268 .M'tu/s · Life Va!iity. State IV~ tale that iJ told, V'er. 6. Whfle an idle tale is a telling, it may affect a little; · hut when it is e'nded, it is forgot: · and fo il?, man forgotten, wh_en the fable of his life is en- . . ..., ed. It is as a dream or vijion of the night, in which there .is nothing folid : when on€ awakes, all evaniiheth, Job :xx 8. Hcjhall fly arzJ.Jaj a.r a dnam~ andjhali not befo:.md, yea, heJha/1 be chafed away aJ a vijion ofthe nig!Jt. It is but '.a vain {hew or imag~; Pfal. xx.xix. 6. Surei;• every . ·7JJan wafketh in a vain /J)ew. Man in this world is but; · .as it were, a 'J)Jal1ing flatue., his life is but an imag~ oflife; there is fo much of death in it. · Ifwe look on our life in the feveral periods of it, we vviH :find it a heap of vanities. Clfifdhood and;outb are ·umtity, Ecdef. xi. _Jo. vVe come into the world the moll he_lp· 1eis of an animals: ' young birds al)d beafis ca:n do· fome- ' , thing for themfelves, but infant man is altogethe1· un- • able t0 h~lp himfelf. Our childhood is fpent in pitiful trif.. ling plea:fbres, which become the fcorn cif our own after.. th-qpghts: routb is a flower that foon withereth; a b-loC– km 'that quickly falls off; it is a fpace of time in •1·hidi . \ve are rafh) foolifu, and inconfiderate, p1eafing ourfdves' ' "vi~h a variety of vanities, arid fv.rimming, · as it were, t11ro' a flood of ther.a. But ere we <ireaware, it is p~ft ; and we are in middle age,: et1com.l?aifed ·with ' a thick e;:Ioud of cares, through which we mufr grope; and _find- · ing ourfe!ves befet with pricking thorns of diffi'c-ulties ;. . through them we mufi force our way, to accompliih the projecrs and contrivances of our riper thoughts. And the more we 1olace ourfelves in any earthly enjoyment \\' e' attain to, the more bitternefs do we find in parting with– 'it. Then comes old age, attended with its own train of infirmities, lahon and forrcw, Pfal. ~c. 10. and fots us– down next door to the grave. In a w-Qrd, All jlcjh ir graft, Ifa. x,l. 6. Every f!:age, or period in life; is vani· ty. Man at hiJ hejl flr•te (his middle age, when the h.eat of youth is fpent, and .the forrows of old age have not_ yet overtak_en him) iJ ~ltogetber v~nit-!, 'Pfal. xxxix. ?• Death carnes off fome m the bud Oi ch1ldh~od, others 1_n the bloom of youth, and others when they are come to: thei r fruit .; few are left !landing, till, like ripe corn, they forfake the ground; all die one time or other. , S~condiJ.,
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