EXTRACTS

FROM

THE WORKS

OF

DR. REYNOLDS,

SOMETIME BISHOP OF NORWICH.

VOL. 25:         B

SERMON 1:

THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE.

ECCLES. 1:14.
I have seen all the works that are under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

            To HAVE a selfsufficiency in being and operation, and to be unsubordinate to any further end above himself, as it is utterly repugnant to the condition of a creature, so to man especially; who, besides the limitedness of his nature, as he is a creature, has contracted much deficiency, as he is a sinner. GOD never made him to be an end unto himself, to be the centre of his own motions, or to be happy only by reflection on his own excellencies. Something still there is without him, unto which he moves, and from whom GOD has appointed that he should reap, either preservation in, or advancement and perfection unto, his nature. What that is, upon which the desires of man ought to fix, as his rest and end, is the main discovery that the wise man makes in this book; and he does it by an historical and penitential review of his former inquiries: From whence he states the point in two main conclusions. 1: The creature's insufficiency, in the beginning of the book: " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." 2: Man's duty to GOD, and Gov's allsufficiency to man, in the end of the book: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear GOD, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty," the whole end, the whole happiness " of man."

            I. The former of these two, namely, the insufficiency of the creature to satiate the desires of the soul of man, is the point I am now to speak of. For understanding whereof, we must know, that it was not GOD in the creation, but sin and the curse which attended it, that brought this vanity and vexation upon the creature. GOD made every thing in itself very good; and therefore very fit for the desires of man, some way or other, to take satisfaction from. So the meanest of the creatures were at first filled with so much goodness, as did not only declare the glory of GOD, but in their rank likewise minister content to the mind of man. It was the sin of man that filled the creature with vanity, and it is the vanity of the creature that fills the. soul of man with vexation. As sin makes man come short of glory, which is the rest of the soul in the fruition of GOD in himself; so does it make him come short of content too, which is the rest of the soul in the fruition of GOD in his creatures. Sin took away GOD’s favor from the soul, and his blessing from the creature; it put bitterness into the soul, that it cannot relish the creature; and it put vanity into the creature, that it cannot nourish nor satisfy the soul.

            The desires of the soul can never be satisfied with any good, till they find in it these two qualities, Proportion and Propriety.

            1. Nothing can satisfy the desires of the soul, till it bears a fitness thereunto: For it is with the mind as with the body; the richest attire that is, if it be either too loose or too strait, however it may please a man's pride, must needs offend his body. Now nothing is proportionable to the mind of man, but that which has reference to it, as it is a spiritual soul. For though a man have the same sensi­tive appetite about him, which we find in beasts; yet, in­asmuch as that appetite was in man created subordinate to reason, and obedient to the spirit, it can never be fully satisfied with its object, unless that likewise be subordinate and linked to the object of the superior faculty, which is GOD. So then the creature can never be proportionable to the soul of man, till it bring GOD along with it: So long As it is empty of GOD, so long must it needs be full of vanity and vexation.

            But now it is not sufficient that there be proportion, un­less withal there be propriety: For GOD is as proportionable a good to the nature of devils, as well as of men or good angels; yet no good comes by that to them, because He is none of their GOD, they have no interest in Him. Wealth is as commensurate to the mind and occasions of a beggar as of a Prince; yet the goodness and comfort of it extend not unto him, because he has no propriety in any. Now sin has taken away the propriety which we have in GOD, has unlinked that golden chain, whereby the creature was joined to GOD, and GOD with the creature came along to the mind of man. So that till we can recover this union, and make up this breach again, it is impossible for the soul of man to receive any satisfaction from the creature alone: Though a man. may have the possession of it as a naked creature, yet not the fruition of it as a good creature; for the creature is not good to any, but by the blessing and word accompanying it. And man naturally has no right to the blessing of the creature; for it is GODliness which has the promises, and by consequence the blessing, as well of this, as of the other life. And GOD is not reconciled to us, nor reunited to the creature, but only in and through CHRIST. So then the mind of man is fully satisfied with the creature, only when it finds GOD and CHRIST together in it: GOD making the creature suitable to our inferior desires, and CHRIST making both GOD and the creature ours; GOD giving proportion and CHRIST giving propriety.

