Son (fays Abraham to Dives) remember that thou in thy Life-time didft receive good Things, and Lazarus evil Things: But now be is comforted and thou art tormented: So that the Pleasures of this World, if the Heart be fet upon them, are but the Seeds of everlafting Torments: And as they who fow in Tears have God's Promife that they fhall one Day reap in Joy, fo they who now fow in Joy, that is, purfue the Pleafures of this World with an immoderate Love, can expect no better Fate, than to reap hereafter in Tears and Sorrow.

It was the Confideration of this Truth kept the Royal Prophet fteady in his Belief of an all-ruling Providence; when, as himself declares, his Faith was ready to ftagger at the Profperity of Sinners, and the Sufferings of the Juft: For he no fooner confidered their different Ends, viz, the Joys that crown the Sufferings of the Juft, and the endless Miseries that follow the short Joys of the Wicked, but his disturbed Thoughts were immediately calm'd, and all his Doubts of Providence fully fatisfied.

However, we must not infer from thence, that temporal Goods are not God's Bleffings, or that we ought not to be thankful for them: They are certainly his Bleffings, and challenge a Return of Gratitude: But they are a fort of Bleffings, which our cor

rupt

rupt Nature makes always dangerous, and for the most part, fatal to our Souls: First, because they are apt to fwell us with Pride, and a vain Conceit of ourselves: Secondly, because finding them agreeable, we eafily fet our Hearts upon them, and even love them with a Preference to our eternal Good And Thirdly, because we ufually make them the Inftruments of our Paffions, and inftead of employing them to God's greater Honour and Glory, we use them as Means to procure to ourselves those unlawful Pleasures, which the divine Juftice is obliged to punish hereafter.

For thefe Reasons, which are but too well grounded upon daily Experience, and the common Practice of Mankind, our Saviour pronounced this terrible Sentence, that it is easier for a Camel to pass through the Eye of a Needle, than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: The fame Reafons drew alfo from him thofe heavy Woes against the Rich, which one would think fhould fuffice to hinder any Man from defiring or envying their Condition. Not that the bare Poffeffion of Riches renders us in any Manner criminal in the Sight of God: Nay, if we will but ourfelves, we may make them very inftrumental to our future Happiness; particularly by distributing liberal Alms amongst

the

the Poor, by employing them for the Comfort of the afflicted, and finally, by making them a Support of the Cause and Interest of Religion. But this good Management is fo little practifed in the World, and the Abuse of them flows fo naturally. from our inbred Corruption, that very few make them serve for any other Purpose than to purchase for themselves thofe vain Joys which corrupt the Heart, and terminate of courfe in everlafting Sorrow. Whence it follows, that those who have Wealth, ought daily to pray God to give them Grace to ufe it well; and those who have it not, have Reason to praise him for being out of the Reach of a Temptation, by which Thousands have perished.

THE

THE

XXXVIIIth ENTERTAINMENT.

Some practical Inferences drawn from the foregoing Truth.

What fball it profit a Man, if be shall gain the whole World, and life bis own Soul? Mark viii. 36.

H

AVING in my last Difcourfe laid before you the Emptiness and Vanity of Worldly Goods, it remains now to improve this Truth by drawing fome practical Confequences from it; which fhall be the Subject of this Entertainment.

From the two firft Circumstances of earthly Goods, it plainly follows, that it is a great Folly to fet our Hearts upon any Thing in this World. For, who but a Fool would engage his Affections,, where he is fure to meet with Difappointments? And what can we elfe expet from Things made up of a greater Mixture of Evil than Good, and which therefore, must of Course give greater Vexation than Content ?

If we ever yet had heard of any Man, who own'd himself perfectly fatisfied in the Enjoyment of this World, we fhould have fome

fome Encouragement to hope the fame. But fince even thofe, who in all Appearance were as happy as the World could make them, have ever acknowledged their Diffatisfaction, and the Want of fomething to fill up the Measure of the imaginary Happiness they propofed to themfelves; is it not an Extravagance and Folly, either to promise ourfelves what no Man before us ever could arrive at, or fet our Hearts upon Things, which we know before-hand will deceive us? For fince Content is the only End we purfue in all our Defires of worldly Enjoyments; if it be evident, that they are not able to fecure this to us, there appears nothing in them worth the engaging our Affections; and to fet our Hearts upon them, is to act without Sense or Reafon.

However, let us now fuppofe the Joys of this World could give us a perfect Content, at leaft whilft they lafted; this notwithstanding would not excufe us from being guilty of Folly in fetting our Hearts upon them, by reafon of the fhortnefs of their Duration, and the unavoidable Necef fity of their ending at laft in Death: The Reafon is, because it is certainly a Folly to create to ourselves an unneceffary Grief and Trouble. Now this is the infallible Confequence of fetting our Hearts upon

any