wards it with the most indifferent mind and affection; that is always willing to leave it, and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleaseth. And as for death, though the dread of it be natural, yet why should the terrors of it be so very furprising and amazing to us, after we have confidered, that to a good and pious foul it is no other but the gate of heaven, and an entrance into eternal life? We are apt to wonder, to see a man undaunted at the approach of death, and to be not only contented, but chearful at the thoughts of his departure out of this world, this fink of fin, and vale of mifery and forrow. Whereas, if all things be duly confidered, it is a greater wonder that men are fo patient to live; and that they are not glad of any fair excuse and opportunity of getting out of this strange country, and retiring home, and of ridding themselves of the troubles and inconveniences of life. For, confidering the numerous troubles and calamities we are liable to in a long pilgrimage, there are really but three confiderations that I can readily think of, that can make this world, and our present condition in it, in any good measure tolerable to a wife man, viz. that God governs the world; that we are not always to stay in it; that there is a happiness defigned and referved for us in another place, which will abundantly recompenfe and make amends to us for all the troubles and fufferings of this life.

And yet it is strange to fee how fast most men cling to life; and that, even in old age, how they catch at every twig that may but hold them up a little while; and how fondly they hanker after a miferable life, when there is nothing more of pleasure to be enjoyed, nothing more of fatisfaction to be expected and hoped for in it. When they are just putting into the port, and one would think fhould rejoice at their very hearts that they fee land; yet how glad would they be then of any crofs wind, that would carry them back into the fea again, as if they loved to be toffed, and were fond of storms and tempefts.

Nay, the very best of us, even after we have made that acknowledgment of David, I am a ftranger and a fojourner with thee, as all my fathers were, are apt, with him, to be still importuning God for a little longer life

O fpare me a little, that I may recover ftrength, before I go hence, and be no more: and when God hath granted us this request, then we would be spared yet a little longer.

But let us remember, that God did not design us to continue always in this world; and that he hath on purpofe made it fo uneafy to us, to make us willing to leave it; and that fo long as we linger here below, we are detained from our happiness: While we are prefent in the body, we are abfent from the Lord. This confideration made St. Paul fo defirous to be diffolved, becaufe he knew that when his earthly houfe of this tabernacle was diffolved, he should have a much better habitation, a building of God, an houfe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This was that which made him fo full of joy and triumph, at the thoughts of his leaving the world: 2 Tim. iv. 6. 7.8. I am now ready (fays he) to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my courfe, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge fhall give me at that day.

Nay, the confideration of this, though but obfcurely apprehended by them, did raise the fpirits of the wifer and better Heathen, and fill them with great joy and comfort at the thoughts of their diffolution. With what conftancy and evennefs of mind did Socrates receive the fentence of death! and with what excellent difcourfe did he entertain his friends just before he drank off the fatal cup, and after he had taken it down, whilst death was gradually feizing upon him! One can hardly, without a very fenfible tranfport, read Cato's difcourfe concerning his death, as it is reprefented by Tully in his book of old age. "I am (fays he) tranfported with

a defire of feeing my forefathers; thofe excellent per"fons, of whom I have heard, and read, and written :

and, now I am going to them, I would not willingly "be drawn back into this world again." Quòd fi quis Deus mihi largiatur, ut ex hac ætate repuerefcam, & in cunis vagiam, valdè recufem: "If fome God would of"fer me, at this age, to be a child again, and to cry in "the cradle, I would earnestly refufe it, and upon no terms accept it. And now that my race is almost

66 run,

66 run, and my courfe juft finished, how loth should I "be to be brought back, and made to begin again? "For what advantage is there in life? Nay rather, "what labour and trouble is there not in it? But let "the benefit of it be what it will, there is certainly "fome measure of life, as well as of other things; and 66 men ought to know when they have enough of "it." O præclarum diem, cùm in illud animorum concilium cætumque proficifcar, & cùm ex hac turba & colluvione dif cedam! "O bleffed and glorious day, when I fhall

66

go

to that great council and affemby of fpirits, and have 66 got out of this crowd and rabble!" And if a Heathen, who had but fome obfcure glimmerings of another life, and of the bleffed state of departed fouls, could fpeak thus chearfully of death; how much more may we, who have a clear and undoubted revelation of these things, and to whom life and immortality are brought to light by the gofpel?

