THE DEATH OP SAINTS IMPROVED. CSERM. Ps. xxxvii. 37. we areanimated to walk with God in the same uprightness, and to press after the same perfection. Having such a cloud of witnesses that have gtte be- fore us, and Christ our Lord at the head of them, we run with patience the race that is set before us, till wearrive at the promisedglory ;" Heb. xii. 1. To stand near the bed of a dying saint, and observe the sweet serenity of his soul under the agonies of bis flesh, would force Balaam himself to say, " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his ;" Num. xxiii. 10. But the. Christian goes further, and with holy zeal, and humble dependance upon divine grace,. establishes himself in the ways of holiness : He resolves that he will live the life of the righteous too, and tread in the paths of piety with utmost watchfulness and . care that he may lay a foundation for the same peaceful reflections on his death-bed, and the same joyful pros- pect. 3. The death of fellow-saints is for our benefit, as it weans us from this world, as it makes earth and this life less pleasant to us, and heaven more desirable. Every holy soul that leaves the world, carries away so much more grace and goodness from it. What would this world be if all the saints had left it, but a cage of unclean birds, a nest of serpents, a wilderness of savage beasts, a habitation of Satan, and his sons and daughters; a dwelling ofdevils, and a region of darkness a-kin tohell ? Did not converting grace turn sinners into saints, and make a constant succession of Christians, this would be the dismal character of this world in the space of one generation. But, _blessed be God, as bad as this world is, divine grace is still at work, and makes it a sort of nursery for heaven by new conversions. Yet still the death of the saints is the loss of so mnch of heaven' out of our sinful world and the fewer friends God has here, there will be the fewer communications between heaven and earth. The absence of Christ and his saints, spreads a sort of dim shadow over all the fairest colours of this lower creation : the beauties of it fade, and the flowers of it, in our esteem, languish and bang their heads, because Jesus, and so manyof his holy ones, are departed. When we see one pious friend after another, taking their leave of us, and ascending to the
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