At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity, Men are stripped of all their Honours and Treasures, and as naked as they come into the World, go out of it. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, 1when the Glory of his House is increased. ⟨p. 22⟩For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his Glory shall not descend after him. Death equally vilifies, makes loathsome and ghastly the Bodies of Men, and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the *Dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another. Civil Distinctions are limited to the present time. The prodigious Statue in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision, Dan. 2.32, 33, 34, 35. while it was upright, the Parts were really and visibly distinct: The Head was of fine Gold, the Breast and Arms of Silver, the Belly and Thighs of Brass, the Legs of Iron, the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay: but when the Stone cut out without hands, smote the Image upon the Feet, then was the Iron, the Clay, the Brass, the Silver, and the Gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the Chaff the Wind carries away. Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs, and Plebeian Dust from common Graves? Who can know who were rich, and who were poor; who had Power and Command, who were Vassals, who were remarkable by Fame, who by Infamy? ⟨p. 23⟩They shall not say this is Jezebel: 3not know this was the Daughter and Wife of a King. The King of Babylon, styled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning, that possessed the first Empire in the World, was degraded by Death, humbled to the Grave, and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction.4 The Worm is spread under thee, and the Worms cover thee. In short, Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities. Now considering Man merely in the Order of Nature, what Reflection is more fearful and tormenting, than the necessity, that cannot be over-ruled, of parting for ever with all the Delights of Life? Those who have ascended to the Throne, that are arrived at the height of Temporal Happiness, what a melancholy Prospect is before them of Death and the dark Grave? When all things conspire to make Men happy here, the sensitive Faculties and their Fruitions are ebbing and declining, till then sink into Death, the Whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up for ever.
At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity, Men are stripp'd of all their Honours and Treasures, and as naked as they come into the World, go out of it. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, 1when the Glory of his House is increased. ⟨p. 22⟩For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his Glory shall not descend after him. Death equally vilifies, makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men, and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the *Dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another. Civil Distinctions are limited to the present time. The prodigious Statue in Nebuhadnezzar's Vision, Dan. 2.32, 33, 34, 35. while it was upright, the Parts were really and visibly distinct: The Head was of fine Gold, the Breast and Arms of Silver, the Belly and Thighs of Brass, the Legs of Iron, the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay: but when the Stone cut out without hands, smote the Image upon the Feet, then was the Iron, the Clay, the Brass, the Silver, and the Gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the Chaff the Wind carries away. Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs, and Plebean Dust from common Graves? Who can know who were rich, and who were poor; who had Power and Command, who were Vassals, who were remarkable by Fame, who by Infamy? ⟨p. 23⟩They shall not say this is Jezebel: 3not know this was the Daughter and Wife of a King. The King of Babylon, stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning, that possess'd the first Empire in the World, was degraded by Death, humbled to the Grave, and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction.4 The Worm is spread under thee, and the Worms cover thee. In short, Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities. Now considering Man merely in the Order of Nature, what Reflection is more fearful and tormenting, than the necessity, that cannot be over-ruled, of parting for ever with all the Delights of Life? Those who have ascended to the Throne, that are arrived at the height of Temporal Happiness, what a melancholy Prospect is before them of Death and the dark Grave? When all things conspire to make Men happy here, the sensitive Faculties and their Fruitions are ebbing and declining, till then sink into Death, the Whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up for ever.
- 1Psal. 49.16, 17.
- *As our Divine Poet expresses it. The brags of Life are but a nine days wonder; And after Death the Fumes that spring, From private Bodies make as big a Thunder, As those that rise from a huge King. Herbert.
- 32 Kings 9.37.
- 4Isa. 14.11.
