Forty Sermons, Sermon 10
SERMON X. OF THE CHRISTIANS VICTORY Over Death, Sin, and the Law.
1 Cor. 15. 57.
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ.
THE words are the close of an foreign, or Song of joy and triumph for a victory. Now a victory supposeth Enimies, and the verse before names them, and the Text shews us the means that they art conquer'd by, and who they are, that are partakers of the Victory. I shall declare and treat of both.
1. The Enimies here mention'd, and we may account them three, if that which gives both aid and strength to, fortifies our Enimy, be so; as sure it is. 1. Here is Death, which sin arms with a sting and do's envenome it. 2. Sin it self, empower'd and strengthned by the Law. 3. That Law also.
In the second place here are the means by which the Victory is gotten, and for whom—us the victory thro Jesus.
In handling all which I shall shew
First, that the Law gives Sin all its strength, and how it do's so.
2ly That Sin is the sting of Death, and how it is so.
3ly That by Christ both the Law which is the strength of Sin is taken away, and Sin which is the sting of Death pull'd out; and so both Sin and Death so weaken'd that they cannot hurt now; and they shall be swallowed up in perfect victory: and who they are all this is don for. Of these all in this order, which I crave leave to speak to directly without any least diverting from the Text or Subject.
First I am to speak of the first preparations that are made against us in behalf of our Enimies; and that is to shew you, that the Law gives all the strength to Sin which it hath, and how it do's so.
Sin hath its very being from Law, it being foreign, the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. and Sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. yea where there is no Law there is no transgression c. 4. 15. But this is not all, for in the Law besides the Precepts there is also Sanction, and it lays a twofold obligation; first to duty, secondly upon transgression to punishment.
1. To duty, and that perfect and unsinning strict obedience; for the terms are these,aGal. 3. 10. Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them. And to this the whole man is oblig'd, the soul as well as body: & caro & spiritus Dei res est, saith Tertull. God made the soul as well as body, one's his creature as much as the other, and the one hath as much reason then to pay him honor and obedience as the other: if indeed the spirit hath not much more to obey him in its own motions and actings, than in those of the body, which are onelyonly under it, and guided by it. So that thoughts are criminal against this Law, as well as doings; by them the Soul fulfils its part of the transgression, more it may be than its own share, while it robs the Flesh, seizes its satisfactions, and makes them her own against her nature. And indeed whatever part the Law is broken and transgrest by, 'tis transgression and sin still, whether by the mind, for lust when it hath conceived onelyonly, sin is then begotten James 1. 15. or by the tongue, for of every idle word we must give an account at the day of Judgment, Matth. 12. 36. and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd. Or lastly by the works. So that according to the Tenor of this strict and severe Law whatever we can do, or indeed whatever we do not is Sin: besides commissions that are sinful there is still defect, and so transgression in our thoughts, our words, and deeds even in the best; and in not doing also there's omission, and so failing. But besides this severe obligation of the Law to duty, upon this our faileur there is a severer obligation
2. To punishment; for every sin is cursed, as we saw. Upon this account the Law, saith St Paul, worketh wrath, Rom. 4. 15. we are children of wrath, Eph. 2. 3. whose inheritance is destruction, and who are of right to possess onelyonly the sad issues of God's indignation: for to this the Law condemns us all, by reason of our Sins; and upon that account the Law is said to be the strength of Sin. Because by force and vertue of this threatning of the Law, we that have sinned are therefore liable and obnoxious to the condemnation of it. And this I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 7. 7, 8, 9, 10. I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known concupiscence, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence: for without the law sin was dead,—but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the commandment which was ordain'd to life, I found to be unto death. The Apostle's drift here is not to evince how the commandment begets sin, but how it makes sin condemning, begets death: and therefore I believe they are mistaken who expound, sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, as if it meant the Law onelyonly prohibiting, but not quelling sin in me; the more it was restrain'd, the more it wrought all manner of concupiscence in me, especially since there was no punishment assign'd to that sin in the Law; it took advantage thence more powerfully to engage me in the pursuit of all my lusts, since thence I might have hop't without any fear of punishment to pursue them. For this seems perfectly to thwart his aim, which was to shew us how the Law wrought condemnation, and inflicted death by threatning it. It seems to mean, I had not onelyonly not known sin to be so dangerous, but I had not known some things to be sins, and by consequence condemning things, but by the Law: particularly I had not known concupiscence to be so, had not the Law said thou shalt not covet. The next words do not seem intended to declare how the Commandment work sin, that being brought in by the by, as it were thus, but sin the corruption of my nature foreign had wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, all actual lusts and wickednesses foreign got advantage over me or strength against me by the Law: which he there proves, for without the law sin is dead; not as to stirring in us by its sinful motions sure, corruption would not fail to do that and more if there were no check; but dead, had no strength nor power to condemn me. For it follows, when the commandment came, sin reviv'd, got strength to do that, and I died, was sentenc'd to death by it, and the commandment which was ordain'd to life could I have obey'd it, I found to be unto death by condemning me to death for my transgression of it. For sin by the Commandment foreign getting advantage over me slew me; not onelyonly made me liable to death, but by its guilt envenoming that death: for the sting of death is sin, which that it is, and how it is so, is the second thing I am to speak to.
