Sermons upon death and eternal judgment

4. A holy indifference of affection to present things, makes it easy to part with them, and Death less fearful to us. David, tho a King, declares he was a stranger on Earth, not only with respect to his transient condition, but his inward disposition; and ⟨p. 141⟩that he was as a weaned Child from the admired Vanities of the World. Chrysostom in a Letter to Ciriacus who was tenderly sensible of his Banishment, wrote to him, You now begin to lament my Banishment, but I have done so for a long time: for since I knew that Heaven was my Country, I have esteemed the whole Earth a place of exilement. Constantinople, from whence I am expelled, is as distant from Paradise as the Desert to which they send me. But when our affections are set upon external things, and we are irregular in our aims, intemperate in our use, and immoderate in our delights, how sensible & cutting is the division from them? How bitter is Death that deprives a carnal Wretch of all the materials of his frail Felicity? What a storm of passions is raised ⟨p. 142⟩to lose all his good things at once? for 'tis a Rule in Nature, What is possest with transporting Joy, is lost with excessive Sorrow. As the Ivy that twines so closely about the Tree, and is intimately fastened by so many roots as there are branches, cannot be plucked away without rending the Bark with it; so when the World, that was as it were incarnated with the Heart, is taken away, the Heart it self is grievously rent by the violent separation.¹ And the infelicity of carnal and worldly persons is heavily aggravated, in that the guilt in procuring or abusing those treasures and delights that they leave here with so great sorrow, will cleave to them, and give Testimony against them before their Judg. But when the Affections are loose to the World, and set upon Heaven, the separating ⟨p. 143⟩with the Earth, is no loss but gain, and with that alacrity, as the putting off a vile garment to be clothed with a Royal Robe.² 'Twas the wise Counsel of Tertullian to the Women of the first Ages of the Church, not to value and love the Jewels and Ornaments of Gold, that they might be more ready and resolved to obtain by Death Martyrdom, and by Martyrdom Eternal Glory. And that we may disentangle our Souls from those voluntary bands that fasten us to present things, we must have a sincere uncorrupted judgment of their meanness.