01.01. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1. On Death. What it is. With its universal dominion over all the human race. OF all the evils in this our world, there is no one which we seem to dread so much as death. Not that it is the greatest. Sin is infinitely greater: it produced death: death is the wages of it. So says the apostle: The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The same apostle tells us the original of death. It entered and was enacted by the ordinance of the Most High God, in consequence of Adam’s fall: its sentence was, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. Genesis 3:19. Paul says, By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, (in whom, or) for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12. When we consider the trials, sorrows, miseries, and pains of this present state, and what may befall us in our bodies and minds, whilst we remain in this present evil world, it may be of some relief, and be looked on as a mercy, that we are not always to remain here. We are at times disposed to speak agreeable with this; yet it is but seldom: we are, I conceive, chiefly distressed in our minds, because by death we are translated into an unseen state. It is commonly said, none ever returned after death to give an account of what they passed through in the article of death, and what their state now is. No; nor is there any need they should, for the word of inspiration is sufficient for all this. We are informed therein concerning the creation of man; of the fall of all men in one man; of death; what it is; of its universal dominion over all the human race. There is a sense, in which it may be said we need no other book but it, for all knowledge is comprized therein. Our bodies are in it so opened, and every part of the animal frame so explained, that were we to attend closely unto the same, we should know the cause of our every disease, and thereby be capable of understanding what is most likely to give us relief; for surely, he who made the body, and gives an account of what is the union knot between body and soul, in the account he gives us of fluids and solids of which our bodies consist, must alone be capable of giving us the knowledge of those outward means and medicines which are properly suited to, the diseases and injuries which befall then. The body of man is a wonderful structure it was formed by the Holy Trinity out of the dust; it is the microcosm of the whole world. The account of its original is given us in these words: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7. The body was first formed, and then the soul infused into it; when it was infused, then it was created then the body was animated, and the soul was created when it was infused. As man hereby had a sensitive, animal, and rational life, so, when the Lord God is pleased to gather to himself man’s spirit and breath, the body dies: its union with the soul is then dissolved, and it returns to the elements out of which it was formed.

Man was made for the world, and all things in it were made for his use, benefit, and advantage. We have a most beautiful scripture to this purpose in the prophecy of Isaiah: ’Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none else, Isaiah 45:18. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: Isaiah 45:12 of the same chapter. Solomon, speaking of God and his works, says, He hash made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11.

Adam was the epitome of the whole world, and it was the epitome of him: there was every creature in it, every tree, herb, plant, and flower, suited to him to satisfy his body and mind; and in all he saw such evidences of the eternal power and Godhead of the Three in Jehovah, as made way for him to give unto them, as his Creators, glorious praise.

Yet Adam was not in an immortal state, neither was he created immortal either in body or mind. Jehovah might continue, but he could not create a creature either immortal or immutable: it is his property to be immutable; and it is said, He alone hath immortality, 1 Timothy 6:16. We say, the souls of men, as also angels, are immortal they are so: but this is by the gift of God. We conceive Adam’s body to have been so in Paradise before the fall; it was, and it was not so: it was in this sense immortal, that he would never have died had he not sinned. But his body would have needed recruiting, to keep up the continual expense and activity of his spirits, therefore the tree of life was appointed for this end; which, had he continued in his creation state, would have been to him the balsam of life, and recruited his body and senses with perpetual vigour. As to his body, it required the power of God every moment to sustain it, to poise the elements of it, to keep it in a perpetual equilibrium, otherwise Adam had no immortality in his own nature. It was possible for him to sin: he did actually sin when he was in this state; he fell under the sentence of death in his body as we are under it in ours. It passed on him, and on us; on us as considered in him; he lost the image of God, in which he was created, for himself and us also: thus, by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

