(1.) As it is preventive of much guilt.
(2.) As it gains a more inward knowledge of its nature.
(1.) The serious and fixed thoughts of the parting hour, is pre- ventive of much guilt; and the greatest part of the horror of death rises out of the guilt of sin ; " The sting of death is sin,'' 1 Cor. XV. 56. ■[- Augustine saith, " Nothing more recals a man from " sin, than the frequent meditation of death.'' I dare not say it is the strongest of all curbs to keep us back from sin, but I am sure it is a very strong one.
Let X a soul but seriously meditate what a change death will
• Mental separation, is a conceiving of two things separately, which really are united. Ccnimbr. on the soul, p. 595.
f Nihil sic r:vocat a peccitn, qiuimj'requens ?nortis nieditatio. Aug.
t He who considers, what he will be in death, will always act with a fear of cau- tion, and live as in the sight of his Creator, he desires nothing that is transitory, and considers himself as almost dead, because he knows he must soon die. Gregi M^r, 12.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN". 25
Vnake shortly upon his person and condition ; and the natural effects of such a meditation, througli the blessing ol" God upon it, will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this world (which draw men into so much guilt) a conscious fear of sin, and an awakened care of duty. It was once demanded of a very holy man (who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in prayer, and searching his own heart) why he so macerated his own body by such frequent and long-continued duties ! His answer was, O ! I must die^ I must die ! Nothing could separate him from duty, who had already se- parated his soul from his body, and all this world, by fixed and deep thoughts of death.
(2.) Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with it, the less it terrifies us. A lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him, than he is to his keeper who feedeth him every day. A pitched battle is more frightful and scaring to a new- listed soldier, that never took his place in the field before, nor saw the dreadful countenance of an army ready to engage, nor heard the thundering noise of cannon, and vollies of shot, the shouts of armies, and groans of dying men on every side, than it is to an old soldier who hath been used to such things. The like we may observe in seamen, who it may be trembled at first, and now can sing in a storm.
Scarce any thing is more necessary for weak and timorous be- lievers to meditate on, than the time of their separation. Our hearts will be apt to start and boggle at the first view of death ; but it is good to do by them as men use to do by young colts ; ride them up to that which they fright at, and make them smell to it, which is the way to cure them. " Look, as bread, saith one *, is " more necessary than other food, so the meditation of death is " more necessary than many other meditations." Every time we change our habitations, we should realize therein our great change : our souls must shortly leave this, and be lodged for a longer season in another mansion. When we put off our clothes at night, we have a fit occasion to consider, that we must strip nearer one of these days, and put off, not our clothes only, but the body that wears them too.
Holy Job had, by frequent thoughts, famiharized death and the grave to himself, and could speak of them as men use to speak of their houses and dearest relations. Job xvii. 14. "I have said to " corruption. Thou art my father, to the worm. Thou art my *' mother and sister." But it needs much grace to bring, and to
* Sicut panis necessarius est prfe creteris alimentis^ ita intenta mortie meditatio necessarin est jtrcc cccteris donis et exerciiiii. Dionys.
26 A TRKATISE OF THE SOUL OF MA.S^
hold the heart to this work ; and therefore Moses begs it of God, Psal. xc. 12. " So teach us to number our days ; and David, Psal. xxxix. 4. " Lord, make me to know my end/' Yea, the advan- tages of it have been acknowledged by men, whose light was less, and diversions more than ours. The Jews, for this use and end, had their sepulchres built before-hand, and that in their gardens of pleasure too, that they might season the delights of life with the frequent thoughts of death, John xix. 41.
Philip of Macedon would be awakened by his page every morn- ing with this sentence, memento te esse mortalem : Remember, O king, that thou art a mortal man. A great emperor of Constanti- nople, not only at his inauguration, but at his great feasts, order- ed a mason to bring two stones before him, and say, " * Chuse, " O emperor, which of the two stones thou wilt for thy tomb- *' stone ?'' Reader, thou wilt find mental separation much easier than real separation : it is easier to think of death, than it is to feel it; and the more we think of it, the less we are like to feel it.
Prop. % Actual separation may he considered either in fieri, in the previous pangs., and foregoing agonies of it ; or in facto esse, in the last separating stroke.^ ivhich actually parts the soul and body asunder^ lays the body prostrate and dead at the feet of death, and thrusts the soul quite out of its ancient and beloved habitation.
Let it be considered in the previous pangs and forerunning agonies, which commonly make way for this actual dissolution : and to the people of God, this is the worst and bitterest part of death (except those conflicts with Satan, which they sometimes grapple with on a death-bed) which they encounter at that time. There is (saith one) no poinard in death itself, like those in the way or prologue to it. I like not to die, said another) but I care not if I were dead ; the end is better than the way. The conflicts and struggles of nature with death are bitter and sharp pains, un- known to men before, whatever pains they have endured : nor can it be expected to be otherwise, seeing the ties and engagements be- twixt the soul and body are so strong, as we shewed before.
The soul will not easily part with the body, but disputes the pos- sages with Death, from member to member, like resolute soldiers in a stormed garrison, till at last it is forced to yield up the fort- royal into the hands of victorious Death, and leave the dearly be- loved body a captive to it.
This is the dark side of death to all good men ; and though it be not worth naming, in comparison with the dreadful consequents of death to all others, yet in itself it is terrible.
* Lli^e ab his saxis ex quo, invictissime Ccesar^ tibi tumulum viejabricare velis.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.' 27
* Separation is not natural to the soul which was created with an inclination to the body ; it is natural indeed to clasp and embrace, to love and cherish its own body ; but to be divided from it, is grievous and preternatural.