* Laurence Saunders kissing the stake, said, Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life. Funius, the Italian martyr, kissed him that brought him word of his execution. [Query, 'Faninus'?—G.]
400 A HELIEVEli's LAST DAY [ECCLES. VII. 1.
believer is an entrance into Abraham's bosom, into paradise, into the ' New Jerusalem,' into the joy of his Lord, And thus much for the doctrinal part. You see that it is clear, by these six things, that a believer's dying-day is his best day, and the day of his death better than the day of his birth.
I might by many other arguments demonstrate this truth to you, but let these suffice ; because J would not unwillingly keep you longer from the use and application of the point — application being the life of all teaching. Now the
1. First use shall be this, Then never mourn immoderately at the death of any believer, let them he the most excellent and useful that ever ItvedA Death is to them the greatest gain ; and it speaks out much selfishness in us to be more taken with the gain and benefit that redounds to us by their lives, than with the happiness and glory that redounds to them by their deaths. In the primitive times, when God had passed the sentence of death upon their dearest comforts, Chris- tians did carry it at a more high, sweet, and noble rate than now- a-days they do. Remember this, death doth that, I say, in a moment, that no graces, no duties, nor no ordinances could do for a man all his lifetime ; it frees a man from those diseases, corruptions, temptations, &c., that no duties, nor graces, nor ordinances could do. When Abraham came to mourn for his deceased Sarah, he mourned moderately for her. Gen. xxiii. 2, as is imported by a small ca^j/i in the word Libcothath, that signifies to weep ; in that Hebrew word there is one little letter extraordinary, to note that Abraham wept but a little for her, not because she was old and overworn, as some Rabbins say, but because her dying- day was her best day. When Luther, that famous instrument of God, buried his daughter, he was not seen to shed a tear. So Mr Whately, who was famous in his time, whenas he had preached his own child's funeral sermon upon this subject, ' The will of the Lord be done,' he and his wife laid their own child in the grave.2 That is the first use, let us not mourn immoderately for any believer's death.
2. Then, in the next place. Fear not death. Compose your spiiits ; say not of death as that wicked prince said to the projjhet, ' Hast thou found me, 0 my enemy?' 1 Kings xxi. 20; but rather long for it, not to be rid of troubles, but that the soul may be taken up to a more clear and full enjoyment of God. Your dying-day is your best day. Good Jacob dies with a sweet composed spirit ; lie calls for his children, and blesseth and kisseth them, and gathers up his feet into his bed, and dies. Moses, tliat morning that the messenger came to him, and told him he must die, he goes up the hill, sees the land of Canaan at a distance, and dies. Cato, a heathen man, told Caesar that he feared
^ Death is not mors hominis, but mors peccati, not the death of the man, but the death of his sin.
* The people in Thrace mourn and greatly lament at the birth of their children, because of the sorrows and troubles they arc born to ; and they greatly joy and rejoice at the death of their children, because death is the funeral of all their sorrows. Death is not such as you, as some, would paint it. It was the saying of a heathen man, That the whole life of a man should be nothing else but inedUatio mortis, a meditation of death. See Deut. xxxii. 29. Alexander the Great did ask the Indian philosopher how long a man should live ; saith he, Until he think it better to die than to live. [Whately of Banbury. Died 163i).— O.
ECCLES. VII. 1.] IS HIS BEST DAY. 401
his pardon more than the pain that he threatened. Joseph built his sepulchre in his own garden. And some philosophers had their graves always open before their gates, that going out and coming in they might always think of death, for in life they found comforts to be rare, crosses frequent, pleasures momentary, and pains permanent. Believers, your dying-day is your best day. Oh, then, be not afraid of death, and that you may not, remember that it is not such a slight matter as some make it, to be unwilling to die. There is much reproach cast upon God by believers being unwilling to die. You talk much of God, heaven, and glory, &c., and yet when you should come to go and share in this glory, you shrug and say, Si)are me a little. Is not this a reproach to the God of glory ? But that this counsel may stick upon you, remember these five things : —
[1.] Christ's death is a merito7-ious death. Can a believer think upon the death of Christ as meriting peace with God, pardon of sin, justification, glorification, and yet be afraid to die ? What ! is the death of Christ thus meritorious, and shall we still be unwilling to depart ?
[2.] Is not death a sword in your Fathers hand? It is true, a sword in a madman's hand, or in an enemy's hand, might make one tremble ; but when the sword is in the father's hands, the child doth not fear. Grant that death is a sword, yet why should the child fear and be afraid, when it is in the father's hand, that will be sure to handle it so as he shall not be hurt or cut by it.
[3.] Remember that Christ's death is a death-conquering death.^ He hath taken away the sting of death, that it cannot hurt you ; and his death is a death-sanctifying and a death-sweetening death. He hath by his death sanctified and sweetened death to us.
Death is a fall that came by a fall. To die is to be no more unhappy, if we consider death aright. Oh, saith one, that I could see death, not as it was, but as thou. Lord, hast now made it ! It is the greatest monarch and the ancientest king of the world. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, saith St Paul. Oh ! but the Lord Jesus hath, as it were, disarmed death, and triumphed over death. He hath taken away its sting, so that it cannot sting us, and we may play with it, and put it into our bosoms, as we may a snake whose sting is pulled out. The apostle, upon this consideration, challengeth death, and out-braves death, and bids death do his worst, in that 1 Cor. xv, 5ii, 57.
[4.] Did not Christ luillingly leave his Father's bosom for your sake f Did he n(3t willingly die for you ? Did Christ plead thus, These robes are too good for me to leave off, this crown too glorious for me to lay aside, I am too great to suffer for such a people ? No, but he readily leaves his Father's bosom, he lays down his crown, and puts off his robes, and suffers a cursed, cruel, and ignominious death. Ah,