Tribe of Judah from whose Death as from a plentiful Breast we may suck abundance of sweetness His Sepulchre is the most fragrant knot in Joseph's Garden your thoughts cannot be dyed into a richer Colour than the meditation of Christ Crucified As St. Paul always did bare about in his Body so do you in your Minds the dying of the Blessed Jesus Assure your selves the pale face of Death will look ruddy when you cast this blood of sprinkling on it This should arm the Heirs of Life against the fear of Death We read Cant. 3.7 8. The valiant of Israel have their swords on their thighs because of fear in the night Night strikes men into fears especially the Night of Death but gird this Sword on thy Thigh get a living Faith in thy Heart and all the fears of Death will not dead it This should teach us to give Praise and Thanks to our Lord and Master How did the Philistines rejoyce when they had got Sampson in their hands Judg. 16.23 24. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoyce for they said Our god hath delivered Sampson our enemy into our hand And when the people saw him they praised their god for they said Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country which slew many of us What Lebanon is sufficient to burn Or what Cattel on a Thousand Hills for a Sacrifice What Hecatombs of Praise and Service are due to our great God and Saviour Who hath delivered the Destroyer both of our Souls and Bodies into our hands and us out of his who hath slain not onely many of us but either hath or will make havock of us all heaps upon heaps and that far more and greater than ever Sampson did of the Philistines Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to our most mighty and merciful God and Saviour be all the praise and glory given who hath translated us from under the power of sin and death into the kingdom of his dear Son HAving finished one Text it may be expected I should speak on another viz. Our deceased Brother who is the doleful occasion of this days solemnity I acknowledg I have not been much used to Funeral Encomiasticks and when I consider that this kind of Work is not without much hazard I do the more unwillingly engage in it Relations will think too little is spoke others too much The task is hard when on one hand I may be censured to give a faint and mean Character and on the other hand I may be thought to over do it and be Parasitical I acknowledg it and shall endeavour to avoid it That it is too common on these occasions to Saint all at their Death who expressed little of sanctity in their lives It was said of Julian Idoneus erat dicere Panegyricum diabolo He was fit to Canonize the Devil and I have read that Bruno an Italian did it This should make us wary in Discourses of this Nature But where there is real worth and deeds praise-worthy are to be found to deny the scattering a few flowers on the Hearse of such a Person would be injustice both to the living and the dead There is a generation of men whose eyes are mostly fixed on the dark sides and blemishes of their Brethren and chuse to represent them to be such always as possibly they once might find them to be in some particular circumstance of their lives Concerning such I shall say no more than that there are in the world such things to be found as Envy Pride Detraction evil Surmising Malice and Rancour which like smoak is always driven upon the fairest Faces I am not so partial as to believe our deceased Brother to have lived without his Humanities and Frailties let such who have escaped them throw Stones at him yet God kept him from the immoralities and gross pollutions of the times and places wherein he lived Good and wise men have generally determined That it is more pardonable to praise a worthy person even beyond his merits than to be always rakeing with the nail in the sores of others who may justly deserve our reproof and correction They are two equal guilts to detract from an enemy and to lavish and be prodigal in the commendation of a Friend I hope there is no one here that scruples the commending of the dead tho our Age abounds with many of that humour who little scruple the calumniating both dead and living I am in a streight betwixt two having much to object both against speaking and being silent yet I must not deny our Brother the Justa defunctorum the rights and dues of the dead I shall say but little and that as near as may be within the compass of my own Knowledg and Observation Sorry I am to be an Actor in this mournful Scene it might better become and better be done by some other but providence has made it my task to perform this last Office of love We are met to solemnize the Funerals of ROBERT HVNTINGTON Esq a Gentleman as generally beloved as known who lived much desired and dies much lamented My business is not to tell you he descended from an ancient and worthy Family that is the work of the Herald not of the Preacher and those Escutcheons on his Hearse sufficiently tell that my task is to blazon a more noble Coat and to give you those good grounds of hope which we have of his new and better Birth which are these following He was not only a Frequent but a Reverent hearer of Gods Word not easily detained from the publick Ordinances as we sadly observe in this profane Age many are who question the Gentility of that man who goes to Church more than once on Gods day reckoning him the best bred and most modish who is for three Meals a day