April 3

These all died in faith.—Hebrews 11:12.

THE faith of the patriarchs saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. They looked beyond the type to the antitype. From the earthly Canaan to the heavenly Canaan. And in the faith of the heavenly inheritance they died.

They that live by faith must die in faith; yea, and die by faith too. Faith must bring in their dying comforts. And oh how full and how near a treasure hath it to go to! To die to this world, is to be born into another. Beggars are best when they are abroad. The travel of the ungodly is better to them than their home: but the believer's home is so much better than his travel, that he hath little cause to be afraid of coming to his journey's end; but should rather every step cry out, Oh, when shall I be at home with Christ! Is it earth or heaven that you have prayed for, and labored for, and waited, and suffered for till now? And doth he indeed pray, and labor, and suffer for heaven, who would not come thither?

It is faith that overcometh the world and the flesh, which must also overcome the fears of death, and can look with boldness into the loathsome grave, and can triumph over both as victorious through Christ. It is faith which can say, Go forth, O my soul; depart in peace: thy course is finished: thy warfare is accomplished: the day of triumph is now at hand: thy patience hath no longer work: go forth with joy: the morning of thy endless joys is near; and the night of fears and darkness at an end. Thy terrible dreams are ending in eternal pleasures; the glorious light will banish all thy dreadful spectres, and resolve all those doubts which were bred and cherished in the dark. They whose employment is their weariness and toil, do take the night of darkness and cessation for their rest; but this is their weariness: defect of action is thy toil; and thy most grievous labor is to do too little work; and thy incessant vision, love, and praise, will be thy incessant ease and pleasure; and thy endless work will be thy endless rest! Depart, O my soul, with peace and gladness! Thou leavest not a world, where wisdom and piety, justice and sobriety, love, and peace, and order do prevail; but a world of ignorance and folly, of brutish sensuality and rage, of impiety, and malignant enmity to good; a world of injustice and oppression, and of confusion and distracting strifes! Thou goest not to a world of darkness and wrath, but of light and love; from hellish malice to perfect amity; from Bedlam rage to perfect wisdom; from mad confusion to perfect order; to sweetest unity and peace; even to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to the celestial glorious city of God! Thou goest not from heaven to earth, from holiness to sin, from the sight of God into an infernal dungeon; but from earth to heaven, from sin and imperfection to perfect holiness, and from palpable darkness into the vital splendor of the face of God! Thou goest not amongst enemies, but to dearest friends; not amongst mere strangers, but to many whom thou hast known by sight, and to more whom thou hast known by faith, and must know by the sweetest communion for ever. Thou goest not to unsatisfied justice, nor to a condemning, unreconciled God; but to love itself, to infinite goodness, the fountain of all created and communicated good; to the Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of souls; to him who prepared heaven for thee, and now hath prepared thee for heaven. Go forth then in triumph, and not with terror, O my soul! The prize is won: possess the things which thou hast so long prayed for, and sought! Make haste and enter into thy Master's joy! Go view the glory which thou hast so long heard of; and take thy place in the heavenly choir; and bear thy part in their celestial melody! Sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God; and receive that which Christ in his covenant did promise to give thee at the last. Go boldly to that blessed God, with whom thou hast so powerful a Mediator, and to the throne of whose grace thou hast had so oft and sweet access. If heaven be thy fear and sorrow, what can be thy joy? And where wilt thou have refuge, if thou fly from God? If perfect endless pleasures be thy terror, where then dost thou expect content? If grace have taught thee long ago to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity, refuse it not now when thou art so near to the port. If it have taught thee long ago to be as a stranger in this Sodom, and to renounce this sinful world and flesh, linger not now as unwilling to depart; repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past; repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory; nor of thy voyage, when thou art past the storms and waves, and ready to land at the haven of felicity. Thus may faith sing our dying song, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word," even when the flesh is most loth to be dissolved.

But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith. Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly, worldly life; nor of a careless, dull, and negligent life. Nature, which brought us into the world, without our forecast or care, will turn us out of the world without it. But it will not give us a joyful passage, nor bring us to a better world without. It costs worldlings no small care to die in an honorable and plentiful estate, (if that they may fall from a higher place than others, and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them, and may have a greater account to make at judgment; and that their passage to heaven may be as a camel's though a needle.) And may a believing, joyful death be expected, without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life? Nature is so much afraid of dying, and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense, and so hardly rises to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world, that even true believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart, and be with Christ, and to die in the joyful hopes of faith. A little abatement of the terrors of death, a little supporting hope and peace, is all that the greater part of them attain, instead of the fervent desires, and triumphant joys, which the lively belief of endless glory should produce. O therefore make it the work of your lives! of all your lives! your greatest work, your constant work, to live by faith; that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies, may be able also to overcome the last; and may do your last work well, when it hath done the rest.