Sin is the sting of death, which I could make appear two manner of ways in relation to two senses that may be given to the words, both pertinent, and the one but the Anticipation of the other. The first is this: Sin is the sting of death; 'tis Sin makes the thoughts of death pungent and stinging; the wicked man cannot think of his last dying day without horrors, the onelyonly imagination of a sickness stings him, because he is conscious to himself of sin, and he knows that that after Death cometh the Judgment, and he dares not think of beholding the face of his Judg with his guilt upon him.
To prove this to you I shall not need to fetch any heathen Testimonies, that call the Conscience of Sin a whip, a sting, a goad, a lancing knife, things that gash and prick, and gall and fret, all words of all kinds of terrifying punishment: but if there be any gross customary Sinner that now hears me, I shall need no other way of proof, but by appealing to his own conscience, whether, when he comes hot from his iniquity, he dares entertain the thought of dying. And why not? Alas he is too deep in arrears to venture upon account with so impartial a Judg; books must be laid open if he come there, the closet curtain sins, nay the bosom villanies must be displaied, and every one receive his doom; he hath heard, that all thebLuke 23. 30. Rev. 6. 16. refuge of a deplored Sinner at that great and terrible Day of the Lord is but to fly unto the Mountains to cover him, and to the Rocks to hide him. A wretched hope; for how shall the Hills hide him, whose iniquities are like Mountains? or how shall the rocks cover him, whose rebellions are like the great deep, as the Scripture words it? To such a person Death and Judgment are words of too dangerous a sense, and it's easier for him (as many do) to resolve there is no such thing as one of them, than to think of them, and go merrily on in sinning. For tell me, what is the design of that variety of iniquities in which thou dost ingulf thy self, that circle of sins wherein one relieves and succeeds another? Sure by such a perpetuity of diversified delights to stave off those severer thoughts, which if there were an intermission of sinning, or a nauseating of one sin for want of variety, would creep in, the noise of our riots is not to please the ear, but to drown the barking of our consciences. When the Sinner's candle is put out, if weariness in wickedness do not at once close up his eyes and thoughts, if the dark solitary night do but suggest some melancholly thoughts into him, how do's he tumble up and down, as if he thought to role away from his imagination? and he do's ransack his fancy, and call up the memory of his past sins about him to entertain himself with all, and keep out the torturing remembrance of that sad Day, which the Scripture callscAmos 6. 3. putting far from them the evil day: for the truth is he dares not give it place, least it should happen to him, as to a man upon a pointed precipice, (as himself is indeed situated) to whom the apprehension would be as mortal as the danger, and he would tumble down for fear of falling. So here his sin adds such sharps to the imagination of death, that he dares not entertain the thought.
