over it, apply to the blood of Christ, and long for the day when ye shall displease him no more? If so, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth; you will be pleased for ever.

3. Ye whose business in the world is to serve your generation in real usefulness to others, as ye have access in your several stations and relations, Acts xiii. 36. Are you so disposed, as that, out of regard to the God above, you dare not be mischievous and hurtful to others, even when it is in the power of your hand? Job xxxi. 21– 23. Do ye look upon uselessness for God or men in the world, with a horror; and upon yourselves but as stewards of your time, gifts, substance, opportunities of usefulness, for which we must give an account to God, and therefore lay out yourselves to improve your talents, and do good thereby? Has the warm influence of divine grace opened your shell of selfishness, wherein ye sometime lay snug, careful for nothing but your own sweet self; and brought you out with a public spirit to be useful in God's word as ye have access? with a benevolent disposition to do good to mankind? If so, 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 mortified to life, and abate of your fondness for it. There is nothing in the world we naturally stick to more closely than life, Job ii. 4. But certainly there is a necessity of being mortified to it, to have our desires 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 disciple." Without question, there may be a too great eagerness for life, which is sinful in all, and most unbecoming saints.

Ques. How far should we be mortified to life?

Ans. 1. So far as not to quarrel the unalterable statute 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 see this statute was just, that it has been exactly observed from generation to generation. Our hearts should comply with it, saying, Even so be it, and should have no grudge against it: Why should the rocks be removed for us?

2. So far as not to desire, though it were at our option, to stay always in this world, Job vii. 16. That is certainly an unmortified desire of life, to wish this life were eternal to us; and a habit of it argues a graceless state. 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 desire to be above; they that are united to Christ, will certainly desire to be with him; and therefore the Christian course is a coming up out of the wilderness, where, though they must sojourn for a while, they will not desire to fix their abode, Cant. viii. 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 set each of us in our post in life, to stand till he give order to relieve us. As we quarrelled not his setting us on the stage of life by our birth; so we should be content to come off again when he calls us by death. The time, way, and manner of our leaving it, we shonld leave contentedly to his disposal.

Lastly, So far as never to desire to live just for living's sake, but for the solid advantage of life. This life is such a mass of vanity, that it is not desirable for itself, but some circumstances that attend it. So we may desire to live to honour God in the world, and to be useful, Isa. 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 suffering. But life is not to be desired stript of all manner of usefulness; for that is to make ourselves, not God, our chief end. Now to mortify you to life, consider,

(1.) The uncertainty of it; it is but a shadow, you know not how soon it may be gone; a vapour, that may vanish ere you are aware. I may say then, as Prov. xxiii. 5. " Wilt thou set 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 loose, and every moment hangs at uncertainty? It is surely wisdom to sit loose to that which we are never sure of.

(2.) The unsatisfactoriness of it. Every period of life, however promising it may be at the entry on it, will leave you disappointed in your progress 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 rest. Still the bed is shorter, stretch it as ye will, than that ye can lie on it.

(3.) The sinfulness of it. There is none liveth, and sinneth not. That indeed makes life desirable to sinners, that since they cannot part with their sins, they cannot think to part with life neither; for that then all occasion of satisfying their lusts is cut off for ever. But certainly it must mortify saints to life, that they cannot have it, but there is sinning with it, 2 Cor. v. 4. Rom. vii. 24.

(4.) The troubles of it, the many afflictions and trials that attend it. These indeed should not make us impatient to be away, like Jonah, chap. iv. 8. For they are our trials we are put upon for the

But

other world, which we are resolutely to bear with patience and resignation, and so discover the reality of the grace of God in us. they may well be allowed to mortify us to this life; for that is one of the ends they are sent 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 case 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 should they be fondly addicted to their present state, whom a better state is awaiting? It is our conversing so little with heaven that makes us so fond of the earth. Were we viewing the promised land more, with faith's prospect, we would be more disengaged from this wilderness-world.

Lastly, The state of imperfection inseparably attends this life; that there is no getting beyond the former, till ye get beyond the latter. You may struggle as you will towards perfection, and if you be real saints, you will do it, Phil. iii. 14. from an inward principle not managed by the prospect of the event; but you will never reach it, till this life be at an end. Rise 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 frightened at death, nor afraid with any amazement, Is. xxxv. 4. To make a jest of dying argues contempt of God, and secret desperation; to be careless and unconcerned about it, a carnal security that will have a frightful awakening. To be in deep concern about it becomes all; but to be frightened and put into disorder by the view of it, is unbecoming saints. To allay that terror,

I. Consider, that in the day you embraced Christ in the covenant, you certainly did it in view of your dying, to lay down measures for eternity. Why then should ye be frightened 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, though a grim messenger, is Christ's messenger of good to you, to carry you away in peace, Luke ii. 29. It is like the waggons that Joseph sent to bring Jacob into Egypt to him. And faith's ear opened, would hear the voice to the dying Christian, saying, as Gen. xlvi. 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 surely bring thee up again." It is such a call as Peter had from Christ to come to him upon the water. And however boisterous the wind and black the water may be, there is no fear of sinking to the ground: only believe.

