1 X. to that; for it is more tranfitory than the shortest S E R M. -Brevis eft hic fructus homullis; Lucret. iii. 927. 32. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die; be- 1 Cor. xv. cause our life is fhort, let us make the most advantageous use thereof we can 5; because death is uncertain, let us prevent its furprifal, and be beforehand with it, enjoying fomewhat, before it fnatches all from us. The author of Wisdom obferveth, and thus represents these men's difcourfe: Our life is fhort and Sap. ii. 1. tedious; and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave. Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are prefent; let us speedily ufe the creatures like as in youth; let us fill ourselves with coftly wine and ointments; and let no flower of the fpring pass by us ; let us crown ourselves with rofe buds before they be withered; let none of us go without his part of voluptuoufnefs-for this is our portion, and our lot is this. Thus, and no wonder, have fome men, conceiving themselves beafts, refolved to live as fuch; renouncing all fober care becoming men, and drowning their - • Quem fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro Sperne puer, &c. Horat. lib. i. od. 9. P 2 reafon J. X. SER M. reafon in brutish fenfualities; yet no question, the very fame reflection, that this life would foon pafs away, and that death might speedily attack them, did not a little quafh their mirth, and damp their pleasure. To think, that this perhaps might be the laft banquet they fhould tafte of; that they fhould themselves fhortly become the feaft of worms and ferpents, could not but fomewhat fpoil the guft of their highest delicacies, and disturb the fport of their Job xx. 14. loudest jovialties; but, in Job's expreffion, make the meat in their bowels to turn, and be as the gall of afps within them. Those cuftomary enjoyments did fo enamour them of fenfual delight, that they could not without pungent regret imagine a neceflity of foon for ever parting with them; and fo their very pleafure was by this thought made diftafteful and emEcclus. xli. bittered to them. So did the wife man observe: 0 death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at reft in his poffeffions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath profperity in all things: yea, adds he, unto him that is yet able to receive meat! And how bitter then muft the remembrance thereof be to him, who walloweth in all kind of corporal fatisfaction and delight; that placeth all his happiness in fenfual enjoyment? However, as to us, who are better inftructed and affected; who know and believe a future ftate; the confideration, that the time of enjoying these delights will foon be Ecclef. vii. over; that this world's jollity is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot, (which yields a brisk found, and a cheerful blaze, but heats little, and inceffantly paffes away;) that they leave no good fruits behind them, but do only corrupt and enervate our minds; war againft, and hurt our fouls; tempt us to fin, and involve us in guilt; that therefore Solomon was Ecclef. ii. 2. furely in the right, when he faid of laughter, that it is mad; and of mirth, what doeth it? (that is, that the highest of these delights are very irrational impertinences;) and of intemperance, that, at the laft, it 6. X. biteth like a ferpent, and fringeth like an adder; with S ER M. us, I fay, who reflect thus, that (gionaιgos aμagrías, dróλavors) enjoyment of finful pleasure for a feafon can- Prov. xxiii. not obtain much efteem and love; but will rather, I32. hope, be despised and abhorred by us. I will add Heb. xi. 25.. only, 4. Concerning fecular wifdom and knowledge; the which men do alfo commonly with great earnestnefs and ambition feek after, as the moft fpecious ornament, and pure content of their mind; this confideration doth also detect the juft value thereof; fo as to allay intemperate ardour toward it, pride and conceitedness upon the having or feeming to have it, envy and emulation about it. For imagine, if you please, a man accomplished with all varieties of learning commendable, able to recount all the ftories that have been ever written, or the deeds acted, fince the world's beginning; to understand, or with the moft delightful fluency and elegancy to speak all the languages, that have at any time been in ufe among the fons of men; fkilful in twifting and untwifting all kinds of fubtilties; verfed in all forts of natural experiments, and ready to affign plaufible conjectures about the causes of them; ftudied in all, books whatever, and in all monuments of antiquity; deeply knowing in all the myfteries of art, or science, or policy, fuch as have ever been devised by human wit, or ftudy, or observation; yet all this, fuch is the pity, he must be forced presently to abandon; all the ufe he could make of all his notions, the pleasure he might find in them, the reputation accruing to him from them muft at that fatal minute vanish; his breath goeth forth, he returneth to P. cxlvi. 