Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

CASE II. Death will take us away from our dear friends; yea, we shall not see the Lord in the land of the living, in the blessed ordinances. ANSW. It will take you to your best friend, the Lord Christ. And the friends you leave behind you, if they be indeed persons of worth, you will meet them again, when they come to heaven: and you will never be separated any more. If death take you away from the temple below, it will carry you to the temple above. It will indeed take you from the streams, but it will set you down by the fountain. If it put out your candle, it will carry you where there is no night, where there is an eternal day.

CASE III. I have so much ado, in time of health, to satisfy myself, as to my interest in Christ, about my being a real Christian, a regenerate man; that I judge, it is almost impossible I should die comfortably. ANSW. If it is thus with you, then double your diligence, to make your calling and election sure. Endeavour to grow in knowledge, and walk closely with God; be diligent in self-examination; and pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit, whereby you may know the things freely given you of God. If you are enabled by the power and Spirit of Christ, thus diligently to prosecute your spiritual concer• though the time of your life be neither day or night, yet at eve• ⟨p. 243⟩time, it may be light. Many weak Christians indulge doubts and fears about their spiritual state, as if they placed, at least, some part of religion in this impudent practice: but towards the period of life, they are forced to think and act in another manner. The traveller, who reckons he has time to spare, may stand still debating with himself, whether this or the other be the right way; but when the sun begins to set, he is forced to lay aside his scruples, and resolutely to go forward on the road he judges to be the right one, lest he lie all night in the open fields. Thus some Christians, who perplex themselves much, throughout the course of their lives, with jealous doubts and fears, content themselves, when they come to die, with such evidences of the safety of their state, as they could not be satisfied with before; and, by disputing less against themselves, and believing more, court the peace they formerly rejected, and gain it too.