dark4 ofthis World. 241 the burial place ; and if thou fhouldeft die ignorant of God and his Law, what would then become of thee ? The fmall brufh and the old logs, young linnets, and thofe that are withered with age meet and burn together. Or if thou fhouldeft flay a while longer here, may be becaufe thou wilt not learnnow,God will not teach thee then : Or if thou fhouldeft in thy old age get acquaintance with God, yet 'cis fad to be lowing thy feed, when thou fhouldeft be reaping thy (heaves, learning to know ; God, when thoumight& be comforting thy felf from the old acquaintance thou hail enjoyed with him. Areyou old and igno-i rant? Alas, poor creatures l your life in the locket this candle ofthe Lord not let up and lighted in your undertanding ? your body bowing to the, duff, and nature tolling the palling bell, as it were, and you (like onegoing into the dark) know not whither deathwill lead you or leave you. 'Tis like the in- firmities of age, make you with your bones were even laid at reft in the grave : but if you fhould dye in this condition ' your poor foules would even with they were here againwith their old burdens on their back ;aches and difeafes of old age are grievous, but damned fouled would thank God , if he would bleffe them with filch a heaven, as to lie in thefe paines to efcape the torments of the other : 0 bethink you before you go hence; the leffe time you have, the more diligence you mutt ufe to gain knowledge; we need not be earneft,(onewould think)tobid the poor prifoner Jeanie his book, that cannot reade, when he knows he fhall be hang'd if he read not his neck-verfe 'Tis not indeed the bare knowing the truths of the Gofpel, faves ; but the groffe ignorance of them to be lure will damn foules. Are you poor ? It is not your poverty is your finor milers', but your ignorancewhere the true treafure lies. Wereyou Gods poor, rich in knowledge and faith, you were happy, leder. 4, 13. Better i, a poor and wife childe, then a foolifh King, whowill no more he admoniNt ; yea, fo happy, that did the Princes of the world underftand themfelves aright, they would wifh them- felves in your clothes, how ragged foever they are, rather then be in their own robes ; thereare better making for you in heaven which you than put on, when theirs ihall be pull'd off to their fhame: It will not then trouble you that you weres while in the \, world, poor; but it will torment them that they were fo rich and I i great,
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