μετα.

SERM. ufeful thing comparatively; exceeding folly, fo far as XLVI. light exceedeth darkness; but fince light itself is not perAmanent, but muft give way to darkness, the difference - foon vanished, and his opinion thereof abated; confidering, sye that as it happened to the fool, fo it happened to him, he Eccl. ii. 15. breaks into that expoftulation; And why then was I more wife? to what purpose was such a distinction made, that fignified in effect fo little? And indeed the teftimony of this great perfonage may ferve for a good epilogue to all this discourse, discovering fufficiently the flender worth of all earthly things: feeing he, that had given himself induftriously to experiment the worth of all things here below, to found the depth of their utmost perfection and ufe; who had all the advantages imaginable of performing it; who flourished in the greatest magnificences of worldly pomp and power; who enjoyed an incredible affluence of all riches; who tafted all varieties of most exquisite pleasure; whose heart was (by God's fpecial gift, and by his own induftrious care) enlarged with all kind of knowledge (fur1 Kings iv. nished with notions many as the fand upon the fea-fhore) above all that were before him; who had poffeffed and enjoyed all that fancy could conceive, or heart could with, and had arrived to the top of fecular happiness; yet even he with pathetical reiteration pronounces all to be vanity and vexation of Spirit; altogether unprofitable and unfatisfactory to the mind of man, And fo therefore we may justly conclude them to be; so finishing the first grand advantage this present confideration affordeth us in order to that wisdoin, to which we should apply our hearts.

29.

I should proceed to gather other good fruits, which it is apt to produce, and contribute to the fame purpose; but fince my thoughts have taken fo large scope upon that former head, so that I have already too much, I fear, exercised your patience, I fhall only mention the rest. As this confideration doth, as we have feen, First, difpofe us rightly to value these temporal goods, and moderate our affections about them; fo it doth, Secondly, in like manner, conduce to the right eftimation of temporal evils; and thereby to the well tempering our paffions in the re

XLVI.

fentment of them; to the begetting of patience and con- SERM. tentedness in our minds. Alfo, Thirdly, it may help us to value, and excite us to regard thofe things, good or evil, which relate to our future ftate; being the things only of a permanent nature, and of an everlasting confequence to us. Fourthly, it will engage us to husband carefully and well employ this fhort time of our present life: not to defer or procraftinate our endeavours to live well; not to be lazy and loitering in the dispatch of our only confiderable bufinefs, relating to eternity; to embrace all opportunities, and improve all means, and follow the best compendiums of good practice leading to eternal blifs. Fifthly, it will be apt to confer much toward the begetting and preferving fincerity in our thoughts, words, and actions; causing us to decline all oblique designs upon prefent mean interests, or base regards to the opinions or affections of men; bearing fingle refpects to our confcience and duty in our actions; teaching us to speak as we mean, and be what we would feem; to be in our hearts and in our closets, what we appear in our outward expreffions and converfations with men. For confidering, that within a very fhort time all the thoughts of our hearts fhall be difclofed, and all the actions of our lives expofed to public view, (being strictly to be examined at the great bar of divine judgment before angels and men,) we cannot but perceive it to be the greatest folly in the world, for this fhort prefent time to disguise ourselves; to conceal our intentions, or finother our actions. What hath occurred, upon these important subjects, to my meditation, I muft at present, in regard to your patience, omit. I fhall close all with that good Collect of our Church.

Almighty God, give us grace, that we may caft away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jefus Chrift came to vifit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majefty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rife to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghof, now and ever. Amen.

SERMON XLVII.

THE CONSIDERATION OF OUR LATTER END.

PSALM XC. 12.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wifdom.

SERM. IN difcourfing formerly upon these words, (expounded

XLVII. according to the most common and paffable interpretaJob xiv. 14. tion,) that which I chiefly obferved was this: That the All the days ferious confideration of the shortness and frailty of our life is a fit mean or rational instrument subservient to the

of my ap

pointed

wait, till

time will bringing our hearts to wifdom; that is, to the making us my change difcern, attend unto, embrace, and profecute such things, as according to the dictates of right reafon are truly beft

come.

for us.

1. The truth of which observation I largely declared from hence, that the faid confideration difpofeth us to judge rightly about those goods, (which ordinarily court and tempt us, viz. worldly glory and honour; riches, pleasure, knowledge; to which I might have added wit, strength, and beauty,) what their just worth and value is; and confequently to moderate our affections, our cares, our endeavours about them; for that if all those goods be uncertain and tranfitory, there can be no great reason to prize them much, or to affect them vehemently, or to spend much care and pains about them.

