that at length the figure of this world paffes away? But, does the affent we give to these truths produce the fruits of virtue and piety it is fo naturally adapted to bring forth? Does it render mankind in general humble, and heavenly minded? Does it moderate their attachment and love to that which is visible and tranfitory? Does it teach them to make a faithful and confcientious use of the advantages which God has given them, and of the invaluable time he affords them? Does it infpire them with a true zeal in providing for futurity, and induce them to prepare for that never-ending life, to which they are every hour, every moment approaching? Does it move them to hold fuch a conduct as becomes the citizens of heaven and the candidates for a bleffed immortality? No, woeful experience fhews us the contrary. These truths are perhaps fufficiently believed; but they are not thought upon with stedfastnefs and frequency enough; they are too foon loft fight of; they are fometimes purposely banished from the mind; at least, we do not often with fufficient attention and impartiality turn the intellectual eye inward, fix our reflections on ourselves and our conduct and hence it arises, that we feel not their falutary influence. I conceive it therefore

my

du

ty, pious hearers, to admonish you and myself of these truths; and to devote the present moments to the subject of the vanity of all earthly things. May these meditations make a deep and lafting impreffion on our hearts; may they have a bleffed influ

ence on the whole of our future conduct, and render us wife to everlasting happiness!

You know who was the author of this juft and well known fentence which we have taken for our text; and when you confider the principal circumstances of his life, it will not be difficult for you to perceive that his judgment in this matter ought to have great weight; as it is grounded on an accurate knowledge of earthly things, and a long experience of their agreeablenefs, on one fide; and of their infufficiency and emptinefs on the other. Were it fome gloomy moralift, fome anchorite, or mifanthropist, who, deftitute of all the conveniences of life, from his difmal folitude, furrounded by the fhades of death, called out to you, that all was vanity; you would probably vouchfafe no attention to his voice. His teftimony would make little impreffion on you. You would be more difpofed to pity him, than to fubmit to his precepts, and take his word in fuch a matter as this. You would pronounce him incompetent to decide on the value of things, which perhaps he had never seen, had never poffeffed, had never enjoyed; and which he only reviled, as you might imagine, because he was obliged to forego them. Is not this very often the precipitate and partial judgment you pass on the admonitions of your teachers, and by which you not unfrequently destroy their effect? When we reprefent to you all that is terreftrial and visible as empty and vain ; when we difcourfe to you of the honours,

of

of the poffeffions, of the joys of this world, as of things that deferve but fmall eftimation and attachment; when we maintain that the poffeffion and enjoyment of fuch things can procure no real happinefs to a rational and immortal creature; when we tell you, that we are here upon earth in a state of exercise and discipline, and that this is not the place of our destination; when we exhort you principally to aspire after what is heavenly and eternal, and to provide for futurity; with how many perfons do thefe declarations and admonitions lofe all their weight, because they imagine, and that frequently without the flightest foundation, that it is in a manner from constraint, and more from duty than from conviction, that we fo judge and discourse; and that we probably should foon change our language, were we thrown into another way of life, or if we were placed in different, and, according to the general opinion, more fortunate circumftances! I will not now examine the weakness and infufficiency of these subterfuges and evasions; I will not fay, that truth, virtue and religion, always remain truth, virtue and religion; and that they therefore always as fuch deserve our esteem, our obedience, our submiffion, let their teachers and defenders conduct

themselves as they will. I fhall at present only appeal to the expreffion of the author of our text, against whofe teftimony no one, not even the corruptest of the worldly-minded, can bring any fpecious accufation either of ignorance or partiality.

It is Solomon who makes his appearance as the teacher of the human race, calling out to deluded mortals, "It is all vanity, it is all vanity!" And who was this Solomon? Was he fome unfortunate prince, who encountered infuperable difficulties in whatever he undertook; who was hated of his fubjects, haraffed and perfecuted by his neighbours; who, by a long series of disappointments, had loft all heart and tafte for every beautiful and charming object of the earth; or who knew not the more refined and nobler fatisfactions of life? No. He was, as history informs us, the wifeft and the happiest monarch of his times. Beloved of his fubjects, feared by his neighbours, refpected by remoter nations, he enjoyed a flourishing and uninterrupted profperity. The moft extensive and uncommon knowledge adorned his mind; and his power left him in want of no refource for executing and extending his views, and for fatisfying his defires, if they were to be fatisfied. The fplendour and magnificence of his court, the exuberance of his trea fures, and the wisdom he displayed in his actions and discourses, made his very name renowned in foreign lands. "His wisdom, as the fcripture fpeaks, excelled the wifdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. Nay, he was wifer than all men.' With these ad. vantages he poffeffed whatever can flatter the fenfes, all that his heart could defire to fatiate him with a fuperfluity of joy. To him no kind of pleasure was unknown;

unknown; and his days were spent in jollity and mirth. Hear how he expreffes himself on this fubject: "I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits. I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me fervants and maidens, and had fervants born in my house; alfo I had great poffeffions of great and fmall cattle, above all that were in Jerufalem before me: I gathered me alfo filver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I got me men fingers and women fingers, and the delights of the fons of men. - And whatsoever mine eyes defired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy." But hear likewife what judg ment he paffes upon all this: "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and behold all was vanity and vexation of fpirit, and there was no profit under the fun." This is what he alfo affirms in our text, and indeed throughout the whole book from whence it is taken. Ye who love the world and what is in the world, more than God, who place your highest felicity in the poffeffion and enjoyment of earthly things, and feek your entire fatisfaction in them, what have ye to offer against such testimony as this? with what arguments can you invalidate it? how can you palliate and justify your folly? Is it not of a tendency to make the deepest