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

CASE V. It is terrible to think of the other world, that world of spirits which I have so little acquaintance with. ANSW. Thy best friend is Lord of that other world. Abraham's bosom is kindly, even to these who never saw his fac• ▪ After death thy soul becomes capable of converse with the blesse• inhabitants of that other world. The spirits of just men made perfect were once such as thy spirit now is. And as for the angels, howsoever they be of a superior nature in the rank of beings, yet our nature is dignified above theirs, in the man Christ: and they are, all of them, thy Lord's servants, and so thy fellow-servants.

CASE VI. "The pangs of death are terrible." ANSW. Yet not so terrible as pangs of conscience, caused by a piercing sense of guilt, and apprehensions of divine wrath, with which, I suppose thee to be not altogether unacquainted. But who would not endure bodily sickness, that the soul may become sound, and every whit whole? Each pang of death will set sin a step nearer the door; and with the last breath, the body of sin will breath out its last. The pains of death will not last long; and the Lord thy God will not leave, but support thee, under them.

CASE VII. "But I am like to be cut off in the midst of my days." ANSW. Do not complain, you will be the sooner at home: you have ⟨p. 244⟩thereby the advantage of your fellow-labourers, who were at work before you in the vineyard. God, in the course of his providences, hides some of his saints early in the grave, that they may be taken away from the evil to come. An early removal out of this world prevents much sin and misery: and they have no ground of complaint, who get the residue of their years in Immanuel's land. Surely thou shalt live as long as thou hast work cut out for thee, by the great Master, to be done for him in this world; and when that is at an end, it is high time to be gone.