The Project Gutenberg eBook, Consolation in Life and Death, by John Church
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Title: Consolation in Life and Death
derived from the Life of Christ
Author: John Church
Release Date: October 6, 2018 [eBook #58048]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSOLATION IN LIFE AND DEATH***
Transcribed from the 1824 R. Weston edition by David Price, email [email protected]
DERIVED FROM THE
Life of Christ;
BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF
A SERMON
On the Death of Mrs. Turner,
PREACHED AT THE
SURREY TABERNACLE,
ON
Sunday Evening, the 15th of August, 1824,
BY J. CHURCH.
“And blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a
performance of those things which are told her from the Lord.”
LONDON:
R. WESTON, PRINTER, CROSBY ROW, SOUTHWARK.
1824.
John, Chap. xiv. Ver. 19.
“And because I shall Live, ye shall Live also.”
Among the many awful charges brought against backsliding Israel by the prophet Isaiah, this was reckoned not the smallest. “The righteous perisheth, (sleepeth) and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come.” The day of life—of the world—and the professing church—is far spent—the sun is going down over the prophets—the birds are hastening home—the labourer returning—the substance of religion declining, and the shadows of it are stretching out. With these solemn reflections, well may we entreat the company and presence of the dear Redeemer, as the disciples did. Abide with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent; p. 4the removal of the Lord’s people from us, although it is their salvation, and affords peculiar joy to the surviving spiritual friends and relatives that have been eye and ear witnesses of their peaceful end; yet demands attention, reflection, self-examination, and solemnity of mind. When God strikes he demands an hearing—when he knocks by his messengers, affliction and death, it is—that we may open the door, receive the message, detain the messenger, and enquire for what purpose he is sent. For the Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name; hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. I consider, therefore it is our duty to pay attention to this present affliction, for the loss of a spiritual friend, a pious and steady member of the church, an affectionate wife, a kind mother and a good neighbour. Although it is her eternal gain, it is a grief and affliction to us; but I trust that this, as well as every other appointed trial, was sanctified for us in the eternal covenant of grace, and as an evidence of it, produce in our minds its suitable effects. Death is at all times solemn and affecting in the world, in the neighbourhood, and amongst our acquaintance; but when sent more immediately into our families, to bereave us of those who are very dear to our hearts, we are the more sensibly touched with the stroke, when the Lord says to us, as he did to the prophet Ezekiel, “Son of man, behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; and at even my wife died.” [4] Such painful dispensations are most keenly felt; and while we deplore the ravages of death, we cannot help reverting p. 5to its instrumental cause—“Sin, which brought death into the world, and all our woe:” to this king of terrors, and often a terror to kings, all have submitted but two, Enoch and Elijah; and all must submit, except those of the people of God, who will be found alive at the second coming of our Lord; these will probably experience a momentary change, equivalent to the stroke of death, and be changed body and soul, in the twinkling of an eye. This great mystery was revealed to the apostle Paul; perhaps, the first that was ever led to know it. All beside, the Lord’s people as well as the world at large, must pass through the gloomy territories of this king: but, the dear Saviour has engaged to go with all his people, and conduct them safely through; and though all do not go through with the same joy, yet all are led on safely. Their enemies keep still as a stone, while the purchased people passed over. Nothing, in heaven above or the earth beneath, can possibly prevent the execution of the decreed sentence, “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” It is the pulling down of the house,—it must come down—the leprosy is in it,—sin has entered every room in the house; and in consequence of bad tenants, which occupy it, the Almighty Landlord has ordered us to quit it; we have received, with many a pain, a writ of ejectment; but we feel reluctant to leave this house of clay, though in such a damaged state; the indescribable unity which subsists between the soul and the body, like mutual friends, renders parting painful here, although they have often been clogs to each other; but they will meet again under the most p. 6glorious and happy circumstances in the resurrection morning. And what soul can conceive the joyful meeting of the glorified spirit, and the newly-raised, beautiful, immortalized body? Each will know its own again.
—“Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake its partner, but amidst the crowd,
Singling its other half, into its arms
Shall rush, with all the impatience of a man
That’s new come home; and having long been absent,
With haste runs over different rooms,
In pain to see the whole. Thrice happy meeting!
Nor time nor death shall ever part them more.”
