To be mindfull of Death at all times. [ 1017]
THere was once a discourse betwixt a Citizen and a Marriner; My Ancestors (sayes the Marriner) were all Seamen,* 1.1 and all of them dyed at Sea; my Fa∣ther, my Grand-father, and my Great-grand-father, were all buried in the Sea; Then sayes the Citizen, what great cause have you then, when you set out to Sea, to remember your death, and to commit your soul to the hands of God; yea but, sayes the Marriner to the Citizen; Where, I pray, did your Father and your Grand-father dye? Why, sayes he, they dyed all of them in their beds; Truly then, sayes the Marriner, What a care had you need to have every night when you go to bed, to think of your bed as the grave, and the clothes that cover you, as the Earth that must one day be thrown upon you; for the very Hea∣thens themselves that implored as many Deities as they conceived Chimaera's in their fancies,* 1.2 yet were never known to erect an Altar to Death, because that was ever held uncertain and implacable.* 1.3 Thus whether it be at Sea or Land, that Man is alwaies in a good posture of defence that is mindfull of death, that so lives in this World as though he must shortly leave it, that concludes within him∣selfe, I must dye, this day may be my last day, this place the last that I shall come in, this Sermon the last Sermon that I shall hear, this Sabbath the last Sabbath that I shall enjoy, the next Arrow that is shot may hit me; and the time will come (how soon God knows) that I must lay aside this cloathing of Mortality and lie down in the dust.