in his own house and either none or but one at most in Gods O sad and deplorable Age we live in that by how much the lesser any man lives like a Christian to be reckoned so much the better Gentleman If this be the Character of one well bred and well born I am sure our Brother must not have it for he with his went to the Habitation of Gods Holiness and the place where Gods honour dwelleth He was an Honourer and Encourager of a Religious Ministry I have often heard him speak of such who were diligent and faithful in that sacred Office with great Testimony of respect and veneration as well knowing the bringing their Persons and Function into disrespect was the ready way already attempted by the Debauchees of this Age to bring their Doctrine into contempt He valued those most who preached most to the Hearts and Consciences of a Sinner and never disliked a good Sermon because it did not keep time with the glass With much sense he expressed his dislike of seeing the Pulpit
what reason hast thou to be troubld when as Joshua expresses it thou goest the way of all the earth If all Travel this Road art thou so foolish as to think there should be a by-path for thee to go alone None can Redeem his Brothers no not his own Life from Death Monarchs Emperors Patriarchs Prophets Apostles have trod this Tract nay Christ himself why then dost thou fear to follow such a glorious Company Grudg if thou wilt that thou art a Man grudg not that being a Man thou must die Where are the Fathers of old Do the Prophets live for ever This is the Kings high-way and the Beggars also You tread no untrodden Tract You are not the first set out this way nor will be the last Thou dost not break the Ice first 4. Direct Familiarize Death in thy thoughts This familiarity with it will breed contempt of it Men little think of Dying therefore are the terrors of Death so stinging Plato perswading to the thoughts of Death defined true Philosophy to be a Meditation of Death Even Tygers and Lions which at their first sight affright by frequent viewing abate their terror Look it often in the Face and thou wilt sooner be reconciled to its hard Features and grim Countenance Bid Death to thy Board to thy Bed to thy Closet to thy Counting house and thy Shop walk with him in thy Garden as Joseph of Arimathea did Dye daily in your Thoughts and Meditations and when you come to it actually you will die more delightfully It is for want of these thoughts that mens Souls are chased out by Violence rather than yielded up to God in Obedience 5. Direct Ponder on the happy advantage of your dissolution This is a large Cluster and I cannot tarry to give it you Grape by Grape 1. Death will give thee a freedom from all evil Whether of Sin or Sorrow cure all your Diseases and Infirmities dry up all your tears When the stroke is once struck adieu then to the Temptaions of Satan the rage of Persecutors distempers of Mind deformities of Body disgrace of Name unfaithfulness of Friends undutifulness of Children loss of Estate and whatever else makes life bitter Didst never cry out who should deliver thee with the Apostle Rom. 7.24 and art troubled when a Liberate is sent Art afraid to Land after such Storms and Tempests How many have desired Death nay sinfullly destroyed their Lives to deliver themselves from Griefs Fears Wants and Pains 'T is true he Sins highly that goes away out of this World before God calls him yet who would refuse to go when once he is call'd 2. It will put thee into possession of thine Inheritance I desire to depart and to be with Christ Who would tarry so long from his dear Lord that might have passage to him When the Heathen Socrates was to dye for his Religion he was greatly comforted at his Death with this that he should go to the place where he should meet Orphous Homer Hesiod and many other Worthies of the former Ages Had he but known Christ the order of Cherubim and Seraphim Angels glorified Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors our Fathers Mothers near Relations and dear Friends and the rest of the glorious Heirarchy of Heaven he would then doubtless have taken down his deadly draught of Hemlock with greater relish and satisfaction The Proto-Martyr Stephen triumphed over Death when he saw the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on Gods right hand Faith will help to the same beatifical Vision and Prospect It is pleasant to the eyes to behold the Sun but the Sun is as darkness and altogether useless in that Kingdom of Glory Rev. 21.23 Rev. 22.3 4 5. If David in the Wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before the living God in an earthly Jerusalem how earnestly should we long to see his glory in the heavenly one Psal 42. The glimps of his back parts was as much as Moses might behold yet that put a shining glory on his Face what will it be then to see him face to face The glimps of Christ in his transfiguration ravished Three Apostles who beheld it St. Pauls Vision that did wrap him up in the third Heavens advanced him above the rest of mankind but the beatifical Vision of the Glory of the Great God far excels all This leads me to the next particular 6. Direct Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones above Remember that great Army of God The souls of the just from Adam till now are all got safe thorough this dead Sea and are triumphing in Heaven already and that there are but a few straglers in the end of the World left