oppressors there was power; to crush them and keep them under, and hinder and deter others from helping and relieving them. Such wicked men David had observed in great power, and spreading themselves like a green bay tree"; when on a fudden they came to nothing, having abused their power to the hurt of others, and in the issue to their own hurt and it is here added, but they had no comforter; that is, not the oppreffors, but the oppreffed; which is repeated, to observe the aggravated affliction of the oppreffed, and the cruelty of their oppreffors; and not fo much for the confirmation of the affertion, as to excite attention and to raise pity and commiferation in the breafts of others. Now from all this the royal preacher deduces the inference or conclufion in the text, wherefore I praised the dead, &c. not that he compofed panegyrics upon them, and raised encomiums upon their perfons, characters, actions, virtues and merits; but he pronounced the dead happier than the living; he judged in his own mind, and concluded within himself, and declared it to others, as his real fentiment, that the state of the dead was preferable to the state of the living, and that the one was more eligible than the other; because the one was free from oppreffion, and the other under it: and this subject I have chofen to treat of, for the relief of your minds under this mournful providence which has brought us together, and which I shall attempt to do in the following method; I. Inquire who are meant by the dead and living, here opposed to each other, and of whom the wife man forms a comparative judgment. II. Obferve the preferableness of the one to the other, that is, of the dead to the living. III. Shew more particularly in what the preferableness, or fuperiority of the one to the other lies. I. I shall inquire who are meant by the dead and living: by the dead are meant not fuch who are fo in a figurative and improper fenfe, but literally and properly; our Lord ufes the word dead in both fenfes in one paffage'; to a certain perfon, who proposed to be a follower of him, but first desired leave to bury his father, he said, follow me, pursue the refolution made, and attend to the service included in it; let the dead bury their dead: that is, let the dead, in a figurative fenfe, the dead in fin, bury those that are corporally dead: and fome are dead in a moral sense while they live corporally; he or she that liveth in pleasures, in finful lufts and pleasures, whofe whole life is a continued feries of fin, are dead while they live; and this is the cafe of all unregenerate men, and of the Lord's people before conversion, even until they are quickened by the spirit and grace 4 B VOL. I. of of God; you bath be quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins'; now though those who are dead in fin, many of them, be more happy than living faints as to outward things; they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men; their eyes ftand out with fatnefs, they have more than heart could wifh: these are the ungodly, who profper in the world, who increafe in riches; yet the wife man would never commend fuch perfons or pronounce them happy, and prefer them and their ftate to godly persons with all their troubles. Some are dead in a religious sense, while alive, are dead to a profeffion of religion they have made; they have had a name to live, profeffed themselves to be spiritually alive, made fo fair a fhew, and gave fuch proof and: evidence of a spiritual life, that they were judged by others, even by churches,. to be living chriftians, and became famous for the life of godliness, when they had only the form, and denied the power of it; now fuch as these after a time drop their profeffion of religion, depart from the faith, and become apoftates, and fo are twice dead, as the apoftle Jude expreffes it"; firft dead in fin, as other unregenerate men be, and then dead to the profeffion they have made of reli-gion and now though thefe alfo, as to their outward circumftances, may be more happy than thofe who are truly alive in a spiritual fenfe; fince, by their apoftacy, they may efcape the troubles and perfecutions, they that live godlyin Christ Jefus are liable to; yet Solomon would never give fuch apoftates the preference to real faints. There are fome that are dead in a civil fenfe, with refpect to calamities, diftreffes and afflictions which attend them in this life; and which may be called, and are called, death, and they reprefented as dead.. The captivity of the Jews. in Babylon is called a death °, in which God had no pleasure; rather, it was agreeable to him, that they should turn from their idolatries, and reform from their fins, and live comfortably in their own land again.. The fore and severe afflic-tions and perfecutions endured by the apoftles and followers of Chrift, go by