no more.

At Death, the animal functions cease; or rather the cessation of them is Death itself. Then the flexibility, the power of action, and the consequent usefulness to which they gave birth, are terminated also. The Soul, of course, finds the body no longer fitted to be an instrument of its wishes, or its duties. The limbs can no longer convey it from place to place; the tongue communicate its thoughts; nor the hands execute its pleasure. Deprived of all its powers, the body becomes a useless, and uncomfortable residence for a being, to whose nature activity is essential, and the purposes of whose creation would be frustrated by a longer confinement to so unsuitable a mansion. We cannot wonder, therefore, that the Author of our being should, in his providence, remove the Soul from a situation, so contradictory in all respects to the design of its existence.

The proof of the fact, which I am considering, and of the existence of the Soul in a state of separation from the body, has to a great extent, been necessarily given in a former discourse; in which attempted to show, that the Soul is not material. To that discourse I must, therefore, refer my audience for these proofs. It may, however, not be improper briefly to mention some of them on the present occasion.

The first which I shall mention, is the Text. Here we are informed, that the dust, at death, shall return to the earth, as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. That the soul and

body are two distinct beings, and that at death one returns to the earth, and the other to God who gave it, are truths, declared in this passage in a manner so plain, as probably never to have been misapprehended by any man, not embarked in some philosophical controversy.

Secondly; Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is said, accordingly, that they gave up the Ghost, or rendered their spirits to God, who gave them. In Exodus, God saith, I am the God of thy father, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God, our Saviour observes, is not the God of the dead, but of the living; that is, of the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; living at the time, when this declaration was made to Moses. Accordingly this passage is alleged by our Saviour to the Sadducees, as full proof of the avaσradis, or separate existence of souls beyond the grave.

Of these persons also, it is said, that they were gathered unto their people. This declaration is commonly, but very erroneously, understood to mean, that their bodies were gathered to the bodies of their kindred; and is supposed to be equivalent to the Scriptural phrase, They slept with their fathers. But in this sense, it is, in many instances, obviously untrue. Neither Abraham,

nor Isaac, was, in this sense, gathered unto his people. The people of Abraham were all buried either in Padan Aram, or in Ur, of the Chaldees; while he was buried in the cave of Macpelah, in Canaan. Isaac was buried with none of his friends beside his Parents; and these could not be styled his people. The people, to whom these persons were gathered, were the assembly of the blessed.

Thirdly; In conformity to this interpretation, Christ says concerning Lazarus, that he died, and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom a complete proof, that Abraham was in existence among the blessed, at the time to which this parable refers.

Fourthly; Christ said to the penitent thief on the cross, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. This could not be true, unless the Soul of the thief existed in a separate state.

Fifthly; St. Paul declares, 2 Cor. v. 6, that, While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; and subjoins, We are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. Here, this Apostle teaches us, that Christians can

« PreviousContinue »