Christ and all Heaven were ours Who would doubt when they see men so busie about impertinencies and the trivial affairs of this World but that they were much more anxious about their souls Who would not conclude that certainly their great work is already done that shall see them so earnest and solicitous about petty matters But alas It may astonish Men and Angels that rational Creatures who have immortal souls Souls whose endless duration must abide either in inconceivable misery or blisse should trifle away that time and strength which might secure their everlasting happiness about those vain nothings that have neither happiness in them nor continuance Certainly the service of God is not more painful than the drudgery of the World and sure I am it is far more cleanly Thou shalt not in his service set thine hand to any foul Office whereas the world employes thee basely to rake together thick clay and load thy self with it and the Devil yet worse to rake in the mire and filth of all manner of defilements which now pollute the soul and will hereafter damn it Both these are most grievous task-masters Some draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 5.18 They are so enslaved to the work of the Devil that he puts them into his Team makes them draw and strain for their iniquities and doth them a courtesie when their sins come easily He makes them toil and sweat in carrying Fagots to their own Fire and blowing up those flames which must for ever burn them Others as the Prophet expresseth it Hab. 2.13 labour in the fire and weary themselves for very Vanity They take great pains in the World and meet with great disappointments for both are signified by labouring in the fire where what they produce cannot be enjoyed but is consumed between their hands Since then you must take so much pains either for sin or Vanity why will you not be perswaded rather to lay it out upon that which is substantially good and eternally so God requires not more but onely other work from you Luke 10.45 and the many things that Martha was careful about Religion and Holinesse reduceth to the One thing necessary which though it contains many particular duties under it yet by reason of its uniformity and subserviency to it self is less distracting and cumbersome The Wheels of a Watch move and click as fast when it goes false as when it goes true and if it be but set right at first the same activity of the Spring will so continue it which before made its motion irregular So is it here The same activity and industry which you irregularly use in pursuit of the World would procure Heaven and Glory for you were it that way directed Your cares your contrivances your endeavours need be no more than now they are onely what before you laid out upon the World reserve now for Heaven And how infinitely reasonable is this Certainly they are most stupidly foolish that will take up Vanity at as dear a rate as Happiness and give as much for Vexation as for endless Joy Fourthly If the things of this World be so vain what inexcusable folly is it to part with the peace or the purity of our Consciences for them And yet what more common If men can get any thing of the World at the price of a sin they think they have made a gainful bargain And therefore the Devil hath recourse to this as his most prevailing temptation When he set on our Saviour in the Wilderness the last assault was a Mat. 4 9. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me and when this battery could not make a breach he raiseth his siege as despairing of success And this is the usual temptation by which he assaults others Judas comes with his b Mat. 26.15 Quid dabitis what will you give me and sets Christ and his own Conscience to sale for the inconsiderable sum of thirty pieces He demands no more than the common market c Exod. 21.32 price of a slave not amounting to above d Accounting the value of the common shekel to be 15 pence of our money eight and thirty shillings for the Lord of Life and Glory And thinks his bargain so good that he gives himself to the Devil for vantage This is the very root of all that injustice and rapine and oppresion and violence that is to be found among men They all strive and tugg who shall get most of this earth from one another and lose Heaven and their own Consciences in the scuffle This is it that makes men so oft shift their Sails that they may run before every wind that blows If times grow rough and tempestuous and they must throw over-board either their gain or their godliness this perswades them to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience onely that they may bear up in this World though they sink hereafter Now what deplorable folly is this When thy conscience is disquieted with the tormenting review of past crimes what will all thy ill-gotten wealth avail thee Thou wilt then with extream horror cast thy eyes upon all thy treasures of wickednesse when conscience shall tell thee thou hast not onely treasur'd up them but wrath too against the day of wrath Fifthly What desperate folly is it to purchase a vain World with the loss of our precious Souls So our Saviour Matth. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul O think what great losers they must needs be who lose their Souls to gain the World and must at last lose the World too together with their Souls This is the only thing that damns men that they prefer the Pleasures Honours Profits and pitiful nothings of this World before their precious and immortal Souls which are more worth than ten thousand Worlds What is this but a stupidity as grosse as that of the old Heathens to make a vile Worm our God and sacrifice an Ox to it or a Monster our God and sacrifice a Man to it Think how dreadful and grating will be the reflexions of worldlings in hell to consider that there they must lye and burn to eternity for their inordinate love to that World of which they have nothing left them besides the bitter remembrance What will it then avail them that they have lived here in ease and delights when all their mirth shall be turned into groans and howling What will all their treasures and riches avail them when these shall be melted down about them to encrease their torment Believe it 't is sad to be left to the conviction of that day when the Vanity of Earth shall appear in the torments of Hell Be perswaded therefore as you have renounced it in all its pomps and and vanities when you gave up your