But however dear to each other, the union must be dissolved; the bands and ligaments, by which soul and body are united, must be separated; this earthly house must be dissolved;—this tabernacle must be removed—its cords unpinned—its stakes pulled up—and the whole must be taken down. “Knowing,” saith the apostle, “I must put off the earthly house of this my tabernacle.” Death is represented as a departure—it is going from one house to another—it is a loosing from port, and launching into the ocean.—Death is the ship or boat which wafts us over to the shores of eternity. It is going the way of all the earth—going a journey to man’s long home—to an invisible world—through a dark valley, where we need a guide; and a Covenant God has promised to guide us through.—It is going to sleep in hope of waking again, sweetly refreshed in the morning of the resurrection; fresh, lively, active, and divinely fitted for heavenly exercises. The shipwrecked mariner has gained the shore;—the weary traveller—the fatigued labourer—the afflicted p. 7child, is at rest. Death, through covenant mercy, is the full, the final deliverance. And John is commanded, by God the Holy Spirit, to write it down, and send it to the churches: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith the spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works of faith and love do follow them.” Like Abraham leaving his native country at the command of God;—like Jacob leaving Padan Aram, with all his substance, to return to his kindred. Such the believer’s death. Perhaps, indeed, a thousand alarms may seize his spirit, hearing that Esau, with his armed men, is coming out against him; but by prayer and faith he obtains the blessings, and meets Esau with comfort. For when a man’s ways, through grace, by prayer and faith, thus please the Lord, he makes even death to be at peace with him. Death is the enemy to our natures, although it is a covenant blessing. The last enemy that shall be destroyed, is death: but its enmity is slain in the death of Christ. Here that serpent that crawled up the hill of Calvary, and entwined round the cross, left his sting in the sacred body of a dying Saviour: nor can all the powers of darkness, all the sins, backslidings, and infirmities of God’s people, ever unite the sting to death again. Sin is abolished; the guilt is gone.—It has been said, that when a bee has fastened its sting in a man’s flesh, it is lost for ever after, and becomes a drone. Death, like such a bee, can only hum and affright, but never sting or hurt: it may, it must destroy the body, but it cannot hurt; like a fierce dog, whose teeth are broken out, it can bark and tear a mere tattered coat, but it cannot p. 8bite to the bone. What a feeble weak enemy is death, since it took a walk to Mount Calvary! Unatoned guilt is the sting of death. But the Lord’s dear people are led, in some degree, to see for themselves, that Christ has borne away their guilt, has removed the iniquity of that land in one day; and when we are cheered, quickened, strengthened, and well-established in this pleasing fact, this hope-supporting, spirit-giving, soul-animating assurance, we feel ready to go, to depart, and be for ever with the Lord, in this sweet well-founded confidence:—
“Lord, let me rest my head, close last these eyes,
Yield thee my breath; and, with exulting soul,
Smile a peace-uttered, dying, sweet Amen.”
But amidst the dissolutions made by death, what an unspeakable mercy it is for the Lord’s dear people, the union betwixt Christ and their souls can never be dissolved: they are his property, his children, his bride; he is precious to them in life and death, as the blessed effect of his love to them, and their value in his sight. Hence, it is said, “Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee;” and precious shall their blood be in his sight; and as they are precious to him living, it is written, “Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints;” nor should their death be grievous to us, especially dying in lively hope, cheerful confidence, sweet assurance, clear views, and fervent desires. This is the blessed effect of the glorious union between Christ and the soul, as the eternal spring of life, and the glorious head of his body, p. 9the church, who has graciously declared in most positive terms, “Because I live ye shall live also.” These most blessed words were very precious to our dear departed friend; upon one occasion, after a season of peculiar trial, while at the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, and just receiving the cup, these words were sweetly dropped into her mind—they were ever precious to her afterwards: she chose them for her funeral text; and blessed be God, she most divinely understands them, now in perfect enjoyment; they have been much blest to thousands, and I trust the Lord will bless them to us in noticing the gracious declaration and the precious promise as connected with it.
Let us notice the life of our most adorable Saviour. First, as God—He liveth from eternity; he is the living God, he is emphatically called life, the true God, and our eternal life; and this is the eternal life which John says was manifested: the very knowledge of whom is eternal life begun in the soul. In his divine essence, his eternal nature, he is the self-existent, independent Jehovah; underived, unoriginated, and incommunicably God, without beginning, succession, or end; without the shadow of a change; he is eternal, immortal, who only hath immortality from everlasting to everlasting; and of his years there is no end; one in the divine Trinity, co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; one in the sacred society of the adorable Trinity, enjoying the most inconceivable delight and complacency in his own divine perfections; and in the holy ones, the Father p. 10and the Spirit; the divine nature, essence, and perfections were not communicated to him as God, but were originally, independently, and eternally his own, in conjunction with the Father, and the Holy Spirit—and as the self-existent God, he has solemnly declared to all the enemies of his Godhead—“If ye believe not that “I AM”—ye shall die in your sin.”—This awful truth, one would think, is enough to put to silence all the cavil in the world against the divinity of the Son of God, as God. Some indeed admit all that can be said about his divinity, but they vainly suppose that his Godhead was communicated to him from the Father; but this thought is an awful insult upon him, no better than high treason and daring blasphemy. Let such read again and tremble,—“If ye believe not that I AM—ye shall die in your sins.” “I AM,” is the self-existent, independent God—and as the living God, he is author of all the life which has been, or shall be given to creatures; in him was life, for by him were all things made, and by him do all things subsist, created by him, and upheld by him; and, while I exist as God, ye shall live also.