And if Sin be such a sting in the onelyonly thought of death, that the mere remembrance of it is insupportable, the use is very natural by the frequent calling of death to mind to stop the current of sin. For if the wicked cannot endure to think of death, he that does think on it, cannot well go on to be wicked. Remember thy latter end, and thou shalt not do amiss. I would give this counsel, Think thou art to die while doing it. The original of the Turks Turbant, which was but by continual wearing of his winding sheet, by wrapping his head in his grave-cloaths to have always a shrowd and death upon his thoughts; and the Philosophers defining their wisdom to be but contemplatio mortis, are not such pregnant inforcers of this use, as this practical apprehension of it. The man that liv'd among the Tombs, tho he had a legion of Devils in him, yet when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, Mark 5. 6. The sight of graves and conversation with monuments will make even Demoniacks Religious, and is so far from thrusting Praiers out of the Liturgy of Burial, that it brings the very Devils on their knees.
But there is yet another and a fuller sense of these words, which St Paul repeats out of the LXX. translation of Hosea 13. 14. tho not verbatim, for there insteed of foreign is foreign and signifies, O Death, where is thy plea by which thou didst attaint men before God's Tribunal? where is the right thou hadst over all men to seize and take possession of them? what's become of the sentence that was awarded thee, by which all of us were adjudg'd to be thy bond-slaves? where is that punishment which thou didst inflict upon us all, and by it ruin us? To all these rights Sin did entitle thee, O Death; or as it is here in the Text Sin is thy sting, whatsoever power thou hast of hurting man, as the Scorpion's venom lies in his sting, that power Sin hath given thee, and in that it lies: without Sin Death were no plague, and it is this that makes Death insupportable.
Now to prove this I need not urge more than what I have already said; for if Sin be a sting in the very thought of Death, much more pungent will it be, when Death it self approaches: when the Feaver shall lay hold upon the bloud, not onelyonly to revenge the former heats of that lustful or that riotous bloud, but to be dawnings of those eternal Burnings which do await the Sinners, and shall do more than represent unto thee the heats of that unquenchable brimstone which is to be thy lot, and which already doth begin to flash in upon thee. Which part of thee do's labor with the more intolerable Feaver, thy Body or thy Soul? Alas the frost of the Grave would seem to thee a Julip, a cool refreshment onelyonly, if Sin did not make thee look upon the grave as a downlet to that bottomless pitt, which is the lake of fire that is not quencht. Nothing possibly can keep an unrepentant Sinner, that on his death-bed apprehends his guilt, from the horror of despair, from being his own Devil, and suffering his own Hell in his own bosom upon earth. I shall demonstrate this invincibly to you, that Sin do's, and nothing else do's make Death most insupportable, when it approaches.
Now to evince this, my Argument is none other than our Blessed Savior himself, in whose Passion the onelyonly imputation of guilt seems to have rais'd the greatest contradictions imaginable. If you look upon him preparing for his Passion, it seems his onelyonly and most pleasing design; as he came into the world for that end, so his whole life before it was but a Prologue to it, onelyonly a walk to mount Calvary, it was his extreme desire. I have a baptism to be baptiz'd with, baptiz'd indeed with fire and his own clotted sweat of bloud, yet this Baptism how am I streightened till, it be accomplished, Luke 12. 50. He had longing throws after it, he did as much desire it as a woman to be deliver'd of her burden. Nay it was his contrivance, he did lay plots that he might not escape it; for when a glorious Miracle had broke from him, that did extort the confession of his Deity from Men and Devils, he charges these to hold their peace, and bids the other tell it no man: one reason of which was, least the knowing him to be the Son of God should hinder him from suffering. He gives it himself Luke 9. 21, 22. he straitly charg'd and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected; now should they know I were the Son of God,d1 Cor. 2. 8. they would not crucify the Son of glory. You see what care he takes least he should not suffer: and just before his passion he come in triumph to Jerusalem, with songs and joy about him, as if Death were the onelyonly pleasant thing, and his passion so desirable, that he would go ride to meet it, which he never did at any other time. And add to all this that the person was the Son of God, to whom nothing could be truly insupportable; yet when this person comes to meet it, see how he entertain it, his soul is exceeding sorrowfull, he fell on his face to pray against it, and while he was in this condition aneLuke 22. 43, 44. Angel from Heaven came to strenthen him, yet he is still in an agony and prays more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of bloud. Now 'twas the sense of Sin upon him that made his bloud run out in clotts, as it were flying from that sense; it was the apprehensions of the guilt imputed to him, and the wrath which he knew was due to it, did make him apprehend his God (who was himself) was gon from him, made him cry out,fMatt. 27. 