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word, happiness is a state which we are all equally concerned to attain; but wealth and knowledge are conditions accessible only to a few. Happiness has its seat in the heart; but wealth and knowledge are not adapted to satisfy our affections: therefore wealth or knowledge cannot be supposed to constitute that proper happiness of man, without which he is "made in vain."

7. Once more. There yet remains another and a yet more elevated order of men, who place the grand object of their being in religion; who think of God, trust in God, and on all occasions devote themselves to do the will of God: men who, receiving the Scriptures as His own divine revelation, conceive that they are pardoned and accepted by their heavenly Father, through the mediation of the Son of his love; conceive that they are renewed and influenced by the power of His Spirit; and, regarding the "things which are seen and temporal" as preparatory to those which are "unseen and eternal,”-“ set their affections on things above, not on things of the earth;" consider themselves as "dead to the world, and their life as hid with Christ in God; and trust that when He who is their life shall appear, they also shall appear with Him in glory." What shall we say of such persons? We say that, if this were the only state of being ordained for man, they, like others, would be "made in vain :" we say, with the desponding Psalmist, "Verily, they have cleansed their hearts in vain, and in vain washed their hands in innocence: we affirm, with the apostle Paul himself, "If in this life only they have hope, they are of all men most miserable," most worthy to be commiserated. For, according to this supposition, they are the only persons who are utterly disappointed of their object; the only persons who (by a fatal and irreparable mistake), expecting an imaginary happiness in an imaginary world, lose their only opportunity of enjoying those present pleasures of which others avail themselves; dooming themselves to grasp at shadows, while they neglect the substance; harassed with a perpetual struggle against their natural propensities and passions; incurring, perhaps, the enmity or ridicule of their fellow-mortals; and-if the supposition be true that there is no such future state as that which they anticipate-all this is in vain!

But that supposition is not, for a moment, to be believed: these men are not thus deluded; they are not to be thus disappointed; it is impossible to conceive that they are. The perplexity, the inconsistency, the palpable absurdity into which those are driven who argue upon the non-existence of immortality, the falsehood of revelation, proves, as far as proof can be expected, that theirs is a false hypothesis ! Upon their hypothesis, man is the greatest enigma in the universe; that universe is itself a problem not to be solved: all is mystery, confusion, and despair! Bring in the light of revelation and immortality, the clouds and thick darkness in which the scene was enveloped disperse, and all is clear and harmonious. Man, with his astonishing endowments, is no longer "made in vain;" the universe, with its amazing phenomena, is no longer "made in vain!" We learn at once the cause and the cure of that vanity, in subjection to which "the VOL. III.-Bb

whole creation groans," together with man. The origin of our misery and death, the recovery of life and immortality, are alike brought to light. Man has fallen by sin from the favour of his Maker; hence all the disorders and evils that surround him: but a salvation has been provided; "God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed to us the ministry of reconciliation; God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their trespasses! This, my dear brethren, is the testimony of God in his own Word; and, though men may dispute its authority, "let God," we say, "be true, but every man a liar."

To attain a share in this salvation, to recover the true end and perfection of our existence, in the resemblance and the favour of "the only happy God,"-this is the great object of desire and pursuit to those whose eyes are opened to their real situation, whose hearts are awakened to a sense of their real want. And, "remembering how

short their time is," they are the more in earnest that, by a glorious reverse of their naturally ruined state, they may prove at last to have not been "made in vain." They "pass the time of their sojourning in fear;" they are "sober, and watch unto prayer."-" As obedient children, they fashion not themselves after the lusts of their ignorance, but, as he who hath called them is holy, so they seek to be holy in all their conversation." In a word, they count all things as loss, for the excellence of the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour: for they "know whom they have believed;" they have the fullest assurance in their faith. On other objects, which are so eagerly pursued by the men of this world, they have closed their eyes for ever: forgetting the things behind, reaching forward to those before, they press forward to the mark and prize of their high calling; and, though racks, ropes, swords, or fires were to obstruct their way, they would rush through them all to reach their eternal goal! Jesus Christ is to them the very food of the soul, the very bread of life; and they make it the substance of their continual supplication, "Whatever beside is denied, Lord, evermore give us this bread!" Such are the views and affections which inspire true believers; such the object which, stretching into eternity, puts out, casts a darkness over, the brighest sublunary splendours; an object, apart from which it may be justly said, that "men," that "all men, are made in vain!"

