A Believer's Privilege at Death

Philippians 1:21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Saint Paul was a great admirer of Christ, he desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). No julep to the blood of Christ; and in the text, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

First. To me to live is Christ; [in non-Latin alphabet]. We must understand Paul of a spiritual life. To me to live is Christ, that is, Christ is my life; so Greg. Nyssen. Or thus, my life is made up of Christ. As a wicked man's life is made up of sin; so Paul's life was made up of Christ; he was full of Christ. But that I may give you the sense of the [reconstructed: Text] more fully, take it in these three particulars; 1. Christ is the principle of my life. 2. Christ is the end of my life. 3. Christ is the joy of my life.

1. To me to live is Christ, that is, Christ is the principle of my life. I fetch my spiritual life from Christ, as the branch fetches its sap from the root (Galatians 2:20). Christ lives in me. Jesus Christ is a head of influence, he sends forth life and spirits into me to quicken me to every holy action. Thus, To me to live is Christ. Christ is the principle of my life, from his fullness I live, as the vine-branch lives from the root.

2. To me to live is Christ, that is, Christ is the end of my life; I live not to myself, but to Christ. So Grotius and Causabon, Christo Servio, To me to live is Christ; all my living is to do service to Christ (Romans 14:8). Whether we live we live to the Lord. When we lay out ourselves wholly for Christ; as the factor trades for the merchant, so we trade for Christ's interest, we propagate his gospel; the design of our life is to exalt Christ, and make the crown upon his head to flourish. Now it may be said, to us to live is Christ, our whole life is a living to Christ.

3. To me to live is Christ, that is, Christ is the joy of my life (Psalm 42:4). God my exceeding joy, or the cream of my joy. A Christian rejoices in Christ's righteousness; he can rejoice in Christ when worldly joys are gone. When the tulip in a garden withers, a man rejoices in his jewels. When relations die, a saint can rejoice in Christ the pearl of price; in this sense to me to live is Christ, he is the joy of my life. If Christ were gone, my life would be a death to me.

Use. It should exhort us all to labor to say as the apostle, to me to live is Christ. Christ is the principle of my life, the end of my life, the joy of my life, to me to live is Christ; and then we may comfortably conclude, that to die, shall be gain.

Secondly. And that brings me to the second part of the text, [in non-Latin alphabet], and to die is gain.

Doct. To a believer death is great gain. A saint can tell what his losses for Christ are, but he cannot tell how great his gains are at death: To me to die is gain. Death to a believer is Crepusculum gloriae, the daybreak of eternal brightness. To show fully what a believer's gains are at death, were a task too great for an angel; all hyperboles fall short; the reward of glory exceeds our very faith. Only let me give you the [in non-Latin alphabet] some dark views and imperfect lineaments of that infinite glory the saints shall gain at the hour of death: To me to die is gain.

1. Believers at death shall gain a writ of ease from all sins and troubles; they shall be in a state of impeccability: sin expires with their life. I think sometimes what a happy state that will be, never to have a sinful thought more. And they shall have a quietus est from their troubles. Here David cried out, My life is spent with griefs and my years with sighing (Psalm 31:10). Quid est diu vivere nisi diu torqueri, Aug. Life begins with a cry, and ends with a groan; but at death all troubles die.

2. Believers at death shall gain the glorious sight of God. They shall see him first, intellectually with the eyes of their mind, which divines call the beatific vision: If there were not such an intellectual sight of God, how do the spirits of just men made perfect see him? Secondly, They shall behold the glorified body of Jesus Christ; and if it be pleasant to behold the sun, then how blessed a sight will it be to see Christ the Son of Righteousness clothed with our human nature shining in glory above the angels? Through Christ's flesh as through a transparent glass, some bright rays and beams of the Godhead shall display themselves to glorified eyes: The sight of God through Christ will be very complacential and delightful: The terror of God's essence will be taken away: God's majesty will be mixed with beauty, and sweetened with clemency; it will be infinitely delightful to the saints to see the amiable aspects and smiles of God's face: Which brings me to the third thing.

