Hebrews 9:27-28 And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment:… I. UNDER WHAT PRACTICAL NOTIONS WE SHOULD CONSIDER DEATH. 1. We should consider death as an event certain and inevitable, in consequence of the irreversible sentence once pronounced to our first parents, and, in them, to all succeeding generations. 2. We should consider death as an event removed at no great, though an uncertain, distance. For, how transitory is life! at the longest, how short! and at the best, how frail! 3. Again, we should consider death as an event that will consign us to an immediate state of happiness or misery. II. THE UTILITY OF THE RELIGIOUS CONSIDERATION OF DEATH, 1. It discovers to us the unimportance and vanity of all temporal enjoyments; which, however satisfactory or delightful, are yet short and transitory. It evinces the indiscretion of an intemperate attachment to the world. It serves to extend our views, and elevate our desires. 2. It is the best guard of innocence and virtue. Temptations .surround us on all sides, to prevent which nothing can be more effectual than ,serious meditations on that eternity into which we must soon, and may suddenly, enter. 3. It is the best preparative for a comfortable death. Nothing dissipates the fears of death so much as due preparation for it; nothing so effectually disarms it of its terrors, as the consciousness of integrity. (G. Carr, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:WEB: Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, |
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