The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at…

Whether we are to die by the decay of nature, or by the storm of any violent disease, or by the hand of persecutors or any other instruments of Satan, the difference is small: They are but several ways of landing at the shore of happiness, which we were making towards, through all the duties and difficulties of our lives. May we by any Death be sent to Christ, let them domineer a while that stay behind, and are conquerors and happy in their dream: we shall neither miss nor desire their felicity. May I die assured of the Love of God, how little regardable is it whether I be poor or rich till then? or in what manner Death shall do its execution? and how little cause have ⟨p. 398⟩blessed souls, to envy them that are left on earth, in a quiet and prosperous passage to damnation?

Whether we are to die by the decay of nature, or by the storm of any violent disease, or by the hand of persecutros or any other instruments of Satan, the difference is small: They are but several ways of landing at the shore of happiness, which we were making towards, through all the duties and difficulties of our lives. May we by any Death be sent to Christ, let them domine•r a while that stay behind, and are conquerors and happy in their dream: we shall neither miss nor desire their felicity. May I die assured of the Love of God, how little regardable is it whether I be poor or rich till then? or in what manner Death shall do its execution? and how little cause have ⟨p. 398⟩blessed souls, to envie them that are left on earth, in a quiet and prosperous passage to damnation?

And what an ease and pleasure is this to a mans mind through all his life, to be able with well-grounded comfort, to think of death? What cares can vex him that hath secured hi• everlasting state? What losses should afflict him that is sure he shall not lose his soul, and is sure to gain eternal life? What fears should disquiet him that is sure to escape the wrath of God? What wants should trouble him that knoweth he is an heir of Heaven? Why should the indignation or threatenings of man, be any temptation to turn him out of the way of duty, or dismay his mind, who knoweth that they can but kill the body, and dismiss the soul into his blessed presence, whom it loveth and laboureth and longs to see? what should inordinately grieve that man that is certain of eternal Joy? What else should he thirst for, that hath in him the well of living waters springing up to everlasting life?