3. The saints at death shall not only have a sight of God, but shall enjoy the love of God; there shall be no more veil on God's face, nor his smiles checkered with frowns, but God's love shall discover itself in all its radiant beauty and fragrant sweetness. Here the saints pray for God's love, and they have a few drops, but there they shall have as much as their vessel can receive. To know this love passes knowledge: This will cause a jubilation of spirits, and create such holy raptures of joy in the saints as are superlative, and would soon overwhelm them if God did not make them able to bear.

4. Believers at death shall gain a celestial palace, a house not made with hands (2 Corinthians 5:1). Here the saints are straitened for room, they have but mean cottages to live in, but they shall have a royal palace to live in: Here is but their sojourning house, there in Heaven is their mansion house: A house built high above all the visible orbs, a house bespangled with light (Colossians 1:12). Enriched with pearls and precious stones (Revelation 21:19). And this is not their landlord's house, but their Father's house (John 14:2). And this house stands all upon consecrated ground; it is set out by transparent glass, to show the holiness of it (Revelation 21:27).

5. Believers at Death shall gain the sweet society of glorified saints and angels. This will add something to the felicity of heaven, as every star adds some luster to the firmament. First, the society of the glorified saints; we shall see them in their souls as well as in their bodies. Their bodies will be so clear and bright, that we shall see their souls shining through their bodies, as the wine through the glass; and believers at Death shall have converse with the saints glorified. And how delightful will that be, when they shall be freed from all their sinful corruptions, pride, envy, passion, censoriousness, which are scars upon them here to disfigure them. In Heaven there shall be perfect love among the saints; they shall as the olive and myrtle sweetly embrace each other. The saints shall know one another, (as Luther speaks,) if in the Transfiguration Peter knew Moses and Elias, which he never saw before (Matthew 17:3), then much more in the glorified state, the saints shall perfectly know one another, though they never saw them before. Secondly, the saints at Death shall behold the angels with the glorified eye of their understanding. The wings of the cherubins (representing the angels,) were made of fine gold, to denote both their sanctity and splendor. The angels are compared to lightning (Matthew 28:3), because of those sparkling beams of majesty which as lightning shoot from them. And when saints and angels shall meet and sing together in consort in the heavenly choir, what divine harmony, what joyful triumphs will it create!

6. Believers at Death shall gain perfection of holiness. Here grace was but in Cunabulis, in its cradle, very imperfect; we cannot write a copy of holiness without blotting: believers are said to receive but Primitias Spiritus, the first fruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23). But at Death the saints shall arrive at perfection, their knowledge clear, their sanctity perfect; their sun shall be in its full meridian splendor. They need not then pray for increase of grace; they shall love God as much as they would love him, and as much as he desires to have them love him; they shall be then in respect of holiness [illegible] as the angels of God.

7. At Death the saints shall gain a royal magnificent feast. I told you before what a glorious palace they shall have; but a man may starve in a house if there be no cheer. The saints at Death shall have a royal banquet, shadowed out in Scripture by a marriage supper (Revelation 19:9). Bullinger and Gregory the Great understand by that marriage supper of the Lamb, the stately magnificent festival the saints shall have in Heaven; they shall feed on the tree of life (Revelation 22). They shall have the heavenly nectar and ambrosia, the spiced wine, and juice of the pomegranate (Song of Solomon 8:2). This royal supper of the Lamb will not only satisfy hunger, but prevent it (Revelation 7:16). They shall hunger no more. Nor can there be any surfeit at this feast, because a fresh course will be continually served in: new and fresh delights will spring from God; therefore the tree of life in Paradise is said to bear twelve sorts of fruit (Revelation 22:2).

