nuo: there is no ftopping its fwift courfe, or calling back a moment that is paft. Death fet out in its journey towards us the fame hour we were born, and how near is it come this day to many of us? It hath us in chafe, and will quickly fetch us up, and overtake us; but few ftand fo long as the utmost date.

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2. Comparatively. Let us compare our time in these tabernacles, (1.) either with eternity, or with him who inhabits it, and it fhrinks up into nothing; Pfal. xxxix. 5. "Mine age is nothing unto thee." So vaft is the disproportion, that it feems not only little, but nothing at all. Or (2.) with the duration of the bodies of men in the first ages of the world, when they lived many hundred years in these fleshly tabernacles. The length of their life was the benefit of the world, becaufe religion was then awalporapadoror, a thing handed down from father to fon; but certainly it would be no benefit to us that are in Chrift, to be fo long fufpended the fruition of God in the everlafting reft.

The grounds and reafons of this neceffity that lies upon all, to put off their earthly tabernacles fo foon, are

1. The law of God, or his appointment.

2. The providence of God ordering it fuitable to this appointment.

1. The law or appointment of God which came in force immediately upon the fall; Gen. ii. 17. "In the day that thou "cateft thereof, thou shalt furely die." And accordingly it took place upon all mankind immediately upon the firft tranfgreffion, Rom. v. 12. Death entred by fin. The threatning was not his immediate, actual, perfonal death in the day that he should eat, but a state of mortality to commence from that time to him and his pofterity; hence it is faid, Heb. ix. 27. "It is appointed to "all men once to die."

2. The providence of God ordering and framing the body of man fuitably to this his appointment; * a frail, weak creature, having the feeds of death in his conftitution: Thoufands of difeafes and infirmities are bred in his nature, and the fmalleft pore in his body is a door large enough to let in death. Heuce his body is compared to a piece of cloth which moths have fretted, Pfal. xxxix. 11. it is become a forry rotten thing which

*We die daily, for fome part of life is taken away daily, and then alfo when we increase, life decreafes, for first we lose infancy, then youth, even to yesterday. Whatever part of time paffes is loft.

cannot long hang together. And indeed it is a wonder it continues fo long as it doth.

And both thefe, viz. the divine appointment and providence, are in pursuance of a double defign, or for the payment of a twofold debt, which God owes to the first and to the fecond Adam.

(1.) By cutting off the life, or diffolving the tabernacles of wicked men, God pays that debt of juftice owing to the first Adam's finful pofterity, whofe fins cry daily to his juftice to cut them off. Rom. vi. 23. "The wages of fin is death." And indeed it is admirable that his patience fuffers ungodly men to live fo long as they do, for he endures with much long-fuffering, Rom. ix. 22. He fees all their fins, he is grieved at the heart with them; his forbearance doth but encourage them the more to fin against him; Eccl. viii. 11. "Because fentence," &c. yet forbears: "Forty years long was I grieved with this generati

on," Pfal. xcv. 10. And it is wonderful that he hath fo much patience under fuch a load. Habbakkuk admired it, Hab. i. 13. "Thou art of purer eyes," &c. Yet he fuffers them to spend lavishly upon his patience from year to year, but justice must do its office at last.

(2.) By cutting off the lives of good men, God pays to Chrift the reward of his fufferings, the end of his death, which was to bring many fons to glory, Heb. ii. 10. Alas! it anfwers not Christ's end and intention in dying, to have his people fo remote from him; John xvii. 24. "He would have them where "he is, that they might behold his glory." Two vehement de fires are fatisfied by this appointment of God, and its execution, viz.

1. Chrift's.

2. The faints.

1. Chrift's defires are fatisfied; for this is the thing he ail along kept his eye upon in the whole work of his mediation; it was to bring us to God, 1 Pet. iii. 18. Tho' he be in glory, yet his myftical body is not full till all the elect be gathered in by converfion. and gathered home by glorification, Eph. i. 23. The church is his fulness. He is not fully fatisfied till he fee his feed, the fouls he died for, fafe in heaven; and then the debt due to him for all his fufferings is fully paid him, Ifa. liii. 11. He fees the travail of his foul. As it is the greatest fatisfaction, and pleasure a man is capable of in this world, to fee a great defign, which hath been long projecting and managing, at last, by an orderly conduct, brought to its perfection.

2. The defires of the faints are hereby fatisfied, and their

weary fouls brought to reft. Oh! what do gracious fouls more pant after than the full enjoyment of God, and the vifions of his face the ftate of freedom from fin, and complete conformity to Jefus Chrift! From the day of their efpoufals to Chrift, thefe de fires have been working in their fouls. Love and patience have each acted its part in them, 2 Theff. iii. 5. Love hath put them into an holy ardor and longing to be with Chrift: patience hath qualified and allayed thofe defires, and fupported the foul under the delay. Love cries, Come, Lord, come; patience commands us to wait the appointed time. This appointed time, on which fo great hopes and expectations depend, is the time of diffolving these tabernacles; for till then the foul's reft is fufpended; and if it were perfectly freed from all other loads and burdens, both of fin and affliction, yet its very abfence from Chrift would alone make it reftlefs: for it is with the foul in the body, as is with any other creature that is off its centre, it doth and must gravitate and propend, it is ftill moving and inclining farther, and feels not itfelf cafy and at reft where it is, be its condition in other refpects never fo cafy. 2 Cor. v. 6. “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are abfent "from the Lord." You have a little fhadow, or emblem of this in other creatures: You fee the rivers, though they glide never fo fweetly betwixt the fragrant banks of the most pleasant meadows in their courfe and paffage, yet on they go towards the fea; and if they meet with never to many rocks or hills to refift their courfe, they will either ftrive to get a paffage through them, or if that may not be, they will fetch a compafs, and creep about them, and nothing can stop them till by a central force they have finished their weary course, and poured themselves into the bofom of the ocean. Or as it is with yourfelves, when abroad from your habitations and relations: this may be pleafing a little while; but if every day might be a festival, it would not long please you, because you are not at home.

