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⚫cares and fears for thee have been inexpreffible, and nothing but the love of Jefus Chrift is ftrong enough to gain my con⚫ fent to part with thee; thy intereft in my affection is great, but as great as it is, and as much as I prize thee, I can shake thee off, and thrust thee afide, to go to Christ.

'Nor may this feem abfurd, or unreafonable, confidering that • God never defigned thee for a manfion, but only a temporary ⚫ tabernacle to me: it is true, I have had fome comfort during ⚫ my abode in thee; but I enjoyed thefe comforts only in thee, ⚫ not from thee; and many more I might have enjoyed, hadst <thou not been a faare and a clog to me.

It is thou that haft eaten up my time, and distracted my thoughts, enfnared my affections, and drawn me under much fin and forrow: however, though we may weep over each o⚫ther, as acceffories to the fins and miferies we have drawn u⚫pon ourselves; yet in this is our joint-relief, that the blood • of Christ hath cleansed us both from all fia.

• And therefore I can part the more eafily, and comfortably from thee, because I part in hope to receive, and enjoy thee ⚫ in a far better condition than I leave thee. It is for both our ⚫ interests to part for a time; for mine, because I fhall thereby be freed and delivered from fin and forrow, and immediately • obtain rest with God, and the fatisfaction of all my defires in • his presence, and enjoyment, which there is no other way to • obtain, but by feparation from thee: and why fhould I live a

groaning, burdened, reftlefs life always, to gratify thy fond ⚫ and irrational defires? If thou loveft me, thou wouldst rejoice, ◄ not repine at my happiness. Parents willingly part with their children at the greateft diftance, for their preferment, how dearly foever they love them; and dost thou envy, or repine ⚫ at mine? I have lived many months a fuffocating, obfcure life, with thee in the womb, and neither you nor I had ever ⚫ tasted or experienced the comforts of this world, and the va rious delights of fenfe, if we had not struggled hard for an entrance into this world. And now we are here, alas ! though * thou art contented to abide; I live in thee, but as we both lived in the womb, an obfcure, uneafy, and unfuitable life; ⚫ thou canst feed upon material bread, and delight thyself amidst the variety of fenfitive objects thou findest here; but • what are all these things to me? I cannot subsist by them ; • that which is food to thee, is but chaff, wind, and vanity to me: if I flay with thee, I shall be still finning, and still groaning; when I leave thee, I fhall be immediately freed from both, and arrive at the fum and perfection of all the hopes,

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• defires, and whatfoever I have aimed at, and laboured for, in ⚫ all the duties of my life. Let us therefore be content to part.

Shrink not at the horror of a grave; it is, indeed, a dark and folitary houfe, and the days of darknefs may be many; • but to thee, my dear companion, it shall be a bed of rest, yea, ◄ a perfumed bed, where thy Lord Jefus lay before thee: and let the time of thy abode there be never so long, thou shalt not measure it, nor find the least tediousness in it; a thousand years there, fhall feem no more in the morning of the refur◄rection, than the sweetest nap, of an hour long, feemed to be ⚫ when I was wont to lay thee upon thy bed to rest.

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• The worms in the grave shall be nothing to thee, nor give thee the thousandth part of that trouble that a flea was wont to do; and though I leave thee, Jefus Chrift fhall watch, in the mean time, over thy duft, and not fuffer a grain of it to be loft and I will return, affuredly to thee again, at the time appointed; I take not an everlafting farewel of thee, but depart for a time, that I may receive thee for ever. To conclude, there is an unavoidable neceffity of our parting; whe⚫ther willing or unwilling, we must be feparated: but the confent of my will to part with thee, for the enjoyment of Jelus Chrift, will be highly acceptable to God, and greatly sweeten the bitter cup of death to us both.'

This, and much more, the gracious foul hath to say for its feparation from the body; by which it is easy to difcern where the gain and advantage of death lies, to all believers, and confequently, how much must it be, every way, their interest to be unbodied.'

