01.00. Death and Dying
AN ATTEMPT ON THE BEHALF OF THE CALLED AND BELIEVING PEOPLE OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, TO SET BEFORE THEM THE FOUNTAIN OF EVERLASTING CONSOLATION IN CHRIST JESUS SO THAT THEY MAY BE PERFECTLY RELIEVED FROM ALL FEARS CONCERNING DEATH AND DYING. This will be derived from what is revealed in the Gospel of the blessed God, in which Glory and Immortality are so enlightened, that it well becomes all Saints to say individually, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Php 1:21. BY SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE.
SECOND EDITION
" Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:6, 2 Corinthians 5:8.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY RICHARD BAYNES, 25, IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW; J. CA5TLEDEN, 9, ST. MARTIN’S-COURT; L. NICHOLS, EARL’S-COURT, NEWPORT-STREET, SOHO; AND AT THE MEETING, SHOE-LANE.
1820 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Book of Psalms, an Epitome of the Old Testament Scripture Opened: in which the Plan of each Psalm is given, the Subject Matter expressly stated, and the whole set forth as Prophetic of Christ and his Church. They are considered as having a principal respect to the Person of Christ God-man Mediator. As treating of his Love to his Church-Of his Covenant Engagement with his Divine Father before all Worlds-Of his Incarnation in Time-Of the Perfection of his Human Nature-Of the Holiness of his Heart, the Graces of his Mind, the Purity of his Affections, the Immutability of his Will, the Perfection of his Righteousness-Of his Sufferings, Sacrifice and Death--Of his Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, Glorification, Coronation, and perpetual Priesthood in heaven Of his Second coming in his Kingdom and Glory, passing the final Sentence upon all Flesh. Two vols. 8vo. Price £ 1:10s. A Collection of Letters on Spiritual Subjects. Third Edition, with Additions, vio 50:1. Price 2s. 6d. A Second Volume of Letters. Price 3s. A Third Volume of Letters, with a Comment on the One Hundred and Twenty-first Psalm. Price 2s. 6d. A Fourth Volume of Letters. Price 3s. An Exposition, Paraphrase, and Comment, on various parts of Sacred Writ: the Author’s Confession of Faith previous to Ordination: together with Sermons, Letters, &c. several of which are now first published. One vo 50:8vo. Price 6s.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. In which an account is given, first, of that which gave the first conception of it to the Author’s mind; and, secondly, of the nature, end, and design of this work; with the reasons why the writer was prevailed on to put it into chapters.
CHAPTER I. On Death. What it is. With its universal dominion over all the human race.
CHAPTER II. The Consolations of the Gospel, suited to Believers, to save them from all concern and fears arising from death.
CHAPTER III. Of the Act of Dying. What we may conceive of it, and Gospel relief suited thereunto.
CHAPTER IV. Of what may be conceived concerning the invisible, and suitable supports for the Mind, derived from the Gospel, all-sustaining and refreshing.
CHAPTER V. On Eternity. What we should conceive concerning it. How it difers from God’s eternity; and Gospel truths proposed, to sustain the mind in contemplations on it.
CHAPTER VI. Of our actual entrance into Heaven; and how we shall be received there: an account of which is given from the Scriptures of Truth.
CHAPTER VII. On the Vision of Christ. What our life, glory, and blessedness will be in consequence thereof:-this is declared from the written Word.
CHAPTER VIII.
Concerning our Employment in the State of Glory, until our Lord shall descend from thence at his second coming.
INTRODUCTION.
BELOVED READER,
I Am now in the seventieth year of my age, it cannot, therefore, be expected by me to continue long in this my present tabernacle, especially as I have most certainly passed through the first stage of the breaking up of nature. I have been for four years past in deaths oft. Many a time I have expected every moment to expire. How nay mind at such seasons was employed, and in what manner sustained, I have written, and given the paper into the hand of a friend, with a positive charge that it be spewed to none till after I am actually deceased; then it is to be published. What is felt when nature begins first to break, is only known to such as have had the experience of it. The Lord hath, within these two months past, most wonderfully revived the. I think I know all about death except the act of dying. I know Christ, and am fully persuaded he is every way all sufficient for his beloved ones, both in life and death. I have had some very peculiar dealings with him, and accesses unto him, in various cases and circumstances in the course of my journey through life; and some very interesting accesses to him, when, in my own views, just at the moment of departure. I conceive I am left to live, to experience further the efficacy of the knowledge of Christ, in keeping up the mind in the free and full exercise of it on him, in the most immediate views of him in death and dying circumstances. In the course of my time, I have been called upon to visit sinners and saints in their drawings nigh to the house appointed for all living; I have found what the excellent Mr. Toplady expresses to be a truth: "It is very difficult to know how to perform this service." The last time I was called upon to visit a sick friend, was since I myself received a very severe crush, as it respects nature’s failing. The person in my view was one with Christ. She received what I said concerning him with great satisfaction; and this was what first gave occasion of my conceiving I would, if permitted, write a small treatise suited to put into the chambers and hands of such of the Lord’s people as might, either through sickness or old age, be drawing downwards to the grave, the house appointed for all living.
