into a most wretched state on a sudden. He who lately abounded in wealth and plenty, is reduced to the most abject poverty; he who had whole armies at his command, is forsaken of all the world: and he who had priuces for his vassals, is forced to obey a slave. Some that fed daintily, are glad to eat the bread of affliction, and to quench their thirst with tears. Some who lately flourished in palaces, adorned with gold and azure, are now rotting in a loathsome dungeon. Some are dragged from their magnificent dwellings to the most infamous death. The richest and noblest crowns have not protected the most august heads.

But, supposing it possible that thou shouldst pass through this life, without feeling any alteration in thine health, without suffering any loss of thy goods or change of thy happy condition, a greater rarity than the strange bird called the Phoenix; hast thou no children, relations, or friends, whom thou tenderly lovest, and whom thou art bound in duty to love? Are these persons without afflictions? Are they not every day liable to them? Certainly, unless thou hast an heart as insensible as marble or steel, unless thou hast laid aside all natural affections, thou must needs have a quick feeling of all the evils and disgraces that happen to them in this life and when death snatches them away, it rends thy heart, and tears out thy very bowels.

Nay, should it happen, (which is impossible to imagine), that nothing afflicts thee either in thine own person, or in thy dearer part, thy relations and friends, and that all such as share thy affections, enjoy a perfect and flourishing prosperity, like those countries of the new world, which are always covered with flowers and fruits; yet cast thine eyes upon the face of the earth.

and thou shalt there behold so many evils and calamities, that if thou hast any sense of humanity, thou must dissolve into tears.

God commanded the prophet Jeremiah to take the cup of his fury to several nations, one after another, Jer. xxv. But now it should seem that he gives this cup to them all at once; for where is that people or nation that can boast of never having drank of it, or of not being in danger to drink? Some have drank it up to the very dregs, others have taken large draughts, and some have its bitterness still upon their lips.

Our Saviour caused his beloved disciple to see two angels, who had each of them in his hand a sharp sickle, to reap the harvest, and to gather the grapes, Rev. xiv. afterwards he showed to him seven more, who had in their hands golden vials full of the wrath of God, which they poured upon the earth to plague and punish the inhabitants thereof, Rev. xv. But at present, the holy angels seem to appear in legions to reap and gather mankind, and to transport them to the threshing-floor. and wine-press of God's awakened vengeance. The wrath of God seems no longer to be measured out by vials or cups, but it overflows as a great river, as an unfathomable sea. In short, the deluge of evils that covers the face of the earth, is so universal, that the doves, I mean the innocent and neek, that love peace, can find no rest for the soles of their feet.

If thou hast any sense of humanity, the least spark of Christian zeal and charity, thou canst not behold, without a very great sorrow, the deplorable state of Christ's church upon earth; for it is like Noah's ark in the midst of the waters, like the bush on Mount Horeb surrounded with flames; like the prophet Daniel in the lion's den,

and like his companions in the fiery furnace; so that it may justly cry out with the ancient Jerusalem, It is nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger! Lam. i. 12. O blessed church of God, thou hast been persecuted from thine infancy until now! Prepare, therefore, thyself to suffer much more in this old age of the world. The devil persecutes thee with so much the more wrath and fury, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time, Rev. xii. 12; and that he must soon be shut up in the bottomless pit.

In this case to mourn is not only lawful, but commanded; for God calls to girding with sackcloth, Isa. xxii. 12. He would have us grieve for the affliction of Joseph, Amos vi. 6; to weep with them that weep, Rom. xii. 15; and to remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being ourselves also in the body, Heb. xiii. 3.

We have too much reason to apply to the world, and to the worldlings, David's exclamation, Wo is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace, Psal. cxx. 5, 6. The prophet Jeremiah had never so much cause to lament, and to wish that his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night, Jer. ix. 1; and the prophet Isaiah had never so much reason to cry out, in the agony of his soul, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly, la-, bour not to comfort me; because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people, chap. xxii. 4.

It is not therefore, without cause, that the preacher tells us, That the day of death is better than the day of

one's birth, Eccl. vii. 1: for our birth causes us to weep, and death dries all our tears; our birth discovers to us a large theatre, upon which all kinds of tragedies are acted, death draws the curtain, and puts an end to all such bloody spectacles; our birth casts us into the fire and bitter waters of divers afflictions, and death pulls us out of that fire and bitterness. Finally, since our life is but a chain of misery, and that death breaks in pieces the last link; since life is a continual warfare, and death the victory; it is inost certain, that death is not to be feared as an evil or misfortune, but rather to be desired as a blessing and advantage.

It is recorded of the Thracians, that they buried their dead with expressions of joy; and the inhabitants of the Fortunate Island sang and danced at the funerals of their dearest friends I shall not make any observations on the extravagant customs of these barbarous people, who were without hope and without God in the world. Such cannot fear death too much; for if it frees them from a few temporary evils, it casts them headlong into an abyss of endless torment. Death is an happiness, and brings with it a solid joy and comfort; but it is when we die in God's favour, and in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God hath borne ample testimony to the happiness of his children's death, that it is to be desired; for he oftentimes shortens the days of those whom he favours and esteems the most. Thus, because he found some good thing in the person Abijah, the eldest son of Jeroboam king of Israel, he took him away in the flower of his age, 1 Kings xiv. 13. He granted the same favour to Josiah, king of Judah, one of the most religious and zealous princes in the world, as he had declared to

him by Huldah the prophetess, Behold I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place, 2 Kings xxii. 20.Without doubt they are at all times blessed, which die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours, Rev. xiv. 13; but I esteem them doubly happy which die, or rather which cease to die, in these miserable times, so full of disorder and confusion.

Would you not laugh at a workman that should grieve at his task being finished, and the painful labour of the day over? Or at a traveller that should lament to see the end of his journey, after having travelled all day through briers and brambles, scorched by the burning heat of the sun, or pinched by the cold of a severe winter? Or at one that, having been tossed by the waves of a tempestuous sea, should weep at coming into the port, to see himself safe from the danger of shipwreck? Wretched man! Who art afflicted and terrified at the approach of death, thou art far more foolish and extravagant than those of whom we speak; for the most painful labours of the workman, the grievous fatigues of the most wearisome journey, and the swelling waves of the most troubled sea, are nothing in comparison of the labours, misery, and troubles, of this languishing life.

You would not only think it folly and extravagance, but the very height of madness, in a prisoner that should sorrow for being delivered out of his noisome dungeon; or in a galley-slave that should be angry at being freed from his chains; or in an offender that should mourn when he is taken down from the rack. What think ye? Is there less madness and extravagance in yourselves, when ye sorrow to see death de