5. It is also necessary that he who cometh to God by the Lord Jesus should know what death is and the uncertainty of its approach upon us. Death is, as I may call it, the feller, the cutter down. Death is that which puts a stop to further living here, and it is that which lays man where judgment finds him. If he is in faith in Jesus, it lays him down there to sleep till the Lord comes; if he is not, it lays him down in his sins till the Lord comes. (Heb 11:13, 1 Thess 4:14, Job 20:11) Again, if thou hast some beginnings that look like good and death should overtake thee before those beginnings are ripe, thy fruit will wither, and thou wilt fall short of being gathered into God’s barn. Some men are ‘cut off as the tops of the ears of corn,’ and some are even nipped by death in the very bud of their spring; but the safety is when a man is ripe and shall be gathered to his grave, as a shock of corn to the barn in its season. (Job 24:20–24, 5:26)
Now if death should surprise and seize thee before thou art fit to die, all is lost; for there is no repentance in the grave, or rather, as the wise man has it, ‘Whatsoever thy hand find to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goes.’ (Eccl 9:10)
Death is God’s sergeant, God’s bailiff, and he arrests in God’s name when he comes, but seldom gives warning before he clapped us on the shoulder; and when he arrests us, though he may stay a little while and give us leave to pant, tumble, and toss ourselves for a while upon a bed of languishing, yet, at last, he will prick our bladder and let out our life. Then our souls will be poured upon the ground, yea, into hell, if we are not ready and prepared for the life everlasting. He who does not watch for and is not afraid that death should prevent him will not make haste to God by Christ. What Job said of temporal afflictions: such a one will death be if thou art not aware—’ When I looked for good, then evil came—The days of affliction prevented me.’ (Job 30:26,27) If thou looks, or beginners to look for good, and the day of death shall cut thee off before thou hast found that good thou looks for, all is lost, soul, and life, and heaven, and all. Therefore, it is convenient that thou conclude the grave is thy house and that thou make thy bed once a day in the grave; also, that thou say unto corruption, ‘Thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister.’ (Job 17:13,14) I say, be acquainted with the grave and death. The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man brings it near. Better be ready to die seven years before death comes than want one day, one hour, one moment, one tear, and one sorrowful sigh at the remembrance of the ill-spent life that I have lived. This, then, is that which I admonish thee of; namely, that thou know death, what it is, and what it doth when it comes. Also, thou consider well the danger that death leaves that man in, to whom he comes before he is ready and prepared to be laid by it in the grave.
6. Thou must also be made by thy awakenings to see what Christ is. This is of absolute necessity; for how can or shall a man be willing to come to Christ who knows not what he is or what God has appointed him to do? He is the Saviour, every man will say so; but to sense, smell, and taste what saving is, and so to understand the nature of the office and work of a Saviour, is a rare thing, kept close from most, known but by some. Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior, or reconciler, of men to God in the body of his flesh through death. (Col 1:19-21) This is he whose business in coming from heaven to earth was to save his people from their sins. Now, as was said, to know how he doth this is that which is needful to be inquired into; for some say he doth it one way, some, he doth it another; and it must be remembered that we are now speaking of the salvation of that man that from new or first awakenings, is coming to God by Christ for life. (1.) Some say he doth it, by giving of us precepts and laws to keep, that we might be justified thereby. (2.) Some say that he does it, by setting himself a pattern for us to follow him. (3.) Some again hold, that he doth it by our following the light within.
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