Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.1

of Occafons of Sorrow. 249 abfolutely to be given up: But how awful S E R M. is the fequel! And it is now depending, it X. muff be either very happy, or very mife- ``v--4 rable, according to our behaviour. Nov when we are fure of fo great a change in our Bate as death makes, the irrecoverable lofs of life, and whatever is defirable to us under the fun ; and there is, we know, a much greater interefl than life at flake, and a more biting condition of happinefs or mifery, than any in this world abiding us, according as our deeds done in the body are good or evil, (hall we decline thinking on this change, and fecurely run this hazard, rather than give any interruption to our fhort lived pleafures by the prefent uneafi- nefs which muff attend a ferious confider - ation ? But Solomon carries the argument yet far- ther ; he loth not content himfelf with urging the certainty of death, and the ne- ceffity which is laid upon the living to lay it to heart, as a counterballance to the for-. row which will accompany their thought - fulnefs about it ; he goes farther, I fay, and afferts that this forrow itfelf is falutary, and even eligible, en the account of its tendency to the improvement of the mind, in wif- dom

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