46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now to say that all this dread were from the mere apprehension of death, were horrid blasphemy; the meanest Martyr was never guilty of so much weakness. No 'twas from the sense of the iniquity that was upon it, 'twas because he was made sin for us; he was a man of sorrows, saith the Prophet Isaiah, because in representation he was a man of sins, for he bore our iniquities, saith the same Prophet c. 53. The Lord had laid upon him the iniquities of us all, and therefore he was oppressed. And so I have made appear, that Sin is the sting of Death more than if your selves did feel it by an experimental despair: for it is more that Sin should make Death terrible to the Son of God, than that it should make it insupportable to you. And therefore before Death seize you, and prostrate you into his dust, this consideration may humble you into the dust and ashes of Repentance; this I say, if Sin were a sting that made Death so insupportable to Christ, what will it be to us? If the apprehension of it, when it came arm'd onelyonly with the imputation of our guilt, (for he himselfg2 Cor. 5. 21. knew no sin) was so terrible to the Son of God, how shall we stand under it, when it brings all our own iniquities to seize upon us? If he that was a person of the Trinity could not bear the weight, how shall we sink under it? That which made our Jesus in an agony, as if he meant to pour out his soul in his sweat, and pray, and roar, and die, will certainly be to us most infinitely beyond sufferance. Alas! what then will be our hope? We have certainly none, except we can by Faith and Repentance rid our selves of this Sin, which is the sting of Death, and makes it to be thus intolerable; which how it comes to pass I must now shew.
2. Why, and how Sin is the sting of Death. Sin may seem very properly to be call'd a sting of Death, for it was the Serpent that brought Death into the World, and Sin was that by which he did inflict it; now a sting is a Serpent's proper instrument, and a venomous sting it was, that could blast Paradise, and shed destruction there where the Tree of life bore fruit. But that is not all the reason why it should be call'd the sting of Death because it makes us obnoxious to Death, but it is that which makes Death a miserable condition: as it is the sting of the Serpent that makes him a poysonous creature, so it is that which makes Death destructive. For were Death the expiration of that little spark in the moving of our heart, and if our spirit utterly vanisht as the soft air, and were it as the Atheist in thehWisd. 2. 2. Wise man says, we are born at all adventure, and shall be hereafter as tho we had never bin; Death would be so far from all sting, that it would be perfect rest, and the end of troubles: but Sin makes it onelyonly the beginning of sorrows, it changes the very nature of death, by making that which seems to be the cessation of sensible function, to be the very original of the sensibility of torments. Then the Sinner doth begin indeed to feel, when he dies. Death were but the term of a miserable life, did not Sin make it the birth of a more miserable life or death: I know not whether to call it; for it is of so strange a nature, that the very uniting of a Sinner's body and soul, which is the onelyonly thing we call life, God calls death, Rev. 22. 13, 14. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell, or the grave, deliver'd up the dead which were in them, that is, the bodies to be joyn'd to the souls, and they were judg'd every man according to their works, and in that case all are cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. Sin makes Resurrection to be dying: and it must needs be so, because as afflictions are in this life call'd death, as St Paul saithi2 Cor. 11. 23. in Deaths often; so much more then may those torments of hell be call'd death. So that in that death that Sin engages to, it is necessary to live always, that we may for ever die: and it must be so, because this makes us liable to the eternal indignation of the offended God, which we were not capable of suffering, were it not a death of this nature. This is indeed death with a sting in it, and it is the sense of this approaching that wounds the dying soul; when it do's at once call to mind the wickedness of its past life and the wrath that do's await it, when he recollects how sinful he hath bin, and withall how hateful sin is to God, (so hateful that it was easier for God to send his Son to suffer death, than to suffer sin to go unpunish'd) then his own expectations sting and stab his very soul; for if God did thus use his own Son, how will he use me, that have both sinn'd and trod under foot the death of that Son by going on wilfully in my sins? Would you then, my Brethren, find out a way to make death easy and familiar to you? you must pull out this sting. The Jews say if Adam had continued righteous he should not have died, but after a long happy life God would have taken up his soul to him with a kiss, which they call osculum pacis, he would have receiv'd that spirit which with his mouth he did inspire, a kiss of taking leave here to meet in Heaven. Wouldst thou have thy death to be the same thing? 'Tis but becoming righteous with the righteousness of Christ, thro whom we have this Victory here in the Text, the other part I am to speak to, who giveth us the victory thro Jesus Christ our Lords where we have those that are partakers of the Victory, and the means thro Jesus Christ our Lord, and as to both these this I shall demonstrate over all those enimies in order, who the us, and how the Victory is gotten.
