1 One of the fathers longer! to die, that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns. 2 Cant. iv. 7; Eph. v. 1!7 ; Col. ii. 10; Rev. xiv. 4, 5.
1 Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 463
blameless, and faultless before God. This golden clothing', this glorious righteousness of Christ, is as truly and really the believer's, and as fully and completely the believer's, as if it were his very own. Ah ! no clothing to this. The costly cloak of Alcisthenes, which Dionysius sold to the Carthaginians for a hundred talents, was indeed a mean and beggarly rag to this embroidered mantle that Christ puts upon all believers. And therefore a Christian, both living and dying, should say with the psalmist, 'I will make mention of thy righteousness, of thy righteousness only,' Ps. lxxi. 15, 16, 19. Let them be afraid to die, let them be unwilling to die, who must appear before God in their sins, and in their own i-ighteousness, which at best is but as filthy rags, Isa. lxiv. 6. But as for thee, O Christian, who shalt always appear before God in clothing of wrought gold, be not thou afraid of death, be not thou unwilling to die, but rather desire it, rather long for it, 1 Cor. xv. 55-57, because thou art clothed with such righteousness as will bear thee up sweetly in it, as will carry thee bravely through it, and as will make thee triumph over it. Christ's righteousness is a Christian's white raiment, in which he stands pure before God, Rev. iii. 18, and Rev. xix. 7, 8, 'Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white : for the linen is the righteousness of saints.' By the fine, clean, white linen which is here called the righteousness, or, as the Greek hath it, the righteousnesses of saints, most understand the glorious righteousness of Christ.1 Righteousness is an Hebraism, noting that most perfect absolute righteousness which we have in Christ; white is a natural colour, it is a colour of purity, ornament, and honour. It was the habit in times past of nobles, saith Drusius, and others. Now in this pure, clean, white linen all the saints are clothed, and so presented to God by Jesus Christ; and why then should they be unwilling to die ? Here is not a speck, not a spot, to be found upon this white linen, which is the righteousness of saints, which should make saints rather to pursue after death, than to fly from it, or to be unwilling to welcome it when it comes.
I am not ignorant that this unwillingness to die most usually springs from those low and dark apprehensions men have of God, and from weakness of faith, and from coldness of love, and from laying the creatures too near our hearts, and from our little communion with God, aud our rare taking of turns in paradise, and from our not treasuring up a stock of promises, and a stock of experiences, &c. I have also considered what a dishonour to God, a reproach to Christ, a grief to the Spirit, a scandal to religion, a blot to profession, a mischief to sinners, and a wrong to saints, it is, for Christians to be unwilling to die, or to be afraid of death, which hath occasioned me to muster up these twenty considerations to work you to be willing to die; and if these will not prevail with you, I profess I do not know what will.
Obj. I would be willing to die, if I had but assurance: but that is the jewel I want ; and therefore I am unwilling to die.
(1.) First, I answer, It may be thou hast assurance, though not such a measure of assurance, such a plerojjhory or full assurance, as thou 1 iiKaiu/mru, i. e. say some, imputed and imparted righteousness.
464 A STRING OF PEARLS. [1 PeTEB I. 4.
desirest. A perfect, complete, absolute ami full assurance is very desir- able on earth, but I think few attain to it till they come to heaven. This sparkling diamond God hangs in few saints' bosoms till they come to glory. But,
•j 8 sondly, 1 answer, The least grace, if true, 'is sufficient to sulfa- tion, Mat. v. 3, 10; and therefore the sense of the leasl grace, or of the measure of grace, should be sufficient to assurance of salvation.
.". Thirdly, The time of death is one of the most usual seasons wherein Qod gives his child/ren tin- sweetest and fullest assurance of his love, of their interest in him, and of their right to <il<>r>/. When there was but a step, a si lido, between Stephen and death, then he saw heaven open, and Christ standing at the right hand of his Father, Acts vii. 55-60.
Mr Glover, though he had been long under clouds and much darkness, yet when he came near the fire, he cried out to his friend, O Austin, Austin, he is come, he is come ! meaning the Lord, in the sweet and glorious discoveries of his love and favour to him; and so ho died, with a in-art full of joy and assurance.1
Mr Frogmorton, a precious godly minister, lived thirty-seven years without assurance, after the Lord had wrought savingly upon him, and then died at Master Dod's, having assurance but an hour before he died.2
I could here give you divers examples, of a later date, of many pre- cious Christians who have lived close with God many years, and have been much in seeking of assurance, and the Lord hath hold them niY till a few years before their death, and then he hath filled their souls so full of the sense of his love, and the assurance of their everlasting wel- fare, that they have died under the power of their joys. Assurance is a free gift of God, and God loves to give his gifts to his children when they may most eheer them, and be of greatest use and service to them ; and when is that, but at the day of death ? And therefore Christians should not be unwilling to die for want of assurance, because that is a special season wherein God usually gives assurance to his children.
(4.) Fourthly and lastly, Thou mayest die and rjo to heaven without assurance. This truth, with several others of the like import, that may further satisfy such as are unwilling to die, I have made good in that treatise of mine called 'Heaven on Earth,'3 and to that I refer the reader for further satisfaction, if what is said do not satisfy.
The next inference, then, that I shall make, and so hasten to a close, is this :
1 Clarke, as before. — G.
2 The aliove incident is strikingly told in Brooks's favourite folio, and may here he given :— Mr Frogmorton was a man of high reputation, and a pious and zeaioiu preacher of the word; but labouring, in the decline of life, under a consumption, and being oppressed with melancholy apprehensions about the safety of his state, be removed to