Senn. XI V. Sojourners upon Earth. 1o7 affli fed with Lollies, or deprived of Friends, or crofs'd, in our Interefls and Do- figns, and one thing or other happens to impede or interrupt the Contentment and Happinefs of our Lives. Sometimes an unexpe&ed Storm, or fonìe other fuddain Calamity, fweepeth away, in an inflant, all that which with fo much Indufiry and Care we have been gathering many Years. Or if an Eflate (land firm, our Children are taken way, to whofe Comfort and Advantage all the Pains and Endeavours of our Lives were devoted. Or if none of thefe happen, (as it is very rare to efcape moft, or force of them ) yet for a Demonftration to us that God intended this World to be uneafie, to convince us that a perte& State of Happinefs is not to be had here below, we often fee in Experience, that thofe who feem to be in a Condition as happy as this World can put them into, by the greateft Accommodations towards it, are yet as far or farther from Happinefs, as thofe who are deftitute ofmolt ofthofe things whereinthegreateft Felicity ofthis Wqrld is thought to confift. Many times it fo happens, that they who have all the Furniture and Requifites, all the Materials and Ingredients of a Worldly Fe- licity at their Command, and in their Power, yet have not the Skill and Ability out of all thefe to frame a happy Condition of Life to themfelves. They have Health, and Friends, and Reputation, and Eftate in abundance, and all outward Accommodations that Heart can with ; and yet in the midft of all thefe Circum- ftances ofoutward Felicity, they are uneafie in their Minds, and as the Wife Man expreffeth it, In their fufjiciency they are infireights, and are as it were forfeited even of Happinefs it fell, and do fo fantaftically and unaccountably naufeate the good Condition are they in, that tho' they want nothing to make them Happy, yet they cannot think themfelves fo ; though theyhave nothing in the World to molefl and difgult them, yet they can make a Ihift to Create as much trouble to themfelves, out of nothing, as they who have the real and fubflantial Caufes of Difcontent. Which plainly thews, That we are not to look for Happinefs here ; 'tis not to be found in this Land of the Living ; and after our Enquiries after it, we (hall fee fufficient Reafon to take up Solomon's Conclufion, that All is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit ; which is much the fame with that Aphorifin of David his Father, which 1 mentioned before, that Man in his befl eflate is altogether vanity. But what Happinefs foever our Condition in this World is capable of 'tis moft affuredly full of Uncertainty and Unfettlement; we cannot enjoy it long, and every Moment we are in danger of being deprived of it. Whatever degree of Earthly Felicity we are poffefs'd of; we have no Security that it {hall con- tinue. There is nothing in this World, but, when we are as fore of it as this World can make us, may be taken awayfrom us by a thoufand Accidents. But fuppofe it to abide and continue; we our felves (hall be taken away from it: We muff die, and in that very Day all our Enjoyments and Hopes, as to thia World, will peril?) with us ; for here is no abiding Place, We have no continuing Pity; fo that it is in vain to deign a Happinefs to our felves in this World, whenwe are not to flay in it, but only travel and pafs through it: And this is the Fülf ; Our Condition in this World is very troublefom and un- fettled. IT. Our Condition in this World being a State of Pilgrimage; loth imply a tendency to future Settlement, and the Hopes and Expe&ation of a happier Condition hereafter. And fo the Apoftle reafons immediately after the Text.; They confe/fed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth ; for they that fay fuck things, declare plainly that thy feek a Country ; that is, they who acknowledge themfelves to be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth, and yet withal profefs to be perfwaded of the Goodnefs of God and the Fideliry of his Promife, do plainly declare, that they feek another Country. This is fpoken of Abraham, Ifaac, and 7acob, who acknowledged themfelves fo be Sran;ero and Pilgrims in the Earth ; and thereby declared, that they fought another Country, Now, fays the Apoftle, this cannot be the Country from whence they firfl came, hr of the Chalclees, v. r g, And truly, if they had been mindful of that Coun- t' 2 try
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