Divine Nature which hath nothing of rude matter in it but the Body is but as the bark or shell in which the Spirit being inclosed there lieth hid and if we desire to be delivered therefrom to live and behold the light that shell must be broken that bark must be stripp'd off and that case must be opened By what reasons can we perswade our selves that we live and think when in the mean time we are even spent and worn out with long sloath and idleness and can very difficultly stretch out our wings so long as we are loaden and burthened with this mass of Earth we cannot flie towards Heaven We see indeed but it is with such Spectacles as deceive us we have eyes indeed but they are covered with a white Film we think we see but we do but dream and are mocked by a lying sight and fallacious apparition Whatsoever we possess or know it is all but meer Vanity and meer Imposture It is only Death that can restore us both Life and the sense of Living And yet so brutish are we that we suspect this as if it were about to despoil us both of Life and Sense We call our selves Christians we believe there is and after this Life ended hope to enjoy a Blessed and Immortal Life nor do we think Death to be any thing else but only a separation of Soul and Body and that the Soul returns to her rest there to enjoy perpetual Joys with God in whom alone all good things and all the treasures of Happiness are laid up and that after the end of this World it will be restored to its own Body which shall never more be subject to corruption With these kind of Heroical and most Noble Expressions we stuff whole Volumes and yet when it comes to the push we shake for fear and tremble at the voice of Death as if it were of all things the most horrible And why so I pray if you believe those things I have even now mentioned Is it Happiness and true Pleasure that ye abhor which without this we cannot pretend truly nor scarce in part to believe we must look upon all that hath been said upon this subject to be only idle talk and no better than the vain Discourses of Men in their Jollity Some there are who constantly and with sufficient confidence affirm and will by no means be perswaded to doubt but that after this Life they shall pass to another far better and much more excellent than this is but when they consider the ruggedness of the way and the difficulty of the passage thereunto both their constancy and confidence do very much abate and they begin to fear and tremble at the thoughts of it How broken and disjoynted are the Minds of those Men who fear not oftentimes to expose themselves to Death for the preservation of their Lives who can be content to endure a thousand pains for that cause who to please others are not afraid to expose themselves to a thousand wounds who for the sake of some vile frail and perishing trifles and such as are not only subject to destruction themselves but also draw their owners into the same snare and ruine do a thousand times encounter Death without attaining the End they aim at and yet at the difficulty of one small passage by which they may procure unto themselves a sure and certain tranquility and that not for one day but for ever not a common rest but such an one as the Mind of Man is not able to comprehend do shake and tremble their courage fails them and they suffer themselves to be overcome by their own fears In vain do they accuse that grief which they suffer this is only a frivolous excuse for that little Faith or rather that great incredulity under which they labour For how they can possibly perswade either themselves or others to the contrary I see not when they chuse rather to wear out themselves with Aches in their Bones with the pains of Gout or Stone rather than by some more gentle kind of Death to change this Life without pain for one far more happy They had rather lose Limb after Limb and die by degrees that they may miserably out-live their own Senses Motions and Actions than by some sudden Death to be delivered from those so many and so great Evils that they may live and live happily for ever But they have an excuse ready for this they only desire their Lives may be prolonged that they may learn to live There are none who are ignorant of that it is an Art which all have learned It is not therefore the Art of Living but the Art of Dying that we ought now to study and learn which that we may happily do let us learn every day to die to our selves We cannot better fortifie our Minds against all assaults than by looking upon every day as the last day of our Lives But it happeneth out far otherwise more is the grief for there is no word more troublesome to the Ears of Men than the mention of Death How foolish and inconsiderate are Men who for the gain of a little money are hired to take up Arms and expose their Lives to the Fortune and Chance of War who in hope of Prey will first scale the Walls and attempt those Places from which they have little or no hope to return in safety so Prodigally do they hazard both their Bodies and Souls upon that account But to exempt themselves from the injuries and mockeries of Fortune that they may gain things rare and incomparable that they may enter into an Immortal Life that we look upon as a dangerous and difficult passage though all the danger and difficulty thereof is only in learning to know it right i. e. in imprinting upon our Minds a right notion of it considering that whether we will or no that passage at one time or other must be entred into and passed by us But alas Men are so much addicted to their own mischief that there are few or none to be found though oppressed with never so much misery who are willing to adventure upon this passage Some alledge their Age saying they could more readily and willingly submit to the Laws of Fate if they had attained to the Fiftieth or Sixtieth year of their Age but in their blooming years in their flourishing youth they think it hard to leave the world and a difficult thing to die that they would willingly know the world before they leave it But these Men do not consider how ignorant they are of all things they do not think that the greatest Age if it be compared either with time past present or to come is but like a point Do ye not see that when ye are arrived at that Age to which ye did aspire time past is as nothing and ye burn with a greater desire of that which is to come The remembrance of time past will be troublesome to you the
