§ 21. Consider, not to die, is, never to be happy; to escape death, is, to miss of blessedness; except God should translate us, as Enoch and Elijah; which he never did before, or since. _If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable._ If you would not die, and go to heaven, what would you have more than an epicure, or a beast? Why do we pray, and fast, and mourn? Why do we suffer the contempt of the world? Why are we Christians, and not Pagans and Infidels, if we do not desire a life to come? Wouldst thou lose thy faith and labor, Christian, all thy duties and sufferings, all the end of thy life, and all the blood of Christ, and be contented with the portion of a worldling or a brute? Rather say, as one did on his death-bed, when he was asked whether he was willing to die or no, "Let him be loth to die, who is loth to be with Christ." Is God willing by death to glorify us, and are we unwilling to die, that we may be glorified? Methinks, if a prince were willing to make you his heir, you would scarce be unwilling to accept it; the refusing such a kindness would discover ingratitude and unworthiness. As God hath resolved against them, who make excuses when they should come to Christ, _none of those men, which were bidden, shall taste of my supper_; so it is just with him to resolve against us, who frame excuses when we should come to glory. The Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us, and shall we be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for ourselves and him? He might have said, "What is it to me, if these sinners suffer? If they value their flesh above their spirits, and their lust above my Father's love, if they will sell their souls for nought, who is it fit should be the loser? Should I, whom they have wronged? Must they wilfully transgress my law, and I undergo their deserved pain? Must I come down from heaven to earth, and clothe myself with human flesh, be spit upon and scorned by man, and fast, and weep, and sweat, and suffer, and bleed, and die a cursed death; and all this for wretched worms, who would rather hazard their souls, than forbear one forbidden morsel? Do they cast away themselves so slightly, and must I redeem them so dearly?" Thus we see Christ had reason enough to have made him unwilling; and yet did he voluntarily condescend. But we have no reason against our coming to him; except we will reason against our hopes, and plead for the perpetuity of our own calamities. Christ came down to fetch us up; and would we have him lose his blood and labor, and go again without us? Hath he bought our rest at so dear a rate? Is our inheritance _purchased with his blood_? And are we, after all this, loth to enter? Ah, Sirs! it was Christ, and not we, that had cause to be loth. May the Lord forgive, and heal this foolish ingratitude!