8 Tbe Vani~ of the World. Again, Confider, all the Pleafure of the World, is nothing elfc but a tedious JTpetitionof the fame things. Our Life con lifts in a* round of Acti- .. ndPr.t~ d.tl1~. ~~rt.fil ons, and what can be duller than frill to be doing the fame thin?,s ~, dn~:y!'x."Jf1#~· ~ ~J'~v .!>11..- over and Over again? Ask the moll: frollick Galbnt, whofc only ~~I;~;~:~:~7J!•~~lJ:::~ ftudy it is how he may pafs his. time merrily, and live h3ppily: rcJxd~~-mttr.l7U'7~f~.,ft;IU, \Vh~taccou~t can he glve of.his Pleafi1rcs_, but that from his Bed :Antonin. l. z, s. • 1. he nfeth to Ius Table, from hts Table to Ius Sports, from them he tumbles into his Bed aga in? This is the mofr gentile and f.1fhiomble Life. And are thefe the great Joys that a World fo prized :md fo admired can afford? one l1alf of his pleafant Life he fpends in fiecp, a dnll ftatc, which we may rather reckon to Death than Life. The other half he fpends in clogging his Appetite and tiring his Body) and then to ileep again. What generous and noble Defigns :lr~ thefel Fit for high Spirits and high Births? while the contemptible Peafants are left: to do the Drud~~r.y of. the yvor~d, ~nd to be t~1e only fervice~blc Men in jr. Nay, rather what a pltlful Ctrcle ts thts, fhll to be domg the fame thmgs, and things which we have before fearch'd and often found all that is in them. So that even a Heathen CD~ita* could fay, that not only a valiant or a miferable Man might defirc to die but a ;;;;~"~[,..nice and delicate Man, as difdaining the irkfome repetition of the fame thing~. cias. Cilm~, fom11:1.1, lihiU. Mtri velle, 1'011 ttmtum prudent & fmU 11•t miftr, fodttiam faflidi•fiu f#ltjl. Sen. Ep. 77· VU. l Sevrnthiy; The vanity of the World appears in this, That it can ftand us in no ftead, then when we have the grcateft need of Support and Comfort. There be two Seafons efpe(:ially in which the Soul wants relief and comfort, and they are, in trou:. ble of Confcience, and at the hour of Death. Now in each of thefe the World thews it felf to be exceeding vain and ufelefs. Firft; The World appears to be vain, when we arc under trouble of Confcience. What choice Comforts the Soul then ftands in need of, thofe who have felt the fting and ten-ours of it, can beft tell. The torments they then feel, next to thofc of the damned, are the moft intollcrablc, and the moft unutterable. God fcts them up as his Mark, and lhoots his Arrows, dipt in flaming Poifon, into the very midft of their Souls. He kindles a fecret F ire in them, tl1at confi.tmes their Bones, dries up their Marrow, and fcorches their Entrails; and fuch is the fpreading Raee of it, that oftentimcs it fmooks out at their Mouths in clefpairing Outcries. · 71Je Spirit ofa Man, (faith Solomon, Prov. 18. 14.) will bear his Infirmity; i.e. The na~ tural chearfulnefs and vivacity of a Man's Spirit, will enable him to bear up nnder bodily pains, Rut a wounded Spirit who can bear? When our Prop it fclf is broken, we muft nccds.fink, and fall under the mofl: gloomy apprchenfions that Guilt and Hell can crc.:ttc in a Soul already fing'd with thofe Eternal Flames into which with un~ fpcakable horrour it daily expeas to be plunged. 0! think what exaa torture thou mnft needs endure, when God lhall make deep wounds in thy Spirit, and let fall great drops of his burning W rath, on that part of thy Soul th.1t is infinitely more tender and fenfiblc than the Apple of thine Eye. Imagine what lharp and intollerable pains thofe iJ1art)'rJ fitftained, who (as the Apoftle tells us, Heb. 1 I. 37·) Wcte fowtJ afimder. Or fuppofe that thou thy fe lf wert now under the ragged Teeth of a Saw, drawn to and fro upon the tendercft parts of thy Body, tearing thy Flefh, thy Nerves and Sinews; grating and jarring upon thy very Bones: Yet all the extremity of this, is nothing to what Torments the Confcience fee ls, when God canfeth his Sword to enter into it, to rive it up; when he makes deep and bloody wound.s in i~, and inftead of pouring in healing Balm, with an heavy Hand chafes them wtth F 1re and Brim~ ftone. Now in fitch a time of angui ~ and difi:refs as thi~, _What is there that can relic\'C theatflitted Soul? TheWorldhng that heaps up hts Iil-gotten Trcafurcs, and w:1l~ lows in thick Clay, when God comes to ~nfack his Confcience, and to fet hefore him the Guilt of his Sins, will then know With terrour and amazement, that there is a Juftice which Gold and Silver cannot bribe. The voluptuous Perfon will no longer Job 1 • relifh any favourine~s in.his carnal Delights,. when once God *writes .bitter thing; z6, 3 91Ta.injf him. What ts Mtrth and Mufic~ to htm that can. now hear nothmg but the .Fcrieches of his own Confcicnce? What IS a full Cup to hnn, th.1t can now tafte no~ thing but the Cup .of Fury and Trembling? Little.: content will the Noble take in his honourable Titles, if all this while his Confcience call him Reprobate. A Title of Honour will no more abate the Torments of Confcience> than it doth mitigate Bel:ubub's
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