A Body of Practical Divinity

Rachel wept for her Children; some grieve that they have no Children, and others grieve that their Children are undutiful. Thus we spend our years with sighing; 'tis a Valley of Tears: But Death is the Funeral of all our Sorrows, Rev. 7.17. And God shall wipe away all Tears. Then Christs Spouse puts off her Mourning. How can the Children of the Bride Chamber Mourn, when the Bride-Groom shall be with them? Matt. 9.15. Thus Death gives a Believer his Quietus est; it frees him from Sin and Trouble. Though the Apostle calls Death the last Enemy, 1 Cor. 15. yet it is the best Friend: To me to dye is gain.

Use 1. See here that which may make a true Saint willing to die: Death will set him out of Gun-shot; free him from Sin and Trouble. There is no cause of weeping, to leave a Valley of Tears. The World is the Stage on which Sin and Misery are Acted. Believers are here in a strange Country, why then should they not be willing to go out of it? Death beats off their Fetters of Sin, and sets them free who go weeping out of a Goal: Besides our own Sins the Sins of others. The World is a place where Satan's Seat is; a place where we see God daily dishonoured. Lot (who was a bright Star in a dark Night) his righteous Soul was vexed with the unclean Conversation of the Wicked, 2 Pet. 3.8. To see Gods Sabbaths broken, his Truths adulterated, his Glory eclipsed, is that which wounds a Godly Heart. This made David cry out, Psal. 120.5. Woe is me that I dwell in Mesech, that I sojourn in the Tents of Kedar. Kedar was Arabia, where were Ishmaels Posterity. This was a cut to David's Heart to dwell there. O then be willing to depart out of the Tents of Kedar.