[2.] In deep sorrow; as Job iii. 11, 'Why died I not from the womb ? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ?' and Job vi. 8, 9, ' Oh that I might htive my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for ! even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off.' Elisha : 1 Kings xix. 4, He sat down under a juniper- tree ; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough ; now, 0 Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers.'
[3.] From the peevishness of fond and doting love : 2 Sam. xviii. 33, ' O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee ! 0 Absalom, my son, my son ! ' As the wives of the barbarians, that burn themselves to attend the ghosts of their dead husbands.
[4.] From distrust and despair ; the evil is too hard for them, they are at their wits' end : Job vii. 15, ' My soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than life.' In all these cases it is but a shameful retreat
394 ^ SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [Ser. XXIV.
from the conflict and burden of the present life, from carnal irksome- ness under the labours and burdens of the present life, or a distrust of God's help. There may be murder in a rash wish, if it proceed from a vexed heart. These are but froward thoughts, not a sanctified reso- lution,
3. Such desires of death and dissolution as are lawful, and must' be cherished, come from a good ground ; a heart deadened to the world, they are crucified to it, their hearts are mortified, ' set on things above,' Col. iii. 1. Some competent assurance : Eom. viii. 23, ' We groan, waiting for the adoption, viz., the redemption of our body.' They have tasted the clusters of Canaan ; as Simeon : Luke ii. 28, 29, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen tliy salvation;' the eyes of his faith, as well as of his body. Now, Lord, I do but wait for my departure hence, as a merchantman richly laden desires to be at his port.
4. You must look to the end. Men have a blind notion of heaven ; they expect a carnal heaven, as the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah, to enjoy a Turkish paradise, full of ease and pleasure. The people of God desire heaven to have a perfect union and communion with him whom their souls love : Phil. i. 23, ' I desire to depart, and be with Christ ;''Phil. iii. 20, ' Our conversation is in heaven, whence we look for a Saviour;' they long to see him, to be where he is. Heart and head should be together. And so also to be freed from sin : Rom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' They would be in heaven that they may sin no more. Men look upon heaven as a kind of reserve,'if the world do not hold. We should desire heaven, not to be freed from trouble, but to be freed from sin, and to be with Christ ; there must be a holy desire of a better life.
5. The manner must be regarded ; it must be with submission : Phil. i. 24, ' Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you;' otherwise we encroach upon God's right, and would deprive him of a servant without his leave. A christian will die and live as the Lord will ; while others want submission to live in trouble, he is satisfied ; or to die if he be not in trouble ; if it be the Lord's pleasure, a believer is satisfied with long life, Ps. xci. 16 ; he is willing to live and die as God liketh ; he will wait till his change comes, when God will give him a discharge by his own immediate hand, or by enemies. Gratias agiraus, quod a molestis Dominis liheramur. God knoweth how to choose the fittest time, otherwise we know not what we ask.
3. Observe, that a spiritual victory over evil is to be preferred before a total exemption from- it. Christ doth not pray for an absolute immu- nity and deliverance, but a preservation from the evil of the world. Christ prayeth thus, and so he teacheth us to pray. Mat. vi. 13, ' Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' When we say, ' Lead us not into temptation," he doth not mean that we should pray for an abso- lute exemption from temptation ; that is the lot of all the saints ; but that we may not fall under the weight of a temptation, that is, €laeveyKr](;, and it is explained, that he would not as a judge, by a spiritual excom- munication, put us into the hands of Satan, to be crushed by him, as it is explained in the next verse, ' But deliver us from evil.'