BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 91 wonder if that world was ready for a deluge, by a deluge of sin, in which men lived to six, seven, eight, and nine hundred years of age. Had our great sensualists any hope of so long a life, they would be more like incarnate devils, and there would be no dwell- ing near them for the holy seed. If angels were among them, they would, like the' Sodomites, seek furiously to abuse them. Nor will God tire us out with top long a life of earthly suffer- ings,. We think short cares, and fears, and sorrows, persecutions, sickness,and crosses, to be long, and shall we grudge at the wisdom and love which shorteneth them? Yea, though holy duty itself be excellent and sweet, yet the weakness of the flesh maketh us liable to weariness, and abateth the willingness- of the spirit ; and our wise and merciful Godwill not make our warfare, or our race, too long, lest we be wearied, and faint, and fall short of the prize. By our weariness,and complaints, and fears, and groans, one would think that we thought. this life too long, and yet when we should yield to the call of God, we draw back as if we would have it everlasting. Willingly submit, then, O my soul. It is not thou, but this flesh, that must be dissolved ; this troùblesome, vile, and corrupti- ble flesh. It is but the other half of thy meat and drink, which thy presence kept longer uncorrupted, going after the excremental part. Thou diest not when man (the eompositum) dieth, by thy departure. And as thou livest not to thyself, thou, diest not to thyself: whether I live or die, I am the Lord's : he that set up the candle, knoweth how long he bath use for the light of it. Study thy duty, and work while it is day, and, let God choose thy time, and willingly stand to.his disposal. The gospel dieth not when I die. The church dieth not. The praises pf God die not. The world dieth not, and perhaps it shall grow better, and those prayers shall be answered which seemed lost. Yea, and it may be spme of the seed that I have sown, shall spring up to some benefit of the dark, unpeaceable world when I am dead. And is not this much of the end oflife ? And is not that life good which attaineth its end? Ifmyendwas todo good and glorify God, if good be done, and God glorified when I am dead, yea, though I were annihilat- ed, is not my end attained ? .Feign not thyselfto be God, whose interest (that is, the pleasing of his will) is the end of all things, and whose will is the measure of all created good. Feign not thyself to be all the world: God had not lost his work: the world is not dissolved when I am dissolved. O, how strong and unrea- sonable a disease is this inordinate selfishness! Is not God's will infinitelybetter than mine, and fitter to be fulfilled? Choose the fulfilling of his will, and thou shalt always have thy choice. If a
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