202 THE DEATH OF SAINTS IMPROVED. [SERM. XLI1 Now, according to the best knowledge I have of what faith is, I, do believe in Christ, and I shall have life everlasting. Does not the scripture say, " He that hun- gereth and thirsteth after righteousness, shall be satisfied ; Mat. v. 6. Surely I hunger and thirst after it, I desire to be holy, I long to be conformable to God, and to be made more like him ; shall I not then be satisfied'. I love God, I love Christ, I desire to love him more, to be more like him, and to serve him in heaven without sin. I have faith, I have love, I have repentance, yet I boast not, for I have nothing ofmyself, I speak it all to the ho- nour of the grace of God, it is all grace : I say then, I have faith, and repentance, and love ; but faith afid re- pentance are all nothing without Christ; it is he makes all acceptable to the Father, and I trust in him. My friends, I have built on this foundation Jesus Christ, he is indeed the only foundation : Have you not built on thesame foundation 'too ? This is my hope. Is it notYour hope also ? Dear brother, I shall see you at the right- hand of Christ : There I shall see our friends that are gone a little before : I shall be with them first before you. I thank you, my friends, for all your offices of love; you have prayed with me, you have refreshed me ; I love and honour you now, but I shall meet you in heaven, I goto my God and your God, to my' Saviour and your Saviour*. Would one think there could be so much pleasure in the dying chamber of a beloved friend ? Surely this makes good the words of my text; if we are christians, death is ours. O this is a divine entertainment that re- freshes our spirits ! And while sorrow trickles from our eyes for the loss of a departing christian-friend; there is a sympathy ofjoy that works powerfully at the heart, and the heaven within us breaks out and shines through our tears. Then, with a wondrous mixture of the painful and the pleasant, with a sweet confusion of pious pas- sions, we bid our dying brother, Farewell." At such a season as this, our thoughts are led upward to heaven, and forward to the great resurrection. We * These are some of the dying words of the Reverend Mr. Samuel Rose- well, when, with some other friends, I went to visit him two days before his death, and which I transcribed as soon as I came home, by their as- sistance.
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