صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

tleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance, and every other excellent Quality.

And now thefe are all dead in the Faith of Christ, and have attained the glorious Rewards that our Lord promifed. And fhall not we who furvive, and expect to be crowned at laft, as they are, fhall not we give fome Teftimonies that we are their Succeffors? At leaft that we are of that Religion that they were of? We have the fame Precepts that they had; the fame Promises, and the fame Affiftances. Where then is our Chriftianity, if do not imitate them? Oh then, let us endeavour to walk in their Steps: Let us at least lay afide every Weight, and all the Sins that do fo easily befet us, and run with Patience and Chearfulnefs, with Zeal and Perfeverance, that noble Race that is fet before us: Which that we may all do, God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c.

VOL. VI.

Bb

SER

370

SERMON XV.

ECCLES. ii. 11.

II.

Then I looked on all the Works that my Hands had wrought, and on the Labour that I had laboured to do; and behold, all was Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, and there was no Profit under the Sun.

HESE Words contain one of thofe Conclufions that Solomon draws from the feveral Experiments which he had made in his Search after Happiness. And if we confider by whom they were spoken, and upon how much Confideration, and after what Trials and Experience, we may depend upon it that they are, tho' a fhort, yet a very true Defcription and Reprefentation of the State of human Life. And confequently that there is very little Profpect of any Man's being happy here, that

hath

hath no Views beyond the Things of this prefent World. There is no Man living can ever expect to be in more happy outward Circumftances than Solomon was, or to enjoy more of this World's Good than Solomon did. And if he, after all, found nothing but Labour and Trouble, and Dif fatisfaction and Emptinefs, no real Profit, no Advantage in any worldly Thing, what muft we, that come after the King (as he expreffeth it in this Chapter; what must we) expect to find? Certainly no better Fortune than he did.

V. 12.

And if this be the Cafe of Mankind, how unaccountable is it, that any of us fhould fix our Thoughts and Designs, our Comforts and Expectancies upon any thing under the Sun. And yet, God knows, thus moft of us do; Though the Bed is fhorter Ifaiah than that we can stretch ourselves upon it, 28.20. and the Covering narrower than that we can wrap ourselves in it (as the Prophet speaks) nay, tho' every thing in Nature calls upon us, (in the Words of another Prophet) faying, Arife, for this is not your Reft; yet, Micah 2. vain Men! we will needs fet up our Reft here. We are willing to think of nothing farther than this World. We are fo wholly immerfed in the Bufineffes and Concernments of this prefent Life, that we have no Room or Leifure for the Thoughts of that which is to come. If it would please God to let us live always as we do, Bb 2

we

10.

we should be well content, we should defire nothing more. We should fay to

God, as one of the Apoftles did once to Matt.17.4-Our Saviour, Lord, it is good for us to be

here.

up

But how abfurd are thefe Wishes! How ridiculous is this Carriage! Nothing in the World can apologize for it. It is just the fame Folly that thofe Men are guilty of, that being toffed and down at Sea, yet nevertheless defire to be ftill there, and cannot endure to think of coming to a Port. It is the Madness of thofe, that being condemned to dig in the Mines, are so much in Love with Toil and Labour, with Chains and Darkness, that they despise a Life above Ground, a Life of Light and Liberty. In a Word, it is the fantaftick Punishment of Tantalus in the Poets, that these Men wish for themselves: They defire to spend their Time for ever in gaping after those lovely pleafant Fruits, which (they fancy) feem almoft to touch their Mouths. Yet all their Labour is in vain: And as they never did, fo they never shall be able to come at them.

Will you give me Leave, in Pursuance of my Text, to make good this by an Induction of Particulars. From hence you will too plainly fee the Truth of Solomon's Propofition, and confequently how foolish it is to look for Happiness in any thing of this World.

1. And first of all, let us confider the continual Toil and Labour that Mankind in this World are expofed to. Such is the State of human Things, that there are very few Hours of our Lives in which we are at Eafe, and free from Care and Travail : But mostly we are in a Hurry, and one Labour ftill fucceeds on the Neck of another. The dispatching of one Business is but the making Room for fome other, and poffibly more troublesome one that is prefently to follow after. We toil till we are weary, and have exhausted our Strength and Spirits, and then we think to refresh and recruit ourselves: But, alas! that Refreshment is only to prepare and enable us for the bearing the next Hour's Burthen, which will inevitably come upon us. are all of us, more or lefs, Servants and Bondmen, under a conftant and fatal Neceffity of doing Drudgery. What a World of Pains and Hardfhips is undergone by a great Part of Mankind merely for getting a Livelihood, a Subfiftence for themselves and their Families? Though, God knows, it is oftentimes a very mean one; they, with all their Toil and Labour, having much ado to keep themselves from a Prifon or an Hofpital. As for others, that are put by Providence into better outward Circumftances, they are never a Jot the more free from Anxiety and Cares. For tho' they are provided of neceffary Supports, yet Bb 3

We

the

« السابقةمتابعة »