what Death is, and to weigh it in the Balance of Reason, will find it to be no otherwife a reasonable Object of our Joy or Grief, our Hopes or our Fears, than either as it delivers us from fome present Inconveniencies, or robs us of prefent Advantages; or elfe, as it may entail on us future Mifery, or may lead us to future Glory. If it be confidered abstractedly, without Regard to its Effects, its Terrors are only the Creatures of our own Imaginations: For, according to those only can we rationally judge of it, and pronounce it a Bleffing or a Curfe to us. And whomfoever therefore it may deliver from real Misfortunes, but can deprive of no fubftantial Good; to whomsoever it may bring the trueft and moft lafting Enjoyments, but cannot be attended with any very confiderable Sufferings; to him the diftant Profpect of it cannot justly appear terrible, or its Approach fhocking.

And that this is the Cafe of the good Man, the juft Notions he has formed of the Emptiness of earthly Delights, and the daily Experience he has had of the Weight of earthly Misfortunes, cannot but have made him fenfible. The gay Endearments of Life appear, upon Examination, too fleeting and too unfatisfying to merit our Acquiefcence, and its Enjoyments too empty and too unftable to deferve our Dependance; and therefore he can find but little Reafon, either to place his Affections ftrongly on the Poffef

fion, or to be greatly concerned at the Lofs of them. If he has been numbered among the Profperous, and partaken largely of the Pleasures, Profits, or Honours of the World, his very Succeffes must have convinced him of their own Emptinefs, and fhewn him how unable they are to fatisfy the Cravings of an immortal Soul: His own Experience must have demonftrated the Excellency of his own Faculties, by letting him know and feel, how natural it is for the Mind of Man to extend its Views, in Proportion to its prefent Acquifitions, and to be as craving and diffatisfied when it has attained the Height of human Glory, as when it enjoyed but a fmall Share of it. So that the Refult of all can be only a Confirmation of what the wisest and most experienced of Men has in the fame Cafe long fince obferved; that the Eye neither is, nor can be, fatisfied with feeing thefe Things, nor the Ear with hearing them. Or, if his Lot has fallen among the diftreffed Part of Mankind, and he has drank deeply of the bitter Cup of Affliction, his Sufferings must have given him fainter Notions of the Value to be fet upon human Life; and must have made him fo far from being defirous of the Continuance of it, as rather to make the Prayer of holy Job his own, and to beg that he might have this Requeft, and that God would grant him the Thing that he longs for, even that he would ftretch

forth

forth his Hand and cut him off; as not doubting but then he shall yet have Comfort.

The wicked Man indeed, whofe Views are confined within the Boundaries of Life, and whose Intereft it is, that all beyond the Grave fhould be Darknefs and Oblivion: He who is scarce fenfible of any greater Pleasures than what he enjoys in common with the Brutes, and expects his Continuance in them will be as short, or perhaps fhorter, than theirs; this Man may well be allowed to fet a higher Value on the Enjoyments of Life, and give himself a greater Indulgence in the Pursuit of them. The Whole of his Happinefs being placed therein, he cannot act confiftently, if he does not proportion his Purfuit of them to the Value he fets upon them; for, to fuch as he, Let us eat and drink is but the plain and neceffary Confequence of to Morrow we die. -And in like Manner, as his Efteem of them is greater or lefs, fo muft his Fears of lofing them be; and Sickness, Death, or whatever else may interrupt or remove them from him, must be proportionably more or lefs terrible and shocking, as his Lofs by them is thought to be of more or lefs Confequence and Importance to him. Sickness is to him the Interruption of all his Joys, and Death the entire Removal of them; and his Apprehenfions of, and Sufferings in them, must therefore, confequently, be attended with all the Agonies of Disappointment

Difappointment and Defpair, as of one who is going to be deprived of every Thing he defires or esteems, and to be plunged into inevitable and endless Destruction. But then, fince his Apprehenfions of Things cannot alter the Nature of them; fince the falfe Notions he has formed of dying can only add to its Terrors, with Regard to himself; and fince this is a Decree paffed on all the Sons of Men, and there is no escaping it; hence evidently appears the fuperior Happiness of those who, by rectifying their Notions of it, find lefs Reason to fear it, and enable themfelves to endure what they cannot prevent, with more Patience and Equanimity. For the greatest Happiness, next to that of being free from Evil, is to be able to endure it with Fortitude and Refolution; and as Death is a Curfe which every Man muft inevitably one Day undergo, their Happiness is greatest, and their Condition moft defireable with Regard to it, who are best able to leffen its Weight, and remove its Anguish. And that the righteous Man has this Advantage over the Wicked, is, I hope, fomewhat evident from what has been faid; fince it may from thence appear, that there is this remarkable Difference between them, that the one is thereby deprived of all the Happiness he can ever expect or hope for, the other only refts from his Labours. -Nor is Death only the Lofs of the wicked Man's Happiness; it may be like

VOL. I.

F

wife

wife an Entail of Mifery upon him: Whereas the good Man is certain, he can no more inherit the one, than he could lofe the other, before he enjoyed it. Which will be confidered in the

II. Second particular Instance given of his Happiness at the Approach of Death; namely, That his Confcience is not terrified with the Forebodings of Guilt, and he therefore dreads no future Evils as the Confequence of it.

It will be readily granted to be as alleviating a Circumftance as can attend those who muft fuffer; if they can be fure that their Sufferings will neither receive any Addition, nor their Continuance be lasting. This is fo highly comfortable, as to make it Matter of Prudence to prefer a greater and lefs durable Calamity, to one of longer Continuance and lefs pungent.

And accordingly, after we have confidered the Nature of the Misfortunes of our Brethren, the next Rule whereby to judge of the Degree of their Misery, is the Danger they are in, either of increafing it or continuing in it. And that the good Man is beyond a Poffibility of either of these in the Grave, is as certain as that Decree which will infallibly bring him thither, or the Immutability of that Divine Nature by whofe Sentence he is to undergo it. For,

a well-fpent Life having, through the Merits

of