tasting and relishing food? What advantage could I derive from a numerous levee; I, to whom company is become a burden, and who am in a manner a burden to myself? What advantage could I derive from elegant apartments, and extensive landscapes; I, whose eyes are incapable of discerning objects, whose body, almost motionless, is confined to an easy chair, or a sick bed? In one word, what benefit can I reap from a concurrence of all the advantages of life, I, who am within a few steps of the gates of death ? Happy! when my life comes to an end, to be able to incorporate my existence with that of the immortal God! Happy! when I feel this earthly tabernacle sink, to be able to exercise that faith, which is an evidence of things not seen! Happy to ascend to that city, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God! Heb. xi. 1. 10.

May we all, my dear brethren, live, grow old, and die in these sentiments! God grant us the grace. To him be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON VII.*

Disgust with Life.

ECCLESIASTES ii. 17.

I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me.

WERE we to estimate life by the idea which Solomon gives of it in the words of the text, it should seem there was very little wisdom in our congratulating one another, this morning, on beginning a new year. There should seem better reasons for deploring our fate, because we are alive, than for congratulating one another on the happiness of seeing another new year's day. Ye desolate families, in which death hath made such cruel breaches! Methinks, while this day naturally brings to your remembrance those dear parts of yourselves, you ought rather to shed tears of joy than sorrow! And you, Rachel, weeping for your children, you ought rather to be comforted for the children that are, than for those that are not. It should seem that the benedictions of the servant of God, who preceded us this morning in this pulpit, and to which we are going to join ours, were very unsuitable to the tender

*Preached on the first day of the year 1728.

affection we owe you, and to which this solemnity adds a new degree of activity and force.

Long may you live, said we this morning to one another; may God bless you, your fellow citizens, your relations, your friends, and your children, long may they live! Enjoy the blessings of peace, prosperity in commerce, stability in freedom, riches and plenty in abundance! Attain, and, if it be possible, go beyond the usual limits of the life of man, and may every day of that life be distinguished by some new prosperity. These were the benedictions and prayers which our friends uttered to us and we to them. And yet the wise man tells us, that riches and plenty, that the best established liberty and the most prosperous trade, that the blessings of peace and all the advantages of this life, are nothing but vanity. He doth more, after he had experienced all the pomp of worldly grandeur, and immensity of wealth, the utmost refinement of pleasure, and the most extensive reputation, after he had been the happiest mortal that ever lived upon earth, he tells us in the words of the text, I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me,

What then, must we revoke the congratulations of this morning? Do we come to pray God to send out his destroying angels, to return us that mortality which hath been ravaging our towns and provinces ? Are we come to collect all our prayers into this one of Jonah, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live, chap. iv. 3. or, in this of Elijah, It is enough, now, O Lord

take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers? 1 Kings xix. 4.

It is this contrast of ideas that we will endeavor to reconcile, for in this point of light we are going to consider the words of the text, and to treat of disgust with the world and contempt of life. Happy! if we be able by any observations of ours to abate the asperity of your minds in regard to the hateful things of life, and to engage you to make a holy use of every thing agreeable in it. Happy! if, by turning your attention to the amiable side of life, we may inspire you with gratitude to God for preserving it, in spite of the many perils to which it is exposed; and if, by shewing you the other side, we may incline you to quit it with joy, whenever it shall please God to require it. This is the substance of all our acclama

tions and

prayers in your favour to-day. Almighty and most merciful God, condescend to ratify in heaven what we are sincerely endeavouring to effect on earth! Amen.

I suppose it is Solomon himself, who speaks the words of my text, and not any one of the interlocutors, whom he introduces in his book. I suppose that he expresses in the words his own sentiments, and not those of any other person; and that he tells us not what he thought while his reason was wandering, and he was pursuing the vanities of the world, but what he thought after his recovery, and when he was under the direction of divine wisdom.

This observation is absolutely necessary for the understanding of the text. The great difficulty of the book of Ecclesiastes is owing to the great vari

ety of persons, who are introduced there, each of whom proposes maxims conformable to his own principles. Is it the satne man, who says in one place, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Live joyfully all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and God now acceptelh thy works, chap. ix. 7, 9. and in another place, "Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment?" chap. xi. 9. Is it the same man, who saith in one place, "I commend mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink and to be merry," chap. viii. 15. and in another place, "I said of laughter, it is mad; and of mirth, what doth it?" chap. ii. 2. Is it the same man, who saith in one place, "The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it," chap. xii. 7. and in another place, "The dead have no more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten to him that is joined to all the living there is hope, but the dead know not any thing, for a living dog is better than a dead lion?" chap. ix. 4, &c.

Expositors of this book, perhaps, have not always paid a sufficient attention to this variety. Which of us hath not, for example, quoted against the doctrine of invocation of saints these words, "The living know that they shall die, but the dead know not any thing; their love, and their hatred is now perished, neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun?" chap. ix. 5, 6. Yet I