those profane wretches, who durst approach that type of heaven, whilst in their hearts they derided the antitype, believing no other heaven but what is here on earth, and scoffing at the resurrection and future judgment, without the belief whereof, there can be no serious and hearty worship or service of God.

And thus, I hope, I have sufficiently cleared and confirmed my first observation from the text, that good men, under the Law or Old Testament, looked beyond this present vain and transitory life, and believed and hoped for an everlasting happiness in the life to come.

Now this discourse serves to confirm the truth of the Christian religion, and our belief of it. The great promise of the Gospel is of a happy life hereafter to them that live virtuously here. That this promise is not delusory, no new fiction, or vain suggestion of Christ and his apostles, is sufficiently evident from the suffrage of the church of God before our Saviour's time, and from the beginning. We may say of this promise of a future life, as St. John doth of the evangelical precept of love, that it is a new commandment, and yet no new one, but an old one, delivered from the beginning; 1 John ii. the 7th and following verses. So this promise of a future happiness to the righteous, the chief part of that good tidings which the Gospel brings us, is a new promise, and yet not new, but an old one. New it is in respect of its clearer discovery and fuller confirmation by Christ; and yet not new, because this promise was given from the beginning, and good men in the church of God had always the same kind of hope that we have. In the church of God,

did I say? Nay, there is no people so barbarous but have had some notion of a life to come, this divine revelation being delivered from the beginning, preserved till the flood, and after the dispersion of the sons of Noah, conveyed by them to the several nations descending from them; though the doctrine (as all things intrusted to mere tradition used to be) was corrupted in the conveyance.

When therefore we Christians deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, out of an hope to be rewarded in a state remaining after this life, we venture in the same bottom that all good men of all nations have done before us. But God be thanked, if this notion had never been heard of in the world before our Saviour's coming, yet he alone hath brought with him such an assurance of it, that there remains no place of doubting to any reasonable and unprejudiced person; even by his own most glorious resurrection and ascension, abundantly attested to us, by the constant sufferings of the many eyewitnesses thereof, upon the account of that very testimony; and by very many unparalleled miracles wrought by them and their successors a long time after them; whereby indeed the whole Gospel of Christ is clearly evidenced. I conclude this with St. Paul's exhortation, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

And so I pass to the other observation from my text, which I shall despatch in a word or two, and so conclude.

2. That a serious consideration of the vanity and

shortness of this present life, and all the enjoyments thereof, is an effectual means to bring us to God, and to make us fix our hopes on him and things eternal.

For thus it wrought with David here, who after he had considered the vanity of this world in these words, As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. The wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more; he presently directs his thoughts to heaven in the following words, But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.

If therefore we would have our hearts brought off to God, and the serious pursuit of eternal things, let us daily study the vanity of this world. Study it, did I say? There seems little need of study, or deep search into this matter. This is a thing that thrusts itself upon our thoughts, so that we must think of it, unless we thrust it from us.

This lesson of the world's vanity, divine Providence doth press and inculcate on us, and as it were beat into us. We daily see the vicissitudes of human affairs. We continually hear of the losses, troubles, or calamities of friends or strangers. Yea, ever and anon some cross accident or other befalls ourselves, to let us know, that our happiness lies not here. We are daily accosted with spectacles of mortality, and, as our church expresseth it," in the midst of life "we are in death." Alas! that in the midst of so many remembrancers wherewith Providence hath surrounded us, we should, with the monarch in story, need another monitor to tell us every day, "Re"member that thou art mortal!" And yet this is our

case.

What fatal stupidity is it that hath seized on us? Hath the frequency of these admonitions made them to lose their force and virtue on us? or rather, are we affectedly ignorant, and do we wilfully put the evil day far from us? Whatever the cause be, the effect is sadly visible.

The time will shortly come, when we shall all perfectly understand (if we have any understanding left in us) the vanity of this world, when perhaps it will be too late for us to be the better for that knowledge, too late to mend our fortunes, (if I may so speak,) or to secure ourselves a happier condition in another world: I mean, when the world shall take its leave of us and we of it, when we come to die. Then the worldling himself shall be out of love with this world, yea, perfectly hate it, and be angry and vexed to find himself so miserably deluded and cheated by it. When all his treasures shall not be able to redeem his life from death; when all his vain and sinful delights and pleasures shall utterly forsake him, and leave nothing behind but a bitter remembrance of them; when pain, anguish, and sorrow shall take hold of him; when his soft bed shall give him no ease, nor his luxurious table afford him one morsel of food or sustenance; when his friends (if he have any) shall stand weeping about him, but not be able to help him; when his very life and breath shall begin to fail him, especially when (if his conscience be awakened) he shall see that dismal state of things that expects him in the other world, an angry and an almighty God too, bending his bow, (as the Psalmist elegantly describes it, Psalm vii. 12, 13.) and making ready his arrows, and whetting his glittering sword of vengeance

against him: those bailiffs of the divine justice, the devils, waiting to arrest his soul, and carry it to that prison from whence there is no redemption; and, in a word, hell itself opening her mouth wide to devour him. Then, then he will acknowledge that to be most true, which he had been often told before by the wise, but would not be convinced of it, that to trust to any thing in this world is a perfect folly, to neglect God and eternal things a very madness, and that religion and the fear of God is the only true wisdom. Then he will confess, that one spark of true virtue and grace in the heart, one soft whisper of a good conscience, one glimpse of the light of God's countenance, is more to be valued than this whole world.

But it were to be wished we would understand the vanity of this world at a cheaper rate, and as becomes wise men, by foresight and consideration, and not learn it only from that mistress of fools, sad experience. Yea, let us anticipate and be beforehand with this perfidious world, by breaking off our league with it before it thus miserably disappoints us. Let us now, presently, (if we have not before done it,) entirely devote and give up ourselves to the service of God, and the serious pursuit of eternal things. Let us renew our baptismal vow, and once again in good earnest renounce the world, with all its vanities. And let us do this seasonably, and in due time, whilst we may be accepted of God, whilst we are in such circumstances, that our abandoning the vanities of this world, and the devotion of our hearts and affections to God and heavenly things, may be accounted a free-will offering, and not be a matter of mere constraint and necessity. For let us