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DEATH
A
BLESSING
TO
THE SAINTS.
[SEEM.
XLII4
ness
of
God
upon
us,
we shall find sweet
satisfaction
;,
P's.
xvii.
I5.
"
I
shall be satisfied when
I
awake
with thy
likeness."
Death
leaves a saint, as
it
were,
but one
thing
to wish or hope
for,
and
that
is
the
resurrection,
or
the
accomplishment
of
this text
in
its
completest
sense, viz.
that
their
bodies
may awake
out
of
the grave with,the
likeness
of Christ
upon
them,
and
be
made conform-
able
to his
glorious
body,
in
vigour,
beauty,
and im-
mortality.
VII.
Death
is
a happiness
to
a christian
;
for
it
di-
vides him for
ever from the company
of
sinners
and
ene-
mies,
and
places him
in
the
society
of
his
best friends,
his
God,
and
his
Saviour,
his fellow
-
saints,
and
the
innu-
merable
company
of
angels. O how
sorely has
the
soul
of
many a saint been vexed
here
on
earth,
as,
the
soul
of
Lot
was
in
Sodom,
with the conversation
of
the wicked
°.
How
have they often
complained
of
the hidings
of
the
face
of
God,
of
the absence
of Christ
their Lord,
and
the
sensible withdrawings
of
the
influences
of
the blessed
Spirit
!
There
is
a great
partition
-wall betwixt
us
and
the
happy
world, whilst
we
are
in
this
life;
the
veil
of
flesh
and
blood
divides us from the world
of
spirits,
and
from
the glorious inhabitants of
it.
With what surprising joy
shall a poor, humble, watchful christian,
that
has
been
teazed
long,
and
long
tormented
with
the company
of
the
wicked,
enter
into
that
illustrious and
blessed
society,.
When
death
shall
break
down the
partition
-wall,
and
rend
the veil
of
flesh
and blood
that
divided
him from
them,
and
kept
him
at
a
painful distance
!
"
It
is
bet-
ter, infinitely better, shall
the
departed
soul
say,
to
see
God without
the medium
of
such ordinances,
as
I
have
used
on
earth:
It
is
better
to
be
absent
from
the body,
and to be
present
with
the
Lord
Jesus.
It
is
better to
ascend, and worship in
the midst
of
the heavenly
Jerusaa
km,
and amongst
that
blessed assembly
of
the first
-born,
j
than
to be
oined
to
the
purest
churches
on
earth,
or
to
be
engaged in
the noblest
acts
of
wo
rship, which the
state of mortality
admits
of
Farewell
sins
and
sinners
for
ever
:
Temptations and tempters,
farewell to
all
eter-
nity. And
ye,
my
dear
holy friends, beloved
in
the
Lord,
my
pious relatives,
my
companions
in
faith and
worship,
farewell,
but for a short
season, till
you
also