a better Difpofition. And thus he leads them on thoughtless from Sin to Sin, till either a fudden Death, occafioned perhaps by the Excefs of criminal Disorders, hurries them to the Tribunal of God; or, if they have fome Time of Sickness allowed them, they are either strongly tempted to die impenitent, or at the beft have nothing but the Uncertainty and Deceitfulness of a Death-bed Repentance to depend upon for their eternal Salvation. And 'tis one of these the Devil always aims at in diverting Sinners from the wholfome Thoughts of Death; to the End that, by never thinking of it till it come, rush. ing upon them like a Storm (as the Word of God expreffes it) they may always live unprepared for it.

In order therefore to prevent this irreparable Misfortune, I fhall now begin with fome Confiderations upon the Certainty of Death; which fhall be the whole Subject of this Entertainment.

The fifth Chapter of Genefis furnishes us with a most excellent Meditation upon Death. It contains a Lift of thofe ancient Patriarchs who firft propagated Mankind, and each Verfe is clofed with this doleful Sentence, et mortuus eft, and he died. Adam lived 930 Years, et mortuus est, and he died. Enos lived 905 Years,

et mortuus eft, and he died. Mathufala lived 969 Years, et mortuus eft, and he died. In effect, thefe few Words, vixit et mortuus eft, he lived and died, are a compendious Hiftory of Mankind: Since of all thofe Millions of Men, Women, and Children, from the first that entered upon the Theatre of this World, to him who went off laft, the most affured Account that can be given of them is, that they all lived and died. Some indeed have been alowed to act a longer Part than others; but all made their Exit at laft, and were forced to fubmit to the Stroke of Death.

Enoch alfo and Elijah, who are referved by God to be his Champions against the wicked Antichrift, muft undergo at laft the common Punishment of Sin. The Payment of the Debt is not remitted but delayed; and Death will claim its Right before they can be cloathed with Immortality. Nay, the bleffed Mother of God, tho' privileged in an extraordinary Manner, yet was not exempt from paying the common Debt of the Children of Adam, And Chrift himself, having taken our Sins upon him, would not enter into Glory, but by becoming first obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross.

Thus

Thus Almighty God feems to have taken care that the Belief we have of the Certainty of Death fhall not be weakened by any of those Artifices, Men ordinarily make use of to disguise many other Truths that fuit not with their Inclinations. For though no Truth be more difrelishing to Nature than that we must once die, yet none was ever lefs doubted of. The unquestionable Experience of so many Ages already paft, forms in every Man's Judgment fo full a Conviction of it, that even those who had the Vanity to think themselves fo far exalted above the rest of human Kind, as to challenge divine Honours, were never fo mad as to flatter themselves into an Opinion of their being exempt from the general Law of Death.

The Devil himself, fince the first fad Proof of Mortality in the Death of Abel, never had the Impudence to impose upon any Man that he should not die. It was indeed the Cheat he once put upon our first Parents before Experience could give him the Lye. But this Imposture has fince been too grofs to fucceed a fecond time. He therefore fays not to us, ye fball not die, but he only endeavours to make us believe we fhall not die fo foon as perhaps we may be apt to fear. He tells us we have Youth or Health on our

Ide, the Profpect of many Years before ns, and a strong Conftitution, to secure us against an untimely End: Aiming by these Artifices to keep the Thoughts of Death at the greatest Distance from us, fince he cannot destroy our Belief of it.

For this Reafon many have endeavoured to countermine the Devil's Craft and Malice, by keeping a Death's-Head in their Bed-chambers or Closets, to ferve them as a Looking-glafs to fee themselves in, and be daily put in mind of what they muft once come to. So the pious Maximilian had always a Coffin standing at his Bed-fide, that he might begin and end each Day with the wholfome Thought of Death and another Prince for the fame Purpose ordered one of his Pages to greet him daily with this Morning Salutation, Remember that thou art a mortal Man.

However, we need not have recourse to fuch extraordinary Expedients to put us in mind of our Mortality. The very Air we breathe, the Meat we daily eat, and the Cloaths we wear, to hinder Death from feizing us before the Time ordain'd by Providence, may do this Office for us. Nay, the very Earth whereon we tread, under which there lie already crumbled into Duft fo many of our Acquaintance and Relations, who were once as gay and

merry

merry, and as strong and healthful as the youngest of this Company, may as we walk, and often loiter away our precious Hours, put us in mind what coftly Matter thefe Bodies, we fo idolize, were originally composed of, and what they must again return into. We need no other Monitor to make us remember that their Beginning was and End will be no other than Duft and Clay.

Who is the Man alive, (fays David) that will not fee Death? For the Certainty of Death is the fame as that of Life. Because Life, if rightly confidered, is but the Way or Paffage to Death; into which (fays Seneca) whoever is once entered, muft continue without ftopping till he falls into the Hands of Death.

Re

member (fays Solomon) that Death Stops not and the Reason is because Life ftops not. So that Life is nothing but a continual dying; that is, a continual moving towards its End, which is Death. For which Reason the Word of God compares Man's Life to a Race. Which Similitude expreffes both the Swiftnefs and uninterrupted Continuance of its Courfe. And we may truly fay we are already dead to all the Years we have already lived; fince what is paft can now not ́more be reckon'd a Part of our Lives, B 5 than