We might also consider the body after death, as a prey for worms, the seat of corruption; and lodged in the grave, the house appointed for all living; and then an end is put to all the actions, as well as enjoyments of this life; and, as the Psalmist speaks, In that very day all their thoughts perish, Psal. cxlvi. 4. Whatever they have been projecting, whatever schemes they have laid, either for themselves or others, are all broken: as the historian observes concerning the Roman emperor, that when he had formed great designs for the advantage of the empire,[[121]] death broke all his measures, and prevented the execution thereof.
We might also consider it as putting an end to our present enjoyments, removing us from the society of our dearest friends, to a dismal and frightful solitude. This was one of the consequences thereof, that was very afflictive to Hezekiah, when he says, I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, Isa. xxxviii. 11. It also strips us of all our possessions, and the honours we have been advanced to in this world, as the Psalmist speaks, When he dieth he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him, Psal. xlix. 27.
We might also consider the time of life and death as being in God’s hand. As we were brought into the world by the sovereignty of his providence, so we are called out of it at his pleasure; concerning whom it is said, Our times are in his hand, Psal. xxxi. 15. So that as nothing is more certain than death, nothing is more uncertain to us than the time when. This God has concealed from us for wise ends. Did we know that we should soon die, it would discourage us from attempting any thing great in life; and did we know that the lease of life was long, and we should certainly arrive to old age; this might occasion the delaying all concerns about our soul’s welfare, as presuming that it was time enough to think of the affairs of religion and another world, when we apprehend ourselves to be near the confines thereof; and therefore, God has by this, made it our wisdom, as well as our duty, to be waiting all the days of our appointed time, till our change come.
From what has been said under this head, we may learn,
1. The vanity of man as mortal. Indeed, if we look on believers as enjoying that happiness which lies beyond the grave, there is a very different view of things; but as to what respects the world we have reason to say as the Psalmist does, Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity, Psal. xxxix. 5. We may see the vanity of all those honours and carnal pleasures which many pursue with so much eagerness, as though they had nothing else to mind, nothing to make provision for but the flesh, which they do at the expence of that which is in itself most excellent and desirable: We may also infer,
2. That this affords an undeniable and universal motive to humility; since death knows no distinction of persons, regards the rich no more than the poor; puts no mark of distinction between the remains of a prince and a peasant; and not only takes away every thing that men value themselves upon, but levels the highest part of mankind with common dust: They who boast of their extract, descent, and kindred, are obliged, with Job, to say, to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister, Job xvii. 14. Shall we be proud of our habitations, who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust? chap. iv. 19. Are any proud of their youth and beauty? this is, at best, but like a flower that does not abide long in its bloom, and when cut down, it withers. The finest features are not only spoiled by death, but rendered unpleasant and ghastly to behold; and accordingly are removed out of sight, and laid in the grave.
3. From the consideration of man’s liableness to death, and those diseases that lead to it, as the wages of sin, we may infer; that sin is a bitter and formidable evil. The cause is to be judged of by its effects. As death, accompanied with all those diseases which are the forerunners of it, is the greatest natural evil that we are liable to; sin, from whence it took its rise, must be the greatest moral evil; we should never reflect on the one without lying low before God in a sense of the other. The Psalmist, when meditating on his own mortality, traces it to the spring thereof; and ascribes it to those rebukes with which God corrects men for their iniquities, that they die, and their beauty consumes away like a moth, Psal. xxxix. 11. And elsewhere, when he compares the life of man to the grass, which in the morning fourisheth, and groweth up; and in the evening is cut down and withereth, he immediately adds; thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance, Psal. xc. 6, 8. And when Hezekiah had an intimation of his recovery, after he had the sentence of death within himself, he speaks of his deliverance from the pit of corruption, Isa. xxxviii. 17. as that which was accompanied with God’s casting all his sins behind his back. And since we cannot be delivered from these sad effects of sin, till the frame of nature is dissolved, and afterwards rebuilt; it should put us upon using those proper methods whereby we may be freed from the guilt and dominion thereof; and accordingly it should have a tendency to promote a life of holiness in us.
4. From the uncertainty of life, let us be induced to improve our present time, and endeavour so to live, as that, when God calls us hence, we may be ready. And therefore, we ought to pray with the Psalmist, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, Psal. xc. 12. that by this means, that which deprives us of all earthly enjoyments, may give us an admission into a better world, and be the gate to eternal life. This leads us to consider,
II. That death has a sting and curse annexed to it, with respect to some. Thus the apostle expressly says, The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. xv. 56. As sin at first brought death into the world; so it is the guilt thereof, lying on the consciences of men, which is the principal thing that makes them afraid to leave the world; not but that death is, in itself, an evil that nature cannot think of without some reluctancy. And therefore the apostle Paul, although he expresses that assurance which he had of happiness in another world, which he groaned after, and earnestly longed to be possessed of; yet had it been put to his choice, he would have wished that he could have been clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, 2 Cor. v. 2. that is, had it been the will of God, that he might have been brought to heaven without going the way of all the earth, this would have been more agreeable to nature. But when the two evils of death meet together, namely, that which is abhorrent to nature, and the sting which makes it much more formidable, this is, beyond measure, distressing. In this answer, the sting and curse of death are both put together, as implying the same thing. Accordingly, it is that whereby a person apprehends himself liable to the condemning sentence of the law, separated from God, and excluded from his favour, so that death appears to him to be the beginning of sorrows; this is that which tends to embitter it, and fills him with dread and horror at the thoughts of it. Which leads us,
III. To shew that it is the peculiar privilege of the righteous, that though they shall not be delivered from death, yet this shall redound to their advantage. That they shall not be exempted from death is evident; because the decree of God relating hereunto, extends to all men. We read, indeed, of two that escaped the grave, viz. Enoch, who was translated that he should not see death, and Elijah, who was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; but these are extraordinary instances, not designed as precedents, by which we may judge of the common lot of believers. And the saints that shall be found alive at Christ’s second coming, shall undergo a change[[122]], as the apostle speaks; which though it be equivalent to death, it cannot properly be styled a dying; inasmuch as he opposes it thereunto, when he says, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51. and he speaks of it as a future dispensation of providence, which does not immediately concern us in this present age. Therefore we must not conclude that believers are delivered from the stroke of death; nevertheless, this is ordered for their good, as the apostle says, with a particular application to himself, For me to die is gain, Phil. i. 21. And when he speaks of the many blessings that believers have in possession or in reversion, he says, Death is yours; as though he should say, it shall redound to your advantage; and this it does if we consider,