            These things thus explained, let us now consider the insufficiency of the creature to confer, and the unsatisfi­ableness of the flesh to receive, any solid satisfaction from any of the works which are done under the sun. Man is naturally a proud creature, of high projects, of unbounded desires; ever framing to himself I know not what imaginary felicities, which have no more proportion to real and true content, than a king on a stage, to a King on a throne, than the houses which children make of cards, to a Prince's palace. Ever since the fall of ADAM, he has an itch in him to be a GOD within himself, the fountain of his own goodness: Does he is to go beyond himself, or what he thinks properly his own, for that in which he resolveth to place his rest. But, alas! after he had toiled out his heart, and wasted his spirits, in the most exact inventions that the creature could minister to him, SOLOMON here, the most experienced for inquiry, the most wise for contri­vance, the most wealthy for compassing such earthly delights, has, after many years sifting out the finest flour, and torturing nature to extract the most exquisite spirits which the varieties of the creature could afford, at last pronounced of them all, that they are "vanity and vexa­tion of spirit:" Like thorns, in their gathering they prick; that is their vexation: And in their burning, they suddenly blaze and consume away; that is their vanity. Vanity in their duration, frail and perishable things; and vexation in their enjoyment, they but disquiet the heart. " The eye," says SOLOMON, "is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing:" Notwithstanding they be the widest of all the senses, can take in more abundance with less satiety, and serve more immediately for the supplies of the reasonable soul; yet a man's eyestrings may even crack with vehemency of poring, his ears may be filled with all the variety of harmonies, and, yet still his soul within him be as greedy to see and hear more, as it was at first.

            Who would have thought that the favor of a Prince, the adoration of the people, the most conspicuous honors of the court, the liberty of utterly destroying his most bitter adversaries, the sway of the state, the concurrency of all the happiness, that wealth, or honor, or intimate­ness with the Prince, or Deity with the people, or extremity of luxury could afford, would possibly have left any room in the heart of HAMAN for discontent? And yet do but observe, how the want of one Jew's knee (who dares not give divine worship to any but his LORD) blasts all his other glories, brings a damp upon all his other delights, makes his head hang down, and his mirth wither: So little leaven was able to sour all the Queen's banquet, and the King's favor. Nay SOLOMON, a man that did not use the creature

with a sensual, but with a critical fruition, " to find out that good which GOD had given men under the sun," and that in such abundance of all things, learning, honor, pleasure, peace, plenty, magnificence, foreign supplies, royal visits, noble confederacies; even he was never able to repose his heart upon any, or all these things together, till he brings in the fear of the LORD for the close of all.

            Lastly, Look on the people of Israel: GOD had delivered them from a bitter thraldom, had divided the sea before them, and destroyed their enemies behind them; had given them bread from heaven, and fed them with angels' food; had commanded the rock to satisfy their thirst, and made the Canaanites to melt before them; his mercies were magnified with the power of his miracles, and his miracles crowned with the sweetness of his mercies; besides the as­surance of great promises to be performed in the Holy Land: And yet, in the midst of all this, we find nothing but murmuring and repining. GOD had given them meat for their faith, but they must have meat for their lust too. It was not enough that GOD showed them mercies, unless his mercies were dressed up, and fitted to their palate: "They tempted GOD, and limited the Holy One of Israel," says theme Prophet. So infinitely unsatisfiable is the fleshly heart of man, either with mercies or miracles, that bring nothing but the creatures to it.

            The ground whereof is, the vast disproportion which is between the creature and the soul of man, whereby it comes to pass, that it is absolutely impossible for one to fill up the other. The soul of man is a substance of unbounded desires; and that, will easily appear, if we consider him in any estate, either created or corrupted.

