liverance, we must quiet our minds under the apprehenfions of future evils, by confidering that we are in the hands of a good God, who will lay no more upon us than we are able to bear; and who will in his due time either remove what afflicts us, or give us strength to endure it in fuch a manner, that it may contribute to the improvement of our virtue here, and the increase of our happiness hereafter. So that however deftitute we leave our nearest relations, as wife and children; yet we must confider, that they are under the protection of providence, whofe blefling is the richest portion, and without which the best human prudence is no fafeguard. We must reft fully affured, that what God chufes for us is much better than what we could wish for ourselves, were we left to our own choice: we must embrace our ficknefs and our pains, as the chastisement of our past follies, and as proper methods for our growth in grace, and the love of God, and be contented to refer the continuance and event of our fickness to God's good pleasure; becaufe his infinite wifdom knows the best season for our deliverance; and as he first put us into the world, fo he is fittest to judge when we should go out thereof *. Neither muft we forget to defire the affiftance of a fpiriAdvice and tual guide, to offer up our prayers, and to fupport affifiance of our weakness with the bleffed facrament of the a minifter. Lord's fupper; fpiritualifing all the accidents of our fickness, making them a ground of pious and devout thoughts, which may be fent up in frequent ejaculations to God, who alone can be our comfort under all our distress; imploring his blefling upon all the means we use for our recovery; and offering to him all the pains we endure, as what we are more willing to fuffer than to offend him by. SUNDAY XVII. PART II. IV. It must indeed be owned, that death is the great king of terrors, that the diffolution of foul and body, and the thoughts of becoming a prey to the devouring worms, carries in it fomething very fhocking to human nature: yet, to a good man, death ap The death of the right ous, what. See Truft in God, Sunday 1, Sect, VI. pears pears in a quite different view. He confiders, that to leave this world is only to quit a place of trouble and vexation, of vanity and emptiness; it is to leave a barren and dry wilderness, where no water is, for the delightful regions of blifs and happiness, where there are rivers of pleasure, and a never-ceafing spring of endless comfort, which will fatisfy the most longing defires of the foul. Thus the happiness of the death of the righteous does not confift in any freedom from painful and noifome diseases; nor in any exemption from fudden and unfeen accidents and dangers, which often bring the righteous as well as the wicked to their graves: as we learn, not only by experience, but in the cafe of Lazarus, for whom was prepared a retreat in Abraham's bofom, yet had his body full of fores, and ended his life in a miferable and forlorn condition; whilft the rich man, whose luxury had kindled for him inextinguishable flames, only grew fick and died. I fay then, this happiness of the good man's death doth not confift in freedom from pain and noisome diseases, but it is distinguished by the temper and difpofition of his mind, and is founded on a well-grounded hope and comfortable expectation of a blessed immortality, through the merits of Chrift's death, promised to a fincere, tho' imperfect obedience to his law. Such a temper makes him contented to quit that body, which he hath always mortified, and to leave this world as a strange land, where he hath been detained a prifoner. And fuch as defire to be expert in all the devout acts of a pious foul, upon the approach of death, will set apart some time in their retirements to fit and prepare themfelves for death, by a folemn exercise of all fuch virtues, as christians fhall then ftand moft in need of; that they may not be at a loss to perform them, when they become weak and languishing. `And, if I be allowed to hint at fuch a time, I think the evenings of fuch time for The properfundays and holidays whereon we receive the blef- this propa fed facrament of the Lord's fupper, may properly be dedicated to fo good and neceffary a work: by which when we really come into the confines of death, our minds may be stored with devout thoughts, and may readily exprefs themselves in those pious acts, which we frequently ex may E e 2 ration. ercifed ercised upon fuch a profpect of our certain diffolution, or departure from this world. Thus having feen that the life of man is fixed and determined by God, and that this term of life is but Of the shortnefs of the very short at the utmost extent thereof; threelife of man. fcore and ten or fourfcore years foon pass away, and, when they are gone, they are like a dream or a tale that is told, few and empty; let them, who have lived thirty and forty years, confefs how little they remember in what manner they are paft, and that the remainder of their life is drawing to an end, while they eat, drink, and fleep. As therefore our life is fo very short, we ought to live as much as we can in fo fhort a space, not measuring the length or shortness of our lives by days, months, or years, or by the whole time of our continuance in the body; but by fuch actions as diftinguish a man from all other things which God created; and by exercifing the understanding and will upon fuch objects as anfwer the dignity and perfection of a reaIn what the fonable creature; confequently, he that eats and life of man drinks and performs the