Man's Mortality!

Ezekiel Hopkins, 1633-1690

Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment!"

A sermon on Death has then a double advantage to make deep impressions upon us, when it is attended with a Spectacle of Mortality.

Were there but the sad pomp of a funeral now presented before you, a dead corpse brought to be interred, a grave dug through into the earth, dry and rotten bones lying scattered about the mouth of it in fearful confusion, a solemn train of mourners tolled along the streets by the doleful moan of a bell; did you see the dead laid down in the dust, the place of darkness and silence, their friends groaning out their last farewell, clods of earth falling in upon them, and striking a horrid murmur upon their coffins; had your affections but such a preparatory as this is, possibly this might more easily work and move upon them: for it must needs make men serious and pensive to think, that this is but the pattern of what must befall themselves; and that all this must shortly be acted upon them, which they now see done unto others.

But, since this day presents us with no such solemnity, some perhaps may wonder that I have chosen this text and subject of mortality to treat upon.

Indeed, custom has made it almost improper to preach of death, without a funeral; and to speak to men of their last end and dissolution, without setting before their eyes an example of it. Look well therefore one upon another. What are we all, but, as it were, so many corpses? so many spectacles of mortality, rather to be numbered among the dead than among the living? Every day and hour wears away part of our lives; and so much of them as is already spent, so far are we already dead and buried. This present moment is the longest measure of our lives: what is past is dead to us; and what is to come is not yet born. How soon God may put a final period to our present state, how few times more our pulses may beat, and this busy breath in our nostrils return to us again, we know not. So frail and uncertain are our lives, that this may be truly a Funeral Sermon to someone of us before the close of it. Since then we are all of us thus subject to the stroke of death, it can never be unseasonable to warn you, that you be not surprised, and taken by it unprovided.

In the words now read, you have the great Statute-Law of Heaven; that law, which God has passed upon all the children of men; and that is, that it is appointed to them once to die.

Now that I may make way to press upon you the serious consideration of your own mortality, let me briefly mark out some things, which tend to the explication of the words.

And,

First. In that the proposition is laid down in the text indefinitely, It is appointed unto men; it is that, which is equivalent to an universal, and reaches to all men: It is appointed unto all men once to die.

We read of two only, in the whole book of God, who were exempted, by an extraordinary grace and peculiar privilege, from this great law of dying; and they were Enoch and Elijah: of Enoch it is said, that he walked with God, and he was not; for God took him: Genesis 5:24: and of Elijah it is said, that he went up by a whirlwind into Heaven: 2 Kings 2:11: the Great God, after a strange and unusual manner, tacked their temporal and eternal life together; making their time run itself into eternity, without any period or interruption. The Apostle also tells us, that all shall not die: to wit, at the Last Day, at the last appearing of Jesus Christ, there shall be a world full of persons, who shall not taste of death: all shall not die; but all shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye: 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52. These are exempted; and, being excepted, it is certain all the generations of men, from the first creation, to the last consummation of all things, are all appointed by God unto death.

Secondly. All must die once.

There is frequent mention made in Scripture of the First and Second Death. The First Death is the separation of the soul from the body: the Second Death is the separation of the soul from God. As the union of the soul and body is the life of man; so the union of God with the soul is the life of the soul. Now believers do not die this Second Death; for on such, as the Apostle speaks, the second death has no power: Revelation 20:6: they are still united unto God, after an inconceivable and ineffable manner. As when Christ lay in the grave, though his soul was truly separated from his body, yet both soul and body were hypostatically united to the godhead; so, also, though the natural union between a believer's soul and body be dissolved by death, yet both soul and body continue mystically united unto Christ, even in their separation one from another. It is not therefore this Second, but the First Death, which all are appointed unto. The hand of death must untie those secret and sweet bands: those vital knots, which fasten soul and body together, must fall asunder one day in every man.

Thirdly. It is appointed unto every man to undergo this first death.

