number of years, (as Experience is) but a Security for eternal Ages. Make ye Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlafting Habitations. When Faith fails, and Chaftity is ufelefs, and Temperance fhall be no more, then Charity fhall bear you upon Wings of Cherubims, to the eternal Mountain of the Lord. 1. have been a lover of Mankind, and a Friend, and Merciful; and now I expect to communicate in that great kindness, which he fhews, that is the Great God and Father of Men and Mercies, faid Cyrus the Perfian on his Death-bed.

irándul,

νυῦ ἡδέως ἂν μοι δοκῶ κοινωνήσαι το διεργητώντας ανθρώπες.

Da dum tempus habes, tibi propria (fit manus hæres ; Auferet hoc nemo quod dabis ipfe

I do not mean this fhou'd only be a Death-bed Charity, any more than a Death bed Repentance; but it ought to be the Charity of our Life and healthful Years, a parting with Portions of our Goods then when we can keep them. We must not (Deo. firft kindle our Lights when we are to defcend into our Houses of Darkness, or bring a glaring Torch fuddenly to a dark Room; that will amaze the Eye, and not delight it, or inftruct the Body: But if our Tapers have in their conftant course defcended into their Grave, crowned all the way with light, then let their Death-bed Charity be doubled, and the light burn. brightest when it is to deck our Herfe. But conceaning this, I fhall afterwards give account.

SECT. IV.

General Confiderations to inforce the former

Practices.

TH Hefe are the general Inftruments of Preparation in order to a holy Death: It will concern us all Quod fæpe to use them diligently and speedily; for we must be long in doing that which must be done but once: And therefore, we must begin betimes, and lofe no Time; especially Seneca, fince it is fo great a venture, and upon it depends fo

hert non

poteft fiet

diu.

great

re difficilior

multique

Nunc ra

Sect. 4. 55 great a ftate. Seneca faid well, There is no Science or Nullius rei Art in the World fo hard, as to live and die well: The quam viveProfeffors of other Arts are vulgar and many: But he eft fcientia: that knows how to do this Bufinefs, is certainly in- Profeffores ftructed to Eternity. But then let me remember this, aliarum arthat a wife Perfon will alfo put most upon the greatest tium vulgo Interest. Common Prudence will teach us this, No funt. Man will hire a General to cut Wood, or shake Hay Seneca. with a Sceptre, or spend his Soul and all his Faculties, upon the purchase of a Cockel-fhell; but he will fit eft, reftandi Inftruments to the dignity and exigence of the Defign. nulla faculAnd therefore, fince Heaven is fo glorious a State, and tas, Aterfo certainly defigned for us, if we pleafe, let us fpend am pœnas all that we have, all our Paffions and Affections, all in morte tiOur Study and Industry, all our Defires and Stratagems, mendum. all our witty and ingenious Faculties, toward the arri-L. 1.1. y. ving thither; whither if we do come, every Minute ten will infinitely pay for all the Troubles of our whole ant, intaLife; if we do not, we fhall have the reward of Fools, befeántque an unpitied and an upbraided Misery.

To this purpofe, I fhall reprefent the State of dying and dead Men, in the devout Words of some of the Fathers of the Church, whofe Senfe I fhall exactly keep, but change their order; that by placing fome of their difperfed Meditations into a chain or fequel of Dif; courfe, I may with their precious Stones make an Union, and compofe them into a Jewel; for though the Meditation is plain and eafy, yet it is affectionate, and material, and true, and neceffary.

The Circumstances of a dying Man's Sorrow and
Danger.

When the Sentence of Death is decreed, and begins to be put in execution, it is Sorrow enough to fee or feel refpe&ively the fad accents of the Agony and laft contentions of the Soul, and the reluctancies and unwillingnefes of the Body: The Forehead wash'd with a new and ftranger Baptifm, befmear'd with a cold Sweat, tenacious and clammy, apt to make it cleave

nas quoni

III. Virtu

tem vide

relicâ.

Linus.

to the roof of his Coffin; the Nofe cold and undifcerning, not pleased with Perfumes, nor fuffering Violence with a Cloud of unwholfome Smoak; the Eyes dim as a fullied Mirrour, or the Face of Heaven when God fhews his Anger in a prodigious Storm; the Feet cold, S. Bafil. the Hands ftiff, the Phyficians defpairing, our Friends weeping, the Rooms dreffed with Darkness and Sorrow, and the exterior Parts betraying what are the Violences which the Soul and Spirit fuffer: The nobler Part, like the Lord of the Houfe, being affaulted by exterior Rudeneffes, and driven from all the Out-works, at laft faint and weary with fhort and frequent Breathings, interrupted with the longer accents of Sighs, without Moisture, but the excrefcencies of a split Humour, when the Pitcher is broken at the Cistern, it retires to its laft Fort the Heart, whither it is pursued, and ftormed and beaten out, as when the barbarous Thracian fack'd the Glory of the Grecian Empire. Then Calamity is great, and Sorrow rules in all the Capacities of Man; then the Mourners weep, because it is civil, or because they need thee, or because they fear: But who tuffers for thee with a Compaffion fharp as is thy Pain? Then the Noife is like the faint Echo of a diftant Valley, and few hear, and they will not regard thee, who feemelt like a Perfon void of Underftanding, and of a departing Intereft. Verè tremendum eft artis facramentum. But thefe Accidents are com mon to all that die; and when a fpecial Providence fhall diftinguish them, they fhall die with eafy Circumftances: But as no Piety can fecure it, fo must no Confidence expect it, but wait for the Time, and accept the manner of the Diffolution. But that which diftinguishes them is this:

He that hath lived a wicked Life, if his Confcience be alarm'd, and that he does not die like a Wolf or a Tiger, without fenfe or remorfe of all his Wildness and his Injury, his beaftly Nature, and defart and untilled Manners, if he have but fenfe of what he is going to fuffer, or what he may expect to be his Portion; then we may imagine the Terror of their abufed Fancies, how they fee affrighting Shapes, and because they

fear

fear them, they feel the Gripes of Devils, urging the unwilling Souls from the kinder and faft embraces of the Body, calling to the Grave, and hafting to Judgment, exhibiting great Bills of uncancelled Crimes, awakening and amazing the Confcience, breaking all their Hope in pieces, and making Faith useless and terrible, because the Malice was great, and the Charity was none at all. Then they look for fome to have s. Chryfofta pity on them, but there is no Man. No Man dares be mus. their pledge; No Man can redeem their Soul, which now feels what it never feared. Then the tremblings and the forrow, the memory of the paft Sin, and the fear of future Pains, and the Senfe of an angry God, and the prefence of fome Devils, confign him to the eternal Company of all the damned and accurfed Spirits. Then they want an Angel for their Guide, and Ephrem Sythe Holy Spirit for their Comforter, and a good Con- 7. fcience for their Teftimony, and Chrift for their Advocate, and they die and are left in Prifons of Earth or Air, in fecret and undifcerned Regions, to weep and tremble, and infinitely to fear the coming of the Day of Chrift; at which Time they fhall be brought forth to change their Condition into a worfe, where they hall for ever feel more than we can believe or understand.

But when a good Man dies, one that hath lived innocently, or made joy in Heaven at his timely and effective Repentance, and in whofe behalf the holy Jefus hath interceded profperoufly, and for whofe intereft the Spirit makes interpellations with groans and fighs unutterable, and in whofe defence the Angels drive away the Devils on his Death-bed, because his Sins are pardoned, and becaufe he refifted the Devil in his Lifetime, and fought fuccefsfully, and perfevered unto the End; then the Joys break forth through the Clouds of Sicknefs, and the Confcience ftands upright, and confeffes the Glories of God, and owns fo much integrity, that it can hope for Pardon, and obtain it too: Then the Sorrows of the Sicknefs, and the Flames of the Fever, or the Faintnefs of the Confumption, do but untie the Soul from its Chain, and let it go forth,

first into Liberty, and then to Glory. For it is but for a little while that the face of the Sky was black, like the preparations of the Night, but quickly the Cloud was torn and rent, the violence of Thunder parted it into little Portions, that the Sun might look forth with a watery Eye, and then shine without a Tear. But it is an infinite refreshment, to remember all the Comforts of his Prayers, the frequent Victory over his Temptations, the Mortification of his Luft, the nobleft Sacrifice to God, in which he moft delights, that we have given him our Wills, and kill'd our Appetites for the Interefts of his Services; then all the trouble of that is gone, and what remains is a Portion in the Inheritance of Jefus, of which he now talks no more as a thing at distance, but is enS Martyris, tering into the poffeffion. When the Veil is rent, and S Euftratius the Prifon - doors are open at the Prefence of God's Martyr.

Angel, the Soul goes forth full of hope, fometimes with evidence, but always with certainty in the thing, and inftantly it paffes into the throngs of Spirits, where Angels meet it finging, and the Devils flock with malicious and vile Purpofes, defiring to lead it away with them into their Houfes of Sorrow: There they fee Things which they never faw, and hear Voices which they never heard. There the Devils charge them with many Sins, and the Angels remember that themselves_rejoiced when they were repented of. Then the Devils aggravate and defcribe all the Circumstances of the Sin, and add Calumnies; and the Angels bear the Sword forward ftill, because their S. Chryfofto- Lord doth answer for them. Then the Devils rage,

mus.

and gnash their Teeth; they fee the Soul chaste and pure, and they are afhamed; they fee it penitent, and they defpair; they perceive that the Tongue was refrained and fan&tified, and then hold their peace. Then the Soul paffes forth and rejoices, paffing by the Devils in fcorn and triumph, being fecurely carried into the bofom of the Lord, where they fhall reft till their Crowns are finished, and their Manfions cie di are prepared; and then they fhall feaft and fing, rejoyce and worship forever and ever. Fearful and

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Μεγίση

ασέβεια δι As a Dave

4x4. Phil.

formi