2. I fhall next in the fame fcales weigh our temporal evils; and say, that also, The confideration of our lives'

brevity and frailty doth avail to the paffing a true judg- SERM. ment of, and consequently to the governing our paffions, XLVII. and ordering our behaviour in respect to all those temporal evils, which either according to the law of our nature, or the fortuitous course of things, or the particular difpenfation of Providence do befall us. Upon the declaration of which point I need not infift much, fince what was before difcourfed concerning the oppofite goods doth plainly enough infer it; more immediately indeed in regard to the mala damni, or privationis, (the evils which confift only in the want or lofs of temporal goods,) but fufficiently also by a manifest parity of reason in respect to the mala fenfus, the real pains, croffes, and inconveniences that affail us in this life. For if worldly glory do hence appear to be no more than a tranfient blaze, a fading show, a hollow found, a piece of theatrical pageantry, the want thereof cannot be very confiderable to us. Obfcurity of condition (living in a valley beneath that dangerous height, and deceitful luftre) cannot in reason be deemed a very fad or pitiful thing, which should difplease or difcompose us: if we may thence learn that abundant wealth is rather a needlefs clog, or a perilous fnare, than any great convenience to us, we cannot well efteem to be poor a great infelicity, or to undergo loffes a grievous calamity; but rather a benefit to be free from the diftractions that attend it; to have little to keep for others, little to care for ourfelves. If these prefent pleasures be difcerned hence to be only wild fugitive dreams; out of which being foon roused we shall only find bitter regrets to abide; why should not the wanting opportunities of enjoying them be rather accounted a happy advantage, than any part of mifery to us? If it feem, that the greatest perfection of curious knowledge, of what ufe or ornament foever, after it is hardly purchased, must soon be parted with; to be fimple or ignorant will be no great matter of lamentation: as those will appear no folid goods, so these consequently must be only umbræ malorum, phantafms, or shadows of Sen. Ep. 89. evil, rather than truly or fubftantially fo; (evils created by fancy, and fubfifting thereby; which reason should, and

SERM. time will furely remove ;) that in being impatient or dif XLVII. confolate for them, we are but like children, that fret and wail for the want of petty toys. And for the more real or pofitive evils, such as violently affault nature, whose impreffions no reason can so withstand, as to extinguish all diftaste or afflictive fenfe of them; yet this confideration will aid to abate and affuage them; affording a certain hope and prospect of approaching redrefs. It is often seen at sea, that men (froin unacquaintance with such agitations, or from brackish steams arifing from the salt water) are heartily fick, and discover themselves to be fo by apparently grievous fymptoms; yet no man hardly there doth mind or pity them, because the malady is not fuppofed dangerous, and within a while will probably of itself pass over; or that however the remedy is not far off; the fight of land, a taste of the fresh air will relieve them: it is near our cafe: we paffing over this troublesome fea of life; from unexperience, joined with the tenderness of our conflitution, we cannot well endure the changes and crosses of fortune; to be toffed up and down; to fuck in the sharp vapours of penury, difgrace, fickness, and the like, doth beget a qualm in our ftomachs; make us nauseate all things, and appear forely diftempered; yet is not our condition fo difmal as it feems; we may grow hardier, and wear out our fenfe of affliction; however, the land is not far off, and by difembarking hence we shall fuddenly be discharged of all our moleftations. It is a common folace of grief, approved by wife men, fi gravis, brevis eft ; fi longus, levis; if it be very grievous and acute, it cannot continue long, without intermiffion or refpite; if it abide long, it is fupportable a; intolerable pain is like lightning, it destroys us, or is itself inftantly deftroyed. However, death at length (which never is far off) will free us; be we

• Oágra Tóve yàg äxçov in ïxa xgóvov. Æfchyl. apud Plutarch, de Aui.

Poet. fub finem.

Τὸ μὲν ἀφόρητον ἐξάγει· τὸ δὲ χρονίζον φορητόν. Ant. vii. §. 33.

Summi doloris intentio invenit finem: nemo poteft valde dolere et diu: fic nos amantiffima noftri natura difpofuit, ut dolorem aut tolerabilem, aut brevem faceret. Sen. Ep. 74.