of all worldly and earthly things for he speaks onely of these And if we enquire what these wordly things are that have this censure of Vanity so vehemently past upon them Saint John hath drawn up a full and true Inventory of all the goods that are to be found in this great House of the Universe 1 John 2.16 All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of Life The Lusts of the flesh are the pleasures of the world which are all of them suited to gratifie the sensual and fleshly part of man The Lusts of the eye are riches so called because their greatest serviceableness is onely to make a glittering and dazling shew Which since Solomon approves Eccles 5.11 What good is there to the owners thereof save the beholding them with their eyes The Pride of life is honour and dignity that flatulent and aiery notion that puffes up mens pride and vain-glory and makes them look upon their inferiours as though they were not their fellow Creatures This is all that the world can shew Pleasures Riches Honors and this is that All concerning which the Wiseman pronounceth that it is Vanity For these things though they make a fair and gaudy shew yet it is all but shew and appearance As bubbles blown into the air will represent great variety of Orient and glittering colours not as some suppose that there are any such really there but onely they appear so to us thorough a false reflexion of light cast upon them so truly this world this earth on which we live is nothing else but a great bubble blown up by the breath of God in the midst of the air where it now hangs It sparkles with ten thousand glories not that they are so in themselves but onely they seem so to us thorough the false light by which we look upon them If we come to grasp it like a thin filme it breaks and leaves nothing but wind and disappointment in our hands as histories report of the fruits that grow near the dead sea Tacit. hist lib. 5. Fumum exhilant fa iscuat in vagum pulverem Solin Joseph Antiquit l. 5. c. 5. where once Sodome and Gomorah stood they appear very fair and beautifull to the eye but if they be crusht in cinerem vanescunt turn straight to smoak and ashes The Subject which I have propounded to discourse of is this Vanity of the world and of all things here below that being hereof convinced we may desist our vain pursuit of vain objects and may set our affections on those things which are above which are the alone valuable because the only permanent and stable good Whence is it that we are become so degenerate that we who have immortal and heaven-born Souls should stake them down to these perishing injoyments Whence is it that we who should soar aloft unto God and were to that end fitted with the fleet wings of Meditation and affections to cut through the Heavens in an instant and to appear there before the Throne of the great God that we should lye here groveling in the thick clay and muck of this world as if the Serpents curse were become ours to creep upon our bellies Gen. 3.14 and to lick up the dust of the earth Do we not shamefully degrade our selves when we stoop to admire what is so vastely below us and barter away our pretious Souls Souls more worth than ten thousand worlds onely to gain some small part of one Certainly the God of this world hath blinded mens eyes and cast a strange mist before them that they cannot discern what is most evident and obvious even the instability and vanity of all sublunary enjoyments That I may therefore contribute somewhat to scatter this mist I shall endeavour to represent to you the native and genuine Vanity that is in all earthly things free from that deceitful varnish which the Devil usually puts upon them and so to deform and wound that great Sorcerer that his charms may have no more power to prevail over you Now that we may rightly proceed in this I shall premise these two or three things First There is nothing in the world vain in respect of its natural being Whatsoever God hath made is in its kind good And so the great Creator pronounced of them when he took a survey of all the works of his hands Gen. 1.31 God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good There is a most harmonious order and beauty in all the Creation and every part of it And therefore Solomon must not be here so interpreted as if he disparaged the works of God in pronouncing them all Vanity Certainly he doth not libell his Creator nor upraid him as though he had filled the world onely with vain toyes and trifles If we regard the wonderful artifice and wisdom that shines forth in the frame of nature we cannot have so unworthy a thought either of the world it self or of God who made it Veiw the Sun next unto * Jam. 1 17. God the great Father of lights Veiw the numerous assembly of the Starres observe their Influences their Courses and Measures