CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Thus you have heard the properties of it:¹ In the next place consider it comparatively with this present life, and you will see what a Mole-bill is to the vast heavens, that is, this life to eternal life.

1. 1II. Eternal Life considered comparatively with this present life.

For 1. This life is but short, fading, and fleeth away as a shadow; It's not a life but a shadow of a life; We live but in a dream, We act a life upon a Stage, There is but a life represented not really lived;¹ Hence the Scripture useth so many similitudes to express this nothing; Sometimes this life is called a flower, Psa. 90. which though sweet for a while, presently dieth; Sometimes a Flood, that makes a sudden noise, and is immediately swallowed up in the earth; Sometimes to a bubble, to a vapour, to a shadow, to a thread: Now why are all these expressions? but to tell us. This life is no life, it deserveth not the name of a life, and yet as poor and short as it is, what an inbred desire have we to it? Skin for skin, and all that we have we would exchange for it; how welcome then and desired should eternal life be, which compared with this life, is like the Ocean to a drop? Now lay up both these lives together, this fading moment, and that enduring Eternity, and admire the madness of wicked men, who say, Give me this life, Let me here live in my pleasures and lusts, though I be deprived of eternal life, This foolish choice is made by every wicked man.

For 1. This life is but short, fading, and fleeth away as a shadow; It's not a life but a shadow of a life; We live but in a dream, We act a life upon a Stage, There is but a life represented not really lived;¹