Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

But secondly, they vanish from us presently: Solomon compares all the prosperity of the wicked to ¹a candle; How soon is the candle of the wicked blown out? All are like a mountain, yea, like a little hill of snow, that melts away presently. Pleasure gives us a deadly wound, and is gone, it makes us miserable, and then it leaves us.

1. 12.

Eighthly, if they should not be soon gone from me, ¹yet I must be soon gone from them. It were something if thou mightest abide by them, and they abide with thee, but within a while, thou and all thy pleasures together must vanish away, you must be dragged from them, if death draw the curtains and look in ⟨p. 127⟩upon thee, then thou must bid a farewell to all; never laugh more, never have merry meetings more, never be in jollity more; All, All, now is gone, as the Pope Adrian said, when he was to dye, O my soul, whither goest thou? thou shalt never jest it, sport it out more; when thou shalt be called to eternity, then all thy delights will leave thee, and bid thee farewell for ever: if you should call to them, O now go with me, now I have most need of you; alas, they cannot, all now is but a shadow, but a dream that is passed away; Alas, I was made for eternity, and what good is it for me to have such pleasures for a season? What is it to be jocund, to trifle up and down a year or two, and there an end? O how doleful will this sound be to you, Your season is done, you have had your time, it is gone, it is past, and cannot be recalled!

Eighthly, if they should not be soon gone from me, ¹yet I must be soon gone from them. It were something if thou mightest abide by them, and they abide with thee, but within a while, thou and all thy pleasures together must vanish away, you must be dragged from them, if death draw the curtains and look in