Disc. x.7 FAITH BUILT ON KNOWLÉDGL. 271 whom thou hast given me, be with me where Iam; to! behold my glory. And we should learn for the same reason to be well pleased with the time when Christ calls up to heaven' those souls that he has taken care of; for he knows the properest hour, when to dismiss them from flesh into the invisible world. If they are declining in their religion, and beginning to wander away from God, we may be ready to say, " O that they may live till they are fully recovered again to the brightness of their former profession !" But Christ, who hath the care of them, calls them now, lest they run further away, and fall into grosser sins ; he hides them from temptations in the silent grave, and seizes their souls to himself in the wisest and kindest moment. If they grow more holy, more delightful, and more lovely to all their friends, we are ready to say, " Noss let them live long, to bring more glory to God, to please, entertain, and profit us." But the voice of Christ,' to whom they had committed their souls, may say; " Now let them die, and quit the world with the fairest honour, that they may leave behind, amongst their friends and the churches, the sweetest savour of all their conversa- Lion, and the most precious memory of their names." Are they taken away by sudden death? They know himwho has the keys of death, and they have committed the care of it to him, to determine the time and the man- ner, when and how they should be released from this prison of flesh, and be taken up to his own bosom. Though they may be conveyed with a sort of surprize into the unseen world, yet it is but a seizure into the arms of their best beloved, who is ready to receive and conduct them to the Father in perfect righteousness, with abounding joy. Last Remark. This doctrine leads us on to a joyful and entertaining prospect of the great and last day; the day when Christ shall make his faithfulness appear in all the trusts that he ever undertook; for then he shall have fulfilled them all, and shall deliver up his account to the Father. Then millions of souls, that were committed to his care in successive ages, and human Bodies, an equal number, that had long lain sleeping in grave wider his
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