Nature's Çood-night. Sleep and Death like two irrefiftible Conquerours agree firft in their general invafion. Sleep with his poppy Scepter feizeth the univerfalWorld ; all ages, foxes and degrees, fubmit their eyes to the captivation andviaory of Sleep. And is not death as Catholick a King ? Doth not he invade us as David did .the Gefhnrites? He ¡mote the land , and left neither man nor woman alive, x Sam. 27: 9. as Tacitue obferves in the confufion of Antonim war, Nec digni- ties nee etas protegebat. So death reverenceth not the gravity of age, nor pities the tendernefs of youth ; the fofenefs of fex he fpareth not ; the meaneft efcape not through poverty, not cloth dignity prtite& the higheft, but without diftinétion deftroys all. 5avakv} wawa; Death is bold as Coefar to tax the whole world,- Lu:c. 2. I. The grave it without any order, , Job. lo. z z.. `for there are [mall and great, Job. 3. 09. Goliah and David, the Giant not too big, the Dwarf not too little to fill a Tomb ; Sculls of all fizes inGolgotha : The wife men die as well as the fool, P(al. 49. ro. Solomon andRehoboam, Old and Young, Methnfalem t King. it, r z. and Jeroboams child. Mite fenum ac juvenumdenfanturfanera, name; liar, car. r. ed. Sava slat Proferpina fngit, zs Good and bad, Cain and ,4he1; Rich and Poor,Dives and Lozano Luk. r 6. az. The nimblenefs of Afabel could not outrun it ; the beauty of Abfalom could not a Saw... ;8. charm it ; nor could Sampfons ftrength wrefllewith it without receiving a fall. A =9. reafon you may have fromSeneca, Noncairn citamur ex cenfu, Death examines not the Kegifter -book for our Age, nor the Rate-book for our Elates, nor the Epil, x z; Heraulds-book for our Honours: But death pafeth upon all, for that all have finned, Rom. 5. rz. Nay Death found a paffage where Sin hadmade none, even the moll holy Jeftu wasdead and buried. Nee potuit alios habere exitue, It behoved Aug. Chrif to fifer, Luke a4. faith Chrift himfelf; being born he lay not under a As 17. 3i poffibiliry, but neceffîry of dying. what man Is he then that liveth and /hall not mi. 89 48. fee death ? Since the prince of life diddie, fine God himfelf did not, would not,. indeed could- not efcape it. Thus Death's invafion is a general rule without any exception, or exceptionof any. Well then (beloved) fince all we that live muft die, let us all die whilft we live; there is no countermine againftthe death of the body without us, but by killing the body of death, within us; to die daily is the only way to live for i ever; Mortification is Immortality; pluck out the fling of death, and there will be no fmart in it, but Death and Sleep will bealike. Amortifiedman is not dead but fleepeth. 2. Their fecond agreement is in the manner of their invafion, which is by furprizal. The Septuagint relates the drukenfleep of Lot in the Mafculine, He perceived Gen, 59.33. not when he lay down. The fame is affirmableof the molt lober, No man can tell how or when he falls afleep. Nor can any man tell me after what manner, or at what time he (hall die. That we cannot live long, is molt infallibly certain; how long we (hall live as highly uncertain. Rapertue.obferves when God pronouncedthe fentence of death on Adam, (a blacker Theta wasnever filled on any forehead) Dixit indefinite, till Gen. ;. t 9. thou return unto theground; he laid not tillthou haft fived fo many fer years,or zrudens(son,i days, but indérermmately -- Till the time come -- come it when it will. His tea portoezteum wifdom hid that knowledge in thatthick darknefswhich clouds him from mot- "light fu 'nth tal eyes; So that day and hour knowetb no man. What wife Prognofticator (that Fiocl.3.odz dares befpeak the event of Battails, and the periodsof Kingdoms) can tell whe- ther he (hall die onhis bed or an a tree ? Alas ! Death comes is an hour when ye thin!, not, Luke t 2.40. in aday he looketh not for him, y. 46. When they (hall fay peace, peace, then fndden de¡frnllion cometh upon them, r Thef. S. 3. Theog. pig. s9: line 2,07. Dom
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