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SERM. ton, fuch a bashful sneaksby, so fantastic a philo foper XL. pretend to any thing here? No: thou art here pifcis in To r9s arido, quite out of thy element; this world is not for thee γαληνόν τε to thrive in.

καὶ ἄτεχνον καὶ πρὸς τὰς

63.

tu eft, pra

lidus bonos ifts, who can veer any whither with wind; any

et modeftos anteibat. Tac. Hift.

1.

This world is for worldlings to poffefs and enjoy: It T Bierg was, fay the Rabbins, made for the prefumptuous; and alφὰς ταύτας ETITION, though God did not altogether design it for them, yet men Naz. Ep. have almoft made it fo: they are beft qualified to thrive in it, who can luftily buftle and fcramble; who can fiercely fwagger and huff; who can fawn; who can wind and Quod facil-wriggle like a ferpent; who can finely cog and gloze; limum fac- who can neatly fhuffle and juggle; who can fhrewdly , et cal- overreach and undermine others; thofe flippery wily artthose men of impregnable confidence, who can infift upon any pretences; who can be indefatigably and irrefiftibly urgent, nor will be repulfed or baffled by any means; those who have a temper fo lax and fupple, that they can bend it to any compliance advantageous to them; who have a spirit fo limber, that they can stretch it any whither; who have face enough, and confcience little enough to do any thing; who have no certain principles, but fuch as will fort with E their interests; no rules but fuch Lesbian and leaden ones, τρατηγό ό"! pany that eafily may be accommodated to their purposes; whose δίσαντος αὐτ defigns all tend to their own private advantage, without gov, on, dia any regard to the public, or to the good of others; who Tuscan ufe any means conducible to fuch defigns, boggling at nothing which ferveth their purpose; not caring what they say, be it true or false; what they do, be it right or wrong, so it seem profitable: this is called wisdom, prudence, dexterity, ability, knowledge of men and of the world, and I know not what befide; in the Scripture, the wifdom of the world, and of the flesh, craft, guile, deceit, xubeía, &c. For fuch perfons it is to flourish in this world: Pfal. Ixxiii. Behold, thefe, faith the Pfalmift, are the ungodly, who pro12, 5, 7. Sper in the world, and who increase in riches; they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men; their eyes ftand out with fatnefs, they have more than

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αν, τὸ δὲ ἔτι.

ὅτι δίκαιος

εἰμι. Αl. xiii. 39.

16.

XL.

heart could wish: they it is who love the world, who feek SERM. it, who study and labour for it, who fpend all their time, and employ all their care about it; and is it not fit they 1 John i fhould have it? Is it not a pity they should miss it? Is it not natural, that they who fow to the flesh, should reap from the flesh? Should not they who use the proper means obtain the end? Should not they arrive at the place, who proceed in the direct road thither?

But for thee, who canft not find in thy heart to use the means, why doft thou hope to compass the end, or grieve for not attaining it? Why doft thou blend and jumble such inconfiftencies together, as the eager defires of this, and the hopes of another world? It becometh not fuch a gallant to whine and pule. If thou wilt be brave, be brave indeed; fingly, and thoroughly; be not a double-hearted mongrel; think not of fatisfying thy mind, and driving on other interefts together; of enjoying the conceit of being an honest man, with the defign of being a rich or great man; of arriving to the happinefs of the other world, and attaining profperity in this. Wouldeft thou enjoy both thefe? what confcience is there in that? Leave rather this world unto those who are more fit for it, who feem better to deserve it, who venture fo much, and take fuch pains for it; do not go to rob them of this slender reward; but with content fee them to enjoy the fruits of their labour and hazard: be thou fatisfied with the confequences of thy virtuous refolutions and proceedings: if it be worth thy while to live innocently, modeftly, and conscientiously, do it, and be fatisfied; fpoil not thine expectations by repining at the want of those things, which thy circumftances render incompatible with them; follow effectually the holy Patriarchs and Apoftles, who, without regret, forfook all, and cheerfully went thither, whither confcience and duty called them: if thou art not willing to do fo, why dost thou pretend to the fame principles, or hope 1 Cor. x. 13. for the like rewards? But, leaving the confideration of the is Πειρατήριον world as man hath made it, confider that this world is not, in agúrs iTi its nature, or defign, a place of perfect eafe and convenience, 1. Chryf. of pure delight and fatisfaction. What is this world but a ad Stag. 2. (p. 106.)

ἐσιν ὁ βίος τε

yus. Job vii.

SERM. region of tumult and trouble; a theatre of vanity and difXL. afters; the kingdom of care, of fear, of grief and pain; of fatiety, of disappointment, of regret and repentance? we came not hither to do our will, or enjoy our pleasure; we are not born to make laws for ourselves, or to pick our 2.9 is condition here: no, this world is a place of banishment Toy Biev, &c. from our first country, and the original felicity we were Apollon. defigned to; this life is a ftate of travel toward another

Οὐ νενομεθετηκότες

Plut. ad

23.

better country, and feat of reft; and well it is, in fuch cases, (well it is, I fay, for us, as exiles and travellers,) if we can find any tolerable accommodation, if we can make any hard shift it should not be ftrange to us, if in this our peregrination we do meet with rough paffages, foul ways, hard lodging, fcant or coarse fare; if we complain of such things, we do not furely confider where we are, whence we came, whither we are going; we forget that we are the fons of Adam, the heirs of fin and forrow, who have forfeited our reft and joy upon earth; we confider not, how unavoidable the effects are of that fatal condemnation and curfe, which followed our first tranfgreffion; we mind not that the perfection and purity of the bleffings we have loft is not to be found on this fide the celeftial paradife". This world is purposely made fomewhat unpleasant to us, left we should overmuch delight in it, be unwilling to part with it, wifh to fet up our reft here, and fay, Bonum eft effe hic, It is good for us to be here.

