Perhaps, my son, thou lookest at death as some utter abolition or extinction of thy being; and nature must needs shrink back at the thought of not being at all. This is a foul and dangerous misapprehension.

It is but a departing, which thou callest a death. See how God himself styles it to the father of the faithful : Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Also of his holy grandchild, Israel, the Spirit of God says, When Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Gen. xv. 15. xlix. 33. Lo, dying is no other than going to our fathers, and gathering to our people; with whom we do and shall live in that other and better world, and with whom we shall re-appear glorious. Let but faith represent death to thee in this shape, and he shall not appear so formidable.

Mark in what familiar terms it pleased God to converse with his servant Moses, concerning his death. Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered to his people. Deut. xxxii. 49, 50. Lo, it is no more than Go up, and die. Should it have been but to go a day's journey in the wilderness to sacrifice, it could not have been otherwise expressed; or as if it were all one to go up to Sinai to meet with God, and to go up to Nebo and die.

Neither is it otherwise with us. The only difference is, that Moses must first see the land of promise, and then die; whereas we first die, and then see the promised land.

SECTION 4.

The common condition of men.

THOU art troubled with the fear of death :-What reason hast thou to be afflicted with that, which is the common condition of mankind? Remember, my son, the words of Joshua, the victorious leader of God's people. Behold, this day, saith he, I am going the way of all the earth. Josh. xxiii. 14.

If all the earth go this way, couldst thou be so fond as to think there should be a by-path left for thee, wherein thou mayest tread alone? Were it so that monarchs and princes, that patriarchs, prophets and apostles were allowed an easier passage out of the world, thou mightest perhaps find some pretense for repining at a painful dissolution. But now, since all go one way, and as the wise philosopher says, those which are unequal in their birth are in their deaths equal; there can be no ground for a discontented murmur. Grudge, if thou wilt, that thou art a man: grudge not, that being a man, thou must die. Psal. lxxxix. 48. xc. 3-7.

It is true that those whom the last day shall find alive, shall not die; but they shall be changed. This change shall be no other than an analogical death, in which there shall be a speedy consumption of all our corrupt and drossy parts; so that the pain must be so much the more intense, by how much it is more short than in the ordinary course of death. Briefly, that change is a death, and our death is a change, as Job styles it. Ch. xiv. 14. The difference is not in the pain, but in the speed of the

transaction.

Fear not then the sentence of death: remember them that have been before thee, and that come after, for this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh.

SECTION 5.

Death not feared by some.

THOU fearest death :-So do not infants, children, or distracted persons. Why should use of reason render us more cowardly than defect of reason doth them?

Thou fearest that which some others wish. Oh death, how acceptable is thy sentence to the needy; and to him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last stage, and is vexed with all things; and to him that despaireth, and hath lost all patience. Ecclus. xli. 2. Wherefore is light given, saith Job, to him that is in misery; and life unto the bitter in soul? Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures. Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave. Job iii. 20-22.

How many are there that invite the violence of death; and if he refuse it, do as Ignatius threatened he would do to the lions, force his assault! Death is the same to all: the difference is in the disposition of the entertainers. Couldst thou look upon death with their eyes, he should be as welcome to thee as he is to them. At least, why shouldst thou not labour to have thy heart so wrought upon, that this face of death, which seems lovely and desirable to some, may not appear over-terrible to thee.

SECTION 6.

Our dying day better than our birth day.

THOU art afraid to die:-Couldst thou then have been capable of the use of reason, thou wouldst have been more afraid of coming into the world, than thou art now of going out for why should we be more afraid of the better, than of the worse?

Better is the day of death, than the day of one's birth, saith the Preacher. Eccles. vii. 2. Better every way.

Our birth begins our miseries, our death ends them; our birth enters the best of men into a wretched world, our death enters the good into a world of glory.

Certainly, were it not for our infidelity, as we came crying into the world, so we should go singing out of it. And if some have solemnized their birth day with feasting and triumph, the church of old hath bestowed that name and cost upon the dying days of her saints and martyrs.

SECTION 7.

The sting of death extracted.

THOU abhorrest death, and fleest from it as from a serpent:-But dost thou know that his sting is gone? What harm can there be in a stingless snake? Hast thou not seen or heard of some delicate dames that have carried them, thus corrected, in their bosom, for coolness, and for the pleasure of their smoothness? The sting of death is sin. 1 Cor. xv. 56. He may hiss and wind about us; but he cannot hurt us when the sting is gone. Look up, oh thou believing soul, to thy blessed Saviour, who hath plucked out this sting of death, and happily triumphed over it, both for himself and thee. Oh death, where is thy sting; oh grave, where is thy victory!

SECTION 8.

Death but a parting, to meet again.

THY soul and body, old companions, are loth to part: -Why, man, it but the forbearing of their wonted society for a while. They only take leave of each other, till they meet again in the day of the resurrection; and in the mean time they are both safe, and the better part is happy.

It is commendable in the Jews, otherwise the worst of men, that they call their grave The house of the living;' and when they return from the burial of their neighbours, they pluck up the grass, and cast it into the air, repeating those words of the psalinist: They shall flourish and put forth, as the grass upon the earth. Psal. lxxii. 16.

Did we not believe a resurrection of the one part, and a re-uniting of the other, we had reason to be utterly daunted with the thought of a dissolution: now we have no cause to be dismayed with a little intermission.

Is it a heathen man or a christian, (such I wish he had been,) whom I hear say, The death which we so fear and flee from, doth but respite life for a while, doth not take it away: the day will come which shall restore us to the light again.' Settle thy soul, my son, in this assurance; and thou canst not be discomforted with a necessary parting.

SECTION 9.

Death a Sleep.

THOU art afraid of death:-When thou art weary of thy day's labour, art thou afraid of rest? Hear what thy Saviour, who is the Lord of life, has said of death. • Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;' and of Jairus's daughter, The maid is not dead, but sleepeth. Luke viii. 52. John xi. 11.

Now

Neither does the Spirit of God use any other language, concerning his servants under the old testament. shall I sleep in the dust,' saith holy Job, ch. vii. 21: and of David it is said, When thy days shall be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers." 2 Sam. vii. 12. The same language also is held under the new testament : For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep,' saith the apostle. 1 Cor. xi. 30.

Philosophers of old used to call sleep the brother of death; but God says, death is no other than sleep itself, a sleep both sure and sweet. When thou liest down at