fhort Course of an uncertain perishable Life can carry us.

And what remains then but that we now begin, whilft we have yet Time, what we fhall otherwife hereafter wifh to have done with a fruitless Repentance of our having neglected to do it, whilft we had it in our Power. Remember, Chriftians, and reflect seriously upon it that you must once die. 'Tis as certain, and as much above all Difpute, as that you are now alive. God Almighty has decreed it from Eternity, and his Decrees are as unchangeable as himself. Dying therefore is a Part you muft once act: But it depends upon your own Free-will, to make Death a Paffage to a happy or unhappy Eternity. If you live well, God's Grace will not abandon you in your last Conflict, but ftrengthen you to die the Death of the Just, which is precious in his Sight. But if you live ill, you run a dreadful Hazard of being justly permitted by Almighty God to die as you lived.

It therefore highly concerns us all to make our whole Life a continual Preparation for Death. This is the only End for which it was bestowed upon us, and for which it has been till now, and is ftill continued to us by the Divine Bounty. If hitherto we have not answered thefe Pur

Purposes, 'tis now high Time to think feriously of it. And how happy are we that it is ftill Time! What a Mercy is it that we have not been cut off, whilft we were guilty of mortal Sin, which has been our Cafe fo often! Where fhould we now be, if this had happened to us, as it has to Millions before us? Can we think of it without Trembling? Can we think of it without a Senfe of Gratitude to the infinite Goodness that has preserved us, and a Hatred to thofe Sins which would have rendered us eternally unhappy? These are doubtlefs the Fruits which God's Forbearance expects of us. This is the Ufe we ought henceforward to make of it. And then Death will ceafe to be an Evil to us. For though Death join'd with Sin be the greatest of Evils, it is a real Good without it, as being a secure Paffage to a happy Eternity.

The

The Second ENTERTAINMENT.

Concerning some general Preparations for DEATH.

+ Blessed are those Servants, whom the Lord,

when he cometh, fhall find watching, Luke xii. 37.

IN

N my laft Difcourfe I furnished you with fome Confiderations upon the Certainty of Death. But this Truth, tho' never fo evident and weighty, can be no farther useful to us, than as it has an Influence upon the Conduct of our Lives. For what will it avail us to have a speculative Perfuafion that we muft once die, unless we conclude practically from it, that it is therefore our Duty as well as Intereft to be always prepared for it.

This then is the immediate Confequence to be drawn from it, viz. that fince we are created to be happy, and our Happi nefs depends upon Dying well, it follows, that the principal Bufinefs of Life ought to be a Preparation for Death. This is that one, and only neceffary thing, which admits of no Difpenfation, and every Thing in the World ought to yield and

be

be facrificed to it. Eafe, Intereft, Honour and Pleasure are to be confulted no otherwise, than as they have a Reference to the general End of living and dying well. The Subject then of this Entertainment shall be the general previous Difpofitions required for the happy Performance of this great Work, that is, fome general Directions relating to the Manner, how we ought to difpofe ourselves beforehand for Death.

The Prophet Ifaias being fent by God to King Ezekias, to forewarn him of his approaching End, delivered his Meffage in these Words: Put thy House in Order, for thou shalt die, and thou shalt not live. This Advice of the Prophet, put thy Houfe in Order, if literally taken, regards particularly thofe, who have their Wills to make, or any temporal Concerns to fettle before they die; and calls very preffingly upon them to prepare themselves for their laft End by an early Difcharge of this Duty. For we may truly fay they are but very ill Managers either of their Spiritual or Temporal Concerns, who either out of Sloth, or a kind of indolent Temper, or upon any other frivolous Motive, put off their making their Wills to the last Extremity; it being a Bufinefs, that requires a greater Prefence of Mind than can be expected

from

from a Perfon labouring under the Anguish of a mortal Diftemper. Befides, how eafily may a dying Man be imposed upon by interested Perfons about him, at a Time when for a little Eafe he is ready to confent to any thing that is fuggefted to him! and fo it may in Effect become their Will instead of his To fay nothing of the Unfeasonablenefs of fuch a Concern, at a Time when his Thoughts ought to look quite another Way, and be wholly turned towards the other World, where he is then going to make his eternal Abode.

But the ill Confequences of thefe Delays will yet appear more clearly, if we confider the Hazard they expofe a dying Person to, of dying without making any Will at all. For this is the unavoidable Confe quence, if he either happens to die fuddenly, or to be out of his Senfes in his last Sickness. And how fatal has this often proved to Families, by engaging them in endless Quarrels and Law-fuits! Nay, how prejudicial muft it needs be to those who have a juft Title to have some Provifion made for them, tho' perhaps not grounded upon any Law that can compell the next Heir to it, and are by this Means deprived of a neceffary Subfiftance, whilst all is fwept away by fome one, who either deferves or wants it leaft, and will have

no