It is decreed and ordained by God: and that, not upon the account of any natural necessity; but for the punishment of sin. The Apostle tells us plainly, that by sin death entered into the world. Death therefore is not so much a debt due to nature, as a debt due to the avenging justice of God: for, though man at first was created in pure nature, yet was he also created in a deathless state: and death seizes upon us, not as we are men, but as we are sinners; liable to the curse of the Covenant of Works, containing in it that threatening, In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. It is true, Adam, even before he sinned, had in him the contemperation of the same contrary qualities which we now have; and so, at least, had also the remote principles of death; but yet it is probable, that he was created with such a privilege, that he might by his own will sway and overrule the jars and discords of his elementary constitution, and continue himself in life so long as he should continue himself in obedience: however, whether it was so or otherwise, yet certain it is that death came into the world as the punishment of sin. So, then, it is not primarily man's nature, but man's sin, and the curse of the Law taking hold of him, that brought in this necessity of dying. Sin is not only the sting, but the cause of death: and it gives it not only its terror, but its very being also. And, therefore, it is somewhat remarkable, that, among all the creatures in the world, man only is termed mortal: most certain it is that other creatures decay and perish, as well as he; yet, among all perishing things, man only has that wretched denomination of being mortal, and there is good reason for it, since he alone, of all perishing things, being created immortal, voluntarily subjected himself unto death; and, by his own fault, brought upon himself that name of mortal, as a brand of perpetual infamy.

And thus now I come to the subject on which I intend to insist: and that is, THE UNAVOIDABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF DEATH.

To go about to prove this, were to lose so much time: every one grants he must die. All other questions about man are answered by peradventures: if it be demanded, whether such an embryo shall see the light; what is the answer, but, perhaps it shall, perhaps it shall not? if it be born, and it be asked, whether it shall live, and grow up to age; why, perhaps so, perhaps otherwise: if it grow up to age, and inquiry be made, Shall it be rich, or shall it be poor? honorable, or despised? learned, or ignorant? what is the answer? only, perhaps it shall, perhaps not. But, if it be asked, whether it shall die? the answer now is, Yes; it is certain, without any perhaps: there is no doubt at all of this: it is appointed by God for men once to die. And, therefore, though physicians have written books of the preserving of health, yet never any wrote books of avoiding of death. We need no other proof of man's mortality, but to search into the records of the grave: there lie rich and poor, strong and weak, wise and foolish, holy and profane; the rubbish of ten thousand generations heaped one upon another, and this truth that all must die, written indelibly in their dust.

I. That, therefore, which I shall do, shall be, in an applicatory way, to make some REFLECTIONS UPON THE BRUTISH STUPIDITY OF MEN; who, though they know themselves mortal, yet thrust from themselves the thoughts of death, and neglect due preparations for it. Men live in the world, as if they were arbitrary of their own time; as if they should never die and come to judgment. Oh, the beastly sottishness of men, who, though they see multitudes cut down daily by the hand of death, round about them, yet live carelessly and presumptuously, as if they were privileged persons, and death dared not touch them!

Should we make inquiry into the causes of this gross stupidity and sottishness, perhaps we should find it to proceed from some of these following.

i. THE GENERALITY OF MEN ARE SO IMMERSED AND DROWNED IN THE AFFAIRS AND PLEASURES OF LIFE, THAT ALL SERIOUS THOUGHTS OF DEATH AND PREPARATIONS FOR IT ARE SWALLOWED UP AND DEVOURED BY THEM.

Their minds are taken up about other things, and their time spent upon other matters: like a heap of ants, that busily toil to gather in their provision, not regarding the foot which is ready to tread upon them. So is it with most men: they are taken up with impertinences and vain things. One contrives how he may melt away his days in luxury and pleasure; and, with variety of invented delights, imp the wings of time, which, in their apprehensions, makes but slow haste, that so their days and hours may roll away the faster: these are such prodigals of their time, and lavish it away at that rate, as if their stock would last as long as eternity itself. Some are busily climbing up the steep ascent of honor and dignity; and are so taken up in seeking after promotions and new titles, that they forget their old stile of mortal creatures. Others are plotting, with the Fool in the Gospel, how they may grow rich, and lay up goods for themselves for many years as they fancy; when yet they know not but God may take away their souls from them this very night: and what then remains to them of all that they have thus greedily scraped together? O vain and foolish men! are these the things, which you set your hearts upon? must the world drink up all your thoughts; and death, which shortly will snatch you from all your enjoyments here below, be forgotten by you?

ii. MEN PUT OFF THE THOUGHTS OF DEATH AND THEIR PREPARATIONS FOR IT, BECAUSE THEY GENERALLY LOOK UPON IT AS AFAR OFF.

