hold upon,
he himself was caught and laid hold upon by the wrath of God,--by death and
all the miseries before it or after it. Now, here is the map of the
world,--for all that is in the world is but a larger volume of that same
kind, "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of
life!" Albeit they have been known and found to be the notablest and
grossest deceivers, and every man, after he hath spent his days in pursuit
and labour for them, is constrained to acknowledge at length, though too
late, that all that is in the world is but an imposture, a delusion, a
dream, and worse, yet every man hearkens after these same flatteries and
lies that hath cast down so many wounded, and made so many strong ones to
fall by them. Every man trusts the world and his own flesh, as if they
were of good report and of known integrity. And this is men's misery, that
no man will learn wisdom upon others expenses, upon the woful and tragical
example of so many others, but go on as confidently now, after the
discovery of these deceivers, as if this were the first time they had made
such promises, and used such fair words to men. Have they not been these
six thousand years almost deluding the world? And have we not as many
testimonies of their falsehood, as there have been persons in all ages
before us? After Adam hath tasted of this tree of pleasure and found
another fruit growing on it and that is death, should the posterity be so
mad as to be meddling still with the forbidden tree? And wherefore
forbidden? Because destructive to ourselves.

Know then and consider, beloved in the Lord, that you shall reap no other
thing of all your labours and endeavours after the flesh, all your toiling
and perplexing cares, all your excessive pains in the making provision for
your lusts, and caring for the body only, you shall reap no other harvest
of all, but death and corruption. Death, you think that is a common lot,
and you cannot eschew it however, nay, but the death here meant is of
another sort, in respect of which you may call death life. It is the
everlasting destruction of the soul from the presence of God and the glory
of his power. It is the falling of that infinite weight of the wrath of
the Lamb upon you, in respect of which, mountains and hills will be
thought light, and men would rather wish to be covered with them, Rev. vi.
16. Suppose, now, you could swim in a river of delights and pleasures,
(which yet is given to none