First the Law. Now that Christ hath redeem'd us from the curse of the Law, is said expresly, and that by his being made a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. and what that curse of the Law was, is set down in the tenth verse, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, that are written in the book of the Law to do them; which no man besides Christ did ever or can do, and consequently all mankind lay under that same dreadful curse, obnoxious to the wrath of God, and the effects of everlasting indignation: but Christ by undergoing that curse and by that means satisfying that strict Law, procur'd an easier to be set us upon gentler terms, not perfect and unsinning strict obedience, which was impossible, but instead thereof the Law of Faith, obsequious Faith that works by love, endeavors honestly and heartily, and where it fails repents, that is, grieves, and amends, and perseveres in doing so. For as St Paul assures us, we are not under the Law, but under Grace, Rom. 6. 14. tho we be under the directions of it, the duty of it is most indispensable vertue always; yet we are not under those strict terms of it according to the tenor of that curse, but in a state of favor, under terms of grace, where there is mercy, pardon to be had upon repentance thro faith, and where there is encouragement and aid to work that faith and that amendment in us. And thus far the Victory accrues to all mankind; for all that will accept these terms of this remedying Law of grace, the other killing strict Law hath no power over them. For the Gospel was commanded to be preach'd to, and its terms offer'd every creature under heaven, all mankind: a victory this, that could not be obtain'd, but by Christ's bloud; the grace and favor of these easier terms for our obedience valued equal with his life; for to take of this curse, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, that are written in the book of the law to do it, these strict terms, he himself was made a curse: and 'twill be certainly a most unkind return, if that which he thought worth the dying for to get us, we shall not think worth the accepting, slight these blessed terms, and do not care unless we can be free from all necessity of an endeavor, freed from vertue too as well as Law.
But secondly the Law being, as we have shew'd it is, the strength of Sin in giving it a power to condemn us, that Law being taken off, that power also cannot but be taken off from Sin, and by that means the great strengths of that Enimy defeated. Accordingly St Paul do's tell the Romans c. 6. v. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you, that is, it shall not have by vertue of the Law a power to condemn you; for you are not under the Law but under grace, are in that state where men are not condemn'd for every gross or heinous sin altho too long continued in, but there is pardon to be had for them that will but faithfully endeavor to amend, turn from their sins, return to Christ, receive him and his pardon: and where there is also help to do this, 'tis a true state of grace; so that unless men will resolve to force their own guards that are set about them to preserve them, and break thro the strengths of grace, and conquer all the strivings of Almighty God's compassion and goodness to them, and beat off the very victory that Christ hath gain'd for them, refuse all the kind offers of the Law of grace, and chuse sin with damnation, they are safe; There is now, as St Paul saith, by the Law no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, to them who walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom. 8. 1. in which words we have both an assurance that the strengths of Sin are broken, and the persons too are partakers of the Victory, that are in Christ Jesus: for as it is by him the Victory is gotten, so it is in him that we must get an interest in it. Now to be in Christ, if, as most certainly it doth, it mean here as in other places, where 'tis said of Churches, housholds, and of single persons, then it means the Christians: so in Gal. 1. 22, the Churches of Judea that are in Christ, i. e. that have received the Gospel and the Faith of Christ; Rom. 16. 11. greet them that be of the houshold of Narcissus, that are in the Lord, i. e. that are Christians; and the seventh verse, who were in Christ before me, i. e. were converted e're I was. But it means Christians not in judgment and opinion onelyonly, but in life and practice; such as are in Christ by St Pauls character and description of it in the 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, he lives the life of Christ as a member does the life of that of which it is a member, and so he walks not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. For as members live by the vertue of the influence of spirits from the head into them and walk after its directions, so those that are in Christ, his members, they must walk, live, act and practise by the Spirit of Christ, guided not by carnal appetite, the lusts and the desires of the Flesh, but by Christ's directions. Such they are who have this Victory, to whom there is no condemnation. For as he adds Rom. 8. 2. The law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus, sets us free from the law of sin and death: and so there is thro him a Victory over the third, last enimy Death: in which freedom from Sin and Death two things are intimated.