expectation of that which is to come will be very tedious and the present will afford you but little or no solace and pleasure You will as earnestly as before desire a truce with Death You hide your selves Month after Month from the sight of your Creditors and still put off the time of Payment and are as unready at the last as at the first to pay your Debt ye do not consider that one day it must be paid and if so then the sooner the better Try all the Pleasures of the world ye will find none new ye will never quench your thirst though ye drink often for that Body which you carry about with you is like that Tub of the Daughters of Danae which was full of holes and therefore could never be filled with water it will sooner be worn out with use than you will be wearied with the use or rather the abuse of it I do not see why you should so greedily desire long Life unless it be that you may consume it in vile and tastless Pleasures or spend it in hunting after Vanities you greedily desire it that you may prodigally spend it In vain do you complain of a Court-Life and the arrogancy of the Palace that specious and splendid pretence by which you would seem more willing to serve the Publick to assist your Countrey and to give up your selves wholly to the worship of God will not acquit you from all blame He who enjoyned you this Task knows without doubt the day and hour in which it is to be done he knows when you ought to labour and when to rest and accordingly will direct his own work But if he should suffer you to be longer busied in those troublesome affairs you might perhaps faint under your labours Now if God be willing out of his Grace Goodness and liberal Beneficence to pay you your wages if he be pleased to recall you from the Place of Suffering and the Stage of Labour and to give you as much for the work of half a day as for a whole one ought ye not then the more to praise his beneficence and liberality and to return him the greater thanks for it But if you will but enter into the inward Chambers of your Hearts if you will but examine the Secrets of your own Consciences you will be forced to confess that it is not the Cause of the Widow and Fatherless nor the neglect of a Duty to a Son a Parent or a Friend not unfaithfulness to the Common-wealth nor to God by denying him the Worship which is due unto him which you pretend and seem to deplore No it is something else that you complain of There are Houses and Gardens which trouble your Minds there are imperfect Platforms of Edifices and Buildings which distract your Thoughts your imperfect and immature Life will not suffer your Mind to fly higher than these which you have no hope to perfect no not by length of time whereas if you more accurately weigh the matter even one moment of time may suffice for the perfecting of it if you seriously consider with your selves that when this Life shall hasten to an end all those things will be of no concern provided you do but make it your business to finish your Course well and happily Now to finish our Course well what is it else but to hasten to our End without trouble to obey the will of God readily to follow him as our Guide cheerfully and not to do any thing that may make it be thought that we are unwillingly dragg'd thither by inexorable Fate or inevitable Destiny Then may we be said willingly to meet our Death when we approach thereunto with a sure hope without fear or doubting when we are well perswaded that after this present Life ended we shall enjoy another far better and much more excellent But this hope and expectation of a better Life must be kindled and nourished in us by a true fear of God whom if we truly fear we shall not need to fear any thing in this world but may hope all things in that to come For whosoever is possessed of this sure Hope and lively Faith Death it self will be both pleasant and grateful to him knowing for certain that by the separation of Soul and Body he shall obtain a quiet Retirement in which no kind of Happiness shall be wanting to him And though there may be some pain in Death yet will it be allayed with a far greater pleasure When the mixed Cup of Hope and Sufferance shall be drunk up the sting of Death will have no more strength which is only troublesom and pungent by vertue of our own fear I may add this also that he who hath thus fortified his Mind shall not only not be troubled or dispirited by any Image of Evil which Death offereth to his imagination but all the misfortunes of this Life which are wont to weaken the Minds of Men and all fear of trouble and molestation shall then be despised by him and set at naught For how can he be said to fear who hopeth to die Doth he fear to be Banished from his Countrey No he knows that he hath a better Countrey elsewhere from which none can banish him he looks upon this World