Is it a vain or impertinent thing to spread forth the Heavens and to beat out a Path for every one of these to walk in The Air that thin and subtil Vail that God hath spread over the face of Nature the Earth that God hath pois'd in the midst of the Air and the whole Universe in the midst of a vast and boundless Nothing The great Sea whose proud waves God binds in with a girdle of sand and checks its rage by a body almost as unsetled and roling as it self The various kinds of Creatures that God governs by a wonderful Aeconomy the great family of brute Beasts which God brings up and educates without disorder but especially Man the Lord and Chief of the World that knot that God hath tyed between Heaven and Earth that sacred band of Time with Eternity If we consider the frame and composure of all these things in themselves or their usefulness and subserviency unto us we shall be so far from branding them with Vanity that unless our contemplations lead us from natural things to the great God who formed them we might rather fear lest their beauty and excellency should inviegle us as it did the Heathen to look no farther for a Deity but Worship them as Gods Secondly There is nothing vain in respect of God the Creator He makes his ends out of all for they all glorifie him according to their several ranks and orders and to rational and considerate men are most evident Demonstrations of his infinite Being Wisdom a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de placitis philos c. 6. and Power In which sence the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made even his
How infinitely doth he then disdain that any Soul should be so wretchedly sottish as to prefer the the world before or equallize it with God He thinks the happiness he then enjoyes so great that although he believes it is yet he cannot conceive how it should be more or greater in Heaven it self Then the soul claps its wings it would fain take its flight and be gone it breaths it pants it reaches after God and falls into an agony of Joy and desire inconceivably mixt together Can the world give us any such over powering Joy as this It may afford us Corn and wine the weak recruits of a frail life but when it hath emptied all its store and abundance into our bosomes it is not worthy to be mentioned with the love and favour of God which is a Psal 63.3 better than life it self And therefore the Psalmist makes it his prayer Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn or wine encreased The Joy of the world resembles a torrent As upon a glut of Rain you shall have a torrent come rolling along with noise and violence overflowing its banks and bearing all before it yet it is but muddy and impure water and 't is soon gone and dryed up Such is all the Joy this world can give it makes a great noise 't is commonly immoderate and swells beyond its due bounds yet 't is but a muddy and impure Joy it soon rolls away and leaves nothing behind but a drowth in the soul Now since the Worlds Joy is but such a poor empty thing as this it is most gross folly for us to lay out our best love upon that which cannot repay us with the best Joy Secondly If the World be thus vain what folly is it to lay out our most serious cares and contrivances upon it The cares of worldly men are most absurd and irrational Ask them why they care they will tell you it is that they may live without care and yet the more they get the more do their cares swarm and encrease about them To what purpose do they thus disquiet themselves They were as good make Nets to catch the Wind as lay plots either to obtain or secure a World which is so slippery and so full of disappointments that neither they who have it are sure of keeping it nor they who have it not of getting it We may observe a kind of coyness in the World those who court it most and pursue it closest oftimes miss of their designes because they overact them And it is commonly seen that those who as we use to say have many Irons in the Fire get nothing thereby but onely the burning of their own fingers 'T is true there is a prudential and providential care that is so far from being chargeable with folly that it is necessary and a great part of our duty not onely as we are men but as we are a 1 Tim. 5.8 Christians And this prudential care is when we do what lawfully we may to procure the comforts of life and then with all quietness and indifferency submit the success to God This is a care of Diligence But that which is justly branded with folly is a care of Diffidence which is alway accompanied with torment fears and distractions about the success and issue and most unreasonably vexeth us for what is not in our power to determine Such a care as this usurps upon God And certainly it is no less a fault to invade Gods part than to neglect our own and a like folly The right temper a Christian should observe in procuring any worldly comfort is to interest his judgement in the choice of means but to keep his affections disinterested and unconcern'd in the event But when we are anxious how our designs will succeed we make it a torment to us in getting before we can make it a comfort to us in enjoying To what purpose then dost thou O worldling rack thy brains with contrivances how to fill thy baggs with treasure how to empty them out with advantage When thou hast added heap to heap of all thy store thou enjoyest no more than what thou eatest or drinkest or wearest and of this too thou enjoyest no more than will just suffice to satisfie thy hunger to quench thy thirst and to fence off the injuries of the weather all the rest turns either to diseases or burdens