A Funeral Sermon. the Death of the former owners, yet we are apt to look upon our felves as 'Perpetual pofH:ffors, and neve: think that we rnuft ra;rt with it to others, as others · hav_c done tO us. The Rtches and Honours, whtch arc but the dufl: and finoak of tlus \Vorld have fo blinded our Eyes, that we cannot difcern the near approaches of Death; And thus while we, Archimedn like, are bufily drawing Proj~Ch and De. ftgns in the duft, and are wholly intent about vainer 3pecnlations than h1s, we mind not the Alarm, nor perceive the Eriemy is upon us, till we arc ftrickcn dcJd thro, the Reins. Secondly, Men delay ferious Preparations for Death, becaufe they genera lly look II. upon it as afar off. Thofe who are young think they muft of courfe hve t1ll they be aged; and the aged think that their decays are not fa great and !bd~en, but that they might well weather out yet a few years more. The healthy thmk they need nor prepare t ill they be fiHnmoned; and chafe whom God doth fummon by difcafes and weakne{fes, think that yet 'tis pbffible they may efcapc them. And thus, rho' it may be God hath told us out but a few days or hours, yet we reckon very bountifully of years and ages, as if our times were not in his hands, but our own. Men would need no longer Eternity, if God fuou\d defer his ftroke till they thought themfelvcs old enough to die. While their Youth and Spirits revel it, and their· Blood runs dancing through their veins, the thoughts of Death are not come in feafon with them: 'Tis as great a Solccifm to think of their Graves, as of going to Bed a~ Noon-day. Thefe cold and flegmatick Confiderations are more fit for their declining years, and the Winter of their Jives; and they r cfolve they will then think of dying when they arc choak'd up with Coughs anP. Cattrrhs, and·can fcarcc fee a Death's':hCad, but through a pair of Spectacles. But what becomes of thcfc Refolutioi).S? VVhen Age bath fnowed upon them, and froft-Qittcn all their former Pleafines, yet even then they find the Dalliances that pafs between their Souls and Bodies fo fweet, that they are very loth they Ihould be broken off; and this prompts them to think (as we arc apt to believe what we defire) that as yet they !hall not. They hope they have fame t ime more to live, and fa drive their Death from year to year befOre them; and never think of dying as long as they have life enough left to think of any thing. This is the veriefi: dotage imaginable: For if it be true what the Naturalifts af~ .firm, that no grown Perfon carrieth to the Grave with him the fame ftefl1 that he hronght in to the World , that the revolution of a few Years gradually wears away the former Body, and brings a new one in its fread; it is frrangely grofs, that they fhould think of living much longer, who have already oqt-lived fcveral Generat ions of thcmiC!vq:, or that they fhould not at len~th prepare for Death, who have al~ ready buried themfelves, it may be eight or nme times over. Difcafcs and natural decays have fQr many years laid clofe fiege to them, routing their Guards, battering the Walls of their Flefh, and forc ing the Soul to quit the Out-works, and retire into the Heart ; yet the mad de lire of living makeS them hope they fha\l hold out thefc ruins of Life yet a while longer; rho' they fee many hundred others, better manned and fortified than themfclv-cs, taken in Upoh the firft A!fault. We are fcarce fa wretchedly miftaken about any thing, as about old Age. For firll:, we reckon it a vaft while thither. \¥hat a fuew do threefcore or fuurfcore years make at a diftancc? How numerous do the days and hDltrs appear? But thofe who have attained to them find they all glide away infcnfibly from them, and hardly knmv they have lived fo long, but that they have bought fo many Almanacks. Certainly long Life is like an Evening mift, and feems far greater to us at a diftance than when we are in it. 'Tis ftrange how the different fitnating our felves will mightily alter the profpefr of our Years: while we look forward upon them from Youth, they all arc rcprcfented to us long and happy; but when we look back up~ ·on them from Age, they then appear to have been fhort and trou1>lefome. A day to come, fhews far longer to us than a Year that is gon. ,Tis high time for us to mend our Accounts, and to eftimate the Years that are to come, by thofe that are already pall:. Thofe thirty or forty Years, which were judged by t1ee in thy Ch ildhood an unattainable Age, how Ihort do they feem now when thou haft outlived them! \¥hat remains of them all, b~t th~t thou art grown bigger tll.an thou wert, and haft the remembrance of fa:me mconfiderable Actions that were done in that time l Why the!l lhould we think thirty or forty Years yet to.come lhch an huge K Gulph
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