24® Of the proper Improvement S E R M. of it familiar to them, that they may in X. creafe in wifdom and virtue. The firft rea- "--" j fon is, that death is the end of all men ; why then fhould we put it from our thoughts ? Why decline the ferious confideration of it ? If indeed unthoughtfulnefs were any fecu- rity againft the event itfelf, if declining to entertain it in our meditations, or a fupine negligence about it, could prevent the fa- tal ftroke, there would then be reafon to ba- nifh the gloomy difturbing fpe6tre, which calls a dark fhadow over this world, and palls our appetite to the pleafures of life : But, alas, it is quite otherwife ; death is inevita- ble ; it will come whether we think of it or not ; and it will be the more furprifing and the more terrible, the lefs it has been confi- dered. This now is one obvious fenfe of the affertion in the text ; death is the end of all men ; none of mankind can with any Thew of reafon, expel to be exempt from mortality, and indeed none profefs fuch an expectation. The experience of all ages which have gone before us, and the inflan- ces which are daily before our eyes, thew that this is the common fate of man- kind : Their condition in life has always been, and Rill is, very unequal with refpe& to
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