Death is a solemn subject: it is for a season the destruction of the body; it dissolves the beautiful microcosm of it; all the parts of it are left without any animality in them; the senses are all gone; the faculties of the mind all cease; the soul can no longer dwell in it. This makes death to us the king of terrors: our soul, mind, thought, that thinking faculty which hath hitherto possessed the body, can remain in it no longer it is separated from it by the violence of death; it must, therefore, as it cannot cease its existence, be in an invisible state without it. I conceive this is the chiefest reason why any of the godly cannot look on death comfortably; they think it would be far more agreeable to go to heaven in their bodies, as Enoch and Elijah did. Why, these were as truly changed in their bodies, and it made as great an alteration in their minds also, as death and separation, and entrance into heaven will in us. They do not reflect, that though these two saints in Christ died not, yet the change which actually passed on them was equal to that which will pass on us at death; we shall by it be as truly translated to heaven as they were changed in their bodies without death, and translated body and soul thither without it. As it respects death, it is the disunion of body and soul. The union knot between these is the breath in our nostrils, which, when it ceaseth, the body drops off, and is nothing but a breathless corpse: it is found to be nothing but a case, or sheath, in which the soul was implunged; which, being disunited from it, the body is but a dust heap, and therefore fit for nothing but the grave, where it is to rest until the resurrection morning comes. There is nothing in all this to affright the people of the Most High: it is the ordinance of heaven; it is the divine will; It is appointed unto men once to die. It is but once, and it is past for ever. The most holy and useful are not exempted. Prophets, patriarchs, saints, and believers of the highest attainments apostles, evangelists, the saints of all ages, past and present, and all the saints who are to come, did and will depart out of this world to heaven; only the saints who shall remain and be alive in their bodies when the last trumpet shall sound, will be excused from dying. Yet, as in the cases of Enoch and Elijah, a change will pass on them, which will be equal to death. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head, Saviour, and Representative of his Church, passed out of our world to glory in this very same way that we must. His body and soul were separated by death, so that it is a consecrated path: it has been trodden over and over; multitudes, even millions of millions of millions, have gone to heaven before us. Some of them Have so spoken of Christ, so praised him, so triumphed in him, when the cold death sweat has been upon them, that they have proved fully they found no evil in death, it had no string. The death of Christ is the death of Death He that believeth on Him, hath everlasting life.

Death, natural death, hath universal dominion over all the human race: it is a most solemn evidence of the fall of all mankind in the first Adam, the natural head of all his posterity. As we are conceived and born in sin, so we receive death into our constitutions, as soon as we are framed in the womb. Death may well be entitled them mortality which is in our bodies: it seizeth on some infants who were never born into our world; on others, so soon as they enter it. There is a time to be born, and there is a time to die; and every one dies when they least expect, yet no one dies, but at God’s-appointed time; and the wisdom, goodness, and power of God, are most eminently displayed in the deaths of all men, as well as in their lives. This should make us contented to live, and also to die. The time, the place, the season, the circumstance, and all which concerns our going out of this world, is most divinely ordered by the Lord. Every one dies at the best time, and in the most convenient season for themselves and those they belong unto. All God’s purposes; for which he brought us into being, and the reasons why he hath upheld us so few, or so many years in this world, all are accomplished in us, and by us, before he removes us out of it by death. Let it be saint, let it be sinner, God’s end is answered. It would be of no use to church or state, for the holiest man, the wisest man, the greatest statesman, to continue alive in the body one single moment beyond what the Lord hath fixed in his immutable will. This should put saints on activity. All should be useful in their clay and generation; all cannot be useful in one and the same way. Let saints who have property settle their minds, make their wills, and leave nothing undone, that if death seize them, they may not want to live one single moment, but be ready and willing to go immediately. Let saints of every description so carry on their affairs in the world, in the family, and in the church, as to have no thing to do but to die: let them take advantage of death’s secret undermining their constitutions, of its frequent warnings by disease and sickness, or other symptoms of its intended secret attack on them, to be in constant expectation of it; then they will not be surprised, but meet it with holy cheerfulness and serenity. Most blessed is the advice which our Lord gives us in the following scripture: Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching! Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And f he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Luke 12:35-40. The death of the body our sleeping in it every night, might serve to save us from all unreasonable fears and concerns about it. Nature’s nurse is sleep; nothing is more recruiting to the animal spirits; nothing more acceptable and reviving to the body; all its senses are then locked up; the whole frame is at ease; it rests sweetly, and is quite refreshed; thereby it is fitted for further uses and services. We are not afraid to sleep, We go to bed for that very purpose. We know not when sleep falls upon us; when it does, we cannot resist it; we awake, and are refreshed. So death is compared to sleep to sleeping in Jesus. In death, all our senses, faculties, and members, are closed up; we know not the moment we actually depart the body, for this comes on us instantaneously. We fall thereby into a fast sleep: the grave is then prepared for the body, as its proper place and bed. We feel no pain, no uneasiness of any kind. When our Lord calls for us to awake out of sleep, we find our bodies altogether the better, for having slept the sleep of death. We awake; we are satisfied; we are renewed with immortal youth. We see Christ face to face; we are completely conformed in body and soul, and made like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself; so that death did us no kind of injury in performing its office on our bodies, bringing such sleep on them as to fit them for resting in the proper bed prepared by God himself for them in the dust. The Lord said to Abram, Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Genesis 15:15. Here is an easy admission into heaven, and a free dismission from his body; and also a grave and burial in it promised him. He was to die in peace in the enjoyment of that peace of God which passeth all understanding, lie was to go to heaven; his body was to be buried, in full expectation of its resurrection from the grave, when it would be clothed with immortality. A most blessed prospect! Surely he could not, when he and death met as friends together, be afraid of it! He was not. So far from it, that it is recorded of him, He gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full, and was gathered to his people. Genesis 25:8. I have left out the supplementary words of years; he was full. Mr. Romaine says, "Abraham was fully satisfied with the goodness of the Lord to him." Abraham died fully satisfied with the Father’s everlasting love to him in Christ; he died fully satisfied with Christ, and his salvation; he fell asleep in his arms of death, fully satisfied with ’the testimony and witness of the Holy Ghost, concerning the Father’s love and the Son’s salvation; he could have nothing beyond this to satisfy his mind out of heaven; he was therefore gathered to his people, Abel, Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, and other saints, gone to heaven before him.

