that wicked prince said to the prophet, "Have you found me, O my
Death frees a man from those diseases, corruptions, temptations,
etc., that no duties, nor graces, nor ordinances could do. When
Abraham came to mourn for his deceased Sarah, he mourned
moderately for her, because her dying-day was her best day. When
Luther, that famous instrument of God, buried his daughter, he was
not seen to shed a tear. Just so, Mr. Whately, who was famous in his
time, where as he had preached his own child's funeral sermon upon
this subject, "The will of the Lord be done," he and his wife laid their
own child in the grave. [The people in Thrace mourn and greatly
lament at the birth of their children, because of the sorrows and
troubles they are born to; and they greatly joy and rejoice at the
death of their children, because death is the funeral of all their
sorrows. Death is not such as some would paint it. It was the saying
of a heathen man, That the whole life of a man should be nothing
else but a meditation on death. See Deut. 32:29. Alexander the Great
did ask the Indian philosopher how long a man should live; says he,
Until he think it better to die than to live.] That is the first use, let us
not mourn immoderately for any believer's death.
2. Do not fear death. Compose your spirits; say not of death as
that wicked prince said to the prophet, "Have you found me, O my
enemy?" 1 Kings 21:20—but rather long for it, not to be rid of
troubles—but that the soul may be taken up to a more clear and full
enjoyment of God. Your dying-day is your best day. Good Jacob dies
with a sweet composed spirit; he calls for his children, and blesses
and kisses them, and gathers up his feet into his bed, and dies.
Moses, that morning that the messenger came to him, and told him
he must die, he goes up the hill, sees the land of Canaan at a
distance, and dies. Joseph built his sepulcher in his own garden. And
some philosophers had their graves always open before their gates,
that going out and coming in they might always think of death, for in
life they found comforts to be rare, crosses frequent, pleasures
momentary, and pains permanent. Believers, your dying-day is your
best day. Oh, then, be not afraid of death, and that you may not,
remember that it is not such a slight matter as some make it, to be
unwilling to die. There is much reproach cast upon God, by believers
being unwilling to die. You talk much of God, heaven, and glory, etc.
—and yet when you should come to go and share in this glory, you
shrug and say, "Spare me a little while!" Is not this a reproach to the
God of glory? But that this counsel may stick upon you, remember
these five things—
[1.] Christ's death is a meritorious death. Can a believer think
upon the death of Christ as meriting peace with God, pardon of sin,
justification, glorification—and yet be afraid to die? What! is the
death of Christ thus meritorious, and shall we still be unwilling to
depart?
[2.] Is not death a sword in your Father's hand? It is true, a sword
in a madman's hand, or in an enemy's hand, might make one tremble
—but when the sword is in the father's hands, the child does not fear.
Grant that death is a sword—yet why should the child fear and be
afraid, when it is in the father's hand—who will be sure to handle it
so as he shall not be hurt or harmed by it.
[3.] Remember that Christ's death is a death-conquering death.
[The fear of death is worse than the pains of death, because fear of
death kills us often, whereas death itself can do it but once. "Let him
fear death that is loath to go to Christ," said Cyprian. "I fear not to
die—but I fear to be damned," says one. Luther, speaking of the
blood of Christ, says, "That one little drop is of more worth than
heaven and earth." If the souls under the altar cry, How long, Lord?
—if they solicit for the day of judgment, why not I for the day of
death, since death's day is but the eve of God's day? Zeno said, I have
no fear but of old age.] Christ has taken away the sting of death—so
that it cannot hurt you. His death is a death-sanctifying and a death-
sweetening death. He has by his death sanctified and sweetened
death to us.
Death is a fall that came by a fall. To die is to be no more
unhappy, if we consider death aright. "Oh," says one, "that I could
see death, not as it was—but as you, Lord, have now made it!" Death
is the greatest monarch and the most ancient king of the world.