2.—As the Son of God in his divine person, which implies his eternal relationship to the Father, he lived in eternity as a person existing with the Father; He is in the bosom of the father, the only begotten of the Father, the express image of the Father, the son of God, without the consideration of the human nature, either body or soul. He was a divine person: the human nature did not make him a person; but the p. 11Son of God did take the human nature into union with himself, and though possessing two natures he is but one person. As the adorable son of God, he lived before all the world, a life with the Father—a life of inconceivable delight. Hence the Father has said of his dear son, “in whom my soul delighteth;” and the dear Son of God has said of the Father, “I was daily his delight—constantly and invariably rejoicing—always before him—delighting in the Father before the world was rejoicing,” that he possessed the same nature, being, and perfections, and that he stood in such a relation to him as the Son of the Father—and “because I live as the Son of God, ye shall live also.”
3.—As the Head of the Church.—In this most blessed relation he ever lived, does now, and ever will; he is their head as a general is head to his army; as a king is head to his subjects; as a husband is head to his wife; as a father is head to his children; as a master is to his servants; but besides these, our most blessed Lord is that to his people as the natural head is to the natural body; and the members of it, of the same nature with it; superior to it; communicates life, sense, and motion to it; overlooks and protects it; he is the representative head of his body, the church; being united to him, we are in him, and have a representative existence in him; he was chosen to be the head of the elect family, out of the boundless love of God the Father; and they were chosen in him. Eternal election gives us a subsistence, a representative being, in Christ; he lives in God’s eternal mind and love, as p. 12the head of the church, and his people live in him, and shall live for ever in him; nor sin, nor time, nor death, can part them. Christ as head, and his people were chosen together; He first, in order of nature, as the head, and they as members; as in the womb, head and members are not conceived apart, but together, so was the church and Christ in the womb of eternal election. God views us in him, and never did, nor never will, consider his dear people separate from him as the chosen head of the chosen body. All other blessings flow to us from, and by virtue of, this union. We live in Christ, we have a covenant subsistence and representative being in him; and as the root, the trunk, the branches, and leaves, are folded up in the acorn, so all God’s family are in Christ, and shall be brought forth in their appointed time; their adoption, justification, redemption, preservation, pardon, calling, perseverance, resurrection, and glorification, all depend upon their election union,—and this union depends upon the everlasting love of God; it is not faith that unites to the Lamb, that is only a spiritual faculty given to us by the holy spirit, to discern this blessing, which leads forth the mind, in affection and gratitude, to a covenant God for it. This union is dated from eternity, revealed in the word, preached in the gospel, manifested in our effectual calling, enjoyed by faith, and will be celebrated in the most open and glorious manner, in the thousand years personal reign of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth, and blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Nothing done by p. 13he church of God, before or after calling, can destroy this union. In the very existence of Christ, as head, they must live—“For because I live, ye shall live also.”
