man is often led astray before he is aware. The enemy of the soul attacks us in every quarter; approaches often under false colours, and tries every disguise to deceive and to destroy. Vice often borders on virtue; the narrow path and the broad way lie so near, that it is difficult to distinguish them, so as to order our goings aright. Inadvertence may frequently betray; the impetuosity of passion may precipitate, and the gentleness of our own nature mislead us into steps fatal to our peace. I speak not of wicked men, who acknowledge no guide but their passions, and submit to no law, but what one vice imposes upon another. I talk of the sincere, and the good. The most watchful Christian has his unguarded moments: the most prudent man speaks unadvisedly with his lips, and the meekest lets the sun go down upon his wrath. Alas! man in his best éstate is altogether vanity, and always stands in need of the lesson from the tomb. "O that they were wise," said Moses, "that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end !"

SERMON VII.

O death!

1 Cor. xv. 55, 57.

Where is thy sting? O grave! Where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE

HE Messiah is foretold in ancient prophecy as a magnificent Conqueror. His victories were celebrated, and his triumphs were sung, long before the time of his appearance to Israel. "Who is this," saith the prophet Isaiah, pointing him out to the Old Testament Church, "Who is this that cometh from Edom; with dyed garments from Bezrab? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength ?" I have set my King upon my holy in of Zion.-I shall give him the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts

of the earth for his possession." As a Conqueror he had to destroy the works of the great enemy of mankind; and to overcome death, the king of terrors.

The method of accomplishing this victory was as surprising as the love which gave it birth. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same, that, through his own death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." Accordingly, his passion on the cross, which you have this day commemorated, was the very victory which he obtained. The hour in which he suffered was also the hour in which he overcame. Then he bruised the head of the old serpent, who had seduced our first parents to rebel against their Maker; then he disarmed the king of terrors, who had usurped dominion over the nations; then triumphing over the legions of hell, and the powers of darkness, he made a show of them openly. Not for himself, but for us did he conquer. The Captain of our salvation fought, that we might overcome. He obtained the victory, that we may join in the triumphal song, as we now do, when we repeat these words of the apostle; "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?"

It is the glory of the Christian religion, that it abounds with consolations under all the evils of life; nor is its benign influence confined to the course of life, but even extends to death itself. It delivers us from the agony of the last hour; sets us free from the fears which then perplex the timid; from the horrors which haunt the offender, though penitent, and from all the darkness which involves our mortal state. So complete is the victory we obtain, that Jesus Christ is said in scripture to have abolished death.

The evils in death, from which Jesus Christ sets us free, are the following: In the first place, the doubts and fears that are apt to perplex the mind, from the uncertainty in which a future state is involved. Secondly, the apprehensions of wrath and forebodings of punishments proceeding from the consciousness of sin. Thirdly, the fears that arise in the mind upon the awful transition from this world to the next.

1. Jesus Christ gives us victory over death, by delivering us from the doubts and fears which arose in the minds

of those who knew not the gospel, from the uncertainty in which a future state was involved.

Without Divine Revelation, men wandered in the dark with respect to an after life. Unassisted reason could give but imperfect information on this important article. Conjectures, in place of discoveries, presumptions in place of demonstrations, were all that it could offer to the inquiring mind. The unenlightened eye could not clearly pierce the cloud which veiled futurity from mortal view. The light of nature reached little farther than the limits of this globe, and shed but a feeble ray upon the region beyond the grave. Hence, those heathen nations, of whom the Apostle speaks, are described as sorrowing and having no hope. And whence could reason derive complete information, that there was a state of immortality beyond the grave? Consult with appearances in nature, and you find but few intimations of a future life. Destruction seems to be one of the great laws of the system. The various forms of life are indeed preserved; but while the species remains, the individual perishes. Every thing that you behold around you, bears the marks of mortality and the symptoms of decay. He only who is, and was, and is to come, is without any variableness or shadow of turning. Every thing passes away. A great and mighty river, for ages and centuries, has been rolling on, and sweeping away all that ever lived, to the vast abyss of eternity. On that darkness light does not rise. From that unknown country none return. On that devouring deep, which has swallowed up every thing, no vestige appears of the things that were.

