259 / 674
GERM.
XLtrr.1
DEATH
A
ALESSTÑG TO
THE SAINTS.
1'39
bear
sufferings
and sorrows with holy
patience,
as
a good
soldier
of
Christ, it
is
thy
duty
to
abide
in
thy
post during
his pleasure, to
fill
up the
hours
with service,
and
to
sus-
tain
the fatigues
and burdens
of
the
mortal state
to
the
glory of
God
thy Saviour
:
But
he does
not require
that
thou
shouldest
fall in love
with a
state
of
guilt and pain,
a state that
has
so
much sin
and temptation,
so
much
burden and fatigue
in
it
:
he
gives
thee leave
to
groan
after
the
hour of release
and
deliverance.
In
this
ta-
bernacle
we
groan earnestly
being
burdened
;"
2
Cor.
v.
2.
"
Consider further,
O
my soul,
what
is
there
in
this
world
that
should make thee fond
of
cóntinuing among
the inhabitants
of it? Has not
the
world,
thou dwellest
in,
sufficiently
discovered
itself
to
thee, as
a land
of
mere
vanity
and vexation,
and
art
thou fond
of the
tents
of
Meshec and
Kedar,
where thy soul has
so
little peace
?
Art
thou afraid
to
change thy dwelling place
?
Hast
thou
not
been teazed long
enough with the company
of
sin
ners,
or
the foolish and
unfriendly carriage
of
those who
are imperfect
saints
?
Hast
thou
not
been
often ready to
say,
O
that
I
had the
wings
of
a
dove,
to
fly
away
from the windy storni and tempest
!
Ps.
Iv. 6,
7.
to
get afar
off from the rage
and
malice
of
enemies,
from
the troublesome
infirmities
of
friends,
afar
off from
the
peevishness, the
envy
and the
passion
of
some
of
thy
fellow
-
christians
?
How often
hast
thou
wished even
for
a
wilderness where thou mayest be
at
rest
?
Behold
the
door
of death
will
shortly open
itself
to
thee, and
will
let
thee
in,
not
to a wilderness,
but
to a
paradise,
to
a
place
of
eternal rest and
freedom from
all
uneasy soci-
ety
;
and yet thou
delayest
and hangest
backward, and
art
afraid
to go."
"
In
that upper
world
the saints
have
no follies
about
them, no vicious and
fretful humours, no springs
ofvexa-
tion
;
they leave all
their
weaknesses,
their
envy,
and
their
anger behind them
in
the
grave.
In
the heavenly
country, every companion
is
an everlasting friend,
and
all
thy
dear
and pious kindred,
who
are departed, have
put
off every
thing
that
once made thee or them uneasy.
They are
far better company
above than
ever
they
were,
or
could
be;
here
on
earth
;
.
and dost thou
not want to
see them
all in their best
raiment of
grace and glory
;