"Death reigned from Adam to Moses," says Paul. Oh! but the Lord
Jesus has, as it were, disarmed death, and triumphed over death. He
has taken away its sting, so that it cannot sting us, and we may play
with it, and put it into our bosoms, as we may a snake whose sting is
pulled out. The apostle, upon this consideration, challenges death,
and out-braves death, and bids death do his worst, "Where, O death,
is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is
sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
[4.] Did not Christ willingly leave his Father's bosom for your
sake? Did he not willingly die for you? Did Christ plead thus, These
robes are too good for me to leave off, this crown too glorious for me
to lay aside, I am too great to suffer for such a people? No! He readily
leaves his Father's bosom, he lays down his crown, and puts off his
robes, and suffers a cursed, cruel, and ignominious death. Ah, souls,
you should reason thus, "Did Christ die for me that I might live with
him? I will not therefore desire to live long away from him." All men
go willingly to see him whom they love; and shall I be unwilling to
die, that I may see him whom my soul loves? Shall Christ lay aside all
his glory and pomp, and marry a poor soul that had neither portion
nor loveliness; and shall this soul be unwilling to go home to such a
husband? Oh think of it, you souls who are unwilling to die!
Present life is not life—but the way to life; for when we cease to be
men, we begin to be as angels. They are only creatures of inferior
nature who are pleased with the present. Man is a future creature.
The eye of his soul looks ahead. The laborer hastens from his work to
his bed, the mariner rows hard to gain the port, the traveler is glad
when he is near his inn; so should saints when they are near death,
because then they are near heaven, they are near their eternal home!
[5.] Are you not complete in Christ? ["One Christ will be to you
instead of all things else, because in him are all good things to be
found." Augustine.] Why should a believer be afraid to die, who
stands complete before God in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus?
If we should appear in our own righteousness, in our own duties, it
would be dreadful to think of dying—but a believer is complete in
him, etc. "You are complete in him," Col. 2:10. In Rev. 14:4-5, they
are said to be "without fault before the throne of God;" and in Cant.
4:7, "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you." A
believer, when he dies, he appears before God in the righteousness of
Christ. All the spots and blemishes of his soul are covered with the
righteousness of Christ, which is a matchless, spotless, peerless
righteousness. Christ's spouse has perfection of beauty; she is all
"glorious within" and without, she is spotless and blameless, she is
the fairest among women, that she may be a fit mate for him who is
fairer than all the children of men, Psalm 45:2. The saints are as that
tree of paradise, Gen. 3—fair to his eye, and pleasant to his palate.
The saints are as Absalom, in whom there was no blemish from head
to foot. Think of these things to sweeten your last changes, and to
make you long to be in the bosom of Christ.
[6.] Sixthly, Consider that the saints' dying-day is to them the
Lord's pay-day. Every prayer shall then have its answer; all
hungerings and thirstings shall be filled and satisfied; every sigh,
groan, and tear that has fallen from the saints' eyes shall then be
recompensed. [That is not death but life, which joins the dying man
to Christ! That is not life but death, which separates the living man
from Christ.] Then they shall be paid and recompensed for all public
service, and all family service, and all closet service. Then a crown
shall be set upon their heads, and glorious robes put upon their
backs, and golden scepters put into their hands; their dying-day
being the Lord's payday, they shall hear the Lord saying to them,
"Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into your Master's joy,"
Mat. 15:21. In that day they shall find that God is not like Antiochus,
who promised often—but seldom gave. No! Then God will make good
all those golden and glorious promises that he has made to them,
especially these which are here cited. [Rev. 2:10, 3:4, 12, 22, and
7:16-17.] Now God will give them gold for brass, and silver for iron,
felicity for misery, plenty for poverty, honor for dishonor, freedom
for bondage, heaven for earth, an immortal crown for a mortal
crown!
[7.] Seventhly, Consider this—the way to glory is by misery; the
way to life is by death. In this world we are all Benonis—the sons of
sorrow. The way to heaven is by Weeping-cross. Christ's passion-
week was before his ascension-day; none passes to paradise but by
burning seraphim; we cannot go out of Egypt but through the Red
Sea; the children of Israel came to Jerusalem through the valley of
tears, and crossed the swift river of Jordan before they came to the
sweet waters of Siloam. [A man will easily swallow a bitter pill—to
get health. The physician helps us with painful remedies—and yet we
reward him for it.] There is no passing into paradise but under the
flaming sword of this angel—death! There is no coming to that
glorious city above, but through this difficult, dark, dirty lane of
death. No wiping all tears from your eyes—but with your winding-
sheet, which should make you entertain death, not as a foe—but as a
friend; not as a stranger—but as a guest that you had long looked for,
and welcome death as more blessed than your birth. [Death to a
believer is the gate of heaven; it is the door of life. It conveys us out
of the wilderness into Canaan, out of a troublesome sea into a quiet
haven, John 14:1-3.] Every man is willing to go to his home, though
the way which leads to it be ever so dark, dirty, or dangerous; and
shall believers be unwilling to go to their homes, because they are to
go through a dark entry to those glorious, lightsome, and eternal
mansions that Christ has prepared for them? Surely not!
