Are your Souls in a Readiness for Death? Would you be willing to be fummoned to your laft Account this very Day? Have you already made a fufficient Preparation for it? Happy they, who can confidently fay they have. Happy they, who are fo beforehand with the great Work of Salvation, that their laft Hour, whenever it comes, may find it fully finifhed. + The Third ENTERTAINMENT. Of fudden Deaths. Be watchful; for ye know not the Day nor THO nothing be more certain than Death, nothing is more uncertain than the Time and Circumstances of it. So that no Man, tho' in the most perfect State of Health, can make any Guefs, whether Death will come early or late; whether it will be natural or violent: finally, whether it will be fudden or forefeen. And this of all the Circumstances hid from us is the poft frightful. For tho tho' the precife Time of its coming were kept from our Knowledge, yet if we were but fure it would not feize us on a fudden, this at least would be fome Comfort. But, alas, this Comfort is denied us; and the Reason why it is denied us is, because God will oblige us to be always watchful, and in a readiness for his Summons at what Time foever, and in what Manner foever he fhall please to call upon us. For this Reafon, I fay, God has concealed from us not only the Time of our Death, but every Circumftance relating to it. So that of all the Goods we poffefs in this World, Life itfelf is the most uncertain, nor have we the leaft Encouragement to build any Security upon it. It may be taken from us when we think leaft of it, and in fo fudden a Manner as to leave us no Interval of Time between perfect Health and the Stroke of Death. 'Tis upon thefe Terms we firft entered into the World, and we continue in it upon the fame uncertain Footing. The Subject then of this Entertainment fhall be the Uncertainty of human Life, and the many Dangers to which it is expofed of being taken from us by a fudden Death. Death being the Punishment of Sin, and all Men fince the Fall of Adam being conceived and born in Sin, it follows that Life is no fooner communicated to us, but we come, within the general Sentence of Death, and are doom'd to die even before we are born. Hence many pafs immediately from the Womb to the Grave, and are never allowed to fee the Sun fhine upon them. Others step no fooner into the World, but go off again immediately, as if they came upon no other Bufiness than to die. Others again, after having with much care and nurfing gone through the moft dangerous Part of Life, difappoint in a Moment the flattering Hopes of their render Parents, and become a Prey to Death, when they are juft of Age to begin to tafte the Pleasures of Life. 'Tis true, great Numbers furvive this Age, and have a longer Leafe of Life allowed them: And most of us here present are bound to acknowledge the Divine Bounty, in having favoured us with this Bleffing. However, fince Sentence of Death is already paffed upon us, we are but in the Condition of condemned Criminals, reprieved untill fuch Time as it fhall please the Sovereign Arbiter of Life and Death to give his Orders for our Execution. In the mean time, every Step we make during the fhort Course of this mortal Life, brings us ftill nearer to the Grave and it often happens, that whilft Men Men are pleafing themselves with the Thoughts of a long and merry Life, they find themselves all of a fudden in the Hands of Death, and hurried to the other World at a Time as unwelcome perhaps as unexpected. This was the unhappy Fate of the Rich Man mentioned in the Gofpel, who whilft he was projecting how to indulge himself with the Treatures he had laid up, was fummoned to render his Soul the very Night he was amusing himself with thefe vain Thoughts. This was alfo the unfortunate End of Baltazar, that proud King of Babylon; who amidst his drunken Cups, and profane Night-revels, but too often practifed by our modern Chriftians, faw a Hand upon the Wall before him writing the Sentence of his Condemnation, which was accordingly executed upon him that very Night. How many have been ftruck dead in the very Moment they were gratifying fome criminal Paffion! How many have been called to the Tribunal of God with the Cup in their Hands, or Blafphemy or Perjury in their Mouths! In a Word, how many have laid themfelves down to Sleep in as perfect Health as any of us all, and never more faw the rifing Sun! or risen in the Morning as found in Body, as fick C5 fick perhaps in Soul, and have not been allowed to outlive that Day! Now the natural Reafon of this great Uncertainty of human Life is first and chiefly the very Structure of Man's Body, in regard of the incredible Number and Variety of Parts, whereof it is compofed: and amongst which many, particularly those that lodge, and convey the Blood and vital Spirits from Part to Part, are so slender and weak, that it feems next to a Miracle, that fome of them are not broken with every fudden or violent Motion of the Body, and yet fo neceffary to the Prefervation of Life, that the Breaking of any may prove fatal to it. So that Man's Body may be fitly compared to an artificial Machine, compofed of innumerable little Springs and Wheels, the Stopping or Breaking of any of which either ftops all the reft, or at least causes an Irregularity in their Motion, and puts the whole Machine out of order. For juft fo it happens in Man's Body, which confifting of innumerable little Parts of ditferent Sorts, and all depending upon each other, and contributing to the Harmony of the whole; if but any of them receives a Hurt, or happens to be difcompofed, the whole Machine of the Body is affected with it, and in danger of being deftroyed. Thus |