This is the greatest sottishness in the world; and yet most men are too guilty of it. Those, who are young and in the prime of their days, if it be asked them what they think of death, will readily answer, that they think they ought of right and course to live until they are aged; and they, who are aged, will tell you their weaknesses and decays are not so many or so great, but they may well weather away a few more years: those, who are healthful and strong, think surely they need not prepare for dying, until God by some sickness sends them a summons; and those, whom God is pleased to grant a summons by sickness and distempers, alas, they think that it is yet possible for them to escape from them again. And thus all are ready to thrust death from them, and to put the evil day afar off: and, though God has told out to them but a few days or hours, yet they liberally and bountifully reckon upon years and ages; as if their time were not in God's hands, but their own. It is a true saying, that usually the hope of a long life, is the cause of an evil life: suppose now that every one of us knew for a certainty, that our lives must run out with the glass which is before us, that at the end of the hour God would strike us all dead upon the place, should we not all of us have more lively apprehensions of death and eternity than ever yet we have had? should we not pour out our souls, before God requires them from us, in holy affections and fervent prayers? should we give scope to the gaddings of our thoughts, and the vanity of our hearts? should we think of such a vain pleasure, or such a worldly employment, if God now from Heaven should speak audibly to us and bid us give an account of our stewardship, for we must be no longer stewards? No, certainly: it is impossible that men should thus behave themselves. And why, Sirs, is it not so with you always? For ought you know, that film and bubble which holds your lives may be now breaking, your graves may be ready to be digging, and the last sand in your glass may be now running: however, certain it is, that it cannot be long before it will be so with all of us. Did we but seriously consider, by what small pins this frame of man is tacked together, it would appear to us to be no less than a miracle that we live one day, yes one hour to an end.

iii. MEN GENERALLY PUT OFF THE THOUGHTS OF DEATH AND THEIR PREPARATION FOR IT, BECAUSE OF THOSE FRIGHTFUL TERRORS AND THAT INSUPPORTABLE DREAD, WHICH SUCH APPREHENSIONS BRING WITH THEM.

Death is that, which, above all things, human nature most abhors. Oh! to think of the separation of those near and dear companions, the soul and body! of the debasement, dishonor, and horror of the grave; that there we must lie, in a bed of stench and rottenness, under a coverlet of worms crawling upon us, consuming and moldering away to dust in oblivion and forgetfulness! Oh! these are too sad and melancholy thoughts, for the jovial world to entertain and dwell upon. But, though the consideration of these things is very unwelcome, yes very dismal unto the minds of sinners; yet is there still far worse behind, and that which carries in it far greater terror and amazement, and that is the sin which deserves death, and the Hell which follows it: for, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 15:56 the sting of death is sin. And it is no wonder, that men, who are conscious to themselves of condemning guilt, dare not think of standing before the dreadful tribunal of God; and death is God's sergeant to arrest them, and to bring them thither. They cannot bear the thoughts of eternal vengeance, and prepared torments, to be forever inflicted on them, by the almighty power of an incensed God; and therefore it is no wonder, that they put far from them the thoughts of death, because their consciences tell them that that day, whenever it comes, will be to them an evil day.

Many more reasons might be given of this brutishness of men, in putting off the thoughts of death and preparations for it: but these shall suffice.

II. The next thing shall be to lay down some CONSIDERATIONS, which may fore-arm Christians AGAINST THE FEARS AND TERRORS OF DEATH; and make them willing to submit unto this law of dying, unto which God has subjected all men.

And

i. IF THE SOUL BE IMMORTAL, AS CERTAINLY IT IS, AND THAT, PARTING FROM THIS, IT ENTERS UPON A BETTER LIFE THAN THIS, WE MAY WELL THEN BE CONTENTED TO DIE UPON THAT ACCOUNT.

