Death is the axe which God often useth, therewith to take the barren
fig-tree out of the vineyard, out of a profession, and also out of
the world at once. But this axe is now new-ground; it cometh well
edged to the roots of this barren fig-tree. It hath been whetted by
sin, by the law, and by a formal profession, and therefore must and
will make deep gashes, not only in the natural life, but in the
heart and conscience also of this professor. The wages of sin is
death, the sting of death is sin. Wherefore, death comes not to this
man as he doth to saints, muzzled, or without his sting, but with
open mouth, in all his strength; yea, he sends his first-born, which
is guilt, to devour his strength and to bring him to the king of
terrors.
The dark entry which the barren professor is to go through will be a
sore amazement to him, for "fears shall be in the way," yea, terrors
will take hold on him when he shall see the yawning jaws of death
gape upon him, and the doors of the shadow of death open to give him
passage out of the world. Now, who will meet me in this dark entry?
How shall I pass through this dark entry into another world?
There is no judgment to be made by a quiet death of the eternal
state of him that so dieth. Suppose one man should die quietly,
another should die suddenly, and a third should die under great
consternation of spirit; no man can judge of their eternal condition
by the manner of any of these kinds of death. He that dies quietly,
suddenly, or under consternation of spirit, may go to heaven, or may
go to hell; no man can tell whither a man goes by any such manner of
death. The judgment, therefore, that we make of the eternal
condition of man, must be gathered from another consideration, to
wit, Did the man die in his sins? Did he die in unbelief? Did he die
before he was born again? He that is a good man, a man that hath
faith and holiness, a lover and worshipper of God by Christ,
according to his word, may die in consternation of spirit; for Satan
will not be wanting to assault good men upon their death-bed. But
they are secured by the word and power of God, yea, and are also
helped, though with much agony of spirit, to exercise themselves in
faith and prayer; the which he that dieth in despair can by no means
do.