What a misery is this, that these souls of ours shall have a being when the things wherein we placed our happiness, and abused our souls to gain them, they shall have an end ! The souls of such men that seek the things of this life shall have a being in eternal misery. Indeed, so it is ; for these souls of ours, the same degree they have in excellency if they be used as they should, if we do not abase them, the same degree they shall have in baseness and misery if we abuse them, and make them slaves to earthly things. For as the devils, the same degree they had of excellency when they were angels, the same degree they have in misery now they be devils. The more excellent the creature is when it keeps its excellency, the more vile it is when it degenerates. So these souls of ours that next to angels are the most excellent creatures of God, the more excellent it is if it get the image of God stamped upon it, and the new creature, and have the life of grace, the more cursed is the state of the soul if it subsist to ever- lasting misery.
It were happy if the souls of such creatures were mortal that labour for a happiness in this life. Oh that we would think of this ! Most men in the bosom of the church, which is lamentable to think, they live as if they had no souls. They overturn the order that God hath set, and hath given us our bodies to serve our souls. They use all the strength and marrow of their wits, all the excellencies in their souls, for the base satisfaction of the lusts of the body. So much for that point.
6 Balaam's wish.
The third is that,
Ohs. 8. T/ure is a wide, broad difference between (ho death of the godly and of the wicktul.
The podly iiro hiippy in their iloath, for hero wo Pce it is a matter desir- able. This oaitiir, this wretched man Balaam, Oh, saith he, ' let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end he like his.' It being the object of his desire, it is therefore certainly precious, ' the death of the righteous.' And indeed so it is; holy and gracious men, they are happy in their life. \NTiile they live they are the sons of God, the heirs of heaven ; they are set at liberty, all things are theirs ; they have access to the throne of grace ; all things work for their good ; they are the care of angels, the temples of the Holy Ghost. Glorious things are spoken of those glorious creatures oven while they live.
But they are moro happy in their death, and most happy and blessed after death.
In their death they are happy in their disposition, and happy in con- dition.
(1.) Happy in their disposition. What is the disposition of a holy and blessed man at his end ? His disposition is by faith to give himself to God, by which faith ho dies in obedience; he carries himself fruitfully and comfortably in his end. And ofttimes the nearer he ia to happiness, the more he lays about him to bo fruitful.
(2.) Besides his disposition, he is happy in condition ; for death is a sweet close. God and ho meet; grace and glory meet; ho is in heaven, as it were, before his time. What is death to him ? The end of all misery, of all sin of body and soul. It is the beginning of all tnie happi- ness in both. This I might shew at large, but I have spoken somewhat of this point out of another text.* They are happy in their death, for ' their death is precious in God's sight.' Tho angels are ready to do their attendance, to carry their souls to the place of happiness. They are happy in their death, because they are ' in tho Lord.' \\Tien death severs soul and body, yet notwithstanding neither soul nor body are severed from Christ. ' They die in tho Lord ;' therefore still they are happy. Much might bo said to this purpose, and to good purpose, but that the point is ordinary, and I hasten to press things that I think will a little more con- firm it. They are blessed in death.
(3.) And blessed after death especially: for then we know they are in heaven, waiting for tho resurrection of tho body. There is a blessed change of all ; for after death wo have a better place, better company, better cmploj-ment ; all is for the better. There are three degrees of life : The Hfe in the womb, this world, heaven.
Tho life in the womb is a kind of imprisonment; there the child lives for a time. The life in thi« world, it is a kind of enlargement; but, alas! it is as much inferior to the blessed and glorious life in heaven, as the life in the womb is narrower and straiter and moro base than this life wherein we behold the blessed light and enjoy all tho sweet comforts of this life. They are happy after death ; then tho imago of God is perfect in the soul. All graces are perfected, all wants supplied, all corruptions wrought out, all enemies subdued, all promises accomplished, waiting their time for tho resurrection of tho body; and then body and soul shall sit as judges upon the wretches that have judged them on earth, and they shall be both to- • See tho Sermons on Phil. iii. 21. [Vol. V. pp. 143-152.]— G.