CHAP. XXII. Confolations against Death, from the Providence, and the Neceffity of it. T HIS Life is only a Prelude to Eternity, where we are to expect another Original, and another State of Things: We have no Prospect of Heaven here, but at a Ditance; let us therefore expect cur laft, and decretory Hour with Courage. The laft (I fay) to our Bodies, but not to our Minds; our Luggage we must leave behind us, and return as naked out of the World, as we came into't. The Day which we fear as our last, is but the Birth-day of our Eternity; and it is the only way to't; fo that what we fear as a Rock, proves to be but a Port; in many Cafes to be defired, never to be refufed; and he that dies young, has only made a quick Voyage on't. Some are becalmed; others cut it away before Wind; and we live juft as we fail: Firft, we run our Childhood out of fight; our Youth next; and then our Middle Age; after that follows Old Age, and brings us to the common End of Mankind. It is a great Providence that we have more ways out of the World, than we have into't. Our Security stands upon a Point, the very Article of Death. It draws a great many Bleffings into a very narrow Compafs: and although the Fruit of it does not seem to extend to the Defunct, yet the Difficulty of it is more than balanced by the Contemplation of the Future. Nay, fuppofe that all the Bufinefs of this World fhould be forgotten; or my Memory traduced, What's all this to me? I have done my Duty. Undoubtedly that which puts an End to all other Evils, cannot be 2 very great Evil itfelf; and yet it is no eafy thing for Flesh and Blood to defpife Life. What if Death comes ? If it does not stay with us, why should we fear it? One hangs himself for a Miftrefs, another leaps the Garret Window to avoid a choleric Master: a third runs away; and ftabs himself, rather than he will be brought Chap. XXI. back again. We see the Force even of our Infirmities, and shall we not then do greater things for the Love of Virtue? To fuffer Death is but the Law of Nature; and it is a great Comfort that it can be done but once; in the very Convulfions of it, we have this Confolation, that our Pain is near an End, and that it frees us from all the Miseries of Life. What it is we know not; and it were rash to condemn what we do not understand: But this we prefume; either that we fhall pafs out of this into a better Life, where we fhall live with Tranquillity and Splendor in diviner Manfions; or elfe return to our first Principles, free from the Senfe of any Inconvenience. There's nothing immortal, nor many things lafting; but by divers ways every thing comes to an End. What an Arrogance is it then, when the World itself stands condemned to a Diffolution, that Man alone should expect to live for ever? It is unjust not to allow unto the Giver the Power of difpofing of his own Bounty; and a Folly only to value the prefent. Death is as much a Debt as Money; and Life is but a Journey towards it. difpatch it fooner, others latter; but we must all have the fame Period. The Thunder-bolt is undoubtedly just, that draws, even from thofe that are ftruck with it, a Veneration. A great Soul takes no Delight in ftaying with the Body, it confiders whence it came, and knows whither it is to go The Day will come, that fhall feparate this Mixture of Soul and Body; of divine and human ; my Body I will leave where I found it; my Soul I will reflore to Heaven, which would have been there already, but for the Clog that keeps it down: And befide, how many Men have been the worfe for longer living, that. might have died with Repuation, if they had been fooner taken away? How many Difappointments of hopeful Youths, that have proved diffolute Men? Over and above the Ruins, Shipwrecks, Torments, Poifons that attend long Life: A Bleffing fo deceitful, that if a Child were in Condition to judge of it, and at Liberty to refufe it, he would not take it. What God has made neceflary Man fhould Some WHAT Providence has made neceffary, human Prudence fhould comply with chearfully: And there is a Neceffity of Death, fo that Neceffity is e qual and invincible. No Man has Caufe When comply with chearfully. we fhould die, we will not, and when we would not, we must: But our Fate is fixed, and unavoidable is the Decree. Why do we then stand trembling when the Time comes? Why do we not as well lament that we did no live a thousand Years ago, as that we fhall not live a thousand Years hence? It is but travelling the great Road, and to the Place whither we must all go at laft. It is but fubmitting to the Law of Nature, and to that Lot which the whole World has fuffered that is gone before us and fo muft they too that are to come after us. Nay, how many thousands, when our Time comes, will expire in the fame Moment with us? He that will not follow, shall be drawn by Force: And is it not much better now to do that willingly, which we shall otherwise be made to do in fpite of our Hearts? The Sons of mortal Parents muft expect a mortal Pofterity; Death is the End of great and small. We are born helpless, and expofed to the Injuries of all Creatures, and of all Weathers. The very Neceffaries of Life are deadly to us. We