Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

so that as the ^‖Historian observes, there was but a moment between the adorations and oblivion of that great Prince. All flesh is Grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the Grass. What ever disguises its imperfections, and gives it lustre, is but superficial, like the colour and ornament of a Flower, whose matter is only a little dust and Water, and is as weak and fading. Who then can possess these things without a just jealousy, lest they should slip away, or be ⟨p. 140⟩ravished from him by violence? And in this respect Man is most unhappy; for besides the affliction of present evils, Reason, that separates him from other Creatures, and exalts him above them, is the fatal instrument of his trouble by the prevision of future evils. Ignorance of future miseries is a privilege, when Knowledge is ineffectual to prevent them. Unseen evils are swallowed whole, but by an apprehensive imagination are tasted in all their bitterness. By fore-thoughts we run to meet them before they are come, and feel them before they are truly sensible. This was the reason of that complaint in the^‖ Poet seeing the prognostics of misery many years before it arrived,⟨p. 141⟩ Sit subitum quodcunque paras, sit caeca futuri Mens hominis fatty, liceat sperare timenti. Let the Evils thou preparest surprise us, let us not be tormented by an unhappy expectation of them, let the success of future things be concealed from our sight, let it be permitted to us to hope in the midst of our fears.

so that as the ^‖Historian observes, there was but a moment between the adorations and oblivion of that great Prince. All flesh is Grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the Grass. What ever disguises its imperfections, and gives it lustre, is but superficial, like the colour andornament of a Flower, whose matter is only a little dust and Water, and is as weak and fading. Who then can possess these things without a just jealousie, lest they should slip away, or be ⟨p. 140⟩