The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin. This is discovered by Revelation in the Word of God, and by the real execution of it. It is appointed to Men once to die. ¹This Decree is universal and unrepealable. One Generation passeth away, ²and another Generation cometh: like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods. Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this Appointment. There are divers Conditions of Men, and various ways of living in the World; some are high in Dignity, others are level with the ⟨p. 12⟩Earth: some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy, others in a thorny and troublesome: some walk on the golden Sands, others on the Mire: but the same uncontrollable necessity of dying involves all. And whatever the way be, whether pleasant or doleful, yet every one passes in it with equal Steps, measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days, and arrive at the same common End of Life. Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men, that can by their Breath raise the Low, and depress the Lofty, that have the Lives of Millions in their Power; yet when the ordained Time is come, as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minute's Silence, so neither delay Death. I have said ye are Gods, but ye shall die like Men.

2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin. This is discovered by Revelation in the Word of God, and by the real execution of it. It is appointed to Men once to die. ¹This Decree is universal and unrepealable. One Generation passeth away, ²and another Generation cometh: like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods. Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this Appointment. There are divers Conditions of Men, and various ways of living in the World; some are high in Dignity, others are level with the ⟨p. 12⟩Earth: some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy, others in a thorny and troublesom: some walk on the golden Sands, others on the Mire: but the same uncontroulable necessity of dying involves all. And whatever the way be, whether pleasant or doleful, yet every one passes in it with equal Steps, measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days, and arrive at the same common End of Life. Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men, that can by their Breath raise the Low, and depress the Lofty, that have the Lives of Millions in their Power; yet when the ordained Time is come, as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minute's Silence, so neither delay Death. I have said ye are Gods, but ye shall die like Men.