No man, says a Roman Author, thinks death is much to be avoided, since immortality follows death. I am very sensible how hard a task it is to persuade men to be willing to die, but yet let me ask you, if you are believers, (for, in this, I speak only unto such) what is there in death, that is so terrible to you? I know it is monstrous and full of horror, if we consider nothing but the corruption of the flesh, the ghastly paleness, the stiff, cold, and grim visage, the distorted eyes and trembling limbs of dying persons; and, afterwards, think of the stench and filthiness of the grave; and, lastly, the dissipation of the visible part of man: all these considerations make death very terrible and full of horror to us. But he, who shall consider, after all this, his spiritual and invisible part, what can he see in death, which is not very desirable to him? the body rests from its labors, and the soul enjoys its reward in Heaven: if you are hereby taken away from conversing with men, yet the soul is elevated to an acquaintance with angels: that, is still alive in its own nature: the soul lives forever, being placed above the common arrests of death. We find, to this purpose, after that God had tried the patience of Job by the loss of all his substance, and afterwards of all his children also, he restores to him double whatever he had taken from him: so we read in the holy story, The Lord gave unto Job twice as much as he had before: Job 42:10: now whereas, at first, Job had three thousand camels, God restores to him six thousand; whereas, before he had seven thousand sheep, God restores to him fourteen thousand; and so of all the rest, double the number of what he lost: But, when God comes to recompense to him the loss of his children, which doubtless were of far greater value than all the rest; whereas he had seven sons and three daughters, God restores to him the same number again, not double in these as he did in all the rest: and wherefore did God double his camels, his sheep, and his oxen, and not his children? because his children were not so dead as were his camels, and the rest of his brute creatures: their souls remained immortal and entire still after death: so that God, in giving Job seven sons and three daughters, did double them, notwithstanding, though he gave him no more than he had at first. So, here, though we die, yet death does us no injury: our better part survives; and, if we are believers, it survives in such inconceivable joys, as that all the pleasures of the world are but misery and wretchedness compared to them.

ii. THE WHOLE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN IS FOUNDED UPON A HOPE THAT CANNOT BE ACCOMPLISHED BUT BY DYING.

And if so, that man's mistake must needs be inexcusable, who abhors that, which alone can bring him to the possession of his hopes and desires. Christians! what is it that you hope for? Is it not to arrive at glory, with an innumerable host of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect? to see God, and to rejoice in him at a nearer hand than you now do here below? to be for ever blessed in the close embraces of the sovereign good? And what other way is there of obtaining this, but only by dying? Death is now made to us an inlet to glory, the very gate to Heaven. It is therefore unreasonable to fear that, which is the only way to obtain what we hope for.

iii. THIS DEATH, THOUGH SO MUCH DREADED, IS NO OTHER THAN A QUIET SLEEP.

So the Scripture often represents it to us, under the notion of sleep: Them.… which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Sleep is the natural resemblance of death. Sleep and death are very near a-kin. When we are asleep, we see not, we hear not: all our senses are locked up from the enjoyment of any worldly delights: we take no comfort in our friends, in our riches, or estates: all these are cancelled out of our minds. And what more does death do, than cancel these things out of men's memories? and yet the weary laborer lays himself down with contentment, to take his sleep until the morning; and why may not we also lay down ourselves with the same peace and contentment in our graves, to take our rest and sleep until the morning of the Resurrection? Indeed, the sleep of death is different from natural sleep; since that deprives us of natural light, but this sleep of death brings us to the vision of true inaccessible light. What then is there in death, that we should stand in dread of it? why should that be feared, by those, for whom the sting of it is already taken out? such may safely take this serpent into their bosoms: for, though it hiss at them, yet it cannot wound or hurt them; nay, instead of wounding them, it is reconciled to them, and become one of their party. The Apostle, therefore, reckoning up the inventory of a Christian, reckons this among them: Whether life or death.… all is yours: 1 Corinthians 3:22: and, in another place, he tells us, that to him to live was Christ, and to die was gain: Philippians 1:21. And well may a Christian account death among his gains: for it is the hand of death, which draws the curtain, and lets him in to see God face to face in Heaven; that palace of inestimable pleasure and delight, where the strongest beams of glory shall beat fully upon our, faces, and where we shall be made strong enough to bear them. Neither does death bring any detriment to our bodies, since they shall be new molded at the Resurrection; when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible put on incorruption: 1 Corinthians 15:53 when these dull lumps shall become impassible as the angels, subtle as a ray of light, bright as the sun, and nimble as lightning. Who is there, that has hopes of Heaven, that would have this law of death reversed? Who would be confined to live always a wretched life here on the earth, which sin and sorrow share between them? A holy soul cannot but long and be impatient, in breathing forth desires after the kind office of death, to deliver it into so great and incomprehensible a glory; crying out earnestly, with the Apostle, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is best of all: Philippians 1:23.