the name of fo great a death; and the apostle Paul,, is particularly faid to be in deaths oft; that is, he was frequently in danger of his life, and exposed to death, had the fentence of it in him, and defpaired of life; but now fuch as thefe, are the living in our text; the unhappy perfons, to whom the dead are oppofed and preferred. It remains that by the dead, must be meant fuch that: are so in a literal and corporeal fenfe, whofe fouls and bodies are really separated: from each other; in which feparation of foul and body death lies: The body without the Spirit is dead; and in this fenfe all men muft die and do die; and fuch are intended here, fuch that have been dead fome time paft, are laid in their graves, of whom there is a certainty that they are dead; not merely given up • Ezek. xviii. 32. 2 Cor. i. 9, 10. and xi. 23. 9 James ii. 26. up for dead, as Ifaac was by Abraham, from the time he was ordered to offer him; and who from the dead received him in a figure; nor fuppofed to be dead as the apostle Paul, when stoned at Lyftra, but rose up alive in the midst of the disciples; but who are truly, thoroughly and certainly dead, in a literal and proper sense; which feems to be the meaning of this unusual phrase, already dead. But here we muft diftinguish between perfons, and perfons that are dead; the wicked dead cannot be meant; they die as other men, nor can wickedness deliver thofe that are given unto it: Notwithstanding their daring infolence and impiety, they are obliged to fubmit to death, to which they are appointed; fuch that fay, we have made a covenant with death, and with bell are at agreement; and fo promise themselves they fhall escape the one and the other; their covenant with death shall be difannulled, and their agreement with bell shall not Stand'; though they live ever so long, they die at last, and die unhappy creatures; the finner being an bundred years old, that is, at his death, fhall be accurfed'; and therefore these cannot be the men commended for happiness in our text: the wicked when they die are caft into hell; the rich man in the parable, as foon as dead, in bell lift up his eyes being in torments, in everlasting burnings, the smoke of which torments afcend for ever and ever; their worm dies not, their fire is not quenched, their ftate is fixed and unalterable; there is an unpaffable gulph between them and the righteous, among whom they never will have a place, and therefore cannot be the happy men here defigned; but the righteous dead, whofe death Balaam defired to die, well knowing that fuch are happy in death: Thefe die as well as the wicked; there is, says Solomon", a just man that perishes in his righteoufnefs, not eternally, but corporally; the righteous perifbes, that is, dies, and no man layeth it to heart"; or is concerned at it. Good men, even the best of men, die; those whofe lives are moft defirable, and are the most useful. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? They do not, they die as other men; but are happier at death; blessed are the dead, not the dead in common; but that die in the Lord *. By the living that are yet alive, we are to understand, fuch that are alive when others are dead, and who are attended with various afflictions, diftreffes and troubles; and particularly under the oppreffion of wicked men in power; of whom it is as much as can be faid that they are alive, they are just alive, and that is all; which feems to be the meaning of this uncommon expreffion. And this is more especially true of living faints, who live fpiritually, live godly in Chrift Jefus, and fuffer perfecution in fome shape or another for 'his name-fake: these may be said to die daily, and be in continual jeopardy of their lives; and u Eccles. vii. 15. Eccles. viii. 8. w Ifai. lvii. 1. • Ifai. xxviii. 15, 18. * Rev. xiv. 13. 4 B 2 * Ifai. lxv. 20. were were it not for the good hope, through grace, they have of happiness in another world, would be of all men moft miferable. See at large the defcription of them, in 2 Cor. iv. 8-12. and to thefe the righteous dead are preferred: which is the next thing to be confidered; namely, to observe, II. The preference of the dead to the living: I praised the dead, &c. The righteous dead, who, after death, are much more happy than living faints. These words indeed are generally understood, as spoken according to human sense and judgment, without any regard to the glory and happiness of the future ftate; as that the dead must be preferred to the living, when the reft and quiet of the one, and the miferies and troubles of the other, are obferved; and which feems to be confirmed by the following verfe; but I chufe to improve the words in the former fenfe. Death itself, and fimply confidered, is no happiness; and if it was, it could not be special and peculiar happiness to fome, because it