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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
of
myself,
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
the
same
foundation
'too
?
This
is
my
hope.
Is it not
Your
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.