4. his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. There is Eccl.ix.10. no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither he goeth. It is feen (faith the Pfalmift, Pf. xlix. 10. * Δοκεῖ γῶν ἡ σοφία θαυματὰς ἡδονὰς ἔχειν καθαριότητι, καὶ τῷ βε Caiq. Arift. Etb. x. 7. P 3 seen X. 15, &c. 12. SER M. feen indeed every day, and obferved by all) that wife men die, likewife the fool and brutish perfon perisheth; Eccl. ii. 14, one event happeneth to them both; there is no remembrance of the wife more than of the fool for ever; (both die alike, both alike are forgotten;) as the wifeft man himself did (not without fome diftafte) observe and complain. All our fubtile conceits and nice criticifms; all our fine inventions and goodly fpeculations shall be swallowed up either in the utter darkness, or in the clearer light of the future ftate. One potion of that Lethean cup (which we must all take down Pf.lxxxviii. upon our entrance into that land of forgetfulness) will probably drown the memory, deface the shape of all thofe ideas, with which we have here ftuffed our minds however they are not like to be of use to us in that new, fo different, ftate; where none of our languages are spoken; none of our experience will fuit; where all things have quite another face unknown, unthought of by us; where Ariftotle and Varro fhall appear mere idiots; Demofthenes and Cicero shall become very infants; the wifeft and eloquenteft Greeks will prove fenfelefs and dumb barbarians; where all our authors fhall have no authority; where we muft all go fresh to school again; muft unlearn, perhaps, what in these mifty regions we thought ourselves beft to know; and begin to learn, what we not once ever dreamed of. Doth therefore, I pray you, so tranfitory and fruitless a good (for itself I mean and excepting our duty to God, or the reasonable diligence we are bound to use in our calling) deferve fuch anxious defire, or fo restless toil; fo careful attention of mind, or affiduous pain of body about it? doth it become us to contend, or emulate fo much about it? Above all, do we not most unreasonably, and against the nature of the i Τὴν δ ̓ Ἰσοκράτες διατριβὴν ἐπισκώπτων, γηρᾷν φησι παρ ̓ αὐτῷ τὰς μαθητὰς, ὡς ἐν ᾅδε χρησομένες ταῖς τέχναις, καὶ δίκας ἐρῶντας. Cato Sen. apud Plut. pag. 641. Edit. Steph. X. thing itself we pretend to, (that is, ignorantly and S ERM. foolishly,) if we are proud and conceited, much value ourselves or contemn others, in respect thereto ? Solomon, the most experienced in this matter, and beft able to judge thereof, (he that gave his heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things, that had been done under heaven, and this with extreme fuccefs; even he) paffeth the fame fentence of vanity, vexation and unprofitableness, upon this, as. upon all other fubcelestial things. True, he commends wisdom as an excellent and useful thing comparatively; exceeding folly, fo far as light exceedeth Eccl. ii. 13. darkness; but fince light itself is not permanent, but muft give way to darkness, the difference foon vanifhed, and his opinion thereof abated; confidering, that as it happened to the fool, fo it happened to him, he breaks into that expoftulation: And why then was I more wife? to what purpose was such a diftinction made, that fignifieth in effect fo little ?. And indeed the teftimony of this great perfonage may ferve for a good epilogue to all this difcourfe, difcovering 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 greateft magnificences of worldly pomp and power; who enjoyed an incredible affluence of all riches; who tafted all varieties of moft exquifite pleasure; whose heart was (by God's fpecial gift, and by his own induftrious care) enlarged with all kind of knowledge (furnished with notions many as the fand upon the fea fhore) Kings iv. 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 pro κ. Διπλῶν ὁρῶσιν οἱ μαθόντες γράμματα. P 4 nounces |