III. Now of what GREAT CONCERNMENT this subject of man's mortality is, God, by his Providence, since I last spoke in this place, has sadly evinced; and, by a near instance, has confirmed what I then preached unto you, of the frailty and uncertainty of this present life.

Happy were it for us, if either sermons or examples might awaken us to a serious consideration, that we ourselves also must shortly die; and, it may be, as suddenly. Are we not all subjected to the same attack? Has not God's hand kneaded our bodies out of the same clay; and may not his fingers crumble them again into the same dust? Certainly, the cords of our tabernacles may be as easily unloosed and cut asunder, as theirs.

I have read of a great emperor, who, to engrave upon himself the deeper apprehensions of his own frailty and mortality, caused his own funerals to be solemnized while he was yet living, laying himself down in his tomb, weeping over himself, as his own mourner. If there were any advantage in this to prepare him to die at last really, by dying thus first in an emblem, we may almost daily have the same. There is not a funeral of any of our relations or acquaintance, which we are called to give our attendance upon, but, by serious and solemn reflections upon ourselves, we may make our own: and if, by beholding others nailed up in their coffins, laid down in their cold graves, and covered over with earth that they may become a feast for worms, we rekon ourselves among the number of them, we shall not be very much mistaken; for this is only but a few days to anticipate what shall shortly be our state and condition. This advantage we ourselves may make of the death of others, to look upon it as a resemblance at least of our own; what is the language of every grave which we see open its mouth to receive into it the dead body of some neighbor or acquaintance, but only this, That we also are mortal and perishing? there is not a broken skull, or a rotten bone, that lies scattered about the grave, but has Death and Mortality written upon it, and calls loudly upon us to prepare ourselves to take up our abode in the same darkness and corruption with them; and if, upon every such sad occasion, we do not make a particular application thereof unto our own selves, we not only lose our friends' lives, but their very deaths also.

And yet, in this affair, which might be of great advantage to us, we are exceeding faulty: for the reflections, which we make on the death of others, are usually very impertinent, and make no lasting impressions upon us. When death comes and mows down our acquaintance and relations round about us, the reflection, which we usually make, is more upon the loss that we have sustained by their death, than upon the example they are thereby made to us of our own frailty and mortality: and, thereby, as God by his providence has deprived us of the comfort, which we had in their lives; so we deprive ourselves of the instruction and benefit, which we might have by their death. Or, if some extraordinary circumstance, that appears in the death of others, strikes us into serious thoughts of our own; yet, usually, they are but short-lived and fleeting: for a while, it may be, we think of human frailty, and the mutability of our present state; but these thoughts soon wear off, and we return to the same vanity and wretched security as before; for such dying meditations of death, are usually very unprofitable.

It is with most men, as it is with a flock of sheep, which graze fearlessly, until the shepherd rushes in among them, and lays hold of one of them for the slaughter: and this presently frights them; making them leave their food, and run scattering about the field: but, no sooner is the tumult over, than they flock together again; and feed as securely, without thoughts of death or danger, as before. So, truly, is it with most men: when either the report is spread abroad that such or such a person is dead, and it may be suddenly, by some sudden and unexpected stroke; or when they are called to visit some dying person, where they behold departing pangs, distorted eyes, quivering limbs, a wan and ghastly corpse, the image of death in all its lively terrors; if they have any remainders of natural tenderness, it must needs strike them into pensiveness, to think that one day this must be their own case, and that therefore it behooves them to be in continual preparation for this last and dreadful change: but, no sooner is the dead interred, and the grave filled up again, but all these sage and serious thoughts vanish, and they return to the same excess of sin and pleasure as before. This is the brutish folly and sottishness of most men.

But oh, why should not men always keep alive vigorous thoughts and meditations of death? Are they not always alike mortal? Are they not as much subject to the arrest of death at other times, as when they see examples of mortality before their eyes? The law stands still in force, unrepeaied in Heaven, that it is appointed unto all men once to die. Indeed, it fares with such as these, as ordinarily it does with malefactors, who fear not the penalty of the law until they see it executed upon others. Let us therefore act rationally as men; and, so long as we are in danger, be kept by that danger prepared to entertain that, which we know is irreversibly appointed unto us.

IV. But now, beside this general appointment of God, that all shall die, there is a PARTICULAR APPOINTMENT, which reaches to every particular circumstance of man's death; the time when, the manner how, we shall die. These are unalterably determined, in God's secret counsel.