            In his created estate he was made with a soul capable of more glory, than the whole earth, or all the frame of na­ture, though changed into one Paradise, could afford him: For he was fitted to so much honor, as an infinite and everlasting communion with GOD could bring along with it. And GOD never in the creation gave any creature a proper capacity of a thing, to which he did not withal implant such motions and desires in that creature, as should be somewhat suitable to that capacity, and which might (if they were preserved entire) have brought him to the frui­tion of that good which he desired. For notwithstanding it be true, that the glory of GOD cannot be attained, by virtue of any action which man either can, or ever could have performed: Yet GOD was pleased out of mercy, for the magnifying his name, the communicating of his glory, the advancement of his creature, to enter into covenant with man; and for his natural obedience to promise him a supernatural reward.

            This, I say, was even then out of mercy, inasmuch as ADAM'S obedience of works could no more in any virtue of its own, but only in GOD's merciful contract and accept­ance, merit everlasting life, than our obedience of faith can now. Only the difference between the mercy of the first and second covenant, (and it is a great difference,) is this: GOD did out of mercy propose salvation to ADAM, as an infinite reward of such a finite obedience, as ADAM was able by his own created abilities to have performed; as if a man should give a daylaborer an hundred pounds for his day's work, which perform indeed he did by his own strength, but yet did not merit the thousandth part of that wages which he receives. But GOD’s mercy to us is this, That He is pleased to bestow upon us, not only the reward, but the work and merit which procured the reward; that He is pleased in us to reward another man's work, even the work of CHRIST our Head: As if when one Captain had by his own wisdom discomfited and defeated an enemy, the Prince notwithstanding should reward his service with the advancement of the whole army which he led. But this by the way: Certain in the mean time it is, that GOD created man with such capacities and desires, as could not be limited with any, or all the excellencies of his fellow and finite creatures.

            Nay, look even upon corrupted nature, and there we shall still discover this restlessness of the mind of man, though in an evil way, to promote itself. Whence arise distractions of heart, thoughts for tomorrow, rovings of the soul after infinite varieties of earthly things, sparklesof endless thoughts, those secret flowings, and ebbs, and tempests of that sea of corruption in the heart of man; but because it can never find any thing on which to rest, or that has room enough to entertain so ample a guest? Let us then look a little into the particulars of that great disproportion and insufficiency of any, or all the creatures under the sun, to make up an adequate happiness for the soul of man.

            SOLOMON, here expresseth it in two words: " Vanity," and " Vexation." From the first of these we may observe a threefold disproportion between the soul and the creatures.

            (1.) In regard of their nature, they are base in com­parison of the soul of man. If we weigh the soul of man, and all the creatures under the sun together, we shall find them lighter than vanity itself. All the goodness and honor of the creature arise from one of these two grounds: Either from man's coining, or from GOD'S: Either from opinion imposed upon them by men, or from some real qualities which they have in their nature. Many things there are which have all that worth which they carry among men, not from their own qualities, but from human institution, or from some difficulties that attend them, or from some other outward imposition. When a man gives money for meat, we must not think there is any natural proportion of worth between a piece of silver and a piece of flesh; for that worth which is in the meat is its own, whereas that which is in the money is by human ap­pointment. The like we may say for titles of honor; though they bring authority with them from other men, yet they do not of themselves, by any proper virtue of their own, put any solid merit into the man. Honor is but the raising the rate and value of man, it carries nothing of substance along with it; as in raising the valuation of gold from twenty shillings to twentytwo, the matter is the same, only the estimation different. It is in the power of the King to raise a man out of prison, like Joseph, and give him the next place to himself.

            This then is a plain argument of the baseness of any of these things, in comparison of the soul of man, and by consequence of their great disability to satisfy the same: For can a man make any thing equal to himself? Can a man advance a piece of gold or silver into a reasonable, a spirit­ual, an eternal substance? A man may make himself like these things, he may debase himself into the vileness of an idol: " They that make them, are like unto them." He may undervalue and uncoin himself, blot out GOD’s image and inscription, and write in the image and inscription of earth and SATAN; he may turn himself " into brass, and iron, and reprobate silver," as the Prophet speaks; but never can any man raise the creatures to the worth of man. " We are not redeemed with silver and gold, from our vain conversation," says the Apostle. (1 Pct. 1:18.) And therefore these things are of too base a nature to be put into the balance with the souls of men; and that man infinitely undervalues the work of GOD, the image of GOD, the blood of GOD, who, for so base a purchase as money, or preferment, or any earthly respect, does either hazard his own, or betray the souls of others.

