TO BE EXPECTED ON EARTH. 193 at our own doors ! How many distempers have vex- ed our bodies, that we have been forced to receive the sentence of death ! And are we unready and unwilling after all this ? O careless dead - hearted sinners ! unworthy neglecters of God's warnings ! faithless betrayers of our own souls ! § 21. Consider, not to die, is never to be happy. To escape death, is to miss of blessedness ; except God should translate us, as Enoch and Elijah, which he never did before or since. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. If you would not die, and go to heaven, what would you have more than an epicure, or a beast? Why do we pray, and fast, and mourn? Why do we suffer the contempt of the world ? Why are we Christians, and not pagans and infidels, if we do not desire a life to come ? Wouldst thou lose thy faith and labour, Christian ?. all thy duties and sufferings, all the end of thy life, and all the blood of Christ, and be con- tented with the portion of a worldling or a brute ? Rather say as one did on his death -bed, when he was asked whether he was willing to die or not, " Let him be loth to die, who is loth to be with Christ." Is God willing by death to glorify us, and we are unwilling to die, that we may be glorified ? Methinks, if a prince were willing to make you his heir, you would scarce be unwilling to accept it ; tlir refusing such a kindness would discover ungratitude and un- worthiness. As God hath resolved against them, who make excuses when they should come to Christ, "None of those men, who were bidden, shall taste of my sup- per ;" so it is just with him to resolve against us, who frame excuses when we should come to glory. The Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us ; and shall we be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven, for ourselves and him ? He might havé said, "What is it to me if these sinners suffer? If they value their flesh above their spirits, and their lusts above my Father's love ; if they will sell their souls for nought; who is it fit should be the loser? 7 Bb
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