meet with our Fate in our Dishes, in our Cups, and in the very Air we breathe; nay, our very Birth is inaufpicious, for we come into the World weeping; and in the middle of our Designs, while we are meditating great matters, and stretching of our Thoughts to Afterages, Death cuts us off; and our longest Date is only the Revolution of a few Years. One Man dies at the Table; another goes away in his Sleep; a third in his mistress's Arms; a fourth is ftabbed; another is ftung with an Adder, or crushed with the Fall of a Houfe, We have feveral ways to our End, but the End itfelf, which is Death, is fill the fame. Whether we die by a Sword, by a Halter, by a Potion, or by a Disease, 'tis all but Death. A Child dies in the Clouts, and an old Man at an hundred; they are both mortal alike, though the one goes fooner than the other. All that lies betwixt the Cradle and the Grave is uncertain. If we compute the Troubles, the Life even of a Child is long; if the Sweetnefs of the Paffage, that of an old Man is fhort; the whole is flippery and deceitful, and only Death certain ; and yet all People complain of that which never deceived any Man. Senecio railed himfelf from a fmall Beginning, to a vast Fortune, being very well fkilled in the Facul ties both of getting and of keeping, and either of them was fufficient for the doing of his Bufinefs. He was a Man infinitely careful, both of his Patrimony, and of his Body. He gave me a Morning's Vifit (fays our Author) and after that Vifit he went away, and spent the reft of the Day with a Friend of his that was defperately fick. At Night he was merry at Supper, and feized immediately after with a Squinfy, which difpatched him in a few Hours. This Man that had Money at Ufe in all Places, and in the very Courfe and Height of his Profperity, was thus cut off. How foolish a Thing is it then for a Man to flatter himfelf with long Hopes, and to pretend to difpofe of the future? Nay, the very prefent flips through our Fingers, and there is not that Moment which we can call our own. How vain a thing is it for us to enter upon Projects? And to fay to ourselves, Well, I'll go build, purchase, discharge fuch Offices, fettle my Affairs, and then retire? We are all of us born to the fame Cafualties; all equally frail, and uncertain of tomorrow. At the very Altar, where we pray for Life we learn to die, by seeing the Sacrifices killed before us. But there's no need of a Wound, or fearching the Heart for't, when the Noofe of a Cord, or the fmothering of a Pillow will do the Work. All things have their Seafons; they begin, they increase, and they die. The Heavens and the Earth grow old, and are appointed their Periods. That which we call Death, is but a Paufe or Sufpenfion; and in truth a Progrefs to life; only our Thoughts look downward upon the Body, and not forward upon things to come. All things under the Sun are mortal; Cities,Empires: And the time will come when it fhall be a Question where they were, and perchance whether ever they had a Being, or no? Some will be destroyed by War; others by Luxury, Fire, Inundations, Earthquakes: Why fhould it trouble me then to die, as a Forerunner of an univerfal Diffolution? A great Mind submits itfelf to God, and fuffers willingly what the Law of the Universe will otherwife bring to pafs upon Neceflity. That good old Man Baffus (though with one Foot in the Grave) how chear ful a Mind does he bear? He lives in the View of Death, and contemplates his own End with lefs Concern of Thought or Countenance than he would do another Man's. It is a hard Leffon, and we are a long time a learning of it, to receive our Death without trouble, efpecially in the Cafe of Baffus. In other Deaths there's a Mixture of Hope; a Difeafe may be cured, a Fire quenched, a falling Houfe either propped or avoided; the Sea may fwallow a Man, and throw him up again. A Pardon may interpofe betwixt the Ax and the Body; but in the Cafe of Old Age there is no Place for either Hope or Interceffion. Let us live in our Bodies therefore as if we were only to lodge in them this Night, and to leave them to morrow. It is the frequent Thought of Death that must fortify us against the Neceffity of it. He that has armed himself against Poverty, may perhaps come to live in Plenty. A Man may ftrengthen, himself against Pain, and yet live in a ftate of Health; against the Lofs of Friends, and never lofe any: But he that fortifies himfelf against the fear of Death, fhall molt certainly have Occafion to employ that Virtue. It is the Care of a wife and a good Man to look to his Manners and Actions; and rather how well he lives, than how long: For to die fooner or latter, is not the Business; but to die well, or ill For Death brings us to Immortality. CHA P. XXIII. Against immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends. N EXT to the Encounter of death in our own Bo. dies, the moft fenfible Calamity to an honest Man is the Death of a Friend; and we are not in Truth, without fome generous Inftances of thole that have preferred a Friend's Life before their own; and yet this Affliction, which by Nature is fo grievous to us is, by Virtue and Providence, made familiar, and easy. |