passing stitch on a man's side. Time flies away with Swift wings, and carries our earthly comforts, and crosses too, along with it: neither of them will accompany us into the house appointed for all living," Job iii. 17. "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest," ver. 18. "There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor." ver. 19. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master." Cast your eyes on eternity, and ye will see affliction, here, is but for a moment. The truth is, our time is so very short, that it will not allow either our joys, or griefs to come to perfection. Wherefore let them that weep, be as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not," &c. 1 Cor, vii. 29, 30, 31. (5.) Death will put all men on a level. The king and the beggar must dwell in one house, when they come to their journey's end; though the entertainment by the way be very differ ent. The small and the great are there." Job. iii. 19. We are all in this world, as on a stage: it is no great matter, whether a man act the part of a prince or a peasant for when they have acted their parts, they must both get behind the curtain, and appear no more. Lastly, If thou be not in Christ, whatever thy afflictions now be, troubles a thousand times worse, are abiding thee in another world. Death will turn thy crosses, unto pure unmixed curses: and then how gladly wouldest thou return to thy former afflicted state, and purchase it at any rate, where there any possibility of such a return. If thou be in Christ, thou mayest well bear thy cross. Death will put an end to all thy trou bles. If a man on a journey be not well accomodated, where he lodgeth only for a night; he will not trouble himself much about the matter, because he is not to stay there; it is not his home. Ye are on the road to eternity; let it not disquiet you, that ye may meet with some hardships in the inn of this world. Fret not, be cause it is not so well with you as with some others. One man travels with a cane in his hand; his fellowtraveller (perhaps) has but a common staff, or stick: either of them will serve the turn. It is no great

matter which of them be yours; both will be laid aside, when you come to your journey's end.

Thirdly, It may serve for a bridle, to curb all manner of lusts, particularly those conversant about the body. A serious visit made to cold death, and that solitary mansion the grave, might be of good use to repress them.

First, It may be of use, to cause men to remit their inordinate care for the body, which is to many the bane of their souls. Often do these questions, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed?" leave no room for another of more importance, viz. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord." The soul is put on the rack, to answer these mean questions, in favour of the body; while its own eternal interests are neglected. But ah! Why are men so busy to repair the ruinous cottage; leaving the inhabitant to bleed to death of his wounds, unheeded, 'unregarded! Why so much care for the body, to the neglecting of the concerns of the immortal soul? O be not so anxious for what can only serve your bodies; since ere long, the clods of cold earth will serve for back and belly too.

Secondly, It may abate your pride on account of bodily endowments, which vain man is apt to glory in. Value not yourselves on the blossom of youth: for while .ye are in your blooming years, ye are but ripening for a grave: and death gives the fatal stroke, without asking any body's age. Glory not in your strength, it will quickly be gone the time will soon be, when ye shall not be able to turn yourselves on a bed; and ye must be carried by your grieving friends to your long home. And what signifies your healthful constitution. Death doth not always enter in soonest, where it begins soonest to knock at the door; but makes as great a dispatch with some, in a few hours, as with others in many years. Value not yourselves on your beauty, which " shall con❤ sume in the grave," Psal. xlix. 14. Remember the change death makes on the fairest face, Job xiv. 20. "Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away." Death makes the greatest beauty so loathsome,

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that it must be buried out of sight. Could a looking glass be used, in "the house appointed for all living;" it would be a terror to these who now look oftener into their glasses, than into their Bibles. And, what though the body be gorgeously arrayed? The finest clothes are but badges of our sin and shame; and, in a little time, will be exchanged for a winding-sheet: when the body will become a fcast to the worms.

Thirdly, It may be a mighty check upon sensuality and fleshly lusts, 1 Pet. ii. II. "I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." It is hard to cause wet wood to take fire; and when the fire doth take hold of it, it is soon/ extinguished. Sensuality makes men most unfit for divine communications, and is an effectual means to quench the Spirit. Intemperance in eating and drinking carries on the ruin of soul and body at once, and hastens death, while it makes the man most unineet for it. Therefore, "take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so that day come upon you unawares," Luke xxi. 34. But O how often is the soul struck through with a dart, in gratifying the senses! At these doors, destruction enters in. Therefore Job" made a covenant with his eyes," chap. xxxi 1. "The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein," Prov. xxii. 14. "Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall." Beware of Lasciviousness; study modesty, in your apparel, words, and actions. The ravens of the valley of death will at length pick out the wanton eye: the obscene filthy tongue will at length be quict, in the land of silence: and grim death embracing the body, in its cold arms, will effec tually allay the heat of all fleshly lusts.

