EMPTINESS and VANITY

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OF

LIFE

Spent in the Purfuit of WORDLY PROFIT, EASE OF PLEASURE,

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COMPARED WITH

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Wholly employed in endeavouring to GLO

RIFY GOD, and DO GOOD to MANKIND;

ILLUSTRATED

IN

AN EXTRACT

OF THE

LIFE AND DEATH

Of the pious LADY ELIZABETH HASTINGS.

WITH

Some REMARKS on the UNIVERSALITY of the LOVE of GOD to MANKIND.

PHILADELPHIA:

Printed by HENRY MILLER, in Second-Street, M DCC LXVII.

1419.f528

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Tis a very remarkable faving of our Lord and Saviour to his difciples: Bleffed are your eyes, for they fee; and your ears, for they hear. It teaches us, that the dulnefs and heavinefs of men's minds, with regard to fpiritual matters, is fo great, that it may juffly be compared to the want of eyes and ears, and that God has fo filled every thing, and every place, with motives and arguments for a godly life, that they who are but fo bleffed, so happy, as to use their eyes and their ears, muft needs be affected with them.

Now, tho' this was in a more fpecial manner the cafe of those, whofe fenfes were witneffes of the life, miracles and doctrines of our bleffed Lord; yet is it as truly the cafe of all Chriftians at this time: for the reafons of religion, and the calls to piety, are fo written and engraved upon every thing, and prefent themselves fo ftrongly and fo conftantly to all our fenfes, in every thing that we meet, that they can only be disregarded by eyes that fee not, and ears that hear not. What greater motive to a religious life, than the vanity and poornefs of all worldly enjoyments? And yet who can help seeing and feeling this every day of his life. What greater call to look towards God, than the pains, the fickness, the croffes and vexations of this life! And yet whofe eyes and ears are not daily witneffes of them? What miracles could more ftrongly appeal to our fenfes, or what meffage from heaven speak louder to us, than the daily dying and departure of our fellow-creatures does. Let us but intend to fee and hear, and then the whole world becomes a book of wisdom and inftruction to us. All the miftakes and disappointments that happen to ourselves, all the miseries and errors that we fee in other people, become so many plain leffons of advice to us, teaching us with as much affurance as an angel from heaven, that we can no ways raise ourselves to any true happiness, but by turning all our thoughts, our wifhes and endeavours after the happiness of another life. Octavius is a learned, ingenious man,well versed in moft parts of learn

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ing, and no ftranger to any knigdom in Europe. The other day, being juft recovered from a lingering fever, he took upon him to speak thus to his friends: My glass, fays he, is almoft run out; and your eyes fee, how ma6 ny marks of age and death I bear about me: But I plainly feel myfelf finking away fafter than any standersby imagine. I fully believe, that one year more will conclude my reckoning.' The attention of his friends were much raised by fuch a declaration, expecting to hear fomething truly excellent from fo learned a man, who had but a year longer to live; when Octavius proceeded in this manner: For thefe reafons, fays he, my

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friends! I have left off all taverns, the wine of thofe ⚫ places is not good enough for me in this decay of na6 ture. I must now be nice in what I drink, I can't • pretend to do, as I have done; and therefore am refolved to furnish my own cellar with a little of the very beft, tho' it coft me ever fo much. I must also tell 6 you, my friends, that age forces a man to be wife in many other refpects, and makes us change many of our opinions and practices. You know how much I • have liked a large acquaintance; I now condemn it as an error. Three or four chearful diverting companions, is all that I now defire; because I find that in my pre• fent infirmities, if I am left alone, or to grave company, I am not so easy to myfelf.' A few days after Octavius. had made this declaration to his friends, he relapsed into his former illness, was committed to a nurse, who clofed his eyes, before his fresh parcel of wine came in. Young Eugenius, who was prefent at this difcourfe, went home a new man, with full refolutions of devoting himself wholly unto God. I never, fays Eugenius, was fo deeply affected with the wifdom and importance of religion, as when I faw, how poorly and meanly the learned Octavius was to leave the world, thro' the want ⚫ of it. How often had I envied his great learning, his fkill in languages, his knowledge of antiquity, his addrefs and fine manner of expreffing himself upon all fubjects! But when I faw, how poorly it all ended, what 6 was to be the last year of fuch a life, and how foolishly

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the mafter of all thefe accomplishments was then 'forced to talk, for want of being acquainted with the joys and expectations of piety; I was thoroughly convinced, that there was nothing to be envied or defired, but a life of true piety; nor any thing fo poor and comfortless, as a death without it.' Now as the young Eugenius was thus edified and instructed, fo, if you are fo happy as to have any thing of his thoughtful temper, you will find, that all the world preaches to an attentive mind; and that, if you have but ears to hear, almost every thing you meet, teaches you fome leffon of wisdom. But now, if to these admonitions and inftructions, which we receive from an experience of the state of human life; if to the fe we add the lights of religion, thofe great truths which the Son of God has taught us; it will be then as much paft all doubt, that there is but one happiness for man, as that there is but one God. Was all to die with our bodies, there might be fome pretence for thofe different forts of happiness that are now fo much talked of: But fince our all begins at the death of our bodies; fince all men are to be immortal, either in mifery or happiness, in a world entirely different from this; fince they are all haftening hence at all uncertainties, as faft as death can cut them down; fome in fickness, fome in health, fome Aleeping, fome waking, fome at midnight, others at cockcrowing, and all at hours that they know not of; is it not certain, that no man can exceed another in joy and happinefs, but fo far as he exceeds in thofe virtues, which fit him for a happy death. Negotius is a temperate honeft man. He ferved his time under a mafter of great trade, but has by his own management made it a more confiderable bufinefs than ever it was before. For thirty years laft paft, he has wrote fifty or fixty letters in a week, and is bufy in correfponding with all parts of Europe. The general good of trade feems to Negotius to be the general good of life. As money is continually pouring in upon him, fo he often lets it go in various kinds of expence and generofity, and fometimes in ways of charity. If you afk, what it is, that has fecured Negotius from all fcandalous vices; it is the fame thing that hath kept him from all ftri&tnefs

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