behind and then which part do you desire to be with But especially remember that Jesus your head is entred into the Heavens before you and is preparing a place for you not being willing to be there without your company He would have you there to behold his Glory and do not these considerations provoke you to covet to be united to that heavenly Quire above which incessantly Sing not resting either day or night that melodious Anthem to him that sits on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever of blessing and honour and glory and power Rev. 5.13 Many more things might be added by way of Direction but I shall add but this one more tho the most considerable and important 7. Direct Act faith on the death of Christ Here is the main prop and pillar of comfort Who would have dared to dye had not our Lord dyed first he has taken away the Sting of Death what harm can there be in a stingless Snake He hath cut the lock of Sin where the strength of Death lay Hosea 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Christ hath happily triumphed over it both for himself and thee his precious Blood has altered its Complexion and turn'd its pale Face into a beautiful Sanguine Our Redeemer having unstung it we may safely put it into our Bosomes It is an Enemy indeed but a Conquered and disarm'd one Dost dread an Enemy Vanquish'd to thy hand and sprawling at thy feet Hath David killed this great and formidable Goliah and shall not trembling Israel recover their Spirits and up and pursue the Philistines Shall a Conquered Enemy disanimate the Conquerors Remember and revive O Christian The Captain of thy Salvation has not onely destroyed but sanctified the Grave to thee and perfumed the dust thereof with his own body What comfortable words are those Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 The Grave that otherwise affords but a noysom smell smells sweet ever since the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Vallies lay in it This dark hole is made lightsome ever since that true Light for a time Eclipsed shone out of it Thus our Sampson has found an honey-comb in the Carcase of this Lion Christ is the Lion of the
no more culpable than weariness sickness and many other natural imbecillities inseperably annexed to the condition of Mortality 2. There is a sinful fear of Death a fear of Death more than as it is natural viz. as it is Poenal and an issue of the Curse as it brings Men under the Devils power and may prove a dreadful inlet and passage to Everlasting Burnings Now the Children viz. of God and of the Promise in some measure have conquered this last sort of fear but it is impossible for them while they are cloathed with this frail and tattered Humanity wholly to rid and divest themselves of the former Death is the King of Terrors and therefore may command dread and fear even in the best Plentiful are instances of this kind and they easily occur to us Thus Jacob feared to die by the hand of his Brother Esau and studied how to meet him in Peace and prayed to God to stay his Hand and turn his Heart The Man after God's own heart cries the sorrows of death compassed him Psal 116.3 And tells us how his soul came to be full of trouble Psal 88.3 because his life drew nigh to the grave and he was counted with them that go down to the pit How industrious he was to save his Life will appear from his Counter-plots to save himself when Saul pursued him Good Hezekiah could not receive a summons to the Grave with dry Eyes the Message made him chatter like a Crane and mourn as a Dove Isa 38.3 14. Good old Hilarion was frequently chiding of his Soul with an Egredere O Anima for being so loath to leave a crazy body in which it had been a Tenant upwards of Fourscore Years Nay our blessed Redeemer himself in whom there was no Sin to imbitter his dissolution to him yet we find him greatly affected at the approach of his departure hence his soul was heavy unto death He entred not the Lists with that last Enemy without a heavy Spirit Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me It was the saying of Reverend Mr. Greenham page 15. of his Works I like as well of them that measurably fear death as of them who joy at it In another place he tells us He never dared desire to dye however his continual Crosses did afford him small desire to live It is true we sometimes meet with Christian Heroes of St. Paul's temper whose song ever since he had been in the Third Heavens was to return thither again who are so much exalted above the fear of Death that they court and crave it and make it the most desirable of desirables Phil. 1 23. They never sing a loath to depart but chearfully chaunt out with old Simeon their nunc Dimittis Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace With Elijah they are satisfied and full enough of days and crave no further time 1 Kings 19.4 Nay so fervent and earnest was the desire of the Primitive Christians after Immortal Glory that they groaned earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with their House from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 They seemed not onely to be contented but rejoyced with their departure and in the mean time they did rather accept of Life than affect it and endured it more than desired it Great is the number of Christian Pilgrims who in St. Bernards Phrase desire Repatriasse to return home and loose from the shore of Life and to Launch out into the