It is, perhaps, for the same kind of Reason that few Books, [written [2]] in English, have been so much perused as Dr. Sherlock’s Discourse upon Death; though at the same time I must own, that he who has not perused this Excellent Piece, has not perhaps read one of the strongest Persuasives to a Religious Life that ever was written in any Language.

The Consideration, with which I shall close this Essay upon Death, is one of the most ancient and most beaten Morals that has been recommended to Mankind.  But its being so very common, and so universally received, though it takes away from it the Grace of Novelty, adds very much to the Weight of it, as it shews that it falls in with the general Sense of Mankind.  In short, I would have every one consider, that he is in this Life nothing more than a Passenger, and that he is not to set up his Rest here, but to keep an attentive Eye upon that State of Being to which he approaches every Moment, and which will be for ever fixed and permanent.  This single Consideration would be sufficient to extinguish the Bitterness of Hatred, the Thirst of Avarice, and the Cruelty of Ambition.

I am very much pleased with the Passage of Antiphanes a very ancient Poet, who lived near an hundred Years before Socrates, which represents the Life of Man under this View, as I have here translated it Word for Word.  Be not grieved, says he, above measure for thy deceased Friends[.  They [3]] are not dead, but have only finished that Journey which it is necessary for every one of us to take:  We ourselves must go to that great Place of Reception in which they are all of them assembled, and in this general Rendezvous of Mankind, live together in another State of Being.

I think I have, in a former Paper, taken notice of those beautiful Metaphors in Scripture, where Life is termed a Pilgrimage, and those who pass through it are called Strangers and Sojourners upon Earth.  I shall conclude this with a Story, which I have somewhere read in the Travels of Sir John Chardin; [4] that Gentleman after having told us, that the Inns which receive the Caravans in Persia, and the Eastern Countries, are called by the Name of Caravansaries, gives us a Relation to the following Purpose.

A Dervise, travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the Town of Balk, went into the King’s Palace by Mistake, as thinking it to be a publick Inn or Caravansary.  Having looked about him for some time, he enter’d into a long Gallery, where he laid down his Wallet, and spread his Carpet, in order to repose himself upon it after the Manner of the Eastern Nations.  He had not been long in this Posture before he was discovered by some of the Guards, who asked him what was his Business in that Place?  The Dervise told them he intended to take up his Night’s Lodging in that Caravansary.  The Guards let him know, in a very angry manner, that the House he was in was not a Caravansary, but the King’s Palace.  It happened that the King