            This should teach all those, upon whom the LORD has bestowed a greater portion of this fancied felicity, I mean, of money, honor, reputation, or the like: [1.] Not to trust in uncertain riches, not to rely upon a foundation of their own laying for satisfaction to their soul, nor to boast in the multitude of their riches; (for that is certainly one great effect of the deceitfulness of riches, to persuade the soul, that there is more in them than indeed there is;) and the Psalmist gives an excellent reason in the same place: " No man can by any means redeem his brother, nor give GOD a ransom for him."

            And [2.] It may teach them, as not to trust, so not to swell with these things neither. If they cannot change an hair of a man's head, nor add an inch to his stature, they can much less make an accession.of the least dram of merit, or real value to the owners of them. And surely, if men could seriously consider, that they are still members of the same common body, and that of a twofold body, a civil and mystical body; and that though they haply may be the more honorable parts in one body, yet in the other they may be less honorable; that the poor, whom they despise, may in CHRIST's body have a higher room than they: As the Apostle says, " has not GOD chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith?" (James 2:5.) I say, if men could compare things rightly together, and consider that they are but the greater letters in the same volume, and the poor the smaller; though they take up more room, yet they put no more matter nor worth into the world which they com­pound, they would never suffer the tympany of pride, or contempt of their meaner brethren, to prevail within them. There was not one price for the soul of the poor man, and another for the rich; there is not one table for CHRIST'S meaner guests, and another for his greater; but the faith is a common faith, the salvation a common salvation, the rule a common rule, the hope a common hope; "one LORD, and one SPIRIT, and one baptism; and one GOD and FATHER of all; " and one foundation, and one house: And therefore we ought to have "the same care and compassion one of another."

            2. Consider that goodness and value which is fixed to the being of the creature, implanted in it by GOD; and even thus we shall find them absolutely unable to satisfy the desires of the reasonable soul. GOD is the LORD of all the creatures, they are but as his several monies; He coined them all: So much then of his image as any creature has in it, so much value it carries.

            Now GOD has more communicated Himself to man, than to any other creature. In his creation we find man made after the similitude of GOD, and in his restoration we find GOD made after the similitude of man, and man once again after the similitude of GOD. And now it is needlessto search out the worth of the creature. Our SAVIOR will decide the point: " What shall it profit a man, though he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" To which of the creatures said GOD at any time, " Let us create it after our image?" Of which of the angels said He at any time,

"Let us restore them to our image again?" There is no creature in heaven or earth, which is recompence enough for the loss of a soul. Can a man carry the world into hell with him, to bribe the flames, or corrupt his tormentors? No, says the Psalmist, " His glory shall not descend after him." (Psalm xlix. 17.) But can he buy out his pardon before he comes thither? No neither: " The redemption of a soul is more precious." (Vey. 8.) We know the Apos­tle counts all things dung; and will GOD take dung in exchange for a soul? Certainly, beloved, when a man can sow grace in the furrows of the field, when he can fill his barns with glory, when he can get bags full of salvation, when he can plough up heaven out of the earth, and extract GOD out of the creatures, then he may be able to find that in them which shall satisfy his desires: But till then, let a man have all the curiosities of nature heaped into one vessel, let him be moulded out of the most delicate ingredients that the world can contribute, let there be in his body a concurrency of all beauty, in his nature an eminence of all sweetness, in his mind a conspi­ration of the most choice varieties of all kinds of learning; yet still the spirit of that man is no whit more valuable, no whit more proportionable to eternal happiness, than the soul of an illiterate beggar. Difference indeed there is, and that justly, to be made between them in the eyes of men; which difference is to expire within a few years. And after the dust of the beautiful and deformed, of the learned and ignorant, of. the honorable and base, are promis­cuously intermingled, and death has equalled all; then at last there will come a day, when all mankind shall be summoned naked, without difference of degrees, before the same tribunal; when the crowns of Kings, and the shackles of prisoners, when the robes of Princes, and the rags of beggars, the courtier's luxury, and the scholar's curiosity, shall be laid aside; when all men shall be reduced to an equal plea, and without respect of persons, shall be doomed according to their works; when NERD the persecuting Em­peror shall be thrown to hell, and PAUL the persecuted Apostle shall shine in glory; when the learned Scribes and Pharisees shall gnash their teeth, and the ignorant, and (as they term them) cursed people shall see their SAVIOR; when the curious subtleties of choice wits, the knotty ques­tions and strife of words, the disputes of reason, the variety of reading, the circle of learning, pursued with so much eagerness by the more ingenious spirits of the world, shall be pronounced but the thin cobwebs of a bettertempered profaneness; and, lastly, when the poor despised profession of the power of Christianity, a trembling at the word of GOD, a scrupulous forbearance, not of oaths only, but of idle words, a tenderness and aptness to bleed at the touch of any sin, a boldness to withstand the corruptions of the times, a conscience of but the appearance of evil, a walk­ing mournfully and humbly before GOD, and heroical reso­lution to be strict and circumspect, to walk in an exact holi­ness, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, the so much scorned peevishness of a few silly unregarded hypocrites, as the world esteems them, shall from the'mouth of GOD. himself, be declared to have been the true and nar­row way which leadeth unto salvation; and the enemies thereof shall, when it is too late, be driven to that despe­rate confession, " We fools counted their life madness, and their end to have been without honor; how are they reckoned amongst the saints, and have their portion with the ALMIGHTY! "

