so far as our own interest is concerned, we have been made in vain ; that we have received the grace of God in vain; that, having neglected the one salvation, we are lost, lost in the scale of being; immortal creatures, lost to the great purpose for which our Maker gave us existence; lost to happiness; irrecoverably and for ever lost! What must it be to discover that the mistake we have committed is at once infinite and irreparable; that we have been guilty of an infatuation which it will require eternity to deplore, and eternity to comprehend! Now is the accepted time. Let us earnestly avoid such an unutterable calamity; let us choose the favour of God as the only adequate end of our being; and embrace the salvation of Jesus Christ as the only way to attain that end in a word, let us act as those who are swayed by the conviction that the Christian is the only man of whom it can be said, in relation to eternal felicity, that he is not "made in vain."

IX.

DEATH, THE LAST ENEMY, SHALL BE DESTROYED.*

1 Cor. xv. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

[PREACHED AT BEDFORD, MAY, 1817.]

In this chapter the apostle directs the views of Christians to the final consummation of all things; when the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, in our nature, having answered the ends for which it was established, shall be surrendered," and God shall be all in all."

This kingdom is, in the mean time, progressive, and will be so till all enemies shall be subdued and placed under his feet. The apostle brings in the words of the text as an instance of this general proposition; but it may be proper here to remark somewhat of inaccuracy in our common version. That rendering does not seem to sustain the conclusion to which the apostle had arrived. It was his purpose to establish the perfection of our Saviour's conquest, the advancement of his triumphs, and the prostration of all enemies whatever beneath his power. Now, to say that "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," by no means affords proof of this position. Though death might be destroyed, and be the last enemy that should be destroyed, it would not thence appear but that other enemies might remain not destroyed. But the proper rendering is, "Death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed."

Having made this observation, I would now direct your attention to the import of the proposition; and I will consider

I. The nature of that enemy that shall be destroyed; and why he is called "the last enemy."

* From the notes of the Rev. S. Hillyard.

II. The manner and the successive stages in which our Lord Jesus has already conquered in part, and will completely conquer, this last

enemy.

I. The nature of that enemy that shall be destroyed, and why he is called “the last enemy.”

It is not necessary to say much to show that death is, in many respects, an enemy to the sons of Adam. It is so, first, if we consider it in its most obvious effects-the dissolution of the human frame, Every part of the body is part of a marvellous fabric, of a wonderful machine; which bears upon it the mark of Divine wisdom and skill in its contrivance and execution. It is a work which man is not only unable to form or contrive, but the contrivance of which he is not able to comprehend. Every man possesses and carries in himself certain excellences of composition, and enjoys the benefit of innumerable operations, while he is wholly unacquainted with the internal machinery by which they are produced. If we look upon the Goths and Vandals as the enemies of the nations, and of all civilized society, because they destroyed palaces and temples, and the ancient monuments of art, what must we think of death, which demolishes, not only in one victim, but in innumerable victims, the noblest fabric that was ever raised on earth, and spoils the most skilful works that were ever constructed? All human beauty, and vigour, and strength are at once laid prostrate by the power of death; are broken and shivered to pieces under the stroke of this great tyrant. Were we to see at once all the victims which, in different lands and climes, and in all ages, have fallen before him, we should behold a pile of ruins raised to the heavens: but these ruins are mostly crumbled to dust, and concealed in the darkness of the grave; or what an amazing view would be afforded of the power and conquests of this universal enemy!

Again, Death is an enemy as he puts an end to all that is terrestrial with regard to man. All the schemes, and projects, and thoughts that relate only to the concerns of time, are destroyed. "In that day," says the Word of God, "his thoughts perish:" all the thoughts of the sublimest genius of the most acute philosophers, of the subtlest statesmen, of the most ambitious projectors, perish! All find, at once, a termination to their intellectual labours, their sublunary joys and sorrows, hopes and fears: they go only as far as death leaves space for them; and stop where he opposes his power. As much, therefore, as the world is worth, as much as it possesses of value in the eyes of man, so much is death to be considered as a formidable foe, standing forth against him, and in opposition to his career.

