war! He may now securely come down from his watchtower, and repose himself for ever in the kingdom of his father. Oh! what a pleasure, what a joy to look forward into that blessed eternity! Oh! how precious in the sight of God is the death of his saints: Psalm cxv. 15. Ah! Let my soul die the death of the just, and let my last end be like to theirs: Numb. xxiii. Christians, if we would die the death of the just, we must live the life of the just! The only security for a good death, is a good life.
5. Consider, or rather conclude, from the foregoing considerations on death, to make it the whole business of your life to prepare for death. Upon dying well depends nothing less than eternity. If we die ill, we are lost, and lost for ever. As then we came into the world for nothing else but to provide for eternity, so we may truly say, we came into the world for nothing else but to learn to die well. This is the great lesson we must all study. Alas! if we miss it, when we are called to the trial, an endless woe must of necessity be the consequence. Ah! how hard it is to learn to perform that well which can be done but once.
THE NINTH DAY.
On the particular judgment after death.
CONSIDER, that the soul is no sooner parted from the body, but she is immediately presented before the Judge, in order to give an account of her whole life, of all that she has thought, said or done, during her abode in the body; and to receive sentence accordingly. For that the eternal doom of every soul is decided by a particular judgment immediately after death, is what we learn from the gospel in the example of Dives and Lazarus: and the sentence that passes here will be ratified in the general judgment at the last day. Christians, how stand your accounts with God? What could you be able to say for yourselves if this