other offices of a natural confifis. life, which are common to him with beafts, lives only like a beast because a man's actions are to be governed by reafon, religion, and virtue. Therefore he who improves his knowledge and understanding moft; who subdues his appetites and paffions beft; who does most good, and makes himself moft useful to the world; though he does not continue longer, yet he lives more and longer than other men; forafmuch as he is inftructed and fully perfuaded, that the life which he enjoys here is only in order to a better, and exerts more frequent and more perfect acts of a rational and christian life. Wherefore St. James declares, Ye know not what shall be on the morrow; for what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away. Confequently, Who live the Such a one has lived a great while, how short longest in foever the time be, who is old in virtue, and ripe this world. for heaven and eternal blifs; who has laid up riches and glorious treasures for himself in a future ftate; who has anfwerd the ends of his life by acts of piety and virtue, by improve improvements in knowledge and grace, and the love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Hence Let us obferve, that the fhortnefs of our lives is a fufficient answer to all thofe objections against provi- The advandence, taken from the profperity of bad men, and tages of piethe miseries and afflictions of the good; for both y of them are so short, that they are nothing compared to eternal pains and glory. As for the profperity ofwicked men, it can last but a little while: therefore fays the inspired Pfalmist, I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree; yet he paffed away, and lo, he was not: yea, I fought him, but he could not be found. And, as for the afflictions of the godly, the apoftle declareth that his light affliction, which endureth but for a moment, worketh for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Besides, a long life is not reconcileable with the present state of the univerfe; because the world at prefent The difadis very unequally divided: fome have nothing vantage of but what they can earn by very hard labour, or long life. extort from other men's charity by continual importunity, or more ungodly means: wherefore, notwithstanding the rich and profperous, who have this world's goods, and live in eafe and plenty, pleasure and abundance, would be well contented to continue fome hundreds of years in this life; yet I cannot think, that any body would defire to fuffer threefcore years more or lefs, in flavery, beggary, hunger, want, imprifonment, or fuch-like diftreffes. Confequently, a great part of mankind ought to be very thankful to God for the fhortnefs of life, which delivers them out of fo much evil. Again, our lives are long enough for all the wife purposes of living and we come into this world not barely to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the delights of flesh and fenfe, which are only means to preferve life, and which God has sweetened with fuch proper fatisfactions, or made the neglect of them fo uneafy and painful that no man might forget to take care to preferve himself; but we are born to conquer the wicked world, to triumph over it, to baffle its temptations, to defpife its flatteries, and to endure its terrors and vexations; and if we live long enough to perform this work, we ought to refign our breath with content, and thank God that he does fo foon put an end to our labour, forrow, and temptations. V. By this it is plain, that we cannot live as we ought to do without knowledge and virtue: which, fome What is neceflary to may prefume to say, are not to be fo well attained improve our in a fhort time, as in a long courfe of years. It is lives. true, were the knowledge, which is necessary to improve a chriftian mind, the dark and intricate ftudy of human learning, the age of Methuselah could not attain to all its parts and deep receffes: but the knowledge neceffary for a chriftian, or to carry men to heaven, is imbibed with our first inftructions in the christian faith; for, as we read in the holy gofpel, This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent. So that our neceffary knowledge, in order to fave our fouls, is not a folution of the difficulties of nature and providence, or concerning the fecret things of God; but it is confined within the narrow bounds of divine revelation, or faith in God through his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. But, in regard to virtue, it may be urged, that the longer a man lives, the more good he will do, and make himself more useful to his fellow-creatures. This may be granted: yet it does not follow, that such a virtuous man ought to live longer upon earth than the common age of human kind; because, tho' he was born for this end, to do good unto all men ; yet it was in order to his own eternal welfare; and confequently, when by virtue he is fully prepared for heaven, it would be unjust to deprive him of the happy prize, having run his race and conquered: befides, this is God's care, who difcharges him from doing any more good in this world, whenever he calls him to eternal reft. And as for the attainment of virtue, there is no need of long time; for it is propofed to us in the most plain and eafy precepts, the most admirable examples, the most encouraging and inviting promises, and with the most powerful affurances of the Divine Spirit, to aid, renew, and fanctify us: fo that whofoever is not reformed by the divine methods of grace in the compafs of forty or fifty years, |