The righteous mans death lamented. A sermon preached at St. Austins, London, Aug.23. 1662…

Secondly, as the wicked are scattered whise they live, so when they dye, they are gathered, it is true; but how? not to God, and Christ, and his Angels, but they are gathered to the devil, and his Angels, and to damned spirits: not as bundles of wheat into the barn of heaven, but as bundles of tares to be burned for ever in everlasting fire.

Secondly, as the wicked are scattered whise they live, so when they dye, they are gathered, it is true; but how? not to God, and Christ, and his Angels, but they are gathered to the divel, and his Angels, and to damned spirits: not as bundles of wheat into the barn of heaven, but as bundles of tares to be burned for ever in everlasting fire.

Now, if the righteous perish as well as others, and if their perishing be nothing but a gathering to God and Christ; then,

First, learn hence the preciousness of every righteous man; the great God will not gather things of no value; ⟨p. 10⟩great men do not use to gather chaff and straw; and therefore, when God saith of Josiah, I will gather thee to thy Fathers, it was a sign he was a precious pearl worth the gathering, and of a high value and account in the sight of God: and so is every true child of God; right dear and precious are they in the sight of God, both living and dying; they are bought with a great price: not with gold and silver, and other corruptible things, but they are bought with the precious blood of the Son of God: They are as precious to God as the apple of his eye; so precious that be hath given Christ for them and to them: so precious that he called them his Jewels, his peculiar treasure, Jedidiahs, and therefore God will not suffer them to perish, but gather them to himself before the evil day come, as the husbandman gathers in the corn before the beasts go out into the field.