01.02. Chapter 2

CHAPTER II. The Consolations of the Gospel suited to Believers, to save them from all Concern and Fears respecting Death and Dying.

IT seems to be an idea which exists in the minds of all God’s called people, that they shall need much of Christ’s presence, and strong consolations in the article of death; they look on it as their last enemy as the greatest they ever had, or were ever called to encounter; and, some how, they expect some remarkable support in the season when they expect nature will entirely fail with them. Yet so it is, they neglect to receive into their minds those precious cordials, which are already provided for them in the glorious gospel of the blessed God. As it respects the greatest evil the Lord’s people ever were, and will ever be the subjects of, it is sin. It is not death is the greatest evil in them. No; it is sin. Nothing can heal the wounds which sin, hath given us but the blood of Christ; nothing can cleanse our minds from the guilt and stains which we have contracted, but the wounds and stripes, the agony, and bloody sweat of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel, which is the revelation of Christ in all the perfection of his blood and righteousness, and sacrifice, contains an infallible antidote and cure for the whole disease of sin. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to make us inwardly acquainted with Christ Jesus; when we have, therefore, an inward, spiritual, and intellectual knowledge of the person and salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, received from the glorious gospel, and God is pleased to shine into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, then we have an inward and experimental knowledge of life, righteousness, health, and cure, in the person, blood, and righteousness, of our most precious Lord Jesus. Faith is a real apprehension and spiritual perception of the everlasting virtue and efficacy of the sacrifice of the God-Man, Christ Jesus. When our minds center in Christ, and he is the one object of our faith and hope, and we receive the Father’s record and testimony concerning him, then we set to our seals that God is true; then we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

It is absolutely necessary for us to be well acquainted with, and rightly influenced by gospel truths and principles, to the intent that we may be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. If sin be removed in its guilt and condemnation from our minds, then we have nothing to fear from death and judgment; for, where the blood of Christ is truly known, there the peace of God is enjoyed, which always makes way for our communion with God, in the real enjoyment of his love. The gospel is suited to all believers, to save them from all fears and suspicions concerning Christ’s love to them, his care of them, his concern for them, his friendship and attachment unto them: it reaches their cases even in death, and when dying; so that, if they are troubled and cast down, it must be owing to themselves. It cannot arise from any thing Christ hath spoken in the gospel; it must proceed from their ignorance of it, their non attention to it, not from any thing concerning Christ recorded therein.

I would set forth the consolations of the gospel, as they belong to all believers; as also what there is contained in the same, to save them from all concern and fears respecting death and dying. A man cannot know Christ, as set forth in the gospel, but from the word, and by the Spirit: he cannot know him, but he is a believer on him; he cannot believe on him, but he hath communion with him. Such an one cannot want greater evidence of his interest in him. Our Lord says, He that believeth on me, hath everlasting life; he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. Thus one truth hangs upon another, and in the true knowledge of them the fruits and effects of each are produced. The covenant of the Eternal Three is the believer’s security for all the blessings of this life, and of that which is to come. The word, oath, and promise of the Three in Jehovah, are the believer’s foundation for faith and hope in God; and the promises, which God is pleased to speak to his people by, are all yea and amen in Christ; they are all as immutable as God’s will; they are all the expressions of the good pleasure of his will in Christ Jesus concerning us: the believer in Christ is therefore secure; he is well provided for; he is in Christ in life, he is in Christ in death. We may consider the following particulars as containing consolations suited to saints, in the views of immediate death and dying.

1. What is recorded concerning the death of Old Testament saints.

2. The death of Christ, the head of all the saints. In consequence of which it may be well said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints; and what Christ says, and what is said concerning his saints in the New Testament, regarding their union with Christ, their state in him and their blessedness in their deaths, and dying.

1. As to what is recorded concerning Old Testament believers, the apostle expressly says, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar of and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say. such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their Go: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:13-16. In the Old Testament we read, Abraham was gathered to his people. Of Isaac, that he gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people. Of Jacob, that he yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Of the Lord’s command to Moses Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to mount Hor. And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people and shall die there. Numbers 20:25-26. Of the Lord’s speaking thus unto Moses: Get thee up into this mount Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession, and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; As Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people. Deuteronomy 32:49-50. The people they were gathered to, were the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven. The consolation suited to us, under the immediate apprehensions of death, may well be derived from viewing how easy their deaths were how the Lord so sustained them, that they did not so much as sigh; and also, that they were no sooner out of the body but they were in the house eternal in the heavens. As soon as they were absent from their bodies, they joined their fathers in the state of glory. Whoso readeth and understandeth this, will find strong consolation arising therefrom.

