xiv ; so death opens its jaws, and swallows up the wicked; but with respect to the children of God, it is a safe passage to a life of eternal bliss; they pass through it in a moment, and immediately find themselves in a place of assurance, joy, and rest, where God puts into their nrouths the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb, Rev. xv. 3.

The rod in Moses's hand was turned into a serpent; but when it was placed in the tabernacle, before the testimony it blossomed and bore almonds. Thus while we are under the dominion of the law, death puts or the appearance of terror and despair, but as soon as we draw near to Christ, the true ark of the covenant, it produces fruits of joy and eternal comfort.

The false prophet Balaam, was sent for to curse the people of God; but he blessed them, contrary to the vain expectations of Balak, king of Moab, Numb. xxiii. and xxiv. Thus death was brought into the world by the devil, to destroy and utterly exterminate the holy seed; but God by his infinite goodness, and incomprehensible wisdom, hath changed it into salvation and blessing. Let us therefore perplex ourselves no longer to find out and explain the meaning of Sampson's riddle; Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness, Judg. xiv. 14. For the church of God, unto whom Jesus Christ, her beloved spouse, hath discovered all the choicest secrets of his kingdom, teaches us to seek for the honey of the most sweet consolations, in the belly of this old lion.

We cannot judge of a piece of music by a single note, or of an oration by a period, nor of a comedy by a scene. So we must not judge of a battle by the first onset, nor of a wrestling by the first embraces and

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efforts of the wrestlers. For some in the beginning of the battle, turn their backs, who at last win the victory and come off with triumph; and some in wrestling are foiled at the beginning, who nevertheless supplant their adversary, and cast him upon the ground. Therefore, that we may the better understand the great and glorious advantages that we have over death, let us take a view of our encounter with it from the first to the last, and carefully remark what we win, and what we lose, in our conflicts with this cruel and implacable enemy.

The taper of our life is no sooner lighted, but Satan sends forth his blasts from every quarter to extinguish it. This poor dwelling is scarcely built, but death labours to destroy it, and besiege it on every side; we perceive not its approaches, though by the help of time, it undermines us, and batters us to pieces with a variety of diseases, and a train of unforeseen accidents. Every day it makes some breach, and displaces some part of this building. But if death on one hand labours to demolish, we, on the other, labour to repair; and as those who built the walls of Jerusalem, held in one hand the trowel, and in the other a sword, to defend themselves, Neh. iv 17. in the same manner we guard ourselves, as well as we are able, against the assaults of death; and not only endeavour to preserve this earthly tenement, that God hath set us for a term, and to keep that in repair, but also in the very face of death, when it calls us to the combat, we advance our spiritual building, and labour to bring it to perfection; so that we say with the apostle St. Paul Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, 2 Cor. iv. 16.

To speak properly, death attacks nothing but the outward man; for as to our principal fort and chief bulwark, it fears neither mine, nor assault; for it is raised above the heavens, and built upon the rock of eternity: it cannot be battered; for as neither thunder, hail, nor tempest, can prejudice the sun-beams, because they are of a celestial nature, so all the fury of the world, all the powers of hell, and the rage of death, can never hurt the soul, which is of a spiritual and immortal nature. This fortress can never be famished; for God rains upon it manna from heaven; and from the rock upon which it is built, there flows a stream of living waters, that rise to everlasting life. In a word, as the serpent creeps only upon the dust, so death has no power but upon the earthly part of God's children; whence our Lord Jesus Christ admonishes his Apostles, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, Matth. x. 28.

At the moment of the soul's separation from the body, death seems to have a great advantage over us ; but all things considered, we shall find, that he triumphs without a cause, and that he hath no reason to boast of the victory. When a yaliant captain marches, with his sword in hand, out of a town that is almost destroyed, to throw himself into another that is more secure, and better fortified, we say, that he has abandoned the place, and not that he is overcome. Thus when the wretched body falls in ruins, and our soul departs, well armed with faith and hope, to possess herself of a more secure abode in the highest heavens, no one can say, to speak properly, that the christian is overcome. As it fares with those who sail upon the sea, when a violent tempest threatens them with shipwreck, they think

themselves happy, if, by leaving their vessels to the mercy of the waves, they can escape with their lives and riches. Thus it is with us who sail upon the tempestuous sea of this world; when death raises his most cruel storms, we think ourselves happy if we can leave this miserable body, which is, as it were, a ship to the soul, and escape with our spiritual life and heavenly treasures. Therefore we may say to the faithful, that are affrighted when death threatens to drown them in its depths, as St. Paul to the ship's company, who trembled for fear, in the midst of the waves of an enraged sea; Now, I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship, Acts xxvii. 22. Nay we can furnish them with yet stronger comforts; for these poor mariners lost their ship, without any hopes of ever recovering it; but we know that God will one day gather together all the pieces of the broken vessels of our bodies, and restore them to us in a much more perfect state.

Therefore death takes not our bodies from us by violence, but we quit them willingly: we tarry not till it turns us out; we prevent its summons, and give it free leave to enter when we have packed up our baggage, we are at all hours ready to depart out of this wretched tenement, where we endure so many calamities; for here it rains defluxions, malignant vapours arise; the pillars and foundations tremble; the joints are loosed, the windows darkened, and burning fevers like so many fires, consume us.

We must not pass over in silence, that the faithful call their death not only a departure but a departure from a tabernacle; to teach us, that we should depart from hence with as much joy and readiness, as a soldier

departs from his tent, to go and rest himself in his quarters, after the hardships and fatigues of a bloody war; and with as much pleasure as the children of Israel left their camps in which they had remained in the wilderness, to enter into the sweet and pleasant rest of the land of Canaan.

This body is not only like to an hired house, or to a tabernacle that is carried up and down: but by reason of the sin and corruption with which it is defiled, it is become to our soul a kind of prison. Therefore death may be compared to the messenger sent in haste by king Pharaoh, to take Joseph out of the dungeon and bring him to his palace, Gen. xli. 14. The body that was created to be a pavilion of joy and honour, is become to our soul a wretched and doleful prison; and death is like to the fiery furnace of Babylon, that burnt and consumed the bands of the three children that were cast into it, without so much as hurting their apparel, Dan. iii. 27. It consumes and destroys the natural bands that detain our souls enslaved to the earth, but touches not their ornaments, their righteousness and sanctification. As the membrane that encloses the child in its mother's womb, or the shell in which the chicken is formed, so is our body; it must of necessity be broken before we can enter into eternal life. In a word, we may affirm, that the body, which was given to the soul for its palace, is become by sin its sepulchre, far more loathsome than ever was that of Lazarus; and that death is like the voice which cries unto us, Lazarus come forth. John xi. 43.

You see then, O ye faithful souls, that as Sampson took away the gates of the city of Gaza, and carried them up to the top of the hill, Judg. xvi; so Jesus Christ,