Arg. 2. To be weary of the body, upon the pure account and reason of our hatred to fin, and longing defires after Jesus Christ, argues ftrongly grace in truth, and grace in ftrength; it is both the test of our fincerity, and measure of our attainment, and maturity of grace, and, upon both accounts, highly defirable by all the people of God.

It is fo great an evidence of the truth of grace, that the scriptures have made it the defcriptive periphrafis of a Christian: fo we find it in 2 Tim. iv. 8. the crown of life is there promised, to all them that love the appearance of Chrift, i, e. thofe that love to drink of it, that delight to steep their thoughts in fubjects belonging to the other world, and caft many a yearning. look that way and 2 Pet. iii, 12. they are described to be fuch as are "looking for, and hastening to the coming of the day' "of God." Their earnest expectations, and longings, do not

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only put them upon making all the hafte they can to be with Chrift, but it makes the interpofing time feem fo tedious, and flow, that with their most vehement wishes and defires, they do what they can to accelerate and haften it. As Rev. xxii. "Come, Lord Jefus, come quickly." Lovers hours, faith the proverb, are full of eternity.O, faid Mr. Rutherford, that Chrift would make long ftrides! O that he would fold up the • heavens, as a cloak, and shovel time and days out of the way!' Such defires as thefe, can fpring from none but gracious and renewed fouls; for nature is wholly difaffected to a removal hence, upon fuch motives and confiderations as thefe: if others with, at any time, for death, it is but in a pet, a prelent paffion, provoked by fome intolerable anguish, or great diftrefs of nature: but to look, and long, and haften to the other world, out of a weariness of fin, and a hearty willingness to be with Chrift, fuppofes neceffarily a deep-rooted hatred of fin, abhorring it more than death itself, the greatest of natural evils, and a real fight of things invifible by the eye of faith, without, which it is impoffible any man's heart fhould be thus framed and tempered.

And as it evidenceth the truth, fo alfo the ftrength and maturity of grace; for, alas, how many thousands of gracious fouls, that love the Lord Jefus in fincerity, are to be found quite below this temper of mind! O it is but here and there one, among the Lord's own people, that have reached this height and emi pence of faith and love. It is with the fruits of the Spirit, juft as it is with the fruits of the earth; fome are green and raw, others are ripe and mellow: the first stick fast on the branches, you may shake and thake again, and not one will drop; or as thofe fruits that grow in hedges, with their coats and integu ments enwrapping them, as nuts, &c. you may try your strength upon them, and fooner break your nails, than difclofe and feparate them: fo faft and close do their hufks stick to them: but when time and the influences of heaven, have ripened and brought them to perfection, the apples drop into your hands without the least touch, and the nut falls out of its cafe, of its own accord. So, much more, doth the foul part from its body, when maturated, and come to its ftrength, and vigour.

Arg. 3. It may greatly prevail upon the will and refolution of a believer, to adventure boldly and cheerfully upon death, that our bodies, of which we are bereaved and deprived by death, shall be most certainly and advantageously restored to us by the refurrection. The refurrection of the dead is the en. couragement and confolation of the dying; the more our faith is established in the doctrine of the refurrection, the more we

fhall furmount the fears of diffolution. If Paul urged it as an argument to reconcile Philemon to his fervant Onefimus, ver. 15. "That he therefore departed for a feafon, that Philemon "might receive him for ever;" the fame argument may reconcile every believer to death, and take off the prejudice of the fool against it. You fhall furely receive your bodies again, and enjoy them for ever.

