How often had I envied his great learning, his skill in languages, his knowledge of antiquity, his address, and fine manner of expressing himself upon all subjects! But when I saw how poorly it all ended, what was to be the last year of such a life, and how foolishly the master of all these accomplishments was then forced to talk, I was then convinced that there must be nothing so happy and comfortable as a life of true devotion; nor any thing so poor and comfortless, as death without it.”
Look now at that condition of life, which draws the envy of all eyes.
_Negotius_ is a temperate honest man: he served his time under a master of great trade, but has by his own management made it a more considerable business than ever it was before. For thirty years past, he has written fifty or sixty letters in a week, and is busy in corresponding with all parts of _Europe_. The general good of trade seems to _Negotius_ to be the general good of life; whomsoever he admires, whatever he commends, or condemns, either in church or state, is admired, commended, or condemned, with some regard to trade.
As money is continually pouring in upon him, so he often lets it go in various kinds of expence and generosity, and sometimes in ways of charity.
_Negotius_ is always ready to join in any public contribution: If a purse is making at any place where he happens to be, whether it be to buy a plate for a horse-race, or to redeem a prisoner out of jail, you are always sure of having something from him.
He has given a fine ring of bells to a church in the country; and there is much expectation, that he will some time or other make a more beautiful front to the market-house, than has yet been seen in any place. For it is the generous spirit of _Negotius_ to do nothing in a mean way.
The generality of people, when they think of happiness, think upon _Negotius_, in whose life every instance of happiness is supposed to meet; sober, prudent, rich, prosperous, generous, and as the world thinks, charitable.
Let us now then look at this condition in another, but truer light.
Let it be supposed, that this same _Negotius_ was a painful, laborious man, every day deep in a variety of affairs; that he neither drank, nor was debauched; but was sober and regular in his business. Let it be supposed that he grew old in this course of trading; and that the end and design of all this labour, care, and application to business, was only that he might die possessed of more than a hundred thousand pair of boots and spurs, and as many great-coats. Now if this was really the case, I believe it would be readily granted, that a life of such business was as poor and ridiculous, as any that can be invented. But it would puzzle any one to shew, that a man that has spent all his time and thoughts in business and hurry, that he might die, as it is said, worth a hundred thousand pounds, is any whit wiser than he, who has taken the same pains to have as many pair of boots and spurs when he leaves the world.
For if when he has gotten his hundred thousand pounds, or all his boots, his soul is to go to his own place, as every soul needs must that has not closed with JESUS CHRIST, and is not born again of GOD; how can we say, that he who has worn out his life in raising an hundred thousand pounds, has acted a wiser part for himself, however his money may profit others, than he who has had the same care to provide a hundred thousand pair of boots and spurs, and as many great-coats?
It would be endless to multiply examples of this kind, to shew how little is lost, and how greatly they are mistaken, who imagine they should render themselves dull and comfortless by introducing a strict piety into every condition of human life.
Examples of great piety are not now common in the world; but the misery and folly of worldly men, and vain and trifling women, is what meets your eyes in every place; and you need not look far to see, how poorly, how vainly men dream away their lives for want of real devotion.
This is the reason that I have laid before you so many characters of the vanity of a worldly life, to teach you to make some benefit of the corruption of the age, and that you may be made wise, though not by the sight of what piety is, yet by seeing what misery and folly reign where piety is not.
To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to contemplate the love of GOD in CHRIST, the glories of heaven, 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 so suited to every capacity.