5. We fhould always prefer our duty, and the keeping of a good confcience, before all the world; because it is, in truth, infinitely more valuable, if fo be our fouls be immortal, and do furvive in another world, and we must there give a strict account of all the actions done by us in this life, and receive the sentence of eternal happiness or mifery, according to the things done in the body, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. For, as our Saviour argues concerning the cafe of denying him and his truth, to avoid temporal fuffering and death, what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his foul? When we are tempted by temporal intereft and advantage, or by the fear of prefent lofs and fuffering, to deny or diffemble our religion, to do any thing that is finful in any kind, and contrary to our duty and confcience, let us afk ourselves, what will be the profit and advantage of it? What if, for fear of men, and what they can do to me, I incur the wrath and difpleasure of almighty God? This is infinitely more to be dreaded; and his frowns are a thousand times more terrible, than the bitterest wrath and cruelest malice of men. What if, to preserve this frail and mortal body, I fhall evidently hazard the lofs of my

immortal

immortal foul; and, to escape a temporal inconvenience, I forfeit everlasting happiness, and plunge myself into eternal mifery and ruin? would not this be a wild bargain, and a mad exchange, for any temporal gain and advantage, to lose the things that are eternal? and for the pleafing of ourselves for a little while, to make ourfelves miferable for ever?

If we confefs ourselves to be ftrangers and pilgrims on the earth, and are perfuaded of the promifes of God concerning an heavenly country, where we hope to arrive after the few and evil days of our pilgrimage are over; let us not, by complying with the humours of ftrangers, and the vitious cuftoms and practices of an evil world, bar ourselves of our hopes, and banish ourselves from that happy place, to which we all profefs we are going.

We pretend to be travelling towards heaven: but if we make fhipwreck of faith and a good confcience, we.deftroy our own hopes of ever arriving at that happy port. We do not live up to our expectation of a future happinefs, if the unfeen glories of another world do not raife us above all the temptations and terrors of fenfe. Our faith and hope have not their due and proper influence upon us, if they do not govern our lives and actions, and make us ftedfaft in the profeffion of our holy religion, and in the confcientious practice of it. St. Paul reafoned himself into this holy refolution, from the hopes of a bleffed refurrection, Acts xxiv. 15. 16. I have hope (fays he) toward God, that there fhall be a refurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. 'E TST, For this caufe therefore I exercife myself always to have a confcience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

6. and laftly, If we be fojourners and travellers in this world, we should often think of our end, and carefully mind the way to it. Our end is everlafting happinefs; and the direct way to it is, by a conftant, and fincere, and univerfal obedience to the laws and commandments of God. And this in itself is fo plain a way, that a fincere and honeft man can hardly err in it. And therefore we must not suffer ourselves to be led and trained out of it upon any pretence whatfoever; not

by

by the wildfire of pretended illuminations and enthufiafms; nor by the confident pretence of an infallible guide, that will needs fhew us another way, and perfuade us to follow him blindfold in it.

Let us not

For

quit the infallible rule of God's word, to follow any guide whatsoever. If an apoftle, or an angel from heaven, preach any other doctrine, and way to heaven, let him be accurfed. He who is the way, and the truth, and the life, when he was confulted with about the way to eternal happiness, knew no other but this. when the young man afked him, Good master, what good thing fhall I do, that I may inherit eternal life? his anfwer was, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. It is true indeed, that by reafon of our corrupt inclinations within, and powerful temptations without, this way, especially at our first fetting out, is rugged and difficult. So our Lord hath forewarned us, telling us, that ftrait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and that there be few that find it ; therefore we fhould ftrive to enter in; take great care and pains to difcern the right way, and to overcome the difficulties of our first entrance into it; and fhould often pray to God as David did, Pfal. cxix. 19. I am a franger in the earth, hide not thy commandments from me. Pfal. cxxxix. 23. 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and fee if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlafting.

Thus, if we would always have our end in our eye, it would both be a direction to us in our way, and an encouragement to quicken our pace in it; there being no more powerful motive to a good life, than to be affured, that if we have our fruit unto holiness, our end shall be everlasting life.

SERMON