The necessity and certainty of that salvation, that immortality, which the gospel reveals, is one and the first inference from what has been said another, and the last inference I shall mention, is the extreme folly and misery of those who persist in the neglect of this salvation, this immortality. It is to throw away the end of existence, to sever ourselves from the possibility and the infinitude of happiness, and, in the awful language of Scripture, to "judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life!" If a vast sum of money were committed to us, and we suddenly discovered that by our own neglect the whole was lost, we should be affected, probably, with serious alarm and regret; but what must be our emotion,-what our consternation, remorse, and despair,— should we discover, at the last judgment, that we have lived in vain ; that,

so far as our own interest is concerned, we have been made in vain; that we have received the grace of God in vain; that, having neglected the one salvation, we are lost, lost in the scale of being; immortal creatures, lost to the great purpose for which our Maker gave us existence; lost to happiness; irrecoverably and for ever lost! What must it be to discover that the mistake we have committed is at once infinite and irreparable; that we have been guilty of an infatuation which it will require eternity to deplore, and eternity to comprehend! Now is the accepted time. Let us earnestly avoid such an unutterable calamity; let us choose the favour of God as the only adequate end of our being; and embrace the salvation of Jesus Christ as the only way to attain that end in a word, let us act as those who are swayed by the conviction that the Christian is the only man of whom it can be said, in relation to eternal felicity, that he is not "made in vain." .

IX.

DEATH, THE LAST ENEMY, SHALL BE DESTROYED.*

1 Cor. xv. 26.-The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

[PREACHED AT BEDFORD, MAY, 1817.]

In this chapter the apostle directs the views of Christians to the final consummation of all things; when the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, in our nature, having answered the ends for which it was established, shall be surrendered, "and God shall be all in all."

This kingdom is, in the mean time, progressive, and will be so till all enemies shall be subdued and placed under his feet. The apostle brings in the words of the text as an instance of this general proposition; but it may be proper here to remark somewhat of inaccuracy in our common version. That rendering does not seem to sustain the conclusion to which the apostle had arrived. It was his purpose to establish the perfection of our Saviour's conquest, the advancement of his triumphs, and the prostration of all enemies whatever beneath his power. Now, to say that "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," by no means affords proof of this position. Though death might be destroyed, and be the last enemy that should be destroyed, it would not thence appear but that other enemies might remain not destroyed. But the proper rendering is, "Death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed."

Having made this observation, I would now direct your attention to the import of the proposition; and I will consider—

I. The nature of that enemy that shall be destroyed; and why he is called "the last enemy."

* From the notes of the Rev. S. Hillyard.

II. The manner and the successive stages in which our Lord Jesus has already conquered in part, and will completely conquer, this last

enemy.

I. The nature of that enemy that shall be destroyed, and why he is called "the last enemy."

It is not necessary to say much to show that death is, in many -respects, an enemy to the sons of Adam. It is so, first, if we consider it in its most obvious effects-the dissolution of the human frame. Every part of the body is part of a marvellous fabric, of a wonderful machine; which bears upon it the mark of Divine wisdom and skill in its contrivance and execution. It is a work which man is not only unable to form or contrive, but the contrivance of which he is not able to comprehend. Every man possesses and carries in himself certain excellences of composition, and enjoys the benefit of innumerable operations, while he is wholly unacquainted with the internal machinery by which they are produced. If we look upon the Goths and Vandals as the enemies of the nations, and of all civilized society, because they destroyed palaces and temples, and the ancient monuments of art, what must we think of death, which demolishes, not only in one victim, but in innumerable victims, the noblest fabric that was ever raised on earth, and spoils the most skilful works that were ever constructed? All human beauty, and vigour, and strength are at once laid prostrate by the power of death; are broken and shivered to pieces under the stroke of this great tyrant. Were we to see at once all the victims which, in different lands and climes, and in all ages, have fallen before him, we should behold a pile of ruins raised to the heavens: but these ruins are mostly crumbled to dust, and concealed in the darkness of the grave; or what an amazing view would be afforded of the power and conquests of this universal enemy!