1. That Sin the sting of Death is taken away, which being once removed, Death is the softest thing that can be, 'tis but falling asleep; so it is call'd v. 18. of this chapter, faln asleep in Christ: it is so far from being hurtful, that it is the first great happiness that does befall us.
2. That Death it self also shall be swallowed up in Victory, that we shall be recovered from its powers, and triumph over it in Immortality of blessed life. For if we be in Christ, his members, and so live the life of Christ; and consequently when we die, die in the Lord: then tho the body be dead and corruptible, yet if the Spirit of life that is in Jesus be in us, he that rais'd up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit, Rom. 8. 11. It is this life in him that verifies the saying of St Paul Eph. 2. 6. He hath raised us up, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, as sure as if we were already there: for there we are already as his members in our head. And to the full and personal enjoyment of the blessings of those heavenly places it is death that lets us in; that vale of Achor is the door of hope and Canaan, the grave the avenue to God's right hand: that death, 'tis but the Pascha in St Bernard, 'tis our Passover, a repast of bitter herbs indeed, but at the going out of Egypt from the house of bondage. And tho the body seem in death a piteous despicable thing, sown in corruption & dishonor, ask1 Cor. 15. 42, 43. St Paul expresses, yet death gives that a relation too to Christ: the Prophet Isaiah brings in the Lord calling His dead foreign cadaver, they my dead body shall aris…, saith he c. 26. 19. So that the corps of a good person is so far a member, that 'tis call'd the very body of his Savior, into such a title Death translates it; to such not to live onelyonly, but to die is Christ. And sure if they that die in him, did live in him, (as none can die there where they did not live at all) that is live as his members, they that die in Christ must die his members. But in the expression of the Prophet they do also die himself, and are Christ's own dead body. Death to such is as it were transfiguration, and do's not so much strip and make them naked, as cloath them, and that with glory; the shrowd may seem but their white wedding linnen, and their dress for the marriage of the Lamb. Whoever is a faithfull sincere Christian, if Death seem to make approaches to him arm'd with all his instruments of cruelty and terror, charge him as assuredly as a Prophet could to set his house in order, for he must die; if he can say with Hezekiah in Isaiah 38. 3. Remember now, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have don that which is good in thy sight, then if he have not fifty years, yet he shall have a numberless Eternity added to his life; and notwithstanding the dark solitude of the Grave to which he is retiring, he shall have that which will accompany him to his infinite joy: when he is torn from friends, and all his dearest things do leave him▪ yet he shall not be alone, his faith and piety, his vertues all go along with him, and appear for him at that tribunal on the Judgment day. All his relations, even his bosom-guest, the other half of his own soul forsake him, bring him it may be to the grave, and tho they carry blacks upon them to refresh and keep alive the memory of him, yet in a while take comfort and forget; yet the true conjugal affections of an untainted, undefiled bed shall go along, present the Soul white, as a Virgin that's unspotted. And after this 'tis in vain to say his riches will forsake him, they go not so far as the grave, afford nothing of themselves but the price of a sheet and coffin. But then Charities will mount, Alms will ascend as fast as the Spirit; the wealth one piously bestow'd will meet him, he shall eternally possess that which he gave away, and tho his place know him no more, they shall receive him into everlasting habitations.l1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore, my beloved Brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, which is the real way of giving thanks to God, who giveth us the Victory.