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an irreversible Sentence, Duft thou art, and unto duft thou shalt return.

Now to improve this Meditation to the beft Advantage, I fhall, 1. Confider what Death is, and what Wisdom that fhould teach us. 2. The Certainty of our Death, That it is appointed unto men once to die. 3. The Time of our Death; it must be once, but when, we know not. and Terrors of Death,

4. The natural Fears

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or our natural Averfion

to it, and how they may be allayed and fweetened. ↑

CHAP. I.

The Several Notions of Death, and the Improvement of them.

I.

WH

HAT Death is: And I fhall confider three Things in it: 1. That it is our leaving this World. 2. Our putting off thefe earthly Bodies. 3. Our Entrance into a new and unknown State of Life; for when we die, we do not fall into nothing, or into a profound Sleep, into a Sate of Silence and Infenfibility 'till the Refurrection; but we only change our Place, and our Dwelling; we remove out of this World, and leave our Bodies to fleep in the Earth 'till the Refurrection, but our Souls and Spirits still live in an invifible State. I fhall not go about to B 2 prove

prove these Things, but take it for granted that you all believe them; for that we leave this World, and that our Bodies rot and.putrify in the Grave, needs no Proof, for we fee it with our Eyes; and that our Souls cannot die, but are by Nature immortal, has been the Belief of all Mankind. The Gods which the Heathens worshipped, were most of them no other but dead Men; and therefore they did believe that the Soul furvived the Funeral of the Body, or they could never have made Gods of them: Nay, there is such a strong Senfe of Immortality imprinted in our Natures, that very few Men, how much foever they have debauched their natural Sentiments, can wholly deliver themselves from the Fears of another World. But we have a more fure Word of Prophecy than this: Since life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel. For this is fo plainly taught in Scripture, that no Man who believes that, needs any other Proof. My Business therefore fhall only be to fhew you how fuch Thoughts as these should affect our Minds: What that Wisdom is, which the Thoughts of Death will naturally teach us; how that Man ought to live, who knows that he must die, and leave his Body behind him to rot in the Grave, and go himself into a new World of Spirits.

SE C T.

SECT. I..

The firft Notion of Death, That it is our Leaving this World; with the Improvement of it.

I.

"F"

IRST then, let us confider Death only as our leaving this World; a very delightful Place, you'll fay, especially when our Circumstances are eafy and profperous: Here a Man finds whatever he most naturally loves, whatever he takes Pleafure in; the Supply of all his Wants, the Gratification of all his Senfes, whatever an earthly Creature can wish for or defire. The Truth is, few Men know any other Happiness, much lefs any thing above it. They feel what ftrikes upon their Senfes This they think a real and fubftantial Good; but as for more pure and intellectual Joys, they know no more what to make of them than of Ghofts and Spirits; they account them thin vanifhing Things, and wonder what Men mean who talk fo much of them. Nay, good Men themselves are apt to be too much pleafed with this World, while they are easy here; fomething else is neceffary to wean them from it, and to cure their Fondness of it, besides the Thoughts of Dying; which makes the Sufferings and Afflictions, and Disappointments of this Life, fo neceffary for the best of Men. This is one Thing which makes the Thoughts of Death fo terrible: Men think themselves very well as they are, and

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moft Men think that they cannot be better, and therefore very few are defirous of a Change. Extreme Miferies may conquer the Love of Life, and fome few Divine Souls may long with St Paul to be diffolved and to be with Christ, which is best of all; but this World is a beloved Place to the Generality of Mankind, and that makes it a very troublesome thing to leave it: Whereas did we rightly confider this Matter, it would rectify our Mistakes about these Things, and teach us how to value, and how to use them. For,

1. If we must leave this World, how valuable foever these Things are in themselves, they are not fo valuable to us. For befides the in

trinfick Worth of Things, there is fomething more required to engage the Affections of wife Men; viz. Propriety, and a fecure Enjoyment. What is not our own, we may admire if it be excellent, but cannot doat on; and what is worth having Increases or Decreases in Value, proportionable to the Length and Certainty of its Continuance: What we cannot enjoy is nothing to us, how excellent foever it be; and to enjoy it but a little while is next to not enjoying it, for we cannot enjoy it always; and fuch Things cannot be called our own. And this fhews us what Value we ought to fet upon this World, and all Things in it; e'en just so much as upon Things that are not our own, and which we cannot keep.

We use indeed to call Things our own, which we have a legal Title to, which no Man

can

can by Law or Juftice deprive us of; and this is the only Property we can have in thefe Things, a Property against all other human Claims: But nothing which can be taken from us, nothing which we must leave, is properly our own; for in a strict Sense nothing is our own, but what is effential either to our Being, or to our Happiness. Creatures are Proprietors of nothing, not fo much as of themselves; for we are his who made us, and may unmake us again when he pleases: But yet there are fome Things proper to our Natures, and that is all the natural Property we have; but what is thus proper to us, we cannot be deprived of, without ceafing to be, or being miferable.

And this proves that the Things of this World are not our own, that they are not proper and peculiar to our Natures, tho' they are neceffary to this prefent State of Life. While we live here we want them, but when we leave this World, we must live without them, and may be happy without them too. There is a great Agreeableness between the Things of this World, and an earthly Nature; they are a great Support and Comfort to us in this mortal State; and therefore while we live in this World we may value the Enjoyments of it, for the Eafe and Conveniencies of Life; but we must neither call this Life, nor any Enjoyments of it, our own, because they are fhort and perifhing. We are here but as Travellers in an Inn; it it not our Home and Country, it is not our Portion and Inheritance,

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