Say, ye ambitious, ye lovers of wealth, ye pursuers of earthly pleasure, what will all the objects you desire avail you when you are summoned to meet this last enemy, and are by him confined to the narrow limits of the grave? What will you do in that period when your "souls shall be required of you," and you are questioned, "Whose shall these things be ?" As much as you value these, so much will death be your enemy.

Death is also an enemy because of the separation of the tenderest

ties of nature and affection; of all those endearments of friendship and relationship that bind man to man. Death tears asunder brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents and children; he snatches the tender infant from the mother's breast, or bereaves it of parental care, and leaves it a helpless orphan in this wilderness. One part of the moral compound is left by him to mourn and sigh, while the other part is mingled with corruption, and becomes a companion of worms. Death so mars the features, that the most passionate admirers of the fairest and most lovely forms of beauty are constrained to say, as Abraham said of Sarah, "Bury my dead out of my sight." All the fruits of friendship are withered by his breath; and one has been called alone, to go through the dark passage where no one could accompany him while the survivor, who is left behind, frequently experiences the greatest sufferings from the emotions and reflections of his mind. Alas! how many fond mothers, beloved children, and valuable friends have been already sacrificed to this inexorable tyrant! Nor is there any union so closely formed, nor any friendship so established and strengthened, but it will be cut asunder and destroyed by the stroke of this great enemy, death.

But the most terrible part yet remains, the moral, or rather the eternal consequences of death. If Divine grace had not interposed, death has a sting by which he would pierce every transgressor, and send him to a state of interminable misery. "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."* The death of the body is by no means the full infliction of the penalty of the divine law. What we look upon as death is only a dark passage which conducts the sinner to the state of eternal death. The dissolution of our body, and the separation of the spirit from it, is but a preparation; like knocking off the chains and fetters from a prisoner who is about to be led forth to the place of execution. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life." Eternal life is here contrasted with death: but what is the opposite of eternal life but eternal death-the death of the soul, which consists of the perpetual loss of hope; a cutting off from the presence and favour of God; a sense of his eternal wrath, which burns like devouring fire? The second death treads in the footsteps of the first, and its shadow covers it; it is the infliction of the sentence of the Eternal Governor of the universe; and the fear of it makes those who are aware they are sinners willing to struggle with a load of cares and sorrows, rather than fall into the hand of the living God: for it is a fearful thing," a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

There are many properties of this enemy which give him the preeminence of terror. He is an inexorable enemy. Others may be bribed by riches, soothed by flatteries, moved by the tears and sorrows of a suppliant, or reconciled by a mediator; a daysman may interpose; one may come between us and our enemy, who may interpose to ward off or suspend the blow: but none can "give a ransom for his brother," to redeem his soul from death; "there is no discharge + Heb. x. 31. Salin xlix.7.

1 Cor. . 56.

↑ Rom. vi. 23.

in that war:" the redemption of the soul ceaseth" for ever;" there is no price that can be offered, or would be accepted. All the riches of the universe would be despised, if they were offered for only an hour's deliverance from the power of death: he wants the man himself, not what he possesses. Death will tear away the most ambitious from the heights of all his power, the wealthy froin the midst of all his stores, and the voluptuous from the scene of all his pleasures. His ear is insensible to the groans of the child, and his eye is unmoved by the tears of the mother; he is not to be arrested or turned aside by the wailings of innocence, or by the outcries of guilt. All are levelled by the same undistinguishing stroke, and there is no possibility of release. Death is an impartial enemy. Other enemies have particular grounds of quarrel; they do not oppose the whole of the species, but some individual, or a number of persons from whom they have received, or suppose they have received, an injury: but every one of the human race is the object of his enmity; his arrows will level all in the dust; "for it is appointed for all men once to die;" and the grave is the "house of all the living." The strongest know that all their strength must fail: amid all their dissipation, their hurry and care, their jollity and mirth, they know, that in the path along which they hasten on there is one that will meet and destroy them; and they begin to look forward with anxiety and dismay in proportion as they approach the seat of this terrible majesty.

