Page:Great importance of a suitable preparation for death (1).pdf/2

( 2 ) Ixxxix 48.

What man icis [sic] he that liveth, and ſhall not

ſee death? &c.

is very hard to determine, where all that are here ſhall be within thirty years; for even ere that time, many ( not all) of us who are here, ſhall have taken up our everlaſting lodging. And whether we ſhall take it up in the eternity of joy, or in the eternity of pain, is alſo hard to determine; only this one thing I am ſure of, that all of us ſhall ſhortly be gone; and the ſhadows of death ſhall be ſitting upon our eye-lids, and our eye-ſtrings ſhall begin to break. Surely, I think, we are all near to eternity, and there are ſome hearing me to day, whom I defy the world to aſſure, that ever they ſhall hear another ſermon; therefore I entreat you all to hear this preaching, as if it were the laſt preaching that ever you ſhould hear; and O that we could ſpeak it as if it were the laſt ſermon that ever we would preach unto you. Believe me, death is another thing than we take it to be. Oh ! what will many of us