            A second branch of the disproportion between the soul of man and the creatures, arising from the vanity thereof, is their deadness, unprofitableness, inefficacy by any virtue of their own, to convey or preserve life in the soul.

            Happiness, in the Scripture phrase, is called life, con­sisting in a communion with GOD in his holiness and glory. Nothing then can truly be a prop to hold up the soul, Which cannot either preserve that life which it has, or convey that which it has not. " Charge those," says the Apostle, " that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, neither trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God." (1 Tim. 6:17.) He opposeth the life of GOD, to the vanity and uncertainty, the word is, to the’in evidence' of riches, whereby a man can never demonstrate, to himself or others, the certainty or happiness of life. " Let your conversation be without covetousness;" that is, Do not make an idol of the creature; do not heap vessels full of money together, and then think that you are all sure: The crea­ture has no life in it; nay, it has no truth in it neither: There is deceit and cozenage in riches; but, says he, " Let your conversation be with content;" consider that what you have is the portion which GOD has allotted you, that food which he finds most convenient for you; he knows that more would but cloy you with pride and world­liness; that you have not wisdom, humility, faith, heavenlymindedness enough to concoct a more plentiful estate: And therefore receive your portion from him, trust his wisdom and care over you; for he says, " I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

            The life which we fetch from the cistern, is a vanishing life: There is still, after the use of it, less left behind than there was before; but the life which we fetch from the Fountain, is a fixed, an abiding life, as ST. JOHN speaks; or, as our SAVIOR calls it, a life that abounds, like the pumping of water out of a fountain, the more it is drawn the faster it comes.

            We grant, indeed, that the LORD, being the Fountain of life, does allow the creature, in regard of life temporal, some concurrency in the work of preserving life in us. But we must also remember, that the creatures are but GOD’s instruments in that respect; and that, not as servants are to their masters, living instruments, able to work without concurrence of the superior Cause; but dead instruments, which therefore must never be separated from the Principal. Let GOD subduct from them that concourse of his own which actuates and applies them to their several services, and all the creatures in the world are no more able to preserve the body, than an axe and a hammer to erect some stately edifice. It is not the corn or the flour, but the staff of bread, which supports the life; and that is not anything that comes out of the earth, but something which comes down from heaven, even the blessing which sanctifies the creature: " For man liveth not by bread alone, but

by the word which proceeds out of GOD’s mouth."

