DEPARTURE

Look upon death as a departure (2 Tim 4:6) ‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.' He makes nothing of death. It was no more betwixt God and Moses, but go up and die (Deut 32:49, 50); and so betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better'. Paul longed for that hour wherein he should loose anchor, and sail to Christ, as the Greek word imports. It is a metaphor from a ship at anchor, importing a sailing from this present life to another port. Paul had a desire to loose from the shore of life, and to launch out into the main of immortality. The apostle, in this phrase, hath a reference both to his bonds and to his death; and his meaning is, I desire to be discharged and released, as out of a common jail, so also out of the prison of my body, that I may presently be with Christ my Saviour in heaven, in rest and bliss. After Paul had been in the third heaven, his constant song was, ‘I desire to be with Christ'. Nature teacheth that death is the end of misery; but grace will teach us that death is the beginning of our felicity.


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