2. Secondly, Look upon death as a remedy, as a cure. Death will perfectly cure you of all corporeal and spiritual diseases at once : the
^ This second Epistle is headed ' Some Words of Counsel to a Dear Friend,' viz., Mrs Drinkwater, named on page 1. Cf. the General Epistle prefixed. — ti.
' rioXXtD /jLaWov Kpeiffaov. Nee Christus, nee coslum patitiir hyperholen, saith one ; here it is hard to hyperbolize.
450 SOME WORDS OF COUNSEL
crazy body and the defiled soul, the aching head and the unbelieving heart : ultimus morborum medicus mors. Death will cure you of all your ails, aches, diseases, and distempers. At Stratford-Bow, in Queen Mary's days, there was burned a lame man and a blind man at one stake. The lame man, after he was chained, casting away his crutch, bade the blind man be of good comfort ; For death, saith he, will cure us both ; thee of thy blindness, and me of my lameness. ^ And as death will cure all your bodily diseases, so it will cure all your soul distem- pers also. Death is not mors hominis, but mors peccati; not the death of the man, but the death of his sin. Death will work such a cure as all your duties, graces, experiences, ordinances, assurances, could never do ; for it will at once free you fully, perfectly, and perpetually from all sin ; yea, from all possibility of ever sinning more. Sin was the midwife that brought death into the world, and death shall be the grave to bury sinr^ And why, then, should a Christian be afraid to die, unwilling to die, seeing death gives him a writ of ease from infirmities and weaknesses, from all aches and pains, griefs and gripings, distempers and diseases, both of body and soul ? When Samson died, the Philis- tines also died together with him ; so when a saint dies, his sins die with him. Death came in by sin, and sin goeth out by death ; as the worm kills the woi'm that bred it, so death kills sin that bred it. But,
3. Thirdly, Looh upon death as a rest, a full rest. A believer's dying day is his resting day. It is a resting day from sin, sorrow, afilictions, temptations, desertions, dissensions, vexations, oppositions, and perse- cutions.^ This world was never made to be the saints' rest. Arise, for this is not your resting-place. They are like Noah's dove, they can rest nowhere but in the ark and in the grave. ' In the grave,' saith Job, ' the weary are at rest.' Upon this very ground some of the most refined heathens have accounted mortality to be a mercy, for they brought their friends into the world with mournful obsequies, but carried them out of the world with all joyful sports and pastimes, because then they conceived they were at rest, and out of gunshot. Death brings the saints to a full rest, to a pleasant rest, to a match- less rest, to an eternal rest. But,
4. Fourthly, Look 2ipon your dying day as a reaping day: 2 Cor. ix. 2 ; Gal. vi. 7-9 ; Isa. xxxviii. 3 ; Mat. xxv. 31, 41. Now you shall reap the fruit of all the prayers that ever you have made, and of all the tears that ever you have shed, and of all the sighs and groans that ever you have fetched, and of all the good words that ever you have spoken, and of all the good works that ever you have done, and of all the great things that ever y6u have suffered. When mortality shall put on immortality, you shall then reap a plentiful crop, a glorious crop, as the fruit of that good seed that for a time hath seemed to be buried and lost, Eccles. xi. 1,6. As Christ hath a tender heart and a soft hand, so he hath an iron memory ; he punctually remembers all the sorrows, and all the services, and all the sufferings of his people, to reward them and crown them, Kev, xxii. 12. But,
5. Fifthly, LooJc upon your dying day as a gainful day. There is
1 [Foxe,] Acts and Mon., fol. 1733.
^ Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis, et mors sepulchrum peccati. — Ambrose, De Bono Mortis, cap. 4. ^ Rev. xiv. 13 ; Job iii. 13-17; 2 Thes. i. 7; Micah ii. 10; Jer. 1. 6.
TO A DEAR FRIEND. 451
no gain to that which comes in by death : Phil. i. 21, ' For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' A Christian gets more by death than he doth by life, Eccles. vii. 1 ; to be in Christ is very good, but to be with Christ is best of all, Phil. i. 23. It was a mighty blessing for Christ to be with Paul on earth, but it was the top of blessings for Paul to be with Christ in heaven. Seriously consider of a few things: —
[1.] First, That by death you shall gain incomparable croions. (1.) A crown of life, Kev. ii. 10 ; James i. 12 ; (2.) A crown of right- eousness, 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; (3.) An incorruptible crown, 1 Cor. ix. 24, 25 ; (4.) A crown of glory, 1 Pet. v. 4. Now there are no crowns to these crowns, as I have fully discovered in my discourse on ' The Divine Presence,' to which I refer you.i But,
[2.] Secondly, You shall gain a glorious kingdom: Luke xii. 32, * It is your Father's pleasure to give you a kingdom.' But death is the young prophet that anointeth them to it, and giveth them actual pos- session of it. They must put off their rags of mortality, that they may put on their robes of glory. Israel must first die in Egypt before he can be carried into Canaan. There is no entering into paradise but under the flaming sword of this angel death, who standeth at the gate. Death is the dirty lane through which the saint passeth to a kingdom, to a great kingdom, to a glorious kingdom, to a quiet king- dom, to an unshaken kingdom, to a durable kingdom, to a lasting kingdom, yea, to an everlasting kingdom. Death is a dark, short way, through which the saints pass to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, Heb. xii. 28 ; Dan. ii. 44, and iv. 3 ; Kev. xix. 7. But,
[3.] Thirdly, You shall gain a safe and Jionourable convoy into that other world, Luke xvi. 22. Oh, in what pomp and triumph did Lazarus ride to heaven on the wings of angels 1 The angels conduct the saints at death through the air, the devil's region ; every gracious soul is carried into Christ's presence by these heavenly courtiers. Oh, what a sudden change does death make ! behold, he that even now was scorned by men, is all on a sudden, Carried by angels into Abra- ham's bosom. But,