True reason will teach us to chuse our Estates as we would do our b Fortuna velut tuaica magis concinna quà m longa probaâ—da quippâ— etiam ea si noâ— gestetur trahâ—tur nihilo mâ—â—ùs quam lâ—cinia praependens 〈◊〉 dit praecipitat Etenim â—n omnibus ad vitae munia utendis qâ—icquid apiam moderatioâ—em sâ—pergâ—editur on ripotiuâ— quam usui exuberat Apâ—l Apol. Garments not those which are largest but those which are fittest for us Vast and overflowing Estates are but like huge enormous Rudders that rather serve to sink the Ship than steer it their abundance is useless and their excess dangerous To what end therefore is all our care and carking all our perplexing and solicitous thoughts those parching and consuming distractions which can hasten on nothing but our own natural decayes to what end are they unless it be to contradict our Saviour and shew that we have a power to make our c Mat. 5.36 black hairs white When we lay subtil and intricate designes to obtain the things of this World we are but like Spiders that with a great deal of art and labour weave a curious Cobweb onely to catch Flies and possibly spend more of their bowels in framing it than the prey they catch can again repair Yea and it may be too before the prey be caught both they and their Web are swept down together and trod in the dust So when we frame designes to get any worldly advantage it is but taking a great deal of pains to catch a Flie. And possibly before it be caught the rude hand of death wraps us about in our Cobweb and sweeps us down into the Grave d Psal 146.4 and in that very moment we and all our well laid projects perish together Thirdly If the World be thus vain what extream and prodigious folly is it to take as much pains to secure the poor and perishing concernments of it as would suffice to secure Heaven and eternal glory were they laid out that way We labour for the Bread that perisheth and we perish with it in our very mouths About this are our hearts our hands our strength our time employed whereas the great things of Eternity are so utterly neglected by us as if they were none of our concernments to look after Were we but as laborious in our Christian calling as we commonly are in our Worldly callings salvation would not lie upon our hands unwrought God and
Eternal Power and Godhead God hath composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may attain to the knowledg of Himself the Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as for our service the least and vilest of them read us lectures of his glorious Attributes nor is it any absurdity to say that as they are all the Works of his Mouth so they are all the Words of his Hand Indeed this knowledg that the creatures give us of the Creator cannot suffice to make us happy though it may be sufficient to make us a Rom. 1.20 21. inexcusable We could never have collected from them those mysterious discoveries of God which the Scriptures exhibit and which are so necessary to our eternal bliss For what signature is there stamp't upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Incarnation of the Son of God What Creature could have informed us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Or where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of Grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great sages of the world though they were Natures Secretaries and ransackt its abstrusest secrets yet all their learning and knowledg could never discover that sacred mystery of a crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature and Reason are so far from finding out that they can scare b 1 Cor. 1.14 receive them when discovered And therefore God hath manifested them to us by the Light and Revelation of the Holy Scriptures But yet so much of God as belongs to those two great Titles of Creator and Governor of the World our reason may collect from created and visible things running up their consequences till they are all resolved into the first cause and Origine of all Thirdly Therefore All the Vanity that is in worldly things is onely in respect of the sin and folly of man For those things are said to be Vain which neither do nor can perform what we expect from them Our great expectation is Happiness and our great folly is that we think to obtain it by the enjoyments of this world This makes men pursue pleasures hoard up riches court honours and preferments because they look with an overweening conceit on these things as such as can make them truly happy Whereas to seek for happiness among these worldly things is but to seek the living among the dead yea it is but to search for happiness among those things which are the very root and occasion of all our misery c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epic. apud Laert. in vitâ Epicuri They are all of them leaky and broken Cisterns and cannot hold this living water This is it which makes them charged with Vanity because in our perverted phancy we look upon them as stable permanent and satisfactory fix them as our journeys end which ought onely to be used by us in our passage and expect much more from them than they can yield And so indeed the Vanity is not so much theirs as ours There are some things as d Aug. doct Christ l. 1. c. 3 S. Austin and the e Lomb. l. 1. d. 1 Aquia 1 12. q 11. 16 Duâ—and l. 1 d 1 q 4 â—rim d. 1. 