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

2. Consider the universal Judgment even of the worldly Men in their last and serious Hours, when the Prospect of Eternal Things is open before them. How vastly different are their Apprehensions of Temporal Things in the review, ⟨p. 434⟩from what they were in their vicious Desires? How often do they break forth in the sorrowful Words of the Apostle, We have been toiling all Night, and caught nothing? When there are but a few remaining Sands in the Glass of Time, and Death shakes the Glass before them, how powerfully do they preach of the emptiness and uncertainty of Things below, and sigh out in Solomon's Phrase, All is vanity? And this is more singularly observable in those who have had the fullest enjoyment of earthly Things. How do they complain of the vain World, and their vainer Hearts, when Experience has convinced them of their woeful Folly? Solomon who was among other Princes, as the Sun in the midst of the Planets, that obscures them by his illustrious Brightness, He that had surveyed this Continent of Vanity, to make an Experiment whether any satisfaction could be found in it, at last sadly declares, that all things here below are but several kinds and ranks of Vanities, as ineffectual to make Men happy, as counterfeit Jewels of several Colours are to enrich the Possessor. Nay they are not only Vanity, but Vexation, an empty ⟨p. 435⟩show that has nothing real, but the vexation of disappointment. And shall we not value the judgment of Men when they are best instructed, and give credit to their Testimony when they are sincere? Certainly in their Approaches to the Divine Judgment they are most considerate and serious, they have the truest and justest thoughts of Things, and most freely declare them. O the astonishing Folly of Men! they will not be convinced of the error of their ways, till they come to the end of them, and the Sun is set, and no time remains for their returning into the way of Life.

2. Consider the universal Judgment even of the worldly Men in their last and serious Hours, when the Prospect of Eternal Things is open before them. How vastly different are their Apprehensions of Temporal Things in the review, ⟨p. 434⟩from what they were in their vicious Desires? How often do they break forth in the sorrowful Words of the Apostle, We have been toiling all Night, and caught nothing? When there are but a few remaining Sands in the Glass of Time, and Death shakes the Glass before them, how powerfully do they preach of the emptiness and uncertainty of Things below, and sigh out in Solomon's Phrase, All is vanity? And this is more singularly observable in those who have had the fullest enjoyment of earthly Things. How do they complain of the vain World, and their vainer Hearts, when Experience has convinc'd them of their woful Folly? Solomon who was among other Princes, as the Sun in the midst of the Planets, that obscures them by his illustrious Brightness, He that had surveyed this Continent of Vanity, to make an Experiment whether any satisfaction could be found in it, at last sadly declares, that all things here below are but several kinds and ranks of Vanities, as ineffectual to make Men happy, as counterfeit Jewels of several Colours are to enrich the Possessor. Nay they are not only Vanity, but Vexation, an empty