The blessedness of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…The blessednesse of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…

First there is a sinful willingness or desire to die in folks carnal fits, and it is threefold, 1. A desperate willingness; when folks dow not abide some present horror on their Spirits, or some pain of their bodies, or some other very heavy and sharp cross, they will wish to be away, and some in such fits dispatch themselves by their own hands, so Judas dought not endure the horror of his own conscience, and therefore hanged himself; but this is rather an unwillingness to submit to, and bear their present lot and case, then any willingness to die: the other two are incident to the Godly if not only to them; The 2d willingness then is, when the Godly have many crosses that they dow not well bear, and are affrayed that God be dishonoured through their fainting or other miscarriages, or when they see it going ill with Gods People and his public work, and they cannot do any thing to mend it; they look upon themselves as useless and would fain be away, So Elijah 1 Kings 19. prays, Lord take away my life, because they had slain his Prophets, digged down his Altars and he only was left, as he apprehended, and they sought to take away his life; but the Lord tells him that he was wrong, that he had yet more to do with him, and that matters were not so ill as he trowed, for he had reserved ⟨p. 83⟩seven Thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal; Thus some eminent godly men in an evil time, will readily wish to be away, they dow not endure to be always fighting, striving, and contending to help and heal, especially since they think they can do no good: And yet sometimes it is not so much the case of the public, as fear of being straitened or disappointed in some one or other particular of their own, that is the great ground of their fainting and wishing to be gone, as we may see clearly in eminently godly and faithful Baruch, Jer. 45. The 3d willingness to die is, when a dispensation or affliction reflects •ore on folks credit, whither they be preachers or more private Professors; either some slip or miscarriage in themselves, or some affront put on them by others, which makes them think they will do no more good (though it may be such a thing hath come sinfully from others), or it may be from want of success in some work committed to them, or some disappointment met with which they may desire to have removed, as we see in Jonah Cap. 3.