SECTION XIV.

How a good man may improve and encourage himself, under the supposition of dying this year,

this

even in the most uneasy and undesirable circum

stances.

I MAY die this year; then all my care and fears, if I am rich, all my sorrows and calamities (as to this world) if I am poor, will die too. I may die then I shall have no more enemies, no year; more sickness, and, which is infinitely better, I shall sin no more. I must shortly die, it may be this year; but there is no other way to come to a blessed life, but by dying; and my Saviour hath died for me, and he that believes in him shall never see death. He lives who was once dead, yea, he lives for evermore; he hath promised that I shall be with him to behold his glory. He hath the keys of death and hell; he is the resurrection and the life; he hath removed the sting of death; and I need not fear a conquered enemy. If I die this year, I must quit the company of all my dearest friends on earth, but I shall go to better company above; and, if they are the friends of Christ, we shall shortly meet again, and love one another in a better manner than now, and never more be parted.

I may die this year; my friends and enemies may die too. Let me enjoy the one as mortal dying persons, that must ere long leave me, or I them; and not fear the other, who may so soon perish, and

quickly be incapable of doing me or others mischief.

I may die this year. Let me not then think much of temporal sufferings, or of any evils which may so soon be over. Oh what would condemned sinners in the other world give to be able to believe and say so of their sufferings !

I may die this can I wonder that I am year; and sometimes sick and in pain, and that my body is out of order! Am I not mortal, and dwell in a house of clay, which must shortly moulder into dust: and is it any thing strange, that such a crazy building doth sometimes shake, and need repair, and threaten a dissolution! It is a greater wonder I am any time well; that such a body, compounded of so many little parts, and so easily disordered by innumerable accidents, should be in health, is hardly less to be admired than that an instrument of a thousand strings should be kept in tune.

I thank thee, O heavenly Father! for the many advantages of sickness, to weaken the power of sin, to humble my pride, and cure my worldliness and sensuality, to reduce me from wandering, to empty me of self-conceit, to awaken the consideration of death and judgment, to impress the thoughts of the vanity of this world, and the eternity of the next; to assist me to mortify the flesh, to rule my passions, to exercise patience, and quicken me in prayer, and try my faith and love, and excite my diligence to redeem time, and convince me of the worth and uncertainty of it; and thereby promote my preparations for my final change. The great Apostle, by dying daily, had as many victories over this world as he

lived days. Oh! that I might so far walk by the same rule, as every day to think of providing for my last! and in health to do that which in sickness I shall wish I had done!

I may die this year; it may be by some tedious painful sickness, some troublesome and loathsome disease. But God hath promised his grace shall be sufficient; he will make my bed in my sickness, and put under me his everlasting arms for my support, and not suffer me to be tempted above what I am able to bear; he will increase my patience, and carry me through the pangs of death, and the dark valley; and, "when my heart and flesh fail, be the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

I may die this year what, if it should be by a hand of violence! If for righteousness' sake, in defence of the truth, for a good cause, and a good conscience, and my peace be made with God, and I am accused for doing well, or innocent of the evil which is laid to my charge, there is ground enough for encouragement and support. Thousands of my betters have met with the like, whose names are precious and renowned. Innumerable Christians have died by the sentence of a judge, with more cheerfulness and joy than others, or, it may be, than they themselves would have done, by the sentence of the physician. The torture of many diseases is unspeakably more formidable, as to the mere pain; and, for all else, the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness, will clear my integrity, if it may best subserve his own great and holy ends; at least, he will stand by and help me, when all forsake me: and if he speak peace, and give inward consolation,

who can speak trouble?

And his final judgment, which is near at hand, will distribute rewards and punishments to all, according to their works.

Suppose, farther, that I should want a sepulchre after death. There is nothing I could better be without. If God receive my soul, and will raise my body at the last day, whether it putrefy and consume under ground, or above it, is no great matter. They who are alive will be more concerned in that than I shall be. Graves are for the sake of the living rather than the dead. The sun, the rain, the air, birds, beasts, and worms, will all contribute to give me burial, if men deny it. The only difference is, that it will be a little longer ere I am buried. my soul rest in the bosom of my Saviour, and, by persevering in the love and practice of the truth, I have secured my reputation with wise and good men, I need not be solicitous what becomes of my body. My Almighty Judge will raise me a glorious body, like his own, and re-unite it to my soul, as easily, and as certainly, as any of those whose bodies were preserved in caves and vaults, in proud sepulchres, and under stately monuments.

If

I may die this year; and shall not then have the satisfaction to see my children or nearest kindred educated and provided for, settled and disposed of. But is not the ever-living God the same? Cannot he as well take care of them when I am gone as now ? answer all my prayers after my decease? and exercise that fatherly care, wisdom, and love, which shall dispose of their conditions? save them from temptations, and supply all their wants, and exceed all my desires, in reference to them? and fulfil his

covenant-promise from generation to generation, to the children's children of them that fear him? O how weak is my faith, that cannot trust in God in so common and plain a case !

Lastly, I may die this year; and not live to see the ruin of the anti-christian kingdom and interest, and the accomplishment of many excellent promises, which concern the rest, and peace, and purity, and glory, of the churches of Christ on earth, in the latter days. But have I not deserved, by my provoking unbelief, ingratitude, and disobedience, to die in the wilderness, and not behold the promised land, or see the peace of Jerusalem! And will not the strugglings of Satan, to support Babylon, infer a dismal night of darkness and distress before the expected morning of deliverance ! So that it may now, if ever, be truly said, "Henceforth, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." And if God will take me to himself in the other world, I cannot possibly be a loser, though I should not see the beginnings of a new heaven and a new earth," in this. However, I rejoice in hope, and pray incessantly for the resurrection of the witnesses, and the rebuilding of Sion, and the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit, (the great comprehensive promise of the latter times,) to effect a glorious kingdom for Christ on earth: and my faith assures me, I shall hereafter see the Son of God revealed from heaven,. clothed with majesty, sitting on a cloud, leading the heavenly host, raising the dead by his powerful voice, summoning all the world to appear to judgment, gathering his elect, and finally destroying death, and him that had the power of it, the devil; condemning

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