Ocean of Immortality looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Epiphany of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Titus 2.13 At the news and tidings of their Lords approach their Faith Eccho's back their hearty Amen Even so come Lord Jesus But here we must take notice that our desires may be looked upon in a double capacity either as natural and connate or rational and elicite according to the Principles of Reason and Grace A man that hath a gangren'd Member hath a natural desire to keep it in the Body but his Rational desire makes him willing to part with it Thus our Saviour told the Apostle Peter He should be bound and carried whither he would not John 21.18 To be girded and pinion'd he would not according to his Natural will but according to his Renewed and Sanctified will he was ready joyfully to go to the place of Martyrdom Thus my Spirit may cry Come Lord Jesus Come quickly when the Flesh may say Master save thy self and pray that the cup may pass from it On the other hand They who have the greatest reason to dread it may sometimes defie it and knowing not what it is to dye brutishly seem to slight it Thus in these low running dregs of time an Atheistical crew of Men living in Brutish Ignorance fall blindfold into their Pit and Grave they shut their Eyes and are never awakened till those Infernal Flames flair about them and lend them Light to read their folly They are not out of danger but onely without the knowledge of it Their hardiness proceeds not from the knowledge of their good Estate but their ignorance of their bad one like Passengers that are asleep in a Ship that is sinking They Revel and Hector on the very Pits brink and their joy is like to that of those who are stung with the Tarantula which is not the Effect of Mirth but Madness and though they have no bands in their Death yet Death hath dominion over them Pleasant Company Wine Feasting Musick divert their thoughts from that formidable prospect of their End couzening themselves as far as they can with that vain Opinion That the way to escape the sting of death is not to think of it It is Risus Sardonicus a deadly joy The end of their mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 Like those silly Fishes which swim down the sweet stream of Jordan into the dead Sea where they perish Some indeed there are which please themselves with vain hopes of deliverance and flatter themselves with ungrounded presumptions that they shall escape the bitterness of Death Oh the foolish and helpless shifts that besotted sinners cling to How many perish at the very horns of the Altar What ungrounded hopes have they from their own Fictions How sadly do they abuse the best Doctrines and suck Poyson from the extent of God's Mercies and Christ's Merits They suffer their own innate Light to be Extinguished and resist all means of Conviction from that which is Revealed Thus you see that the Proposition is irrefragable notwithstanding we Read some good Men have desired it and some bad Men have not dreaded it In further prosecution of this Truth 1. I shall lay down some Propositions that tend to the clearing and confirming of it 2. I shall inquire into the grounds and causes of this fear of Death 3. By way of Application I shall lay down some Directions as proper remedies and cures of this fear 1. Propositions tending to the illustration and further defence of this
be working while it is called to day Fear is an Affection which quickens to Action Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark Heb. 11.7 They that fear not Death grow desperate their Language is Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die but they that are armed with this well-guided and bounded fear infer much more wisely saying Let us pray read hear repent believe obey for to morrow we die Thus you see great advantages may be made of this Natural infirmity and we may learn how to turn our Water into Wine to make those thoughts of Death which at some times lie very cold at our Stomachs to become very cordial and reviving against all sinful and immoderate dread of it Grace though it do not extinguish yet it corrects and regulates Nature and by the ways above mentioned mortifies this fear that it prove not a Temptation to Sin Stoicism hath attempted to do this but Christianity onely can and hath effected it In the School of Christ is best taught the right Cure of all our amazing and distracting fears 2. I come now to inquire into the grounds and causes of this fear As before I distinguished this fear it self so now I shall the causes of it into Natural and Sinful 1. Natural Causes Death on this account is dreadful because it is a future unavoidable evil to Nature As a future possible good is the object of hope so a future possible evil is the object of fear and much more it is to be dreaded when it is a certain futurity as death is which no ways can be declined Nature looks upon Death as its Enemy whose design is to divorce and separate Soul and Body two ancient Comerades no wonder therefore that it shun it when it knows it shall one day fall by the hand of it Memorable is the passage of that Martyr to the Executioner driving the Staple into the Stake Pray friend knock it in fast for Nature will be working And that this fear is greater in some than others from the very constitution and temperament of the Body is every days observation Our very natural Complexion renders us either