The works of George Swinnock, M.A

The blessed Prince, and Lord of life, should be our pattern at death. He got his Father most glory, he did his Church most good, by his death, though he was eminently serviceable to both all his life time. Its said of him, He was obedient (Phil. 2. 7.) to the death; Which may import, 1. His continuance in well-doing; His obedience lasted to the last moment of his life; so should ours. Elisha would not leave his Master, till taken from him into Heaven, and we should not leave our Lord till taken to him into Heaven. Polycarp in his old age being urged by the Proconsul to deny Christ, answered, I have served him eighty six years, and he never once hurt me, and shall I now deny him? 2. His obedience in his death; His death was a Free-will offering in obedience to his Fathers command. Not only his birth and life was an answer to his Fathers call; A body hast thou prepared, &c. Then said I, Lo, I come (to put on that body, to take upon […] that nature, and thereby and therein) to do thy Will, O God; but also his death was in pursuance of his duty; This commandment received I of my Father; Thus the Christians death must be offered up as a sacrifice to God, in obedience to his command. The Sinners soul is Pressed to this War, in which there is no discharge; This night thy soul shall be required of thee. The Saint ⟨p. 616⟩understanding the orders from the Lord of Hosts, is a Volunteer; He gives up the Ghost; Into thy hands Lord I commend my Spirit. 3. The gracious manner of his dying. The Sun of righteousness, when setting, did shine most gloriously. Though at his death he had such infinite disadvantage, being to wrestle with the frowns of an incensed God, the fury of earth and Hell, and met with clouds, black, and thick enough to have obscured the graces, and hindered the holiness of any but himself, from shining at all, yet how brightly did they break forth in the midst of all those Fogs, and Mists, and Darkness! What holy counsel and comfort did he give his Disciples to prepare them for his departure, in his last (and one of his longest) Sermon! Joh. 14, 15, 16. What an heavenly prayer doth he put up to his Father for them, and all his elect! to give them both a taste and a pledge of that intercession which he was going to Heaven to make for them. When he was hanging on the Cross, under such an heavy weight as the sins of the whole World, Grace was not depressed.