this soul that the hour is come, and that eternity approaches; when they come to tell him in the name of the church, which sends them, " Depart, Christian soul; quit at last that earth where you have so long been a stranger and a captive: the time of trial and tribulation is over: behold at last the upright Judge, who comes to strike off the chains of your mortality: return to the bosom of God from whence you came: quit now a world which was unworthy of you: the Almighty hath at last been touched with your tears; he at last openeth to you the gate of eternity, the gate of the upright: depart faithful soul; go and unite thyself to the heavenly church which expects thee: only remember your brethren whom you leave upon the earth still exposed to temptations and to storms: be touched with the melancholy state of the church here below, which has given you birth in Jesus Christ, and which envies your departure: intreat the end of her captivity, and her re-union with her spouse, from whom she is still separated. Those who sleep in the Lord perish not for ever: we only quit you on the earth in order to regain you in a little time with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of the holy: the body, which you are on the point of leaving a prey to worms and to putrefaction, shall soon follow you, immortal and glorious. Not a hair of your head shall perish. There shall remain in your ashes a seed of immortality, even to the day of revelation, when your parched bones shall be vivified, and again appear more resplendent than light: what happiness for you to be at last quit of all the miseries which still afflict us; to be no longer exposed, like your brethren, to lose that God whom you go to enjoy; to shut your eyes at last on all the scandals which grieve us; on that vanity which seduces us; on those examples which lead us astray; on those attachments which engross us; and on those troubles which consume us! What happiness to quit at last a place where every thing tires and every thing sullies us; where we are a burden to ourselves, and where we only exist in order to be unhappy; and to go to a residence of peace, of joy, of quiet, where our only occupation will be to enjoy the God whom we love!"
What blessed tidings, then, of joy and immortality to this righteous soul! What blessed arrangement! With what peace, what confidence, what thanksgivings, does he not accept it! He raises, like old Simeon, his dying eyes to heaven; and viewing the Lord who cometh inwardly, says to him, " Break, O my God! when thou pleasest, these remains of mortality; these feeble ties which still keep me here: I wait, in peace and in hope, the effects of thine eternal promises." Thus, purified by the expiation of a holy and Christian life, fortified by the last remedies of the church, washed in the blood of the Lamb, supported by the hope of the promises, and ripe for eternity, he shuts his eyes with a holy joy on all sublunary creatures: he tranquilly goes to sleep in the Lord, and returns to the bosom of that God from whence he came.
My brethren, any observation here would be useless. Such is the end of those who have lived in the fear of the Lord: their death is precious before God, like their life. Such is the deplorable end