Like other great monarchs, he also has harbingers to proclaim and prepare for his approach. He sends before him the most agonizing pains and afflictions; diseases that consume our strength and vigour, and sometimes induce us to expect his arrival every moment. By the trembling joints, the dimness of the eyes, the changed countenance, the breaking of the "bowl at the cistern," and the loosing of the “silver cord," we know that he is near at hand. There is a shadow of death cast before him, extending according to the height of this terrible majesty, and stretching over part of the vale of life: yes, all that precedes our dissolution, all that is preparatory to the last stroke, are harbingers of death; afflictive in themselves, and to be dreaded on their own account, but peculiarly fearful as the precursors of this great adversary.

As these are his forerunners, so he has innumerable and dreadful instruments to destroy. The famine and the pestilence are in his hand; he kindles the fury of the battle, and riots in the field of slaughter; he wings the forked lightning, and expands the jaws of the devouring earthquake. The air we breathe, the elements by which we are supplied, and the food upon which we subsist are often converted into the instruments of death: he levies a contribution upon all; and extracts the poison of mortality from that which is given for the sustenance of life.

Death is called, not only an enemy, but the "last enemy." This is introduced principally to denote the completeness of the Redeemer's conquest: nothing remains after the last.

This is the last enemy of the church of God in its collective capacity. Persecution shall cease, affliction be removed, fears and terrors of conscience quelled, temptations overcome, and Satan subdued: still the triumphs of death will remain; a large portion of what the Lord has redeemed will remain under his dominion; the bodies of believers will continue in the grave till the final consummation of all things. Though Jesus Christ extends his sceptre over all nations, and all kingdoms become the kingdoms of God and his Christ,-though millions of the faithful shall reign with him, and rejoice over every other enemy, and hope to rejoice over this, yet the vestiges of his conquests shall remain legible in the graves of the saints, and on the tombs and monuments of the just.

Death is also the last enemy of every believer. The Christian obtains hope of pardon; he goes on conquering one temptation after another, "from strength to strength," from victory to victory; but he knows that, after all, his body must come under the power of this enemy, and remain for a season in his dark domain. "I have," says he, "been carried through many trials: I have surmounted many difficulties; I have triumphed over many powerful temptations; but the dying part still remains: I have still a scene to pass through, in which I must be left alone; no friendly hand to guide or support me. I must engage, singly, with an enemy whom all men dread, and whose power no man comprehends, for it is invisible. He smites with an unseen hand; and, though millions have passed through the conflict, not one has returned to tell the secrets of his power and to unveil his territory; which, after so many ages, remains, as to us, 'a land of darkness, as darkness itself." " Though the Christian does not sink into despair as he meets the last enemy and the hour of contest approaches, yet he frequently trembles; for he knows not what may occur before that triumph is afforded which puts the seal of perpetuity to all the other triumphs of his soul.

To other men, what ought I to say of the last enemy? However long they have escaped his power, he will meet them at last; when they are giddy with intoxicating pleasures; or walking on the heights of boundless ambition; or are the slaves of an avarice rapacious as the grave: when they imagine they have nothing to fear, when "they have more than heart can wish, and their eyes stand out with fatness," they find an enemy coming upon them like an armed man; they find in death all that is terrible; they are forced to encounter the last enemy -an enemy that must be conquered, or they must be defeated and lost for ever and ever.

1

II. We are to consider the manner, and the successive stages, in which our Lord Jesus has already conquered in part, and will completely conquer, this last enemy. "He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet."* Death, the last enemy, shall be de

stroyed.

Consider the degrees and stages by which Jesus Christ conquers death.

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