I reflected thus with myself, whilst I doubted not of the person I had visited concerning her eternal state, yet I considered her very great weakness of body, such that she could not bear much talk. This I had done in many, very many instances, in the course of visiting such as 1 really looked on as saints, and many scores of times. I thought, could any short matter be drawn up, so as for such to peruse, or for others to read to them, it might serve, in the hand of the Lord the Spirit, to draw out their minds to such subjects as are particularly suited to such circumstances.
These were my thoughts; and as I have declared the original from whence my first conception of these sprung, so I will, secondly, declare the nature, end, and design of this work. It is to take off all fears from the minds of the Lord’s believing people concerning death and dying, by pointing out Christ as au all sufficient antidote against the fears of dissolution. Some express their fears of death as arising from what may be felt at that time, and when the parting stroke is given which separates body and soul. Others, their entrance hereby into a state they were never in before, fills them with perplexity and dread. Others, that they must hereby be in the immediate presence of the Lord, and having their minds too much and too deeply exercised on these, forget those glorious subjects which alone can carry their minds beyond all perplexity. My end and design, therefore, in this work, is to bring forth Christ, and those everlasting consolations which the gospel reveals as hid in him for his people, so that the hands of feeble saints which hang down may be lifted up and strengthened. My design is so to set forth Christ as most exactly suited to his weak, sick, and beloved ones, who are in dying circumstances, and are actually in the very article of death, as way serve to comfort them, seeing our Lord is a friend that loveth at all times, and that friend who sticketh closer than a brother. The subjects I shall treat of will be, Death; the Consolations suited to Dying Believers; on the Act of Dying; on what may be conceived concerning the Invisible State; on Eternity; of the actual Entrance of disembodied Saints into Heaven, and their Reception there; on the Vision of Christ, and the Life, Glory, and Blessedness which will flow there from; of our Employment in the State of Glory, until our Lord’s Descent at the Last Day. It must be acknowledged they are important ones. I shall treat of these very particularly, yet briefly; and shall therefore give these in chapters, placing the contents over each, as thereby the reader will know what he is to expect; and shall close each with a soliloquy addressed to my own soul, and a short prayer, leaving the reader to think for himself how far it may suit him. I have chosen this form, as it may fix the subjects the more particularly on the mind, and also hoping each of them will be found quite sufficient for proper and particular consideration at any one season. I would also say, that as I shall aim to be comprehensive in what maybe expressed in each chapter, I the rather prefer this division, as thereby any part may be read that may be most suitable to the mind, case, experience, and circumstances the person may be in. I conceive the subjects mentioned are also, in the hand of the Holy Spirit, calculated to be a proper preparation at all times, and in all places, for saints who say in their own individual persons with the apostle, , I die daily," 1 Corinthians 15:31.
Death is universal: it reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Some die unborn, others as soon as they are born; some die babes, some infants, some youths, some in the very prime of manhood, some in middle age, some in old age. More die before ten than after sixty; when arrived to thirty-five, the body begins to decay; at forty-five, the mind begins to drop; at seventy, the lease is up: if any live to be eighty, it is but labour and sorrow. When the ages of men were procrastinated, so as to live 200, 400, 600, 900 years, yet it is recorded of them, they died Only two have ever yet escaped the stroke of death; one before the flood, another since, and though they died not, by putting off their bodies, yet they underwent a change in their bodies analogous to the change we shall undergo at death, and such an one as must pass on ours at the resurrection Enoch and Elijah could not enter heaven in their mortal bodies any more than we can; flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No; they cannot. The saints, who will be found alive in their bodies at the second coming of Christ, will not die; yet they will undergo such a change as Enoch and Elijah did, or they could not enter heaven, and it will be to them as great a change as death is to us-it will be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. 1 Corinthians 15:52. Were we, therefore, to conceive rightly of these subjects, I conceive our minds would be delivered from a variety of fears, which are very distressing.
I conceive the act of dying must be in all alike: that there is not much felt in the immediate article of dissolution; that it cannot take place before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern; their, (and not before) the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:6-7. This I conceive comes on gradually, by which means the body loses its senses; it becomes insensible; the pulse stops; the body expires, which is no more than to fall asleep, only that the soul hath left it. I conceive that every one is alike in this; one feels no more than another in it; the body is passive, it is breathless. I am not speaking of what goes before this takes place, I here speak simply of the act of dissolution. Our Lord Jesus Christ went out of his body in the same way, or he could not have been a breathless corpse; and by the same means we must.
