hard to get away out of this World. He hath ever been a franger to all the rich Mans Joys, and hath found little elfe but ill ufage, and a very courfe entertainment in this Life, and therefore what a joyful hour muft that be to him, wherein Death comes to call him home to his Fathers Houfe, there to feast himself with Angels, and to wear in the Kingdom of God a glorious Crown of Righteoufnefs? Let all that are poor take heed how they lofe this great advantage, by living wickedly, by repining at their poor condition, by envying the rich and profperous Sinner, or by impatiently longing to be in his place.

Laftly, let us all, whatever our prefent condition in this World be, remember that we are in a condition wherein we cannot be long. And therefore let it be our great care, that our bebaviour be always fuch, fo long as we live here, that our condition may not be worse, but better for our dying. Let us ufe all diligence, to order all things fo, that whenfoever we fhall die, we may die comfortably well fatisfied with Life, and not afraid of Death; having a well grounded hope, that we fhall not die eternally.

2. A Second thing which we may observe in the Death of these two Perfons is this. It fo came to pass, it being thus ordered by the Divine Providence, that Lazarus the Beggar died firft, and the Rich Man afterward, having fome time, it is not faid how long, furvived the other.

Indeed it cannot feem ftrange at all, That a poor difeafed Beggar, that wanted all the comforts of Life, having neither Salves for his Sores, nor wholefom Food for his nourishment, nor Cloaths

to keep him warm, fhould die before a rich Gentleman that had all things needful to Life in great abundance; and how little foever he fet by others, would be sure to make much of himself.and want nothing that he thought Good for him. However, it doth not always thus come to pafs; Nay, very often we fee it otherwife. Many a poor Man, that hath nothing at all of his own to Live on, but is fed all his days at other Men's doors, yet liveth to a very great Age; and as many rich Men, who fare fumptuously every day as long as they live, die in their youth, and juft in the height of all their glory. There are but few, whofe poverty occafioneth their early dying; for one fuch, there is an hundred whofe abundance and plenty kills them. Few in any Age can be obferved to die of hunger and nakedness; but many in all Ages may be found dying of Luxury and Intemperance. The poor Man indeed wants the many helps and means of preferving Life and Wealth, which the rich Man hath; but the rich Gentleman, how good and wife foever he would be thought, often wants as much, both wisdom and grace, to fe thofe means to his own good. Tho the poor Man be in more Want than the rich, yet ftands he for the most part lefs in need of what he wants; he can live without them, and it may be lives the longer because he wants them. If he be pious as well as poor, he never wants Gods bleffing, and the bleffing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no forrow with it. Prov. 10. 22. The poor Man's poverty by God's bleffing is made his Phyfick; and thofe Sores, which fed and inflamed by the rich Mans intemperance, would quickly have become intollerably painful to his tenderness and de

licacy

licacy and mortal too to his pampered Body, are not only endured with much patience by the poor Man of a more hardned Temper, but ferve to prolong Life, and to prevent greater pains by cafting forth the remains of his former Sweat and Industry.

If any one fhall ask then, why God fhould deal thus feverely with a good and pious Man, that loves and ferves him, as to let him live all his days in a calamitous condition, and after that inflict upon him the punishment of Sin, which is Death; letting the rich Glutton all this while, that careth neither for God nor Man, fhine in gorgeous apparel, and fare fumptuously every day, and live and laugh to fee the poor Man die at his Gate, and be made, it may be, meat for his Dogs for want of a few of those Crumbs which they fed upon? This question will, I hope, be fully anfwered in this Difcourfe anon. Now I fhall only fay, it ought not to feem ftrange, That God fhould exercise any of those who love him, and whom he loves, with divers afflictions; which are to all fuch fatherly chaftifements; and as we are taught largely (Heb. 12.) demonftrations of his love and their vertue at once. He knows the temper of all his Children, and keeps every one of them under that kind of Difcipline which is most proper for him, and will beft fit him for the eternal inheritance, which he hath provided for him. The grace which he hath bestowed upon them, he thus magnifies in the eye of the World, and lets it fee how excellent a thing that is, whereby weak Men are able to defie and conquer it, whether it flatter them or frown upon them. Hereby he prepares them for eternal Glory, and every degree of patience and fubmiffiveness in fuffer

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ing, affures them, through his mercy and gracious promife; of a proportionable augmentation of their future bleffednefs; and when Death comes, tho' it be a confequent of Sin, yet is it no punishment to them, to whom it can do no more hurt, than to put a defired end to all their Sins and Troubles at once, and to translate them into that blessed State, which they have always longed for, and for which God hath been by their afflictions fitting them. Death is the lot of all Mankind, good and bad, fince the fall of Adam,and made by the Second Adam, Jefus Christ, unto all good men, a fhort and no very uneasy paffage into a Life, infinitely better than the molt comfortable Life that can be lived in this World. And therefore in this, that the Beggar died before the Rich Man, we may learn thus much.

1. That the more calamitous it pleaseth God to make the Life of good Men in this World, so much the shorter he is often pleased to make it also. He baftens their death, left their Life fhould grow tedious, and the long continuance of their afflictions fhould tire out their patience, He will not fuffer them to live without affliction, because he fees it good for them to be afflicted; and he puts a speedy end to their Afflictions by Death, because he will not have them tempted above that which they are able to bear, but will with the temptation make them a way to escape, tho it be by Death- -It is a mercy and great favour to make a calamitous Life Short alfo; and an inestimable favour it is, that this light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory

2. That shortness of Life is no argument to prove one lefs beloved of God, than another is

who

who furvives him, and lives in plenty after he is dead in poverty. God very often haftens good Men out of the World, to prevent their being corrupted by it, whilft he fuffers many, who every day do more than enough to kill themselves, to live long and healthfully in it. It is well known to all, that Intemperance, and especially in Eating and Drinking is a caufe of many foul, painful and dangerous Difeafes, and is naturally apt to horten Mens Lives. And yet it pleaseth God by his over-ruling Providence very often, fo to order it, that intemperate Men live longer, and in better Health, than they who most strictly observe the Rules of temperance and fobriety. And this unthinking Men are ready enough to plead for themfelves, and to encourage themselves by it to hold on in their debaucheries; little confidering, what will be the end of all at laft, or why God fuffers them to go on fo long in their Sin, and defends their life against themselves, and all their endeavours to deftroy it. None that knows what God is, can doubt of it, but that he is much better pleased with them that love and ferve him, than with them that dishonour him by disobeying him, and that he delights more in doing them good, than in feeing them miferable. When therefore he calleth baftily away by Death them that love him, leaving them behind that love him not; all that can be concluded hence is this, that to die foon is no hurt to the good man, and to live longer doth the wicked man no good. It is good for the good man to die fooner, tho the wicked man might in Justice be taken away before him; and whenever he dies his Death will do him no good, and fo much the leß, the longer he is fuffered to live. God is more forward

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