281 / 652
Disc. x.7
FAITH
BUILT
ON
KNOWLÉDGL.
271
whom
thou
hast
given
me, be
with
me
where
I
am;
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
him
who
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