A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Use 1 First, If God thus unalterably appoints to us our last period, if he hath thus appointed us to Die, if all men are concluded under that irrevocable Law; let this then serve to convince us of the gross and notorious folly of setting our Affections eagerly upon this present World, a World that we must shortly leave behind us. Death within a very little while will most certainly pluck us from it, and it will prove a violent rending to us if our Affections are inordinately set upon any thing here below. It was a strange and perverse use also that the Ancient ⟨p. 33⟩Heathens made of the necessity of dying, when in their Feasts their custom was to bring in the resemblance of an Anatomy to their Guests, thereby to excite them to Mirth and Voluptuousness, whilst they should relish such delights as were then before them, because shortly they must be as much dust and bones as what they saw.¹ Like those the Apostle makes mention of, who said, let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die. But how much better use doth the same Apostle teach us to make of this, when in the same Epistle, he tells us, but this I say Brethren the time is short. Why, what then? why, says he, it remains therefore that they that have Wives be as though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this World as not abusing it, for the fashion of this World passeth away. Death one would think should beat down the price of the World in every wise man's esteem. Why should we lay out our affections upon those things from which we may be ravished in a moment? Both they and we perish in the using of them; ⟨p. 34⟩they are dying comforts, and we must die also that enjoy them. Oh! what Folly then is it to toil and wear away our Lives in pursuing such vain things, from which we may be snatched before we can cast another look at them! Sour Death will soon convince us that all is but vanity and vexation of spirit that we here set our eyes and hearts upon. And therefore,

Ʋse 1 First, If God thus unalterably appoints to us our last period, if he hath thus appointed us to Die, if all men are concluded under that irrevocable Law; let this then serve to convince us of the gross and notorious folly of setting our Affections eagerly upon this present World, a World that we must shortly leave behind us. Death within a very little while will most certainly pluck us from it, and it will prove a violent rending to us if our Affections are inordinately set upon any thing here below. It was a strange and perverse use also that the Ancient