only as an Inn and himself as a Guest there where though he may have a Being at present yet doth he not take it for his abiding place Doth he fear a Prison He can have no more grievous nor straiter confinement than that of his own Body than which he can meet with none more loathsom nor liable to thicker Darkness nor can he any where meet with greater torments and vexations than he finds there Doth he fear least any one should deliver him over to Death that is it which he daily hopes for and greatly desires Which whether it happen by Fire or Sword or Famine or Sickness whether it linger for the space of three years or come to pass in three days or three hours it matters not he is not concern'd by what way or when he leaveth this troublesome Life being always ready fitted and well prepared for his Journey and being well assured that as soon as he departs out of this he shall enter into an Happy and Immortal Life The menaces of Death only are levelled against him and this is that which he daily expects and hopes for Death is looked upon as the greatest and most grievous of all punishments but he looks upon it as the best of all those things that are to be hoped for The Threatnings of Tyrants are to him in place of Promises the Swords of most deadly Enemies are not unsheathed against him but for him he esteemeth the threats of Death as the commination of Life and that by the most mortal wounds he shall be conveyed to an happy Immortality Whosoever doth truly revere God stands not in fear of Death and he that is free from that fear is not afraid of the greatest and
way or other they always find the World in them and about them But that which is most deplorable of all being freed from these outward wars and troubles we wage a civil and intestine war with and against our selves the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Passion riseth up in rebellion against Reason Earth opposeth Heaven and the World within struggles hard for the World without us which though it be shunned by us yet having fixed its seat it keeps a constant residence in the bottom of our hearts But what do I say when they themselves who with tragical and demure looks and with specious words profess to renounce the World do yet cherish themselves with a vain ambitious hope of worldly praise and profit They pretend to slie the World and yet run into its embraces Some shun Honours and by that means make their way to Dignities hoping for their seeming modesty to be invited to accept of them Others hide themselves that they may be sought after So it comes to pass that the personated World often liveth among those who seem to run from it We are deceived if we follow the multitude for in the greatest throng and concourse of People the World and the God of this World keep their Court do we love solitude he who tempted Christ in the Wilderness hath there his lurking places Do we live with our selves or within our selves we may there as well as any where else find a contaminated World nor have we any other way to mortifie it but by dying to it We live in the World and the World in us and therefore we have no other way to rid our selves of the World but by departing from our selves and this departure we call Death We leave an infected City but we do not consider that we carry infected Bodies along with us and that we our selves are not the least part of the Infection so that though we wander thro' craggy Rocks Desarts Mountains that Infection is still our inseparable Companion Whilst we shun the Contagion of others we labour under our own We may flie the conversation of Men and yet not abdicate the Man from our selves The stormy and tempestuous Sea of this World we find to be very troublesom our heart akes our stomach is sick whilst we sail through the waves thereof and to free our selves from this trouble we change that which is firm and solid for that which is frail and brittle we leave that which is truly great and good for that which is base and little And yet we cannot promise our selves any rest or quiet we are not one jot the better for our change we are still beaten upon by the same waters and tossed by the same waves There is one and the same Haven to all Mortals and that is Death wherein they may rest from their labours The sick Man may be laid in a Chamber near the Street or Market the noise whereof is troublesome to him he may be removed from that to a more retired lodging more remote from noise and tumult and yet for all that his fever continues still and abates nothing of its heat and vigour We may change our Bed our Lodgings our House and our Countrey and yet find no abatement of our troubles and the reason is plain because we every where find our selves we do not endeavour to change our lives but our place we do not strive to be other Men but other where We desire solitude that we may shun solicitude that being at quiet we may shake off the burthen of our cares We desire to be at a distance from the conversation of wicked Men and for that end we change our places but whithersoever we carry our Bodies thither also we carry our own Covetousness our own Ambition and all the passions of our depraved minds which a thousand ways vex us and a thousand times a day call our minds back to the Onions and Garlick of Egypt These do always pass the same Bridge that we do and therefore on which side soever of the River we are we have them to conflict with But if we were able to conquer this Army of Vices which eats up our Minds we should without doubt find peace and quietness not only in solitude but in the greatest throng and press of People The whole Life of Man in