(2.) Again, It is in this respect a sleep ; because a man goes to bed with assured hope of rising again, and Jiherefore he goes quietly. Though it be a state of darkness for the time, all the senses are bound up, yet he knows that in God's ordinary providence he shall rise again. Therefore men not only quietly, but cheerfully, go to bed. So there is greater ground to know that we shall rise again out of our graves, than that we should rise out of our beds ; for many men's beds have been their graves, in some sort ; I mean, they have died in their beds. But for the resurrection, we have the word of Almighty God, that is a God of his word, that we shall rise again; and we have it in the pledge of our Saviour's resurrection. There is no doubt of that.
Therefore when we die, if we have faith, we should make no more of death than men do to go to bed ; hoping undoubtedly of an assured and joyful resurrection. The want of faith in that kind makes us backward to this. You see in what respect death is said to be a ' sleep.' To speak only of those references and relations that are most pertinent between sleep and death.
(3.) David * fell asleep,' and very willingly ; for he had lived a painful life ; he served God both as a private man, as a shepherd, and as a king ; Eccles. V. 12, * To a labouring man sleep is sweet ;' so to a man that hath served God carefully in his calling, and kept a good conscience, death is very sweet. We see children that have been playing all day, they are loath to go to bed ; but to a man that hath wrought all day, ' sleep is sweet,' as wise Solomon saith, ' to a labouring man.'
Use. Would ice, then, have death as a sweet rest ? Let us do as David did ; that is, be painful,* and laborious in our particular place and in our general calling ; let us be faithful in them to keep a good conscience, and set all in order as much as we can while we live ; to leave no seeds of debate when we are gone. Some men die carelessly this way in disposing the good things that God hath given them. They lay a foundation of perpetual jarring afterward ; and so their death is scarcely a ' sleep and rest.' They cannot but be disquieted when they think how they leave things, because they were not wise beforehand. David settled Solomon in his throne, and set all things right before he died ; and that made him die, not only in rest but in honour ; in 1 Chron. xxix. 28, * David died in a good old age, full of riches and honour.'
* That is, ' pains-taking.' — G.
512 KING David's epitaph.
And let us labour to get assurance of a change for the better. David his flesh rested in hope, because he beUevcd in Christ, that Christ's body should see no corruption, Ps. xvi. 10. So if we would have death sweet as a sleep, let us labour to get assurance by faith in Christ, and so our flesh may rest in hope, that as Christ raised his own flesh, so he will raise ours. Good Simeon, when he had seen Christ once, * Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace,' &c., Luke ii. 29. So after we have gotten a sight of Christ to be our Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, and have interest in him, ' Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace.' So much for the term seep.
It is added besides, that
• He was gathered to his fathers.'
' He was gathered to his fathers ' both in regard of his body, and in regard of his soul ; for his body went to the house of the dead, the grave, and his soul went to his fathers, to heaven. As I said before of sleep, so of this. It is a phrase of Scripture that must be understood as the persons are. "\Mien a man dies, his body goes to the place or house of all men, the house of darkness, the grave ; but for his soul, that goes as the man is, to his fathers, to hell, if he be naught ; to the souls of just and perfect men, as the apostle speaks, if he have lived a gracious and a good life ; and so it must be understood here, because he speaks of a blessed man.
' He was put to his fathers.' He means not to his immediate fathers, but all believing men before him that were the children of Abraham. His soul went to them ; his body to the first mother, the earth, out of which it was taken. So the general is nothing but this, that
Ohs. 5. When ive die ice are 2ni.t to our fathers.
Therefore this should moderate our fear of death, and our grief for the departure of others. Why ? We are not lost when we die. The soul and body is taken asunder, it is taken in pieces, but both remain still. The body goes to the earth from whence it was taken, and the soul goes to God that gave it. And for our comfort, we go to those that we knew before, many of them ; to our fathers, not to strangers. Especially in respect of our souls we go to our fathers, to our next forefathers and to our old fathers : to Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob, to David, to blessed Saint Paul and Peter, and all the blessed men that died in the faith. And when we are dead, we go to those that are more perfect than those that we leave behind us. This should moderate our grief. Oh, I leave my friends behind me, my father, and mother, and children ! It is to go to better, to greater, and those that love thee better. Thou goest to greater, for they are in their pitch ; they have attained their end, they are in heaven; and to better, they are refined from those corruptions that men here are subject unto, and then their love is perfect likewise. Therefore going to our fathers and not to strangers, to those that are better and greater, and love us more perfectly, why should we think much to die ? They will be ready to enter- tain us. Oh the welcome that souls find in heaven ! and at the day of the resurrection the sweet embracings, when all the blessed souls that have been from Adam to the last man shall meet together ! Seeing therefore we go to our fathers, it should rather make us cheerful. Here, whom do we Uve with ? Take them at the best, our friends. Men, subject to jealousies and weaknesses. Our jealousy makes us suspect them, and their weakness makes us think the meaner of them. So our love is not perfect, nor our graces are not perfect. Therefore we cannot have perfect love and con- tentment while we are here. But in heaven there shall bo no jealousy,