To speak a little briefly to this.

i. GOD HAS PUNCTUALLY AND EXACTLY DETERMINED THE TIME OF OUR DEATH TO A VERY MOMENT.

The Great God, in whose hands our lives, our breath, and all our ways are, turns up our glass; and puts such a measure of sand into it, and no more: it is he, who prefixes it to run to such a length of time, and then determines it shall run no longer: it is he, who is Lord of all Time, that writes our names upon so many days and hours as we shall live, as upon so many leaves of his book; and it is impossible for us to live one day or hour, which has not our name written upon it by him from all eternity: it is God, who sets every one the bounds of their living, as well as the bounds of their habitation; Acts 17:26 beyond which they shall not be able to pass; the embryo, that dies before ever it sees the light, fills up its time appointed by God; as well as he, who lives to decrepit old age. And, therefore, though the Scripture and we use to say, Such or such an one is taken away in the midst of his days; yet, simply in itself considered, that is impossible: the whole tale of days, which God has appointed to every one, must be fulfilled; and that to a very moment, according as the number of them is set down by God from all eternity: such expressions as these denote no more, than either that God cuts them off in the full strength and vigor of their years, when yet they might, according to the course of nature and human probability, have lived longer; or else, comparing the shortness of their lives with the length of others, God seems to break it off in the very midst, before he had finished his work. I shall not enter into a dispute, whether the term of life be fixed or moveable: methinks Job has fully stated and determined the question: Is there not, says he, an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of a hireling? Job 7:1: now a hireling has a time of service prefixed; and, when this is expired, he is discharged from his labor: God has sent all men into the world as so many hirelings; and, as soon as these days are expired, he takes them from their labor to their reward. Are not my days as the days of a hireling? So Job speaks also, in another chapter, concerning man: His days are determined: the number of his months are with you: you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass: Job 14:5: what can be more punctual and particular? It is true, however, that, though God has thus numbered out our days, and set us our bounds; yet we may well say, that, whoever dies, might have lived longer, had they made use of the right means: as Martha said unto our Savior, John 11:21. Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died; so may we say, "If such and such means had been used, and such remedies applied, this or that person had not died;" but, withal, we must observe also, that that God, who has prefixed to every one his term of life, has also ordained, in his own counsel and purpose, that those means, which are proper to prolong life beyond that term, should, through some unavoidable mistake or mishap, either not be known or not used. This therefore may be of great support unto us, as against all inordinate fears of our own death, so against all inordinate grief and sorrow for the death of others; to consider, that all our times are in God's hands: he measures out every day to us; and, as he has appointed bounds to us beyond which we shall not pass, so also has he appointed that we shall certainly, reach unto those bounds. His all-wise Providence disposes of the meanest and smallest concernments of our lives; and, therefore, much more of our lives themselves: and, if a hair of our heads cannot, much less shall not we ourselves fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father.

ii. As GOD HAS APPOINTED THE EXACT CRITICAL HOUR, SO ALSO THE PARTICULAR MANNER OF OUR DEATH.

It is he, who appoints, whether it shall be sudden or foreseen; by diseases, or by casualty; whether the thread of our life shall be snapped in pieces by some unexpected accident, or worn and fretted away by some tedious and lingering consumption, or burned asunder by some fiery fever. In whatever manner or shape death may appear to us, is a secret known only unto God; but this we know, that it is always his sergeant, and wears his livery; and all the circumstances of our death are of God's appointment, as well as our death itself. And, in whatever shape it shall appear to us, if we diligently endeavor by a holy life to prepare ourselves for it, it shall not be frightful or terrible to us.

V. Let us now make some PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT of this.

USE i. If God thus unalterably appoints to us our last period, if he has thus appointed us to die, if all men are concluded under that irrevocable law: LET THIS THEN SERVE TO CONVINCE US OF THE GROSS AND NOTORIOUS FOLLY, OF SETTING OUR AFFECTIONS EAGERLY UPON THIS PRESENT WORLD, a world, which we must shortly leave behind us.

