Book I. of J B $ U S C H R 1 s T. 5:7

fore we can be fo perfed as we wilh and ought to be. Norfhould we difdain to do fo, if thofe Condefcen- tions can prove of ufe to us.
Chap. XXIIL
Meditations concerning Death,
Since Life is of (hort and uncertain Continuance^ ic highly concerns you to look about you. rjd take good heed how you employ it. To Day tht Man is vigorous^ and gay, and fiouriihingj and to Morrow he is cut down, withered and gone. A very little time carries him out of our Sight, and a very little more out of our Remembrance. O the hardnefs of Men's Hearts I O the wretched Stupidity ! that fixes their whole Thoughts and Care upon the prefent^ and will not be prevailed with to look before them, or bear any Regard to That which muft come hereafter. Where- as in truth, every Work, and Word, and Thought, ought to be fo ordered, as if it were to be our Laft ^ and we inftantly to Die, and render an Account of ir. Would we entertain our felves more with the Thoughts of Death , it would be lefs a Terror to us : For, in proportion as our Lives amend, our Fears will abate, and a clear Confcience will enable us to meet Death with undaunted Courage. However Flefli and Frailty may impofe upon us, yet, be alTured, 'tis greater Wifdom to be afraid of Sinning, than to be afraid of Dying j a greater Blefling to preferve our Innocence, than to prolong our Lives. And whence is all this Fear and Anxiety ^. Is it becaufe we are not fit to Die .? But, if you are not fit to Day, how do you propofe to be fo to m.orrow ^ Alas! to morrow is uncertain, neither You, nor I, nor any Man can depend
E I upon
58 €)f tl^e gimitatiou Book I
upon It. Or if we could^ yet what doe^ k avail to Live, though it were much longer,when we by longer Living grow fo little better ^ AlTure your felf^ long Life is far from being always a Bleffing. Too many (God knows) are fo far from growing holier^ as they grow older, that the Number of their Days only adds to the number of their Sins^and renders their Account more heavy hereafter.
Happy is that Man, who can comfort himfelf with having employed any one Day of his Life fo perfedly well^ as he might, and ought to have done. Many reckon up the Years of their Converfion with great f:uisfid:ion,andthinkita mighty matter, that they hav@ fo long abandoned the World and a vicious Courfe. And ytt, when the time they boaft of comes to be compared with the Improvements they have made,- how fliamefully little is the Good they have done ? If Dying now be terrible, yet remember that Living longer may be dangerous j and many, many a Man finds but too great occafion to wifti, that it had plea- fed God to take him awwy fooner. Happy therefore is He, who keeps the Hour of Death conftantly in View, and from this Profped of what muil come^ takes care to reconcile himfelf to it, and to put his Sou! into a proper Temper for it, when it does come.
If you attend at any time upon a Death-Bed , and fee another in his Parting Agonies; confider that this Friend is gone the fame way where you mufi: iliortly follow him. In the Morning, queftion whether you niay live till Night ; and when Night comes, do not too confidently promife your feif another Morning„ Thus fhall you be in a conftant Expectation, and in a good Difpofition to die. And be fure fo to live al- ways, that Death may never overtake you unprovi- ded, nor its fuddeneft Approach be fudden and fur- prizing, in refped: of You. Many are fnatched away in an inftant^ and die when they were not in the leali
aware