It is both a great and eminent act of faith, and is the last victori- ous act of faith, so to do : —
1. It is a great and eminent act of faith. [See] Heb. xi., where the mighty efficacy and great success of faith is spoken of. One of the particulars, and that wherein many of the rest did centre, is, " These all died in faith." It was a great thing to die in faith under the Old Testament, when they were encompassed with so many shadows, and so much darkness, and when their view into things invisible, within the vail, was exceeding much beneath what God hath communicated unto us. Nay, the state of things within the vail was not the same then as now; there was not Christ upon the throne, administering his office. Notwithstanding, faith carried them through all this dark- ness, and caused them to make a believing venture of their souls upon God, his faithfulness, mercy, and grace.
When it comes to this consideration, it lays all things in the ba-
340 the christian's work of dying daily.
lance : — in the one scale, our being, our walking, and life in this world ; our sins, and their guilt; our fears, uncertainties, and darkness of a future state; our abhorrence of a dissolution, the consideration of all things that are round about us ; — in the other, the power, faithfulness, and mercy of God, and his ability to receive, preserve, and keep us to that day, and to be better to us than all these things. " Here shall be my portion," saith faith; "all things in the other scale are of no value, of no weight to this exceeding weight of power and goodness of God." This is a glorious exercise of faith! Have you tried it, my brethren? Lay things on the one side and the other in the balance, and see which way the scale will draw, — what faith will do in such a case.
2. It is the last victorious act of faith, wherein it hath its final conquest over all its adversaries. Faith is the leading grace in all our spiritual warfare and conflict; but all along while we live, it hath faithful company that adheres to it, and helps it. Love works, and hope works, and all other graces, — self-denial, readiness to the cross, — they all work and help faith. But when we come to die, faith is left alone. Now, try what faith will do. The exercise of other graces ceases ; only faith comes to a close conflict with its last adversaiy, wherein the whole is to be tried. And, by this one act of resigning all into the hand of God, faith triumphs over death, and cries, " ' 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?' Come, give me an inlet into immortality and glory; the everlasting hand of God is ready to receive me ! " This is the victory whereby we over- come all our spiritual enemies.
I thought to have made some use of what hath been said; to ex- amine whether we do live in the exercise of this grace or no, and what benefit we have thereby: and I should have touched espe- cially upon this one thing, — this alone will keep us from all surprisal of death. Not to be surprised with any thing is the substance of human wisdom; not to be surprised with death is a great part of the substance of our spiritual wisdom.
SERMON XXVIII.1
I made an entrance upon this portion of Scripture the last Lord's day, and I judged the subject very suitable, because of the warn- ings God hath variously given us to be exercising ourselves unto this 1 This sermon was preached October 3, 1680.
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duty. God hath since increased the seasonableness, by taking away a great and eminent servant1 of his from among us ; concerning whom I will say this one word, and no more : —
As far as I know by thirty years' acquaintance and friendship, and half that time in church-fellowship, it may be the age wherein he lived did not produce many more wise, more holy, more useful than he in his station, if any. And so I leave him at rest with God.
I proposed to insist upon those things which are necessary for us, to obtain a peaceable and comfortable departure out of this world. And I have spoken to one head ; which was, the daily exercise of faith, in the resignation of a departing soul, to the sovereign power and will of God, to be treated and entertained by him according to the tenor of the covenant of grace.
I will not leave this point till I have made some use of it. And I shall take no other measure of my time but the strength God is pleased to give me.
Use 1. It may be worth our while to inquire into the especial nature of this duty which we are exhorted unto ; for we may every day more and more understand the weakness of many, who think, it may be, they know something of it, when they know not what it means. We may, therefore, consider three things in it: — (1.) What is the special and immediate object of this exercise of faith; (2.) What is the form or special nature of it; and, (3.) What is the way and manner of its performance.