ments whereof are insupportable.

Fourthly, Heaven, the joys whereof are beyond apprehension most blissful and ravishing.

And these subjects of holy meditation would prove the most prevalent to turn all persons professing Christianity, from all the errors of their ways, whether in opinion or conversation, would they but seriously consider the shortness and uncertainty of this present life: the strict account that must be given of all our thoughts, words, and actions, even to every idle word, especially spoken to the detriment of any that in all these we shall have the devil and his angels vehemently to accuse us, and our own consciences to testify against us : most severe Judge to pass sentence upon us; from Whose impartial doom the endless torments of Hell shall receive the wilfully erroneous and impenitent sinner; but eternal joys and never-fading felicities shall crown the orthodox and holy.

a

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God."

• Psalm ix. 17.

"But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them&"

They that have done good shall go into everlasting life: and they that have done evil into everlasting fire"."

This faith is professed by many, but by few believed with the heart: for he that cordially believes these principles of his religion will "stand in awe, and sin not":" he will not dare, in defiance of this faith, knowingly and wittingly to transgress the laws of the great Majesty of Heaven: and it is such a

faith, attended by fear, and this fear by care and caution, that must preserve the soul from the torments, and entitle her to the joys of the other world.

Aristotle saith, that he who believes not, can neither hope nor fear: and consequently, he who doth truly believe these essentials of his religion, cannot but both hope for the happiness, and fear the misery of the world to come.

It is recorded of a Friar, that he complained to his Abbot, that he was weary of that idle, lazy life; and

• Ath. Creed. Mat. xxv. 46.

therefore he desired leave to depart to some other place: to whom the Abbot returned answer, "Thy laziness is a manifest sign that thou didst never truly believe, and seriously consider of the pains of Hell, and the joys of Heaven; for the deep sense of these would preserve thee from all laziness in thy cells."

"Ŏ that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end h!"

It is the greatest and most comprehensive of all the parts of true wisdom, so to consider, as rightly to prepare for our latter end: for to end well, is the sum of all our hopes, and of all the happiness we can hope for.

"It is a great vanity to desire a long life, without the thought of leading a holy life. It is a great vanity to be so wholly intent upon this present life, as not to provide for the life to come. It is a great vanity to be in love with what suddenly fadeth away, and not to hasten in our desires

and endeavours to that joy which shall never endi."

"Have mercy upon me, O God, and consider the trouble I suffer of them that hate me ;" my spirit is troubled for the daily incursions of my ghostly enemies; "Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:" such is this frail mortal life, all the ways whereof are vanity and iniquity, even gates leading to death eternal; from the which I humbly beg to be raised up, and exalted by Thy right hand.

"That I may shew all Thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion;" glorify Thee with Thy Church triumphant in Heaven: "I will rejoice in Thy salvation:" to be thus lifted up and saved, is a joy unspeakable and glorious.

"Remember me, O Lord, according to the favour Thou bearest unto Thy people, and visit me with Thy salvation.

"That I may see the felicity of Thy chosen, and rejoice in the gladness of Thy people and give thanks with Thine inheritance'."

iThos. à Kemp., lib. i. cap. 1. 1 Psalm cvi. 4, 5.

"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

"He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth notm."- "In the midst of life we be in death," whilst every day we live is one day nearer to the end of life.

"For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away"."

The time of my life past is already swallowed up by death, which still dogs me at the heels to devour the short remainder of my flitting days.

Not to consider this shortness and frailty of human life, is to make my life yet more short and frail. So Drex. Vita brevis omnibus

"Life is short unto all. but shortest unto those who forget what is past, are negligent in what is present, and fear not what is to

Lord, make me to know

m Job xiv. 1, 2.

mine end, and the number of my days, that I may be certified how long I have to live :" that the length of my days is of the shortest measure; "For behold, Thou hast made my days Verily every

as a span

man living is altogether vanity:" the most high and mighty, the most honourable and wealthy, are not exempt from this character; for honours, riches, friends, all the delights of the sons of men, with all the pomp and pleasure and power of the world, depending upon the shortness and frailty of human life, renders every man, in all that he is, in all that he has, and in all that he hopes for, in this world, a vanity of vanities, an universal vanity.

The divine à Kempis gives us both the reason and the use of this doctrine: Quia per peccatum "Since

by sin we have lost our innocence, we ought with patience to expect the mercy of God, until this iniquity

n Jam. iv. 14.

do pass away, and mortality be swallowed up of life"." St. Augustine's Meditation on this subject.

"The time of my pilgrimage here upon earth is tedious, wearisome- -for this is a miserable life, a frail life, an uncertain life, a bitter life, a laborious life, a sinful life it is the mistress of error and sinfulness, and the handmaid to death and hell

"This life is rather to be called death than life, as being, through the whole course thereof, a passing from life to death: for whilst we pass from infancy to childhood, from thence to manhood, and so to old age, every such change in life is but a passage to death, or rather so many stages of death; for each condition of life is the death of its foregoing state and condition.

| honour, in wealth and poverty, in heats and colds, in evil report and good report, in fear and terror, and much amazement and all this, and much more than can be expressed, is too often attended by a sudden, unexpected death; and which is yet more miserable, though there be nothing more certain than death, yet vain foolish man knoweth not, considereth not his end." So the Preacher; "For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them."

Aristotle being asked, What is Man? answered, Imbecillitatis exemplum ; temporis spolium; fortunæ lusus; inconstantiæ imago; invidia et calamitatis trutina; reliquum vero pituita et bilis.

Quid homo (inquit Gran.) cujus conceptio, culpa, nasci poena, vivere miseria, et mori tormentum ?

a Eccles. ix. 12.