4 3. â—rt 2. Altiss l 3 tract 10 Schools from him do well distinguish which must be onely enjoyed other things what must be onely used To f Frui est amore alicui rei inhaetere propter scipsam Aug. doct Christ l. 1. c. 4. enjoy is to cleave to an object by love for its own sake And this belongs onely to God What we g Uti autem quod in usum venerit ad id quod â—mâ—s obtiâ—eadum referre Id. ibid. use we refer to the obtaining of what we desire to enjoy And this belongs to the Creatures So that we ought to h Utendum est hoc muâ—do non fruâ—adum ut invisibilia Dei per ea quae sactâ— sunt intellgâ—nâ—ue hoc est ut de temporal hâ—â—ae 〈◊〉 capiâ—â—tur Aâ—g b l. use the creatures that we may arrive at the Creator We may serve our selves of them but we must alone enjoy him Now that which makes the whole world become Vanity is when we break this order of use and fruition when we set up any particular created good as our end and happiness which ought onely to be used as a means to attain it All things in the world are in themselves good but when we propound them as the greatest and highest good that we expect satisfaction from this turns them all into Vanity and so every thing besides God becomes nothing And thus we have a brief account whence proceeds this Vanity of the World not from the nature of things but from those vain hopes and expectations we build upon them for that happiness which they cannot afford It remains therefore to display before you this Vanity of the World in some more remarkable particulars Whereof I have collected these following First The Vanity of the World appears in this that all its glory and splendor depends merely upon opinion and phancy It is not so much what things are as what we account them that makes them good or evil And what can be vainer than that which borrows its worth from so vain and fickle a thing as our estimation And therefore we find the things of the world rated diversly Quantum apud nos indicis margâ—ritis pretium est tantum apud Indos in curalia Namque ista persuasione gentium constant Plia lib. 32. de Gen. Benzoai del mundo nuovo lib. 1. according to the esteem that men have of them What were Gold and Silver had not mens phancy stampt upon them an excellency far beyond their natural usefulness This great Idol of the world was of no value among those barbarous Nations where abundance made it vile They preferred Glass and Beads before it and made that their treasure which we make our scorn They despise our riches and we theirs and true reason will tell us that both the one and the other are in themselves alike despicable and it is onely phancy that puts such an immodest and extravagant price upon them far above their natural worth Should the whole world conspire together to depose Gold and Silver from that soveraignty they have usurped over us they might for ever lie hid in the bowels of the Earth ere their true usefulness would entice any to the pains and hazard of digging them out into the light Indeed the whole use of what we so much dote upon is meerly phantastical and to make our selves needy we have invented an artificial kind of riches which are no more necessary to the service of sober
the world intangles it in strong though secret and insensible snares and insinuates into the heart that love of it self which is inconsistent with the love of God The world is the Devils factor and drives on the designs of Hell The Apostle hath told us 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition And because of the subserviency of worldly enjoyments to mens lusts it is almost as impossible a thing to moderate our affections towards them or to bound our appetites and desires as it is to asswage the thirst of a Dropsie by drinking or to keep that sire from encreasing into which we are still casting new fewel And therefore our Saviour hath pronounced it as a Luke 18.25 Hard for a rich man to enter into Heaven as for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle As Judas gave a sign to the Officers that came with him to apprehend Jesus b Mat 26.48 Whomsoever I shall kiss the same is he hold him fast The same sign doth the World give the Devil Whomsoever I shall caress and favour whomsoever I shall heap honour and riches on whomsoever I shall embrace and kiss the same is he hold him fast Such a darling of the World is usually fast bound in the silken bands of Voluptuousness and consigned over to be fast bound in chains of massy darkness As all things in the world are lying Vanities so are they all vexatious They are infamous to a Proverb Uncertain comforts but most certain crosses And therefore the wise man concludes them all to be not only Vanity but Vexation of spirit There is a fourfold Vexatiousness in all worldly things There is a great deal of turmoil and trouble in getting them nothing can be acquired without it The sweat of Adams brows hath stream'd down along upon ours and the curse together with it c Gen. 3.19 that in sorrow we should eat of that which Toil and Labour hath provided for us Men rise early and go to bed late and eat the Bread of carefulness and such is either their curse or their folly that they make their lives uncomfortable onely to get the comforts of life Whether they get them or no yet still they are disappointed in their hopes d Ex bis tristitia sequitur si aut non successit aut successus pudet Senâ—c de tranquil c. 11. If they cannot compass their designs then they are tormented because they fall short of what they laboured for if they do compass them yet still they are tormented because what they laboured for falls short of what they expected from it The truth is the World is much better in shew than substance And those very things we admire before we enjoy them yet afterward we find much less in them than we expected As he that sees a falling Star shoot through the Air and draw after it a long train of light runs to the place and thinking