Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2024 17:52:23 GMT -5
Twenty Motives for Christians to be Willing to Die
Ah, Christians, Christians! how justly may that father be angry with
his child who is unwilling to come home; and that husband be angry
with his wife who is unwilling to ride to him in a rainy day, or to
cross the seas to enjoy him? And is not this your case? is not this
your case? I know it is. Well, Christians! let me a little expostulate
the case with you, that if it be possible I may work your hearts into a
willingness to die, yes, to desire death, to long for death—so that you
may come to a full fruition of all that is reserved in heaven for you!
And that I may, I beseech you, Christians, tell me,
[1.] Tell me, O Christian—can death dissolve that glorious
UNION which is between you and Christ? No! Romans 8:35-
39. Why, why then are you unwilling to die—as long as in death your
union with Christ holds good? As in death Saul and Jonathan were
not parted, 2 Sam. 1:23, so in death a believer and Christ are not
parted—but more closely and firmly united. That is not death—but
life, which joins the dying man to Christ; and that is not a life—but
death, that separates the living man from Christ. As it is impossible
for the leaven that is in the dough to be separated from the dough
after it is once mixed, for it turns the nature of the dough into itself;
so it is impossible, either in life or death, for the saints ever to be
separated from Christ; for Christ, in respect of union, is in the saints
as closely as the leaven is in the very dough, so incorporated one into
another as if Christ and they were one lump, John 17:20-21; John 15:1-6. But,
[2.] For I shall but touch upon things, tell me, O Christian, who are
unwilling to die, Whether death can dissolve or untie that
marriage-knot that by the Spirit on Christ's side, and by
faith on your part—is knit between Christ and your
soul? No! Death cannot untie that knot, Hosea 2:19-20. Why, why
then, O Christian, are you unwilling to die, as long as the marriage knot holds fast between Christ and your soul?
Mat. 25:1-2; Romans 7:1-4. I readily grant that death dissolves that marriage-knot which is
knit between man and wife; but neither death nor devil can ever
dissolve the marriage-knot that is knit between Christ and the
believing soul! Sin cannot dissolve that marriage-knot that is knit
between Christ and a believer; and if sin cannot, then certainly
death, which came in by sin, cannot. Though sin can do more than
death—yet sin cannot make null and void that glorious marriage
which is between Christ and the soul; therefore a Christian should
not be unwilling to die. Jer. 3:1-5, 12-14, compared. But,
[3.] Tell me, O Christian—can death, O Christian, dissolve
that glorious covenant that God has taken you into? No!
Death can never dissolve that covenant: Jer. 32:40, "And I will make
an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from
them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts—that
they shall not depart from me." Though Abraham is dead—yet God is
Abraham's God still, Mat. 22:30-32. By covenant, and by virtue of
this everlasting covenant, Abraham shall be raised and glorified. Oh
then, why should you be afraid of death? why should you be
unwilling to die?
When David was upon his dying bed, he drew his strongest
consolation out of this well of salvation—the covenant: 2 Sam. 23:5,
"Is it not true my house is with God? For He has established an
everlasting covenant with me, ordered and secured in every detail.
Will He not bring about my whole salvation and my every desire?"
Dear hearts! the covenant remains firm and good between you and
the Lord, both in life and in death; and therefore there is no reason
why you should be unwilling to die.
There are three things which are impossible for God to do, namely—
to die, to lie, or deny himself, or that gracious covenant that he has
made with his people; and therefore death should be more desirable
than terrible to gracious souls. But,
[4.] Tell me, O Christian—can death dissolve that love
which is between the Lord and your soul? Psalm 116:15; Deut.
7:7-8. No, death cannot! For his love is not founded upon any worth
or excellency in me, nor upon any work or service done by me. God's
love is free—he loves because he will love. All motives to love are
taken out of that bosom which is love and sweetness itself. His love
is everlasting, it is like himself; Jer. 31:3, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you;"
John 13:1, "Whom he loved, he loved to the end." "In a surge of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on
you with everlasting love, says the Lord your Redeemer. For this is
like the days of Noah to Me: when I swore that the waters of Noah
would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be
angry with you or rebuke you. Though the mountains move and the
hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant
of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord." Isaiah 54:8-10
The love of Jesus Christ was to Lazarus when dead (John 11:11), "Our
friend Lazarus sleeps." By all which it is most evident that death
cannot dissolve that precious love which is between the Lord and his
children. Oh! why then are they afraid to die? Why then do not they
long to die—that they may be in the everlasting arms of divine
love! The love of the Lord is everlasting; it is a love which never dies,
which never decays, nor waxes cold. It is like the stone asbestos, of
which Solinus writes, that being once hot, it can never be cooled again.
