sickness may be thy death, as long as thou knowest, that the death of Christ is the death of death? Indeed, if thou didst die in thy sins, as Job viii. 21. if death, as a king, did reign over thee, Rom. v. 14. if it could feed upon thee, as the lion doth upon the prey he hath taken, as Psal. xlix. 14. if hell followed the pale horse, as it is, Rev. vi. 8. then thou mightest well startle and shrink back from it but when God hath put away thy sins from thee, as far as east is from the west, Psal. ciii. 12. as long as there is no other evil left in death for thee to en counter with, but bodily pain; as long as the scriptures represent it to thee under such harmless and easy notions, as the putting off thy clothes, 2 Cor. v. 2. and lying down to sleep upon thy bed, Isa. lvii. 2. why shouldst thou be afraid? There is as much difference betwixt death to the people of God, and others, as betwixt the unicorn's horn, when it is upon the head of that fierce beast, and when it is in tlie apothecaries shops, where it is made salubrious and medicinal.

Arg. 2. Thy heart may be kept from shrinking back at such a time as this, by considering the necessity of death, in or der to the full fruition of God.

Whether thou art willing to die or no1

Tassure thee, there is no other way to obtain the full satisfaction of thy soul, and to complete its happiness: till the hand of death do thee the kind office to draw aside the curtain of flesh, thy soul cannot see God; this animal life stands betwixt him and thee, 2 Cor. v. 6. Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Thy body must be refined and cast into a new mould, else that new wine of heavenly glory would break it.

Paul, in his highest rapture, 2 Cor. xii. 4. when he heard things unutterable, was then but as a stander-by, a looker-on, not admitted into the company, as one of them; but, as the angels are in our assemblies, so was Paul in that glorious assembly above, and no otherwise; and yet even for this he must, as it were, be taken out of the body, unclothed for a little time, to have a glimpse of that glory, and then put on his clothes again. O then! who would not be wil ling to die for a full sight and enjoyment of God? Methinks thy soul should look and sigh, like a prisoner, through the grates of this mortality; O that I had wings like a dove! then would fly away and be at rest. Most men need patience to die; but a saint, that upderstands K

what death admits him to, should rather need patience to live: methinks he should often look out, and listen on a death bed for his Lord's coming; and when he re ceives the news of his approaching change, should say, the voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills, Cant. ii. 8.

Arg. 3. Another argument, persuading to this willingness, is the immediate succession of a more excellent and glorious life.

It is but wink, and you shall see God: your happiness shall not be deferred till the resurrection; but, as soon as the body is dead, the gracious soul is swallowed up in life, Rom. viii. 10, 11. When once you have loosed from this shore, in a few moments your souls will be wafted over upon the wings of angels to the other shore of a glorious eternity, Phil. i. 23.. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. Did the soul and body die to gether, as Berilius taught; or did they sleep till the resurre&ion, as others have groundlessly fancied; it had been a madness for Paul to desire a dissolution for the enjoyment of Christ: for, if this were so, he enjoyed more of Christ whilst bie soul dwelt in his fleshly tabernacle, than he should out of it.

There are but two ways of the soul's living known in scripture, viz. the life of faith, and the life of vision, 1 Cor. v. 5. Those two divide all time, both present and future, betwixt them, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. If, when faith fails, sight should not immediately succeed, what should become of the unbodied soul? But, blessed be God, this great heart establishing truth is evidently revealed in seripture, Luke xxiii. 43. You bave Christ's promise, John xiv. 3. I will come and receive you to myself. O what a change will a few moments make upon your condition? Rouse up, dying saint; when thy soul is come out a little farther, when it shall stand, like Abraham, in its tent door, the angels of God shall soon be with it. The souls of the elect are, as it were, put out to the angels to nurse; and when they die, these angels carry them home again to their Father's house. If an angel were caused to fly swiftly to bring a saint the answer of his prayer, Dan. ix. 22. how much more will the angels come post from heaven to receive and transfer the praying soul itself?

Arg. 4. Farther, It may much conduce to thy willingness to die, to consider, that, by death, God oftentimes hides his people out of the way of all tempta

tions and troubles upon earth.

13.

Rev. xiv. Write, from henceforth, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. It is God's usual way, when some extraordinary ca lamities are coming upon the world, to set his people out of harm's way before hand, Isa. Ivii. 1. Merciful men are taken away from the evil to come. So, Mic. vii. 1, 2. when such an evil time comes as is there described, that they all lie in wa it forblood, and every man hunts his brother in a net; before that, God by an act of favour houses his people be fore hand. Dost thou know what evil be in the earth which thou art so loth to leave? Thy God removes thee for thy great advantage; thou art disbanded by death, and called off the field; other poor saints must stand to it, and. endure a great fight of afflictions.

may

It is observed, that Methuselah died the very year before the flood, Augustine a little before the sacking of Hippo, Pareus just before the taking of Heydel. bergh Luther observes, that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem, and Luther himself before the wars brake out in Germany. It may be the Lord sees thy tender heart cannot endure to see the misery, or bear the temp tations that are coming, and therefore