Lastly, in a word, it may check our earthly-mindedness; and at once knock down, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Ah! if we must die, why are we thus? Why so fond of temporal things, so anxious to get them, so eager in the em braces of them, so mightily touched with the loss of them? Let me upon a view of "the house appointed

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for all living," bespeak the worldling, in the words of Solomon, Prov. xxiii. 5. " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, they flee away as an eagle towards heaven." Riches and all worldly things are but a fair nothing they are that which is not. They are not what they seem to be; they are all but gilded vanities, that deceive the eye. Comparatively they are not : there is infinitely more of nothingness and not-being, than of being or reality in the best of them. What is the world, and all that is in it, but a fashion or fair show, such as men make on a stage, a passing show? 1 Cor. vii. 31. Royal pomp is but a gaudy show or appearance in God's account, Acts xxv. .23. The best name they get is good things: but observe it, they are only the wicked man's good things, Luke xvi. 25. "Thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things," says Abraham, in the parable of the rich man in hell. And well may the men of the world call these things their goods; for there is no other good in them, about them, nor attending them. Now wilt thou set thine eyes upon empty shows and fancies? Wilt thou cause thine eyes to fly on them, as the word is? Shall men's hearts fly out at their eyes upon them, as a ravenous bird on its prey? if they do, let them know that, at length, these shall fly as fast away from them, as ever their eyes flew upon them: like a flock of fair feathered birds, that settle on a fool's ground; the which, when he runs to catch them as his own, do immediately take wing, fly away, and, sitting down on his neighbour's ground, illude his expectation. Luke xii. 20. "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things be?" Though you do not make wings to them, as many do; they make themselves wings, and fly away: not as a tame house-bird, which may be caught again; nor as an hawk, that will shew where she is by her bells, and be called again with the lure: but as an eagle, which quickly flies out of sight, and cannot be recalled. Forbear thou to behold these things. O mortal! there is no reason thou shouldest set thine eyes upon them. This world is a great inn, in the

road to eternity, to which thou art travelling. Thou art attended by these things as servants belonging to the inn, where thou lodgest; they wait upon thee, while thou art there; and when thou goest away they will convey thee to the door. But they are not thine, they will not go away with thee; but return to wait on other strangers, as they did on thee.

Fifthly, It may serve as a spring of Christian reso lution, to cleave to Christ, adhere to his truths, and continue in his ways; whatever we may suffer for so doing. It would much allay the fear of man, that bringeth a snare. "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die ?" Isa. li. 12. Look on persecutors as pieces of brittle clay, that shall be dashed in pieces; for then shall ye despise them as foes, that are mortal; whose terror, to others in the land of the living, shall quickly die with themselves. The serious consideration of the shortness of our time, and the certainty of death, will teach us, that all the advantage we can make by our apostacy, in time of trial, is not worth the while; it is not worth going out of our way to get it: and what we refuse to forego for Christ's sake, may quickly be taken from us by death. But we can never loose it so honourably, as for the cause of Christ and his gospel: for what glory is it, that ye give up what ye have in the world; when God takes it from you by death, whether you will or not? This consideration may teach us to undervalue life itself, and choose to forego it, rather than to sin. The worst that men can do, is to take away that life which we cannot long keep, though all the world should conspire to help us to retain the spirit. And if we refuse to offer it up to God, when he calls for it in defence of his honour, he can take it from us another way as it fared with him, who could not burn for Christ, but was afterwards burnt by an accidential fire in his house.

Lastly, It may serve for a spur, to incite us to prepare for death. Consider (1.) Your eternal state will be according to the state in which ye die: death will open the doors of heaven or hell to you. As the tree falls, so it shall lie through eternity. If the infant