Death is nothing but a bringing of a loving Christ and loving souls
together! Why, then, should not the saints rather desire it, than fear
it or be dismayed at it? But,
[5.] Can death, O you believing soul, dissolve those
gracious grants, or those grants of grace which the Lord
has pledged to you? Such as the grant of reconciliation, the grant
of acceptance, the grant of justification, the grant of adoption, the
grant of remission, etc. No! death cannot dissolve any of these
gracious grants. Romans 11:29, "for God’s gracious gifts and calling
are irrevocable." Why then, O Christian, are you unwilling to die?
Indeed, were it in the power of death to make void any of those noble
and gracious grants which God has pledged to you, you might be
afraid and unwilling to die; but that being a work too great, and too
hard for death to accomplish—why should you not, in a holy
triumphing way, say with the apostle, "O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. 15:55-57.
A Christian, upon the account of what is laid up for him, may and
ought divinely to out-brave death, as this precious saint did: a little
before she breathed out her last into the bosom of Christ, she called
for a candle; Come, says she, and see death; and this she spoke
smilingly, out-braving death in a holy sense. Being free both from the
pains of death, and from the fear of death, she knew him in whom
she had believed, 2 Tim. 1:12. She knew right well that death could
not dissolve those gracious grants which God had pledged to her; and
therefore when she came to it, she made no more of it to die—than
we do to dine! But,
[6.] Tell me, Christians, did not Christ come to deliver you
from the fear of death? Yes! He did come into the world, and did
take our nature upon him—that he might deliver us from the fear of
death, Heb. 2:14-15. Why, then, should you be unwilling to die? Tell
me, has not Christ disarmed death of all its hurting power—and
taken away its sting, that it cannot harm you? Yes, he has! 1 Cor.
15:55-57. Why then should you be unwilling to die? Tell me, souls,
will not Christ be with you in that hour? Will he not stand by you,
though others should desert you? Yes! we have it from his own word,
that he will be present with us, and that he will neither, living nor
dying, leave us, nor forsake us, Psalm 23:4, Heb. 13:5-6. Why then
should you be unwilling to die? Tell me, O trembling Christians, shall
death be any more to you than a change? a change of place, a change
of company, a change of employment, a change of enjoyment?
Certainly! Death to us will be but a change; yes, the happiest change
that ever we met with, Job 14:14, John 11:26, 1 Thes. 4:14. Why then
should you be unwilling to die, seeing that to die is nothing but to
change earth for heaven, rags for robes, crosses for crowns, and
prisons for thrones, etc.? Said Cyprian, Let him fear death—who is
opposed to go to Christ!
But tell me once more, Christians, has not Jesus Christ, by his lying
in the grave, sanctified the grave, and perfumed and sweetened the
grave? Has he not, by his blood and death, purchased for you a soft
and easy bed in the grave? Yes! We believe he has done all this for us.
Oh why then should you be unwilling to die?
Once more, tell me, Christians, will not Jesus Christ raise you out of
the grave after you have taken a short nap? Will he not cause you to
hear his voice? Will he not call you out of that sleeping-chamber, the
grave, and bring you to immortality and glory? Yes! We believe he
will, John 6:39-40, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes. 4:14-18. Oh why then should you
be unwilling to die? Oh why should you not, upon all these accounts,
long for it—and whenever it comes, readily and willingly, cheerfully
and sweetly, embrace it? O Christians, Christians! let but your hopes
and your hearts be more fixed upon the things that are reserved in
heaven for you—and then you will neither fear death, nor feel it when
it comes! But,
[7.] Death will perfectly cure you of all physical and
spiritual diseases at once! Such as the aching head and the
unbelieving heart; the ulcerous body and the polluted soul. Now your
bodies are full of ails, full of aches, full of diseases, full of illnesses
and distempers—so that your wisest physicians know not what to say
to you, nor what to do with you, nor how to cure you. It is often with
your bodies—"from the sole of the feet, even to the crown of the
head, was full of wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores," Isaiah 1:6.
