21. Be not, therefore, cast down by the loss of temporal goods, which, by the very laws of nature, we can enjoy but a little while: but lay the more to heart those incorruptible riches, that are laid up in the world to come; and do whatever thou canst to prevent the loss of them. Death will strip thee at last of all worldly possessions. Here shall be an end of pomp and greatness. This law of death is equally given to all, and the penalty of it attaches [pg 065] to all alike. The greatest king is seized on the throne, and the meanest beggar on the dunghill (1 Sam. 2:8; Ps. 113:7); for as the body of the one is, so is also the body of the other: both putrefy and turn alike to corruption. Nevertheless, the Lord will remove at length the veil of the shadow of death, which is spread over all nations, and will “swallow up death in victory” (Isa. 25:8), and “wipe away all tears from our eyes.” Rev. 7:17; Isa. 25:8.
22. Let these and the like considerations, induce thee patiently to bear the loss of earthly things; remembering that the whole world does not come up to the price of one soul, for which Christ vouchsafed to die. The more thou withdrawest thy heart from temporal goods and estates, the less will it affect thee, when thou shalt be obliged one way or other to leave them. Thy grief will undoubtedly be the greater, the more thy love has been wrapped up with them. Thus does the “labor of the foolish weary every one of them” (Eccl. 10:15); as the wise man expresseth it.
23. This is the unhappy state into which the children of this world plunge themselves. They hoard and amass their goods with assiduous pain and labor; they possess them with fear and anxiety of mind; and quit them at last with grief and groans, when they can no longer enjoy them. This is the “sorrow of this world,” which begets no less an evil than death itself.
24. We read, that such as adored the beast “had no rest” (Rev. 14:11): so they that adore the great and toilsome beast of sordid and earthly Mammon, may be said to have no rest, day nor night. This description of men, most wretched and most unquiet as they are, may be fitly compared to camels, or mules. These animals, traversing rocks and hills, and carrying gold and silver, silken garments and pearls, spices and wines, draw many attendants with them for their better security: but at night, when they are stabled, all their precious ornaments, their embroidered garments and vestments, are taken from them, and they, being weary and stripped, appear to be what indeed they are, poor and miserable beasts of burden. Nothing is now seen upon them but the prints of their stripes, and the marks of the blows which they received upon the road. So, in like manner, that man who in this world shone in gold and silks, in “purple and fine linen” (Luke 16:19), when the day of his death is come, has nothing left but the prints and scars of a wounded conscience, contracted by the abuse of such riches as were committed to his trust.
25. Therefore, O man! learn to relinquish this world, before it relinquishes thee. If thou break not with the world, the world will break with thee, and leave horror and anguish behind it. He who withdraws his soul from the world, before he quits the world with his body, can joyfully die: since he is loosed from the ties which bound him to these inferior objects. As the Israelites, when they were about to leave the land of Egypt, were daily afflicted with greater burdens by Pharaoh, who designed to destroy them, and, if possible, utterly to extirpate their progeny (Exod. 5:9); so the infernal Pharaoh, who desires to hinder our eternal salvation, when we are now upon the very borders of life everlasting, still attempts to load us with more of the concerns of this life, and thereby to obstruct our passage into a better world.
26. It is certain that we cannot [pg 066] carry with us the least dust of all our earthly possessions into the kingdom of heaven. Nay, our very body must be left behind us until the day of resurrection. If we know anything, we know that the way leading to life is so very strait, as to strip the soul entirely of anything that will hinder her passage. “Narrow is the way which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.” Matt. 7:14. As the husbandman separates the wheat from the chaff, so death frees the soul from all the chaff and dross of this world, from all riches, and greatness, and worldly attire, which now, like the chaff, are driven away.
27. Go therefore, O man, and seriously ponder in thy mind what the apostle declares: “Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 2 Cor. 7:10.