VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 289
fication of the Spirit he puts on the robes of glory. And it is a sad thing to die and not to be at peace with God, when death surpriseth us with our weapons of defiance in our liands. When a town is taken by storm, if there be pity shown to children and aged persons, yet thoy die without mercy that are taken with weapons in their hands ; so when death comes and surprises us in our rebelHon and war against him, the end will be full of horror. The scripture speaks of the wicked man, Jer. xvii. 11, 'At his end he shall be a fool.' A wicked man was ever a fool, because he neglects the best things for vile and con- temptible pleasures , but at his latter end he shall be a fool ; viz. , in the conviction of his own conscience. A wicked man never comes to himself till he comes to die, and then his own heart will call him fool. 0 fool that thou wast, to neglect thy salvation, and run after trifles oi no use and profit.
Ohj. 1. But you will say many carnal men die quietly.
Ans. So much the worse, some die of a lethargy, as well as of a burning fever; as they live in carnal confidence, so they may die in carnal confidence, and this is a sad judgment ; when their hearts like Nabal's are like a stone, it is an argument of the greater hardness and sottishness, they have not that calm and quiet that ariseth from aii interest in Christ.
Ohj. 2. Many good men may die with great conflicts, and to be- holders have little expression of comfort and feeling of God's love .
Ans. God's children may have their conflicts, they may fear death, they are not as stones, their strength is not as brass, nor their sinews iron. Grace itself as well as nature requireth that we should be sensible of God's hand. Nature recoileth at what is destructive. Adam in innocency would have been affected if his body had been wronged ; nay, and bodies of the best temper and complexion are most sensible, because they enjoy life at a higher and more valuable rate than others do. This is better than to die stupid ; Christ himself had his agonies. Nay, many times corruption may interpose, and the best men, because of the remainders of sin m them, may have their agonies. God will show himself a free Spirit, not to come in at our hours ; God wiW crown some in the very field and middle of the combat. But there is a great deal of difference between these conflicts that are in the godly and the horrors of the wicked : there is a mixture of faitli pleading and disputing for God, and these conflicts arise, not out of a legal fear only, but from the height of hatred and displeasure against sin. Faith is usually discovered in the most glorious way at the last , if it be not glorified in triumphing, it is glorified in dependence, and casting ourselves upon the grace and mercy of God in Christ, notwith- standing all arguments to the contrary. Therefore how do matters stand between God and you ? Are you thus fit to die in faith, to resign up your souls to God, and to glorify him in believing ?
Ifse 3. To press you to get and keep faith to the end.
1. Get faith, it is an excellent grace, that standeth by us when al) things else leave us. At death altcomforts vanish ; your wealth that you have gained will stand you in no stead : Job xxvii. 8, ' What is the hope of the hy])ocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketb away his soul ? ' When you look on your bodies, all is wasting : Ps.
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Ixxiii. 26, ' My heart and my flesh faileth ; ' this face, these arras, as Oblevian said, must now be meat for worms ; when you look on your houses and habitations, these dwellings will know me no more ; when you look on your children and friends mourning by you, you shall see them no more ; but then faith will stand us in stead, it makes us to live with comfort, and to die with comfort. Faith is an excellent grace, that excelleth reason as much as reason excels sense ; and what a dif- ference is there between a toad and a man !
2. Keep faith to the end: Heb. iv. 1, 'Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.' We have more cause to persevere than they, we have clearer promises, a clearer sight of heaven, a clearer knowledge of Christ, greater advantages of grace than ever they had ; and if they died in faith, and held out to the end, what a shame is it if we should give over !
Doct. 2. They that would die in faith must live in faith ; as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and such as confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Men would die well, however they live. Balaam wished. Num. xxiii. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' There is a natural desire of happiness ; men would die the death of the righteous though they are loth to live the life of the righteous. The snake, that was full of windings and circlings while it lived, yet when struck with a dagger it stretched it- self out right. At oportet sic vixisse. It is not enough when you come to die to say, Oh that I were in such a man's case ! We must live in faith if we would die in faith. Reasons — •