is common to all; high and low, rich and poor, wife and foolish, good and bad, all die; the grave is the house appointed for all living; besides, it is the fruit and effect of fin, fin entered into the world, and death by fin: Sin opened the door at which death came in; it was threatened in cafe of fin, and as a punishment for it, and is the wages and just demerit of it; and therefore can never be an happiness in itself; add to this, that it is a diffolution of a man, a diffolving the earthly house of his tabernacle, an unpinning and taking of it down, a breaking of the whole frame of nature, a difuniting the constituent parts of it, foul and body; and though it is not an annihilation of man, a bringing him to nothing, yet it is a reduction of him to his original duft: man was made of the duft of the earth, and at death he returns to it again, which is an humbling and a mortifying confideration to him; he cannot well brook it. Self-prefervation is a principle implanted in all living creatures, and fo in man; human nature is reluctant to death, and is not agreeable to it. Satan most truly faid, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man bath will be give for his life: it is the last thing he chooses to part with; he is willing rather to part with any thing than that; what man is he that defireth life, and loveth many days, that he may fee good? Every man defires life, and a long life, especially to live in health, prosperity, and fuccefs; even the human nature of Chrift was reluctant to death; the thought of it was disagreeable, and he prayed for deliverance from it; Father, fave me from this hour: indeed his death was an uncommon one, it was in the room and stead of others, of finful men, and was attended with the wrath of God, and curfes of the law for their fins he bore; fo, that it is no wonder, that his human nature fhould fhudder at it, when left to itself, and he should lay, y I Cor. xv. 19. z Job xxx. 231 • Pfalm xxxiv. 1.2. a Rom. v. 12. fay, O! my Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless it fhews, that even finless human nature is reluctant to death; and therefore death, fimply confidered, must be much more difagreeable to finful, human nature. There must be something more than is in nature to make death agreeable, or defireable, or to caufe a man to look at it with pleasure, and to carry him through it without fear; even that of being with Chrift for evermore, which is better, and is judged to be better by a believer, than to be in this finful world: death therefore, relatively confidered, or as it refers to good men, is only an happiness; death to them is no penal evil, death, as a punishment, being endured by Christ for them; the curfe is taken away from death, Chrift being made a curfe for them; the fting of it, which is fin, is taken away by him, and death is become a bleffing to the faints; it is reckoned in the inventory of their good things, death is yours; and they are pronounced bleffed perfons: blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, that die in union with him; there is a fecret union to him that took place in eternity, when the elect were chosen in Christ, even before the foundation of the world; and there is an open union to Chrift in conversion, which is the manifestation of the former; the bond of which is the everlasting love of Chrift, which can never be diffolved; death cannot feparate from his love, it diffolves the union between foul and body, but not the union between Chrift and his people; and hence they fhall live with him foul and body to all eternity, and therefore must be happy; as all are that die in the exercife of grace on him: the death of fuch is in a remarkable and distinguished manner a bleffing; these all died in faith", it is faid of fome; fo died David; his last words, his dying words were, he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure; and this is all my falvation. And fo died the apostle Paul; The time of my departure, fays he, is at band; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. This is dying comfortably and happily, to die in the faith of covenant-interest and of eternal glory: and so it is to die in hope of it; the hope of the profane, of the hypocrite, and felf-righteous man, is as the giving up of the ghoft; it is cut off like a fpider's web; and if it lives fo long as they do, it dies with them, and is of no use at death unto them; but the righteous bath hope in his death'; whofe hope is fixed on Chrift and his righteousness, by which he is justified and denominated a righteous man: this is exercised by him in his dying moments, and is of use to him then; and he rejoices in hope of the glory of God. They that die faints and righteous perfons are the only happy at death, or to whom death is an happiness; precious in the fight of the Lord is the |