more bold or fearful This is a natural Passion which though it may be Corrected and Sanctified yet it cannot be totally Conquered for Religion changes not the temperament of the Body Good men who are of this fearful temper and melancholy disposition and experience the tyranny of this Natural Passion have need to pray for the Sanctification of it I never thought Religion did depend upon the temper of the Body but I am sure the acting and exerting of it very much doth But these fears so far as they are Natural they are Lawful for they are not Transgressions of any precept and though they may be reckoned amongst our infelicities and weaknesses yet they come not into the number of our Sins and Crimes 2. There are sinful grounds of this fear of Death these chiefly are to be regarded and they are very many some I shall name and can do little more than in the gross produce them leaving you to enlarge on them and I am sure any man of thoughts may be very Copious on this Subject his own inward sense of things strongly will attest all to him This sinful fear proceeds 1. From the want of a holy fear the fear of the Great God As the fear of him is the less the fear of God in our Lives is the ready way to cast us into a slavish fear of Death It was one of the Judgments Threatned Deut. 28.58 65 66. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD Then neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life 2. From the want of faith in the death of Christ springs this fear of our own death Even the children holy and religious persons who live soberly righteously and godly are sometimes beset with these uncomfortable apprehensions of Death being now and then plagued with the remainders of an unbelieving heart as if still Death were not subdued as if Death had conquered Christ and not Christ Death The Disciples were terrified and frighted and unbelieving thoughts did arise in their hearts Luk. 24.37 38. Fools our Lord calls them and slow of heart to believe ver 25. We trusted that it had been he which would have redeemed Israel v. 21. Here their Faith flag'd and hang'd the wing extreamly their Buckler was much battered and stood in need of beating out again Weakness of Faith gives strength to our Fears and doth both greaten and multiply them upon us Faith is not without its Conflict with sadness of Spirit and carnal fears Amalek sometimes is too hard for Israel and the House of Saul frequently prevails over the House of David 3. This Fear proceeds from want of serious meditation on Death and due preparation for it Our negligence and sloath in not finishing that Work which God has put into our hands to do way well make us loath to come to an account with our Lord. Bad Stewards are afraid of a Reckoning and Death coming thus suddenly puts all into Confusion Suddenness and fear are joyned together Prov. 3.25 Suddenness of Destruction is the description of a doleful and fearful Estate When men have laid in no Antidotes and Cordials against Death then like Nabal their Hearts die before they do This was Davids Case Psal 39. ult O spare me Stay a little that I may get strength to combat with this Adversary The best are too backward in their preparations for this Encounter with this grim and gastly Enemy and therefore are not without their fears But oh who can express that great fearfulness which needs must surprise Unregenerate men who are clapping many Stings into their Deaths by their repeated and continued Sins they take pains to make their End uneasie and with their Vices dress up Death in a terrible Vizard to affright them What ease can they live at whose Souls this Night may be turned out of their soft Beds where now they lye securely snorting into a Bed of Flames one would think these Men should eat their Bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking There is no wonder that a sinful Cause should produce a sinful Effect and that Mens Terrors should be increased with their Offences Every wicked man must look Death in the face with pale cheeks It was a Copy of Julians countenance but not of his dying one when he said Vitam repescenti naturae tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurus exulto What Solomon speaks of Prophane mens merry living That even in laughing their heart is sorrowful Prov.
14.13 is very applicable to their Dying condition their heart gives their mouth the Lye Indeed sometimes like furious Gamesters they throw up their Cards not out of any dislike of gaming but of their Games they are rather discontented with Life than contented with Death but yet such reassume their Play and go on afresh and so do these Passionate Fools upon second thoughts eat their words and unwish their wishes Such are like to Gaal in his drink Judg. 9.27 He cursed Abimileeh when he was at a great distance speaks very contemptibly of him brags how he would use him if he had him in his Clutches ver 29. But upon Abimelechs appearance his courage was cooled his heart sunk into his heels for he fled before him ver 40. Mens sins will one time or other sink their spirits and make their Death dreadful and that upon account 1. Of the guilt that is in sin To apprehend sin unpardoned amazes and confounds and therefore God's Arrest by Death must make the knees smite and strike one against another Belshazzar like who could not hold his joynts still 2. Of the filth in sin The defilement of it is so great that it makes the sinner startle Such squalid