But now death will perfectly cure you of all! Death will do that for
you, which you could not do for yourselves! Death will do that for
you, which all your friends could not do for you! Death will do that
for you, which the ablest and wisest physicians could not do for you.
It will cure you of every ache, of every ailment, etc.
At Stratford-Bow, in Queen Mary's days, there was burnt a lame man
and a blind man at one stake. The lame man, after he was chained,
casting away his crutch, bade the blind man be of good comfort, for
death, said he, will cure us both—you of your blindness, and I of my
lameness!
Ah, Christians! death will cure you of all your infirmities, of all your
distempers; and why, then, should you be unwilling to die?
Maecenas, the heathen, said that he had rather live with many
diseases than die; but I hope better things of you, for whom Christ
has died.
And as death will cure all your bodily diseases, so it will cure all your
soul-distempers also! Death is not the death of the man—but the
death of his sin! Sin was the midwife which brought death into the
world—and death shall be the grave to bury sin.
What is death but the burial of vices?—Ambrose. Death shall do that
for a Christian—which all his duties could never do—which all
his graces could never do—which all his experiences could never do
—which all ordinances could never do. It shall at once free him fully,
perfectly, and perpetually from all sin—yes, from all possibility of
ever sinning again!
The Persians had a certain day in the year in which they used to kill
all serpents and venomous creatures; such a day as that will the day
of death be to their sins who are savingly interested in the Savior.
When Samson died—the Philistines also died together with him. Just
so, when a believer dies—his sins die with him. Death came in by sin,
and sin goes out by death. As the worm kills the fruit which bred it—
so death kills sin which bred it, Heb. 12:23, Romans 6:7, 1 Cor. 15:26.
And why, then, should Christians be afraid of death, or unwilling to
die, seeing death gives them ease from infirmities and weaknesses,
from all aches and pains, griefs and gripings, distempers and
diseases, both of body and soul?
Homer reports of his Achilles, that he had rather be a servant to a
poor country clown here in this world, than to be a king to all the
souls departed. The truth is, that most heathens have preferred the
meanest life on earth above all the hopes they had of a better life; but
I hope better things of you, Christians; and that upon this very
ground, that death will certainly and perfectly cure you of all bodily
and soul distempers at once! But,
[8.] Is not your dying day—an inevitable day? Why, yes, yes!
Why, then, should you be afraid to die? Why should you be unwilling
to die, seeing that your dying day is a day which cannot be put off?
The daily spectacles of mortality which we see before our eyes clearly
evince this truth—that all must die. [Eccles. 2:16; Zech. 1:5; Heb.
9:27; Gen. 3:19; Romans 6:23.] It is a statute-law in heaven that all
must die. All men and women are made up of dust, and by the law of
heaven they must return to dust. All have sinned, and therefore all
must die. The core of that apple which Adam ate sticks in the throats
of all his children, and will at length choke them all one by one!
Masius says that when Noah went into the ark, he took the bones of
Adam with him, and that when he came out of the ark, he divided
them among his sons, giving the head, as the chief part, unto his
first-born, and therein as it were saying unto them, Let not this
delivery from the flood make you secure; behold your first parent,
and the beginning of mankind; you must all, and all who come from
you, go unto the dust to him. What day is there that passes over our
heads wherein the Lord does not, by others' mortality, preach many
sermons of mortality to us? Therefore why should we be unwilling to
pay that debt that all owe, and that all must pay, and that so many
daily pay before our eyes? But,
[9.] A believer's dying day is his best day. Ambrose speaks of
some who lamented men's births and celebrated their deaths. Why
then should he be unwilling to die? Eccles. 7:1, "A good name is
better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of
one's birth." In respect of profit, pleasure, peace, safety, company,
glory—a believer's last day is his best day. Why then should a believer
be unwilling to die? But,
[10.] A believer's dying day is his resting day. It is his resting
day from sin, from sorrow, from affliction, from temptation, from
desertion, from dissension, from vexation, from persecution, and
from all bodily labor. [Rev. 14:13, 21:4; Job 3:13-16; Isaiah 57:1-2.]
And therefore why should a believer be unwilling to die, seeing that
for him to die is no more but to rest? But of this rest I have spoken
largely before; and therefore a touch may be enough in this place.
