31.

permanent: these we cannot hope to retain the use or SERM. pleasure of long; those we may promise ourselves to enjoy XLVI. fo long as we please. Whence on the other fide is it, that we little fear or fhun any thing, how painful, how offenfive foever, being affured of its foon paffing over, the biting of a flea, or the prick in letting blood? The reafon is evident; and that in general nothing can on either hand be confiderable (either to value or disesteem) which is of a fhort continuance. Upon this ground, therefore, let us tax the things concerning us, whether good or bad, relating to this life, or to our future ftate; and first the good things relating to this life; thence we shall be disposed to judge truly concerning them, what their just price is, how much of affection, care, and endeavour they deserve to have expended on them. In general, and in the lump concerning them all, St. Paul tells us, that to oxiμa тõ xóσ- 1 Cor. vii. μа TÉTO Tαράy, the shape or fashion (all that is apparent or fenfible) in this prefent world doth flit, and foon gives us the go-by: we gaze awhile upon these things, as in tranfitu, or intra confpectum, as they pass by us, and keep a while in fight; but they are presently gone from us, or we from them. They are but like objects reprefented in a glafs; which having viewed a while, we muft fhortly turn our backs, or shut our eyes upon them, then all vanishes, and disappears unto us. Whence he well infers an indifferency of affection toward them; a slackness in the enjoyment of them to be required of us; a ufing this world, as if we used it not; a buying, as if we were not to poffefs; a weeping, as if we wept not; and a rejoicing, as if we rejoiced not; a kind of negligence and unconcernedness about these things. The world, faith St. John, passeth away, and 1 John ii. the defire thereof; whatever feemeth most lovely and de-17 Επιθυμία firable in the world is very flitting; however our defire and «r. our enjoyment thereof must suddenly ceafe. Imagine a man therefore poffeffed of all worldly goods, armed with power, flourishing in credit, flowing with plenty, fwim

· πάντα παρέρχεται ἡμᾶς,

Εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ πάντα παρερχόμεθα Gr. Epig. Anthol.

SERM. ming in all delight, (fuch as were fometime Priamus, XLVI. Polycrates, Crofus, Pompey ;) yet fince he is withal fup

&c.

pofed a man and mortal, fubject both to fortune and death, none of those things can he reasonably confide or much fatisfy himself in; they may be violently divorced from him by fortune, they must naturally be loosed from him by death; the closest union here cannot laft longer than till death us depart: wherefore no man upon fuch account can truly call or (if he confider well) heartily esEccl. i. a. teem himself happy; a man cannot hence (as the most able judge and trusty voucher of the commodities doth pronounce) receive profit or content from any labour he taketh (upon these transitory things) under the fun. Why then, let me inquire, do we fo cumber our heads with care, so rack our hearts with paffion, fo wafte our fpirits with inceffant toil about thefe tranfitory things? Why do we fo highly value, fo ardently defire, fo eagerly pursue, fo fondly delight in, fo impatiently want, or lofe, fo paffionately contend for and emulate one another in regard to these bubbles; forfeiting and foregoing our homebred most precious goods, tranquillity and repose, either of Commo- mind or body, for them? Why erect we fuch mighty randi natu fabrics of expectation and confidence upon fuch unsteady verforium fands? Why dress we up these our inns, as if they were our homes, and are as careful about a few nights' lodging here, as if we designed an everlasting abode? (we that are but fojourners and pilgrims here, and have no fixed habitation upon earth; who come forth like a flower, and are 11. xi. 15. foon cut down; flee like a fhadow, and continue not; are winds paffing away, and coming not again; who fade all Job xiv. 1. like a leaf; whofe life is a vapour appearing for a little 39. time, and then vanishing away; whofe days are a handJam. iv. 14. breadth, and age is nothing; whofe days are confumed like Pfal. cii. 3. Smoke, and years are spent as a tale; who wither like the XC. 5, 9. grafs, upon which we feed, and crumble as the dust, of xxxix. 5. which we are compacted; for thus the Scripture by appocxix. 19. fite comparisons reprefents our condition;) yet we build, like the men of Agrigentum, as if we were to dwell here for ever; and hoard up, as if we were to enjoy after many

ra nobis di

dedit, non

habitandi locum.

Cic. de Sen. 1 Pet. ii.

11, 1.

Heb. xiii.

1 Chron.

xxix. 15.

Pf. lxxviii.

If. lxiv. 6.

ciii. 15.

cxliv. 4.

Pfal. ciii.

15.

If. xl. 6.

ages; and inquire, as if we would never have done know- SERM. ing. The citizens of Croton, a town in Italy, had a man- XLVI. ner, it is faid, of inviting to feafts a year before the time, that the guests in appetite and garb might come well prepared to them. Do we not ufually refemble them in this ridiculous folicitude and curiofity; fpes inchoando longas, commencing defigns, driving on projects, which a longer time than our life would not fuffice to accomplish? How deeply do we concern ourselves in all that is faid or done; when the morrow all will be done away and forgotten; when (excepting what our duty to God and charity towards men requires of us, and that which concerns our future eternal ftate) what is done in the world, who gets or loses, which of the spokes in fortune's wheel is up, and which down, is of very little confequence to us! But the more to abstract our minds from, and temper our affections about thefe fecular matters, let us examine particularly by this standard, whether the most valued things in this world deferve that estimate which they bear in the common market, or which popular opinion affigns them.