The main motives that perfuade gracious fouls to abide here, are to finish the work of their own falvation, and farther other mens; but as their evidences for heaven grow clearer to themfelves, and their capacity of fervice lefs to others, so must their defires to be with Christ be more and more inflamed.

Now the cafe fo ftanding, that Chrift's condition in heaven, being a condition of defire and longing for the enjoyment of his people there, and all the glory of heaven would not content him without that; and the condition of his people on earth, being alfo a flate of longing, groaning and panting to be with him, and all the picafures and delights and comforts they have on earth,

will not content them without it: How wife and gracious an appointment of heaven is it, that these our tabernacles fhall and must be put off, and that shortly! For hereby a full and mutual fatisfaction is given to the restless defires both of Chrift's heart and of theirs: See the reflected flames of love betwixt them, in Rev. xxii. "The spirit and the bride fay, Come. And let him "that is athirst come; Behold, I come quickly. Even fo, Lord "Jefus; Come quickly." Delays make the heart fad, Prov. xiii. 12. fhould our commoration on earth be long, our patience had need be much greater than it is; but under all our burdens here, this is our relief, it is but a little while, and all will be well, as well as our fouls can defire to have it.

Infer. 1. Muft we put off thefe tabernacles? Is death neceffary and inevitable? Then it is our wifdem to fweeten to ourselves that cup which we must drink; and make that as pleasant to us, as we can, which we know cannot be avoided. Die we muft, whether we be fit, or unfit, willing, or unwilling: It is to no purpose to shrug at the name, or fhrink back from the thing. In all ages of the world, death hath swept the ftage clean of one generation, to make room for another, and fo it will from age to age, till the ftage be taken down, in the general diffolution. But though death be inevitable by all, it is not alike evil, bitter, and dreadful to all. Some tremble, others triumph, at the appearance of it. Some meet it half way, receive it as a friend, and can bid it welcome, and die by confent; making that the matter of their election, which, in itself, is neceffary and unavoidable; fo did Paul, Phil. i. 23. But others are drawn, or rent by plain violence from the body, Job xxvii. 3. when God draws out their fouls.

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That man is happy indeed, whofe heart falls in with the appointment of God, to voluntarily and freely, as that he dare not only look death in the face with confidence, but go along with it by confent of will. Remarkable to this purpofe, is that which the apoftle afferts of the frame of his own heart, 2 Cor. v. 8. "We are confident, I fay, and willing rather to be abfent from the body, and prefent with the Lord." Here is both confidence and complacence, with refpect to death, Capper. The word fignifies courage, fortitude; or, if you will, an undaunted boldaefs, and prefence of mind, when we look the king of terrors in the face. We dare venture upon death, we dare take it by the cold hand, and bid it welcome. We dare defy its enmity, and deride its noxious power, 1 Cor. xv. 55. "O death! where is thy fting!" And that is not all, we have complacence in it, as well as confidence to

encounter it. Eudoxus, we are willing; the tranflation is too flat, We are well pleafed; it is a defirable, a grateful thing to us, to die; but yet not in an abfolute, but comparative confideration, Eudoxus μaλhov, we are willing rather, i. e. rather than not fee, and enjoy our Lord Jefus Chrift; rather than to be here always finning, and groaning. There is no complacency in death; in itfelf it is not defireable. But if we must go through that ftrait gate, or not fee God; we are willing rather to be ablent from the body. So that you fee death was not the matter of his fubmiffion only, he did not yield to what he could not avoid, but he ballances the evils of death, with the privileges it admits the foul into, and then pronounces, sudoxur, we are content, yea, pleased to die.

We cannot live always if we would, and our hearts should be wrought to that frame, as to fay, we would not live always if we could, Job vii. 16. "I would not live always," or long, faith he. But why fhould Job deprecate that which was not attainable? "I would not live always;" he needed not to trouble himself about that, it being impoffible that he fhould: both ftatute and natural law forbid it. Ay, but this is his fenfe: fuppofing no fuch neceffity as there is, if it were pure matter of election; upon a due ballancing of accounts, and comparing the good and evil of death, I would not be confined always, or for any long time to the body. It would be a bondage unfupportable to be here always.

Indeed thofe that have their portion, their all, in this life, have no defire to be gone hence. They that were never changed by grace, defire no change by death; if fuch a conceffion were made to them, as was once to an English parliament, That they should never be diffolved, but by their own confent, when would they fay as Paul," I defire to be diffolved?" But it is far otherwife with them, whofe portion and affections are in another world; they would not live aiways if they might; knowing, that never to die, is never to be happy.

Queft. If you fay, This is an excellent, and most defirable temper of foul; but how did these holy men attain it? or what is the courfe we may take to get the like frame of willingness?

Sol. They attained it, and you may attain it in fuch methods as thefe.

1. They lived in the believing views of the invifible world, and so muft you, if ever death be defirable in your eyes, 2 Cor. iv. 18. It is faid of all that died comfortably," that they died "in faith," Heb. xi. 13. You will never be willing to go along with death, except you know where it will carry you.