4.—As Mediator—he ever did, now does, and ever will, live for his people; and in his glorious title as the son of God, as God-man, he has received all blessings for his church; and these are comprehended under the term LIFE. The Lord hath commanded his blessing, even life for evermore; and as the Father hath life in himself, even so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. Christ, as God-man lived in the purpose of God from eternity; and though he is compared to many things which have not life—to water, to bread, to a stone, a way, a tree—yet they have these additions, living water, living bread, living stone, living way, tree of life. In this most blessed character the ancient saints saw him by faith, received him, and lived and died upon him. Job’s faith was fixed here, and rose to sweet confidence, to full assurance—“I know that my redeemer liveth”—yes, now—in this character before God for me, and I see my interest in him. Every believer is now more or less thus favoured. God gives, 1st. Faith to believe in him as such—2ndly. To rely upon him—and, 3rdly. To enjoy interest in him. He lives, the ever-living Mediator; considered as God-man, he is the Mediator of union between God and his creatures—as elect—both angels and men; and he is the Mediator of reconciliation for his church, as fallen; as the Head of the Church, and the Son of God, he was called to act for her as fallen; and when declared Son p. 14of God by the Father, he was sworn into his office as High Priest; to which, in the boundless love of his heart, he gave his consent to make reconciliation for the sins of his people, to give perfect satisfaction, and to harmonize all the sacred perfections of Jehovah. In this most sacred character he appeared in heaven as the Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world; to him the old testament church looked, and in the fullness of time, he came and began his work in the wonderful and mysterious act of his incarnation:—made of a woman—made under the law, he was circumcised, and became a debtor to fulfil the whole law for his people. The nature that he assumed, although it was perfectly flesh and blood, yet it was perfectly holy. Hence his appeal to God the Judge of all: “Search me, O, God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.” His human nature was a holy thing; and possessed in it more holiness than all the angels of light; and in it, he did all the churches’ duty in obedience to the law; he obeyed the ceremonial law as the seed of Abraham, and kept the law of God in thought, mind, will, and deed perfectly. He worshipped one God, never bowed to creatures, or profaned the holy name: honored the sabbath and his parents; nor felt a base desire; nor tinged with sinful anger, much less murder; nor with heart or hand did he ever rob God or man; nor ever bore false witness against any; nor could a covetous thought enter his sacred breast; but with his whole nature loved God p. 15and his neighbour, and did unto all men what men in their doings ought to do to each other. This he performed for us; and, in consequence of the essential dignity of his person, as God as well as man, He is styled Jehovah, our righteousness. This is imputed and placed to the account of his people by the Father. God the Holy Spirit opens the grand subject to us, we receive it in the mind and affections. Conscience testifying this, we have peace with God. In this righteousness the church is perfected; in it they stand justified before God, and shall never come in to condemnation. But in his glorious character as Mediator, his having become surety for his people, he had to pay the dreadful debt of suffering the awful penalty. As the consequence of the sins of his church, he engaged to endure the hell we had merited. The curse of a broken law, and all which that awful idea contains. He took the bitter draught, the dreadful cup, and drank eternal health to his dear people.
“He sunk beneath our heavy woes.”
All our guilt met on him—the chastisement due to us he bore—the pangs of the damned seized his holy soul; and with convulsive struggles on the ground, with heart-rending sighs, and prayers, and tears; with thorns, scourges, contempt, griefs, and unknown agonies, awful storms, and inconceivable torments, he sweat out, cried out, and bled out the sins of his people. He by himself purged our sins—the physician’s heart was p. 16opened by a spear to heal all the diseases of his patients—was ever love like this?
“Our ransom paid in blood for deadliest guilt—
Oh! hide thy shame-spread face, and turn thy eyes
In mournful prospect back to Calvary, now
Back to the garden, to the dolorous ground,
Grief-moistened with his blood-sweat agony.
Ah, what agony! ah! felt for whom?
Say, angel, near him then that heard: ‘Behold
Thy humbled Maker’—agonized thyself—
Asked, but thou canst not say.—No thought can pierce
Of man or angel, that profound of pains:—
’Twas the soul’s travail, sorrow’s sharpest throe.”
As our surety, sponsor, representative, and mediator, he has put away all our sins; he died, he rose, he triumphed over all his and our foes, and kindly speaks to us—“Fear not, I am he that liveth, was dead, am alive for evermore, and because I live, ye shall also.” While he lived upon earth, he lived a life of faith, hope, dependance, love, humility, and holy zeal, and the believer’s privilege is to live and say, as he lives, “The life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God”—a life of faith, dependance, hope, confidence, love, humility, and zeal, though daily interrupted, and the subject of much deadness, carnality, and unbelief; yet as fresh life is given from his fulness, I possess a life that will never die. The Lord has promised to water his people every moment—“every thing liveth where this water comes; and it is in the believer, a well, springing up to eternal life.” And as we use the means, we sing, “Spring up, O, well.” Sing ye unto p. 17it: for as well the singers as the players on instruments, shall be there. All my fresh springs in Thee, who hast said, “because I live, ye shall live also.”
4.—His life of intercession and advocacy in heaven. Hence the apostle declares, that “he ever liveth to make intercession for all that come unto God by him;” and as we have been redeemed and reconciled to God by his death; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. He appears in the high court of heaven for us, in the full virtue of his blood, and righteousness—
“Looks like a lamb, that’s newly slain,
And wears his priesthood still.”