But
Ah, Christians, Christians! how justly may that father be angry with
his child who is unwilling to come home; and that husband be angry
with his wife who is unwilling to ride to him in a rainy day, or to
cross the seas to enjoy him? And is not this your case? is not this
your case? I know it is. Well, Christians! let me a little expostulate
the case with you, that if it be possible I may work your hearts into a
willingness to die, yes, to desire death, to long for death—so that you
may come to a full fruition of all that is reserved in heaven for you!
And that I may, I beseech you, Christians, tell me,
[1.] Tell me, O Christian—can death dissolve that glorious
UNION which is between you and Christ? No! Romans 8:35-
39. Why, why then are you unwilling to die—as long as in death your
union with Christ holds good? As in death Saul and Jonathan were
not parted, 2 Sam. 1:23, so in death a believer and Christ are not
parted—but more closely and firmly united. That is not death—but
life, which joins the dying man to Christ; and that is not a life—but
death, that separates the living man from Christ. As it is impossible
for the leaven that is in the dough to be separated from the dough
after it is once mixed, for it turns the nature of the dough into itself;
so it is impossible, either in life or death, for the saints ever to be
separated from Christ; for Christ, in respect of union, is in the saints
as closely as the leaven is in the very dough, so incorporated one into
another as if Christ and they were one lump, John 17:20-21; John 15:1-6. But,
[2.] For I shall but touch upon things, tell me, O Christian, who are
unwilling to die, Whether death can dissolve or untie that
marriage-knot that by the Spirit on Christ's side, and by
faith on your part—is knit between Christ and your
soul? No! Death cannot untie that knot, Hosea 2:19-20. Why, why
then, O Christian, are you unwilling to die, as long as the marriage knot holds fast between Christ and your soul?
Mat. 25:1-2; Romans 7:1-4. I readily grant that death dissolves that marriage-knot which is
knit between man and wife; but neither death nor devil can ever
dissolve the marriage-knot that is knit between Christ and the
believing soul! Sin cannot dissolve that marriage-knot that is knit
between Christ and a believer; and if sin cannot, then certainly
death, which came in by sin, cannot. Though sin can do more than
death—yet sin cannot make null and void that glorious marriage
which is between Christ and the soul; therefore a Christian should
not be unwilling to die. Jer. 3:1-5, 12-14, compared. But,
[3.] Tell me, O Christian—can death, O Christian, dissolve
that glorious covenant that God has taken you into? No!
Death can never dissolve that covenant: Jer. 32:40, "And I will make
an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from
them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts—that
they shall not depart from me." Though Abraham is dead—yet God is
Abraham's God still, Mat. 22:30-32. By covenant, and by virtue of
this everlasting covenant, Abraham shall be raised and glorified. Oh
then, why should you be afraid of death? why should you be
unwilling to die?
When David was upon his dying bed, he drew his strongest
consolation out of this well of salvation—the covenant: 2 Sam. 23:5,
"Is it not true my house is with God? For He has established an
everlasting covenant with me, ordered and secured in every detail.
Will He not bring about my whole salvation and my every desire?"
Dear hearts! the covenant remains firm and good between you and
the Lord, both in life and in death; and therefore there is no reason
why you should be unwilling to die.
There are three things which are impossible for God to do, namely—
to die, to lie, or deny himself, or that gracious covenant that he has
made with his people; and therefore death should be more desirable
than terrible to gracious souls. But,
[4.] Tell me, O Christian—can death dissolve that love
which is between the Lord and your soul? Psalm 116:15; Deut.
7:7-8. No, death cannot! For his love is not founded upon any worth
or excellency in me, nor upon any work or service done by me. God's
love is free—he loves because he will love. All motives to love are
taken out of that bosom which is love and sweetness itself. His love
is everlasting, it is like himself; Jer. 31:3, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you;"
John 13:1, "Whom he loved, he loved to the end." "In a surge of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on
you with everlasting love, says the Lord your Redeemer. For this is
like the days of Noah to Me: when I swore that the waters of Noah
would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be
angry with you or rebuke you. Though the mountains move and the
hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant
of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord." Isaiah 54:8-10
The love of Jesus Christ was to Lazarus when dead (John 11:11), "Our
friend Lazarus sleeps." By all which it is most evident that death
cannot dissolve that precious love which is between the Lord and his
children. Oh! why then are they afraid to die? Why then do not they
long to die—that they may be in the everlasting arms of divine
love! The love of the Lord is everlasting; it is a love which never dies,
which never decays, nor waxes cold. It is like the stone asbestos, of
which Solinus writes, that being once hot, it can never be cooled again.