Now the doctrine of the refurrection is as fure in itfelf, as it is comfortable to us; the depth, and ftrength of its foundation, fully anfwers to the height, and fweetnefs of its confolation. Be pleafed to try the two pillars thereof, and fee which of them may be doubted or fhaken. Mat. xxii. 29. "You err (faith "Chrift to the Sadducees, who denied this doctrine) not knowing the fcriptures, and the power of God." This is the ground and root of their error, not knowing the fcriptures, and the power of God: q. d. did you know and believe the fcriptures of God, and the power of God, you would never question this doctrine of the refurrection, which is built upon them both.. The power of God convinceth all men, that know and believe it, that it may be fo, and the fcriptures of God convince all that know and believe them, that it must be fo. As for his power, who can doubt it? At the command and fiat of God, the earth brought forth every living creature after his kind, Gen. i. 24, 25. at his command Lazarus came forth, John xi. 43. And was there not as much difficulty in either of thefe, as in our reforrection? By this power our fouls were quickened, and raised from the death of fin and guilt, to the fpiritual life of Chrift, Eph. i. 19. And is it not as easy to raife a dead body as a dead foul? But what ftand I arguing in fo plain a cafe, when we are affured this mighty power is able to fubdue all things to itself? Phil. iii. 21.

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And then, for his promife that it fhall be fo, what can be plainer? See Theff. iv. 15, 16. "This we fay unto you by "the word of the Lord," &c. (i. e.) in the name or authority of the Lord, and by commiffion and warrant from him. firft opens his commiffion, fhews his credentials, and then publishes the comfortable doctrine of his refurrection, and the faints pre-eminence to all others therein.

Well then, what remains in death to fright and feare a believer? Is it our parting with thefe bodies? Why, it is not for ever that we part with them; as fure as the power and promifes of God are true, firm, and fufficient to accomplish it, we thall fee and enjoy them again. This comforted Job, chap. xix. 25, 26. over all his difcafes, when of all his enjoyments that once

he had, he could not fay, my friends, my children, my eftate; yet then he could fay, my Redeemer. When he looked upon a poor wafted, withered, lothfome body of his own, and faw nothing but a fkeleton, an image of death, yet then could he fee it a glorious body, by viewing it believingly in this glafs of the refurrection. So then all the damage we can receive by death, is but the absence of our bodies for a time; during which time, the covenant-relation betwixt God and them, holds good and firm, Mat. xxii. 32. He therefore will take care of them, and in due time reftore them, with marvellous improvements. and endowments, to us again, divefted of all their infirmities, and cloathed with heavenly qualities and perfections, 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. And in the mean time, the foul attains its reft, and happiness, and fatisfaction in the bleffed God.

Arg. 4. The confideration of what we part from, and what we go to, fhould make the medium, by which we pass from fo much evil to fo great good, lovely and defirable in our eyes, how unpleafing or bitter foever it be in itself,

No man defires phyfic for itfelf. There is no pleasure in bitter pills and lothfome potions, except what rifes from the end, viz. the difburdening of nature, and recovery of health; and this gives it a value with the fick and pained. Under a like confideration is death defired by fick and pained fouls, who find it better to die once, than groan under burdens continually.

Death certainly is the beft phyfician, next, and under Jesus Chrift, that ever was employed about them; for it cures radically and perfectly, fo that the foul never relapfes more into any diftemper. Other medicines are but anodynes, or at best they relieve us but in part, and for a time; but this goes through the work, and perfects the cure at once. Methinks that call of Chrift, which he gives his fpoufe in Cant. iv. 8. " (Come with me from Lebanon (my fpoufe) with me from Lebanon: " and look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions dens, from the mountains of leopards)" fcarce fuits any time fo well as the time of death, Then it is that we depart from the lions dens, and the mountains of leopards, places uncomfortable and unfafe. More particularly at death the faints depart,

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1. From defiling corruptions
2. From heart finking forrows
3. From entangling temptations
4. From diftreffing perfecutions
5. From pinching wants
6. From diftracting fears

From deluding fhadows

into

1. Perfect purity.

2. Fulnefs of joy.
3. Everlasting freedom,
4. Full reft.

5. Univerfal fupplies. 16. Higheft fecurity. 17. Substantial good,

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