The vanity of this mortal life, or, Of man, considered only in his present…

It can surely no way become one who seeks and expects the honour and glory which is conjunct with immortality, ¹to be fond of the airy titles that poor Mortals are wont to please themselves with; or to make one among the obsequious servile company of them whose business it is to court a vanishing shadow, and tempt a dignified trifle into the belief it is a Deity; to sneak and cringe for a smile from a supercilious brow; and place his Heaven in the disdainful favours of him, who, it may be, places his own as much in thy homage (so that it befalls into the Supplicant's power to be his Creator whose Creature he affects to be). What eye would not soon spy out the grossness of this absurdity? And what ingenuity would not blush to be guilty of ⟨p. 109⟩it? Let, then, the joyful expectants of a blessed immortality, pass by the busy throng of this fanciful Exchange; and behold it with as little concern, as a grave Statesman would the sports and ludicrous actions of little Children, and with as little inclination of mind, as he would have to leave his business, and go play with them; bestowing, there, only the transient glance of a careless or a compassionate eye, and still reserving their intent steady views for the glorious hope set before them.

It can surely no way become one who seeks and expects the honour and glory which is conjunct with immortality, ¹to be fond of the airy titles that poor Mortals are wont to please themselves with; or to make one among the obsequious servile company of them whose business it is to court a vanishing shadow, and tempt a dignified trifle into the belief it is a Deity; to sneak and cringe for a smile from a supercilious brow; and place his Heaven in the disdainful favours of him, who, it may be, places his own as much in thy homage (so that it befalls into the Supplicant's power to be his Creator whose Creature he affects to be). What eye would not soon spy out the grosness of this absurdity? And what ingenuity would not blush to be guilty of ⟨p. 109⟩it? Let, then, the joyful expectants of a blessed immortality, pass by the busie throng of this fanciful Exchange; and behold it with as little concern, as a grave Statesman would the sports and ludicrous actions of little Children, and with as little inclination of mind, as he would have to leave his business, and go play with them; bestowing, there, only the transient glance of a careless or a compassionate eye, and still reserving their intent steddy views for the glorious hope set before them.