This life is a state of probation and exercife, like to that (which prefigured and represented it) of God's people in Deut. viii. the wilderness, wherein God leadeth us through many difficulties and hazards, in many wants and hardships, to - humble and prove us, in order to the fitting us for another more happy state ".

• Πειρασμός

λαβεν εἰ μὴ

Eccl. xl. 1.

1 Cor. x. 13. No temptation therefore (or affliction) can feize upon us, Arxdia in- but fuch as is human*; that is, such as is natural and proper

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m Διὰ τῦτο καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐπίπονον φύσει, και μοχθηρὸν ἡμῶν τὸν βίον κατεσκεύαζεν, ἵνα ὑπὸ ἐνταῦθα συνωθέμενοι θλίψεως, ἐπιθυμίαν τῶν μελλόντων λάβωμεν· εἰ γὰρ νῦν, &c. Chryf. 'Avdg. 5.

* Λογίζεσθαι χρή, ὅτι ὁ μὲν τῶν ἐπάθλων, ἢ τῶν σεφάνων καιρὸς, ἡ μέλλων ἐσὶν αἰων· τῶν δὲ παλαισμάτων καὶ τῶν ἱδρώτων παρῶν. Chryf. ad Stagir. 2.

doom of

to men: it is the confideration which St. Paul ufeth, to SERM. comfort and fupport us in troubles; and a plainly good XL. one it is: for feeing man, as Eliphaz faith, is born to trou- Job v. 7. ble as the Sparks fly upward; that nothing is more natural Vid. Max. Tyr. diff. to any thing, than trouble is to us; if we are displeased 25. p. 244. therewith, we are in effect displeased that we are men; it It was the implieth that we gladly would put off our nature, cease to be ourselves; we grieve that we are come to in this world; and as well might we be vexed that we not angels, or that we are not yet in heaven, which the only place exempt from inconveniences and troubles, Eccl. i. 14. where alone there is no forrow, no clamour, no pain.

and

man to eat

live his bread in are the days of

forrow all

his life.

is Gen. iii. 17.

All is vanity and vexa

rit.

Ο βίος άλη

s

πέλει. Εκτίρ. Quid eft diu

vivere, nifi

diu torqueri? Aug.

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It hath always been, and it will ever be, an univerfal tion of fpicomplaint and lamentation, that the life of man and trouble Apoc. xxi. are individual companions, continually and closely stick-4; ing one to the other; that life and mifery are but feveral 9; Bios, ἀλλὰ ξυμ names of the fame thing; that our ftate here is nothing . elfe but a combination of various evils, (made up of cares, Bios yag Βίος γὰρ ὄνομ ̓ ἔχει, of labours, of dangers, of disappointments, of difcords, of difquiets, of diseases, of manifold pains and forrows ;) that all ages, from wailing infancy to querulous decrepitnefs, and all conditions, from the careful fceptre to the painful fpade, are fraught with many great inconveniences peculiar to each of them; that all the face of the earth is aún μiv overspread with mischiefs as with a general and perpetual, ein deluge; that nothing perfectly found, nothing safe, nothing. ftable, nothing ferene is here to be found: this with one fad voice all mankind refoundeth; this our poets are ever moanfully finging, this our philofophers do gravely inculcate; this the experience of all times loudly proclaimeth: for what are all hiftories but continual registers of the evils incident to men? what do they all defcribe, but wars and flaughters, mutinies and feditions, tumults and confufions, devastations and ruins? What do they tell us, but of men furiously striving together, circumventing, fpoiling, deftroying one another? what do we daily hear reported, but cruel broils, bloody battles, and tragical events; great numbers of men flain, wounded, hurried into captivity; cities facked and rafed, countries haraffed and depopu

Hefiod.

SERM. lated; kingdoms and commonwealths overturned? what XL. do we fee before us but men carking, toiling, bickering;

fome worn out with labour, fome pining away for want, fome groaning under pain? And amidst so many common miferies and misfortunes, in fo generally confused and difmal a state of things, is it not ridiculously abfurd for us, doth it not argue in us a prodigious fondness of felf-love, heinously to refent, or impatiently to bemoan our particular and private croffes? May not reasonably Jer. xlv. 4, that expoftulation of Jeremy to Baruch reach us? The Lord faith thus, Behold, that which I have built I will break down; and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land. And feekeft thou great things for thyfelf? feek them not; for behold I will bring evil on all flesh.

5.

4. Again, if we more closely and particularly furvey the ftates of other men, (of our brethren everywhere, of our neighbours all about us,) and compare our cafe with theirs, our condition hardly can appear to us so bad, but that we have many conforts and affociates therein; many as ill, many far worfe beftead than ourselves. How many of our brethren in the world may we obferve conflicting with extreme penury and diftrefs; how many undergoing continual hard drudgeries to maintain their lives; how many forely pinched with hunger and cold; how many tortured with grievous fickness; how many oppreffed with debt; how many fhut up under close restraint; how many detained in horrible flavery; how many by the wafting rage of war rifled of their goods, driven from their homes, difpoffeffed of all comfortable subfiftence? How many, in fine, paffing their lives in all the inconveniences of rude, beggarly, fordid, and savage barbarifm? And who of us have, in any measure, tafted of thefe, or of the like calamities? Yet are these fufferers, all of them, the fame in nature with us; many of them (as reafon, as humility, as

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Ideo mihi videtur rerum naturæ, quod graviffimum fecit, commune feciffe, ut crudelitatem fati confolaretur æqualitas. Sen. ad Polyb. 21.

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