BA s'rER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 93 in gross, terrene, obscure, and unkind recipients? Away, away; the vindictive flames are ready to consume this sinful world! Sin- ners, that blindly rage in sin, must quickly rage in the effects of sin and of God's justice. The pangs of lust prepared for these pangs ! They are treasuring up wrath against this day. Look not, then; behind thee. Away from this unhappyworld ! Press on unto the mark ; (Phil. iii.) ." Looking towards, and hastening to the coming of the day of God ;" 2 Pet. iii. 10-12. As this world hath used thee, it would use thee still, and it will use others. If thou hast sped well in it, no thanks to it, but unto God. If thou hast had manifold deliverances, and marvelous preservations, and hast been fed with angel's food, love not this wilderness for it, but Godband his angel, which was thy guide, pro- tector, and deliverer. And bath this troublesome flesh been so comfortable a compan- ion to thee, that thou shouldst be so loath to leave it? Have thy pains, thy weariness, thy languishings, thy labors, thy cares and fears about this body, been pleasing to thee? And art thou loath that they should hàve an end? Didst thou not find a need of pa- tience to undergo them? And' of greater patience than mere na- ture gave thee ? And canst thou hope now for betterwhen nature faileth, and that an aged, consumed, more diseased body, should be a pleasanter habitation to thee than it was heretofore ? Iffrom thy youthunit bath beenboth a tempting and a troublesome thing to thee, surely, though it be less tempting, it will not be less troubling, when it is falling to the dust, and above ground savoreth of the grave ! Had things sensible been never so pleasant in thy youth, and hadst thou glutted thyself in health with that sort of delight, in age thou art to say by nature, "'1 have no pleasure in them." . Doth God in great mercy make pain and feebleness the harbingers of death, and wilt thou not understand their business? Doth' he mercifully, beforehand, take away the pleasure of all fleshly things,'.and worldly vanities, that there may be nothing to relieve a departing soul; (as the shell breaketh when the bird is hatched, and the womb relaxed when the infant must be born) and yet shall we stay when nothing holdeth us, and still be loath to come away ? Wouldst thou dwell with thy beloved body in the grave, where it will rot and stink in loathsome darkness? If not, why should it now, in its painful languor, seem to thee a more pleasant habitation than the glorious presence of thy Lord? In the grave it will be at rest, and not tormented as now it is, nor wish, at night, O that it were morning ! nor say at morning, When will it be night? And is this a dwelling fit for thy delight? Pa- tience in it, while God will so try thee, is thy duty ; but is such patience a better and sweeter life than rest and joy3
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