this World is a continual warfare We cannot be secure either from external treacheries or clandestine counsels and deceits The Greeks had no sooner raised their Siege and founded a Retreat but the wicked Sinon troubles all within the walls of Troy and endeavours to betray the City to the Greeks We must always watch therefore and keep a strict guard we must always have our weapons in our hands lest by our security and too much confidence we be every moment in danger to fall into the hands of our Enemies out of which we have no probability to escape no not by the benefit of Woods or Rivers or Mountains no not though we inclose our selves within a Press or hide our selves in some Cave or Den under ground Only Death which by the separation of Soul and Body i. e. of the pure and clean part from that which is impure and unclean can do this which whilst they were conjoyn'd in one Person could never agree but were always brawling and at strife between themselves 'till either the one or the other was totally subdued and brought under Now though I am not ignorant how those who have given themselves up to a solitary life do spend their time viz. either in the study of Sacred or Profane Literature and of all Sciences and Disciplines and that these Men live far otherwise than those Men who have wholly given themselves up to Sports and Pleasures and thereby have render'd themselves as brutish as those Wild-beasts which they hunt yet even the wisest of these Wise Men must subscribe to the censure of the wise Solomon and confess with him that all these things when seriously considered are nothingelse but meer Vanity and Vexation of Spirit a What Vanity there is in Sciences or rather in the Persons who spend their whole time in the study of Arts. Some there are who spend their whole time in Grammar and Rhetorick i. e. in learning to speak well but do not in the least think nor allow themselves any small portion of their time to think how they may live well b Logick Others there are who are so busie in finding out the Riddles of a Logical Sphinx that they examine all the trifles and impertinencies of Reasons to find out what Reason is and in the search thereof oftentimes lose themselves and their Reason too c A ithmetick Others there are who by Arithmetick learn to divide every thing into the most minute Fractions and yet are so bad Proficients that they do not know how to divide a Half-penny with a Brother in way of Charity d Geometry Many there are who by the help of
Geometry can give limits to grounds and separate them from one another who can measure Cities and Countries and yet cannot attain so far as by any rule to measure themselves e Musick The Musician can bring different Voices and Tones into one harmony and yet all the while have nothing that is harmonious in his own mind nothing which by reason of the perturbations of his Mind doth not run counter to all Musical measures f Astronomy The Astronomer whilst with fixed eyes he looketh up to Heaven and seriously vieweth the motion of the Stars stumbles and falls into the next Ditch foretelling things to come he loseth those that are present though with fixed eyes he looks up to Heaven yet hath he a Mind which is stuck fast in the mire of this World g Philosophy The Philosopher disputeth gravely and accurately of the Nature of things and yet cannot attain to the knowledge of himself h Medicinâ— The Physician takes care of the health of others but as to the knowledge of the Diseases of his own Mind he is as blind as a Beetle he very well knows the beating and alteration of his own Pulse but how to cure the burning Fever of his Mind to which all his thoughts in the first place ought to have been converted he knows nothing of it not in the least regards it i History The Historian hath the Theban and Trojan Wars at his fingers ends but is wholly ignorant of what more nearly concerns him k Law The Lawyer maketh Laws for all the World but he cannot make any Law for himself l Theology The Divine earnestly contends for and disputeth about the Faith but never thinks of Charity he speaks much of God but to help his Neighbour in time of need he regards not Arts and Sciences therefore do indeed weary the minds of Men with continual labour but yield them no ease nor quiet By how much our Minds are filled with knowledge by so much we desire more nor doth any Science take away those Controversies which distract the minds of Men nor remove those cares and troubles which perpetually vex them Arts and Sciences do indeed polish the Minds of Men but they do not free them from Vices and Diseases Learning doth indeed cultivate Men but it doth not make them good nor truly wise To all which we may add that by how much the greater knowledge we attain unto by so much we know how small proficients we have been by how much the Mind is filled with knowledge by so much the more it knows its own emptiness how great soever the knowledge of Men may be in this world it is only of the least part of those things which we are ignorant of so that the highest pitch which our wisdom can attain unto is to know our own ignorance and want of knowledge the top of Man's perfection here consists in the knowledge of his imperfection which whosoever attaineth to is Endued with greater wisdom than others and may be reckoned the most perfect So that at length we may conclude with the wise Solomon that the fear of the Lord is both the beginning and end of Wisdom which Wisdom in the World's esteem is meer folly and the followers thereof worthy of deadly hatred Those therefore who are endued with this Divine fear of God need not fear any evil