40$ Chap.a7. AnExmóCtion upon the Book of J O B. Verf. r.. was worfe then death to him to hear of death, and yet before he died , he was told of it , not only plainly, but rudely. The French Hiftorian reports, that his very Barber, with force other inferiour Servants (as if they had rather come as. Judges to pronounce the fentenceof deathupon him, then as friends to be the remembrancers of death) told him bluntly and abruptly, without preface or preamble, or the leatt word ofcomfort to fweeten fuch a bitter potion, That his fatal hour was come, that neither his Hermit nor his Phyfitian could keep himalive a day longer. They who are unwilling to hear, or (peak of death , fhall hear it fpoken of whether they will or no. Death fhould be much upon the tongue, and more in the thoughts of good men when they are in health, but when they are in their natural preparation for death (ficknefs is a natural preparative for death)they thould be very often in theirfpiritual preparations , by thinking and diicourfing of it. Secondly, From this mannerof (peaking. The Grave for me, Obferve. That, Agodly man isfomeehnes as ready for thegrave , as the grave can befor him; Let it come as loon as it will, it cannot come too Coon; as the Grave gapes for him, fo Both he for the grave ; as the grave hungers for him, fodoth he for it, and nothing can fa- tisfie himbut a grave. I defire ( faith Paul) to be diffolved: He was ready for the grave : And ready he was, not in a vain with, O, I would dye, and I delire to dye; but from a groun- ded hope that he thould be well in death. Saul , z Sam. i. 9. was torely wounded, the graves were ready for him, and he was ready for the grave too : But whence was it ? It was not from his preparednefs to dye, but from his impatience to live ;' as appears both by the true Hifiory of his death , and by the falfe report made ofit by theAmalekite. The former faith,' Sam .3i.4.7henPaidSaul unto his Armour-bearer,dran, thyftvorder thru t me through therewith ,left thefe uncircumcifed come'&-thruff in through andahitfe me:Sari/uupon thisaccounr *Ws (iii ready far'thègrave, that' to be thruft into i, arid when he coûldnot obtain that tractable favour ,he thruft
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