3. In your stuggles against sin, and wrestling with temptations, have ye not sometimes looked wistly for death's relief? Rom. vii. 24; Cant. viii. 5. Have ye not comforted yourself in the prospect of cold death's drowning out those passions and lusts, that have so often taken fire again after a flood of godly sorrow going over them? Why then should you be put in a fright and disorder at the view of its approach?

4. It were inconsistent with God's honour, and the glory and dignity of Christ, 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, considering 1 Cor. xv. 19, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Therefore of necessity all their losses must be made up in the other life. Why then should saints be angry at their blessings, and be frighted at the Lord's coming to accomplish all his promises?

5. The upper world is the world of peace and love, Abraham's bosom. There are gone thither before us our godly acquaintances, whom we once looked on as the excellent of the earth, the loss of whose society was heavy; we will get it there again. The holy angels will be loving and lovely companions. He who on earth died for us while enemies, how loving and lovely will he appear there, where we shall be perfect? God is love itself, and there his infinite love will be displayed in an inconceivable manner.

Lastly, Christ passed the ford before you, has altered the nature of the waters, Rom. viii. 34, and caused them to abate; and now he bids you follow, for that there is no fear, Cant. ii. 10, 11. Keep the eye of faith on Christ, who forded the waters of death before you, and that will be a mean to abate the terror.

Thirdly, Familiarize death to yourself, Job xvii. 13, 14. Do not keep at a distance from it in your thoughts. I would not have the terror of death rob you of the comfort of life; but it is the greatest folly for a man to wind up himself so in the comforts and amusements of life, as to debar the serious thoughts of death; and can serve no end, but to bring sudden and remediless ruin; for whether men will think of death, and prepare for it, or not; it will be in on them at length. And what we must meet with, it is best to acquaint ourselves with before. Therefore,

1. Be frequent in your taking a view of the other world, with the help of the prospect of the word, to be looked through by the eye of faith. Be often as it were getting up to the top of Pisgah, thence to view the promised land. You cannot get thither for a trial, to come back again, Job xiv. 14. but there is a map of it drawn in the Bible, by considering of which you may be brought acquainted with it.

2. Be often viewing the passage thereto. The Jordan of death runs betwixt it and this our wilderness, and by it is the passage we must all take. We will not get an essay made of it, that we may mend at one time what we marred at another; there is the more need then to look well and often to it before we enter in, which we know not how soon we may be obliged to.

Lastly, Let your hearts be habitually disposed to these views, to notice the many memorials of them that Providence has furnished. There are still some dropping off into that world, some young, some aged. What is every winter, but an emblem of death; and every spring, but an emblem of the other world and the resurrection? Yea every night is the grave of the former day, as the following day empties the grave again.

Fourthly, Raise comfortable expectations from death. View the day of death in the light wherein our text sets it, and behold it is a good day, the best day.

1. Expect it as the day that will better your condition, however heavy that is now, Ps. xvi. 9. Though ye have many heavy days in your life, partly from your own corruption, partly from the corruption of others; partly from the holy hand of God for trial, partly from the devil seeking your destruction; look to the day of death, as what will set all to rights, and bring in to you what heart can wish. The day of death to a child of God is his marriage day, Mat. xxv. the day wherein the traveller comes home from abroad to his father's house, the day wherein he is past his minority, and enters to his inheritance.

2. Expect it as the day that will establish your condition, Rev. iii. 12. Your condition is wavering and uncertain now, Psal, Xxx. 6, 7. Sometimes your soul's case is prosperous, but ere you are aware it is all wrong again; sometimes washed fair and clean in the fountain, anon ye are lying in the mire again; sometimes ye have your feet on the neck of your corruptious, anon they trample you under foot; sometimes ye can raise one of the songs of Zion, anon the harps are quite out of tune, hanged on the willows. Sometimes your outward condition is smiling; but that lasts not, it turns gloomy, and troubles break in perhaps from all quarters together, the springs of your comfort run bitterness, and your worldly comforts are dried up one after another. But look forward to the day of death, as what will end all ungrateful changes.

Fifthly, Work your heart to, and entertain a regular desire of death. The day of death is certainly to a child of God an object of desire; the apostle professeth it, Phil. i. 23. "I desire to depart, and to be with Christ;" and that in the name of all the saints,