A Passage Into Glory

"If we consider death simply in itself as an enemy to nature, there is nothing in it for which we should desire it: but if we consider it as a medium, or passage into glory, yea, the only ordinary way through which all saints must pass out of this into a better state; so it will appear not only tolerable, but desirable to prepared souls. Were there not a shore of glory on the other side of these black waters of death, for my own part, I should rather choose to live meanly than to die easily. If both parts (body and soul) were to perish at death, there were no reason to persuade one to be willing to deliver up the other; it were a madness for the soul to desire to be dissolved, that it should have no being at all. But Christians, let me tell you, death is so far from being a bar, that it is a bridge in your way to glory, and you are never likely to get there, but by passing over it: except, therefore, you will look beyond it, you will never see any desirableness in it...To be with death is sad, but to be with Christ is sweet; to endure the pains of death is doleful, but to see the face of Christ is joyful, to part with your pleasant habitations is irksome, but to be lodged in the heavenly mansions is most delightful, a parting hour with dear relations is cutting, but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting, to be rid of your own bodies is not pleasing, but to be rid of sin, and that forever, what can be more pleasing to a gracious soul?"John Flavel