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is departing to his rest, let him comfort bimself with this assurance, that as soon as he shall have ended that work that God hath given him to do, he shall rest from all his Jabours, Job vii.

Whenever the physician visits the patient, or when the surgeon dresses the wounds, let them consider that they have no secret or art able to protect them from death, or to cure the breaches that it makes in our corruptible nature.

Let the most cunning lawyers, the most advised counsellors, and the most eloquent orators, remember, that all their rhetoric and subtlety will never obtain for them their suit against Death, nor procure a moment of respite or delay.

And let the most learned philosophers learn, that the soundest philosophy is the meditation of death.

In short, whatever be our employment, condition, or age, let us lift up our minds and hands unto God, to speak to him in the language of the prophet David," Lord, let me know my end, and the number of my days, that I may know how long I am to live ;" or of Moses, "So teach us the number of our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

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A PRAYER and MEDITATION on our Mortality.

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MY God, and heavenly Father, since it is thy pleasure that I should be mortal, and that my body should return to the dust; grant me grace to be always mindful of my frail condition, and seriously to reflect upon the several changes of times, the variety of seasons, the inconstancy of the world, and alterations I meet with, as mementos of my last change

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change and departure. Let my infirmities and frequent distempers be looked upon as so many messengers sent to summon and warn me, that I must shortly leave this tabernacle. Let the bed I rest on call to my mind, that when all the business of my life shall be finished, I must lie down and rest in a bed of dust. Let the garments that I cast off at night, the sleep that benumbs my senses, the tombs of my predecessors, forefathers, and friends, refresh in me the thoughts of my departure to my last home. Gracious God, give mę grace so often to look upon Death and the grave, that I may be acquainted with them, and that they may not fright or terrify, but comfort me; for though I know that I am born to die, I know also this, that Death shall introduce me into the presence of my God, the only author of life and happi ness, to live for ever with him in bliss. Amen.

CHAP. VIII.

The second Remedy against the Fears of Death is, to expect it every moment.

Tis not sufficient to think often upon Death, and to dis

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course of it in a pathetic manner; and there be some that frequently mention Death with many pious reflections; yet nevertheless they cannot boast of being free from all apprehensions of it. Their tongue is always ready to speak of Death, but their heart cannot yet yield to expect it. They know that Death will seize upon them, but they entertain this dangerous opinion, that the time is not yet come; they acknowledge that they are indebted to God and nature, but they delay the payment of the debt from day to day, as if they were able to corrupt the serjeants of Death, and obtain a reprieve at their pleasure. There is no man old and decrepit, but flatters himself with the fancy of having as yet at least

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least a year to live in the world. In short, we imagine always that we perceive Death at a vast distance from us, and that we shall, at our leisure, prepare ourselves to receive it as we ought. Therefore, whenever or wherever it comes to drag us out of the world, it surpriseth and astonisheth us.

To prevent this mischief, we must not only consider that we are mortal, but that our life is short, and of no long continuance; we must continually say with Job, "Are not my days few?" Job x. and imprint in our minds this sentence of David's, "The Lord hath made my days as an handbreadth, mine age is as nothing before him," Psa. xxxix. Or that of Moses, "The best of our days are but labour and sorrow; for they are soon cut off, and we flee away," Psa. xc.

The ancients painted Time with wings, to express its unavoidable swiftness. The Holy Spirit pares our life to a weaver's shuttle, to an hired servant, to a post that runs apace, to a packet-boat, or an eagle that flies after his prey. The sacred writers speak of our life as a torrent of waters, of a cloud, of a vapour, a wind, or a breath. They tell us that our days are gone as a dream, they flee away as a shadow, they vanish as a word in the air, and that they perish as a thought. In a word, all the lightest and the most unconstant things in the world, whereof the motion is very sudden and quick, are employed, in holy scripture, to express the vanity of our life, and the shortness of our days.

Besides that our life is of a short continuance, it slides away insensibly, like a clock; the wheels move without ceasing, although the hand appears to us to be steady; ortoa plant that grows continually, although the increase and growth is not to be discerned by our eye-sight; or like to a man who stands in a ship under sail, he goes forward whether he will or no. Thus, whether we sleep or wake, whether we go

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or lie down, whether we eat or fast, whether we work or rest, we proceed on continually forward towards our grave, Our body is like to a tree eaten continually by worms; for day and night they feed upon it without intermission. In vain do you banish out of your minds the thoughts of Death; if ye will not call it to your remembrance, it will not fail to mind and remember you. The more you fly from it, the more it follows and pursues you at the heels; and when you imagine Death to be farthest off from you, it is the nearest to you.

As the cancer when it infects and enters into the breast devours the flesh without interruption, so time consumes and devours us continually. The meat that we swallow, and nourishes us, brings us by degrees into the embraces of Death, as the oil that causeth a lamp to burn, brings it to its end; or as when a torch is lighted it begins to decay, as soon as it begins to burn: this I may say without mistake, that the very first moment of this animal life is the first moment of our death: and as we say of all sublunary bodies, that the generation of the one is the destruction of the other; so it is with time, the birth of one hour, of a day, of a week, of a month, of a year, is the end of that which precedes. It is like a wheel, that mounts to no other end but to fall down again.

Since therefore our life is nothing else but a continued death, in proper terms, we are mistaken to name only the moment of the separation of the soul and body the hour of death for as, when many cannon-shot are discharged against a castle to open a breach, we do not say that the last hath done the work; or as, when a hard stone is cut with a chisel and hammer, or insensibly carved and undermined with water, the last blow or drop don't carry away alone the glory of the performance; thus, when our bodies decay and crum

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ble away to dust, we must not only consider the last strugglings against Death, or the last attempt of this enemy. Of a ladder, where we ascend and descend, we view every step from the top to the bottom; of an hour-glass we look to every grain of sand; of a journey we reckon the first league as well as the last ; and in a race, we take notice of the first step that we go out, as well as that when we stopped: thus we must reckon our death to begin from the first moment that we drew our breath, until the last when we yield up the ghost.

Besides what happens every moment to this poor and despicable nature, an infinite number of strange, unlucky, and unexpected accidents, stop and shorten our race. The taper is not always consumed by its own flame; many unkind blasts and showers extinguish it. If our life is short, it is no less weak and uncertain. The body in which we lead a languishing life is like Jonah's gourd; for if it be but moved with a contrary and unwholesome wind, or touched by an unhappy worm, it withers upon a sudden, Jonah iv. This was the thought of Eliphaz, when he said, "We dwell in houses of clay, our foundation is in the dust, we are crushed before the moth," Job iv. When God intends to destroy mankind in his wrath, and kill multitudes in his displeasure, he doth not always commission an angel as his agent, as in the case of the first-born of Egypt; as when he stretched forth the sword of his vengeance upon Jerusalem, and as when he cut off Sennacherib's army in one night, one hundred fourscore and five thousand men. He doth not always let loose the wicked spirits, as when he gave them leave to raise a furious tempest, which cast to the ground the house where Job's children were buried in the ruins, Job i. He opens not always the fountains of heaven, as when he washed away the first wicked world with a fearful deluge, Gen. vii. He causeth not always fire and brimstone to rain from heaven, as upon Sodom and Gomorrah, upon Admah and Zeboiim. He

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