The Urim of conscience to which the author has had recourse for plain answers, in his own particular case (as every man living ought to do in his) to four questions of great weight and importance, viz. 1. who and what art thou? 2. where hast thous been? 3. where art thou now going? 4. whither art thou going? : together with three select prayers for private families / by Sir Samuel Morland.

THE Fourth Question. (Book 4)

Q. Whither art thou going? (Book 4)

Answer.

To the Land of Darkness, and the Shadow of Death.

The Truth is, this is a Question, in one sense, very easy to be answered by a Man, who is already past the Seventieth Year of his Age; since the Age of a Man, in the ordinary Course of Nature, is but Threescore Years and Ten; and though there should be Ten (or Ten times Ten) more added to it, yet would his Life be but Labour and Sorrow, so soon passeth it away, and he is gone to his long home.

Che noi siamo cenere e polve! Che breve è questa vita; Ch'al girer di poc hore, il Ci'el risolve la vanita.

Alas, Man that is born of a Woman, has but a short time to live; he is but of very few days, and those full of Disquiet and Troubles: He cometh forth like a Flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also like a Shadow, and continueth not; his Days are but a Span long, and swifter than a Weaver's Shuttle, or a Post that hasteth by; and at his best Estate, is alto∣gether Vanity.

Who is he that can deliver himself from the hand of the Grave? One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet, his Breasts are full of Milk, and his Bones are moistned with marrow: And another dieth in the bitterness of his Soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

This made the Son of Sirach Oratorical∣ly reflect.

O Death! How bitter is the Remembrance of Thee, to a Man that liveth at rest in his Possessions, unto the Man that hath nothing to vex him, and that bath prosperity in all things, yea, unto him that is able yet to receive Meat. And again, O Death! how acceptable is thy Sentence unto the Needy, and unto him whose strength faileth; that is now in the last Age,

and is vexed with all things, 41 Ecclesiasti∣cus 1, 2.

This made eloquent Job cry out in the height of his Affliction.

Let the Day perish wherein I was born; let Darkness and the shadow of Death stain it, and a Cloud dwell upon it: Let also that Night be solitary wherein I was conceived, and no joy∣ful Voice come therein: Let the Stars of the Twilight thereof be darkned; let it look for Light, but have none, neither let it see the Dawning of the Day, because it shut not up the door of my Mother's Womb, nor hid Sorrow from mine eyes. Wherefore is Light given to him that is in Misery, and Life unto the bit∣ter in Soul? Who long for Death, but it com∣eth not, and dig for it more than for hidden Treasures? Who rejoice exceedingly when they can find the Grave, 3 Job 3. 5. &c.

O that I might have my Request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for; even that it would please God to destroy me; that He would let loose his hand, and cut me off, 6 Job 8, 9.

Thus is Death to some the King of Ter∣rors, and to others, a kind Friend, and a welcome Guest.

However, be it Welcome, or not wel∣come, it is the Sentence of God upon all Living, For all Flesh is as Grass, and all the Goodliness thereof, as the Flower of the field: Dust we are, and to Dust we must return.

Reflection.

How weak are then the Projects, and how vain the Imaginations of poor Mor∣tal Wights?

To day, there's nothing but Feasting, Musick and Dancing in their stately Halls, and Banqueting-Rooms: To morrow, they are languishing upon their sick Beds, given over by their Physicians, the Cur∣tains drawn upon them by their Friends and Acquaintance, and in their last Ago∣nies.

To day, they purchase Lands of Inhe∣ritance, and call their Mansion-Houses by their own Names: To morrow, all that parcel of Ground or Earth, of which they can be truly called Masters, does not exceed four Cubick yards.

To day, they are sitting at their Toi∣lets, consulting with their Glasses, and ad∣miring

their own Shapes and Features; and cannot with any patience, endure the least speck or spot upon their shining and costly Garments: To morrow, they are drest from Head to Foot in grave Cloaths, and their loathsom Carkasses are given for food to the nauseous and greedy Worms.

To day, they are Lords of Mannors, and by their Deputies and Stewards, ap∣point their respective Courts: To mor∣row, they themselves are no more than meer stewards, and must, in the presence of a most righteous and impartial Judge, give a strict Accompt, to the value of two Mites, as well of all their Disburse∣ments, as their Receipts.