because whatever misfortune they may be liable to it will certainly be changed for the better Nor are they to hope for any good from the world because they must be at perpetual war with him who is called the Prince of this world Furthermore A Recapitulation of Old-Age and all Vices in what manner soever we have spent our time it matters not much Old Age is at hand it silently comes upon us unawares it hangs over our heads and where-ever it finds us whether in the throng of Men or in solitude separated from the society of Mortals it there assaults us Most Men do reckon and bend all their thoughts to this one thing that in Old Age being freed from all their cares they may live quietly and indulge the health and quiet of their wearied Bodies But it usually happeneth far otherwise for in Old Age Men are scarce so sensible of any thing as of the great evil of their by past lives that being a fitter time than any other wherein to call to mind all those Vices wherewith the former part of their lives hath been contaminated Then will they find how weak and unprofitable their Infancy hath been how unbridled and luxurious their youth whereby they brought upon themselves weakness of joints Palsies Stone and many other kinds of Diseases which by little and little but with great pain pull Men to pieces then will they remember the great solicitude and anxious care which attended their Manhood and how the same is now rewarded with blindness and deafness and lastly with the privation of all sense except that of pain There is no part of our Body but is mortgaged unto Death we are all and all together enslaved thereunto by reason whereof it happeneth to us as it usually doth to them who are in debt who when they find themselves unable to pay are in perpetual fear of the day of payment And when there is nothing of us left which Death may not justly lay claim unto yet even then our Vices not only live in us but whether we will or no do daily grow stronger in us The Covetous Man though he hath one foot in the grave yet is daily grasping at more wealth The Ambitious Man by his last Will and Testament takes care to have a sumptuous and pompous Funeral and even after Death erects Monuments and Trophies to his Vices The Lascivious Person though he cannot go his body being worn out yet will he creep though all his Vices have left him yet can he not bid adieu to them The Infant aspireth to Youth and having attained it he loaths it the Youth longs for a more mature Age and in that he finds a present evil and occasion enough to bewail the slippery and fallacious pleasure of the time past nor doth he see what there is in growing Age that is so greatly to be desired That Man is much less wise than an Infant who in vain bewails the loss of by-past time which can never return and yet hath laid aside the remembrance of past misery And he is much more unhappy than a Youth who when Death takes him out of a miserable life seeth nothing left for him but only matter of despair But he who from his blooming Age hath not only waged but stoutly managed a War with the Flesh and the World who hath undergone so many and so great troubles that he might learn to die and leave the World before his time and besides all these evils seeth himself pressed with that incurable disease of Old Age and his flesh wasted with so many troubles and
diseases yet it often happens that he finds himself stronger in Spirit Now what advantage I pray can this Man expect from all this save only this one that he is now got into the Neighbourhood of Death that an end of all his troubles and conflicts is now at hand that his freedom from this Prison in which he hath suffered so much all his life long now draweth nigh I omit in this place those infinite Evils which encompass and afflict Men in the several periods of their Age as the loss of Friends and Relations their banishment proscription and many other such like evils which frequently occur in this World one bewails the death of his Children another on the contrary complaints of the burthen of a numerous Offspring this bemoans the death of his Wife that complains of her living too long It is a trouble to some to be in an high place and no less grief to another to be in any place under the highest So many and so great are the cares and troubles which compass Men about in this World that should a just and full description be given of them the World it self would scarce be able to contain it In a word therefore he who in the esteem of others is the most happy of Men when he compareth his happiness with those cares and sorrows which attend it findeth himself very unhappy those who admire the splendid condition of others if but for three days they had the trial of it themselves would quickly be weary of it If Men would but consider those great inconveniencies which they do suffer in the acquisition of pleasures and what torturing cares and anxiety of Mind they are exposed unto for the preservation of them I speak of those delights which are of some moment and worth valuing not of those momentany ones which like Flowers fade and wither they would quickly be convinced that the possession of them is full of unhappiness and misery Whence we may draw this necessary consequence that Infancy is only a foolish simplicity Youth a vain heat Manhood a troublesom anxiety and Old Age an incurable Disease that our eyes are nothing else but tears the pleasures of the Mind only fevers riches only torments which continually torture and vex the Mind honours only burthensom vanities quiet meer inquietude To proceed from one Age to another is to change one Evil for another that