"and several steps of imperfection: and at "first our choices are wavering, convinced "by the grace of God, and yet not per"suaded; and then persuaded, but not re"solved; and then resolved, but deferring "to begin; and then beginning, but (as all beginnings are) in weakness and uncertainty; and we fly out often into huge "indiscretions, and long to and long to return to

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Egypt: and when the storm is quite over, "we find little bublings and unevenesses upon "the face of the waters; we often weaken "our own purposes by the returns of sin; "and we do not call ourselves conquerors, till

by the long possession of virtues it is a "strange and unusual, and therefore an 66 uneasy and unpleasant thing, to act a "crime."

The two next sermons are upon "the "foolish Exchange." The sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel and twenty-sixth verse, supplied the text on which Taylor founded his doctrine in these discourses. In the opening of his subject, he contrasts what is the natural object of our hope and fear with

Serm. 17. p. 323

འ

that which is presented to us under the new dispensation; and then proceeds to the text. First, he considers the propositions of the exchange, the world and a man's soul, supposing all that is propounded were obtained, the whole world. Secondly, what is likely to be obtained really of the world, and what are the miseries of a lost soul. And he closes the subject with a practical application, and considerations of the greatest importance.

"I consider," says Taylor, "that he that "is the greatest possessor in the world, enjoys "its best and most noble parts, and those "which are of most excellent perfection, but "in common with the inferior persons and "the most despicable of his kingdom. Can "the greatest prince enclose the sun, and set "one little star in his cabinet for his own use?

or secure to himself the gentle and benign "influences of any one constellation? Are not "his subjects' fields bedewed with the same "showers that water his gardens of plea

"sure?

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Nay those things which he esteems his "ornament and the singularity of his posses❝sions, are they not of more use to others

M

"than to himself? For suppose his garments

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splendid and shining, like the robe of a "cherub, or the clothing of the fields, all that "he that wears them enjoys is, that they keep " him warm and clean, and modest; and all "this is done by clean and less pompous "vestments; and the beauty of them, which distinguishes him from others is made to "please the eyes of the beholders; and he is “like a fair bird," "made wholly to be looked 66 on, that is to be enjoyed by every one "but himself: and the fairest face and the "sparkling eye cannot perceive or enjoy their "own beauties but by reflexion. It is I that "am pleased with beholding his gaiety, and "the gay man in his greatest bravery is only "pleased because I am pleased with the sight; "so borrowing his little and imaginary com

placency from the delight that I have, not "from any inherency of his own possession."

"Suppose a man lord of all the world, yet "since every thing is received, not according "to its own greatness and worth, but according to the capacity of the receiver, it signi"fies very little to our content, or to the riches

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w Serm. 18. p. 332.

"of our possession. If any man should give "to a lion a fair meadow full of hay, or a "thousand quince trees; or should give to "the goodly bull, the master and the fairest "of the whole herd, a thousand fair stags; if "a man should present to a child a ship laden "with Persian carpets, and the ingredients of "the rich scarlet; all these, being dispro"portionate either to the appetite or to the "understanding, could add nothing of con "tent, and might declare the freeness of the "presenter, but they upbraid the incapacity "of the receiver. And so it does if God "should give the whole world to any man. "He knows not what to do with it; he can ❝use no more but according to the capacities "of a man; he can use nothing but meat, ❝ drink, and clothes; and infinite riches, that ❝ can give him changes of raiment every day " and a full table, do but give him a clean "trencher every bit he eats; it signifies no "more but wantonness, and variety to the

same, not to any new purposes. He to "whom the world can be given to any pur

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pose greater than a private estate can "minister, must have new capacities created "in him: he needs the understanding of an "angel, to take the accounts of his estate;

"he had need have a stomach like fire or the 66 grave, for else he can eat no more than one "of his healthful subjects; and unless he "hath an eye like the sun, and a motion "like that of a thought, and a bulk as big as "one of the orbs of heaven, the pleasures of "his eye can be no greater than to behold "the beauty of a little prospect from a hill, or "to look upon the heap of gold packed up in "a little room, or to doat upon a cabinet of

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jewels, better than which there is no man "that sees at all but sees every day. For, "not to name the beauties and sparkling "diamonds of heaven, a man's, or a woman's, "or a hawk's eye is more beauteous, and ex"cellent than all the jewels of his crown. "And when we remember that a beast, who "hath quicker senses than a man, yet hath "not so great delight in the fruition of any object, because he wants understanding, "and the power to make reflex acts upon his perception; it will follow, that understand

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ing and knowledge is the greatest instru"ment of pleasure, and he that is most

knowing hath a capacity to become happy, "which a less-knowing prince or a rich per"son hath not and in this only a man's "capacity is capable of enlargement. But