The works of George Swinnock, M.A

First, What a serious thing Death will be to every Man and Woman in the World. Its ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves, and undertake to mock God in their health and life; but its worst of all, and desperate, for any to do this on a sick and dying Bed. The Heathen hardened in sin, and wholly under the power of Satan, ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives, and of the sad consequence of a wicked end, made light of death. Flavius Vespasian, none of the worst of the Roman Emperors, died (as Sir Thomas Moor,) with a jest in his mouth. Ut puto Deus fio. ¹Methinks I am going and growing to be a God. Augustus Caesar esteemed ⟨p. 620⟩the best of them whose death the people so much lamented, that they said, Utinam aut non nasceretur, aut non moreretur; Would he had never been born, or never dyed, went off the Stage of the World with a Complement; Livia, Nostri Conjugii memor, Vive & Vale; Farewell and Live Wife, mindful of our Marriage. Galba dyed desperately, crying out, Feri si ex re sit Populi Romani; Strike if it be for the common good. Tiberius dyed dissemblingly, of whose death Tacitus wittily, Jam Tiberium vires & corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant; Now strength and life hath lest Tiberius, but not dissimulation. But Christians who understand the holiness and justice of God, the infinite demerit of sin, the certainty of an unchangeable condition in the other World, either in joy or torment, know that death is no jesting matter, that to dye is one of the most serious searching things, that they can possibly do.

First, What a serious thing Death will be to every Man and Woman in the World. Its ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves, and undertake to mock God in their health and life; but its worst of all, and desperate, for any to do this on a sick and dying Bed. The Heathen hardened in sin, and wholly under the power of Satan, ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives, and of the sad consequence of a wicked end, made light of death. Flavius Vespasian, none of the worst of the Roman Emperors, died (as Sir Thomas Moor,) with a jest in his mouth. Vt puto Deus fio. ¹Methinks I am going and growing to be a God. Augustus Caesar esteemed ⟨p. 620⟩