(4.) Yea, this thought of mortality is that that wUl make onQ prepare for death. A man that resolves he must die, he goes about to set his house in order, to set his heart in order, to set all in order, and prepare now for that guest that is so near approaching.
So that whether we look to the evils that are prevented, or to the good things that are obtained and acquired, it will be a profitable course for every man to be of BarziUai's mind, to set aside all motions, and all solicita- tions, all other respects, and to take to himself thoughts of death and mortality. We will stand no longer in proving and clearing this plain point unto you, we will be as brief as we may in applying it, and that with all plainness.
IJse 1. First, then, is this our duty? Here we must shame and blame ourselves that ice forget our home, and thative remember no better our latter end. This is a matter of humbling to us, that we do not remember that which should be always in our thoughts. The end of a man's days should be at the end of all his thoughts. Still, as the goal is in the eye of the runner, as
* Alluding to the idea that if a man see a basilisk before it sees him, it cannot injure him, but dies. — Ed. t That is, ' painstaking.' — G.
40 THE VANITY OF THE CKEA.TUKE.
the white* is in the eye of the archer, so still a man's latter end should be in the eye of him whilst he is running his race and his course here in this world.
A man should be still bound for home, as it were, as you see all creatures bo. Let a stone be removed from home, from the centre, let it be put out of its place, it will never be quiet till it be home again. Let a bird be far from the nest, and it grows towards night, she will home even upon the wings of the wind. Let every poor beast, and every creature, though the entertainment be but slender at home, yet if you let it sHp loose it will home as fast as it can. Everything tends to its place ; there is its safety, there is its rest, there it is preserved, there it is quiet. Now, sith it is so with every creature, why should it not be so with us ? Why should not we be for our home ? This, my brethren, is not our home, here is not our rest. That is our home where our chief friends be, where our Father God is, where our husband Christ is, where our chief kindred and acquaintance be, all the prophets, and apostles, and martyrs of God departed are, that is our home, and thither should we go.
Again, that is our home where our chief work, where our chief business lies. And where is chiefly a Christian's business but in heaven ? His conversation must be there, his afiection is there. He himself while he is on earth must be out of the earth, and raise himself from earth to heaven every day.
More than this, that is our home where our rest and peace is. Here we have no abiding city; there is our home, as our Saviour speaks, our mansion.! We have no abiding place till we come to heaven. While we are here, we are tossed to and fro from place to place ; but when we are there, there we rest. We rest from our labours, we rest from sin, we rest from corniption, from all fears, from all tears, from all griefs, from all temptations ; that is our home. Why do we not go home, then, my brethren ? Why are we like a silly child, that when his father sends him forth, and bids him hie him home again, every flower that he meets with in the field, every sign he sees in the street, every companion that meets him in the way, stops him, and hinders him from repairing to his father ? So it is with us for the most part ; every trifle, every profit, every bauble, every matter of pleasure, every delight, is enough to divert and turn aside our thoughts fi-om death, from home, from heaven, from our God, and we are taken up, and lose ourselves I know not where. This shews that either we conceive not heaven as our home, and earth as a pilgrimage and tabernacle, or else it shews we are too, too childish, like children in this behalf.
Lse 2. But, secondly, here is another word of instruction for us, and that is thus much, that every one of us now should labour after the exami^le of this good man, even to remember his latter end, to remember whither he is going, to remember his home.
Quest. What need this ? will some say; how is it possible for a man to forget this point ?
Ans. 1. Yes, my beloved, it is very possible. It is a very easy matter to speak of death, but it is an hard matter to think of it, and to think of It seriously, for a man to take it home to his own thoughts. It is a very difficult thing for a man to apprehend privations,| those things that are so far from eternity and being. It is the hardest thing in the world