2. The death of Christ, the head of all the saints, contains everlasting consolation. There is every thing in it to carry believers in him, above and beyond all their concern and fears about death and dying. It is a consecrated path, sanctified by our Lord himself. When the Israelites were to enter Canaan, the river Jordan fled before the ark, a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ gave death its commission to separate his soul and body, he said, rather, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost; and at that very instant swallowed up death in victory, and went immediately by it into his kingdom of glory. Death, believers in Jesus, can do us no more harm than it did Christ: it could do him none he was sin proof and death proof; so are we in him. We have no more to fear from it than the saints in glory. It is as natural for us to fear it, as it is in our very natures to be sinful. But Christ’s righteousness imputed to our persons delivers us from the imputation of all sin, both inherent and actual; his blood cleanseth us from all sin; his righteousness delivereth from death; in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. When our Lord offered up his commendatory prayer, and with it yielded up his soul to his divine Father, he at the same time commended and committed all the souls of his people, together with his own, to his Father’s care and trust. A right apprehension of this affords everlasting consolation against the fears, and all concern about dying. All Christ’s acts for his church will redound to their everlasting benefit. This was our Lord’s last act, when he finished the work of salvation, and yielded up his soul in the same breath. It is not sufficiently considered by believers, for in it, and by it, we are everlastingly secured. He hath commended, and committed our souls with his own, which is of infinitely more worth than the souls of all the election of grace put together, into his Father’s hands, so that we are safe and properly provided with for a dying moment. We need not, therefore, give ourselves any concern about a dying moment; we shall die as truly interested in Christ’s prayer, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, as he did himself. I think this may be to us, present, as it will be found to contain everlasting consolation!

3. What Christ says, and what is said concerning his saints in the New Testament, regarding their union with Christ, their state in Christ, and their blessedness in their deaths and dying; as it proves, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, so it contains consolations suited to such of them as have immediate views of death and dying. Our Lord says, Fear not; I ant the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.. Revelation 1:17-18. Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house 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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3. The prophet saith, And I heard a voice front heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them, Revelation 14:13. Such as are in the Lord, they are the Lord’s in life and death. They die in the Lord; they sleep in the Lord; they are the Lord’s dead. The apostle says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died and rose,. and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living. Romans 14:7-9. The elect were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world: they are in him as members in a head; they are one with him; they are united in their whole persons to his person; their souls and bodies are united to the soul and body of the God Man, and nothing can dissolve this union; therefore they need not fear death and dying. They are interested in the person, undertakings, incarnation, holiness, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, so that they are in the sight of God what Jesus their head is. Their state before Jehovah the rather, is the same with the state of Christ. God bath made Christ to be unto them, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that there can be no cause why they should fear death, or dying. They are blessed in their deaths and dying moments, because they are in Christ, and are blessed in him; and they are even then, whether they feel and perceive it or not, blessed by him, for he remembers them with everlasting kindness. Surely this is well suited to the cases of dying believers. What is recorded in the New Testament concerning the death of Stephen is very supporting and consolatory: he was stoned, calling upon and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he fell asleep. This is what death is to the saints. Some such persons, says the apostle, are fallen asleep. Such as sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Now, beloved in the Lord, here are very suit able subjects and consolations for such as are about to fetch their last breath; are there not? Many a saint died before us; before you, who, have now the immediate views of death and dying. Many of them, in the examples of those fetched from the Old Testament, died without sigh or groan; yea, they died cheerfully: their minds were kept in perfect peace, whilst the, change which death made in their countenance passed on them, and the disunion of body and soul took place. All their safety and blessedness, were in Christ: so are ours. Why should we not then be as perfectly resigned to the stroke as they were? The last act of Christ, which preceded his expiring on the cross, may well yield us very suited consolation in the very article of death, and in the very moment of dying. We shall die in union with him; we shall die interested in his life and death in his last words, and dying act. What can we have, therefore, to fear? Nothing. If we are fearful of death, and afraid of the act of dying, it is because we look off Jesus, and are not exercising our minds on him. So the consolations of the gospel, suited to relieve us from all fears regarding death, are all sufficient cordials to support and sustain us in the immediate views of death and dying. It would be well to make use of them beforehand; it becomes us to use them now, for the mind truly acquainted with them, and exercising faith continually in the remembrance of these, will thereby be lifted up above, and beyond all doubt and dismay.

I would, O my soul! address thee, and ask, are these things so ? Dost thou know the truth and hast thou been brought by the power of the Holy Ghost under the influence of the same? Then bless the Lord the Spirit for it; give him his glory. Art thou enlightened in thy mind, and led clearly to see that there is no more in death and in the act of dying, for thee to feel and experience, than all those have felt who have gone before thee? Then learn to be perfectly resigned to it, let it come when, where, and how it may. Thou hast the same Christ to support thee that all the Old Testament saints had; thou hast the same Christ to look on thee who looked on Stephen. It is true he looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. This will not be granted thee, nor dost thou need it; but the same Jesus will actually keep his eye on thee all the while death is doing its office on thee; and thou wilt then have the benefit contained in Christ’s recommendatory prayer; therefore, fear not. It is, to, own honour also; that may ascribe now, in the article of death and dying, blessing, honour, glory, and thanksgiving, for salvation from sin, Satan, death, and over all fear and concern about it to the holy ones in the one Godhead.

Amen.