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TI9E
DEATH OF
SAINTS
IMPROVED.
SEEM. XLI.
cross the cold
flood
of
death,
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
if
a
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
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