CHRISTIAN'S CONSOLATIONS

AGAINST THE

FEARS OF DEATH.

CHAP. I.

That there is nothing more dreadful than Death, to such as have no Hope in GoD.

AN inspired pen styles Death, very significantly, The King of Terrors; that is to say, the most terrible of all other things; for there is nothing that we can imagine in the world more dreadful and more frightful than Death. It is possible to decline the edge of drawn swords, to close the lion's jaws, to quench the fire's fury; but, when Death shoots its poisoned arrows, when it opens its infernal pit, and when it sends forth its devouring flames, it is altogether impossible to secure ourselves; impossible it is to guard ourselves from its merciless fury. There is an infinite number of warlike inventions, by which we commonly defeat the evil designs of the most powerful and dreadful enemies; yet there is no stratagem of the most renowned general, no fortifications ever so regular and artificial, nor army ever so victorious, that can retard but for a moment the approaches of Death, this last enemy. In the twinkling of an eye it flies through the strongest bulwarks, the deepest walls, and most prodigious towers. It leaps over the largest ditches, the highest castles, and the most inaccessible rocks. It blows down the strongest barricadoes, and laughs at all our military trenches: every where it finds the weakness of our armour, and No. 1.

through the best-tempered breast-plates it strikes the proudest hearts. In the darkest dungeon it comes to us, and snatches us out of the hands of our most trusty and watchful guards. In a word, nature and art can furnish us with nothing able to protect us from Death's cruel and insatiable hands.

There is none so barbarous, but is sometimes overcome by the prayers and tears of such as cast themselves upon their knees to implore mercy; nay, such as have lost all sense of humanity and goodness, commonly spare in their rage the weakest age and sex: but unmerciful Death hath no more regard of such as humble themselves, than of others that resist and defy it. It takes no notice of infants' tears and cries; it plucks them from the breasts of their tender-hearted mothers, and crushes them in pieces before their eyes. It scorns the lamentations of dainty dames, and delights to trample upon their most ravish ing beauties. It stops its ears to the requests of trembling old age, and casts to the ground the grey heads as so many withered oaks.

At a battle, when princes and generals of the enemy's army are taken prisoners, they are not treated as common soldiers; but unmerciful Death treads under foot as audaciously the prince as the subject, the master as the ser vant, the noble as the vassal, the rich Dives and the begging Lazarus together. It blows out, with the same blast, the most glorious luminaries and the most loathsome lamps. It hath no more respect for the crowns of kings, the Pope's mitre, and the cardinal's cap, than for the shepherd's crook, or the slave's chains. It heaps them together, shuts them in the same dungeon, and in the same mortar pounds them to powder.

There is no war, though ever so furious and bloody, but it is interrupted with some days, or at least some hours, of cessation and truce: Nay, the most inhuman

minds are at last tired with bloody conquests; but insatiable Death never saith, It is enough. At every hour and moment it cuts down whole nations and kindreds. The flesh of all the animals that have lived and died since the creation of the world, hath not been able to glut this devouring monster.

All warfare is doubtful; he that wins the victory today, may soon after be put to flight. He that rides at present in a triumphant chariot, may become the footstool of his enemy. But Death is always victorious; it triumphs with an insufferable insolence over all the kings and nations of the earth; it never returns to its den but loaden with spoils, and glutted with blood. The strongest Samsons, and the most victorious Davids, who have torn in pieces and overcome lions and bears, and cut off the heads of giants, have at last yielded themselves, and been cut off by Death. The great Alexander, and the triumphant Cæsars, who have made all the world, to tremble before them, and conquered most part of the habitable earth, could never find any thing that might protect them from Death's power. When magnificent statues and stately trophies were raised to their honour, Death laughed at their vanity, and made sport with their persons. The rich marbles, where so many proud titles are engraved, cover nothing but a little rotten flesh, and a few bones, which Death hath broken and reduced to ashes.

66

We read, in the revelation of the prophet Daniel, that king Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a large statue of gold, both glorious and terrible; " its head was of pure gold, its breast and arms were of silver its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron, and its feet were partly "of clay, and partly of iron." As the prince was beholding it with astonishment, a little stone, cut out of a mountain without hands, was red against the feet of

66

this prodigious statue, and broke it all to pieces; not only the clay and iron were broken, but also the gold, the silver, and the brass; all became as the chaff, which the wind blows to and fro, This great image represents the four universal monarchies of the world: That of Babylon, of the Persians and Medes, of the Greeks, and that of the Romans. It represents, also, the vanity and inconstancy of all things under the sun: for what is the pomp, the glory, the strength, and dignities of this world, but as a smoke driven with the wind, and a vapour that soon vanishes away? All is like a shadow, that flies from us; or like a dream, that disappears in an instant. Man, created in the image of God, at his first appearance, seems to be very glorious for a while, and becomes terrible: but, as soon as Death strikes at his earthly part, and begins to break his flesh and bones, all the glory, pomp, power, and magnificence, of the richest, of the most terrible and victorious monarchs, are changed into a loathsome smell, into contemptible dust, and reduced to nothing: "Vanity of vanities, all is va "nity."

Since, therefore, Death is so impartial as to spare none, and its power so great that none can escape or resist it, it is no wonder if it is become so terrible, and fills with fear, grief, and despair, the minds of all mortals who have not settled their faith and assurance of God. For there is no condemned prisoner but trembles when he beholds the scaffold erecting, upon which he is designed to be broken upon a wheel, or when he spies, in the fire, irons with which he is to be pinched to death.

In the midst of a sumptuous feast, king Belshazzar saw the fingers of a man's hand writing these words upon the wall of his palace, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin; which the prophet Daniel hath thus interpreted; Mene, "God “ hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it;" Tekel,

દ

"Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting" Perez, or Upharsin, "Thy kingdom is divided, " and given to the Medes and Persians." As soon as this great monarch had cast his eyes upon this miraculous writing, it is said, that his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Certainly the proud worldling has a greater cause to be dismayed in the midst of his glory and pleasures, when he may perceive Death writing upon every wall of his house in visible characters, and printing upon his forehead, that "God hath numbered his days;" and this in which he now breathes, shall be soon followed by an eternal night; that "God hath weighed him in the ba"lance of his justice, and found him as light as the "wind;" and that the Almighty Creator, unto whom vengeance belongs, will soon divest him of all his glory and riches, to clothe therewith his enemies. What comforts can be found for the wretched sinners, who do not only understand their final sentence, but also hear the thundering voice of the great Judge of the world exasperated by their impieties? They may now perceive hell prepared to swallow them up, and the fiery chains of that doleful prison ready to embrace them. They may at present feel the hands of the executioner of divine justice, that seized upon them already, and see themselves before stretched and tortured in that place, where there shall be nothing but weeping and horrible gnashing of teeth. At present they may feel the fierce approaches of that fire and brimstone, which is the second death; for it may be justly said of these wretched varlets," that hell " comes to them before they go to hell ;" and that in this life they have a presentiment of the grievous pangs of their future torments: therefore, some of them in despair offer violence to themselves, and commit an horrid mur