this. For let the Profpect appear as fair as it will; yet besides a Multitude of other Things to destroy it, every fingle Instance of Death reminds us, that our own Lives may fail; that their Lives, in whom our Happiness is placed, or on whom our Hopes depend, may fail: and even those, who feem to stand at a great Distance from us, may overturn, by their Fall, the whole Edifice, which our forward Imagination had erected. Undoubtedly the Dreams, which Men indulge, of enjoying more in the World than it hath to bestow on them, are mighty pleasing ones for a while. But from the first they do us Harm: they give us a different Turn of Mind, from what our Maker intended we should have: and when a Disappointment comes; then lasting Wretchedness immediately fucceeds our short-lived Felicity. For, whether we continue in a State of Dejection; or whether we repeat the fame Folly; expect again, and are again deceived; either way we are miferable. Or could we escape with ever so little Uneasiness, or enjoy in this Manner ever so much Pleasure here; yet setting our Hearts on that, as our Portion, and seeking our Happiness where God hath not placed it, can never end well for us. And therefore we should contemplate with Care every Dispensation of Providence, that may warn us against so fatal a Mistake; and hearken diligently to that Voice, with which God hath appointed that every Thing on Earth shall cry aloud to us: Arife ye, and depart:

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depart: for this is not your Rest *. So far from it indeed, so absolutely incapable is the present World of giving us any Security for any one Enjoyment: that the highest and the lowest Persons in it are quite upon a Level in this Respect; equally unable to promise the leaft Thing with Certainty, either to themselves or to others. Whatever is human, is alike precarious; and our only fure Dependence is on the Power that made us. Put not your Trust in Princes, nor in any Child of Man: for there is no Help in them. Their Breath goeth forth; they return to their Earth: in that very Day their Thoughts perish. Bleffed is be, that bath the God of Jacob for bis Help; whose Hope is in the Lord his God: which made Heaven and Earth, the Sea and all that is therein, which keepeth Truth for evert. A World, like this, cannot be the Seat of Happiness. Yet our gracious Creator and Father certainly defigned us to be happy. And therefore, the less Provision he hath made for it here, the furer we may be, that a better State remains in referve. It is true, indeed, we are all Sinners: and from our own Deserts could have little Ground of Comfort in looking beyond the Grave. But we have it abundantly from the Affurance of Forgiveness, on most equitable Terms, in Jesus Christ; who hath brought Life and Immortality to Light, and delivered them who through Fear of Death

were all their Life-time fubject to Bondage *. Here then it is, that the Uncertainty of Life, and every Thing in it, directs us to fix: on the firm Foundation of Faith in the Gospel of our blessed Redeemer. Secured, by Him, of fue ture Bliss, in proportion to the present Afflictions, which we bear as we ought, we shall pass through them all, not only with composed, but chearful Refignation: the more steadfastly we look on the dark Side of Objects, the clearer Light will arife to us out of them; and the trueft Consolation from the House of Mourning..

You fee therefore, what Improvement the Heart of the Wife may receive from a general Confideration of the End of all Men. But the further View, of the different Ends of different Men, is a Subject of yet further Advantage. The Wicked is driven away in bis Wickedness: but the Righteous bath Hope in his Death. The former of these Reflexions is indeed a very dreadful, but a very instructive one. For whether we fet before our Eyes the dying Terrors of an ill Person, whose Conscience is awakened too late; or the fatal Insensibility of one hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin ‡, and going to lie down in Sorrow ||, without the least Apprehenfion of it: no Admonition can be either stronger or more important, than that which both these Cafes

* Heb. ii. 15. † Prov. xiv. 32. † Heb. iii. 13. Ifa, 1. 11.

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naturally naturally convey. But the Death of the Righteous gives Instruction unattended with Horror: and the Seriousness, which it inspires, is pleasing and peaceful. In one Way indeed of confidering Things, the Departure of good and virtuous Persons from amongst Men is Matter of most melancholy Reflexion. Their Number is very small: and their Ufe is very great. They are the Salt of the Earth*, that preserve Society from utter Corruption and Diffsolution. And though the Generality of the World hath little Regard to this, and is much more apt to depreciate the Merit of such, than to think of the Good they do, or the Evils they prevent; yet the Example and Influence of but a few of them, distributed amongst the rest of Mankind, is a Thing of much Benefit: and when any of them are qualified with eminent Abilities, and placed by Providence in Stations of Importance; there are Times, when their Life may be a Bleffing of incredible Extent; and their Death prove the Means of opening a Breach, for unknown Mischiefs to rush in. Help, Lord: for the godly Man ceaseth: for the Faithful fail from among the Children of Ment. The Righteous perisheth, and no Man layeth it to Heart: and the Merciful are taken away; none confidering, that the Righteous is taken away from the Evil ta came. Such Reflexions, as these, it may perhaps appear Wisdom rather to drive from us, than invite them to disquiet us. But it is * Matth, v. 13. † Pf. xii. 1. ‡ Ifa. Ivii. 1.

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always wife to think of whatever it is poffible to prevent and a Reformation of national Sins is the plain Method to prevent the coming of national Calamities: as the Reformation of ourselves is, to prevent our being upon the whole the worse for them, if they should Whatever human Supports may at any Time fail, God will always support that People, who place a virtuous Trust in Him. Or though a Nation were growing, in Appearance, incorrigibly bad; yet they, who are careful to preserve themselves from the spreading Infection, particularly by prudent Meditations on the threatening Removal of valuable Persons, may possibly be thus excited to such Usefulness, as will defer, if not hinder, its Ruin: at least they take the Way to deliver their own Souls *, undoubtedly from the Punishments of another Life, and perhaps also, wholly or in part, from Sufferings in this. The Days of Man are like a Shadow, that declineth: and he witbereth like the Grafs. But the Lord is the fame : and his Years shall have no End. The Children of his Servants shall continue : and their Seed shall stand fast in his Sight +.

Be the Loss therefore otherwise as great as it will, which befalls, at any Time, either the Publick in general, or ourselves in particular, when the Hand of God snatches away the Worthy and the Eminent; yet thinking

* Ezek. xiv. 14.

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† Pf. cii. 11, 27, 28.

ferioufly