An _Old Man_ that was willing to put off _Death_.
There goes a Story that _Death_ call’d upon an _Old Man_, and bad him
come along with him. The Man Excus’d himself, that T’other World was
a Great Journy to take upon so short a Warning, and begg’d a Little
time only to make his Will before he Dy’d. Why (says Death) You have
had Warning enough One would think, to have made Ready before This. In
Truth, says the _Old Man_, This is the First Time that ever I saw ye
in my whole Life. That’s False, says _Death_; for you have had Daily
Examples of Mortality before Your Eyes, in People of All Sorts, Ages, and
Degrees; and is not the Frequent Spectacle of Other Peoples Deaths, a
_Memento_ sufficient to make You think of Your Own? Your Dim and Hollow
Eyes methinks, the Loss of your Hearing, and the Faltering of the rest of
your Senses, should Mind ye, without more ado, that Death has laid hold
of ye already: And is this a time of day d’ye think to stand shuffling it
off still? Your Peremptory Hour, I tell ye, is now come, and there’s No
Thought of a Reprieve in the Case of Fate.
The MORAL.
_Want of Warning is No Excuse in the Case of Death: For Every Moment of
our Lives, either Is, or Ought to be a Time of Preparation for’t._