18. To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to contemplate the glories of heaven, to consider the joys of saints and angels living for ever in the brightness and glory of the divine presence; these are the meditations of souls advanced in piety, and not suited to every capacity.
But to see and consider the emptiness and error of all worldly happiness, to see the grossness of sensuality, the poorness of pride, the stupidity of covetousness, the vanity of dress, the blindness of our passions, the uncertainty of our lives, and the shortness of all worldly projects; these are meditations that are suited to all capacities. They require no depth of thought, or sublime speculation; but are forced upon us by all our senses, and taught by almost every thing that we see and hear.
This is that Wisdom that crieth, and putteth forth her voice in the streets, Prov. viii. 1. that standeth at all our doors, that appealeth to all our senses, teaching us in every thing and every where, by all that we see, and all that we hear, by births [♦] and burials, by sickness and health, by life and death, by pains and poverty, by misery and vanity, and by all the changes of life; that there is nothing else for man to look after, no other end in nature for him to drive at, but a happiness in religion.
[♦] duplicate word removed ‘and’
CHAP. XI.
That not only a life of vanity, or sensuality, but even the most regular kind of life, that is not governed by great devotion, sufficiently shews its miseries, its wants and emptiness to the eyes of all the world. This represented in various characters.
1.*OCTAVIUS is a learned, ingenious man, well versed in most parts of literature, and no stranger to any kingdom in Europe. The other day, being just recovered from a lingering fever he took upon him to talk thus to his friends.
“My glass, says he, is almost run out; and your eyes see how many marks of age and death I bear about me: but I plainly feel myself sinking away faster than any standers-by imagine. I fully believe, that one year more will conclude my reckoning.”
The attention of his friends was much raised by such a declaration, expecting to hear something truly excellent from so learned a man, who had but a year longer to live; when Octavius proceeded in this manner, “For these reasons, says he, my friends, I have left off all taverns; the wine of those places is not good enough for me in this decay of nature. I must now be nice in what I drink. I can’t pretend to do as I have done; and therefore I am resolved to furnish my own cellar with a little of the very best, tho’ it cost me ever so much.”