454 4L1FE OF /AITH. ago to prefer the heavenly and. durable felicity, refuse it not now when thou art so near the port. If it have taught thee long ago to be as a stranger in this Sodom, and to renounce this sinful 'world and flesh, linger not now as unwilling to depart ; repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past; repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory, ; nur of thy voyage when thou art past the storms and waves, and ready to land at the haven of felicity. Thus faith may sing our' nuns dimittis,' when the flesh is loath- est to be dissolved. But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith. Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly, worldly life; nor of a careless, dull and negligent life. Nature, which brought us into the world, without our forecast or care, will turn us out of the world without it. But it will not give us a joyful passage, nor bring us to a better world without it. It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honorable and plentiful estate, (if that they may fall from a higher place than others; and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them, and may have a greater account to make at judgment;. and that their pas- sage to heaven may as a camel's through a needle.) And may a believing, joyful death be expected, without the.preparations of exercise and experience 'in a believing life? Nature is so much afraid of dying, and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense, and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world, that even true believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart and be with Christ, and t0 die in the joyful hopes of faith. A little abatement of the terrors of death, a little supporting hope and peace, is all that the greater part of them attain, instead of the fervent desires, and triumphant joys, which the lively belief of endless glory should produce. O, therefore, make it the work of your lives! of all your lives! your greatest work, your constant work, to live by faith; that the faith which hath first conquered all the `rest of your enemies; may be able also to overcome the last; and may do your last work well, when it bath done the rest..
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=