no faving intereft in the great peace maker. Ye are God's family: the adoption we fpoke of belongs not Ye have no part in the Spirit of fan&tification; and, word, ye have no inheritance among them that are sa All I can fay to you in this matter, is, that the ca defperate, they may yet be yours, Rev. iii. 20.

I ftand at the door and knock: if any man hear m • and open the door, I will come in to him, and will • him, and he with me.' Heaven is propofing an uni earth flill, the potter is making fuit to his own clay. gates of the city of refuge are not yet clofed. O! could compel you to come in.

Thus far of the State of Grace.

NAMELY,

The ETERNAL STATE; or State of confummate Happiness or, Mifery;

HEAD L

of DEATH.

JOB XXX, 23.

For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the Houfe appointed for all Living.

I

Come now to difcourfe of man's eternal fate, into which

he enters by death. Of this entrance Job takes a folemn ferious view, in the words of the text, which contain a general truth, and a particular application of it. The general truth is supposed; namely, that all men mußt, by death, remove out of this world; they muft die. But, whither muft they go? They must go to the house appointed for all living; to the grave, that darkfome, gloomy, folitary houfe, in the land of forgetfulness. Wherefoever the body is laid up, till the refurrection; thither, as to a dwellingboufe, death brings us home. While we are in the body, we are but in a lodging-house: in an inn, on our way homeward. When we come to our grave, we come to our home, our long home, Ecclef. xii. 5. All living must be inhabitants of this house, good and bad, old and young. Man's life is a ftream, running into death's devouring deeps. They, who now live in palaces, muft quit them, and go home to this house; and they, who have not where to lay their

beads,

heads, fhall thus have a houfe at length. It is appo for all, by him, whofe counfel fhall stand. This app ment cannot be fhifted; it is a law, which mortals c tranfgrefs. Job's application of this general truth to felf, is expreffed in thefe words; I know that thou wilt me to death, &c. He knew, that he behoved to meet death; that his foul and body behoved to part; that, who had fet the tryft, would certainly fee it kept. S times Job was inviting death to come to him, and him home to its houfe; yea, he was in hazard of ru to it before the time, Job vii. 15. My foul cho Arangling and death, rather than my life.' But he confiders God would bring him to it; yea, bring him to it, as the word imports. Whereby he feems to intin that we have no life in this world, but as runaways death, which ftretcheth out its cold arms, to recei from the womb; but though we do then narrowly e its clutches, we cannot efcape long; we will be br back again to it. Job knew this, he had laid his ac with it, and was looking for it.

DOCTRINE, All muft die,

Although this doctrine be confirmed by the exper of all former generations, ever fince Abel entered int boufe appointed for all living; and though the living that they shall die; yet it is needful to difcourfe of the tainty of death, that it may be impreffed on the mind duly confidered.

Wherefore confider firft. There is an unalterable of death, under which men are concluded It is appo ⚫ unto men once to die,' Heh. ix.27. It is laid up for t and cannot miss it; feeing God has defigned and refer as parents lay up for their children; they may look for them. There is no peradventure in it; we must die, 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Though fome men will not he death, yet every man must fee death, Pfal. Ixxxix. 48. D is a champion all must grapple with ;we must enter the with it, and it will have the maftery, Ecclef. viii. 8 T ' is no man that hath power over the fpirit,to retain th

deed who are found alive at Chrift's coming, fhall all be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51. But that change will be equivalent to death, will answer the purposes of it. All other perfons must go, the common road, the way of all flesh. Secondly, Let us confult daily obfervation. Every man feeth that wife men die, likewife the fool and brutish perfon, Pfal.xlix. 10. There is room enough, on this earth,for us:notwithstanding of the multitudes that were upon it, before us: they are gone to make room for us; as we must depart to leave room for others. It is long fince death began to tranfport men into another world, and vast shoals and multitudes are gone thither already yet the trade is going on ftill; death is carrying off new inhabitants, daily, to the houfe appointed for all living. Who could ever hear the grave fay, It is enough? Long has it been getting, but ftill it afketh This world is. like a great fair or market, where fome are coming in, others going out; while the affembly that is in it is confused, and the more part know not wherefore they are come together; or like a town fituate on the road, to a great city, thro' which fome travellers are paft, some are passing, while others are only coming in, Eccl. 4. One generation paf

⚫ feth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth. • abideth forever.' Death is an inexorable, irresistible meffenger; who cannot be diverted from executing his orders, by the force of the mighty, the bribes of the rich, nor the intreaties of the poor. It doth not reverence the hoary head, nor pity the harmless babe. The bold and daring cannot outbrave it: nor can the faint hearted obtain a dif charge in this war. Thirdly, The human body confills of perishing principles, Gen. iii. 19. • Duft thou art, and ⚫unto duft shalt thou retura.' The ftrongeft are but brittle earthen veffels, eafily broken in fhivers. The foul is but meanly housed, while in this mortal body, which is not a houfe of one, but a house of clay; the mud walls cannot but moulder away, especially feeing the foundation is not on a rock, but in the duft; they are crushed before the Toth, though this infect be tender, that the gentle touch of a finger will difpatch it, Jab iv. 19. Thefe principles are like gun powder: a very fmall fpark, lighting on them, will fet them on fire, and blow up the houfe. The stone of a raifin, or a hair in milk, have choaked them, and laid

State IV. the house of clay in the duft. If we confider the frame and Structure of our bodies, how fearfully and wonderfully we are made and on how regular and exact a motion of the fluids, and balance of humours, our life depends; and that death has as many doors to enter in by, as the body hath pores; and if we compare the foul and body together, we may justly reckon, there is fomewhat more aftonishing in our life, than in our death; and that it is more ftrange, to fee duft walking up and down on the duft, than lying down in it. Though the lamp of our life be not violently blown out; yet the flame must go out at length, for want of oil. And what are thofe diftempers and difeafes, we are liable to, but death's harbingers, that come to prepare its way? They meet us, as foon as we let our foot on earth: to tell us at our entry, that we do but come into the world to go out again. Howbeit, fome are fnatched away in a moment, without being warned by fickness or disease. Fourthly. We have finful fouls, and therefore have dying bodies: death follows fin, as the fhadow follows the body. The wicked muft die, by virtue of the threatning of the covenant of works, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt furely die.' And the godly must die too; that as death entered by fin, fin may go out by death. Christ has taken away the fting of death, as to them; albeit he has not as yet removed death itfelt. Wherefore though it fasten on them, as the viper did on Paul's hand, it fhall do them no harm; but because the leprojy of fin is in the walls of the houfe, it must be broken down, and all the materials thereof carried forth. Lafily, Man's life in this world, according to the fcripture account of it, is but a few degrees removed from death. The fcripture represents it, as a vain and empty thing, fort in its continuance, and fwift in its paffing

away.

First, Man's life is a vain and empty thing, while it is: it vanifheth away and lo! it is not. Job viii. 6. My days are vanity. If ye fufpe&t afflicted Fob of partiality in this matter, hear the wife and profperous Solomon's character of the days of his life, Ecclef. viii. 15. All things have I feen in the days of my vanity, i. e. my vain days. Mofes, who was a very active man, compares our days to a fleep, Pfal. c. 5. They are as afleep, which is not noticed, till it be

ended