Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

CASE last. I am naturally timorous, and the very thoughts of death are terrible to me. ANSW. The less you think on death, the thoughts of it will be the more frightful: but make it familiar to you by frequent meditations upon it, and you may thereby allay your fears. Look at the white and bright side of the cloud: take faith's view of the city that hath foundations: so shall you see hope in your death. Be duly affected with the body of sin and death, and frequent interruptions of your communion with God, and with the glory which dwells on the other side death: this will contribute much to remove slavish fear.

It is pity saints should be so fond of life as they often are: they ought always to be in good terms with death. When matters are duly considered, it might well be expected every child of God, every regenerate man, should generously profess concerning this life, what Job did, chap. vii. 16. I loth it, I would not live always. In order to gain their hearts to this desirable temper, I offer the following additional considerations.

It is pity saints should be so fond of life as they often are: they ought always to be in good terms with death. When matters are duly considered, it might well be expected every child of God, every regenerate man, should generously profess concerning this life, what Job did, chap. vii. 16. I lothe it, I would not live always. In order to gain their hearts to this desirable temper, I offer the following additional considerations.

First, Consider the sinfulness that attends life in this world▪ While ye live here, ye sin, and see others sinning. Ye brea• ⟨p. 245⟩infectious air. Ye live in a pest house. Is it at all strange to loth such a life? (1.) Your own pilgrim's sores are running on you. Doth not the sin of your nature make you groan daily? Are you not sensible, that though the cure be begun, it is yet far from being perfected? Has not the leprosy got into the walls of the house, which cannot be removed without pulling it down? Is not your nature so vitiate, that no less than the separation of the soul from the body can root out the disease? Have you not your sores without, as well as your sickness within? Do ye not leave marks of your pollution, on whatsoever passes through your hands? Are not all your actions tainted and blemished with defects and imperfections? Who else then should be much in love with life, but such whose sickness is their health, and who glory in their shame? (2.) The loathsome sores of others are always before your eyes, go where you will. The follies and wickedness of men are every where conspicuous, and make but an unpleasant scene. The sinful world is but an unsightly company, a disagreeable crowd, in which the most loathsome are the most numerous. (3.) Are not your own sores ofttimes breaking out again, after heaing? Frequent relapses may well cause us remit of our fondness for this life. To be ever struggling, and anon falling into the mire again, makes weary work. Do ye never wish for cold death, thereby effectually to cool the heat of these lusts, which so often take fire again; even after a flood of godly sorrow has gone over them? (4.) Do not ye sometimes infect others, and others infect you? There is no society in the world, in which every member of it doth not sometimes lay a stumbling-block before the rest. The best carry about with them the tinder of a corrupt nature, which they cannot be rid of while they live, and which is liable to be kindled at all times, and in all places; yea, they are apt to inflame others, and become the occasions of ning. Certainly these things are apt to embitter this life to the saints.