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Death is to every man a fall, from everything but God and godliness. Ye that are magistrates fall more stairs, yea, more storeys, than others. The higher your standing while ye live, the lower your falling when ye die. If magistrates are mortal, observe hence death's prevalency and power above all the privileges and prerogatives of nature. It is a memorable speech of Sir Walter Raleigh, Though God, who loveth men, is not regarded, yet death, which hateth men, is quickly obeyed. O mighty death! O eloquent death! whom no man could advise or persuade, Thou canst prevail with. Take notice from hence, that nothing in this world can privilege a man against the arrest of death Are magistrates mortal? Let me then, in the fear of the Lord, beseech you that are magistrates, now presently to make preparation for the hour of your dissolutions. My counsel shall be, with a little alteration, in the words of the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah, "Now set your house in order, for you must die" (Isaiah 38:6). I must tell you, all the time ye have is little enough for a work of this weight. In reference to this great duty of preparing for your dying day, I shall commend six particulars to your most serious thoughts.

1. Discharge your trust faithfully. The way to have great confidence when ye die, is to keep a good conscience whilst ye live.

2. Live among men exemplarily. Ye are the nurses of the people (Isaiah 49:23), and our naturalists observe that what disease nurses have, the children will partake of. Now, how will it gall your consciences, when ye come to die, if ye have been ringleaders in iniquity, and not patterns of piety.

3. Walk humbly with God. I have read of Agathocles, king of Sicily, that being a potter's son, he would be always served in earthen vessels, to mind him of his original. Some write of a bird so light and feathery, that it is forced to fly with a stone in its mouth, lest the wind should carry it away. The truth is, men that are high in place, are apt to be carried away with the wind of high-mindedness; they had need, therefore, to have earth in their minds, I mean their frailty, and it may prove, through the blessing of Heaven, a singular preservative.

4. Must ye die, and would ye prepare for it, then be active for God whilst ye live; the serious thought of death in your hearts will put life into your hands. This life is all your day of working, death is the night of resting.

5. Labour to find some inward work of grace wrought upon your hearts; be not contented with forms, but mind the power of godliness. A man may live by a form, but he cannot die by a form; when death cometh, when that damp ariseth, the candle of profession, separated from the power of religion, will first burn blue, and then go out; the bellows of death will blow the spark of sincerity into a flame, and the blaze of hypocrisy into nothing.

6. Make sure of an interest in Christ, in the death of the Lord Jesus. There is no shroud to this — namely, to be wrapt in the winding-sheet of Christ's righteousness.

(G. Swinnock, M. A.)

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KJV: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

WEB: I said, "You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.