ught to be loud warnings to us who are in health, and have the opportunity of repentance before us, to make ufe of it, and to fet about this neceffary work out of hand, to-day, whilst it is called to-day, left any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin, and be at last brought into those miserable straits which I have been de fcribing, and which no man that understands himself would be in for all the world.

V. The meditation of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of life should make us great hufbands of our time, as that which, next to our immortal fouls, and for the fake of them, is the most precious and valuable thing in the world. For as, on the one hand, nothing will comfort us more when we come to die, and leave this world, than the remembrance of a well-fpent life, carefully employed in the fervice of God, and for the benefit and advantage of men; fo, on the other hand, there is nothing for which our confciences will more bitterly reproach us at that time, and fly in our faces with greater fury and rage, than for an ufelefs and unprofitable, efpecially if it have been likewife (as is too commonly feen) a wicked and vicious life.

Our life is uncertain, and, therefore, we fhould feize the prefent time, and improve it to the best advantage, though it be but short in itself, and very short in refpe& of the great and long work which we have to do in it. To prevent, or cure the manifold diftempers of our minds and to preferve our fouls in a good ftate of health, and to keep them free from the diforders of our appetites and paffions, requires a wife conduct, and a very careful management of ourselves. Evil and inveterate habits are not mastered and mortified in an inftant; nor the contrary virtues attained, in any measure of perfection, but by long practice, and flow degrees. There must be time, and patience, and perfeverance, for the doing of thefe things, and we must give all diligence to add to our faith knowledge, and to our knowledge virtue, and one virtue to another, and one degree of virtue to another; and no thing, without this, can minifter true comfort to us in the hour of death, and make us to lift up our heads with joy in the day of judgment.

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The confideration of this fhould make us careful not to neglect any occafion of doing good, or of making ourfelves better; and reftrain us from allowing too much of our time to thofe great wafters and devourers of it, diverfions and vifits: Because they do not only hinder us from better work and employment, but are apt infenfibly to work us off from that ferious temper of mind, which becomes those who do in good earnest design for another world.

VI. The meditation of our latter end fhould make us always to prefer the doing of our duty, and the keeping of a good confcience, to all temporal confiderations whatfoever, whether of fame and the good opinion of men,' or of wealth and riches, of honour and dignity, of authority and power, chufing rather, with Mofes, to suffer afflictions with the people of God, than to have the tem porary enjoyments of fin.

And as for pleafure, there is little in this world that is true and fincere, befides the pleasure of doing our duty, and of doing good; I am fure none that is comparable to it. A good confcience is a continual feaft; and he certainly pleafeth himself beft, and is moft eafy in his own mind, who is conscious to himself that he endeavours, as well as he can, to do what he ought.

VII. The meditation of our mortality fhould teach us the true price and value of all temporal enjoyments, and make us duly affected towards them, and to fit as loofe to them in our affections as we can; for nothing furely can be more apt to beget in us a coldness and indiffe rence towards the enjoyments of this world, than the confideration of the uncertainty of all these things, and of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of our OWN lives.

Or, if we fuppofe that they and we both should continue for fome number of years, yet there will be an end of them or us; and nothing is to be reckoned a lafting happiness, that will have an end, though it fhould be long firft: For, where there can be either forrow or an end of our joy, there can be no true felicity.

Besides,

Befides, that the nature of the things of this world is fuch, that they afford but little happiness to us whilst we have them; we cannot do well without them, and, yet, we can hardly do well with them. Moft 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 wish for in this world, we are apt to be ftill uneasy, either fomething troubles us, or nothing pleases us; we are pained with fulness, and cloyed with the long enjoyment of the best things this world can give us. Why then should we fet fuch an high and unreasonable value upon these temporary, enjoyments, and be fo much con-: cerned for thofe things of which we have fo flippery a hold, and fo flender an assurance, 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 fet no great price upon them.

VIII. The confideration of the fhortnefs 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 short time of our abode here; and, fince we do not expect our reft and happiness in this world, we cannot think ourselves disappointed if we do not meet with it. If our condition be tolerable, it is well, and we have reason to be contented with it, fince it is as much as this world ufually affords. If it be very mean and ftrait, it cannot laft long and even that confideration fhould filence our murmurings, and fhould reftrain and check our difcontent.

And it should 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 exercised will be rewarded far beyond the proportion of our fuffer. ings,

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 moft 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, should 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 wisdom, no, not as to this world; they recoil terribly upon men, and turn to their reproach and disadvantage fo foon as they are discerned, and they cannot be long practifed without being discovered. But if we regard the other world, all difguifes and arts of deceit are perfect folly; becaufe 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 blessed Saviour cautions us againft hypocrify, upon this confideration, that there is a day coming, when all the false 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. 1, 2. Beware, fays our Saviour there firft of all, of the leaven of the Pharifees, which is hypocrify; for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be known.

Laftly, The meditation of our latter end should put us upon a careful, and continual, and particular preparation for the time of our death and diffolution. And this is very well worth our while; and the fooner we set about it, the better becaufe, when this work is in any good measure done, we have refcued ourfelves 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 the more unwilling to fet. VOL. VIII.

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about it; and if neceffity drives us to it at laft, we thall 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 ftudy the art of navigation, whenhe hath prefent occafion and use for the skill which he hath not yet learned, when his vessel is driven among rocks, and is every moment in danger of being dafhed in pieces.

Let this then be eftablished for a firm principle and rule, that the best 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 conscience of our own innocency, and of a fincere defire and endeavour to please God in the general courfe and tenour of our lives, and of a fincere repentance for all the errors and mifcarriages of our lives. And though our life be short and uncertain, yet it is a greatdeal 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.

But the mifchief is, many men pass 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 something 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 laft, ought to have been first thought of, and to have been made the great bufinefs 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 monfter, and to take off the dread of it; and therefore fhould accuftom ourselves to the thoughts of it, that we may, in fome measure, be reconciled to it.

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2. We should endeavour to mitigate the evil and terror of death, by thinking of fomething worfe, I mean,

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