ting upon the brink of the river of life; and then I fhall number them. I cannot now praise him; alas that I am fo ftupid and dull; but I fhall praise him anos, I thall eternally praise him! O be glad and rejoice in our God! O fweet! that poor dying, miferable I was not left to uncertainties, not to know what to do; but to have such a sweet and kind Lord to repofe on! Had I stayed longer in this wretched life, I was refolved to have shown myfelf as faithful to you as I could: but I commit you unto his grace, who hath cared for me, even unto death: commit yourself to him, he will bring all to a good iffue that is trusted to him. We are not our own; therefore we are not to dispose of ourselves. Chrift is a good tutor and governour, and carries all these well through, that commit themselves to him. See that Mary neglect not feeking of God, praying, reading of the fcriptures; let her not frequent ill company. O the worth of a foul! and the reward of these that are inftrumental in gaining of a foul ! our bodies must go to the duft; but our fouls are of more worth than ten thousand worlds. I am not able to fay more, 'I am fo weak, O! run faft, death is at the door. We are all stepping into eternity; what is time, but a preparation for it? Overlook time, and live, as daily dying, as one that must pass away imme diately, and never be here any more. They build castles in the air, who imagine any rest here: let worldlings dream of reft here; ours is above; our hearts are gone; and we are dead to the world. Farewell for a few days. Thefe are the words of,

Your dying fon,

A. Welwood.

II. A

II. A Letter to his Brother JAMES.

Dear Brother,

Hope, the last words of your brother, who is now ftepping into eternity, will have fome weight with you; and this confideration will make you not to neglect them. Know you why you came into the world? I am fure, and you are as fure, not to eat, and drink, and pafs away your time in earthly business; but to get the work of your falvation well wrought and finished, before death affault you it is most uncertain, and fteals upon men, as a thief in the night, when they are fecure, never dreaming of fuch a great change: though truly my gracious Lord lets me fee death fill approaching nearer and nearer, that I may draw ever nearer and nearer him who is life. O it concerns you to try, Whether you fhall be a bafe mifcreant, crawling in the bottomlefs pit with unspeakable torments, in the midst of wicked men and devils, blafpheming JEHOVAH and the Lamb to eternity; or, a glorious faint, conformed unto the image of the Son of the eternal God, loving, praifing, adoring him that fitteth on the throne, and the Lamb, for ever and ever. Confider what I fay, the bufinefs is fo weighty, fo exceeding weighty, that time, with all its well and wo, is to be overlooked in comparison of this abfolutely and only neceffary thing: I tell you, there is an abfolute neceffity that you be holy; (let not the poor name affright you, for holinefs is the fweeteft and moft eafy thing in the world to them that are holy); for, Without holiness no man fball fee the Lord and falvation must be nearer your heart, by

mar

many degrees, than all other concernments, tho' they were ten thoufand worlds. You must know the bargain of the new covenant,, and clofe heartily with it, in all its fulnefs, without the leaft refervation upon it, I recommend unto you Mr Guthrie's trial of a faving interest in Christ; and defire you to read it, till you become fuch an one as he defcribes. Believe it, Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promises of this life, and that which is to come. Though it may feem trou blesome in the beginning, and tho' Chrift's fweet and eafy yoke may feem an hard wreath; yet, believe me, there is nothing in the world but it which can give reft, and full fatisfaction to the foul: all things here are unfatisfying, though you had all that you can defire of them. O this is a vain world! these who are near eternity will fay fo. O the vast difference betwixt time and eternity! I af fure you, if you had all that your heart could wish, or defire of the pomp, treasures, and pleasures of time, you would find no contentment in them: and when you shall be in fuch a condition as I am in, when pale death shall be staring you in the face; then all the glory of time will be, in your eyes, nothing but a withered flower. But alas! we are drunk with this world; and we never know well what we are doing, till death make us fober. I muft fay again, and again, O the difference betwixt time and eternity! they that get heaven, can get no more; for, alas ! what are all additions of time? What is a few days eating, and drinking, and trifling yea, what are all the maffy exercifes of time, compared with the exercises of glory? We place too much of our happiness in this fide of time; and therefore death is a great disappointer: but we fhould be indifferent to all things in time, and

have

have our eyes ever fixed upon the thoughts of eternity. Then it is not at all to be regarded, in what time of a man's life he die, if he die in the Lord: yea, it is an invaluable bleffing for the prifoner, or weary pilgrim, to have all his toilings by his hand, and to win to his native foil. You may think, I put a hard talk upon you; because our nature is all polluted, and we are accuftomed to do evil: but the ways of holinefs are fweet, and all its paths are peace: if you were once acquaint with the ways of it, you would fay, that fin is the most base and vile thing in all the world; and holiness is the most noble ornament. And confider this, the more you fet your mind on holiness, the more fweet and eafy will you find it. As for temporary things, take no care for them; they are but additions to the fon's inheritance. I may fay by experience, he hath made.good his word to me in all these things of time; he hath made it good unto the end of my race, in a most strange and wonderful way: fo that I have tafted more of my Lord's goodness, and wonderful providence, in this laft half-year of my life, than in many years before: I think it a merciful difpenfation, that he hath weaned my heart from the world, more in this half-year's fickness, than in many years health: this whole half-year of my life hath been a continual winter, for bearing down my corruption, both original and actual: and now the world hath no relish to me. Farewell, vain world, I heartily fubmit unto death, if it were for no more but becaufe it is the good pleafure of my Lord, who moft mercifully takes me away from the bondage of my corruption, and from the dreadful evils to come. Meditate ferioufly on death: it is a bufiness most weighty, a bufinefs upon which your eternal well

or wo depends: the end crowns the work; die well, and you are well, even well for evermore. And O! is not evermore a maffy word? You shall find death cafy, if you be a diligent feeker of God in your life time: if otherwife, you fhall find it the foreft battle that ever you fought; and you fhall quake, when you shall hear an avenging God fpeaking audibly in your confcience, He is not mine, take his evil foul, devils, pull him to pieces, and hale him away to utter darkness: the poor foul wrestles in vain, but an avenging God leaves it for.

prey to devils. Look not on death as afar off: little will be the difference betwixt my death and yours. This generation will quickly be gone: time is a gliftering far, appearing fomething before hand, but indeed it is a tranfient nothing. And one that: dies at fixty years of age, and another that dies at twenty years, think both alike, their bypast time is a dream. Short, or long time is not to be regard ed, but in preparation for eternity: and he that is prepared, hath lived long enough. I could give you many inftructions, were I not very weak: beware of ill company, never think to fee God, if you walk with ill company: companions in time, and companions in eternity. Lay fome vows upon yourfelf; but remember this, that you voW to do nothing in your own ftrength; for you fhall find, that when you are weakest in your own eyes, then are you strongest: I fay, lay fome vows upon yourfeif, as to pray thrice a. day ferioully and conscientiously; to read fo much fcripture; and to meditate. Not that men are tied to particular times, but it is moft profitable to lay bands upon our loose corruptions, which elfe will plead for too much liberty. Imagine not your thoughts to be free; vain thoughts

are.