[8.] Eighthly, Consider that while we are in this world, our weak
and imperfect and diseased bodies cast chains, and fetters,
restraints, hindrances, and impediments upon the soul, that the soul
is hindered from many high and noble actings. In heaven, the soul
works clearer, and understands better, and discourses wiser, and
rejoices louder, and loves nobler, and desires purer, and hopes
stronger than it can do here. [When Plato saw one over-indulgent to
his body by high feeding it, he asked him what he meant, to make his
prison so strong.]
The soul is now encaged in a body, and while it is in this body of
clay, it cannot act like herself. It is like a caged bird, whose nature is
to soar aloft towards the place whence she came. When the soul is
upon the wings for heaven, the body like a lump of lead pulls it down
to the earth, etc.
Now the soul cannot look out at the eyes but it will be infected,
nor hear by the ears but it will be distracted, nor smell at the nostrils
and not be tainted, taste by the tongue and not be allured, and touch
by the hand and not be defiled. Every sense and member is too ready
upon every occasion and temptation, to betray the soul; which
should make us willing to die and to long for that day wherein our
bodies shall be glorified. [The Greeks call the body the soul's chain,
the soul's sepulcher.]
Ah, believers! it will be but shortly, before those bodies of yours,
which are now like a picture out of frame, or a house out of repair,
which are now deformed and diseased, etc., shall be agile and
nimble, swift and facile in their motion. For clarity and brightness
they shall be like Christ's body when it was transfigured, Mat. 17:2;
they shall be very amiable and beautiful, they shall be unchangeable
and immortal. Here our bodies are still dying. It is more proper to
ask when we shall make an end of dying, than to ask when we shall
die. Death is a worm which is always feeding at the root of our lives,
which should make death more desirable than life.
[9.] Ninthly, Dwell much upon the readiness and willingness of
other saints to die. Good old Simeon having first laid Christ in his
heart, and then taking him up in his arms, he sings, "Lord, now let
you your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your
salvation!" Luke 2:28-30. I have lived enough—I now have my life; I
have longed enough—I now have my love; I have seen enough—I now
have my sight; I have served enough—I now have my reward; I have
sorrowed enough—I now have my joy.
Just so, the believing Corinthians, 2 Cor. 5:4, 8, they groaned
earnestly to be clothed with their house which is from heaven; they
groaned that mortality might be swallowed up of life, and "that they
might be absent from the body, and present with the Lord." Just so,
Paul desires earnestly "to depart, and to be with Christ, which is best
of all," Phil. 1:23. Just so, those in Peter, "they look for and hasten
the coming of the day of God," 2 Pet. 3:12. They are said to hasten the
day of God, in respect of their earnest desires after it, and in respect
of their preparations for it. Just so, the souls under the altar cry,
"How long, Lord, how long?" etc., Rev. 6:9-10.
So Paula, that noble lady, when one did read to her Cant. 2:11,
"The winter is past, and the singing of birds has come;" "Yes," she
replied, "the singing of birds has come," and so she went singing into
heaven. Just so, Mr. Jewel said, "Lord, now let your servant depart in
peace; break off all delays; Lord, receive my spirit." Further he said,
"I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live longer; neither do I
fear to die—because we have a merciful Lord. A crown of
righteousness is laid up for me; Christ is my righteousness."
So another, being in a swoon, as her friends thought, a little
before her end they cried, Give her a cordial—but she put it back,
saying, "I have cordials you know nothing of." So Mr. Pearing, a little
before his death, said, "I find and feel so much inward joy and
comfort in my soul, that if I were put to my choice whether to die or
live, I would a thousand times rather choose death than life—if it
might stand with the holy will of God." ["Let all the devils in hell,"
says Augustine, "beset me round, let fasting macerate my body, let
sorrows oppress my mind, let pains consume my flesh, let watching
weary me, or heat scorch me, or cold freeze me, let all these—and
whatever more can come—happen unto me—just so that I may enjoy
my Savior.] So Mr. Bolton, lying on his death-bed, said, "I am by the
wonderful mercies of God, as full of comfort as my heart can hold,
and feel nothing in my soul but Christ, with whom I heartily desire to
be."
Ah, Christians! if the exceeding willingness of the saints to die
will not make you willing to die, what will?