to get some bright and glittering thing catches up nothing but a filthy jelly such is the disappointment we find in our pursuit after the enjoyments of this world They make a glorious shew at a distance but when we come near them we find our hopes deluded and nothing upon the place but a vile slime Thirdly They are all vexation while we enjoy them Be it what it will that we possess of the world it is but by fits at most that we take any great pleasure in it And then what between cares and designs to secure the continuance of it and fears of losing it the comfort of enjoying it is wholly swallowed up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de Tranquil For strong affections begeting strong fears do always lessen the delight of present enjoyments This is the unhappiness of all things in the world that if we set any price and value upon them we lose much of the sweetness of them by fearing to lose them Fourthly They are all vexatious as in their enjoyment so especially in their loss Whatever we set our hearts upon we may assure our selves and experience will teach it us that the pleasure of possessing it will not near countervail the bitterness of losing it And as if God had on purpose so ordained it to take off our hearts from the world the better we esteem any thing the more Vanity and Vexation shall we find in it for the more will our care and perplexity in keeping it and the more our grief and torment in losing it be encreased That 's a third Demonstration Fourthly The Vanity of the world appears in this that a little cross will embitter great comforts One dead Flie is enough to corrupt a whole Box of the worlds most fragrant Oyntment How much will onely the aking of a tooth a fit of the Stone or Gout deaden and dishearten us to all the joys and pleasures of Life Certainly the world must needs be vain that cannot bear out the brunt of a little pain or sickness The least cross accident is enough to discompose all our delights And indeed there are so many ingredients required to make up worldly Felicity a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 E. l. 1 c. 8. l â—0 c. â— Riches Health Friends Honor good Name and the like that if any of these be wanting the whole composition is spoiled and we shall take advantage against our selves to conclude we are miserable For such is the peevishness of our nature that if we have not all we would we take no content in any thing we have And besides we are apt b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—â—â—rch de trâ—â—â— to slide off from the smoother part of our lives as Flies from glass and to stick onely on the rougher passages For neither is Sense capable to be so much or so long affected with the impressions of pleasure as of pain since never could there yet be any delights invented as piercing as there are many torments nor yet is our busie remembrance so officious in calling back the pleasant passages of our days to our review as those that have been more gloomy and dolorous And though it be our sin to lock more upon the Crosses we find than the Comforts we enjoy yet here we may likewise see how vain a thing it is for us to expect happiness and contentment from the world whose Crosses as they are more so are they more considerable than its Comforts Fifthly consider The longer we enjoy any worldly thing the more flat and insipid doth it grow We are soon at the bottom and find nothing but dregs there In all the pleasures of life either our Spirits sink and fall under the continuance of them as not able to bear a constant tension and emotion or the delight consists merely in the novelty and variety of the objects which when we are made more familiar with are but dull because
beyond expectation or example may well instruct us in the Vanity of the World and make us no less contemn it than admire that infinite wisdom that governs it It is said of the Wheels Ezek. 1.17 That they went upon their four sides For one Wheel intersecting and crossing another the whole must needs consist of four sides or Semi-circles And moving upon these four sides it must of necessity move very ruggedly by jolts and jerks So truly the Providences of God do sometimes move unevenly as cross wheels would do moving upon their sides Great and suddain changes are often brought to pass without being ripened by sensible degrees but happen by the surprisal of some unexpected Providence and as it were by the suddain jerk of the wheel shaking off those who sate on the top and crushing them in its passage over 'T is true these mutations which to us seem so confused and tumultuary are all orderly and harmonious in the Divine Councel foreknowledg There is not a Providence that breaks its rank not a wheel that moves out of its tract and there is a destined end for them all the glory of the Almighty Creator to which while every Creature pursues its own inclinations he sweetly and yet efficaciously sways them They are all like Arrows shot at a mark by an unerring hand Some are shot point-blanck and some by compass but none so carelesly as to miss it Though changes may surprise us yet they do not surprise God But as it is a great pleasure to us to see our designs and forecasts accomplished so infinite Wisdom delights it self to look on and see how all things start up into their place and order as soon as called forth by his efficacious decree and foreknowledg Among all the weighty and arduous cares of governing the world it is if I may so express it the recreation of Providence to amuse mankind with some wonderful events that when we cannot find out the connexion and dependance of second causes we may