Finding the wretched All he here can have,
But prefent Food, and but a future Grave;
Each, great as Philip's Victor Son, shall view
This abject World, and weeping ask a New.

Decrepit Age fhall read thee, and confefs
Thy Labours can affwage where Med'cines ceafe:
Shall blefs thy Words, their wounded Souls Relief;
The Drops that sweeten their laft Dregs of Life;.
Shall look to Heav'n, and laugh at all beneath;
Own Riches gather'd, Trouble; Fame, a Breath;
And Life, an Ill, whose only Cure is Death.

Thy even Thoughts with so much Plainness flow,
Their Senfe untutor'd Infancy may know;
"Yet to fuch Height is all that Plainness wrought,
Wit may admire, and letter'd Pride be taught.
Eafy in Words thy Style, in Sense sublime;

On its bleft Steps each Age and Sex may rife:
'Tis like the Ladder in the Patriarch's Dream,
Its Foot on Earth, its Height beyond the Skies.
Diffus'd its Virtue, boundlefs is its Pow'r;
'Tis publick Health, and universal Cure.
Of heavenly Manna 'tis a fecond Feaft,
A Nation's Food, and all to ev'ry Tafte.

To its laft Height mad Britain's Guilt was rear'd:
And various Deaths for various Crimes fhe fear'd;
With your kind Work her drooping Hopes revive,
You bid her read, repent, adore, and live.
You wreft the Bolt from Heaven's avenging Hand;
Stop ready Death, and fave a finking Land.

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O! fave us ftill, still bless us with thy Stay;
O! want thy Heav'n, 'till we have learnt the Way;
Refuse to leave thy deftin'd Charge too foon;
And for the Church's Good, defer thy own:
O! live, and let thy Works urge our Belief;
Live to explain thy Doctrine by thy Life;
'Till future Infancy, baptiz'd by thee,
Grow ripe in Years, and old in Piety;
'Till Christians yet unborn be taught to die.

Then in full Age, and hoary Holiness, Retire, great Teacher, to thy promis'd Bliss : Untouch'd thy Tomb, uninjur'd be thy Duft, As thy own Fame among the future Juft; 'Till in laft Sounds the dreaded Trumpet speaks; 'Till Judgment calls, and quicken'd Nature wakes; 'Till through the utmost Earth and deepest Sea, Our scatter'd Atoms find their deftin'd Way; In hafte to cloath their Kindred Souls again, Perfect our State, and build immortal Man : Then fearless, Thou, who well sustain❜d the Fight, To Paths of Joy, and Tracks of endless Light, Lead up all those, that heard thee, and believ❜d: 'Midft thy own Flock, great Shepherd, be receiv'd; And glad all Heav'n with Millions thou haft fav'd.

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A

A

Practical Difcourfe

CONCERNING

DEAT H.

HEB. IX. 27. It is appointed unto all men once to die.

The INTRODUCTION.

WHERE is not a more effectual Way to revive the true Spirit of Chriftianity in the World, than seriously to meditate on what we commonly call the Four laft THINGS, Death,

Judgment, Heaven, and Hell; for it is morally impoffible Men should live fuch careless Lives, fhould fo wholly devote themfelves to this World, and the Service of their Lufts; fhould B

either

either caft off the Fear of God, and all Reyerence for his Laws, to fatisfy themselves with fome cold and formal Devotions, were they poffeffed with a warm and conftant Senfe of thefe Things. For what manner of Men ought we to be, who know that we must shortly die, and come to Judgment, and receive according to what we have done in this World, whether it be Good or Evil, either eternal Rewards in the Kingdom of Heaven, or eternal Punishments with the Devil and his Angels?

That which firft prefents itself to our Thoughts, and fhall be the Subject of this following Treatife, is DEATH; a very terrible Thing, the very naming of which is apt to chill our Blood and Spirits, and to draw a dark Veil over all the Glories of this Life. And yet this is the Condition of all Mankind, we must as furely die, as we are born: For it it is appointed unto men once to die. This is not the Original Law of our Nature; for though Man was made of the Duft of the Earth, and therefore was by Nature mortal; (for that which is made of Duft is by Nature corruptible, and may be refolved into Duft again) yet had he not finned, he fhould never have died; he should have been immortal by Grace, and therefore had the Sacrament of Immortality, the Tree of Life, planted in Paradife: But now by man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death passed upon all men, for that all have finned, Rom. v. 12. And thus it is decreed and appointed by God, by