The blessedness of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…The blessednesse of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…

and indeed, more frequent and habitual exercise and practise of it, would, through Gods blessing, make it more easy.

and indeed, more frequent and habitual exercise and practise of it, would, thrugh Gods blessing, make it more easy.

For the 2d, Because there is difficulty in this duty as we have just now hinted, we shall therefore propose or point at a few things that may be helps to it; There is nothing we have moe motives to, nor moe memorandums of to say so) then of this, take then these helps. 1. Consider seriously the frequent deaths and burials among you every day, whereof ye are witnesses and at which ye are present, and possibly of several younger, healthier, and stronger then yourselves, and of whom it might have been thought not many days since, they would have outlived you: And then reflect upon yourselves and see if ye be prepared for death, when ye are in your houses, or going in the streets, and hear the bell giving notice of the death of such and such persons, or see the corpses carried forth to their burial place, think on these things, for they are helpful: Therefore Solomon says, Better is the day of death then of ones birth, and he gives the reason, for the living will lay it to heart, that is, the living should lay it to heart. 2ly, Look unto, and consider well, your own infirmities, sicknesses, and diseases of one kind or another: There are none but they have the seed of fewer or of moe diseases in them, besides fits of sickness that befall them now and then, and what is the language of all these but this? Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return: When folks have in their bodies the beginnings of rottenness or of a gangrene, they will spread; ye would hear all these infirmities, diseases, and distempers crying aloud upon you that ye will and must die, for these cry to you every day as that man was cried unto by one whom he appointed to cry at his door every morning, thou art mortal. 3ly, Consider the extraordinary events that befall many men and women, ⟨p. 107⟩some are suddenly stricken down with palsies, some fall down and never rise, some go abroad and never return, some are stricken with fury and madness; and are any of us exempted from these or any of them? 4ly, We commend to you frequent reading of, and meditating on, these Scriptures that speak of death, and of other books that treat of that subject, and set forth most lively the shortness of mans life; be often reading of the death of the Saints, many are rather taken up with reading vain Romances or Stories, that are unprofitable in comparison of this;