on which they depend, he will soon find his mind stayed on God, and be kept in perfect peace, because he trusteth in him.
SERMON XV.
"Man that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble,"
Job xiv. 1.
The position contained in this sentence, neither requires, nor admits, proof or illustration; being too evident to be denied, and too clear to be mistaken. That life is of short continuance, and is disquieted by many molestations, every man knows, and every man feels; and the complaint, attributed to Job, in the history that is supposed to be the oldest book of which mankind is in possession, has been continued, and will be continued, through all human generations with endless repetitions.
But truth does not always operate in proportion to its reception. What has been always known, and very often said, as it impresses the mind with no new images, excites no attention, and is suffered to lie unheeded in the memory. Truth, possessed without labour of investigation, like many of the general conveniencies of life, loses its estimation by its easiness of access: nor is it always sufficiently remembered, that the most valuable things are those which are most plentifully bestowed.
To consider the shortness, or misery, of life, is not an employment to which the mind recurs for solace or diversion; or to which it is invited by any hope of immediate delight. It is one of those intellectual medicines, of which the nauseous essence often obstructs the benefit, and which the fastidiousness of nature prompts us to refuse. But we are told by Solomon, that there is "a time not only to laugh, but a time to weep;" and that it is good sometimes to enter into the house "of mourning."