humbly acquiesce in adoring the absolute Soveraignty of the First And by observing the mutations of Affairs here below may be taught to repose our selves in him who onely is immutable Thus God administers the various accurrences of the world according to the councel of his own will and makes the inconstancy of it serve both for his delight and our admonition It is in vain therefore to expect happiness from what is so uncertain All the comforts of it are but like fading flowers that while we are looking on them and smelling to them die and wither in our hands Is it pleasures we seek These must vary For where there is not an intermission it is not pleasure but a glut and surfet And hence it is that they who are used to hardships taste more sweetness in some ordinary pleasures than those who are accustomed to a voluptuous life do in all their exquisite and invented delights Do you pursue Honour and Applause in the world This hangs upon the wavering tongues of the Multitude To follow this is but to pursue a puff of wind and of all winds in nature the most fickle and changeable The Peoples Hosanna and Crucifie are oft pronounced in the same breath And besides that it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ant. l. S. Sect. 44. no great matter that those should think or speak well of thee who have but too much reason to think ill of themselves besides this consider how soon publick Fame grows out of breath Possibly an Age or two may talk of thee but this bruit is but like successive Echo's that render the voice still weaker and weaker till at length it vanisheth into silence Yea couldst thou fill whole Chronicles with thy story yet time or moths will eat thee out And the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. S. 23. fresher remembrance of other mens actions will bury thine in Oblivion Is it riches you desire These too are uncertain 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that they trust not in uncertain riches Uncertain they are in getting and uncertain in keeping when got All our treasures are like quick-silver which strangely slips between our fingers when we think we hold it fastest Riches c Prov. 23.5 saith the Wise man make themselves Wings and flie away as an Eagle towards Heaven and it were a most strange folly d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. lib. 6. Sect. 11. The same with that of Solomon Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not c. to fall passionately in love with a Bird upon his wing who is free and unconfined as the Air in which he flies and will not stoop to thy call or lure Believe it Miser all thy angels are winged and if thou dost not yet some or other of thy heirs will set them flying How much better were it since they will flie for thy self to direct their flight towards Heaven by relieving the necessitous servants and members of Jesus Christ Then will their flight be happy and glorious when they carry on their wings the prayers and blessings of the poor whose bowels thou hast refreshed This is to lay up Treasure in Heaven to remit thy Monys to the other World where they shall be truly paid thee with abundant Interest This is to lay up a stock for hereafter that thou maist have whereon to live splendidly and gloriously to all Eternity And thus to lay out is to lay up to lay up uncertain riches in a safe repository Gods promises shall be thy security and every Star in Heaven a Seal set upon the Treasury door which none can break or violate Thus you see how mutable and inconstant all worldly things are So that we may truly apply that which the Psalmist speaks of the Earth in another sense That * Psal 24.2 God hath founded it upon the Sea and establisht it upon the Flouds Such is the waving and fluctuation of all things here below that they are no more constant than if they were merely built upon the ebbing and flowing of the Tide Lastly The Vanity of the World appears in this that it is altogether unsatisfactory That must needs be vain which when we enjoy it in its greatest abundance can give us no real nor solid content Such an empty thing is the whole World You may as soon grasp a bundle of dreams or take up an arm full of your own shadow as fill the vast and boundless desires of your souls with these earthly enjoyments And therefore the Plalmist speaking of prosperous sinners sets forth their state by the most thin and empty things imaginable Psal 73.30 As a dream when one awakes so O Lord thou shalt despise their image The Images and Representations that a dream makes seem very brisk and lively but when we reflect upon them with our waking thoughts we find them confused and impertinent Such is all the prosperity of this world it is but as the image and fiction of
in vain seeks for in any thing besides himself These are the Demonstrations of the Worlds Vanity which though they be many and various yet I doubt not but every mans particular experience may furnish him with divers others But whatever our Observations are the Uses we may make of them are these First It should teach us to admire and adore the good Providence of God to his Children in so ordering it that the World should be thus vain and deal so ill with those who serve it For if it were not so infamous and deceitful as it is if it did not frustrate and disappoint our hopes and pay us with Vexation when it promiseth Fruition and Content What think'st thou O Christian would be the end of this Would any one think of God or remember Heaven and the life to come St. Augustine somewhere speaks excellently Turbat me Mundus Ego eum diligo quid si non turbaret The World troubles and molests me