This is ever available to the Father for us; he is our priest before the throne, carrying on the work of manifestatives. Salvation, the great sacrifice, once offered, has infinitely more voices for us before God, than all our sins can have against us. His blood is said to speak for us; it cries aloud to the God of justice for the church; yea, for every sensible sinner, that mercy might be shewn, and pardon enjoyed by him upon the ground of strict justice, truth, holiness, righteousness, and judgment; it speaks for us to God—and to us from God—“I have loved thee, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee, thou art mine.” Our great high priest bears all the names of his dear people upon his heart, and though exalted above all principalities and powers, he cannot forget his poor relations on earth. The days of his passion are ended, but not of his compassion. Our spiritual Joseph, though Lord of all, p. 18is not ashamed to own his brethren, the poor. Many, when exalted, forget their former poor acquaintances; but our ever-living, ever-loving, everlasting friend, has sworn by himself as the living God—“I will not forget you;” he lives in heaven for his people; by his death he paid the debt; by his resurrection he came out of prison; and by his ascension he shews himself openly to God, the creditor, and pleads satisfaction; he in acting in heaven as our advocate with the Father; he is the faithful friend at the bar of justice, answering all the charges that sin, natural conscience, and Satan, can accuse us of. Hence, for his people, he gives the challenge—“who is mine adversary, let him come near,” and by the apostle asks, “who shall lay any thing (unpardoned) to the charge of God’s elect, seeing he maketh intercession with God,” and this precious portion has warned and cheered thousands. “My little children, I write these things unto you, that you sin not; but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,” and such an advocate must carry the cause; he has never failed—and demands no fee, but the fruit of the lips giving thanks to his name; and while his personal appearance in heaven has any virtue before God, his mourning disciples are safe, to whom he has said, “and because I live, ye shall live also.”
5.—His life of glory in heaven. He is the very glory of the place. We say at times, of some persons, they are the very life of the company—Christ will be the very bliss, the very joy, the very life of the church above for ever, when he is surrounded with all his blood-bought throng, and with all his holy loving angels; p. 19the lamb in the midst will make all their heaven; his person, his glory, his looks, his smile, his love, will feast their happy minds to all eternity; while the glorious majesty of God shall be enjoyed, through the all glorious body of Jesus Christ, as the rainbow round the throne, to behold this glory. The Lord has made choice of his people, set them apart for this very purpose, redeemed them to God, called, fitted, qualified their souls, and will raise them up again in the last day, and for this the Redeemer prays and demands, “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory,”—and as he smiles, they will sing—or,
“Overwhelmed with raptures sweet,
Sink down, adoring at his feet.”
And what adds a blessing to the whole is, that this bliss, this felicity, will be for ever; yea, lasting as the very existence of him, who, for the everlasting consolation of his people, hath said, “and because I live, ye shall live also.” Our most blessed Lord is the author, giver, and maintainer, of all natural, spiritual, and eternal life, for all live in him; he is the root and spring of all the life of sanctification, and glorification of his people, and though they are said to live in him by faith, yet more properly it is Christ living in them. Christ liveth in me—all the blessings of the covenant of grace are in him—the eternal favor of God, which is our life, is in him—and this is the grace which was given us in him before the foundation of the world; he came, that his people might have life, and have it p. 20more abundantly in experience and enjoyment; he came that he might abolish death, and bring life and immortality to light by the gospel. Justifying, pardoning, and regenerating grace, is brought to light in the word, and often brought to light in the souls of God’s children, and they by virtue of union to their covenant head, live—live in the love, favour, mind, purposes, decrees, covenant, and promises of God—live in Christ, secured, hid, locked up—where Christ is hid as head, there they are hid—live representatively before God—live spiritually by quickning power, and this life in the soul is the holy spirit as the spirit of life. The Lord and giver of life, producing as an evidence of his indwelling—a spiritual hungring and thirsting after the favor of God, the sense of pardon, holiness, love, and communion, humility, self-abhorrence, spiritual repentance, holy confidence, resignation, and joy—and where these are found in the soul, by divine teaching they are the evidences of being disciples indeed, and it is to such genuine disciples our dear Lord speaks in the sweet language of the text—“ye see me; and because I live, ye shall live also.” Such indeed was our dear departed friend—spiritually quickened and made alive to God, she possessed those immortal principles which supported her through the changing scenes of her pilgrimage—cheered her heart at times—subdued her fears—brought her mind to God—endeared the Saviour—bowed her will to the Lord’s will—and caused her to long to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: to grace, and grace alone, she attributed all her salvation from first to last; her soul hated every system that was calculated p. 21to exalt the