sualist often" travail with pain';" that he that heapeth up, as well as " he that withholdeth more than is meet, tendeth to poverty;" and that the ambitious are often "filled with shame rather than with glory"?") still supposing the worldly man to succeed in his endeavours; nay, supposing him, as he is supposed by our Saviour in the text, to gain the whole world;" of how little real value is the acquisition, even when considered absolutely by itself; how incomplete is the enjoyment, how short is the duration of the enjoyment, which the world, and all the things that are in the world, can give!

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There are many other considerations, but these, I apprehend, are the two most conclusive, to shew the unprofitableness of worldly acquisitions. They are unsatisfactory; and they are of short continu

ance.

For who is the man, that has given himself up to the pursuit of worldly riches,

pleasures, or honours; and has ever considered himself to have attained the summit of worldly happiness? He that "loveth silver," saith the wise man, and what he affirms of covetousness, is equally true in its application to voluptuousness and ambition, to the lust of pleasure and of power, as well as to a thirst for money: "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase this also is vanity. When goods,

:

increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" The desires of the human heart are equal in extent to its capacity. But it is capable of enjoying more than all that this world can bestow, even God himself, who made it. It is impossible therefore, that any thing, or all the things in this world, should fill our souls, and limit our desires. That which is recorded of a celebrated conqueror, that when he had marched with his victorious army to the boundaries of the earth, he sighed for more worlds to conquer, contains a moral,

• Eccles. v. 10, 11.

applicable to the case of every worldly man. Though you were to attain every object of your fondest wishes; though every thing, which you now comprise within the compass of your desires or hopes, were to be heaped upon your head; though you were to gain the whole world, with all its riches, pleasures, and honours; the whole world and all that is in it would not suffice to appease the longing and craving of your soul. Having conquered one world, you would be uneasy and restless for the acquisition of another. New wishes would arise in your hearts: new hopes and new desires would urge you on towards fresh objects of enjoyment; still regardless of the remonstrance of the prophet, and incredulous to the truth of that sentence, which you are at the same: time confirming by every day's experience, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?"

But supposing the enjoyments of the world to be more satisfactory than they

r Is. lv. 2.

really are, still they are of short continuance for if they do not, as Solomon says of riches, "make themselves wings, and fly away," whilst life continues; still with life itself all the enjoyments of it cease. "We brought nothing into this world," nothing of worldly splendour or distinction, "neither can we carry any thing out." "Naked came we out of our mother's

womb; and and naked shall we return," wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked; " and shall take nothing of our labour, which we may carry away in our hand." A few brief years, and what will be the condition of him, "who now trusteth in his wealth, and boasts himself in the multitude of his riches?" His inward thought “is, that his houses shall continue for ever, and his dwelling places to all generations: and he calls his lands after his own name. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. For when he dieth he shall carry__nothing away; his glory shall not descend after

Prov. xxiii. 5.

Eccles. v. 15.

him." Surely it is a consideration, which might be expected, if no other could, to open the eyes of the worldly man upon the vanity and unprofitableness of his pursuits; that "in all points as he came, so shall he go; and then," as the wise man emphatically puts the question, "What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind t?"

The answer to the question is, He hath no profit at all. The world and its enjoy ments, imperfect as they are and transi tory, are, when considered only by themselves, absolutely of little value. But much is even that little value diminished, in the estimation of him who compares it with the value of the soul; with the excellence of the delights which may be attained by the spiritual part of man.

The excellence of such delights, and therein the value of the soul, appears from two considerations, opposed to those, which

• Ps. xlix. 6, 11, 12, 17.

t Eccles. v. 16.