            The creature cannot hold up itself, much less contribute to the subsistence of other things, unless GOD continue the influence of his blessing upon it. As soon as CHRIST had cursed the figtree, it presently " withered and dried up from the roots;" to show that it was not the root alone, but the blessing of CHRIST, which did support the figtree. The creatures, of themselves, are indifferent to contrary operations, according as they have been by GOD severally applied. Fire preserved the three children in the furnace, and the same fire licked up the instruments of the persecu­tion. The same sea was a sanctuary to Israel, and a grave to Egypt: JONAH had been drowned, if he had not been devoured; the latter destruction was a deliverance from the former, and the ravin of the fish a refuge from the rage of the sea. Pulse kept DANIEL in good liking, which the meat of the King's table could not do the other children: For, indeed, "life is not a thing merely natural, but of promise," as the Apostle speaks; let the promise be removed, and however a wicked man lives as well as a right­eous man, yet his life is but a breathing death, only the cramming of him to a day of slaughter. When the bless­ing of GOD is once subducted, " though men labor in the very fire," turn their vital heat with extremity of pains into a very flame, yet the close of all their labor will prove nothing but vanity, as the Prophet speaks. We should therefore pray unto GOD that we may live, not only by the creature, but by the word which sanctifieth the creature, that we may not lean upon our substance, but upon GOD’s promises, and may still find GOD accompanying his own blessing unto our soul.

            But here the vanity and wickedness of worldly men is justly to be reproved, who rest on the creature as on the only comfort of their life, who count it their principal joy, " when their corn, and wine, and oil increase," sacrifice " to their own net," which is the idolatry of covetousness, so often spoken of by the Apostle, when all the trust, and hope, and glory, and rejoicing which men have is in the creature, and not in GOD. " They boast," says the Psal­mist, " in the multitude of their riches." Nay, so much sottishuess there is in the nature of man, and so much sophistry in the creature, that the proud fool in the Gospel, from the greatness of his wealth concludes the length of his life, " You have much goods laid up for many years;" and the certainty of his mirth and pleasure, " Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Their inward thought is, that " their house shall endure for ever, and their dwellingplaces to all generations." So prodigious a property is there in worldly things, to obliterate all notions of GOD out of the heart of a man, and to harden him to any impudent abomi­nations. " I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, says the LORD, but you saidst, I will not hear. According to their pasture, so were they filled: They were filled, and their heart was exalted: Therefore have they forgotten

me."

            Now that we may be instructed how to use the creature, as becometh a dead and impotent thing, we may make use of these few directions: First, have thine eye ever upon the power of GOD, which alone animateth the creature to that pitch of life which is in it, and who alone has infinite ways to weaken the strongest, or to arm the weakest crea­ture against the stoutest sinner. Peradventure you have as much lands and possessions, as many sheep and oxen, as JOB or NASAL.; yet you have not the LORDship of the clouds; GOD can harden the heavens over thee, he can send the mildew and canker into thy corn, and rot and mur­rain into thy cattle; though thy barns be full of corn, and thy fats overflow with new wine, yet he can break the staff of thy bread, that the flour and the winepress shall not’ feed thee; though you have a house full of silver and gold, he can put holes into every bag, and chinks into every cistern, that it shall all sink away like a winter torrent. GOD can either deny thee a power and will to enjoy it; and this is as sore a disease as poverty itself: Or else he can take away thy strength, that you shall not relish any of thy delicates; he can send a stone or a gout that shall make thee willing to buy, with all thy riches, a poor and a dis­honorable health; and, which is yet worst of all, he can open thy conscience, and let in upon thy soul that lion which lies at the door, amaze thee with the sight of thine own sins, the experience of his terrors, the glimpses of hell, the frenzy of CAIN, the despair of JUDAS, the mad­ness of AHITHOPHEL, the trembling of FELIx, which will damp all thy delights, and make all thy sweetest morsels as the white of an egg; at which' pinch, however now you admire and adore thy thick clay, you wouldst count it the wisest bargain you didst ever make, to give all thy goods to the poor, to feed with MICAIAH in a dungeon, on "bread of affliction, and water of affliction for many years together," that by these, or any other means you might purchase that inestimable peace, which the whole earth, though changed into a globe of gold, or diamonds, cannot procure. So utterly unable are all the creatures in the world to give life, that they cannot preserve it from foreign or domestic assaults, nor remove those pressures which any way disquiet it.

