The way to eternal life

1. It is a great mystery of faith, and a great trial of faith, that the way to eternal life should lie through the midst of this dark valley of death. Our Lord Jesus Christ bought eternal life for us, by the price of his blood; he went through death to take possession of his kingdom and glory: and yet his people must go through death to take possession of the gift of eternal life. If there were any allowed room or place for prayer in this affair, how many, and how earnest prayers would we make to be delivered from going in this way to glory? But after a life of trials, temptations, and manifold tribulations, this last is still before us; and we must.pass through, and set our feet in the cold waters of this Jordan, ere we enter the heavenly Canaan. After all the lively hopes of heaven, and sweet foretastes of it, we have had; after our faith hath risen us to a full assurance; yet through death must all the heirs of glory pass. 2. There is no wisdom like that of preparing for this awful hour; Job xiv. 14. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will 1 wait, till my change come. "I "will think on it, I will look for it, I will prepare for it." Men are wise or foolish, according to their faithful diligence, or unbelieving negligence, in this preparing for death. Many have bewailed their neglect; never did any repent their diligence, in this work. 3. There is no right and sure way of preparing for death, but by seeking saving acquaintance with Jesus. If you set about the study of holiness without Christ, you mistake your way, and will never reach your end. But labour to be intimately acquainted with Jesus Christ, and the communications of his grace will make you holy. Death deals with men, and billets them into their eternal quarters, in heaven or hell, as men are in Christ, or out of Christ. Their works, according to which they are judged, are but the fruits and effects of their different states. These two different states of men in this life, in Christ, or not in Christ, are the foundation of the two different states in the next life, in heaven, or in hell; though all in Christ are holy, and all out of Christ are unholy. 4. There is no life truly comfortable, but that which hath a comfortable prospect of death and judgment. Never envy the condition of them who seem to be the only cheerful men in the world, whom one quarter of an hour's serious thought of death and judgment, is enough to make them like Belshazzar at his great feast, Dan v. 6. whose countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his kins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Amazement seized on soul and body. How can a man be said to live comfortably, that dare not think of death, for fear of marring his comfort? Miserable is that consolation, that cannot bear a serious thought of an approaching unavoidable thing. Vol. I. P This is the wisdom and mercy of the Lord to his people, that their true consolation doth not only stand and abide in the view of death and judgment, but it ariseth from that view that is so terrible to all natural men. This is the blessedness of believers, that this grace allows them a right to, and can give them a possession of. And therefore we should come to the throne of grace for it. Then you are happy Christians, when serious thoughts of death breed serious joy. Robert Traill

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