DISC. II:] T.HE..WATCHFI7L.-CHRISTIAN DYING IN PEACE. 351 Consideration I. That moment dispossesses us of every enjoyment.of fleshand blood, and divides us from the commerce of this visible world, but the wakeful. Christian is happy,. for he is ready to be thus divided and° dispossessed. Death breaks the band,- at once, between us and all the sensible things round about us, by dissolv- ing the frameof this body, whichhad united us.to them And the watchful saint is content to have that bond, broken, these unions dissolved. His heart. and soul are not torn away from the dear delights of this mortal state. with that pain, anguish, and horror that attend the sin- ner, when death summons him off the stage, and divides him from his fleshly idols. The christian bath been un- tying his heart, by degrees, from the dearest delights of sense, and disengaging . it from all that is not immortal With holy pleasure he can bid farewell to sun, moon, and stars, and to all. things, which their light can shew him, for he is going to a world, where the sun of righte ousness ever Shines in unclouded glory, and discovers Such sights as are infinitely superior to all that the eyes of flesh can behold : He can part with friends :and kin, Bred with a composed spirit, for he is going to meet bet- ter friends, 'and diviner kindred, as we shall shew imme- diately : He can leave his dying flesh behind him, and commit it to the dust, in joyful hope of the great rising day, and he hath a better mansion at present provided -for him on high in his Father's house, while he lives far separate from all earthly dwellings, 2 Cor.v. i. "W6 know, that if this earthly house of our tabernacle be dis- solved, we have a building of God, not made witlí hands, eternal in the heavens." Consideration II. The momeìñt of death finishes our state of trial, and fixes us unchangeably in the state of sin and holiness, in which weare then found;. and blessed is the watchful christian, for he is prepared to have his trial thus ended, and his state thus fixed, and made un- changeable. As the tree falls, so it .lies, whether'to the north or the south," Eccles. xi. 3. As the soul- parts from the body, so it remains, whether fitted for-heaven or held It is therefore a matter of the last importance to be pre- pared, and ready for such an eternal sentence and un- changeable determination. Were any of us.tó be sur- prized some moment this day, and forced; tocontinue'all A 3
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