A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Secondly,¹ Men put off the thoughts of Death and their preparations for it, because they generally look upon it as a far off. This is the greatest sottishness in the World, and yet most men are too guilty of it. Those that are young and in the prime of their Days; if it be asked them what they think of Death, they will readily Answer, that they think they ought of right and course to live till they are aged: And they that are aged will tell you their weaknesses and decays are not so many or so great, but they may well weather away a few more years. Those that are healthful and strong think surely they need not prepare for dying till God by some sickness sends them a summons, ⟨p. 14⟩and those whom God is pleased to vouchsafe a summons by Sickness and Distempers, alas they think that it is yet possible for them to escape from them again. And thus all are ready to thrust Death from them, and to put the Evil Day a far off: And though God hath told out to them but a few days or hours, yet they liberally and bountifully reckon upon Years and Ages, as if their time were not in God's hands but their own. It is a true saying, that usually the hopes of a long Life, is the Cause of an Evil Life. Suppose now that every one of us knew for a certainty that our lives must run out with the Glass that is before us, that at the end of the hour God would strike us all dead upon the place, should we not all of us have more lively apprehensions of Death and Eternity than ever yet we have had; should we not pour out our Souls before God requires them from us in holy Affections and fervent Prayers; should we give scope to the gaddings of our Thoughts, and the vanity of our Hearts; should we think of such a vain Pleasure, or such a worldly Employment, if God now from Heaven should speak audibly to us and bid us ⟨p. 15⟩give an account of our Stewardship, for we must be no longer Stewards, no certainly it is impossible that men should thus behave themselves: And why, Sirs, is it not so with you always, for ought you know that Film and Bubble that holds your Lives, may be now a breaking, your Graves may be ready to be digging, and the last Sand in your Glass may be now a running; however certain it is, it cannot be long before it will be so with all of us:

Secondly,