But now, in another sense, there is no problematick Question has ever been pro∣posed to poor Mortals, neither in former nor latter Ages, that has given them grea∣ter Difficulties, or begot in the Minds of Thinking-Men, more anxious and doubt∣ful Thoughts.

(Whither art thou going?) is an Interroga∣tive, to which, neither the learnedst Phi∣losopher, nor the wisest Senator in the whole World, has ever been able, as yet, (or, as I presume, ever will be) to make

a direct, positive, or categorick Answer: Forasmuch as we have never received any News from the Dead, since the World was created, of which we can be infalli∣bly assured; or Letters of Intelligence▪ from any One of those innumerable Thousands of departed Souls that have gone before us.

St. Paul was caught up into the Third Heaven, but, at his coming down again, he gives no other Description of the Place, or of the Dwellers in those upper Regi∣ons, than by meer Negatives.

Lazarus was dead and buried four days; but where his wandring Soul had its A∣bode, in that interval of Time, I do not believe there is left upon Record, an Ac∣count, or so much as the least mention in any History, whether Sacred or Pro∣phane.

If a young Traveller, quitting his Na∣tive Soil, to visit some remoter Parts of the habitable Earth, be extreamly surpri∣zed, when he meets with Climates much hotter or colder than his own▪ with lon∣ger and shorter Days and Nights, with Persons of different Complexions and Hu∣mours,

with variety of Customs and Man∣ners of foreign Nations, with Sea-mon∣sters, strange wild Beasts, and creeping Things of divers kinds; How much more must the Soul of a dying Man be infinite∣ly surprized, in the critical Moment of its passage into the Regions of the other World, and sudden stepping from off the Bank of Time and Mortality, and taking its flight into the wide Expanse, and vast Abyss of Eternity? where shortly it expects to meet with innumerable Myriads of incorporeal Beings, with which it had never before the least Converse or Acquaintance.

Upon this Bank or Shoar, must Kings and Emperours leave behind them their Crowns and Scepters, Prelates and Judges their Mitres and Scarlet Robes, Rich-men their Houses and Lands; the Covetous their Heaps of Gold and Worldly Trea∣sures, and the Voluptuous, their Dalilahs, and all their sensual Delights.

O Eternity! Eternity! It is a vast Ocean, of which the Depth can never be fathom∣ed, by any humane Artifice.

Eternity! Is a round Figure, of which, cannever be found, either by Algebraist,

or Geometer, the Area, or superficial mea∣sure, of which the Diameter is a long Line, neither terminated by Points, nor di∣visible into any Number of Parts.

Let us suppose, with Archimedes of Syra∣cuse, (that Prince of Mathematicians) a Globe of Sand, of such a Magnitude, Ut Diametrum habeat centum Myriadas, Myria∣dum, Stadiorum.

Or, which is somewhat less, Let us sup∣pose a Globe of Sand, equal in Magnitude, to the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, accord∣ing to the Opinion of Aristarchus, and the number of Grains contained in that Globe, to be as great as the said Archimedes has Calculated and Computed it in his Arena∣rius.

And let us suppose one single Grain of that vast Globe, to be removed, or taken away, at the end of every Thousandth Year: What a prodigious Length of Time would be expired, before that great Mass, or Globe of Sand, would be removed? And yet, when all this Time shall be expi∣red, the Damned in Hell will be as far from an End of their Miseries, as they were the first Hour, or Moment, they were thrown into that dreadful place of Tor∣ment.

There is yet a third Sense, in which this Question (Whither art thou going?) nearly concerns all good Christians, and should, every Morning and Evening of their Lives, be seriously proposed to, and cautiously answered by their own private Consciences.

Now what has been said in the two foregoing Senses, serves only to inform, and to help us, to make suitable and time∣ly Reflections.

This last concerns the Duties of a Chri∣stian's life, and his daily practice, which have been laid down already in the fore∣going Discourse.

