Men are gods, or, The dignity of magistracy, and the duty of the magistrate…

If then ye must die shortly, doth it not behove you to live strictly? If your time be little, should not your work be great for God and your souls? Whether thou wilt think of it or no, death is approaching thee; the Sun doth not move faster in the Heavens, then thou art moving to the earth. The glass of thy Life for ought thou knowest is nigh its last ⟨p. 272⟩sand. Sure I am thou art now nearer thine unchangeable estate, then ever thou wert: and doth it not concern thee to walk exactly among men, and to work industriously for God! O how much wilt thou wish at an hour of death, that thou hadst walked humbly with God, and wrought hard for the Lord all the time of thy life!

Tis observed among the Papists, that the Cardinals, who think their Cowl and other Religious Habits ill becoming them in their health, yet are very ambitious to die and be buried in them. And I have taken notice in several Churches, where are the Monuments of great persons, that their Effigies must be erected kneeling, with a Bible in their hands, holding their hands up to heaven, and looking very devoutly with their eyes up to the same place; when I have heard of some of them, how Profane and Atheistical they were in their Lives; that they used the name of God often in swearing, but seldom in praying, and prized a Romance or a Play Book above, and read them oftener then the Bible. Truly thus it is, Piety that is trampled under feet by you now in your health and life (believe it) will be a pearl of great price with you in your sickness and death; then you will think the holiest man the happiest man; the Precisest Christian in the most blessed condition; then you would willingly change states with them which are now Objects of your scorn; then you will wish that you had denied your selves, crucified the flesh, glorified God, and walked after the Spirit; that you had spent that time in Praying and Reading, which you have spent in Carding or Dicing, or vain Recreations; that you had improved that wealth and strength in the Service of your Saviour, for the honour of God, and welfare of your soul, which have been laid about the World and your lusts. O Sirs, when this time cometh, you will have other thoughts of sin and holiness, then now ye