we know and think, and the more experience we have of the world, and of ourfelves, the more we are convinced of this truth, and led back by it to reft our fouls upon that God from whence we came.-Every confideration upon the life of man tends to engage us to this point, to be in earnest in the concernment of religion;-to love and fear God ;-to provide for our true intereft,-and do ourselves the most effectual fervice,-by devoting ourfelves to him, and always thinking of him, as he is the true and final happiness of a reafonable and immortal Spirit. And indeed one would think it next to impoffible, did not the commonnefs of the thing take off from the wonder,--that a man who thinks at all,-should let his whole life be a contradiction to fuch obvious reflections. The vanity and emptinefs of worldly goods. and enjoyments,-the fhortnefs and uncertainty of life, the unalterable event hanging over our heads,that, in a few days, we must all of us go to that place from whence we shall not return; the certainty of this,—the uncertainty of the time when,-the immortality of the foul, the doubtful and momentous if - fues of eternity,-the terrors of damnation, and the glorious things which are spoken of the city of God, are meditations fo obvious, and so naturally check and block up a man's way,—are so very interesting, and, above all, fo unavoidable, that it is aftonishing how it was poffible, at any time, for mortal man to have his head full of any thing else?—And yet, was the fame person to take a view of the state of the world,—how flight an observation would convince him, that the wonder lay, in fact, on the other fide;-and that, as wifely as we all difcourfe, and philofophize de contemptu mundi et fuga fæculi;—yet, for one who really acts in the world-confiftent with his own reflections upon it,-that there are multitudes who seem to take aim at nothing higher; and, as empty a thing as it is,―are. fo dazzled with, as to think it meet to build tabernacles of rest upon it,—and say, It is good to be here.-Whether, as an able enquirer into this paradox gueffes,-whether it is, that men do not heartily believe fuch a thing as a future state of happiness and misery,—or if they do, that they do not actually and serioufly confider it,-but fuffer it to lay dormant and unactive within them,-and so are as little affected with it, as if, in truth, they believed it not; or whether they look upon it through that end of the perspective which represents as afar off,-and fo are more forcibly drawn by the nearer, though the leffer, loadstone;— whether thefe, or whatever other cause may be affigned for it, the obfervation is inconteftible, that the bulk of mankind, in paffing through this vale of mifery,-use it not as a well to refresh and allay,--but fully to quench and fatisfy their thirft;-minding (or as the Apoftle fays), relishing earthly things,-making them the end and fum-total of their defires, and, in one word,-loving this world -just as they are commanded to love God;that is,—with all their heart, with all their foul,-with all their mind and strength.-But this is not the ftrangeft part of this paradox. A man fhall not only lean and rest upon the world with his whole ftrefs,-but, in many instances, fhall live notoriously bad and vicious; -when he is reproved, he fhall feem convinced; when he is obferved,-he fhall be afhamed; when he purfues his fin,-he will do it in the dark; and when he has done it, shall even be diffatisfied with himfelf:-yet ftill, this fhall produce no alteration in his conduct. Tell him he fhall one day die;-or bring the event ftill nearer, and fhew, that, according to the courfe of nature, he cannot poffibly live many years, he will figh, perhaps, and tell you, he is convinced of that, as much as reafon and experience can make him-proceed and urge to him,-that after death comes judgment, and that he will certainly there be dealt with by a just God according to his actions;-he will thank God he is no deift, and tell you, with the fame grave face, he is thoroughly convinced of that too; and as he believes,-no doubt, he trembles too-and yet after all, with all this conviction upon his mind, you will fee him persevere in the fame course,-and commit his fin with as certain an event and refolution, as if he knew no argument against it.-Thefe notices of things, however terrible and true, pass thro his understanding as an eagle through the air, that leaves no path behind. So that, upon the whole, inftead of abounding with occafions to fet us seriously on thinkD d ing, the world might difpenfe with many more calls of this kind;-and were they seven times as many as they are,-confidering what infufficient use we make of those we have, all, I fear, would be little enough to bring these things to our rememberance as often, and engage us to lay them to our hearts with that affectionate concern, which the weight and interest of them requires at our hands.Sooner or later, the most inconfiderate of us all fhall find, with Solomon,-that to do this effectually, is the whole of man. And I cannot conclude this difcourfe upon his words better than with a fhort and earnest exhortation, that the folemnity of this season, —and the meditations to which it is devoted, may lead you up to the true knowlege and practice of the fame point, of fearing God and keeping his commandments, and convince you, as it did him, of the indispensable neceffity of making that the business of a man's life, which is the chief end of his being,—the eternal happiness and falvation of his foul. Which may God grant, for the fake of Je fus Chrift. Amen. |