Reason 8. But St Paul had another ground beyond nature to avoid death. He knew himself ordained for the serriee of the church; therefore he desired to escape, that he might serve God a longer time for the good of his church.
Use 1. Are God's children sensible of death, and the danger of it, and out of a principle of nature and grace too V How then should carnal, wretched men look about them, that have not made their accounts even with God '? The report of death to them should be like the handwriting upon the wall to Belshazzar, Dan. v. 24. It should make their knees beat together, and make their countenance pale. It should strike them with terror ; and, like Nabal, make their hearts to die as a stone within them.
Use 2. But it is a use of comfort to jmor, deluded Christians. They think, alas ! can my estate be good ? I am afraid of death, I tremble and quake at the name of death, I cannot endure to hear of it, but it most of all ati'ects me to see it. Therefore I fear I have no grace in me, I fear I have no faith in me.
Be not discomforted, whosoever thou art, that sayest so, if thou labour to strengthen thy faith, and to keep a good conscience ; for thou mayest do thus out of a principle of nature. Nature trembles at death.
A man may do two things from diverse principle, from diverse repects, and both without sin. For example, in fiisting, nature without sin desircth meat, or else fasting were not an atiiicting of a man's body ; but grace, that hath another principle, and that desires to hold out without sustenance, to be afflicted. So here is both a desire, and not a desire, and both good in their kind. So a man in the time of sickness and death, he may by all means desire to escape it, and tremble at it out of a principle of nature ; but out of a higher principle he may triumph. ' 0 death, where is thy sting ? 0 grave, where is thy victory '? ' 1 Cor. xv. 55 ; and ' they that believe in Christ shall never die,' John xi. 2G. ' We are in heavenly places together with Christ,' Eph. i. 3. We are as sure of heaven as if we were there. So out of such kind of principles we may triumph over death, by faith and grace.
124 COMMENTARY ON
So let none be discouraged. Nature goes one way, and faith and grace another. A man may know when it is nature, and when it is grace. When grace subdues nature, and subordinates it to a higher principle, a man need not be much troubled.
Christ himself our head, he was afraid of death when he looked on death as death ; but when he looked upon death as a service, as a redemption, as a sweet sacrifice to God, so ' with a thirsting I have thirsted,' saith he, Luke xxii. 15. He thirsted after death in that respect. Looking to his human nature, to the truth of his manhood, then saith he, ' 0 that this cup might pass from me,' Mat. xxvi. B9 ; but in another consideration, he willingly gave his soul a sacrifice for sin to Clod.
The desire is as the objects are presented. Let heaven and happiness be presented, so death is a passage to it, so death is the end of misery, and the beginning of happiness, so God's children ' desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,' as St Paul did, Philip, i. 23. But look upon death otherwise, as it is an enemy to nature, as it is a stop of all employment in this world, and of all service to the church, that we can do God no longer service ; and so a man may desire to live still, and be afraid of death, if he look upon death in the glass of nature, and in the glass of the law, likewise that it comes in as a punishment of sin, so indeed it is terrible, it is the king of fears. But look upon it in another glass, in the glass of the gospel, as it is sweetened and as it is disarmed by Christ, and so it is comfortable. 'Better is the day of death than the day of birth,' Eccles. vii. 1 ; for in our birth we come into misery, in death we go from it. So upon diverse considerations we may be diversely aifected, and have diverse respects to things ; for the soul of man is framed so to be carried to the present objects, and therefore in a good man in some respects, at some time, death is terrible ; he trembles at it, which upon higher considerations and respects, he embraceth willingly.
Indeed, it is a sign of a wise man to value life. It is the opportunity and advantage to honour God. After death we are receivers, and not doers. Then we receive our wages. But while we are here, we should desire even for the glory that is reserved for us, to do all the good we can, because the time of life is that blessed advantage of doing good and of taking good. It is to be in heaven before our time to do others good, and to get evidence of heaven for ourselves. This is the second thing, that as God's children are suffered to fall into extreme dangers, so they are very sensible of them, especially in matter of death, which is the last enemy. There the devil sets upon them indeed. He knows that that is the last enemy, and that there he must get all or lose all ; and he labours to make death more terrible than it is or should be.