Whilft we are encompaffed with the delights of this world, our minds are often not ferious enough to admit of the proper impreffions of religion. And if at any time any good thoughts come into our minds, we are willing and defirous to get rid of them again, by company, or diverfion, or vain ideas of our own excellencies and perfections. And thus we shall be apt to fool away our lives, in perpetual vanity and impertinence; in rolling about from one vanity to another, and shall never humble ourselves as we ought to do, till we are forced to it by fome woeful experience.

But now, to bring down fuch a spirit of vanity and pride, there is nothing more proper and conducive, than the frequent remembrance of the days of darkness.

If therefore, together with thofe gay ideas that poffefs our minds, we would every now and then mingle the confideration of our mortality; this would foon reduce our fquandered thoughts, and make us ferious and humble, and capable of good impreffions.

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As for inftance, When in his night thoughts a man is priding himself in the pomp and fplendor of his outward condition, let him think thus with himself: Alas, within a little while, this bed, which is now as gay and as foft, as the fleep and the fins it entertains, must be my deathbed; here I muft lie a languishing fad corps, which nothing in all this world can help or eafe. And when at length I have groaned away my fleeting breath, I must be removed from all my company and attendance, into a dark, lonely, and defolate hole of earth, where all my present pomp muft expire, and be overcaft with the fhadow of death.

Again; When he is entertaining his vanity, with his beauty, his wit, or his rich attire, let him give way to fuch reflections as thefe: Alas, fond foul, all these gay objects of thy pride muft ere long convert to rottenness and corruption; that forehead must be bedewed with clammy fweats; thofe fprightly eyes must wax as dim as a fullied mirror; that charming voice muft grow as weak as the faint echoes

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echoes of a diftant valley; and all those lilies and roses on thy cheeks must wither into the palenefs of death, and throwd themselves in the horrors of the grave.

Again; When he hath been entertaining himself, with mirth, or fport, or luxury; let him go down into the charnel house, and there furvey a while the numerous trophies of victorious death: In these ghaftly mirrors, thou beholdeft the true refemblance of thy future condition: Forty years ago, that fkull was covered like thine with comely locks; thofe empty holes were filled with eyes, that looked as charmingly as thine; thofe hollow pits were blanched with cheeks, that were as smooth and amiable as thine; that grinning mouth did finile as gracefully, and fpeak as fluently as thine; and a few days hence, thou must be rotting into juft fuch another fpectacle: And forty years hence perhaps here may thy naked ribs be found mingled with thefe fcattered bones; and then fhould another take up thy bald fkull, as thou doft this, he will find it dreft in all the felf-fame horrors of this death's head;

with its nofe funk, its jaws gaping, its mouth grinning, and worms crawling in thofe empty holes wherein now thy eyes roll to and fro in amorous glances; and a toad perhaps engendering in that brain, that is now fo full of fprightly thoughts and gay ideas.

If with thefe, or fuch like confiderations of our mortality, we would now and then entertain ourselves; they would by degrees wear off the levity and vanity of our minds, and compofe us into fuch a degree of feriousness, as is neceffary to qualify us for thote divine and religious confiderations, without which we can never expect either to be made good men here, or happy men hereafter. A

III. MOTIVE to induce us to the remembrance of our mortality is, that it is highly neceffary in order to forewarn our minds against the terrors of death.

Whilft we abound with the enjoyments of this life, we are apt to put far from us the evil day, and to promise ourselves many years of ease and fatisfaction in this

world.

world. So that death generally steals upon us before we are aware, and furprizeth us in the midst of a deep fecurity; and after we have struggled with him a few mo ments to no purpose, he robs us of our lives and our happinefs together.

And how terrible must death be, when it approaches a man under fuch circumftances! When the deluded wretch hath been just speaking peace to himself, and faying with the rich fool in the gospel, Soul, take thy reft and eafe, thou haft goods laid up for many years, and many years to poffefs and enjoy them;-for death now to pronounce that fatal fentence, Thou fool, this night shall thy foul be taken from thee s now, when he thought all was fafe, and concluded himself secure of a long life and happiness; now, before he hath given himself the leisure to think of his dying hour, or to fortify his heart with any wife. or good thoughts, against the terrors of this terrible one, that is now just brandishing his dart at his breaft,-how must it needs blank, and amaze, and confound him? And what a trembling horror must VOL. IV. · D d

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