Death is nothing but a bringing of a loving Christ and loving souls
together! Why, then, should not the saints rather desire it, than fear
it or be dismayed at it? But,
[5.] Can death, O you believing soul, dissolve those
gracious grants, or those grants of grace which the Lord
has pledged to you? Such as the grant of reconciliation, the grant
of acceptance, the grant of justification, the grant of adoption, the
grant of remission, etc. No! death cannot dissolve any of these
gracious grants. Romans 11:29, "for God’s gracious gifts and calling
are irrevocable." Why then, O Christian, are you unwilling to die?
Indeed, were it in the power of death to make void any of those noble
and gracious grants which God has pledged to you, you might be
afraid and unwilling to die; but that being a work too great, and too
hard for death to accomplish—why should you not, in a holy
triumphing way, say with the apostle, "O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. 15:55-57.
A Christian, upon the account of what is laid up for him, may and
ought divinely to out-brave death, as this precious saint did: a little
before she breathed out her last into the bosom of Christ, she called
for a candle; Come, says she, and see death; and this she spoke
smilingly, out-braving death in a holy sense. Being free both from the
pains of death, and from the fear of death, she knew him in whom
she had believed, 2 Tim. 1:12. She knew right well that death could
not dissolve those gracious grants which God had pledged to her; and
therefore when she came to it, she made no more of it to die—than
we do to dine! But,
[6.] Tell me, Christians, did not Christ come to deliver you
from the fear of death? Yes! He did come into the world, and did
take our nature upon him—that he might deliver us from the fear of
death, Heb. 2:14-15. Why, then, should you be unwilling to die? Tell
me, has not Christ disarmed death of all its hurting power—and
taken away its sting, that it cannot harm you? Yes, he has! 1 Cor.
15:55-57. Why then should you be unwilling to die? Tell me, souls,
will not Christ be with you in that hour? Will he not stand by you,
though others should desert you? Yes! we have it from his own word,
that he will be present with us, and that he will neither, living nor
dying, leave us, nor forsake us, Psalm 23:4, Heb. 13:5-6. Why then
should you be unwilling to die? Tell me, O trembling Christians, shall
death be any more to you than a change? a change of place, a change
of company, a change of employment, a change of enjoyment?
Certainly! Death to us will be but a change; yes, the happiest change
that ever we met with, Job 14:14, John 11:26, 1 Thes. 4:14. Why then
should you be unwilling to die, seeing that to die is nothing but to
change earth for heaven, rags for robes, crosses for crowns, and
prisons for thrones, etc.? Said Cyprian, Let him fear death—who is
opposed to go to Christ!
But tell me once more, Christians, has not Jesus Christ, by his lying
in the grave, sanctified the grave, and perfumed and sweetened the
grave? Has he not, by his blood and death, purchased for you a soft
and easy bed in the grave? Yes! We believe he has done all this for us.
Oh why then should you be unwilling to die?
Once more, tell me, Christians, will not Jesus Christ raise you out of
the grave after you have taken a short nap? Will he not cause you to
hear his voice? Will he not call you out of that sleeping-chamber, the
grave, and bring you to immortality and glory? Yes! We believe he
will, John 6:39-40, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes. 4:14-18. Oh why then should you
be unwilling to die? Oh why should you not, upon all these accounts,
long for it—and whenever it comes, readily and willingly, cheerfully
and sweetly, embrace it? O Christians, Christians! let but your hopes
and your hearts be more fixed upon the things that are reserved in
heaven for you—and then you will neither fear death, nor feel it when
it comes! But,
[7.] Death will perfectly cure you of all physical and
spiritual diseases at once! Such as the aching head and the
unbelieving heart; the ulcerous body and the polluted soul. Now your
bodies are full of ails, full of aches, full of diseases, full of illnesses
and distempers—so that your wisest physicians know not what to say
to you, nor what to do with you, nor how to cure you. It is often with
your bodies—"from the sole of the feet, even to the crown of the
head, was full of wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores," Isaiah 1:6.