Our blessed Saviour informs us of Two very different ways, (a Broad, and a Nar∣row,) in which all the Sons and Daugh∣ters of Adam, in their several Generations, from time to time, have travelled and con∣versed, as they now do travel and converse, and so will do to the end of the World. As likewise of a Wide and a Strait Gate, through which they (sooner or later) have heretofore passed; and so must pass, both now, and in after Ages, so long as the Sun and Moon endure.

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The one of these Ways and Gates, leads to Eternal Life and Happiness; the other, to endless Miseries and Torments, with the Devil and his Angels.

Ejaculation.

O blessed Saviour! It is the Nar∣row Way that I choose, and the Strait Gate, through which I would fain get a safe passage.

I am going! But as Travellers use, when they are going long Journeys into far Countries, and are uncertain of their Re∣turns, to take their solemn Leaves of all their Acquaintance: So do I, being a Stranger and Sojourner here, and enga∣ged in a much longer Journey, than any that can be made upon this Terrestrial Globe, namely, to a City situated in the upper Regions, think my self obliged, in Honour and Conscience, to take my final Leave of all sublunary Things.

Away then! yee worldly Pomps, and Ly∣ing Vanities; yee Blazing-stars, and short∣liv'd Meteors; yee golden Dreams, and visionary Phantasms; yee False Gods, and

airy Goddesses; yee fine spun-Cobwebs, and gawdy Peacocks Tails; yee fickle and inconstant Weather-cocks, and wavering half-toucht Magnetick-needles; yee plea∣sing Troubles, fading Flowers, and deceit∣ful Pleasures, that make as false Represen∣tations of true Content and Happiness, as the shadows of Human Bodies that are cast at different hours, when the Sun shines, give false measures of their respe∣ctive Statures, being sometimes of such prodigious Lengths, as though they were the Bodies of Giants, or Sons of the Ana∣kims; and at other times, so extream short, as though they were Dwarfs, or Pig∣mies.

What advantage is it now to me, or what addition does it make to my inward Peace, to have seen, in my youthful Days, the Riches, Glory and Magnificence of King's Courts, with their numerous Guards, and Royal Attendance?

What have I gotten, in my riper and more mature Age, by turning aside out of my way, to gaze about, and to ob∣serve, how the Balls of Honour, Interest and Power, have been tost and banded

to and fro, and struck from hand to hand, with the Rackets of Fas & Nefas, and alternatively rebounded from King∣doms to States, as from the Walls of Tennis Courts, by the World's Great Hero's, Master-Players, and skilfull Gamesters?

What satisfaction have I now? Or, What pleasure can any reasonable Man think I take, in calling to remembrance, how many Balls and Banquets, Plays and Musick-meetings, publick Shows, or other vain and sinful Pastimes I have been pre∣sent at, either to please my self, or to gra∣tify others?

On the contrary, What would I now give? (or rather, What would I not give,) to have spent the greatest part of those precious Hours, in private Prayer and Meditation: And the expence of all, in casting my Bread upon the Waters, and administring to the Necessities of the Poor, the Widow, and the Father∣less?

As for Stage-plays, (not to mention other vain and unnecessary Divertise∣ments) I am inclined to believe, that

the Original intent of them, was to ap∣plaud Vertuous Actions, and to discounte∣nance Vitious Livers. But I appeal to all sober Persons, whether the Practice of this last Age, has not produced contra∣ry effects.

And I crave leave to ask one short Question of young Gentlemen and La∣dies, and their Inferiours of both Sexes, What satisfaction they hope to have, when they come to lie on their sick or Death-beds (none of them knowing how soon they may receive the fatal Summons) for having been the Auditors and Spectators of so many Prophane and and Obscene Plays: Or to have read so many vain and idle Romances, where they learn little else, than to make or re∣ceive unlawful Courtships; or to gain such a kind of Knowledge, as their Mother Eve got by eating the Forbidden Fruit, or to be instructed in those Intregues, which otherwise, its possible, they had never known, or thought of all their lives.

I would also demand of the Authors and Actors of some certain Plays, with what face they can ask of God from day

to day, a Blessing upon their Labours and Endeavours? Or what Account they will one day give, at the Bar of his Tribunal, for having been the un∣happy Instruments of corrupting and debauching so many hopeful Persons of both Sexes; who, otherwise might have been eminent Examples of Piety and Godliness in their several Gene∣rations.