ment, Peaceableness, and that mutual Affection which is the known Character of the Followers of the Holy Jefus, driven and abfconded? alas! they have most of them put on their ætherial Vehicle, and abandon'd the reaking Steams, and fmoaky Mifts, of this dull and cloggy Clay, to fly among the cæleftial Inhabitants; where they are better wellcom'd than among depraved Mortals. Oh!

but do not quite leave us, O ye divine Graces; do not utterly forfake thofe Few who earnestly defire your grateful Company; tho' they are prefs'd down by Loads of Dirt, and the Weight of thofe Chains by which they are tyed to their earthly Tabernacles.

And grant, O Father of Mercies, that at last Christendom may become Chriftians indeed, and we may all let qr Lights fhine before Men, that they may see our good Works, and glorify thee our Father, who art in Heaven. That every one that nameth the Name of Chrift, may depart from all Iniquity. O that we may all understand in this our Day the Things that belong to our everlasting Peace! Amen, Amen.

November 3, 1689.

Being the Day on which one Orton of our Col lege died.

VII. Of Death.

W Henfoever we think or write of any things

that concern this prefent Life, we do it with some Sense and Feeling of that about which we are converfant, because we have ourselves expe

rienced them, or the like to them. But when we reafon and difcourfe of Death, we are about what we never have had any Tafte of, nor any Idea of our Imagination to which we might apply ourselves to describe it in a right Manner. We indeed fee, that after a hard Struggle with a Disease, at laft the Corps grows ftiff, cold, and fitter for a Grave than those Actions to which before it always was fo ferviceable; but as to the immaterial Part the Soul, we have no Notices what is become of it, with what Pangs it parted with its old Companion the Body, what Faculties and Affections it retains, whither it is doom'd, or how it fares with it in that other State; I fay we know nothing of all this by Experience, till it is too late to defcribe it to others. The Almighty having, ix his unsearchable Wisdom and Providence, thought fit to hide from Men many of thofe Things which we have the greatest natural Defire of being acquainted withal; to teach us entirely to depend on his revealed Word and Will, to keep us humble and watchful, knowing that if we refuse Mofes and the Prophets, Christ and his Apoftles, neither would we be persuaded though one rose from the Dead, to tell us by his own late Experience what paffes in that other World, how gracious God is to his Children, and how fevere towards incorrigible Offenders. 'Tis fufficient for us that we are fure we must all die, and we know not at all at what Hour our Lord will come to require an Account of our Stewardship; so that we know enough to make us watchful, and always prepared to meet the King of Terrors; to make us

cautious

cautious how we venture on any Sin, in the very Commiffion whereof we may be snatch'd away to God's dreadful Tribunal. The brute Beafts, who have no Account to render, and fo it matters not much when or how they die, do not at all fear or foresee their own Slaughter, though Hundreds of their Fellows be flain before their Eyes. But, Man has Reason, by viewing other's Mortality certainly to prefage his own; and so has all the Obligation imagineable to provide before-hand for what he knows will fhortly come to pass. How inexcufeable are we then, miferable Mortals, having Spectacles of Death every Day almost before our Eyes, to put far from us the evil Day! to reckon upon fo many Years to come! and thereby to forget a due Preparation till Death feizes, and we are just upon the Brink of Eternity! Oh that we would all wait till our Change come with Job; and, as Horace bids, Omnem crede Diem tibi diluxiffe fupremum; that at last, after the Example of 5000 Years Mortality, we would live as thofe that know not but they may be in another World by the next Morning; that we would improve that Time which is lent us on purpose to work out our own Salvation in fo warily, as believing it to be a Talent for which we must be accountable to him who lends it to us; that we would, at length, be perfuaded to labour hard for the few Minutes of this Life, in Hopes of winning a Crown of Immortality; and not by our careless Behaviour, and cuftomary Sins, provoke God to cut off that Thread of Life which he fees we abuse fo much to his Difhonour, and

our own Ruin, We ufually efteem it a great Unhappiness to be taken away in the Spring and Youth of our Age, before we have had fufficient Experience of the Folly of Sin, and Goodness of Religion; when, I believe, 'tis often a Point of the greatest Mercy and Compaffion in Almighty God, to cut off fome Sinners at firft; he foreseeing if he should let 'em to go on they would but augment the Number, and aggravate the Guilt of their Sins, and fo plunge themselves deeper into that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimftone; and involve themselves fafter in thofe Flames which will never be quenched. So that it feems in Mercy to be ordered by God that very many Sins foon draw Death after them, and fo take away the Sins and the Soul together; left, if the Authors fhould be fuffered to live long, they would more and more heat the Furnace of God's Wrath against themfelves, and fo partake of a fadder Condemnation. For when Men have once abandon'd the Grace of God, and caft off the Suggestions of Confcience, and Motions of God's Spirit, and given themfelves to Satan, to work all Uncleannefs with Greedinefs, 'tis impoffible to do them a greater Kindnefs than foon to take them away, and hurry them to a lefs Punifhment, that they may avoid a greater. Though if this be the beft of the wicked Man's Death, 'tis very fad and deplorable. How can any Sinner have a good Countenance, a chearful Look, or one Dram of Comfort and Pleasure, while he is wallowing in thofe Vices which only wait an Opportunity to turn him into Hell? How can one Smile fit on his Brow who muft fhortly wait and howl for ever? Much less can any thing yield him

him any Comfort when Sickness feizes him, and the Meffenger of the Judge of the World arrefts him, and drags him out of this World, from all his old Companions, pleafant Cups, vain Jollity, and bruitish Pleasures, to give an Account of all thofe Sins which he has been heaping up many Years to his own Deftruction. At this Hour what can help, what can any way comfort? nothing on every Side but Sin, an offended God, an accufing Confcience, an aggravating Devil, and eternal Burnings! Oh the Madness of wretched Sinners! to court those Lufts, and hug thofe Sins, which will at last reduce them to fuch a defperate and intolerable Condition, the Sadnefs and Horror whereof is unexpreffible! But, on the other hand, if we look on the Death of a good and righteous Man, we shall perceive 'tis fo far from a Curfe, that 'tis his only Rescue out of the Miseries of this frail State, and the Beginning of never-failing Pleasures in the other. This is the Bridge that carries him over from Time to Eternity, from Sorrow to Joy, from Care and Fear, to Peace and Security, from a far Country to his Father's Houfe, from Earth to Heaven. O happy Meffenger, may the good Man fay when Death feizes him; welcome thou Ambaffador of my Father, thou Finisher of Sadness, and Fountain of Happiness! I willingly deliver up the uncertain Tenure of this Carcafe into thy Hands, who, I hope, will one Day restore it me freed from thofe Ills and Maladies, thofe Achs and Pains, which I now endure by it. Welcome thou bleffed Deliverer! who, I truft will free me from the Clog