A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

9. Another part of the Gain of Godliness is, that it puts us into a Readiness to die, and a fitness to appear before the Lord. Though all the Godly have not so great a readiness as to desire to be presently dissolved, yet all of them are in a safe condition, and are so far ready, that death shall pass them into a blessed state. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with h•, eternal in the heavens. And in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: And God that hath given […] the earnest of his Spirit, hath wrought in us; to be always confident (or at least given us cause) knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (For we walk by ⟨p. 228⟩faith, and not by sight) we are confident I say and willing, rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5. 1, 2, 8, 9. Though the abode of the godly in the flesh is usually more needful to those about them, yet to themselves their death is gain, and therefore they have cause to desire to depart, and be with Christ, as being far better, Phil. 1. 21, 23, 24. For sin which is the sting of death is mortified, and the curse of the Law which is the strength of it, is relaxed or null fied to us by the Gospel: so that the Believer may triumph and say. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? 1 Cor. 15. 55, 56. and to give thanks to God that giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ, vers. 57. Verily I would not exchange my part (though alas too small or dark a part) in this one privilege of true Believers, for all the wealth and dominions on earth. O the face of Death will soon make the Glory of all your greatness to vanish, and the beauty of your flourishing estates to wither; and all that you now glory in, to appear as nothing. And then how glad would you be to change Portions with the holy servants of the Lord, whom you now despise! When once you hear, [Thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul! and whose then are all those things that thou hast provided?]