if Jacob had been elected because of his future merits, then his election would no longer be from grace: and so he was not elected by God because of what he was going to become, but he became such because of his election.The Sentences, Book 1, Dist 41
The dying words of Mr. Ash, the Puritan, are well-deserving of notice. He said, "When I consider my best duties, I sink, I die, I despair. But when I think of Christ, I have enough. He is all and in all.
some things are sins and punishment of sin simultaneously, some are sins and the cause of sin, but others are sins and the cause and punishment of sin.The Sentences, Book 2, Distinction 36, C1
she was formed not from just any part of his body, but from his side, so that it should be shown that she was created for the partnership of love, lest, if perhaps she had been made from his head, she should be perceived as set over man in domination; or if from his feet, as if subject to him in servitudeThe Sentences, Book 2, Dist 18, Ch 2
Here [is stated] according to what reprobation is considered. Similarly, God's reprobation, by which he has reprobated some from eternity by not electing them, is considered according to two things, of which he foreknows one, but does not prepare it, that is, iniquity; the other he foreknows and prepares, namely eternal punishment.The Sentences, Book 1, Dist 40
Death is a believer's ferryman to ferry him over to the land of rest; it opens the portal into heaven…. The day of a Christian's death is the birthday of his heavenly life; it is his ascension day to glory; it is his marriage day with Jesus Christ. After his funeral begins his marriage. Well then might Solomon say, "Better is the day of a man's death than the day of his birth."
Thou art young; thou canst not therefore say thou shalt not die as yet. Alas! Measure the coffins in the churchyard and thou wilt find some of thy length. Young and old are within the reach of death's scythe. Old men, indeed, go to death; their age calls for it. But young men cannot hinder death's coming unto them.
There is also a lawful contempt of death. We freely grant it, that in two cases a believer may contemn it. First, when it is propounded to them in a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty, then they should slight it as in Revelation 12:11. They loved not their lives to the death. Secondly, when the natural evil of death is set in competition with the enjoyment of God in glory, then a believer should despise it, as Christ is said to do (Heb. 12:2), though His was a shameful death. But upon all other accounts and considerations, it is the height of stupidity and security to despise it.
If there certainly be such an eternal state into which souls pass immediately after death, how great a change then doth death make upon every man and woman! Oh, what a serious thing is it to die! It is your passage out of the swift river of time into the boundless and bottomless ocean of eternity. You that now converse with sensible objects, with men and women like yourselves, enter then into the world of spirits. You that now see the continual revolutions of days and nights, passing away one after another, will then be fixed in a perpetual now. Oh, what a serious thing is death!
Death mine enemy shall then set me free from the devil's temptation, the world's enticements, the outrage of men, the arrows of the Almighty, and the lustings of mine own flesh—all which have all my days stung my soul and battered my body. My soul! Take courage unto this last encounter.
We are manifestly mistaken concerning death. For the last gasp is not death. To live is to die. For how much we lived, so much we die; every step of life is a step of death. He that hath lived half his days is dead the half of himself. Death gets first our infancy, then our youth, and so forward. All that thou hast lived is dead.
Death is our birthday; we say falsely when we call death the last day. For it is indeed the beginning of an everlasting day, and is there any grievance in that? Death is the funeral of our vices and the resurrection of our graces. Death was the daughter of sin, and in death shall that be fulfilled: "The daughter shall destroy the mother." We shall never more be infected with sin nor troubled with ill natures.
The serious thoughts of death may do that for you which neither friends, counsel, example, prayers, sermons, tears have done to this very day. Well, remember this: to labor not to die is labor in vain, and to put this day far from you and to live without fear of death is to die living. Death seizes on old men and lays wait for the youngest. Death is oftentimes as near to the young man's back as it is to the old man's face.
What is this life but a smoke, a vapor, a shadow, a warfare, a bubble of water, a word, grass, a flower? Thou shalt die is most certain, but of the time no man can tell when. The longer in this life thou dost remain, the more thou sinnest, which will turn to thy more pain. By cogitation of death our minds be often in manner oppressed with darkness because we do but remember the night of the body, forgetting the light of the mind and of the resurrection. Thereto remember the good things that after this life shall ensue without wavering in certainty of faith, and so shall the passage of death be more desired.
I find not one in ten of the most obstinate, scornful wretches in the parish but when they come to die will humble themselves, confess their faults, seem penitent, and promise, if they should recover, to reform their lives. With what resolution will the worst of them seem to cast away their sins, exclaim against their follies and the vanities of the world when they see that death is in earnest with them! I confess it is very common for persons at such a season to be frightened into ineffectual purposes, but not so common to be converted to fixed resolutions. Yet there are some exceptions.
We walk in this world as a man in a field of snow; all the way appears smooth, yet cannot we be sure of any step. All are like actors on a stage; some have one part, and some another. Death is still busy among us. Here drops one of the players. We bury him with sorrow, and to our scene again. Then falls another—yea all, one after another—till death be left alone upon the stage. Death is that damp which puts out all the dim lights of vanity. Yet man is easier to believe that all the world shall die than to suspect himself.
That men do not die at random, or by some uncertain, accidental bye stroke, which, as by a slip of the hand, cuts off the thread of life; but by an act of divine determination, and judgment which passes in reference to each one's death.Works, Vol 1