I have placed Abel before Adam, because he was the first saint of human race who ever entered into heaven; which place, though prepared before the foundation of the world for the habitation of the just, was but slowly filled from Adam’s time down to the flood. Abel, who was a martyr for Christ, went thither first; and Enoch was the first who entered in body and soul. This was to the Church of God, then existing in our world, a pledge to their faith of a glorious life of immortality in the body, as well as in the soul.

Let me turn this whole subject, as it respects the substance of it, into a soliloquy to my own mind, and close the same with prayer; for why should I not aim to gain advantage from it?

Thou art, O my soul! fully persuaded, art thou not, of what death is; that thy own body is under the sentence of it, which cannot be repealed? As to thine own existence, it cannot cease, but thy body must die: it will soon cease its union with thee. What are thy thoughts concerning this ? Surely I conceive there is no need to live in any fear concerning death. Whilst it will be to thee what it is to all beside, what cause hast thou to fear it ? seeing thou hast had evidence upon evidence, that the Lord bath been with his saints in their dying moments, and turned all their sorrows into joy, when they have clearly discerned the close approach of death. Surely, O my soul! it may encourage thee to consider this is the very passage from the state of grace to the state of glory. What hast thou to do with death? Surely nothing. It will have to do with thee; but thou needest not to look at it, or have any dealings with it; the Lord Jesus Christ knows all contained in death, what is felt, when the silver cord is loosed, when the golden bowl is broken, when the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel is broken at the cistern. As he was made in all things like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Surely he will feel for me when death invades me. It may be, I may not know when death is upon me; I may die in my bed; I may fall into the arms of death suddenly. Let it be so; I will give myself no concern about it. I must quit the body, or I cannot see Christ, nor be with him, and live with him, in his kingdom of glory. I will not, therefore, look on death as my enemy, but as my real friend. I will expect that the Lord will be to me all he hath been to those who died in him before me. I will address his Majesty on a throne of grace on this important subject.

0 Lord Jesus Christ, I am thine, and all that I have and am is at thine own disposal! My life, my breath, my time, my death, are all before thee. I most certainly feel, very sensibly, that I must die; I would be content that it must be so. I would praise thee, it will soon be so; and I would triumph in thee, in the prospect thereof! Lord, create in my mind such proper views and ideas hereof, as my realize the subject: in the full apprehensions of it, let me rejoice and be exceeding glad in thee, the Lord. Let me be kept looking at thy death, and my complete salvation. Let me find thy love heaven. Let me clearly understand thy person to be life everlasting. Let me be looking unto thee, and looking on thee, as my perfection, my conqueror, my blessedness, my glory, my all! O that thou wouldst so enlarge and enlighten my spiritual faculties, to take in and comprehend what is revealed in the written word concerning thy conquest of death, and the whole contained in it, that I may live in thee cheerfully, believe in thee confidently, and die in thee triumphantly. I beseech thee to grant unto me so clear and true a knowledge of thee from thy holy gospel, as will produce in me, living or dying, all this! Amen.

Lord Jesus, Amen, and Amen.