which is lighter for that which is heavier so that as one wave beateth upon another so one trouble comes upon the neck of another 'till we arrive at the Haven of Death Let us conclude then that this Life is only a desire of that to come a grief for that which is past a loathing of that which we have sometimes thought to be sweet and pleasant a longing desire of that the tast whereof is yet unknown to us a vain remembrance of that condition in which any one died an uncertain hope of a future state in which there is nothing certain save only the certainty of Death and the uncertainty of the time thereof Behold Death hastning towards us The consideration Death nâ—â— terrible see that approaching which we so much fear Let us consider it whether it be such a thing as it is commonly thought to be whether it be so much to be shunned as for the most part it is We act like fearful Children who are greatly affrighted with the sight or thought of personated Ghosts one cause whereof is because we do not conceive it in our Minds as it really is in it self but as a sad sorrowful and horrid thing such as Painters represent it upon Walls and for that reason we shun it With these and the like vain conceptions and imaginations we impose upon our selves and leave no room to view it in its true and proper light Let us stay a little let us fix our foot let us take up our standing where we may take a more accurate view of it on all sides and we shall find it quite another thing than that we have painted in our imaginations to have a more beautiful face than hitherto we have thought it to have Death gives a period to the labour and trouble of this Life but of what Life of that Life which is nothing else but meer calamity and a perpetual storm and tempest Death therefore is the end of all our misery and sorrow and an entrance into a quiet Harbour wherein we may be safe from the danger of any dreadful storm Shall we then fear this which freeth us from danger and brings us safely to our Port But you will say there is grief in Death no body denieth that so there is in the cure of a wound it is so ordered that in all Humane Affairs there is no curing of one Evil but by another Incision is necessary to restore a bruised and batter'd part of the Body to its former soundness But you will say â—â—e Arguâ—â—nt taken â—â—â—m the â—â—â—ficulty of â—onfuted the way to Life by Death is a difficult passage So is the entrance into any Harbour it is usually strait and narrow and not to be got into without great difficulty There is scarce any thing of value in this World that is to be attained unto without great pains and labour The entrance indeed is difficult but it is we that make it so by approaching it with vexation and grief of heart with a troubled and unquiet mind with fluctuating thoughts and without deliberation But if we bring with us a sedate quiet and well composed Mind to the consideration thereof we shall find no such danger nor any such trouble in Death What pain I pray is there in Death doth it any thing more or can it do any thing more than affect and afflict our senses We look upon it as the source of all those Evils with which we are then tormented but we do not consider how much greater Evils we have suffered with how much greater torments we have been tired out which yet have not consigned us over unto Death out of what pains and griefs we have escaped under the pressure of which we have wished for Death We give but little thanks to Death for delivering us from those pains which we do then endure nor do we well consider that whilst we are spinning this thread of Life whilst we lengthen it out we are on all sides encompassed with pain and grief nor that it is impossible that we should finish our Lives without them We do not well understand what it is that afflicts us it is not Death It is life that afflicts us which is the end of our so tedious and troublesom Journey but the end of our Lives that grieveth us it is not the Haven we enter into which is nothing else but a quiet retirement from storms and tempests and a passage to a blessed Life We complain of Death when we should rather with tears bewail our Lives much like those who being
recovered of some Chronical Disease blame their health not the remainder of their Distemper as the cause of their last pains and grief What is it to be dead but only to be no longer in this World And is that so calamitous a matter Did we never feel any pain nor undergo any trouble whilst we were in the World Are we ever more like to Dead Men than when we are fast asleep And yet we never enjoy more rest and quiet than when we are so If therefore we be free from trouble and sorrow whilst we sleep why then do we impute those pains we suffer when the Soul leaveth the Body to Death which ought rather to be imputed to Life from whence they proceed unless by the same reason we foolishly accuse that time in which we were not for those pains which we endure at our entrance into Life But if no Man can enter into Life without pain why should it seem strange that the end should be answerable to the beginning If from the beginning of our Generation we weave the Web of sorrow no wonder if in like manner we finish the same If in that time when we were not we were void of grief and trouble but now that we see the light we find our selves encompassed with them and assaulted by them on every side whether of these periods shall we accuse for them whether that time in which we were not or that in which we are and shall be we never think we shall die 'till we find our breath fails us but if we would rightly consider the matter we should find