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of the eye, the luft of the flesh, and the pride of life, But however fuch can please themselves, in the deceitful daubing of their mercenary priests, and dream they are members of Jefus Chrift, it is certain that things were otherwise in the beginning; for then all was fold and put into a common purfe, to fupply indigencies: Not mattering earthly inheritances, farther than as they might in some sense be fubfervient to the great end for which they were given, namely, the good of the creation. Thus had the pureft Chriftians their minds and thoughts taken up with the better things, and raised with the affurance of a more excellent life and inheritance in the heavens, that will never pass away. And for any to flatter themselves with being Chriftians, whilft fo much exercifed in the vanities, recreations, and cuftoms of the world, as to this very day we fee they are, is to mock the great God, and abuse their immortal fouls. The Chriftian life is quite another thing.

And left that any fhould object, "Many do great and feemingly good actions to raise their reputation only; and others only decry pleasure, because they have not wherewithal, or know not how, to take it," I fhall present them with ferious fayings of Aged and Dying men, and those of the greatest note and rank; whofe experience could not be wanting to give the truest account how much their Honours, Riches, Pleasures, and Recreations conduced to their fatisfaction, upon a just reckoning, as well before their extreme moments, as upon their dying beds, when Death, that hard paffage into eternity, looked them in the face.

Acts iv. 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.

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Serious Dying, as well as Living, TESTIMONIES. §. 1. Solomon. §. 2. Chilon. §. 3. Ignatius. §. 4. Justin Martyr. §. 5. Chryfoftom. §. 6. Charles V. §. 7. Michael de Montaigne. §. 8. Cardinal Wolfey. §. 9. Sir Philip Sidney. §. 10. Secretary Walfingham. §. 11. Sir John Mafon. §. 12. Sir Walter Raleigh, S. 13. H. Wotton. §. 14. Sir Chriftopher Hatton. §. 15. Lord chancellor Bacon. §. 16. The great duke of Momerancy. §. 17. Henry prince of Wales. §. 18. Philip III. king of Spain. §. 19. Count Gondamor. §. 20. Cardinal Richlieu. §. 21. Cardinal Mazarine. §. 22. Chancellor Oxciftern. §. 23. Dr. Dun. §. 24. Jo. Selden. §. 25. H. Grotius. §. 26. P. Salmafius. §. 27. Fran. Junius. §. 28. A. Rivetus. §. 29. The late earl of Marlborough. §. 30. Sir Henry Vane. §. 31. Abraham Cowley. §. 32. Late earl of Rochester. §. 33. One of the family of Howard. §. 34. Princess Elizabeth of the Rhine. §. 35. Commiffioner Whitlock. §. 36. A fifter of the family of Penn. §. 37. My own father. §. 38. Anthony Lowther of Mafk. §. 39. Seigneur du Renti.

III. The serious Apprehenfions and Expreffions of feveral Aged and Dying Men of Fame and Learning.

§. 1. So have SOLO

OLOMON, than whom none is believed to have more delighted himself in the enjoyments of the world, at least better to have understood them; hear what he says, after all his experience; ‘Į faid in my heart, Go to now; I will prove thee with Mirth; therefore enjoy Pleafure: And behold, this alfo is Vanity. I faid of Laughter, It is mad; and of Mirth, What doth it? I made me great Works, 'builded Houses, planted Vineyards, made Gardens ⚫ and Orchards, planted trees in them of all kind of fruit: I got me Servants and Maidens; alfo great

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poffeffions; I gathered me Silver and Gold, and the ⚫ peculiar treasures of Kings and Provinces; alfo Men and Women Singers, and the delights of the fons of men; as Musical Instruments, and that of all forts: So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerufalem; and whatsoever mine eyes defired, I kept not from them; I with-held not mine heart from any joy. Then I looked on all the works which my hands had wrought, and behold, All was Vanity and Vexation of Spirit'.' The reafon he gives in the 18th and 19th verfes is, that the time of enjoying them was very fhort, and it was uncertain who should be benefitted by them when he was gone. Wherefore he concludes all with this; Fear God, and keep his <commandments, for this is the whole duty of man: • For God shall bring every work into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.' O that men would lay this to heart!

