uld be of great price,
beyond many things, having but so much virtue among them all. I shall
suppose then, that there were real satisfaction and happiness to be found
in the affluence and conjunction of all created things here, that there
was some creature that could answer every necessity of men, yet, I say,
would ye not exchange all that variety and multitude, if ye could find one
thing that did all that to the full, that so many did but no more? Then
certainly ye would choose a variety in one thing beyond the scattered
satisfaction in many things. But when it is not to be found in all these
things, and though it were, yet all these are not consistent together,
then of necessity we must make another search. I say then, in the name of
Jesus Christ, that if ye seek satisfaction in this present world, ye shall
be disappointed. Ye may be all your days sowing and ploughing, but ye
shall not see the harvest. Ye shall never reap the fruit of your labour,
but in the end of your days shall be fools, and see yourselves to have
been so, when ye thought yourselves wise. I shall also suppose that ye
have attained what ye have with so much vexation toiled for, that ye had
your barns and coffers full, that all the varieties of human delights were
still attending you, that ye were set upon a throne of eminency above
others, and in a word, that ye had all that your soul desired, so that no
room was left empty for more desire, and no more grief entered into your
hearts. Are ye blessed for all that? No certainly, if ye do but consider
that with all ye may lose your own souls, and that quickly, and that your
spirits must remove out of that palace of pleasure and delight into
eternal torment, and then count, are ye blessed or not? What gained ye? It
is madness to reckon upon this life, it is so inconsiderable when compared
with eternity. A kingdom, what is it, when a man shall be deprived for
evermore of the kingdom of God, and inhabit the kingdom of darkness under
the king of terrors? Do ye think a stageplayer a happy man that for an
hour hath so much mirth and attendance, and for all his lifetime is kept
in prison without the least drop of these comforts? Will not such a man's
momentary satisfaction make hell more unsatisfying, and add grounds of
bitterness to his cup? For it is misery to have been happy.

Nay, but this is a fancied supposal. All this, how small soever it be, was
never, and never shall be, within the reach of any living.