íf74 TI9E DEATH OF SAINTS IMPROVED. SEEM. XLI. cross the cold flood ofdeath, by the example of a single saint, who has passed that important hour with success and honour. So you have seen a flock of sheep stand doubtful and delaying on the bank of some little brook; 'but . when the first and second have made their way through it, the rest venture over in multitudes, and leap the ditch. with the greatest ease ; the difficulty and the danger vanish at once, when they have seen a forerunner leading the way. Thus it bath been made evident in several instances, that the death of fellow-christians is ours. It shall turn to our great advantage, through the influences of the gospel, and the Spirit of grace, where christians die like 'themselves, in the exercise of a joyful hope. It con- firms our faith in the gospel of Christ, it encourages our imitation of their holy life, it makes earth and this life less pleasant to us, and heaven more desirable, and it in- structs us how to die. But ifa saint go out of this world under much darkness and terror, this is commonly to be supposed a divine chastisement for the criminal indulgence of some temp- tation, or some unwatchful steps he has taken in the course of his life ; for God will make his own people know, many times by painful experience, that it is an evil and bitter thing to backslide and depart from him. A wise and pious spectator, upon this occasion, will take warning by the terrors of the Lord, and by the punish- ment of his fellow-christian, to avoid that guilt, and those criminal indulgencies, which have provoked God to leave his brother to darkness, even in the hour of death : And this may be a means to awaken him to a most watchful course of holiness, lest he fall under the same strokes of anger from his heavenly Father, and suffer his displeasure in that awful moment, when he would most earnestly wish for the sweetest sense of his love. Thus I have finished the third general head, and shewed that the death of the saints may be richly improved to the advantage of the living. THE REGCOLLECTION. " Come, my soul., who art daily conversing with the affairs and concerns of life, come now, and meditate on the name of .death: It is a name that carries much terror it to nature; come, and see whether thou canst not 3
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