t in my hand to
prevent, is not only irreligious, as contrary to our Saviour's command,
Matt. vi. 25, but unreasonable also, as that which even nature condemns.
"Take not thought for to-morrow," and so by consequent, "Boast not thyself
of to-morrow," and there is one argument from the vanity of such
affections. "Thou canst not make one hair black, nor add one cubit to thy
stature," &c. To what purpose, then, are either those vexations or
gloriations, which cannot prevent evil, nor procure good? Why should our
affections depend upon others motions? This makes a man the greatest slave
and captive, so that he hath not the dominion and power of himself. But
the vanity of such affections is the more increased, if we consider that
supreme eternal will, by which all these things are determined, and
therefore, it is in vain for creatures to make themselves more miserable,
or put themselves in a fool's paradise, which will produce more misery
afterwards, and that, for those things which are bound up in that fatal
chain of his eternal purpose. Then, in the next place, the folly of men
appears from the inconstancy of these things. There is such an infinite
variety of the accidents of providence, that it is folly for a man to
presume to boast of any thing, or take complacency in it, because many
things fall between the cup and the lip,(279) the chalice and the chin, as
the proverb is. There is nothing certain, but that all things are
uncertain,--that all things are subject to perpetual motion, revolution,
and change,--to-day a city, to-morrow a heap. And there is nothing between
a great city and a heap but one day, nothing between a man and no man but
one hour. Our life is subject to infinite casualties, it may receive the
fatal stroke from the meanest thing, and most unexpected, it is a bubble
floating upon the water, for this world is a watery element, in continual
motion with storm; and in these, so many poor dying creatures rise up, and
swim and float awhile, and are tossed up and down by the wind and wave;
and the least puff of wind or drop of rain sends it back to its own
element. We are a vapour appearing for a very little time--a creature of no
solidity--a dream--a shadow and appearance of something; and this dream or
apparition is but for a little time, and then it evanisheth, not so much
into nothing, for it was little distant from nothing before, but it
disappears rather. All human affairs are like the spokes of a wheel, i