and nasty sights must needs occasion the turning away of our Eyes Who can look upon them and live The Sinner often sinks and drops at the view of his Lusts they have a killing Aspect 4. Excessive love of Life and of this World begets immoderate fear of Death When Mens hearts are so closely united to Creature-comforts they cannot be torn from them without much violence and pain What we over love in the Enjoyment we over-fear in the Apprehensions of its loss A Child that has tasted much of the Breast cannot be pulled from it without much crying Things glued together are seldom parted without tearing or breaking If thy Portion is onely in this Life thou art utterly undone when it is ended and who can blame a man for fearing the loss of his All It is a Canonical Truth though in the Apocryphal Writings O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions Eccles 40.1 How sad a sight is a Hand writing on the Wall to a Belshazzar in his Cups To a rich man dreaming of his goods laid up for many years how sad and confounding must that voice be Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Luk. 12.20 It was a wise and Christian Speech of Charles the Fifth to the Duke of Venice who Hezekiah-like shewed him the Glories of his Throne and Palace his great Wealth and Riches Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori These are the things that make us loath to Dye 5. This fear is frequently occasioned by too much carelesness about our worldly Affairs I mean the neglect of a provident timely setting our House in order and adjourning this necessary and hard Work to the dregs of our Age. That which should be the living Mans care is too often the dying Man's task The ending of our Accounts with Men and the beginning of our Accounts with God are both of them generally put off to the inconvenient season of a Death-bed To reckon with God and Man at once is too hard a Province for a sick and languishing sinner Many more Grounds might be assigned I shall add but one more 6. The breach of former sick-bed Vows and Resolutions when we were in fear of Death renders men more fearful when once they come in sight of it The Answer is not amiss which Theodoricus Bishop of Coleine gave to the Emperor Sigismund upon his inquity which way he might best get to Heaven If thou walkest said the Bishop so as thou didst promise under thy painful fit of the Stone Our Extremity commonly renders us holy and our Pain is prodigal of those Vows which our ease is niggardly of performing We daily see desperation making those Votaries who in their health were the loosest Libertines Were it essential to Health thus to debauch us it would make a good man out of love with it It were better to be always Sick than for our Health to maks us Irreligious Let us pray to God to remedy this Sickness of our Health and to bless us rather with sanctified afflictions than curse us with unsanctified prosperity I now am to speak to the third Particular and that by way of Use and Application 3. To give some Prescriptions and Remedies by way of Antidote and Defence against the Fears of Death It was one of the defects which the Learned Verulam In his advancement of Learning found in our Physitians that they do not study those Rmedies which might procure an Euthanasy an easie passage to their Patients since they must needs dye thorough the Gates of Death Such helps must be left saith Bishop Hall to the care of the skilful Sages of Nature the use whereof must be with great caution lest while they endeavour to sweeten Death they shorten Life My work at present is to prescribe spiritual helps to an easie and comfortable departure out of the houling Wilderness of this World to make the Grave-bed soft that we may lye down in Peace there and descend to those dark Chambers with as great desire as a weary Traveller lies down to Sleep The neglect of looking to this while we live is the cause why Death comes on so many as a Snare as amongst many other it did on Caesar Borgia the wicked Son of a worse Father viz. Pope Alexander the sixth who meeting Death in that Cup of Poyson which he had prepared for others cried out with great Consternation under this terrible Surprise Adversus omnia pericula me munivi praeter quam mortem That he had armed himself against all casualties excepting Death for of that he never thought Amazing and deplorable inconsideration that men should find time to think of all things but those which do most nearly concern them that Heaven and Hell Death and Judgment should then only come into mens thoughts when they have nothing else to think of How solicitous are we to fortifie our selves against external evils timely engaging against Sickness and Poverty Banishment and Imprisonment Cold and Hunger Shame and Scandal but laying little or nothing up against the evil day Death comes and seizes most with a heavy hand because so little is done to bear up against it Take notice here of the excellency of the Christian Doctrine which affords beyond all other Professions the greatest relief in this way Some Phylosophers have essayed upon comforts of this Nature and Epicurus tells us if a wise man were to burn in Phalaris Bull he might say Dulcae est ad me nihil pertinet But these were empty brags and founded on some principles of which we may say as Job to his Friends Ye are miserable comforters such as these 1. Premeditation on it before it comes others rejected this as much because it