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§. II. CHILON (one of the feven wife men of Greece, already mentioned upon another occafion,) affords us a dying teftimony of great example: It is related thus by Agellius: When his life drew towards an end, ready to be seized by death, he spoke thus to his friends about him: My words and actions, in this long term of years, have been (almost all) fuch as I need not repent of; which, perhaps, you also know. Truly, C even at this time I am certain,' "I never committed "any thing, the remembrance of which begets any "trouble in me," unless this one thing only; which, whether it were done amifs, or not, I am uncertain. I fat with two others, as judge, upon the life of my < Friend; the law was fuch, as the perfon must of neceffity be condemned; fo that either my Friend muft lofe his life, or fome deceit be used towards the Law. Revolving many things in my mind, for relief of a "condition fo defperate, I conceived that which I put in practice to be of all other the most easy to be borne: Silently I condemned him, and perfuaded

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1 Eccl. ii. 1 to 11.

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those others, who judged, to abfolve him. Thus I preferved, in fo great a bufinefs, the duty both of a Judge and Friend. But from that act I received this trouble; that I fear it is not free from perfidioufnefs ⚫ and guilt, in the fame business, at the fame time, and in a public affair, to perfuade others contrary to what was in my own judgment beft *.' O tender confcience! Yet an Heathen's! Where dwells the Christian that excelleth? Hard to be found among the great Rabbies of Chriftendom.

§. III. IGNATIUS, who lived within the firft hundred years after Chrift, and was torn in pieces of wild beafts at Rome, for his true faith in Jefus, left this, amongst other things, behind him: There is nothing better than the Peace of a Good Confcience :' Intimating, there might be a peace to wicked confciences, that are paft feeling any thing to be evil, but fwallowed up of the wickedness of the world. And in his epiftle to the churches at Ephefus, Magnetia, Trallis, and Rome, upon his martyrdom, faith, Now I begin to be a difciple; I weigh neither visible nor invifible things, fo "that I may gain Chriftt.' O heavenly-minded man! A bleffed martyr of Jefus indeed.

§. IV. JUSTIN MARTYR, a philofopher, (who received Christianity five and twenty years after the death of Ignatius) plainly tells us, in his relation of his converfion to the Chriftian faith, That the power of godliness in a plain simple Chriftian had that influ⚫ence and operation on his foul, that he could not but • betake himself to a ferious and ftrict life:' And yet, before, he was a Cynick; a ftrict fect. And this gave him joy at his martyrdom, having spent his days as a ferious teacher, and a good example. And Eufebius relates, That though he was also a follower of Plato's doctrine; yet, when he saw the Chriftians piety and ⚫ courage, he concluded, no people fo temperate, lefs

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Severus, Apop. p. 175. + Ignatius Epift. ad Ephef. Mag, Trall. Rom. Euf. I. 3. c. 32.

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< voluptuous, and more fet on divine things:' Which first induced him to be a Christian ‡.

§. V. CHRYSOSTOм, another father, fo called, lays this down for neceffary doctrine, To facrifice the whole ⚫ foul and body to the Lord, is the highest service we < can pay unto him. God promifeth mercy unto peni< tent finners; but he doth not promise them they shall have fo much time as to-morrow for their repent

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§. VI. CHARLES V. emperor of Germany, king of Spain, and lord of the Netherlands, after three and twenty pitched fields, fix triumphs, four kingdoms conquered, and eight principalities added to his dominions (a greater inftance than whom can fcarce be given) refigned up all his pomp to other hands, and betook himself to his retirement; leaving this teftimony behind him, concerning the life he spent in the honours and pleasures of the world, and in that little time of his retreat from them all: That the fincere ftudy, profeffion, and practice of the Chriftian religion, had in it fuch joys and fweetness, as Courts · were Strangers to.'

§. VII. MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE (a lord of France, famous with men of letters for his book of Effays) giveth these inftructions to others, and this character of himself, viz. Amidst our banquets, feafts and pleafures, let us have ever this reftraint or object of Death before us; that is, the remembrance of our condition: And let not pleasure so much mislead or ⚫ transport us, that we altogether neglect or forget how many ways our joys, or our feaftings, be fubject unto Death, and by how many holdfafts fhe threateneth us and you. So did the Egyptians, who in the midst of their banquetings, and in the full of their greatest cheer, caused the Anatomy of a Dead Man to be brought before them, as a memorandum and warning to their guests. I am now, by means of the mercy of God, in fuch a taking, that without regret, or

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Eufeb. Ecc. Hift. 1. 4. c. 8.

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