ginn not to displease us. Our Fears are apt to imagine, and to aggravate Evils. We may look upon him as an utter Abolition or Extinction of our Being; and Nature then muft needs fhrink back at the Thought of not being at all. But this is a foul and dangerous Mifprifion: What Reafon have we to be afflicted with that which is the common Condition of Mankind? Death is the fame to all; the Dif ference is in the Difpofition of the Entertainers. Could we have been then capable of the Ufe of our Reason, we should have been more afraid of coming into the World, than we are now of going out: For our Birth begins our Miferies; our Death ends them. Our Birth enters the

beft of Men into a wretched World; our Death enters the Good into a World of Glory. But the Soul and Body, like old Companions, are loath to part; yet it is but the forbearing their wonted Society for a while; they do but take leave of each other until they meet again, never to be divided. Did we not believe a Refurrection of the one Part, and a Reuniting of the other, we had Reason to be utterly daunted with the Thought of a Diffolution; but now we have no Caufe to be difmayed with a little Intermiffion.

The

The Death which we fo fear and flee from, doth but refpite Life for a while; doth not take it away; the Day will come, which fhall reftore us to the Light again. When we are weary of our Days Labour, are we afraid of Reft? The Philofophers of Old were wont to call Sleep the Brother of Death; Death is no other than Sleep itfelf; a Sleep both fure and fweet: When we lie down at Night to our Repofe, we cannot be fo certain to awake again in the Morning, as when we lay ourselves down in Death; we are fure to awake in the Morning of the Refurrection.

We know but one Way of fortifying our Souls against the gloomy Prefages and Terrors of Mind; and that is, by fecuring to ourselves the Friendship and Protection of that Being, who difpofes of Events, and governs Futurity. He fees, at one View, the whole Thread of our Exiftence; not only that Part of it which we have already paffed through, but that which runs forward into all the Depths of Eternity. When we lay us down to fleep, we should recommend ourselves to his Cares; when we awake we fhould give ourfelves up to his Direction. Amidft all the Evils that threaten us, we fhould look up to him for Help, and question

not

not but he will either avert them, or turn them to our Advantage. Though we know neither the Time nor the Manner of the Death we are to die, we should not be at all follicitous about it; because we are fure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and fupport us under them.

DEATH.

DEATH.

HEN a good Old Age has advanced our Knowledge, and fully acquainted us with the Vexation that attends the most happy on this Side Heaven; when the Fever of Youth is abated, and Serenity keeps down our Paffions; when we are no longer dazzled with falfe Felicities, but view Things as they really are; when by the Decays of Nature and Fancy, Reafon breaks its Confinement, no longer reftrained by the deluding Charms of Sin, nor the ftrong Bars of a brisk and warm Constitution; when the most agreeable Pleasures have loft their Bait, and every Occurrence brings Pain and Uneafinefs; when our Bodies are weak and diftempered,

E

pered and our Minds diffatisfyed with their crazy Habitation; when Pride and Gaiety are gone, and found Judgment fupplies the Room of Imagination; when the Hurry of a bufy World becomes irkfome, 'tis then, that with an holy Regard to the Quiet and Compofure of another better State, we may justly wish we bad Wings like a Dove, to fly away, and be at reft.

Yet, the Love of Life, and the dread of Death, are fo natural to us, that it feems almost impoffible, willingly to renounce the One, and court the Other. For every Thing naturally tends to its own Prefervation; and an Abhorrence from Death is the neceffary Confequence of that Self-Love which is implanted in ús all. Every Trembling and Emotion then, at the Approach of Death, is no Ways culpable. If we might go to Chrift, as Enoch and Elijah did, without dying; this would be agreeable: Or, if we could be of that Number, who fhall be found alive at our Lord's Coming, and be changed in a Moment, this must be pleafing to Nature, as it commits no Violence upon it.