Death, within a very little while, will most certainly pluck us from it; and it will prove a violent rending to us, if our affections are inordinately set upon anything here below. It was a strange and perverse use also, that the Ancient Heathens made of the necessity of dying; when, in their feasts, their custom was to bring in the resemblance of an anatomy to their guests, thereby to excite them to mirth and voluptuousness, while they should relish such delights as were then before them, because shortly they must be as much dust and bones as what they saw: like those whom the Apostle mentions, 1 Corinthians 15:32 who said, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. But how much better use does the same Apostle teach us to make of this, when, in the same Epistle, he tells us, But this I say, brethren, the time is short? What then? why, says he, It remains, therefore, that both they, that have wives, be as though they had none: and they, that weep, as though they wept not; and they, that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they, that buy, as though they possessed not; and they, that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passes away. Death, one would think, should beat down the price of the world, in every wise man's esteem: why should we lay out our affections upon those things, from which we may be ravished in a moment? both they and we perish in the using of them: they are dying comforts; and we must die also, who enjoy them. Oh! what folly then is it to toil and wear away our lives in pursuing such vain things, from which we may be snatched before we can cast another look at them! Sour death will soon convince us, that all is but vanity and vexation of spirit, which we here set our eyes and hearts upon.

And, therefore,

USE ii. Seeing, by the appointment of God, we must all shortly die, LET US BE PERSUADED TO BE ALWAYS IN A READINESS AND PREPARATION FOR IT.

Our souls are immortal, and must live forever; and, when our bodies die and fall into the dust, they immediately enter into an estate which is forever unalterable.

Here I shall only lay down a few Directions, and so conclude.

1. Wean your hearts from an inordinate love of the world.

Death must and will pluck you from it: and, oh! it will be a violent rending, if your affections be glued to it. Consider, that all things in this present world are fading and perishing; but your precious souls are ever living and immortal. Be not, therefore, unequally yoked: join not your ever-living souls to dying comforts. This is a tyranny, worse than that, which was exercised by those of old, who tied living bodies to dead carcases. Oh! what a sad parting hour will it be to you, when you shall go into another world, and leave behind you all that you count good in this! How will you protract and linger; and wishly look back again, upon all those precious vanities, and dear nothings and follies, in which here you placedst your happiness and contentment! But, when the heart sits loose from all these things, with what satisfaction shall we be able to die; accounting what we lose by death to be no great matter, because what we gain thereby will be infinitely more to our advantage!

2. Would you be prepared for death? Beware, then, that you do not defer your repentance one day or hour longer, upon any presumption of the continuance of your life.

Death depends not upon the warning of a sickness. God does not always afford it; but, sometimes, he does execution, before he shoots off his warning-piece. And why may it not be so with you? However, it is possible your sickness may be such, as may render you incapable of doing your last good office for your soul. But, if it should be otherwise, yet this I am sure of, it is the most unfit time in all your life; to be then casting up your accounts, when you should be giving them up; to have your evidences for Heaven then to clear up to your souls, when you should produce and show them for your support and comfort.

3. Live every day so, as if every day were your last and dying day, and the very next day allotted to you unto eternity.

If it be not so, it is more than any of us know: and, since we have no assurance of one day or hour longer, it is but reason and wisdom to look upon every day, as that, which may prove our very last.

4. Be constant in the exercise of a holy life; and always doing of that, which you would be content Christ should find you doing when he comes to summon you before his bar.

Think with yourself, if you were now upon your sick bed, and had received the sentence of death, and saw your friends stand mourning round about you but not able to help you; what would be your thoughts and your discouse then? Let the same thoughts and the same discourse fill up every day and hour of your life: for you know not, whether now this moment you are not as near death, as if your friends and relations, yes and your physicians also, despaired of your life, and had given you over for dead.

5. Labor to get an assurance of a better life, and this will prepare you for a temporal death.

When you and all things in the world must take leave of one another and part forever, then to have the sense of the love of God, of an interest in Jesus Christ, and the sight and view of your own graces; these will bear up your heart in a dying hour: these things are immortal, as your souls are; and will enter into Heaven with you, and abide there with you to eternity. Oh, whom will it not comfort, to think that death will change his bottle into a spring? Though, here, our water sometimes fails us; yet, in Heaven, where we are going, we shall bathe ourselves in an infinite ocean of delights, lying at the breasts of an infinite fountain of life and sweetness. Whoever has such an assurance as this, cannot but welcome death; embracing it, not only with contentment, but with delight: and, while the soul is struggling and striving to unclasp itself, and to get loose from the body, it cannot but say, with holy longings and pantings, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.