Thus it was with God's people. When they were nearer their end, then they sung sweetly the swan's song, and then they were enlarged in their spirits ;' as Jacob, when he was dying we see what a will he made, what legacies to his children. And Joseph, when he was dying, and Moses the man of God ; the song of Moses, and David, the ' sweet singer of Israel.' The last words of David, what sweet words they were ! And St Paul, when he was to go out of the world, ' I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,' &c., 2 Tim. iv. 7. And our blessed Saviour, toward his end, we see how heavenly he was in his prayer. And good Simeon, ' Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace,' &c., Luke ii. 29. When he had grasped Christ once, he was loath to live any longer. So it should be with Christians as it is with travellers : the nearer they are home, the more and more comfortable they should be still.
It is a shame for old men to fear when they come near their end, when they are near the haven, then to fear. It is as if a man in a storm should fear the haven ; or a man that travels and sees a city, to be afraid of his own house ; whereas he should rejoice and think he is nearer his happiness than other men, as Saint Paul tells the Romans, ' Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed,' xiii. 11. So we should think our salvation and happiness in heaven is nearer now than when we first believed ; and therefore the less time we have to travel here with incumbrances in the way to heaven, the more joyful we should be. The nearer we are to death, the nearer to our preferment, the nearer to our country and our home. These are the advised thoughts of a Christian ; and when other thoughts come into a man, when he is stricken in years, surely they are not in him as a Christian, but as he is weak and wants faith and assurance of salvation. Oh let us therefore labour to get assurance of another, a better country ; for what made these holy men confess themselves strangers and pilgrims here ? ' They saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them ;' and in that measure they were assured of a better condition, ' they carried themselves as strangers and pilgrims here.'
To wind up all in a word, you see here their disposition. I beseech you, make this text your pattern to be moulded into. You see how these blessed men long ago Hved in faith when their light was less than ours is ; and they died in faith, and will welcome us when we shall come to heaven. We shall go to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the patriarchs and holy men. It will be a blessed time when all the blessed men that have gone before shall welcome us to heaven. If we look to be happy as
FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 461
they are, we must live as they did, and die as they did. Though we cannot so strongly as they did see that with the eye of faith that no eye else can see, yet let us desire God to persuade us of these truths more strongly than the devil of* our own lusts shall persuade us to the contrary ; let us desire God to set on his truths so strongly that all other things may not hinder us, that we may embrace them with our best afliections of love, of desire, of contentment ; that we may witness all this by our demeanour to earthly things ; by our base esteem of them, and carry ourselves as pilgrims and strangers on earth. If we do thus live in faith and die in faith, we shall live with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven eternally.
* Qu. 'or'?— Ed.
NOTE.
(a) P. 418.— 'Death . . . this king of fears.' Cf. note e, Vol. IV. page 38, I would supplement this note with a fuller quotation from Aristotle, to whose blank despair, when he treats of death, Sibbes alludes repeatedly : Eth. Nic. iii. 5, 4, foj3i^uiraTov 3' 6 davarog. crs^ag ya^, xoc! ovdh sri tui ndviuirt doxsi cvr 'ayadlv ovTi xaxhv uvai.
(b) P. 427. — ' As Peter saith, mop-eyed.' Cf. 2 Peter i. 9. Mop-eyed means short-sighted, and very well translates ru(pX6g, = natural state of blindness, and worse — closing the eyes to the light as follows : /xuw^|> = contracting the eyelids as one who cannot see clearly = short-sighted.
(c) P. 428. — The author seems to have had in his mind the well-known lines of Horace —
' Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam qusB sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.' (rf) P. 459. — ' These things, saith he, are they that make a man unwilling to go out of the world.' This remark anticipates by more than a century a similar one ascribed to Dr Samuel Johnson, to Edmund Burke, -and to John Foster the essayist, ' These are what make a death-bed terrible.' It seems to be one of those memorable things that have got inwrought into our language. G.