The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

The Apostle exhorts Christians to Moderation in their Temper and Conversation, with respect to the Business and Enjoyments here, that they who have Wives, be as though they had none; that those that rejoice, be as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use the World, as not abusing it; for the fashion of the World passeth away. To a wise and pondering Observer, what comparison is there between Shadows and Dreams, and substantial everlasting ⟨p. 125⟩Blessedness? If Men had the same opinion of this World whilst they live, as they will have when they are to die, they would not inordinately seek it. They who have magnified temporal Honours and Riches, and lived in Pleasures without Remorse, yet in their dying Hours, when Men speak with most Feeling and least Affectation, how have they vilified those empty Appearances of Happiness? with what moving Expressions declared the Vanity and Brevity of worldly things? As when the Israelites were to go through the River Jordan, that opened it self to make a free and dry Passage for them; the lower part of its Waters ran into the Dead Sea, and utterly failed:¹ but the Waters that came from above, rose up and appeared like a Mountain. Thus when Men come to the universal Passage, from this to the next Life, inferior things absolutely fail, and are lost in the dead Sea, but the things above, that are eternal, then appear in their true Greatness, exceeding all humane Comprehension: from hence is the change of Mind and Language concerning the one and other.

The Apostle exhorts Christians to Moderation in their Temper and Conversation, with respect to the Business and Enjoyments here, that they who have Wives, be as though they had none; that those that rejoice, be as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use the World, as not abusing it; for the fashion of the World passeth away. To a wise and pondering Observer, what comparison is there between Shadows and Dreams, and substantial everlasting ⟨p. 125⟩Blessedness? If Men had the same opinion of this World whilst they live, as they will have when they are to die, they would not inordinately seek it. They who have magnified temporal Honours and Riches, and lived in Pleasures without Remorse, yet in their dying Hours, when Men speak with most Feeling and least Affectation, how have they vilified those empty Appearances of Happiness? with what moving Expressions declared the Vanity and Brevity of worldly things? As when the Israelites were to go through the River Jordan, that opened it self to make a free and dry Passage for them; the lower part of its Waters ran into the Dead Sea, and utterly fail'd: