otion not here the Infufficiency of the World's good Things to fill the Capacity or Extent of our Defites; and that to place our Happiness in this Life, and the Things of it, is to place it, where it never was, and never will be found. I take no Notice, how of nica bizod eply to ten Men employ thefe Things in the Purོ་ཅམ་༥རཔ

chafe of Vice and Diftempers; how often in bobustxa, thom

the midst of Plenty they are ruined, and rendered miferable by the Abuse of it. Nor fhall I detain you to obferve, that these good Things are frequently little more than the Shadows of Pleasures, no fooner seen but they are gone, and their Place is no where to

be found. For, to wave the Confideration 1of all this, what is the utmost Latitude of or barn, 376 2701uder earthly Greatness? What is the Duration of prefent Pleasure? Is it not confined within the Limits of the

id not straitened within

194 prefent Life Is one ye much narrower

Bounds? Do not "Men often die to this, -15% before they die to Nature?" You know, Dhow God reproved the fond Worldling in the Parable: (Luke xii. 20.) Thou Fool!

this

this Night fhall thy Soul be required of thee;

by

then whofe fball all thofe Things be, which thou baft provided? But the Sentence may be brought much lower, and 4 yet left fufficiently loaded with Terror. Let God but fay, this Night fhall thy Health forfake thee; and then what avail thy Riches; what avails it to poffefs all that the World is able to give, whilft you have Nothing in the World that you are able to enjoy ? Difpirited with Sick nefs, and tormented with Pain; where is the Pleasure of the Sinner that is clothed in Purple; or to what Purpose ferves the luxurious Table, but to reproach and difguft his loft Appetite? The Man cannot enjoy Pleafure but while he enjoys Health: And daily Experience fhews, that Health is not infeparable from an Abundance of all Things that Sickness fpares Gold Lace and Embroidery no more than it fpares the poor Man's Rags; and that the greatest earthly Power is not more a Privilege against Dif

10

cafes, than it is a Protection against the VAT NOT Grave.

This

This however is faying all that can be faid of fuccefsful Wickedness, that it may. fupply the Opportunities of Pleasure, may raile an overgrown Fortune, or obtain a large Extent of Power. And yet, even in this moft advantageous Point of View, cool Reafon can perceive but little Ground to envy Sinners. And if profperous Offenders feel daily the strongest Evidence, that Plenty is not Enjoyment, nor Power an Im munity from Afflictions; what fhall we say of the Rabble of Sinners, whofe wicked Gains are incomparably lefs? If they have not loft all Senfe of Virtue, and finned away the Belief of a God, and a Judgment to come, they are fure to get in the firft Place a wounded Spirit, fuch a Regret of Heart, fuch Apprehenfions of an offended God fpringing from a Senfe of Ingratitude for his Benefits, as change the fweeteft Honey into the bittereft

confult the Goal and theGo next and

Gibbet, what fome gain by their Vices. Afk others, how they

get

get Rottennefs in their Bones: How the and the Drunkard

Debauchee and th

C

to

live

out but half their Days. Afk what it is, that brings the evil Days towards us with a swifter Pace, and makes Life Labour and Sorrow before the Term appointed by Nature. But if through accidental Strength and Robuftབྱམས་ པས་ nefs of Conftitution fome happen to escape the fatal Confequences of Intemperance yet what is the whole Amount of their Gains more than a Life of Brutality and Riot Allow the utmost that can be allowed to thefe Things; yet ftill they must have the fame Limits as our Lives. And how fhörtst a Duration is that? When we depart bence and are no more seen in this World, Life and all the Diftinctions of Life expire together d There remains no Difference then but, that real one betwen the good and the bad, ther virtuous and the vicious. A good Con-s fcience is then the valuable Poffeffion: For God refpects Characters and not Perfons, and will judge all Men according to their Works.

This

This

is reminds me of the next Thing propofed, which was to confider

2.--The Reafons we have to be constant in the Practice of true Religion and Virtue,"

not thine Heart envy Sinners; but bet thou in the Fear of the Lord all the Day long. For furely there is an End, and thine Expectation Jhall not be cut off.

It certainly makes a most important Dif ference in the Account of Life, whether we fhall die like Beafts, or whether there be an immortal Spirit within us, that will survive the Diffolution of our Bodies. For if there be a future never ending State, the Pleat fures and the Pains of which exceed every Thing prefent; then Reafon writes it with a Sun-beam, that the longest Duration de ferves the greatest Care; that it is Wifdomt to dispense with some prefent Inconveniences for an eternal Felicity, and be willing to go VOL. II. Dd without