creature in any sense whatever. Convinced deeply of the depravity of the human heart, she was often led to self-abasement, self-loathing, and self-condemnation, taught out of God’s law—she felt her need of a surety, a mediator, a law fulfiller, a better righteousness than her own; she saw the way of forgiveness by the great atoning sacrifice of Christ; and was taught to believe, to receive Christ with his whole finished salvation; she loved to hear him extolled; his very name was precious to her; his word was dear to her; she loved his people who stood manifest to her conscience, that they were taught of God; she highly esteemed those ministers, whom she considered faithful to God, to truth, and to souls; she prized the ordinances, because they were of divine appointment, and because the Lord had often met her in them. Her poor mind was often discouraged by heavy trials, within and without; her path, in many instances, was rough; she was often in many waters; the floods at times lifted up their waves; but here she learned the vanity of all things below the stars, the emptiness of the creature, her own weakness, unbelief, and rebellion, these were matters of humility to her; but in this right though rough way, she also learnt the faithfulness, power, wisdom, and goodness of God—the value of a throne of grace to carry her burden to, and empty her ashes at the foot of the altar. Her mind was seldom long from the general infirmity of the Lord’s people, I mean the fear of death; she often gloomily anticipated the last act, the struggle of body and soul at parting her weak nerves, lowness, and dejection. p. 22Satan also, taking the advantage, was frequently the cause of great distress in the prospect; yet her dear Lord, in due time, delivered her from these fears; and that same grace which made her willing to be saved in God’s way, made her also willing, yea, desirous of departing, to be with Christ. How true is the language of our poet,
“Who can take Death’s portrait true?—Fear shakes the
Pencil—Fancy loves excess—Dark ignorance is lavish of
Her shades—and these the formidable picture draws:
Man forms a death that nature never made;
Then on the point of his own fancy falls,
And feels a thousand deaths, in fearing one.”
None, indeed, return from the grave to tell us what it is; but it is well known, that most of those who have been much troubled in mind all their days, have had the most serene moments at last. That God, who has delivered in six troubles, has always been found faithful in the seventh, the last.—Descending into the waters of Jordan, the deep has never swallowed them up: they have found the rock of ages for their feet to stand upon, at the bottom of the brook.
I remember, after a season of long and painful affliction our dear friend was enabled to come up to chapel. I was totally ignorant of her coming: but previous to this, I could find no portion of scripture to speak on but this: “And came to deliver them who, all their life-time, were subject to bondage, through fear of death.” This was the last sermon she ever heard: and the truths contained in it, she sweetly felt. Her direful complaint increased. Her sufferings were very great indeed. And as all other persons in like sorrows, so she ebbed and p. 23flowed in mind; but her God was with her in her final hour.—
“Her final hour brought glory to her God.”
In point of gospel principles, she was always at a point: but at times sorely troubled about an interest in Christ, by reason of the cloud that cometh betwixt. But every fresh smile from the Saviour, every sweet word dropped into her mind. Frequently reading the word and precious hymns, the visits of God’s dear people and humble prayer relieved her again.
The last visit I paid her, I perceived she was near home. Not being able to speak for a time, I feared she would speak no more: but after waiting a little while, (as a proof of what her mind was fixed upon) she exclaimed, with peculiar solemnity, “By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial, by thy glorious resurrection and ascension, good Lord deliver me!” Here, on this rock her faith was built in life, and firm in death. A friend asked her if she was happy. After pausing, she said, “Happy, happy! I know that Christ died for sinners, and it is there I am fixed.” She requested the twelfth chapter of Isaiah to be read to her. While reading, she said, “How precious!” and begged to hear it again. At the last verse, “Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion,” she said, “Do so, do so; for our God is a great God.” Soon after this, she repeated, in a very peculiar manner, the whole of Mr. Hart’s hymn:
“Christ is the friend of sinners, be that forgotten never.”
On this she commented as she went on, in a most p. 24striking manner. One thing she observed: “Oh, it is easy to say we are sinners, but hard to feel it. Yes it is the righteousness of Christ that I must appear in before God—nothing but the work of a precious Christ wherein I can stand justified before God, and whether I sink or swim I am fixed there.” She then wished to hear the eighth chapter of Acts; and coming to the fifth verse, she seemed delighted. “Philip went down to Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” “He did not tell them some great nobleman was coming to bestow great riches upon them; but he went simply to preach Christ to poor sinners.” She then repeated the sweet verses: “Not all the blood of beasts, &c.” She begged the prayers of the Church when they met; and often asked if she had been remembered by them. To those around her, she said, “Oh, do beg of the Lord to cut the thread, for I long to be with him.” Then she said:
“The holy triumphs of my soul,
Shall death itself out-brave;
Leave dull mortality behind,
And fly beyond the grave.”
