Imatges de pàgina
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sorrow shall be no more! when we shall be eased of all our pains; resolved of all our doubts; be purged from all our sins; be freed from all our fears; be happy beyond our hopes; and have all this happiness secured to us beyond the power of time and change. (See Archbishop Tillotson's Sermon on an heavenly Conversation, from Phil. iii. 20.)

The consideration of having endeavoured to imitate Christ, and of being "purified through faith "in him," (Acts xv. 9.) may exclude all reasonable doubts and disquieting fears of death, though it may not all transient suspicions and jealousies : and such an assurance as this, bad as the world is, many have actually obtained. Perhaps there is not a greater or more important truth than "that "in proportion as our faith in the Redeemer in

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creases, so our fear of death proportionably de"creases.". They, who are endowed with such dispositions, are capable of relishing heaven after death, and are consequently in a fit state to die.

Helps for conversing with the sick on a comfortable view of death.

By death you will be freed from many infirmities, diseases, and pains, to which your frail body is now exposed.

By death you will get rid of misfortunes and treachery, (sometimes too under the mask of friendship,) and you will no more see innocence sacrificed to iniquity, nor the poor, as they too often are, most grievously oppressed by hard-hearted wretches, who have the power over them.

At death all your doubts will vanish: "You "shall know as you are known," (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) " and put off this body of sin." (Rom. vi. 6.) You will leave a world, in which you cannot live without in some degree offending God.

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By death you will leave the untoward company men; too many of whom seem " to have taken

"counsel against the Lord and his Anointed," (Ps. ii. 2.) to subvert his throne, and not to have him to rule over them.

By death you will be enabled to form intimate connections with happy spirits *, to behold the patriarchs and the prophets, and to have communion with the blessed God himself, and the great Redeemer. (Heb. xii. 22.) If the conversation of a wise and experienced Christian here below is so pleasing and comfortable to one who loves our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, how delightful will heaven be to him, which is full of the spirit of just men made perfect, over whom Christ himself condescends graciously to preside, and where " the "inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick; and the "people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their "iniquity." Isai. xxxiii. 24.

You are saved from eternal death; and even the sting of temporal death is taken away. It is no article of the new covenant that you shall not die the death of the body: you expect it, you submit to it, as an order of justice, a dispensation of wisdom, and an appointment of goodness; for death is the gate to heaven, and the serious remembrance of death will be the means of your preparation for heaven. You see that your time here is passing away apace, and you feel your weakness and mortality.

Such a meditation on death will give you a peace unknown to the world, and which nothing on earth can give.

Helps for conversing with the sick in regard to eternity. Diseases, pains, and the confinement of a sick bed,

* The Chevalier Ramsay says, "that souls only make acquaint"ance here below: it is above that their union is consummated." May we spend our few remaining days in such a manner, that our death may be our passage to a joyful resurrection, to a blessed and eternal life.

will give you leisure to consider eternity, and to take care of your soul, which in the time of health and prosperity the generality are too apt to neglect. At such a season as this perhaps you may recollect the former passages of your life, and find time for these or the like thoughts.

What am I? Whence came I? Who gave me my being? For what end and reason was I born? What have I done? How have I behaved myself since I came into the world? I am now going to leave it. To what place then, into what unknown regions, shall I next remove? Where, O where shall I make my unalterable eternal abode *?

Think on death and eternity. That is a thought which at once disarms pleasure of all its allurements, and pain of all its terrors. Repeat these words, death and eternity: pause awhile: see how all the glories of this world shrink into nothing.

If these thoughts be daily improved, they may by the goodness of God, the concurrence of his Holy Spirit, and your own zealous endeavours, be an introduction, through the merits and mediation of our blessed Lord, to an happy eternity. Be not therefore fretful and impatient, nor murmur and repine; for God, who best knows what will be for your real good, has sent this sickness to awaken and reform you. Examine your conscience; commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still; and make your peace with God before you go hence, and launch into a boundless eternity.

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Say, hast thou coolly thought?

Hast thou e'er dar'd to meditate on death?

Some there are who can talk nobly of it,

But when the trial comes they start and stand aghast.
Hast thou considered what may happen after it,
What can sustain thee in that hour of terror,

How thy account may stand, and what to answer?

ROWE.

Nor love thy life, nor hate, but what thou liv'st
Live well how long or short permit to Heaven,
And patiently attend thy dissolution.

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Milton's Paradise Lost, book xi.

The Conversation of a late eminent Christian in London with some of his relations, on their taking leave of him to go into the country.

"Our health is no more at our command than length of days. Mine seems drawing fast towards a conclusion. But I am content with every allotment of Providence; for they are all in wisdom, unerring wisdom.

"There is one thing needful, which, as an arm underneath, bears up and supports me; and, though the rolling tempestuous billows surround me, yet my head is kept above them, and my feet are firmly established. O seek it, press after it, lay fast hold of this one, this main thing.

"Though painful my nights, and wearisome my days, yet I am preserved in patience and resignation. Death has no terrors, nor will the grave have any victory. My soul triumphs over death, hell, and the grave.

"Husbands and wives, parents and children, health and riches, must all go. Disappointment is another name for them.

"I should have been thankful, had I been able to have attended where I have so often been refreshed with the conversation of pious men; but it is otherwise allotted. The Lord knows best what is best for us: I am content, and resigned to his will,

"I feel a foretaste of the joy which is to come; and who would wish to change such a state of mind? As I have lived so shall I die with the most unshaken assurance, that I have not followed cunningly devised fables, but the pure, living, eternal substance.

"Let the aged be strong, the middle-aged be animated, and the youth encouraged; for the Lord is with Sion, the Lord will bless Sion.

"If I am now to be removed (as I apprehend I soon shall) out of Christ's church militant, where I have endeavoured in some measure to fill up my duty, I have an evidence that I shall gain admittance into his glorious church triumphant, far above the heavens.:

"My dear love to all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Farewell.”

Helps for conversing with a sick person, in order to animate him to honour God by his dying behaviour.

I could wish, that, for the credit of Christianity, your own comfort, and the edification of your surviving friends, you may die not only safely, but honourably. You have your senses free in your pas sage out of this world into the next; whereas the force of your distemper might have deprived you of them: I shall therefore propose some plain directions in regard to your dying behaviour.

1. I would advise you to divest your mind of all earthly cares.

2. To renew your humiliation before God, and application to the blood of Christ.

3. To exercise patience under pain of body, and sorrow of mind.

4. To bear an honourable testimony to religion on leaving the world.

5. To give a solemn charge to surviving friends; especially recommending holiness and faith in Christ.

6. To keep the promises of God in view.

7. And to commit the departing spirit to God in the genuine exercises of gratitude and repentance, faith and charity*.

* See an enlargement on each of these particulars, with a suifable meditation and prayer, in Dr. Doddridge's Rise and Progress

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