Believer is, I fee that gloomy Cell where this Body muft lie a prey to Worms be turn'd to Rottennefs and Duft ; but I believe the very Death of the Saints is precious in the fight of God; and I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter Day upon the Earth. And tho' after my Skin, Worms deftroy this Body, yet in my Flefh fhall I fee God: Whom I fball fee for my felf, and my Eyes fhall behold, and not another. This very Body fhall be reftored to me, not another bestow'd on me. The Apoftle raises the true Chriftian even to Joys and Triumphs at the approach of Death. O Death where is thy Sting? O Grave where is thy Victory? ||

WELL then, if in Comfortable Reviews of what is paft; Hopeful Prospects of what is to come; inward Calmness and Composedness of Spirit, as to what is prefent; willing and hearty Refignation of all External Enjoyments; and a Reconciliation to the Grave itself, and to a state of Corruption; if in all these things, I

*Pfal. cxvi. 15. † Job xix. 25, 26, 27. 11. 1 Corinth. xv. 55.

fay

say we have had a true account how it is with the Perfect and Upright Man on a Death-Bed, we may weli fay his End is

Peace.

I have enlarged on these particulars, by comparing the Death of the Righteous and Wicked together; because this is what the Context more directly leads our Thoughts to. And if in fome few Instances our Observations fhould be excepted againft, either on the one fide, or the other, yet that does not invalidate any thing that has been faid: However, left any should lay too much stress on such Exceptions, I fhall further add, That if an Upright Man fhould Die difconfolate, and in the Dark; or if an Impious Wretch fhould Die quietly, and at Eafe; yet as to the final determination of their State hereafter, the End of the former is undoubtedly, and without any exception Peace; when that of the latter is as certainly, and univerfally Ruin and DestruЄtion.

IF a Pious Soul fet in a Cloud in this World, 'tis fure to rife without any in the next: Whereas the Wicked that fink aways

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away filently and quietly out of this Life, plunges into a Sea of Wrath in the other World. Death does not make an utter End of us, and therefore our Thoughts fhould not be confin'd to this when we speak of the End of a Man ; but that is our End which fixes us in an unalterable State; and which for ever concludes us Happy or Miferable. To proceed then,

2. THE Eternity, and State after Death, which a Good Man enters into is Peace: When that of the Sinner is to be cut off. The Wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God *. But he will Redeem the Righteous Soul from the power of the Grave; for he shall receive it t.

PERHAPS fome are ready to stop me here with this Objection, That the Words we are upon do not speak of the Eternal Condition of the Soul, nor were defign'd to reprefent its Immortality; which the Jews were generally Ignorant

Plaim ix. 17. Pfal. xlix. 15.

of,

of, and we find their Law mentioning only Temporal Bleffings and Curfes.

TO this I Reply, that it were easy to prove from many places in the Old Testament, that a Life after this was firmly believ'd, and hop'd for by the more ferious and fenfible part of the Jewish Nation, from the Times of the Patriarchs, to the End of the Prophets; and that David efpecially had a clear Senfe of this. But it hall fuffice for the Present to observe, That,

AS to meer Death, and the Conclufion of our present Being, we read elfewhere in the Book of Pfalms, that sometimes the Wicked have no Bands in their Death, i. e. they die as quietly, and undisturbedly as the Godly may feemto do; fo that the Pfalmift's Thoughts and Intent could not be determined by their Death meerly, when he would diftinguish betwixt the End of the Good and Bad.

* Pfalm lxxiii. 4.

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NAY,

NAY fuppofe the Upright Man fhould always have a more peaceful Exit than the Prophane; yet only to die comfortably could never in any fair way of arguing fatisfy for a whole Life of Sorrow and Troubles; which this Text fuppofes, and is brought to account for. It must mean fomething that's better than all the Wealth, and Joys of the Wicked; and that is preferrable to an Age of uninterrupted Earthly Profperity: Which a few days eatiness on a Death-bed, will hardly be granted by any Man to be.

IF it fhould further be urged, that this is fpoken of the Bleffings and Happinefs that fhall defcend to the Righteous Man's Family, and Pofterity at his Deceafe yet, that does not ferve to state the final Difference betwixt the Juft, and the Unjuft because the Seed of the former are often unhappy as well as the lat

ter;

and the Pofterity of the latter we many times fee profperous as well as the former. So that upon thefe Confiderations we may very fafely conclude, that the state after Death, which the Holy, and Upright Perfon enters into, was what

the