prise me; for I wait for thee at every moment with my wea pons ready in my hand. Thou shalt never drag me forcibly; for I will follow thee willingly and joyfully. Though thou art my enemy, yet will I speak to thee in the language of the spouse in the Canticles to her beloved, "Draw me, and I will run after thee." Nay, I will meet thee in the way, and

ve thee with hearty embraces; for instead of dreading by coming, I desire it passionately, and hope for it; for at thest arrival, as soon as I have seen thee, I shall overcome thee. O blessed and happy day, that promiseth me such a glorious victory, and such an eternal triumph..

A PRAYER and MEDITATION upon the continual Expectation of Death.

GRACIOUS God, in whose power alone, and at whose

pleasure, are the times and seasons; I know it is appointed for all men once to die, and that the grave is the dwelling which thou hast prepared to receive all mankind. We understand sufficiently by the experience of former ages, that none is able to say, "I shall live, and shall not see death." Thou, O Almighty God, our supreme judge, hast pronounced our irrevocable sentence in the earthly paradise, that we must die; so that I should be guilty of the greatest folly, if I did not firmly believe that I must die as others, and follow at my turn in the way of all flesh. But, Lord, thou hast been pleased to hide from us the issues of thy providence, and dost not suffer us to see the hand that marks out the last hours of our life. We can perceive no shadow to discover to us, with certainty, what shall be the going down of our sun: we know not at what hour of the day, or of the night, thou wilt call us to appear before thy great tribunal. Give me therefore grace, O most merciful God, to be always

ready

ready to answer to thy call, and to obey thy holy commands; that I may be as a ship at anchor, that stays only for a wind to set sail; or as a soldier, who waits only for a signal to march to the encounter. Give me grace, O good Lord, that I may be like the good and faithful servant, who expects his master's coming, and hears his voice as soon as he calls; or like the wise virgins, who are ready to meet the bridegroom, and to follow him to the marriage chamber. Since I am not to know either the time or the place when Death will come to me, O that I may expect and wait for it every moment, and at every place! O that I might live in such a manner, that I may be always ready to die! that my soul. were always upon my lips, prepared to fly away! that I were continually in readiness to commit it into thy hands, O my God, my faithful and merciful Creator! By this means I shall receive Death with joy, when it comes as thy servant and messenger; and I shall follow it willingly, being certainly persuaded that it will lead me into eternal life, and transport me into thy glorious and immortal palace. Amen.

CHAP. IX.

The third Remedy against the Fears of Death is, to consider that GOD hath appointed the time and manner of Death.

W

E are either hypocrites, who draw near unto God with our lips, and honour him with our tongues, whilst our heart is far from him, Matt. xiv. or we must desire the accomplishment of the will of God, and resign ourselves wholly to it; for every day we say to him in our prayers, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven;" therefore we cannot abhor nor fly from Death so cowardly, if we be rightly persuaded as we ought, that God hath limited the time, and appointed the manner of our death. That which

3.

M

causes

causes us to complain of this last enemy, is a continual eye that we have fixed upon the power of the flesh, and a too great confidence upon second causes. We are like the dog that bites at the stone that strikes him; for we commonly curse the means that God employs to call and withdraw us out of the world.

It will easily appear that God hath numbered our days, and that by his wonderful and eternal wisdom he hath decreed the hour and moment of every man's death; for besides what our Saviour Christ saith in general, that "God hath reserved the times and the seasons in his own power," Acts i. Job tells us expressly, "The days of man are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass," Job xiv. The royal prophet speaks to the same purpose in the xxxist psalm," I trust în thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my God, my times are in thy hand." He is of the same judgment in the xxxixth psalm, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth." And Psa. Ixviii. Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death." He also teacheth us the same lesson in his divine hymn, Psa. xc. for when he had represented how that it is God that reduceth man to ashes, and maketh him return to his first substance, he tells us, speaking unto God, "Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return again, ye children of men."

King Hezekiah's comparison is very notable: he compareth the life of man to a thread that God hath twisted, and that he cuts off at his pleasure, Isa. xxxviii. "Mine age is departed and removed from me as a shepherd's tent; I have cut off, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off with pining sickness; from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me." Hannah, Samuel's mother, removes all difficulty, and confirms this truth sufficiently, 1 Sam. ii. 2." It is God," said she, "who killeth and maketh alive'; he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." There is nothing more sig

nificant

aificant to the same purpose, than our Lord and Saviour's words, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and death,” Rev. i. This great God and Saviour closeth the gates of the grave when he pleaseth, and it is not possible to open them against his will. In short, "Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord; whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's," Rom. xiv.

And our reason being enlightened with divine revelation, teacheth us this good and profitable lesson; for if God hath a hand in our conception and birth, and if he appoints the time of our entrance into the world, wherefore should not he also have a hand in our death, and mark out the time of our departure? David speaks thus to God in Psa. cxxxix. "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the earth: thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect, and in thy book all my members are written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them." We may therefore speak unto God in the same language: My substance shall not be hid from thee, when this miserable body shall fall to pieces, as rotten wood, and as a moth-eaten garment; thine eyes shall see me, when Death shall cut off the thread of my life, and separate what thou hast joined together so wonderfully by thy power and wisdom; thy providence shall dispose of me at my departure, and nothing shall happen to me but that which thou hast fore-ordained in thine unsearchable decrees.

If God appoints the time of our resurrection, and if it be certain, that without his express commission the Holy Spirit will not breathe upon our dry bones to cause them to revive; it is not probable that our bodies shall fall into the bed of corruption, without the orders of the great and living God,

Ezek,

Ezek. xxxvii. He hath appointed the sun in its course, and to the stars that shine in the heavens, their several motions and stations, Isa. xl. And should he not also appoint to his children their motions, since they are to shine for ever in the heaven of heavens, where righteousness dwells, as so many immortal stars? He hath measured the water in his hand; he hath compassed the heavens with his span; he hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills with a balance; he hath fashioned the earth with his hands, and given bounds to the roaring sea; and is it possible that he hath not measured the time of our life, and that he hath not marked out with his finger the last moment? He who hath numbered the kingdoms of the heathen princes, hath he not also numbered the days in which he intends to reign in our hearts by his holy Spirit? Hath he not appointed the time for us to ascend up into the highest heavens, where we are to reign with him in the kingdom of his glory?

If it be certain that God hath numbered the hairs of our head, Matt. x. it is not to be doubted but that he hath also numbered the days of our life. And if a sparrow fall not to the ground without his order, how can it be that a man can take his flight up to heaven without his express condition? He bottles up our tears, he keeps a record of all our afflictions, and takes an account of our sorrows, Psa. 1. and can we imagine that he doth not keep an account of the life and death of men, and that he minds not the time that we are to spend in the valley of tears? He takes notice of our rising and of our down-sitting; he compasseth thee round about, whether thou dost stop or go, Psa. lix. And can it be conceived but that he observes thy rising at thy birth, the several passages of thy life, and thy going down at thy death?

In short, if God hath appointed, in his eternal counsel, the continuance of the great world; he hath also, without

doubt,