fQ, BA7TER'S DYING THOUGHTS. as from mere natural inclination ; which God hath laid so deep, that free-will bath no power against it. As before I said, that the body of man is such a thing, that could we see through the skin, (as men may look through aglass hive upon the bees,) and see all the parts and motion, the filth and excrements that are in it, the soul would hardly be willing to actuate, love and cherish such a mass of unclean matter, and to dwell in such a loathsome place, unless God had necessitated it by nature (deeper than reason or sense) to such a love and such a labor, by the pondus or spring of inclination ; even as the cow would not else lick the unclean calf, nor women themselves be at so much labor and trouble with their children, while there is little of them to be pleasing, but unclean- ness, and crying, and helpless inipatieney, to make them weari- some, had not necessitating inclination done more hereto than any other sense or reason ; even so I now say of the pleasure of living, that the sorrows are_so much, greater to multitudes than the sensi- ble delight, that life would not be so commonly chosen and en- dured under so much trouble, were not men determined'thereto by natural necessitating inclination; (or deterred from death by the fears of misery to the separated 'soul ;) and yet all this kept not some, counted the best and wisest of the heathens, from taking it for the valor and wisdom of a man to make away his life in time of extremity, and frommaking this the great answer to them thát gfGdge at. God for making their lives so miserable, " If the misery be greater than the good of life, whydost thou not end it? Thou mayest do that when thou wilt.' Our meat and drink is pleasant to the healthful, but it costeth poor men so much toil, and labor, and care, and trouble to procure a poor diet for themselves, and their families, that, I think; could they live without eating and drinking, they would thankfully ex- change the pleasure of it all:to be eased of their care and. toil in getting it. And when sickness cometh, even the pleasantest food is loathsome. 4. And do we not willingly interrupt and lay by these pleasures every night, when we betake ourselves to sleep? It is possible, indeed, a man may then have pleasant dreams ; but I think few go to sleep for the pleasure of dreaming; either no dreams, or vain, or troublesome dreams, are much more common. And to say that rest and ease is my pleasure, is but to say, that my. daily .,labor and cares are so much greater than my waking pleasure, that I am glad to lay by both together. For what is ease but de- liverance from weariness and pain? For in deep and dreamless sleep there is little positive sense of the pleasure of rest itself. But, indeed, it is more from nature's necessitated inclination to this self-easing and repairing means, than' from the positive pleas-.
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