than the Blood let out of our Veins, or what Age has already confumed of our Bodies, can be called a Part of our present Being.

Since therefore all muft die; fince Death is an irresistable Debt, which all must pay to Nature; fince we are already dying, and in the Hands of Death, we ought in Time to contract a Familiarity with it, that we may not be furprifed, when it comes to feize us once for all.

St. Austin upon thefe Words of the Pfalmift, Let them defcend alive into Hell, gives this moft excellent Advice; Let us defcend alive, that we may not defcend into Hell when we are dead. Now it will be no lefs profitable to go down fometimes by Thought and Meditation into the Grave of fome deceased Friend; where if our Curiofity invites us to inquire what State his Soul is now in, let us reflect upon his Life paft; and we may in fome Degree, though not with an infallible Certainty, inform ourfelves. Because a good Life is generally rewarded with a happy Death, and a good Death feldom follows a bad Life.

If he lived (as St. Paul exhorts us) temperately, justly, and godly, looking for the blessed Hope, and the glorious Appearing

of

of the great God, and our Saviour Fefus Chrift, we may confidently pronounce the Soul of that Man happy. But if, on the contrary, he followed Ungodliness and worldly Lufts, if he lived in the Practice of wilful Sin, and continued in it to his daft Sickness; 'tis true indeed, we cannot pass a peremptory Sentence upon him, becaufe the Depth of God's Mercies is as unfearchable as his Judgments; yet we may without any Danger of rafh Judgment pronounce his Salvation to be very doubtful, and even queftionable, beyond the ordinary Degree of Uncertainty which attends the Generality of Men, whatever Appearances there may be for or against him.

Let us confider next, that as he was once what we are now, ftrong and healthful, big with Projects for the Time to come, and as little fufpecting the Stroke of Death as the reft of his furviving Friends, so muft we once be what he now is (and God Almighty knows how foon) wrapt up in a Shroud, fhut up within a narrow Coffin, laid under Ground, trampled upon by future Generations, and in a Word, as little either thought or spoken of as he now is. Our dearest Friends will then pass by us, or walk over us with the fame Indifference and Unconcern, as if

we

we were a Thing of paft Ages, and had never had the leaft Share in their Thoughts. And here is an End of all that Efteem and Love we often court with fo much Paffion, and purchase. perhaps by pawning Soul and Confcience for it. This is the Reward we must expect from this so much adored and courted World. Oh! how truly happy are they, whofe Hearts are fixed on God alone; who are enamour'd of no Beauty, and feek no Love, but his. For this is a folid and lafting Good, which alone can comfort us at the Hour of Death, accompany us even beyond the Grave, where all Things elfe forfake us, and when these Bodies are turned into Duft, render our Souls eternally happy.

But let us still pafs on to a third Confideration, and imagining ourselves to be in the Grave with fome deceased Friend, let us entertain ourselves with him for fome few Moments, and afk him fome Account of the other World. Let us inquire what his Thoughts now are of his Life past. Oh! let his Condition be what it will, we may be fure, that if he were allow'd to fpeak, his Anfwer would be, that were he to live his paft Years over again, he would employ them otherwise than he did formerly, or we now do. All worldly Pleafures, finful Exceffes, unprofitable A

mufe

musements to trifle away Time, Pursuit of Honours, Heaping up Riches, Studying Revenge, and the like, would be the fartheft from his Thoughts.

For, if his Soul be happily united to God, the bleffed Sight of that incomprehenfible Majefty, that infinite Goodness, and infinitely charming Beauty, has now given him a quite different Idea from what he formerly had, or Men can have in this Life of the monftrous Blackness and Deformity of Sin. He would tell us, that were his Soul to return again to his Body, it were impoffible he should ever have the Heart to offend God with deliberate Reflection.

But if his Soul, unworthy yet to be admitted to the bleffed Fruition, be for fome time condemned to purging Flames, till fhe be purified from all Drofs and Allay of earthly Defilements, and has paid the laft Farthing of the Debt contracted by his paft Follies; Oh! could he utter his Thoughts, he would give you a most lamentable Account of his Sufferings. He would tell you his Soul is tortured with unfpeakable Anguish for his past Sins; that his Grief for being kept back from the Enjoyment of Almighty God is beyond Expreffion or Imagination; finally, that all the Torments of this World are

not

not to be compared with the leaft of thofe his Soul endures.

But what a frightful Account would he give of his Condition, if his unhappy Soul be doom'd to everlafting Flames! With what piercing tho' fruitless Sorrow would he bewail his paft Pleasures! How many heavy Curfes would he heap upon this treacherous World, or rather his own treacherous Paffions, which to gratify themselves have betrayed him to eternal Mifery and Torments! He would doubtlefs tell us with the deepest Anguish of a despairing Soul, that were he Mafter of ten thousand Worlds, he would joyfully facrifice them all for one Hour of that Time, of which we are as lavifh as if it were of no Value: He would embrace with Joy, though it were for Millions of Years, the moft rigid Penance that ever was undergone, fo he were but once more under a Poffibility of faving his Soul.

This is undoubtedly the Account he would give us of the other World, if he were permitted to utter his Thoughts, and is without all Difpute a faithful Representation of the Ideas the Souls departed have of the eternal State, in which they are now fixed, and towards which we are haftening as faft as the Wings of Time, and the

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