' The fear of death is worse than the pains of death, Timor mo7-tis ipsa morte i^ejor, because fear of death kills us often, whereas death itself can do it but once. Ejus est timere mortem qui ad Christuvi nolit ire, Let him fear death that is loath to go to Christ — Cyprian. Mori non metuo, sed damiiari metuo, I fear not to die, but I fear to be damned, saith one. Una guttula plus valet quam cceluvi et terra : Luther, speaking of the blood of Christ, saith, That one little drop is more worth than heaven and earth. If the souls under the altar cry. Usque quo, Domine ? How long, Lord ? — if they solicit for the day of judgment, why not I for the day of death, since death's day is but the eve of God's day? Zeno said, I have no fear but of old age.
402 A believer's last day [Eccles. VII. 1.
souls, you should reason thus, Did Clirist die for me that I mif^ht live with him ? I will not therefore desire to live long from him. AH men go willingly to see him whom they love ; and shall I be unwilling to die, that I may see him whom my soul loves ? Shall Christ lay by all his glory and pomp, and marry a poor soul that had neither portion nor proportion ; and shall this soul be unwilling to go home to such a husband ? Oh think of it, you souls that are unwilling to die!
Present life is not vita, sed via ad vitam, life, but the way to life ; for when we cease to be men, we begin to be as angels. They are only creatures of inferior nature that are pleased with the present. Man is a future creature. The eye of his soul looks back. The labourer hastens from his work to his bed, the mariner rows hard to gain the ])ort, the traveller is glad when he is near his inn ; so should saints when they are near death, because then they are near heaven, they are near their inn.
[5.] Are you not comjylete in Christ f^ "Wliy should a believer be afraid to die that stands complete before God in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus ? If we should appear in our own righteousness, in our own duties, it would be dreadful to think of dying, but a believer is complete in him, <fec. ' Ye are complete in him,' Col. ii. 10. In Eev. xiv. 4, 5, they are said to be ' without fault before the throne of God ;' and in Cant. iv. 7, ' Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee.' A believer, when he dies, he appears before God in the righteousness of Christ. All the S])ots and blemishes of his soul are covered with the righteousness of Christ, which is a matchless, spot- less, peerless righteousness. Christ's spouse hath perfection of beauty ; she is all ' glorious within ' and without, she is spotless and blameless, she is the fairest among women, that she may be a meet mate for him that is fairer than all the children of men, Ps. xlv. 2. The saints are as that tree of paradise. Gen. iii., fair to his eye, and pleasant to his palate, or as Absalom, in whom there was no blemish from head to foot. Think of these things to sweeten your last changes, and to make you long to be in the bosom of Christ.
[6.] Sixthly, Consider tliat the sai^its dying-day is to them the Lord's 2xry-day. Every prayer shall then have its answer ; all hunger- ings and thirstings shall be tilled and satisfied ; every sigh, groan, and tear that hath fallen from the saints' eyes shall then be recompensed.^ Then they shall be i)aid and recompen.sed for all public service, and all family service, and all closet service. Now a crown shall be set upon their heads, and glorious robes })ut upon their backs, and golden sceptres i)ut into their hands ; their dying-day being the Lord s pay- day, they shall hear the Lord saying to them. ' Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into your Master's joy,' Mat. xxv. 21. In that day they shall find that God is not like Antiochus, Avho ])romi.sed often but seldom gave ; no ! Then God will m;ike good all those golden and glorious promises that he hath made to them, especially those that
^ /]>8e. unvs erit tibi ovinia, quia in ipso uno bono, bona sunt omnia, One Christ will be to tliee instead of all tilings else, because in him are all good things to be found. — Aufriistine.
' That is not death but life, that joins the dying man to Christ; and that is not life but death, which separates the living man from Christ.
ECCLES. VII. 1.] IS HIS BEST DAY. 403
are cited in the margin. ^ Now God will give them gold for brass, and silver for iron, felicity for misery, plenty for poverty, honour for dishonour, freedom for bondage, heaven for earth, an immortal crown for a mortal crown.
[7.] Seventhly, Consider this, the loay to glory is hy misery ; the way to life is hy death. In this world we are all Benonis, the sons of sorrow. The way to heaven is by Weeping-cross. Christ's passion-week was before his ascension-day ; none passeth to paradise but by burn- ing seraphims ; we cannot go out of Egypt but through the Ked Sea ; the children of Israel came to Jerusalem through the valley of tears, and crossed the swift river of Jordan before they came to the sweet waters of Siloam.2 There is no passing into i3aradise but under the flaming sword of this angel, death ; there is no coming to that glorious city above but through this strait, dark, dirty lane. No wiping all tears from your eyes but with your winding-sheet, which should make you entertain death 7ion ut hostis, sed ut hospes, not as a foe, but as a friend, not as a stranger, but as a guest that you had long looked for, and bid welcome death more blessed than your birth.-" Every man is willing to go to his home, though the way that leads to it be never so dark, dirty, or dangerous ; and shall believers be unwilling to go to their homes, because they are to go through a dark entry to those glorious, lightsome, and eternal mansions that Christ hath prepared for them ? surely no.
[8.] Eighthly, Consider that luhile tve are in this ivorld, our iveak and imperfect and diseased bodies cast chains, and fetters, restraints, liindrances, and impediments upon the soid, that the soul is hindei^ed from many high and noble actings, ivhich in a state of separation it is free to. In a state of separation the soul works clearer, and under- stands better, and discourses wiser, and rejoices loudei-, and loves nobler, and desires purer, and hopes stronger than it can do here.^
It is reported of Apollonius, that he had a familiar spirit engaged 5 in a jewel. Such is the soul of man in the body : the soul, while it is in this body of clay, cannot act like herself, like a spirit whose nature is to soar aloft towards the place whence she came. When the soul is upon the wings for heaven, the body like a lumj) of lead pulls it down to the earth, &c.