One of her dear daughters telling her, she would soon be with her dear Jesus, she said, “do you think I shall, you have told me so so many times—Oh, why is he so long coming.” Soon after, finding herself very low, nature sinking, and feeling she was going, she said to her daughter: “Are yon alone? call up the rest of the family:” and while standing around her, they witnessed her struggle. But recovering, she burst into tears. “Come back again! dear Lord! I thought that I was p. 25going! how long, Lord.” She requested a gentleman to fetch a doctor, merely to let her know, by her pulse, the pleasing news, that she was near her end. On being informed she was near, she was more composed. At one time, she exclaimed: “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O, God.—I want to drink at the fountain.” Lifting up her hands, as if filled with increased joy, she said; “Too much, dear Lord—dear Jesus, I want to embrace thee, as thou dost embrace me.” She begged they would lift her poor suffering arm out of bed, that she might embrace her dear Jesus. Some sweet verses were spoken to her, on the soul’s entrance into glory. She said: “Jesus said unto the woman, ‘Go, and sin no more.’” “Now,” said she, “is the time for that; those words used once to distress me; but Christ the Heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away—that is where I rest.” One of her daughters said, “Upon the rock still, mother?” She answered: “None but Jesus!—look up to the Lord for me.—Why are his chariot wheels so long in coming?” Just before her departure, she said to her husband, waving her hand: “All is well.” Mr. King and Mr. Borrows coming into the room—one of them observed, that though she had lost her sight, what a mercy that the light and holy fire in the tabernacle, should never go out—nor never be put out. On hearing these words, she waved her hand; and presently, without a sigh, she breathed her last.
And blessed are the dead which thus die in the Lord: all the Lord’s people die safe—all die in faith. They all die in peace and friendship with God and conscience. p. 26But this is meeting death, and finishing the warfare in militant glory. May the dear family, who were kind, affectionate, and perpetually attentive to her, experience the like grace in death—sweetly sleep in Jesus; and whatever may be their fears in life—Oh, that their end may be blessed.
“Shudder not to pass the stream,
Rest with all thy care on him;
Him whose dying love and power,
Still’d its tossing, hush’d its roar.
Safe is the expanding wave,
Gentle as a summer’s eve;
Not an object of his care
Ever suffered shipwreck there.”
And while we thus record the riches of sovereign grace, as experienced in life and death, by our dear departed friend, we must not, we cannot, forget the memory of departed worth. Again, another friend in the Lord, a lover of his truth, a respectable member of the church, Mrs. Walton, who sat just before Mrs. Turner, in the chapel; a debtor to grace indeed; she was the daughter of a most respectable and pious deacon of a church, who was much esteemed for his piety and usefulness—beloved of his God, and by those who knew him—and after a life of usefulness in the church, was suddenly called home to a grace-provided glory. While at chapel, he had joined in singing the hymn before the sermon; the minister gave out his text—“Oh come taste and see that the Lord is gracious; blessed is the man that trusteth in him,”—when he was seized with death, and shortly after expired; to p. 27the grief of his family, the church, and the neighbourhood. Our departed friend was of course religiously educated, which is no small mercy impressed by grace; at a very early period of her life, the Lord led her to see her own state, as a sinner before God, and gradually drew her mind into a spiritual acquaintance with divine truth—led her soul to the glorious person, and finished work of Christ, as her refuge, surety, atonement, righteousness, and advocate—here she often found rest and peace—these important truths were the very delight of her soul, when she thought, read, conversed, or heard of them—she loved the truth, as it is in Jesus, nor would she attend any place of worship where she thought the Minister was shy of any precious doctrine of the gospel—she was decided, though far from being disputatious; and as grace made her so, the Lord fulfilled his promise in her soul’s experience—“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee in the hour of temptation, and if any man love me, and keep my words, I also will love him” (manifestatively); but like almost all the family of God, she often experienced much lowness, dejection, fear, unbelief, and doubtings; sweetly revived again, the graces of the holy spirit gained the victory over these sad corruptions of the human heart. Sinking and rising, rising and sinking in mind, was her experience till victorious grace gained the conquest in death. For
“To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all, who to the end endure
The cross, shall wear the crown.”