I wish, for myself, to take in distinct views of every subject revealed in the word, so as to have clear and proper conceptions of the same in my mind. I would understand death, and its process on the body, from the scripture, and look on what is actually visible in every death as the realization thereof. I would look on sickness, disease, and old age, as prognostics of death, whilst at the same time I would look on death as distinct from them. I would consider myself under the sentence of death, and also as having it inherent in my constitution, and be living every moment in the certain expectation of the same. Yet I would also live as though it had no existence in me as though it was passed-as though I should never see it, or be brought under it, by living on these words of Christ, who says, I am the resurrection and the life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. I would be looking unto, and living on Christ, thus I would consider his person as God-Man, and contemplate Him, and my oneness with Him, as the Father chose me in Him before the foundation of the world. I would consider Him in his in carnation, by which he became flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone, my near kinsman, my brother, and redeemer. I would consider the holiness of his human nature; and consider that he sanctified it, by taking the same into union with his person. He who sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, partakers of one and the sane nature, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Here I would behold my antidote against all the un-holiness of my fallen nature, and all the inherent sinfulness of the same. I would look at Christ the Lord my righteousness, and on my person in Him; and receive this truth into 1ny mind from the everlasting gospel of the blessed God, that He made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and consider this to be my complete salvation, perfection, and glory. I would look at Christ’s death as the conquest of death; at his laying a cold corpse in the grave, as sanctifying and perfuming the grave for me to lay where he did. I would consider his passage out of time into eternity, to be all-sufficient to remove all fears concerning this in my own particular case. I would consider the change this made on Him, as giving proof of what I am to expect, and which will take place in me as one of his members. I would meditate on his life in glory, and receive these sweet words of his into my mind: Because I live, ye shall live. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto my Father, for my Father is greater than I. I call this living on Christ, and am fully persuaded, that so far as these important realities prevail in the spiritual mind, it is raised up to some real and blessed views of what is contained in glory and immortality.
I do not mean that I have so fully attained, as to be perfected in this life of faith. No; all I mean is, to excite the Lord’s people to consider, that living on Christ by faith is the only means whereby we may conceive what it will be to live with Him in heaven and glory everlasting. The truths of the everlasting gospel, received into the spiritual mind, will produce supernatural effects. In the true knowledge of them we receive Christ; in our real believing on Christ, as set forth in them, we enjoy everlasting life. As the Lord the Spirit goes on to glorify Jesus, and the Father’s love to us in Him, we are so established in our communion with God as makes us confident in it, and leads us to expect all influential blessings there from. I consider God’s elect as having their minds drawn forth towards the Lord, in proportion as they are operated upon by the truths contained in the revelation of Christ, in the sacred page of inspiration. I consider all the Lord’s people alike in Christ, both in life and death: one is not more blessed than another: they may be so in the revelation of Christ to their minds, and in the communications of his love, in a way of sense and enjoyment. In death, all the Lord’s people die equally blessed, because they all die equally and alike in Christ; yet some of them are favoured with more of Christ’s manifestative presence, others with less, but the one does not die more beloved of Christ than the other. You are not, therefore, to expect I am going to fill up the ensuing pages with the happiness of saints in their dying moments. I am not. No; it is their state in Christ which I shall be principally concerned with; as also, what those objects and subjects are which their minds should be influenced by and reflective on. They will not lose their bodies by death, nor any one member of them; they will not lose their friends and comforts, neither will they know what death is; they will only fall asleep in their bodies. These bodies, with all the members of them, will be raised up at the last day: they will not lose their friends, they will only exchange them for their friends in heaven. They will not know death, it will only be a translation to the state of glory. Death is to saints what regeneration was, a passage from death into life: by the former we were translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son; by the latter, we are admitted into the state of glory. As in the former, we perceived not the change which was then wrought on our souls; so neither shall we in the latter, when sin is forever eradicated, and we are clothed with immortality and eternal glory. Our comforts will not cease in death, but we shall have them changed for those which are far more glorious and divine. These things, thus mentioned, will be more fully opened and explained in the course and body of the work before us. May the Lord give his blessing unto it! May it, in the hand of the Spirit, lift up the heart to the Lamb in the midst of the throne! May we consider, He will feed his saints in heaven, and lead, them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!
Reader, the Lord be with thee. May it be given thee, so to read as to understand!
I am, Thy well wisher in Christ Jesus, SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE.
BETHEL HOUSE, BRIXTON, July 30, 1815.
AN ATTEMPT, &c.