But now death will perfectly cure you of all! Death will do that for
you, which you could not do for yourselves! Death will do that for
you, which all your friends could not do for you! Death will do that
for you, which the ablest and wisest physicians could not do for you.
It will cure you of every ache, of every ailment, etc.
At Stratford-Bow, in Queen Mary's days, there was burnt a lame man
and a blind man at one stake. The lame man, after he was chained,
casting away his crutch, bade the blind man be of good comfort, for
death, said he, will cure us both—you of your blindness, and I of my
lameness!
Ah, Christians! death will cure you of all your infirmities, of all your
distempers; and why, then, should you be unwilling to die?
Maecenas, the heathen, said that he had rather live with many
diseases than die; but I hope better things of you, for whom Christ
has died.
And as death will cure all your bodily diseases, so it will cure all your
soul-distempers also! Death is not the death of the man—but the
death of his sin! Sin was the midwife which brought death into the
world—and death shall be the grave to bury sin.
What is death but the burial of vices?—Ambrose. Death shall do that
for a Christian—which all his duties could never do—which all
his graces could never do—which all his experiences could never do
—which all ordinances could never do. It shall at once free him fully,
perfectly, and perpetually from all sin—yes, from all possibility of
ever sinning again!
The Persians had a certain day in the year in which they used to kill
all serpents and venomous creatures; such a day as that will the day
of death be to their sins who are savingly interested in the Savior.
When Samson died—the Philistines also died together with him. Just
so, when a believer dies—his sins die with him. Death came in by sin,
and sin goes out by death. As the worm kills the fruit which bred it—
so death kills sin which bred it, Heb. 12:23, Romans 6:7, 1 Cor. 15:26.
And why, then, should Christians be afraid of death, or unwilling to
die, seeing death gives them ease from infirmities and weaknesses,
from all aches and pains, griefs and gripings, distempers and
diseases, both of body and soul?
Homer reports of his Achilles, that he had rather be a servant to a
poor country clown here in this world, than to be a king to all the
souls departed. The truth is, that most heathens have preferred the
meanest life on earth above all the hopes they had of a better life; but
I hope better things of you, Christians; and that upon this very
ground, that death will certainly and perfectly cure you of all bodily
and soul distempers at once! But,
[8.] Is not your dying day—an inevitable day? Why, yes, yes!
Why, then, should you be afraid to die? Why should you be unwilling
to die, seeing that your dying day is a day which cannot be put off?
The daily spectacles of mortality which we see before our eyes clearly
evince this truth—that all must die. [Eccles. 2:16; Zech. 1:5; Heb.
9:27; Gen. 3:19; Romans 6:23.] It is a statute-law in heaven that all
must die. All men and women are made up of dust, and by the law of
heaven they must return to dust. All have sinned, and therefore all
must die. The core of that apple which Adam ate sticks in the throats
of all his children, and will at length choke them all one by one!
Masius says that when Noah went into the ark, he took the bones of
Adam with him, and that when he came out of the ark, he divided
them among his sons, giving the head, as the chief part, unto his
first-born, and therein as it were saying unto them, Let not this
delivery from the flood make you secure; behold your first parent,
and the beginning of mankind; you must all, and all who come from
you, go unto the dust to him. What day is there that passes over our
heads wherein the Lord does not, by others' mortality, preach many
sermons of mortality to us? Therefore why should we be unwilling to
pay that debt that all owe, and that all must pay, and that so many
daily pay before our eyes? But,
[9.] A believer's dying day is his best day. Ambrose speaks of
some who lamented men's births and celebrated their deaths. Why
then should he be unwilling to die? Eccles. 7:1, "A good name is
better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of
one's birth." In respect of profit, pleasure, peace, safety, company,
glory—a believer's last day is his best day. Why then should a believer
be unwilling to die? But,
[10.] A believer's dying day is his resting day. It is his resting
day from sin, from sorrow, from affliction, from temptation, from
desertion, from dissension, from vexation, from persecution, and
from all bodily labor. [Rev. 14:13, 21:4; Job 3:13-16; Isaiah 57:1-2.]
And therefore why should a believer be unwilling to die, seeing that
for him to die is no more but to rest? But of this rest I have spoken
largely before; and therefore a touch may be enough in this place.
But