1. It is needful for the preventing of evil.
2. And it is useful for the obtaining of good.
Bcason 1. Thcuc crils vill be hereby prevented. (1.) The constant thoughts of death and mortality ivill tie i(s to our good behaviour, that we shall not offer any injustice, any hard measure, to any man. Whereas let death be once out of the sight of the thoughts of a man, he grows wild, he grows unruly, he grows masterless. You see in the parable of the servant, =i= when he thought his master was gone afar off, that he would not come a gi'eat while, that his reckoning, his account would not be soon, it would not be sudden, he lays about him like a Nimrod, he smites and beats his fellow-servants, he makes no conscience of his dealing to his poor brethren. Whereas, on the other side, when Job presented to himself the thoughts of death and mortality, how that there was a Lord and a Judge that would call him to an account for all, he dares not lift up his hand, he dares not lift up his tongue, against any underling or inferior, f
(2.) Again, as this will prevent injustice towards men, so it will prevent impenitcncy tourirds God. The heart of man secures itself like the harlot, Prov. vii. 10, et seq. When she conceives her husband is gone afar off, and hath taken a great journey, she is secure. So the heart, the impenitent heart of man, when a man puts far from him the thoughts of death, and will not conceive that the Judge stands at the door, then he doth obstinate J himself in sinful courses, and doth what he can to stiffen himself against all the admonitions and rebukes of God's mouth.
(3.) Further, this is another evil that is prevented; the thoughts of mortality will prevent dotage, as it were, about these worldly things. The world will grow upon us and bewitch us, if we suffer the thoughts of death to fall once. If we do not see death stand at the end of all our earthly pro- fits, of all our worldly pleasures and advantages, we shall be even almost mad after them, and we shall be too too glad of them when we have them, and too too much surfeit upon them ; whereas, on the other side, the thoughts of this, that we must shortly leave them, and depart hence, this will cool our appetite to earthly things, it will make us have them as if we had them not, as you heard from the apostle.
(4.) Yea, these thoughts of our mortality in all estates and conditions, it is that which v/Ulprerent the danger of death. It will take away the sting of it, it will take away the terror of it. Death is a most terrible thing in its own nature you know, and the heathen could speak [so of] it. Death is most terrible, especially to him that doth not die in his thoughts daily. Whenas a man in his meditations doth daily present death to himself, and * Mat. XXV. 16, et seq.—Cr. j Job xsxi. 13.— G.
t That ia, 'hardens,' = grows stubborn.— G.
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looks upon it, then death is like the prevented* basilisk, death hath lost the sting. It can do us no hurt ; it proves like the brazen serpent looked upon. The beholding of that death puts an end to all other miseries, to all other maladies, to all other deaths whatsoever, so that there is much good gotten, at the least there is much evil prevented, in case we do constantly entertain in us thoughts of mortality and of death, as Barzillai did.
Reason 2. Secondly, As this thought of mortality is profitable for us in that respect, in preventing evil, so in a second regard proposed, that it doth even help %is to miich goodness. Thoughts of mortality, what will they do ?
(1.) First, They will make a man painful t in his place, to dwell upon his own vocation, upon his own business ; as Paul saith, ' Knowing the terror of the Lord, we exhort and admonish,' 2 Cor. v. 11. We being apostles, we do the duty of apostles. Upon this ground Barzillai, remem- bering his mortality, that he must shortly go hence, he betakes himself home, that death might find him in his own place.
(2.) Again, the thoughts of mortality, as they will make a man painful f in his place, so they will make him profitahle consequently to men ; as the apostle Peter speaks, 2 Peter i. 13, he stirs up himself to put the people of God in remembrance of those things they had learned, because he con- sidered that * shortly he was to lay down his tabernacle,' to make an end of his life.
(3.) And further, the thoughts of death and mortality, they will make a man patient in the midst of all the hard measure that is offered to him ; in the midst of all preserves us, as the apostles speak, both James and Paul, that we shall be patient : ' Let your patience be known unto all men, because the Lord is at hand, because the time is short, because the Judge stands at the door,' &c., Philip, iv. 5, James v. 10. This is that which will make one quiet in all provocations ; this is that will comfort him in all discouragements : I shall shortly be sent for, I shall be called from hence ; then I shall be righted where I am wronged, I shall be cleared where I am accused, I shall have rest where I have trouble, all shall be well, and therefore why should I not be quiet ?