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but let me give you this needful item, that you be willing and ready to judge it to be sure, when it is sure, and when you have cause so to judge. Let your care be only, through faith in Christ Jesus, to live well, joining unto faith, virtue, &c., and you cannot but die well, 2 Peter i. 5. Death at first appearance, like a serpent, seems terrible; but by faith, you may see this serpent's sting taken out, which when you consider, you may, for your refreshment, receive it into your bosom. The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56; but the law of the spirit of life in Christ has freed you from the law of sin and death, Rom. viii. 2. I confess, that when you see this pale horse, death, approaching, it may cause nature to shrink, but when you consider that his errand is to carry you with speed to your desired home, unto a state of glory, how can you but desire he should remove you out of this vale of misery, that mortality might be swallowed up of life? 2 Cor. v. 4.

If you would do this in earnest, you would be so far from fearing death, that you would, if it were put to your choice, with the apostle, choose to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is the best of all, Phil. i. 23; and so far from fearing the day of judgment, you would love and long for Christ's appearing, 2 Tim. iv. 8; waiting with patience and cheerfulness, when your change shall be, Job xiv. 14. Endeavour to follow these directions; then, if you cannot prevent those fears, and conquer them as you would, yet be not discouraged, for fears and doubts in this kind do flow many times from strength of temptations, rather than from weakness of faith.

Moreover, what if you cannot attain to so high a pitch in your faith as Paul had, are you so ambitious that no other degrees of faith shall satisfy you? Or are you so foolish, as thence to conclude that you have no faith?

Thirdly, Whereas you say, you are without feeling, therefore you fear you have no faith; I acknowledge that want of a feeling sense of God's favour, is that which does more trouble God's tender-hearted chil-