There are particular appearances also which might naturally excite an alarm for the future. The human machine is so constituted, that soul and body seem often to decay together. To the eye of sense, as the beast dies, so dies the man. Death seems to close the scene, and the grave to put a final period to the prospects of man. The words of Job beautifully express the anxiety of the mind on this subject. "Ifa man die, shall be live again? There is hope of a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant: but man dieth, and is cut off'; man giveth up the ghost, and where

is he? As the waters fail from the sea; as the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." But what a dreadful prospect does annihilation present to the mind! To be an out-cast from existence; to be blotted out from the book of life; to mingle with the dust, and be scattered over the earth, as if the breath of life had never animated our frame! Man cannot support the thought. Is the light which shone brighter than all the stars of heaven set in darkness, to rise no more? Are all the hopes of man come to this,—to be taken into the councils of the Almighty; to be admitted to behold part of that plan of Providence which governs the world, and when his eyes are just opened to read the book,-to be shut for ever? If such were to be our state, we would be of all creatures the most miserable. The world appears a chaos without form, and void of order. From the throne of nature, God departs, and there appears a cruel and capricious being, who delights in death, and makes sport of human misery.

From this state of doubts and fears we are delivered by the Gospel of Jesus. The message which he brought was life and immortality. From the Star of Jacob, light shone even upon the shades of death. As a proof of immortality, he called back the departed spirit from the world unknown; as an earnest of the resurrection to a future life, he himself arose from the dead. When we contemplate the tomb of nature, we cry out, "Can these dry bones When we contemplate the tomb of Jesus, we say, "Yes, they can live!" As he arose, we shall in like manner arise. In the tomb of nature, you see man return to the dust from whence he was taken. In the tomb of Jesus, you see man restored to life again. In the tomb of nature, you see the shades of death fall on the weary traveller, and the darkness of the long night close over his head. In the tomb of Jesus, you see light arise upon the shades of death, and the morning dawn upon the long night of the grave. On the tomb of nature it is written, "Behold thy end, O man! Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. Thou, who now callest thyself the son of heaven, shalt become one of the clods of the valley." On the tomb of Christ is written, "Thou diest, O man! but to live again. When dust returns to dust, the spirit shall return to God who gave it. I am the resurrection

and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." From the tomb of nature, you hear a voice," For ever silent is the land of forgetfulness? From the slumbers of the grave shall we awake no more? Like the flowers of the field, shall we be as though we had never been ?" From the tomb of Jesus you hear," Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, thus saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and pass into glory:In my Father's house, there are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I will come again, and take you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."

Will not this assurance of a happy immortality, and a blessed resurrection, in a great measure remove the terror and the sting of death? May we not walk without dismay through the dark valley, when we are conducted by a beam from heaven? May we not endure the tossings of one stormy night, when it carries us to the shore that we long for? What cause have we to dread the messenger who brings us to our Father's house? Should not our fears about futurity abate, when we hear God addressing us with respect to death, as he did the Patriarch of old, upon going to Egypt, "Fear not to go down to the grave: I will go down with thee, and will bring thee up again."

II. Our victory over death consists in our being delivered from the apprehensions of wrath, and forebodings of punishment, which arise in the mind from the consciousness of sin.

That there is a God who governs the world, the patron of righteousness, aud the avenger of sin, is so manifest from the light of nature, that the belief of it has obtained among all nations. That it shall be well with the righte ous, and ill with the wicked: that God will reward those who diligently seek him, and punish those who transgress his laws, is the principle upon which all religion is founded. But whether mercy be an attribute in the Divine nature to such an extent that God may be rendered propitious to those who rebel against his authority, and disobey his commandments, is an inquiry to which no satisfactory answer can be made. Many of the Divine attributes are conspicuous from the works of Creation; the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God, appear in creating the world; in superintending that world which he has made;