our selves dying every day every hour yea every moment We look upon Death as some unusual thing when as we carry nothing about with us which is or ought to be more familiar to us Our Life is scarce any thing else but a continual dying Every day that is added to Life is a day taken from it so that the lengthning of it is but the shortning thereof We are no sooner entred into one step of Life but we are so far onwards in our Journey towards Death He that hath passed the third part of his Age is a third part dead and he that hath passed half is half dead The by-past time of our Lives is dead the present liveth but is dying and that which is to come shall certainly fall under the power of Death Whatsoever is past is not that to come is not as yet and the present is but in a moment is no more In a word our whole Life is nothing else but a kind of Death Life is like a Candle lighted up in the Body which in most Men is melted away by the wind in many others it is so agitated that it seems to be only half lighted Some indeed there are in whom it is preserved whole and entire to the last But howsoever it be what quanity of light soever it giveth by the same it consumeth it self The brightness of it is a deflagration its flame suddenly becomes a vanishing smoak and its last blaze ends in a stinking snuff The same is the Life of Man for in him to live and die is the same thing But if we call our last breath by the name of Death we cannot deny the same name to the rest because they all flow from the same Fountain There is only one difference between this Life and that which we call Death that so long as that lasteth it daily supplieth us with new matter of dying but when that is ended there is an end of us too we are no longer in this World This at length is confessed by all that those who believe Death to be the end of all their labour and travel have no handle for fear to take hold on Whosoever is desirous of a longer Life is also desirous of a longer Death And he who feareth lest Death should come too suddenly upon him feareth also to be too soon rid of that which occasioneth Death But to those who walk by more holy Rules Death is quite another thing For they do not like the Heathens seek for consolation against Death but embrace it as a most certain remedy against all kind of afflictions Nor do they study how they may despise it or at least not fear it but rather how they may comfortably hope for it and chearfully embrace it Because they do not look upon Death as the end of all pain and grief only but as a store-house of all good not as the end of Life but of Death and the beginning of an Immortal Life Well therefore did the wise Solomon say An Heavenly Life only good That the day of ones Death is much better than the day of his Birth And why so Because that day is not the last that shall shine upon us but the beginning of a never failing day and of a most happy Eternity In that brightness we shall neither be concern'd for the trouble of time past nor greatly desire that to come for then all things shall be present and that present time shall never have an end None shall then any more enslave themselves to those vain and troublesom allurements of the World but every one shall then enjoy the true real and solid joys of the world to come Nor shall any one think it worth his while to heap up earthly things being possessed of the eternal Seats of the Blessed in Heaven having left behind them and rejected all Earthly treasure which by its weight did for some time keep them under and fixed down to the Earth Blind Ambition shall not then inflame the Mind they shall not then desire to ascend higher nor climb the steps of greater Honours and Dignities being fixed in a place far above Earth and all Earthly things they will laugh at the madness and folly of those whom once they admired who for little or no cause wage war who like Children contend for trifles They will then find no Civil-war within themselves the Flesh being then wholly subdued the Spirit at full liberty and enjoying a plenary and perfect Life and all the passions and affections which formerly were so troublesom and tumultuous submitting themselves to the guidance and governance of Reason The Soul being then freed from this nasty and filthy Prison in which by so long a space of time it had contracted some ill habits and was sate down wearied with labouring under its own weight shall now look up and breath in a purer air it shall acknowledge its old habitation and remember its ancient Honour and Dignity It is not so O Friend as you think neither that Flesh which thou feelest nor that Body which thou touchest is the Man Man is the Inhabitant of Heaven from whence he first came that is his Countrey that is the air he loveth to breath in If you look upon the Body you see the place of his banishment and proscription the Man doth properly consist of Soul and Spirit Man is of an Heavenly and
