thus implanted in Chrift, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth.

2. Ye whose main care it is in the course of your life to please God, Col. i. 10. as a wife is to please her hufband, and a fervant his mafter, and one his friend and benefactor, 1 Pet. ii. 9. Are you fo difpofed, that you dare not please men, at the expence of his displeasure, Gal. i. 10.? Have you renounced your own will, as to your duty, and as to your lot? Have you laid afide the pleafing of yourselves, and your own lufts, that that is no more the scope of your life, but to please God, Rom. xv. 1, 3.? Is it the fcope of your life, to please him in doing and in bearing? And wherein ye fee you have displeased him, are ye difpleased with yourselves, confefs, mourn over it, apply to the blood of Chrift, and long for the day when ye fhall displease him no more? If fo, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth; you will be pleased for ever.

3. Ye whofe bufinefs in the world is to ferve your generation in real usefulness to others, as ye have accefs in your feveral stations and relations, Acts xiii. 36. Are you so difpofed, as that, out of regard to the God above, you dare not be mifchievous and hurtful to others, even when it is in the power of your hand, Job xxxi. 21,-23.? Do ye look upon ufeleffness for God or men in the world, with a horor; and upon yourselves but as stewards of your time, gifts, fubftance, opportunities of usefulness, for which we must give an account to God, and therefore lay out yourfelves to improve your talents, and do good thereby? Has the warm influence of divine grace opened your shell of felfishness, wherein ye fometime lay fnug, careful for nothing but your own fweet felf; and brought you out with a public fpirit to be useful in God's word as ye have access? with a benevolent difpofition to do good to mankind? If fo, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth. And therefore I exhort you to the following duties.

First, Be

First, Be mortified to life, and abate of your fondness for it. There is nothing in the world we naturally ftick to more closely than life, Job ii. 4. But certainly there is a neceffity of being mortified to it, to have our defires after it deadened in a regular way, Luke xiv. 26. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my difciple." Without queftion, there may be a too great eagerness for life, which is finful in all, and most unbecoming faints.

Queft. How far fhould we be mortified to life? Anfw. 1. So far as not to quarrel the unalterable ftatute of death, Heb. ix. 27. Sin brought in death; by it mankind forfeited life. Many ills it brought into the world, but a short life in this world was really the least ill that it brought in. We fee this ftatute was just, that it has been exactly observed from generation to generation: our hearts fhould comply with it, fay ing, Even fo be it, and should have no grudge against it. Why should the rocks be removed for us?

2. So far as not to defire, though it were at our option, to flay always in this world, Job vii. 16. That is certainly an unmortified defire of life, to wish this life were eternal to us; and a habit of it argues a gracelefs ftate. It was a profane tale of a cardinal of Paris, that he would be content to forfeit his part of the happiness of heaven, if he might live here for ever. Grace in the heart certainly mortifies men to this life; they that are born from above, will certainly defire to be above; they that are united to Chrift, will cer tainly defire to be with him; and therefore the Chriftian courfe is a coming up out of the wilderness, where, though they must fojourn for a while, they will not defire to fix their abode, Cant. viii. 3.

3. So far as to be content to part with it at God's call, Luke xiv. 26. God is Lord of our life, he has fet each of us in our poft in life, to ftand till he give order to relieve us. As we quarrelled not his fetting

Us

us on the stage of life by our birth; fo we should be content to come off again when he calls us by death. The time, way, and manner of our leaving it, we fhould leave contentedly to his disposal.

Laftly, So far as never to defire to live juft for livings fake, but for the folid advantage of life. This life is fuch a mass of vanity, that it is not defirable for itfelf, but fome circumftances that attend it. So we may defire to live to honour God in the world, and to be useful, Ifa. xxxviii. 19. And if we should be laid by from usefulness in the way of doing, we may be content to live for usefulness in the way of fuffering. But life is not to be defired stript of all manner of usefulnefs; for that is to make ourselves, not God, our chief end. Now to mortify you to life, confider,

(1.) The uncertainty of it; it is but a fhadow, you know not how foon it may be gone; a vapour, that may vanish ere you are aware. I may say then, as Prov. xxii. 5. "Wilt thou fet thine eyes upon that which is not?" What folly is it to let the heart too fondly out on that which in a moment one may lofe, and every moment hangs at uncertainty? It is furely wisdom to fit loose to that which we are never fure of.

