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

1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life, and look ⟨p. 32⟩upon Death at a great distance. Tho there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons, though we live in a World of Casualties, and Death lie in ambush to surprise us every day, yet we are secure: because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness. A petty Constable that is troublesome and vexatious, is more feared by his Neighbours, than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners. As remote Objects, though of vast bigness, are lessened to our sight; so through the supposed interval of many years, Death is looked on with a diminution of its Terror. But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them, how formidable is its appearance! Saul though renowned for his Valour, yet when he understood by Revelation, that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the Dead,¹ there was no strength in him; but he fell straightway all along on the Earth; struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistines. Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jollity, attended with a thousand Lords, ²and his Herd of Concubines, inflamed with Wine, and therefore less ⟨p. 33⟩capable of fear, yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters, which his guilty Conscience (before the Prophet Daniel came) interpreted to be the Sentence of present Death, how fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass? How suddenly did his Blood congeal, and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart? His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling, that his Joints were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance; but when the fatal Hour is come, and they hear the Sentence decreed against them, God has numbered thy days, and finished them: thou art weighed in the balance, (all thy Words and Actions, thy Thoughts and Affections) and art found wanting: and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body, the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience, the other to the Grave, to be a Prey to the Worms of Corruption; how are they overcome with horror!