Again, Death is an enemy as he puts an end to all that is terrestrial with regard to man. All the schemes, and projects, and thoughts that relate only to the concerns of time, are destroyed. "In that day," says the Word of God, "his thoughts perish:" all the thoughts of the sublimest genius of the most acute philosophers, of the subtlest statesmen, of the most ambitious projectors, perish! All find, at once, a termination to their intellectual labours, their sublunary joys and sorrows, hopes and fears: they go only as far as death leaves space for them; and stop where he opposes his power. As much, therefore, as the world is worth, as much as it possesses of value in the eyes of man,— so much is death to be considered as a formidable foe, standing forth against him, and in opposition to his career.

Say, ye ambitious, ye lovers of wealth, ye pursuers of earthly pleasure, what will all the objects you desire avail you when you are summoned to meet this last enemy, and are by him confined to the narrow limits of the grave? What will you do in that period when your "souls shall be required of you," and you are questioned, "Whose shall these things be?" As much as you value these, so much will death be your enemy.

Death is also an enemy because of the separation of the tenderest

ties of nature and affection; of all those endearments of friendship and relationship that bind man to man. Death tears asunder brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents and children; he snatches the tender infant from the mother's breast, or bereaves it of parental care, and leaves it a helpless orphan in this wilderness. One part of the moral compound is left by him to mourn and sigh, while the other part is mingled with corruption, and becomes a companion of worms. Death so mars the features, that the most passionate admirers of the fairest and most lovely forms of beauty are constrained to say, as Abraham said of Sarah, "Bury my dead out of my sight." All the fruits of friendship are withered by his breath; and one has been called alone, to go through the dark passage where no one could accompany him while the survivor, who is left behind, frequently experiences the greatest sufferings from the emotions and reflections of his mind. Alas! how many fond mothers, beloved children, and valuable friends have been already sacrificed to this inexorable tyrant! Nor is there any union so closely formed, nor any friendship so established and strengthened, but it will be cut asunder and destroyed by the stroke of this great enemy, death.

What we

But the most terrible part yet remains, the moral, or rather the eternal consequences of death. If Divine grace had not interposed, death has a sting by which he would pierce every transgressor, and send him to a state of interminable misery. "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."* The death of the body is by no means the full infliction of the penalty of the divine law. look upon as death is only a dark passage which conducts the sinner to the state of eternal death. The dissolution of our body, and the separation of the spirit from it, is but a preparation; like knocking off the chains and fetters from a prisoner who is about to be led forth to the place of execution. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life."+ Eternal life is here contrasted with death: but what is the opposite of eternal life but eternal death-the death of the soul, which consists of the perpetual loss of hope; a cutting off from the presence and favour of God; a sense of his eternal wrath, which burns like devouring fire? The second death treads in the footsteps of the first, and its shadow covers it; it is the infliction of the sentence of the Eternal Governor of the universe; and the fear of it makes those who are aware they are sinners willing to struggle with a load of cares and sorrows, rather than fall into the hand of the living God: for it is a fearful thing," a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

There are many properties of this enemy which give him the preeminence of terror. He is an inexorable enemy. Others may be bribed by riches, soothed by flatteries, moved by the tears and sorrows of a suppliant, or reconciled by a mediator; a daysman may interpose; one may come between us and our enemy, who may interpose to ward off or suspend the blow: but none can "give a ransom for his brother," to redeem his soul from death; "there is no discharge $ Psalm xlix. 7.

*1 Cor. x. 56.

↑ Rom. vi. 23.

Heb. x. 31.

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