On the first motion of enmity to those who may offend you, look immediately to the compassionate Saviour, who bled upon the cross for you. Remember my text; and remember too, that as a man, and as a Christian, it is your duty, your happiness, nay, your very glory, to pass over a transgression, and rise superior in dignity to the offender. When tempted to revenge, immediately take: your Bible, and read the parable of the prodigal son; and pray that the same mind may be in you, as was so charmingly expressed by the compassionate father. Few who read that parable, sufficiently investigate the unforgiving, inveterate, unmanly character of the elder brother, who, by his relentless heart, excluded himself from the pleasures of the feast on return of the prodigal. While we hold this unlovely, selfish, unrelenting character in contrast with the truly excellent and compassionate father, what a pity is it that any should be found, whether in a family or in a church, to copy after such an unhappy example, when acts of forbearance and for giveness are required! I have now enumerated to you some instances of of fences which are calculated to provoke your resentment; -explained the duty incumbent upon you to pass over a transgression ;—and enforced it upon you, from the consideration that it is the glory of a man to perform it. I sincerely wish, that, whether masters, servants, parents, children, or friends, you may be assisted to practise this lecture in your future lives. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. THE CHRISTIAN'S GAIN BY DEATH. PHIL. i. 21. -To die is gain. Sweet to rejoice in lively hope, L. H. THAT the excellence of the Christian religion is evident÷ in the lives of those who in reality possess it, very few will attempt to deny. Paul, though once a notorious blasphemer and persecutor, obtained mercy from Christ, and by the riches of his grace, was influenced with unbounded ardour, to preach the faith he once attempted to destroy. By the sanctity of his life, he gave a convincing evidence of his personal religion, and the reality of his commission as a servant of the Lord Jesus. Nor did he count his life dear unto him, so that he might finish his course with joy. Nay, he assures us in this verse, To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That is, "in my estimation, to live in and for Christ is the source of my salvation and happiness, and the only thing worth living for, or that deserves the name of life." It cannot be contradicted, that the life of Paul was absorbed in the life, light, and love of Christ, performing his will, and bearing his image. No wonder that a man so highly favoured was ready to exchange worlds, and able to make a good estimate of the advantages he should obtain. However, thousands besides Paul have lived such a life in Christ, and have been indulged with the same conquest over mortality, in sight of an eternal world. In pleasing hope God may grant you also the same privilege, I shall seek your instruction in this discourse, by offering you some considerations on the UNAVOIDABLE, AFFECTING, AND SOLEMN, though NECESSARY SUBMISSION to death; and will endeavour to assist you in making some estimate of the Christian's GAIN by death. The 1. Death, which is the separation of the soul from the body, and the passing into another state, is UNAVOIDABLE. God, who is infinitely good, and taketh pleasure in the works of his hand, can never be said, without cause, to appoint unto man such a dissolution. The Scriptures inform us, that by sin came death. wages of sin is death. Therefore, it is appointed unto men once to die. No age, no station can possibly revoke the doom: nothing is more sure than death; and to the sceptre of the king of terrors all must inevitably bow.-Death is as AFFECTING as it is unavoidable. The bloom and beauty of human nature fall to the dust, and turn to corruption. Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away. Yes, the dearest pledges of our love; a charming offspring, a tender wife, the affectionate parent; all not only stand marked as victims of death, but must assuredly die. Ah! what tears, what rending of the heart, what extreme sorrow is attendant upon the train of death, when he enters into our families! We may also say, that death is truly affecting in itself; it is so in anticipation, and especially in its consequences; for, after death comes the judgment. -We therefore add, death is SOLEMN; it fixes the final state; it is the corner we turn, either to infinite joy or endless pain. As we close our eyes in death, so we shall awake in the morning of the resurrection. There is no work nor device in the grave. There is a peculiar solemnity in man's birth, though seldom realized. He is born for eternity; a subject of corruption, exposed to numberless foes, and surrounded with snares, all the fruit of sin. But the moment of death is still more solemn; it casts the die, and launches man into a vast eternity. If the mere consideration of these things makes us tremble, what must we feel under the immediate agonies of death!-Concerning the righteous especially, we may also add, that death is NECESSARY. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Cor ruption cannot inherit incorruption. Though Christ hath taken away the sting of death, yet all his redeemed family must pass through the valley of the shadow of death, in their passage to immortality. The wicked, by death, lose their all; the comforts and honours of life forsake them, and they pass away to experience the solemnities of eternal judgment. Not so the children of the Lord. As to them, to live is Christ, so to die is gain. Let us then, as we proposed, 2. Attempt to make some estimate of the Christian's GAIN by death.-Certainly we may say, he gains a perfect discharge from all the miseries of human life. His dying groan is the sound of expiring sorrow. Satan can no more vex the soul, nor tempt the feet astray. Sin, his worst enemy, is for ever lost. The wicked cease from troubling. The world now smiles or frowns in vain. Every enemy, like the host of Pharaoh, sinks into the sea of death, to rise no more. What is still of more consequence to the true Christian, is the powers of unbelief; corrupt passions; and an hard heart, which had been his baneful inmate, and his greatest sorrow. These shall all flee away when death shall break the chain. Come then, ye weary travellers, to Zion's gate; fear not; though faint, yet pursue. A few more dark days, a few more tears and conflicts, and death will introduce you where there is no more sickness, pain, nor sorrow; but where God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes, and crown you with immortal joy! -By death the redeemed of the Lord gain an immediate admission to the visible presence of the Lord Jesus. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. In this vale of tears it is our highest privilege to walk in the light of God's countenance; but such seasons, through intervening clouds of sin and temptation, are not often enjoyed. Now we see through a glass darklys but then, face to face. God and the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, shall display the riches of glory, and the soul be absorbed in the rays of eternal love!—The pos session of a glorified body on the morning of the resurrection, is no small part of the Christian's gain by death, Jesus shall change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his own glorious body, according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Vile indeed are our bodies, by disease, aud through union with their kindred sinful souls; but this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption. Our flesh shall die, and rest in hope. United to the person of Jesus, and bought with his precious blood, mortality shall be succeeded by eternal life. Let us, therefore, triumph with Job: I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. It is not improper I should add, in estimating the gain Hh |