(2.) The unfatisfactorinefs of it. Every period of life, however promising it may be at the entry on it, will leave you difappointed in your progrefs in it, and coming off from it, Eccl. i. 8. There is nothing in it or about it, that belongs not to the other life, wherein the heart of man can find a reft. Still the bed is shorter, ftretch it as ye will, than that ye can lie on it.

(3.) The finfulness of it.. There is none liveth, and finneth not. That indeed makes life defirable to finners, that fince they cannot part with their fins, they cannot think to part with life neither; for that then all occa fion of fatisfying their lufts is cut off for ever. But certainly it muft mortify faints to life, that they cannot have it, but there is finning with it, 2 Cor. v. 4. Rom. vii. 24.

(4.) The

(4.) The troubles of it, the many afflictions and trials that attend it. These indeed should not make us im patient to be away, like Jonah, chap. iv. 8. For they are our trials we are put upon for the other world, which we are refolutely to bear with patience and refignation, and fo discover the reality of the grace of God in us. But they may well be allowed to mortify us to this life; for that is one of the ends they are fent for, to be as gall and wormwood laid on the breast to wean us. And the wisdom of providence is to be adored in that, ordinarily towards the end of life, troubles come on thicker than they were wont, as in the cafe of our Saviour.

(5.) There is a better life than it abiding you in the other world, Heb. xi. 16. The faith of the palace in heaven would mortify one to the cottage of clay here; for why fhould they be fondly addicted to their present state, whom a better state is awaiting? It is our converfing fo little with heaven that makes us fo fond of the earth. Were we viewing the promised land more, with faith's profpect, we would be more difengaged from this wilderness-world.

Lastly, The ftate of imperfection infeparably attends this life; that there is no getting beyond the former, till ye get beyond the latter. You may ftruggle as you will towards perfection, and if you be real faints, you will do it, Phil. iii. 14. from an inward principle not managed by the profpect of the event; but you will never reach it, till this life be at an end. Rife up as oft as ye will, wash and watch; ye will fall again and defile yourselves, till the day of death put an end to that weary work.

Secondly, Be not frighted at death, nor afraid with any amazement, If. xxxv. 4. To make a jest of dying argues contempt of God, and fecret defperation; to be careless and unconcerned about it, a carnal fecurity that will have a frightful awakening. To be in deep concern about it becomes all; but to be frighted and

put

put into diforder by the view of it, is unbecoming faints. To allay that terror,

1. Confider, that in the day you embraced Chrift in the covenant, you certainly did it in view of your dying, to lay down measures for eternity. Why then should ye be frighted at that which ye have been thinking of and preparing for before? Leave that to them who have been carelessly dreaming away their life time.

2. Death, tho' a grim meffenger, is Chrift's meffenger of good to you, to carry you away in peace, Luke ii. 29. It is like the waggons that Jofeph fent to bring Jacob into Egypt to him. And faith's ear opened, would hear the voice to the dying Chriftian, faying, as Gen. lxvi. 3, 4. "I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt.-I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also furely bring thee up again." It is fuch a call as Peter had from Chrift to come to him upon the water. And however boisterous the wind and black the water may be, there is no fear of finking to the ground; only believe.

3. In your struggles againft fin, and wrestling with temptations, have ye not fometimes looked wiftly for death's relief? Rom. vii. 24. Cant. vii. 5. Have ye not comforted yourself in the profpect of cold death's drowning out quite those paffions and lufts, that have fo often taken fire again after a flood of godly forrows going over them? Why then fhould you be put in a fright and diforder at the view of its approach?

4. It were inconfiftent with God's honour, and the glory and dignity of Chrift, to put off his friends and followers, with that kind of life he gives them here, Heb. xi. 16. One may be confirmed in this, confidering 1 Cor. xv. 19. "If in this life only we have hope in Chrift, we are of all men moft miferable." Therefore of neceffity all their loffes must be made up in the other life. Why then should faints be angry at their bleffings, and be frighted at the Lord's coming to ac complish all his promises?

A a

5. The