and yet I love it What if I did not trouble me Certainly we should fall into an utter forgetfulness of God if we could find any true satisfaction here We should never think of returning to the Fountain of living Waters if we could find enough in Cisterns to quench the thirst of our souls And therefore God deals with us as some great person would do with a disobedient son that forsakes his House and riots among his Tenants His Father gives order they should treat him ill affront and chase him from them and all that he might reduce him The same doth God Man is his wild and debaucht son He flies from the commands of his Father and cannot endure to live under his strict and severe Government Whither goes he But to the pleasures of the World and revels and riots among the Creatures But God resolves to recover him and therefore commands every Creature to handle him roughly Burn him Fire toss him Tempests and Shipwrack his Estate forsake him Friends designes fail him Children be rebellious to him as he is to me let his supports and dependances sink under him his riches melt away leave him poor and dispis'd and destitute These are all Gods servants and must obey his will And to what end is all this but that seeing himself forsaken of all he may at length like the beggar'd Prodigal return again to his Father Secondly If the Vanity of the world be such and so great if it be onely an empty bubble a swelling nothing less solid than the dream of a shaddow if it be thus unsuitable uncertain and unsatisfactory as I have demonstrated to you what grosse folly then are most men guilty of in setting so high a price upon that which is of no worth nor substance Though formerly we have been so much deceived as to take the worlds paint and varnish for true beauty and its glittering for substantial treasure yet now since the cheat is discovered since you have seen this false pack opened and nothing but counterfeit wares obtruded upon you your folly will be inexcusable if after experiments admonitions you should contribute any longer to your own cheat set a price upon things which you know to be vile and worthless The wise man as you have heard sums up their whole value onely in a great Cypher and a great blot Vanity and Vexation At what price would you rate Vanity which is nothing Or Vexation which is worse than nothing And therefore our Saviour Mark 4.9 compares the things of this world to Thorns Some fell among thorns which thorns he interprets to be the Cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches vers 19. Now he were a mad man that to asswage his hunger would attempt to swallow a bush of Thorns No less is the madness and extream folly of most men who to satisfie the eager appetite of an hungry and indigent soul gape after the Thorns of this world and chew Thistles which instead of yielding them either Grapes or Figs will onely serve to pierce them through with innumerable sorrows A mans wisdom or folly is commonly judged by the bargains he makes If he lay out that which is very pretious to purchase what is of no worth this we justly account a foolish bargain If on the other hand he purchaseth that which is of great price with something little worth we account it a wise and thriving bargain Now here we may see the gross folly of most men Though they are wise enough in bartering one part of the world for another yet they shew themselves very fools in purchasing any part of the world with that which is no part of it The Scripture hath told us That all that is in the world is honour pleasure or profit While we onely traffick with these for one another we do not amiss The world is a proper price for it self And doubtless we may lawfully part with some worldly advantages to procure others But then there are other things which do not belong to the world under this acception Our Affections our Consciences our pretious and immortal Souls And these God hath given us to trade with for Heaven and eternal glory Now herein lyes the folly of most men that they purchase the vile things of this World with such an inestimable price and extravagantly outbid themselves to procure trifles with that which might procure them eternal happiness More particularly First Is it not extream folly to lavish out pretious affections upon vile and vain objects Affections are the wings of the the soul without which the soul it self were but a dull and unactive carkasse These God hath given it that it might be able to take its flight to heaven and lodge it self in his bosome Now how unworthy a thing is it onely to flutter to and fro upon the surface of the earth to clog and clotter these wings with mire and dirt which were at first made to take so high and so noble a flight a Colos 3.2 The Apostle hath commanded us to set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth And indeed there is great reason for it For the two choice affections of the soul are Love and Joy Now that is most worthy our Love that can return a Joy most worthy of us But the Joy that the world gives is usually tumultuous alway check with some secret annoy and it ends with a dulness and damp upon the spirits It is but like the empty b Eccles 7 6 Flâ—mma stipâ—lâ exorta claro crepitu largo fulgore cito incemento sed enim materiâ lâ—vi caduco incâ—ndio nullis reliquiis Apol. Apol. crackling of thornes under a pot that for the present may make a great noise and blaze but suddenly vanisheth all away into smoke Whereas an heavenly Christian feels sometimes a ponderous and weighty Joy a Joy springing up in his soul almost intolerable and altogether unutterable a Joy that melts him into extasie and rapture