[4.] Fourthly, You shall gain a glorious welcome, ajo^jful luelcome, a wonderful ivelcome into heaven. By general consent of all antiquity, the holy angels and blessed Trinity rejoice at the sinner's conversion ; but oh, what inexpressible, what transcendent joy is there, when a saint is landed upon the shore of eternity, Kev. iv. 8-11; Luke xv. 7, 10; Heb. xii. 23. God and Christ, angels and archangels, all stand ready to welcome the believer as soon as his feet are upon the threshold of glory. God the Father welcomes the saints as his elect and chosen ones, Jesus Christ welcomes them as his redeemed and purchased ones, and the Holy Spirit welcomes them as his sanctified and renewed ones, and the blessed angels welcome them as those they have guarded and attended on, Heb. i. 14. When the saints enter upon the suburbs of glory, the glorious angels welcome them with harps in their hands, and ditties in their mouths. But,
[5.] Fifthly, You shall gain full freedom and liberty from all your enemies luithin and ivithout — viz., sin, Satan, and the world, Luke i.
^ Viz., the Treatise to which this Epistle is prefixed. —G.
452 SOME WORDS OF COUNSEL
70, 71, 74, 75. (1.) Death will free you from the indwelling power of sin, Kom. vil 23. In heaven there is no complaints. As in hell there is nothing but wickedness, so in heaven there is nothing but holiness. (2.) Death will free you from the power and pre valency of sin. Here sin plays the tyrant, but in heaven there is no tyranny, but perfect felicity. (3.) Death will free you from all provocations, temp- tations, and suggestions to sin. Now you shall be above all Satan's batteries. Now God will make good the promise of treading Satan under your feet, Eom. xvi. 20. Some say serpents will not live in Ireland. The old serpent is cast out, and shall be for ever kept out of the new Jerusalem above, Rev. xii. 8, 9, and xxi. 27. (4.) Death will free you from all the effects and consequents of sin — viz. , losses, crosses, sicknesses, diseases, disgraces, sufferings, &c. When the cause is taken away, the effect ceases ; when the fountain of sin is dried up, the streams of ajfflictions, of sufferings, must be dried up ; the fuel being taken away, the fire will go out of itself. Sin and sorrow were born together, do live together, and shall die together. To open this fourth particular a little more fully to you, consider these four things :
First, That death will free you from all reproach and ignominy on your names. Now Elijah is accounted the troubler of Israel, Nehemiah a rebel against his king, and David the song of the drunkards, and Jeremiah a man of contention, and Paul a pestilent fellow. i Heaven wipes away all blots, as well as all tears ; as no sins, so no blots are to be found in that upper world. The names of all the saints in a state of glory are written, as I may say, in characters of gold. But,
Secondly, Death will free you from all bodily infirmities and diseases. We carry about in our bodies the matter of a thousand deaths, and may die a thousand several ways each several hour. As many senses, as many members, nay, as many pores as there are in the body, so many windows there are for death to enter at.^ Death needs not spend all its arrows upon us ; a worm, a gnat, a fly, a hair, the stone of a raisin, the kernel of a grape, the fall of a horse, the stumbling of a foot, the prick of a pin, the paring of a nail, the cutting of a corn ; all these have been to others, and any one of them may be to us, the means of our death, within the space of a few days, nay, of a few hours. Here Job had his blotches, and Hezekiah had his boil, and David his wounds, and Lazarus his sores, and the poor widow her issue of blood. Job ii. 6, 7 ; Isa. xxxvii. 21 ; Ps. xxxviii. 5 ; Luke xvi. 20 ; Mat. ix. 20. Now the fever burns up some, and the dropsy drowns others, and the vapours stifle others ; one dies of an apoplexy in the head, another of a struma in the neck, a third of a squinancy 3 in the throat, and a fourth of a cough and consumption of the lungs ; others of obstructions, inflammations, pleurisies, gouts, &c. We are commonly full of complaints ; one complains of this distemper, and another of that ; one of this disease, and another of that ; but death will cure us of aU diseases and distempers at once. But,
Thirdly, Death will free you from all your sorroius, luheiher inward or outward, whether for your own sins or the sins of others, wliether
^ 1 Kings xviii. 17 ; Neh. vi. 6 ; Ps. Ixix. 12 ; Jer. xv. 10 ; Acts xxiv. 10. ' Above all things, let us eery day think of our last day, saith Pachomius. ^ Squiuzy or quinsy. — G.
TO A DEAR FRIEND. 453
for your own sufferings or the sufferings of others, Ps. xxxviii. 18 ; 2 Cor. vii. 11 ; Ps. cxix. 136 ; Neh. i. 3, 4. Now, it may be, one shall seldom find you but with tears in your eyes, or sorrow in your heart ; Oh, but now death will be the funeral of all your sorrows, death will wipe all tears from your eyes, * and sorrow and mourning shall flee away,' Isa. li. 11. But,
Fourtlily, Death will free you from all those troubles, calamities, miseries, mischiefs, and desolations, that are a-coming upon the earth, or upon this place or that, Isa. Ivii. 1 ; Micah vii. 1-7. A year after Methuselah's death, the flood came and carried away the old world. Augustine died a little before the sacking of Hippo. Luther observes that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem; and Luther himself died a little before the wars brake forth in Germany. Dear lady, death shall do that for you, which all your physicians could never do for you, which all your relations could never do for you, which all ordinances could never do for you, nor which all your faith- ful ministers could never do for you. It shall both instantly and per- fectly cure you of all sorts of maladies and weaknesses, both inward and outward, or that respects either your body or your soul, or both. 0 my dear friend, is it not better to die, and be rid of all sin ; to die, and be rid of all temptations and desertions ; to die, and be rid of all sorts of miseries ; than to live, and still carry about with us our sins, our burdens, and such constant ailments, as takes away all the pleasure and comfort of life ? Here both our outward and inward conditions are very various ; sometimes heaven is open, and sometimes heaven is shut ; sometimes we see the face of God, and rejoice, and at other times he hides his face, and we are troubled, Lam. iii. 8, 44, 54-57; Ps. XXX. 7 ; 1 Thes. iv. 17, 18 ; Isa. xxxv. 10. Oh, but now death will bring us to an invariable eternity. It is always day in heaven, and joy in heaven.