A Difcourft of Man's Mortality. there that bath hopes of Heaven, rhat would haVe this Law of Death reverfed) Who would be confined to live always a wretched Life here on Earth, chat Si~ ~nd Sorr?w lhare between them? A_ holr Soul cannot but long and beimpatiem . .. to breathtng forth Defires after the ktnd Office of Death, to deliver itintofo great Phi!.""· and incomprehenfible a Glory; crying our earneftly wirh rheApojlle I Jtjire t be dij[oJ.ved, and to be witbChrift, which iJ befl of all. ' q C?f ""h•t Now of what great Concernment this Subject of Man's Mortalit; is God b :';';;i,, his Providence, fince I laft fpake in this Place, bath fadly evinced;'and by~ :bot~ghtt near lnftance bath confirmed what I the": preached unto you, of the Frailry and 11( De~~th U ncercainty of this prefent Life. Happy were it for us ifetcher Sermons or ExRmples might awaken us ;co a ferious Cenfideration that we our felves alfo muft fhortly die, and it may be, as fuddenly. Are we nor all fubjettedto rhefameAuack> Hathnoc Gods Hands kneaded our Bodies out of che fame clay, and may not hi~ Fingerscrumble them again into the fameduft ?Certainly theCords of ourTaher. nacles may beas eafily unloofed and cut afunder as theirs. I have read of a great Emperor,that eo engrave upon himfelfthe deeper Apprehenfionsofhis own Frailty and Mortality, caufedhis own Funerals eo be folemniz'd while he was yet living laying himfelfdown in.his Tomb, weeping over himfelf, as his own Mourner: If there were any advantage in this to prepare him to die at laft really, by dying thus firijjn an Emblem, we may almoft daily have the fame. There'snor a Funeral of as{y of our Relationsor Acquaintance that we are called to give our Attendance upon, but by ferious and folemn Reflections upon our felves.r we maymake it our own: And if by beholding others nailed up in their Coffin;, laid down in their cold Grave;, covered over with Earth,thacthey may become a Feaft for Worms. ifnow we reckon our felves among the number of them,we !hall not be verr. much J!l.ifta~n; for this is only but a few day~ to anticipate what Jhall Jhortly be our ftate and'Condicion. This Advantage we our felves may make of the Death of others, to look upon it as a refemblance at leaft ofour own. What is the Language of every Grave we fee open its mouth to receive into ic the dead Body offome Neighbour orAcquaintance,but only this,That we alfo are mortal and periJhinga There's not a broken SkuU,or a rotten'Bone that I yes fcattered about theGrave but bath Death and Mortalit1 written upon them, and call loudly upon us to prePare our felves to take up our Abode in the fame darknefs and corruption with them· and ifupon every fuch fad occafion we do not make a particularApplicaton there~ of unto our own felves,we not only lofe our Friend's LivtJ , but their very Deaths alfo. And yet in this Affair, that might be of great advantage to us, we are exceeding faulty ; for the reflections we make on the Jeuth ofothers,are ufually very impertinent, and make no lafiing impreffions upon us. When Death comes and mows down our Acquaintance and Relations round about us, the Reflection that we ufually make, is more upon the Lofs that we have fuftained by their Death, than upon the Example they are thereby made to us of our own Frailty and Mortality; and thereby,asGod by his~rovidence harh deprived us of rhe Comfort we had in their Lives,fo we deprive our felvesof che Infirud:ion and Benefit we might have by their Death. Of iffome extraordinary Circumfiancethat appe:us in the Death ofothers,ftrikes us into ferious Thoughts ofour own,yetufually they are but fhort-liv'd and fleecing; for a while, it may b~, we think of humane frailty, and the mp.cability of our prefent State ; but thde Thoughts foon wear off, and we return ~o the fame Vanity and wretched Security as 1:iefore; for fuch dying Mediarions of Death, are ufually very unprofitable. It is with moll Men as it is with a Flock of Sheep that graze fearlefly rill rhe Shepherd rulheth in among them, and lays hold of one of them for the Slaughter, and this prefenrly frights them, making them leave their Food, and run fcattering about the Field ; but no fooner is the Tumult over, but they flock together again, and feed as fe.. curely, without Thoughts of dea[h or danger as before. So truly is it with moll Men, when either rhe report is fpread abroad tharfuch or fuch a perfon is dead, and it may be fuddenly, by feme fuddain and unexpected firoke; or when they are caUed ro vifir.feme dying Perfon, where they behold departing Pangs, difiorred Eyes, quivering Limbs, wan and ghafily Corps, the Image of Death in its lively terrours; ifthey have any Remaindersof natural Tendernefs, it muft needs ftrike them into Penfivenefs, to think that one day this mufi be their own Cafe, and ~hat therefore it behoves them to be in continual ~reparanon
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