Befides, that the nature of the things of this world is fuch, that they afford but little happiness to us whilft we have them; we cannot do well without them, and yet we can hardly do well with them. Molt of the enjoyments of this world, as defirable as they are to us, are very dangerous, and are always attended with fome inconvenience or other; and even when we have all that we can with for in this world, we are apt to be ftill uneafy, either fomething troubles us, or nothing pleafes us; we are pained with fulness, and cloyed with the long enjoyment of the beft things this world can givet Why then should we fet fuch an high and unreafonable value upon these temporary enjoyments, and be fo much concerned for thofe things, of which we have fo flippery a hold, and fo flender an affurance, and which afford us fo very little contentment and fatisfaction when we have them, and yet give us fo much grief and trouble when we lofe them? Confidering how foon we muft, and how fuddenly we may, leave this world, and all the enjoyments of it, we ought in reason to set no great price upon them. us. VIII. The confideration of the fhortness and uncertainty of our lives should make us contented with our prefent condition, and patient under all the evils and afflictions which may befal us in this world. A little may content us for a little while, for the fhort time of our abode here; and fince we do not expect our reft and happiness in this world, we cannot think ourselves difappointed, if we do not meet with it. If our condition be tolerable, it is well, and we have reafon to be contented with it, fince it is as much as this world ufually affords. If it be very mean and strait, it cannot laft long; and even that confideration fhould filence our murmurings, and fhould restrain and check our difcontent. And it fhould make us patient likewife under the greatest evils and afflictions of this prefent life, to confider that they will fhortly have an end; either they will give off of themselves, or they will carry us off and make an end of us, and all the patience we have exercifed will be rewarded far beyond the proportion of our fufferings. At At the worst, the afflictions and fufferings of this prefent time are not like the troubles and miferies of the other world, they will not laft always. The most grievous things that can befal us here, are not like the torments of hell, neither for the degree, nor the duration of them, without intermiffion and without end. IX. The meditation of death, and of the confequences of it, fhould make us upright and fincere in all our words and actions. Hypocrify and diffimulation, as much as they are practifed, are no part of true wifdom, no, not as to this world, they recoil terribly upon men, and turn to their reproach and difadvantage fo foon as they are difcerned, and they cannot be long practifed without being difcovered. But if we regard the other world, all difguifes and arts of deceit are perfect folly; because then God will bring every work into judgment, and every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, as Solomon affures us, Ecclef. xii. 14. And our bleffed Saviour cautions us against bypocrify, upon this confideration, that there is a day coming, when all the falfe pretences of men fhall be expofed and laid open, and all those masks and vizors which men wear in this world will fall off, and the actions of men fhall appear in their true colours, Luke xii. I. 2. Beware, fays our Saviour there first of all, of the leaven of the Pharifee, which is hypocrify; for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be known. Lastly, The meditation of our latter end fhould put us upon a careful, and continual, and particular preparation for the time of our death and dissolution. And this is very well worth our while; and the fooner we fet about it, the better: because, when this work is in any good measure done, we have rescued ourselves from that bondage, to which moft men are all their life long fubject, because of the continual fear of death. Nothing abates the terror of death, like a due preparation for it. When this is once made, we cannot be much concerned when it comes; for to a well-prepared mind, fooner or later makes no great difference: but if we have delayed this neceffary work, the longer we have delayed it, the more unfit we fhall be for it, and VOL. VIII. U the the more unwilling to fet about it; and if necessity drives us to it at laft, we shall find that old age and fickness are but bad times to make preparation for death in, to begin our repentance and the change of a bad life. He that prepares not for death, before he draws near to it, and comes to lie upon a fick-bed, is like him that begins to study the art of navigation, when he hath prefent occafion and use for the skill which he hath not yet learned, when his veffel is driven among rocks, and is every moment in danger of being dashed in pieces. Let this then be eltablished for a firm principle and rule, that the beft and fureft preparation for a happy and comfortable death, is a holy and good life. For nothing will difarm death of its terrors, like the confcience of our own innocency, and of a fincere defire and endeavour to pleafe God in the general course and tenour of our lives, and of a fincere repentance for all the errors and mifcarriages of our lives. And though our life be fhort and uncertain, yet it is a great deal that we may do by way of preparation for another world, if we begin and fet out betimes, and be good husbands of the prefent opportunities. It is a great way that we may go in a fhort time, if we be always moving and preffing forwards. 