8. Believers at Death shall gain honor and dignity, they shall reign as kings; therefore we read of the ensigns of their royalty, their white robes, and crowns celestial (2 Timothy 4:7). We read that the doors of the Holy of Holies were made of palm-trees and open flowers covered with gold (1 Kings 6:35). An emblem of that victory and triumph, and that golden garland of honor with which God has invested the saints glorified. When all worldly honor shall lie in the dust, the mace, the star, the robe of ermine, the imperial diadem, then shall the saints' honor remain; not one jewel shall be plucked out of their crown; they shall gain at Death a blessed eternity. If the saints could have but the least suspicion or fear of losing their glory, it would much cool and embitter their joy; but their crown fades not away (1 Peter 5:4). As the wicked have a worm that never dies, so the elect have a crown that never fades. Ever is a short word, but has no ending; in fine erit gaudium sine fine, Bern. (2 Corinthians 4:18). The things which are not seen are eternal. Psalm 16:11: At your right hand are pleasures for evermore. Who can span eternity? Millions of ages stand but for ciphers in eternity. This is the Elah, or highest strain of the saints' glory; ever in Christ's bosom.

Question. How come the saints to have all this gain?

Answer. Believers have a right to all this gain at Death, upon a diverse account: by virtue of the Father's donation, the Son's purchase, the Holy Ghost's earnest, and faith's acceptance. Therefore the state of future glory is called the saints' proper inheritance (Colossians 1:12). They are heirs of God, and have a right to inherit.

Use 1. See the great difference between the death of the godly and the wicked, the godly are great gainers at Death, the wicked are great losers at Death. They lose four things,

1. They lose the world, and that is a great loss to the wicked; they laid up their treasure upon earth; and to be turned out of all at once is a great loss.

2. They lose their souls (Matthew 16:26). The soul was at first a noble piece of coin, which God stamped his own image upon; this celestial spark is more precious than the whole globe of the world: but the sinner's soul is lost; not that the souls of the wicked are annihilated at Death, but damnified.

3. They lose Heaven. Heaven is Sedes beatorum, the royal seat of the blessed; it is the region of happiness, the map of perfection. There is that manna which is angels' food; there is the garden of spices, the bed of perfumes, the rivers of pleasure. Sinners at Death lose all this.

4. They lose their hopes. For though they lived wickedly, yet they hoped God was merciful, and they hoped they should go to Heaven. Their hope was not an anchor, but a spider's web. Now at Death they lose their hopes, they see they did but flatter themselves into Hell (Job 8:14). Whose hope shall be cut off. That is sad to have a man's life and his hope cut off together.

Use 2. If the saints gain such glorious things at death, then how may they desire death? Does not every one desire preferment? nemo ante funera Foelix — Faith gives a title to heaven, death a possession. Though we should be desirous of doing service here, yet we should be ambitious to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23). We should be content to live, but willing to die. Is it not a blessed thing to be freed from sin, and to lie for ever in the bosom of divine love? Is it not a blessed thing to meet our godly relations in heaven, and to be singing divine anthems of praise among the angels? Does not the bride desire the marriage day, especially if she were to be matched to the crown? What is the place we now live in, but a place of banishment from God? We are in a wilderness, while the angels live at court. Here we are combating with Satan, and should not we desire to be out of the bloody field where the bullets of temptation fly so fast, and to receive a victorious crown? Think what it will be to have always a smiling aspect from Christ's face; to be brought into the banqueting house, and have the banner of his love displayed over you. O you saints desire death, it is your Ascension Day to heaven. Egredere anima, egredere, said Hilarion on his deathbed, Go forth my soul, what do you fear? Another holy man said, Lord lead me to that glory which I have seen as through a glass; Hasten Lord and do not delay. Some plants thrive best when they are transplanted: Believers when they are by death transplanted, cannot choose but thrive, because they have Christ's sweet sunbeams shine upon them. And what though the passage through the valley of the shadow of death be troublesome. Who would not be willing to pass a tempestuous sea, if he were sure to be crowned as soon as he came at shore?

Use 3. Comfort in the loss of our dear and pious relations. They, when they die, are not only taken away from the evil to come, but they are great gainers by death: They leave a wilderness and go to paradise: They change their complaints into thanksgivings: They leave their sorrows behind, and enter into the joy of their Lord. Why should we weep for their preferment? Believers have not their portion paid till the day of their death: God's promise is his bond to make over heaven in reversion to them: But though they have his bond, they do not receive their portion till the day of death. Oh! Rejoice to think of their happiness who die in the Lord; to them to die is gain: They are as rich as heaven can make them.