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sweet company of my friends? Must I receive no more the services of my domestics? When we are in this unprepared state, it is no wonder if Death is so terrible to us, and if it causes us to feel the sharpness of its sting: for as of Absalom, when he was hanged by the hair of the head in a tree of the forest, Joab took three darts, and stuck him through the heart; thus, when our affections are too much entangled with the world, and with the expectation of earthly contentments, it is then that they are miserably exposed to all the darts and violent attempts of Death.

5. Another principal cause of the fear of Death is a wicked life. We are plunged in the vices and debaucheries of the age. We suffer ourselves to be corrupted by ill company. and carried away with the torrent of vicious customs. It is therefore no wonder if Death fills our souls with apprehensions, because it comes to us armed with our sins, and is pressed by the remorse of conscience, and horror of our crimes. How comes it to pass that such a terrible astonishment fell upon king Belshazzar, when he saw the fingers of an hand writing upon the wall of his palace the sentence of his doom? Dan. v. It was because he had profaned the holy vessels of God's house, and was rioting in the company of lascivious women. Wherefore did Felix tremble when he heard St. Paul discourse of justice, temperance, and of judgment to come? Acts xxiv. It was, because he was a wicked varlet, given over to all manner of filthy and unjust living. Thus because we profane the members of our body, which are as the vessels of God's sanctuary; and because our lives are vicious and disorderly, we cannot abide to hear Death mentioned; and when it cometh to us, we are ready to speak to it in Felix's language to St. Paul, "Depart for this time." So that the love of sin and the fear of Death are as two sisters, who hold one another by the hands; or rather they are twins, that are born and die together. As the prophet

2.

I

Amos

Amos said to the Israelites, " Ye put far the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near," Amos vi. so we may say of the men of this age, You put as far from you as you can the day of death, and draw near to all manner of impurity, covetousness, ambition, pride, vanity, usury, rapine, violence, envy, malice, and such like soul plagues. You do not only draw near to these abominable vices, but what is worse, you lodge them in your bowels, and harbour them in your hearts. Certainly we may well apply to all vicious persons what the prophet Jeremiah says of Jerusalem, "Her filthiness. is in her skirts, she remembereth not her last end," Lam. i.

6. I have taken notice of another defect in us: We mistrust the providence of God, and know not how to repose ourselves upon his fatherly care. We have a too worthy esteem of ourselves, and of our own sufficiency. We cannot resolve to die, because we fancy ourselves very useful in the world, and that our death would be a considerable loss to the church of God, to the state, or to our family.

7. Because the soul and body are linked together in a very strict union, we cannot imagine how they can be separated without great and unspeakable convulsions. Our infidelity is so great, that we cannot rest satisfied upon the promises of God, who engages to succour us in our distress, and to deliver us from all our troubles, Isa. 1. It is true, Jacob's ladder, that reaches from earth to heaven, may ravish us; but it seems very uneasy to ascend: paradise is rich, glorious, and delightful to the uttermost ; but its gate is strait, and choaked up with thorns and briers.

8. I judge that one of the chief causes of the fear of Death is, because we look upon God as a most severe and merciless judge, inflamed with anger and fury against us, and armed with vengeance; whereas we should consider and acknow

ledge

ledge him to be a merciful Father, full of compassion and kindness for mankind. Every slave trembles at the sight of his lord, and there is no malefactor but is afraid when he appears before his judge to be put to the rack; and can I, who am all spotted with sin, and blackened with crimes, can I appear before that glorious throne, that causes the seraphims to cover their faces with their wings? Isa. vi. How can I, that am but stubble, subsist in the presence of the God of vengeance, who is a consuming fire?" Heb. x.

9. There is another visible fault in us: We do not embrace, with a true and lively faith, the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour. We all speak of Jesus Christ crucified but we do not know the divine virtue of his crucifixion, nor feel its efficacy. We do not consider, that his death hath broken down the partition that shuts us out of the heavenly sanctuary; and that his blood hath tracked us a way to paradise, and procured us an entrance into that place of eternal bliss.

10. Now, to prevent the horror of the grave, we do not consider as we ought, our Lord Jesus Christ in the tomb, and that he hath sanctified it with his holy and divine presence. We do not imprint in our imaginations, that it is just and reasonable that we should be conformable to Christ in his abasement, if we will have any share with him in glory and exaltation.

11. Besides, that which entertains in our souls the fear of Death, is this: We look upon it as if it were in its full strength and vigour; whereas we should remember, that Jesus Christ hath overcome and disarmed Death by his powerful resurrection; and that for our parts, we need but follow the footsteps of his glorious victories, and fasten that furious beast to his triumphant chariot.

12. We do not consider as we should, with a serious and religious application of mind, how our Saviour Christ is not only risen from the sepulchre victorious over Death, but that he is also ascended up into the highest heavens, as our fore-runner, to prepare a place for us, and that, by departing out of our miserable bodies, we follow the path of our ever blessed Saviour, to reap with him the fruits of his most glorious victories.

13. We stoop too much to consider our frail, corruptible, and mortal nature; and we seldom enter into this most useful meditation, that by the Holy Ghost we are nearly and inseparably united to Jesus Christ, the Prince of life, and the source of light; and that we have already in us the seeds of blessedness, of glory, and immortality.

14. As the children of Israel murmured against Moses in the desart, and wished to be again in Egypt, forgetting their bitter slavery, under which they had groaned, their painful Jabouring among the bricks, and the heat of their furnaces, and minding only the pleasure which they had lost, they dreamed of nothing but the plenty of bread and flesh, of the cucumbers, onions, and of the meats, with which they had so often filled their bellies: thus we repine at Death, because we do not dream of the evils from which it delivers us; we think only upon the vain pleasures, and seeming advantages, of which it robs us.

15. We imagine that Death destroys and reduces us to Hothing; and we do not consider, that it never meddles with the principal part of our being, but only pulls us from sin, and breaks the rest of the chains of our spiritual bondage; so that Death is rather the death of sin, than of the faithful.

16. Here is another great fault in us: We do not lift up

our

our minds to consider the glory prepared for us at the egress of our souls out of our mortal bodies. However we may demean ourselves, and whatever we may pretend, we do not firmly, without doubting, believe the felicities which God promises to us in the contemplation of his face. Sometimes we may think upon the joys of paradise; but it is a thought that passes through our souls with too much speed, and does not take any root. So that many, if they were not ashamed, would be ready to speak in the emperor Adrian's language, "My little soul, my dearest darling, O guest and companion of my body, whither art thou going?"

17. To these former causes of the fears of Death in us, we may add another: That we suffer our eyes to dwell too much upon the rottenness and corruption that threaten our body; whereas we should carry our eye-sight to behold its glorious resurrection, that shall soon follow. Pleasant abode, and delightful companion of my soul, must Death, this cruel Death, separate it from thee with so much violence? Must thou part with thy dear and sweet companion? Must my soul leave thee upon such grievous and lamentable terms, That of so many honours which have been heaped upon thee, thou shalt not carry so much as their shadow to the grave? that of so many rich moveables and treasures, thou shalt bear away nothing but a winding-sheet, a few boards, or, at the most, some pounds of lead? After thou hast lived in so much splendour and magnificence, must thy covering be at last the worms? After thou hast walked so proudly in palaces gilded with gold, and perfumed, must at last thy confinement be in a stinking and loathsome sepulchre ? Must these beautiful eyes be closed? these lips of coral become pale? this golden mouth be stoped? and must this dainty flesh rot, and become odious to the eyes of the world?

18. In the next place, we do not meditate as we ought

upon

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