Robert Traill (The Throne of Grace), Works 1:101-102:
Death and the grave are strong and cruel, Song 8:6. They have taken, or will take all mankind prisoners, and are able to keep them; only they took one prisoner, Jesus Christ, who was too hard, too strong, for them. Death had dominion over him but for a little while, and by his own consent, Rom. 6:9; but it hath no more dominion over him. But he hath dominion over it: I have the keys of hell and of death, Rev. 1:18. Courage, believers in, and heart-lovers of Jesus Christ! Death and hell are indeed dreadful jails; but as long as Christ keeps the keys (and that will be till he cast them both into the lake of fire, Rev. 20:14), no believer shall ever be locked up in them. If hell were searched never so narrowly, amongst all the condemned prisoners there, no man or woman could be found in it, in whose heart there was ever one spark of true faith in, or love to the Lord Jesus.
Death and the grave are strong and cruel, Song 8:6. They have taken, or will take all mankind prisoners, and are able to keep them; only they took one prisoner, Jesus Christ, who was too hard, too strong, for them. Death had dominion over him but for a little while, and by his own consent, Rom. 6:9; but it hath no more dominion over him. But he hath dominion over it: I have the keys of hell and of death, Rev. 1:18. Courage, believers in, and heart-lovers of Jesus Christ! Death and hell are indeed dreadful jails; but as long as Christ keeps the keys (and that will be till he cast them both into the lake of fire, Rev. 20:14), no believer shall ever be locked up in them. If hell were searched never so narrowly, amongst all the condemned prisoners there, no man or woman could be found in it, in whose heart there was ever one spark of true faith in, or love to the Lord Jesus.