1. To begin then with that which takes chief place, which the world most doats on, which feems most great and eminent among men; fecular ftate and grandeur, might and prowess, honour and reputation, favour and applause of men, all the objects of human pride and ambition: of this kind, St. Peter thus pronounces, nãσa dóka avSpáne, All the glory of men is as the flower of the grafs ; 1 Pet. ii. the grafs is dried up, and the flower thereof doth fall off ; it 24. is as the flower of the grafs, how fpecious foever, yet the moft fading and failing part thereof; the grass itself will foon wither, and the flower doth commonly fall off before that. We cannot hold this flower of worldly glory beyond our short time of life; and we may eafily much fooner be deprived of it: many tempefts of fortune may beat it down, many violent hands may crop it; it is apt of itself to fade upon the stalk; however the fun (the influence of age and time) will affuredly burn and dry it up, with our life that upholds it. Surely, faith the Pfalmift, Pfal. Ixii. 9. men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a

SERM. lie: men of high degree; the mighty princes, the famous XLVI. captains, the fubtile ftatefmen, the grave fenators; they

who turn and tofs about the world at their pleasure; who, If. xiv. 17. in the Prophet's language, make the earth tremble, and Shake kingdoms: even these, they are a lie, (faid he, who himself was none of the leaft confiderable among them, and by experience well knew their condition, the greatest and most glorious man of his time, King David.) They are a lie; that is, their ftate prefents fomething of brave and admirable to the eye of men; but it is only deceptio vifus; a fhew without a substance; it doth but delude the careless spectators with falfe appearance; it hath nothing under it folid or ftable; being laid in the balance, (the royal Prophet there fubjoins; that is, being weighed in the scales of right judgment, being thoroughly confidered,) it will prove lighter than vanity itself; it is less valuable than mere emptinefs, and nothing itself. That faying founds like an hyperbole; but it may be true in a strict fense, seeing that the care and pains in maintaining it, the fear and jealousy of lofing it, the envy, obloquy, and danger that furround it, the fnares it hath in it, and temptations inclining men to be puffed up with pride, to be infolent and injurious, to be corrupted with pleasure, (with other bad concomitants thereof,) do more than countervail whatever either of imaginary worth or real convenience may be in it. Perhaps, could it, without much care, trouble, and hazard, continue for ever, or for a long time, it might be thought fomewhat confiderable: but fince its Pfal. lxxxii. duration is uncertain and fhort; fince man in honour abideth not, but is like the beafts that perish; that they who look fo like gods, and are called fo, and are worshipped as so, Pf. xlix. 12. yet muft die like men, like men, yea like sheep shall be laid in the grave; fince, as it is said of the king of Babylon in If. xiv. 11. Isaiah, their pomp must be brought down to the grave, and

6.

&c.

the noife of their viols; the worm shall be spread under them, and the worm shall cover them; seeing that a moment of time fhall extinguish all their luftre, and fill all that tumult about them; that they must be difrobed of their purple, and be clothed with corruption; that their so spa

cious and fplendid palaces muft foon be exchanged for SERM. close dark some coffins; that both their own breath, and XLVI. the breath of them who now applaud them, must be stopped; that they who now bow to them, may presently trample on them; and they, who to-day trembled at their presence, may the morrow fcornfully infult upon their memory: Is this the man (will they say, as they did of that If. xiv. 16. great king) who made the earth to tremble; that did fhake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and deftroyed the kingdoms thereof? Since this is the fate of the greatest and most glorious among men, what reason can there be to admire their condition, to prize such vain and fhort-lived pre-eminences? For who can account it a great happiness to be styled and respected as a prince, to enjoy all the powers and prerogatives of highest dignity for a day or two; then being obliged to defcend into a fordid and despicable eftate? Who values the fortune of him that is brought forth upon the ftage to act the part of a prince; though he be attired there, and attended as fuch, hath all the garb and ceremony, the enfigns and appertenances of majefty about him; speaks and behaves himself impetriously, is flattered and worshipped accordingly; yet who in his heart doth adore this idol, doth admire this mockery of greatnefs? Why not? Because after an hour or two the play is over, and this man's reign is done. And what great difference is there between this and the greatest worldly state? between Alexander in the history, and Alexander on the stage? Are not (in the Pfalmift's account) all Pfal. xc. our years spent as a tale that is told, or as a fable that is acted? This in comparison of that, what is it at most, but E telling the fame ftory, acting the fame part a few times over? What are a few years more than a few hours repeated not very often? not fo often as to make any confiderable difference: fo a great emperor reflected; rí diapé- Anton. iv. #perspinμLepas Trypnviou; What, faid he, doth the age of an in- 50. = fant, dying within three days, differ from that of Neftor, who lived three ages of men? fince both shall be past and

: ended; both then meet, and thereby become equal; fince, Sen. Ep. confidering the immenfe time that runs on, and how little xcix. 24.

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