The Greeks say, ' that the beginning of a man's nativity is the begetting of his misery.' In Job xiv. 1, 'Man that is born of a woman is born to trouble' and sorrow. The Hebrew word that is there rendered 'born,' l'w'',jeludh, signifieth also generated or con- ceived ; to note to us that man is miserable as soon as he is warm in the womb ; he comes crying into the world. Before ever the child speaks, ho prophesies by his tears of his ensuing sorrows.
And this made Solomon to i)refer his coflin before his crown, the day of his dissolution before the day of his coronation. A fletic vitam auspicatur, saith Seneca. But not to hold you longer from what is mainly intended, the observation that I shall speak to at this time is this : —
That a believers last day is his best day ; his dying-day is better than his birthday.
This will be a very sweet and useful point to all believers. I shall first demonstrate the truth that it is so, and then make some use of this point to ourselves.
1. The first thing that doth with open mouth speak out this truth is this. That death is a change of place. A believer when he dieth, he doth but change his place ; he changeth e;u'th for heaven, a wilderness for a Canaan, an Egypt for a land of Goslien, a dunghill for a palace : as it is said of Judas, that ' he went to liis ])lace,' Acts i. 25. A soul out of Christ is not in his place, beneath is his place. So when a believer dieth he goes to his place. Heaven, the bosom of Christ, is his place. And that speaks out the truth asserted, that a believer's dying day is his best day.
A believer now is not in his place, 2 Cor. v. G, but his soul is still
EccLES. VII. 1.] A believer's last day is his best day. 395
working and warring, and he cannot rest till he comes to centre in the bosom of Christ. This Paul well understood when he said, ' I long to be dissolved, and to be with Christ/ Phil. i. 23. I would fain weigh anchor, lioise sail, and away home. And upon this account those precious souls groaned for deliverance, 2 Cor. v. 2, ' For this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed with our house which is from heaven.' What is the ground? Why, it is this, ' While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord,' ver. 6. We be not in our place, and therefore we groan to be at home — that is, to be in heaven, to be in the bosom of Christ, which is our proper place, our most desirable home.
2. The second thing which doth demonstrate the truth asserted, is this. That death is a change of company. The best that breatheth in this world must live with the wicked, and converse with the wicked, &c. ; and this is a part of their misery ; it is their hell on this side heaven. This stuck upon the spirit of David : Ps. xii. 5} ' Woe is me that I am constrained to be in Mesech, and to dwell in the tents of Kedar,' &c. And so Jer. ix. 2, ' Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them, for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.' And this was that that did vex and tear Lot's righteous soul : 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, ' His soul was vexed from day to day with their unlawful deeds.' The word e^aaTavi^ev — vide Bezam — signifies to 'rack;' he was racked to see their unlawful deeds. Oh, but death is a change of company. A man doth change the company of profane persons, of vile persons, &c. , for the company of angels, and the company of weak Christians for the company of just men made perfect. That is a remarkable place, Heb. xii. 22, 23, ' We are come to mount Sion,' saith the apostle, ' and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made per- fect.' Here is a change indeed. Death is a change of company as well as a change of place. And if this be but well weighed, it must needs be granted that a believer's dying day is better than his birth- day.
3. Death is a chayige of employment. A believing soul when he dies, changeth his work and employment. I open it thus : The work of a believer in this world lies in praying, groaning, sighing, mourning, wrestling, and fighting, &c. And we see throughout the Scripture that the choicest saints, that have had the highest visions of God, have driven this trade ; they have spent their time in praying, groaning, mourning, wrestling, and fighting : Eph. vi. 12, ' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked- ness in high places.'^ The truth is, the very life of a believer is a continual warfare, and his business is to be in the field always. They '
1 I have read of a good gentlewoman, who, being near death, cried out, 0 Lord, let me not go to hell where the wicked are, for thou knowest that I never loved their company in the time of life.
" Probus a valiant Roman emperor's motto was, Pj-o stipe labor — No fight, no pay. So I say. No fight, no crown ; no fight, no heaven. [Probus, M. Aurelius. — G.]
39B A believer's last day [Eccles. VII. 1.
have to deal with subtle enemies, malicious enemies, wakeful enemies, and watchful enemies ; with such enemies that threw down Adam in paradise, the most innocent man in tlie world, and that threw down Moses, tlie meekest man in the world, and Job, the patientest man in the world, and Joshua, the most courageous man in the world, and Paul, the best apostle in the world, &c. A Christian's life is a war- fare. Job saith, ' All the time of my warfare (^N21i) will I wait till my change come,' Job xiv. 14, — I am still a-fighting, saith Job, with lusts and corruptions within, and with devils and men abroad ; ' All the time of my warfare will I wait till my change come.' So in the 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' I have fought the good fight of faith,' &c. And so in the 2 Tim. ii. 4, ' No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life,' &c.i Death is a change of employment. It changeth this hard service, this work that lies in mourning, wrestling, and fighting, for joying and singing hallelujahs to the Almighty. Now no prayers, but praises ; no fighting and wrestling, but dancing and triumphing. Can a believing soul look upon this glorious change, and not say, Surely ' better is the day of a believer's death than the day of his birth 'r* Death is the winding-sheet that wipes away all tears from the believer's eyes, Rev. vii. 9.
4. Death is a change of enjoyments, as well as a cliange of employ- ments. I shall express this in three considerable things : —