DEATH. "Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem, -6. THE best philosophy is to study man's mortality, -To meditate frequently upon death. -7. 8. 9. At the first moment of our lives we were condemn'd to die; death's three messengers, casualties, sickness, age, have ever since been leading us towards our execution, we are not far from the place. When ANAXAGORAS had word brought him that his dear and only son was dead, he said ScrO ME GENUISSE MORTALEM. I knew I begat a mortal. Where is Adam now, where is Cain, where is the long-lived Methusalem, where is Noah, where is Shem, where is Abraham, where is Jacob?— They are dead and gone, their time is past, and we also must needs die, and be as water spilt upon the ground. 910. Neither Milo's strength, Helen's beauty, nor Croesus's wealth, could secure from death. 911. No door is shut to Death; it enters every where, 912. 913. and encounters every action of life; the affections of the soul, and the pleasure of the body, become the high-way to death. Homer died of grief, and Sophocles of an excess of joy; Dionysius was kill'd with the good news of a victory he had obtain❜d, Aurelius died dancing, and Cornelius Gallus in the act of venery. Death keeps no Calendar; he turns many pale before age hath made them grey.-Far greater numbers are snatch'd away in their infancy than live to the age of maturity. The longest life is given to us by piece-meals, and mingles as many parts of death, as there are of life. The age of infancy dies when we enter into that of childhood. That of childhood when we become youths. That of youth when we come to age of manhood. That of manhood when we are old. And even old age expires when we become decrepid. So that during the same life we find many deaths. 914. Considering the wonderful frame of humane body, this infinitely complicated engine, in which, to the due performance of the several functions i. and offices of life, so many strings and springs, so many receptacles and channels are necessary, and all to be in their right frame and order; and in which, besides the infinite imperceptible and secret ways of mortality, there are so many sluices and flood-gates to let death in, and life out, it's next to a miracle we surviv'd the day we were born.—The very preservation of so nice and exact a frame, seems the next wonder to its workmanship. The world owes us all to death.-Kind heaven has conceal'd the hour, that we might be ever in readiness for it. But, There will come an evening after which we shall see no morning; or a morning after which we shall see no evening. Yea, The time will come when no more Aristotle shall be cited in the schools, nor Ulpian alledged in the tribunals, no more shall Plato be read among the learned, nor Cicero imitated by the orators; no more shall Seneca be admired by the understanding, nor Alexander extoll'd among the captains; all fame shall die, and all memory shall be forgotten. At the great and general conflagration, virtue only shall survive the fire. This world at best is but a valley of tears. Our infancy is full of ignorance and fears.—Our youth of sin.-Our age of sorrow. -Our whole life of danger. 920. "What is long life, but the same thing over and 921. 922. 923. 924. over again, or worse? So many more days and "We fear to lose what a small time must waste, Begging for life, we beg for more decay, And to be long a dying only pray." We are more afraid of death than of sleep, and other things that come by course of nature. Because death is not more certain than the day of judgment. The body of Moses which was hid in the valley. of Moab, appearing in the transfiguration of our Saviour in the mount of Tabor, sufficiently proves our bodies are not lost, but laid up to be raised to the endless joys of heaven, or eternal torments or hell. Consequently, When we die we are to give an account of our stewardship. 925. Our conscience is a justice itinerant within us, 926. 927. 928. 929. 930. 931. 932. 933. though we can carry nothing else with us, we cannot leave that behind. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 We may well be fearful, and had need be careful that we be not taken unprepar'd. The journey of life appears not to busy men until the end. Then they all make Balaam's suit. Let me die the death of the righteous, and my last end be like his.2 O how bitter is death to them that love the world! CAESAR BORGIAS being sick to death, said, when "O might we turn our steps, and tread again, 'Tis our sins that make death so shocking; let us remove them by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, and all the terrifying ideas or futurity will vanish, and give way to the pleasant prospect of unspeakable bliss. 1 1 Pet. 4. 18. 2 Numb. 23. 10. |