most grievous Evils of this Life But some will say if Death be in the number of those things that are to be desired then it will follow that Life is to be exposed and precipitated that we may be delivered from the numerous Evils thereof and obtain so much Good thereby Though that sort of Solicitude doth not at all affect me yet that there are some who being encouraged with the sure promise of so great and good things hereafter are willing to hasten towards Death but though the Spirit may greatly long for that Life yet is it kept down and hindred from flying thither by the weight of its Earthly Body But that which is here objected is a perfect inconsequence and can in no wise be drawn from the premises That the Flesh is to be tamed and kept under by accustoming our selves to the thoughts of Death is readily granted that we ought to withdraw our selves from the World is not denied but that we may when we please take our selves out of the World I cannot agree because that is not a thing in our own power A Christian as he ought not to shun Death for fear of dying so neither ought he presumptuously to precipitate his Life in hopes of a better though he be exposed to continual assaults of grief and sorrow whilst here yet can he not without reproach and infamy forsake the Post in which he is placed But when his Chief Captain shall think fit to recall him thence then may he readily obey and retire without reproach or infamy A Christian is not born for himself but for God to him he liveth and prolongeth his Life 'till it shall please God to give him the reward of a well-spent Life it is free for God to take it from him but not for him to lay it down when he pleaseth But if it shall happen in Youth in the Flower of thy Age do as Mariners use to do give thanks unto God that with a prosperous gale he hath brought your Ship to Harbour sooner than you expected But if Death delays its coming 'till Old-Age give thanks to God also because though your Voyage hath been tedious yet have you not met with so many Storms and Tempests as might have befallen you in that time In the mean time do you neither make too much hast nor create delays for the Wind is not in your power Shipwreck may be then nearest when to shun it you make too much hast into your Port. Before Mid day God is pleased by Death to give rest to some from their Labours to others at that time and to many not 'till late at night Some he employs no longer than their first sweat others he roasts with the heat of the Sun and some he boileth down 'till they are altogether dry and have no juice left in them Yet he is not forgetful of any of his Servants he hath a time of rest for them all and giveth to every one their reward in due season Nor is any one deprived thereof unless he forsake his Post before he be recalled leave his work unfinished and require his Wages before they are due Wherefore we ought always to acquiesce in his will who in the midst of all our pains and labour can and often doth refresh us with sweet and quiet rest Our Life ought not to be tedious or odious to us because of the Labours which we undergo therein for that would betray a sluggish and abject Mind nor is it to be loved because of the Pleasures thereof for that would betray our folly and madness But let us serve our selves that we may the better serve God who after this Life ended will abundantly bless us with true rest and quietness and pleasures for evermore Death is not to be fled from and indeed it is vain and Childish so to do for it will certainly either meet us in our flight or pursue us at the heels Nor is it to be sought after lest we incurr the Character of rash and presumptuous Persons for no Man though he would can die when he will There is as much of despair in the one as of sloath and pusillanimity in the other and seeing both of them are within the confines of Vice neither of them can deserve either the name of or praises due to Fortitude and Magnanimity It is enough for us constantly and every hour to expect Death that we may not be surprized by it nor overwhelmed with it like unwary and imprudent Persons for as there is nothing more certain than Death so there is nothing more uncertain than the hour of Death This is known to God alone who is the only Author both of Life and Death to whom that we may all both Live and Die ought to be the only study and business of our whole Lives We ought so to Die that we may Live and so to Live that we may Die Happily FINIS BOOKS Printed for L. Meredith at the Star in St. Paul's Church-Yard THE Christian's Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Fourth Edition Corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God Or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular Persons in most of the concerns of Humane Life The Eighth Edition An Advice to a Friend The Fourth Edition The Truth of Christian Religion in Six Books written in Latin by Hugo Grotius and now Translated into English with the Addition of a Seventh Book against the present Roman Church A Book for Beginners or a Help to young Communicants that they may be fitted for the Holy Communion and receive it with Profit A Treatise of the Necessity and Frequency of Receiving the Holy Communion with a Resolution of Doubts about it In three Discourses begun upon Whit-sunday in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh 1684. To press the Observation of the Fourth Rubrick after the Communion-Office The Practical Christian in Four Parts or A Book of Devotions and Meditations also with Meditations and Psalms upon the Four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By. R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick the Fifth Edition A Winter-Evening Conference in Three Parts The Old Religion demonstrated in its Principles and described in the Life and Practice thereof The Golden Grove a choice Manual containing what is to be believed practised and desired or prayed for the Prayers being fitted to the several Days of the Week also Festival Hymns according to the manner of the Ancient Church A Collection of Offices or Forms of Prayers in Cases Ordinary and Extraordinary taken out of the Scriptures and the ancient Liturgies of several Churches especially the Greek Together with a large Preface in Vindication of the Liturgy of the Church of England The Second Edition FINIS