Her attendance upon the word was early, constant, and p. 28uniform—as a wife, a relation, a neighbour, and a friend, few could equal her—diffident, humble, and serious, loving, kind, peaceable, and benevolent, none perhaps exceeded her; and this she was by the power of electing grace. How great her gain, how deep the loss of all who were related to her in her respectable family, and in the church of God; possessing a spiritual knowledge of Christ, precious faith in him, a hope that maketh not ashamed, founded alone on the person, blood, and righteousness of the Son of God, love to his person, to his truth, his people, his ministers, his ways, and works, evidenced her eternal election of God, her complete redemption from the ruins of the fall, and that the work of grace was genuine on heart, carried by the arms of divine power and faithfulness. She persevered, because carried to the end of her days; this is indeed the privilege of all the Lord’s people. For in his love, and in his pity, he saved them, bare them, and carried them all their days; nor can there be any final perseverance of the saints, but as they are carried—
“But he that hath loved them, bears them through,
And makes them more than conquerors too.Hallelujah.”
However dear the Lord’s people may be to their families, or to the church on earth; as sinners, all must bow to the awful sentence of “dust thou art, and to dust thou must return.”—Even
“An angel’s arm can’t snatch me from the grave;
Legions of Angels can’t confine me there.”
p. 29An old divine of the last century remarks that “mankind are like sheep grazing upon a common—death is the butcher appointed to take away first one and then another.” Surely then we may ask who next shall be summoned away, my merciful God is it I?
What a mercy for the people of God they cannot die unprepared—none unfit; the grace that provided the kingdom has provided a fitness for it, in the person and work of the dear Redeemer, and in the effectual operations of the holy-making God the Divine Spirit; and without this holiness no man shall see the Lord—without this holy change of state, of principle, and of pursuit, none can enjoy either the liberty of the Gospel now, or the glory beyond the grave; and however the wicked may be driven away in his wickedness, the righteous hath hope in his death, “for thou shalt come to thy grave in full age, like a shock of corn, that cometh in his season, fully ripened for the heavenly garner.” Such was our dear departed friend—deeply afflicted in body, such as baffled all human skill; she gradually descended to the grave, sweetly supported, kept up by mighty grace, and consoled by the word of truth. She beheld her pious and affectionate family around her. On one occasion she had been remarkably low in thinking of death, when the Lord kindly, but very powerfully whispered to her heart, “blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith the Spirit.” This sweet sentence being clothed with such energy delivered her mind from all fears of death. Often did she exclaim “oh! why is the Lord so long in coming? come, come Lord, I long to be at home;” p. 30and although her sufferings were great, her faculties were kept amazingly strong, so much as to enable her to repeat the whole of her favorite hymn she had often heard sung at the chapel, on preparation to meat God, ending with—
“And if pale death to me appears,
Creating new alarming fears,
My last appeal to Calvary’s blood,
And I’m prepar’d to meet my God.”
One of her affectionate family read to her the 40th Isaiah, and sweetly commented upon it, which she very much enjoyed. Her desire to depart and be with Christ seemed to increase, and her affliction continuing still, she hastened quickly to meet the last enemy of her nature, though the covenant friend of her soul; prayerful, sincerely, solemnly, and composedly she breathed her soul into the hands of her redeeming Lord; she slept in peace—she fell asleep in Jesus, and experienced all that is contained, in the precious declaration, “blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”—Her sun sweetly set to rise in another horizon, where it will never be clouded—never set again—never, no never go down: but there the Lord is her everlasting light—her God—her glory; and the days of her mourning are for ever over.
“Forbear the righteous to deplore,
They enter into rest;
Released from care, and sin, and woe,
To everlasting bliss they go,
And learn what they might doubt below,
To die is to be blest.”
Saints, who mourn the slumbering dead,
Look to your incarnate head!
See him mounting from the tomb,
Death and hell await their doom.—Hallelujah.Now, on glitt’ring thrones above,
Seraphs chaunt redeeming love;
Ransom’d saints the concert join,
Echoing the hymn divine.—Hallelujah.Borne on clouds of azure light,
Angels wing their rapid flight,
And around the bursting grave,
Welcome him, who-died to save.—Hallelujah.Come ye rescu’d, sing his praise,
Jesus loves to hear your lays;
He who conquered hell and death,
Hears the humblest sinner’s breath.—Hallelujah.Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Triune God! of saints the boast;
Let us soon amid the throng,
Join the chorus in their song.—Hallelujah.J. C. jun.
p. 32
Shortly will be published, Choice
Sayings of Dying Saints, selected from some of the best
Authors.
R. Weston, Printer, Queen’s Gardens, Crosby Row, Southwark.
[4] Ezekiel 24.
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