1 But the mischief is, many men pafs fifty or fixty years in the world, and when they are just going out of it, they bethink themselves, and step back, as it were, to do fomething which they had all this while forgot, viz. the main bufinefs for which they came into the world, to repent of their fins and reform their lives, and make their peace with God, and in time to prepare for eternity. This, which is forgotten and deferred to the Jaft, ought to have been first thought of, and to have been made the great business of their whole lives. But I proceed to give fome more particular directions concerning our preparation for death; namely, 1. By frequent meditation of it, which will render it more familiar to us, and help us to tame this monster, and to take off the dread of it; and therefore we should accuftom ourselves to the thoughts of it, that we may in fome meafure be reconciled to it. 2. We should endeavour to mitigate the evil and terror terror of death, by thinking of fomething worse, I mean the evils and miferies of life. For when we once come to look upon death as a remedy of all the evils of life, we fhall then begin to be reconciled to it; and if we be wife, fhall be glad to be out of the noife, and danger, and fuffering of fo many evils as we are continually liable to in this world; and fhall thank God heartily for difiniffing us, and giving us leave to die, and by death to put an end to this miferable life, and to begin a better and happier life, which fhall never have an end. And we fhould likewife meditate much on the glory and happiness of another world. For if we be once poffeffed with a firm belief and perfuafion of it, we fhall think the time long that we are detained from it, and wish for that which we fo much feared, I mean death, that it may bring us to the enjoyment of that which we have much more reafon to defire. And indeed, confidering (as I faid before) the many evils and miferies which we are liable to and always in danger of, while we are in this world, we have caufe to thank God that we were born to die, and that we are not condemned to live for ever in this world. So that whenever God hall think fit to releafe us, we ought to esteem it a favour: but if he will have us to stay a little longer, we muft with patience wait for another opportunity of making our efcape out of an evil and troublefome world. But, methinks, we should not much defire to ride it out in the form any longer, when the port is open, and we may fafely enter in. And then, 3. By way of farther preparation for death, we fhould endeavour to maintain always a lively fenfe of it in our minds, that we may be, to all good effects and purpofes, as much under the power of it, as if it were juft approaching, as if the phyfician or the Judge had paffed the fentence of death upon us. We fhould always reckon upon that which may happen the next moment; and if we do fo, we can never be extremely furprized; but whenever our Lord comes, shall be found watching. And, 2 Lastly, We should make it our conftant prayer to God, that he would fit us for our diffolution, and ftand by us and comfort us in that needful time, without whofe gracious fupport and affiftance, both physicians, and even the minilters of God themselves, are but miferable comforters. It should be our daily petition to God, that he would enable us to perform this last act of our life with decency and conftancy of mind, that neither our difeafe nor our weakness may break the firmness of our spirits, or leave us to be amazed with fear, or betrayed with peevifhnefs, fo as to render us uneafy to ourselves, or to make our friends willing to be rid of us. But more especially, when God thinks fit, either by the nature or prefent danger of our diftemper, to give us a nearer fuimmons and clearer warning of our mortality, we should take the opportunity to imprefs upon our minds a deep and more lively fenfe of another world, that we may quicken our pace, and work the work of him that sent us into the world, while it is day; because the night is coming when no man can work. Nature, I know, is fond of life, and apt to be fill longing after a longer continuance here, and to find many delays and excufes to tarry yet a while longer in this world and yet a very long life, with the ufual burdens and infirmities of it, is feldom in reafon defirable for it is but the fame thing over again, or worse; fo many more days and nights, fummers and winters, a repetition of the fame pleafures, but ftill with lefs pleafure and relish; a return of the fame or greater pains and troubles, but still with lefs patience and ftrength to bear them. Let us then be of good courage in the approaches of death, fince we fee land, and the ftorm which we are in will quickly be over; and then it will be as if it had never been, or rather the remembrance of it will be a great pleasure to us. Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis, "It is a pleasant thing to ftand upon the fhore, when ་ "delightful |