VILL SERMON on past conduct; with their spirits enfeebled by disease, and their minds impressed with the terrours of an invisible region; the most resolute are apt to despond, and even the virtuous are in danger of sinking under the remembrance of their errours and frailties. The trembling mind casts every where around an anxious exploring eye after any power that can uphold, any mercy that will shield and save it. And accordingly we see how eagerly every device has been embraced, which superstition could invent in various countries, for quieting the alarms of the departing spirit. Here appears the great importance of those discoveries which Christianity has made concerning the government of the universe, It displays the ensigns of grace and clemency. It reveals the Almighty, not as a creator only and a judge, but as a compassionate parent, who knows our frame, who remembers we are dust, who pities us as a father pitieth his children; and with whom there is forgiveness, that he may be loved as well as feared. These general views, however, of the divine administration, would not have been sufficient to give full relief, if they VIII. they had not been confirmed by certain de- SERMON cisive facts to which the mind can appeal amidst all its doubts and fears. Two such facts the gospel holds forth to us, particularly adapted to the situation of human nature in its greatest extremity; the atonement, and the intercession of Christ. There is no sentiment more natural to men than this, that guilt must be expiated by suffering. All government is founded on the principle, that public justice requires compensation for crimes; and all religions proceed upon the belief, that, in order to the pardon of the sinner, atonement must be made to the justice of Heaven. Hence the endless variety of sacrifices, victims, and expiations, which have filled the earth. The great sacrifice which our Redeemer offered for guilt, coincides with these natural sentiments of mankind in giving ease to the heart. It shows us the forfeit of guilt paid by a divine personage in our behalf; and allows us to look up to the Governour of the world, as merciful to the guilty in consistency with justice and order. But still some anxiety might remain concerning the extension of that mercy to our own case in particular, 7 SERMON particular. VIII. An invisible sovereign is an awful idea; almighty, unknown power, is always formidable, and would be ready to overwhelm the spirit of the feeble, were not an intercessor with that sovereign revealed. This intercessor is one who lived and acted in our own nature; who not only knows, but who experienced our frailty; who has all the feelings of a brother for human infirmity and distress; who himself passed through that valley of the shadow of death which is now opening on us; to whose powerful mediation with his Father, we have every encouragement to commit the charge of our departing spirit.-Such-is the provision which Christianity has made for comforting the last hours of man. The atonement, and the intercession of Christ, are the refuge of the penitent sinner, and the consolation of the saint. By their means, the throne of the universe is encircled with mercy. The cloud which hung over the invisible world begins to be dispersed; and hope brightens through the gloom. BUT what completes the triumph of good men over death, is the prospect of eternal felicity, VIII. felicity. This was the great object after SERMON which all nations have sighed, as the only complete remedy both of the miseries of life and the fears of death. On this, the learned and the ignorant, the civilized and the savage tribes of mankind, bent their longing eyes; eagerly grasping at every argument, and fondly indulging every hope, that could promise them a propitious Deity, and a prolongation of existence in a happier state. But beyond wishes and feeble expectations, the light of nature could hardly reach. Even the most cultivated, philosophical mind was, at the hour of dissolution, left in painful suspense. Christianity has put an end to all hesitation and doubt on this important subject. It has drawn aside the veil through which reason essayed to penetrate; and has displayed to full view the future dwellings of the spirits of the just, the mansions of everlasting rest, the city of the living God. Not only has it informed us that a state of perfect felicity is prepared for the righteous, but it has added to this information a variety of circumstances which render that state sensible to our imagination, and encouraging to our hopes. It represents it as fully se cured SERMON cured by the gracious undertaking of the VIII. Saviour of the world. It describes it as an inheritance, to which he has given his fol He He is said to have taken possession of it in their name. rose from the grave as the first-fruits of them that sleep; and under the character of their fore-runner, entered into the heavenly regions. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall be live. I give unto my sheep eternal life. I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God*. Hence, to those who have lived a virtuous life, and who die in the faith of Christ, the whole aspect of death is changed. Death is to them no longer the tyrant who approaches with his iron rod, but the messenger who brings the tidings of life and liberty. The prospects which open to them cheer their minds. Even in the valley of death's shade, green pastures appear to rise, They view themselves as going forth, not to lie silent and solitary in the darkness of the grave, not to wander forsaken in the wide deserts of the universe, not even to John, xi. 25.-XX, 17, pass |