Page:Great importance of a suitable preparation for death (2).pdf/3

Rh come from afar? where will we flee for reſt; and, where will we leave our glory? Old rich men, where will ye flee when death aſſaults you? Old poor men, where will ye flee when death aſſaults you! Old women, where will you flee when death aſſaults you? Young women, where will you flee when death aſſaults you? It was an ancient obſervation of David, Pſalm xxxix. 5. that 'God had made his days as an hand breadth.' This either may relate to the fourfold ſtate of man, viz. His infancy, his child-hood, his manhood, and his old age. Or, it may relate to the fourfold time of his life, viz. His morning, his forenoon, his afternoon, and his evening: yet, all our lifetime is but a day. And, O think ye not that our day is near unto a cloſe!

Now before that I begin to ſpeak any thing from the words, I ſhall ſpeak a few things to theſe two queſtions, which I conceive may not altogether be unprofitable.

Queſt. 1. Whether is it lawful for any to deſire to die, and return unto their long and endleſs home? Whether it be lawful for one to cry out, O time, time flee away (and all my shadows let them be gone) that ſo, long eternity may come?

Anſ. I ſay, It is lawful in ſome caſes, for one to deſire to die; for it was Paul's deſire, Philip. i. 23. 'I am in a ſtrait betwixt two, having a deſire to depart, and to be with Chriſt, which is far better.' And 2 Cor. v. 2. 'We groan earneſtly, deſiring to be clothed upon with our houſe, which is from heaven.' I long greatly till the twenty-firſt year of my age come, when my minority ſhall be overpaſt, that I may be entered heir to that matchless inheritance. But to clear in what caſes it is lawful to desire to die.

I. I ſay, It is lawful to deſire to die, when it floweth from a deſire of uninterrupted fellowſhip and communion with Chriſt, and conjunction with him, this is clear, 2 Cor. v. 6. 'Knowing that whilſt we are at home in the body, we are abſent from the Lord.' Therefore, Verſe 8. 'We are willing rather to be