A Believer S Last Day Is His Best Day A Sermon Preached At The Funerall Of Mris Martha Randoll Etc

A sermon preached at the funeral of Mrs. Martha Randall, at Christ's Church, London, June 28, 1651. "You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory." Psalm 73:24 "Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart." Psalm 97:11 Dear friends, you know we must all die in the wilderness of this world, be gathered to our fathers--leave this earth, and be seen no more. Abraham and Sarah must part, Jacob and Rachel must be separated, David and his child must be severed. Our days are numbered, our period of time is appointed, and our bounds we cannot pass. "All flesh is as grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of the field," Psalm 103:15; therefore do not mourn as people "without hope," neither be like Rachel, who would "not be comforted." To that purpose take this counsel. God told Moses that he could not see his face and live. The truth is, we are able to bear but little of the discoveries of God, there being such a mighty majesty and glory in all the spiritual discoveries of God. We are weak, and able to take in little of God. We have but dark apprehensions of God. Witness our tears, sighs, groans, and complaints, because we go forward and backward. We look on the right hand and on the left, as Job speaks, Job 23:8-9, and God hides himself that we cannot see him. Plutarch tells of Eudoxus, that he would be willing to be burnt up presently by the sun, so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it. This is upon the heart of believers, "Lord, let us be burnt up--so we may see you more in all your glorious manifestations; let us be poor, let us be anything--just so that we may be taken up into a more clear enjoyment of yourself." [Chrysostom professes that the lack of the enjoyment of God would be a far greater hell to him, than the feeling of any punishment.] Ask those who live highest in the enjoyment of God, "What is your greatest burden?" They will tell you, "This is our greatest burden, that our apprehensions of God are no more clear, that we cannot see him whom our souls do dearly love, face to face!" Oh--but now in heaven saints shall have a clear vision of God! There are no clouds or mists in heaven!

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