            Secondly, To remove this natural deadness of the crea­ture, or rather to recompense it by the accession of a bless­ing from GOD, use means to reduce it to its primitive good­ness. The Apostles show us the way, " Every creature of GOD is good, being sanctified by the word of GOD, and by prayer." In which place, because it is a text that comes into daily use with all sorts of men, it will be needful to unfold: (1.) What is meant by the Sanctification of the creature. (2.) How it is sanctified by the Word. (3.) How we are to sanctify it to ourselves by Prayer.

            (1.) For the first, The creature is then sanctified, when the curse and poison which sin brought upon it is removed; when we can use the creatures with a clean conscience, and with assurance of a renewed and comfortable estate in them. It is an allusion to legal purifications and difference of meats, (Levit. 11:) "No creature is impure of itself," says the Apostle; in its own simple created nature: But inasmuch as the sin of man forfeited all his interest in the creature, because eo ipso a man is legally dead, and a condemned man is utterly deprived of the right of any worldly goods; and inasmuch as the sin of man has made him, though not a sacrilegious intruder, yet a profane abuser of the good things which remain; partly by indirect procuring them, partly by despising the Author of them, by mustering up GOD’s own gifts against Him in not, luxury, pride, un­cleanness, earthlymindedness, hereby it comes to pass, that " to the unclean, all things are unclean, because their minds and conftiences are defiled." Now the whole creation being thus by the sin of man unclean, and by consequence unfitted for human use, it was requisite that the creature should have some purification before it was to be allowed men; which was indeed legally done in the ceremony, but really in the substance by CHRIST, who has delivered in part, and will at last altogether deliver, the creatures from that vanity and malediction, unto which by reason of the sin of man they were subjected, and fashion them into the glorious liberty of the children of GOD, make them fit places for the saints to inhabit, or confer upon them a glory which shall be in the proportion of their natures a suitable ad­vancement unto them, as the glory of the children of GOD shall be unto them. The blood of CHRIST does not only renew and purify the soul and body of man, but wash away the curse which adhereth to every creature that man uses; does not only cleanse and sanctify his church, but reneweth all the creatures. Those men then who keep themselves out of CHRIST, and are by consequence under the curse, their possessions likewise are under the curse; as their consciences, so their estates are still unclean: They eat their meat like swine rolled up in dirt, the dirt of their own sin and of GOD’s malediction. The creature therefore is then sanc­tified, when the curse thereof is washed away by CHRIST.

            (2.) Now Secondly, Let us see, how the creature is sanctified by the Word.

            [1.] By Word we are not to understand the word of creation, wherein GOD spoke, and all things were made good and serviceable to the use of man. For sin came after that word, and defaced as well the goodness which GOD put into the creature, as his image which he put into man. But by Word, I understand, First in general, GOD’s com­mand and blessing, which strengtheneth the creature unto those operations for which they serve: In which sense our SAVIOR uses it, (Matt. 4:4,) and elsewhere.

            [2.] By that Word I understand particularly the f'oun­tain of that blessing, which the Apostle calls in general, " the word of truth," and " the Gospel of salvation;" and this word is a sanctifying word: " Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth." And as it sanctifies us, so it sanc­tifies the creature too; it is the fountain, not only of eter­nal, but of temporal blessings; therefore CHRIST did not only say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee," but also, "Arise and walk;" intimating, that temporal blessings come along with the Gospel; it has the " pro­mise, as well of this life, as that to come." Thus iii general, the blessing or command of GOD, and the foun­tain of that blessing, the Gospel of salvation, sanctify the creature.

            But yet neither by the blessing, nor the Gospel, is the creature effectually sanctified unto us, until it be by us ap­prehended with the word and promise; and this is done by faith; for the word, says the Apostle, profited not those that heard it, because it was not mingled with faith. For faith has this singular operation, to particularize and sin­gle out GOD and his promises unto a man's self; so then the " creature is sanctified by the word," and blessing believed and embraced, whereby we come to have a nearer right and peculiarity in the creatures which we enjoy: For being by faith united to CHRIST, and made one with him, (which is that noble effect of faith, to incorporate CHRIST and a Christian together,) we thereby share with him in the in­heritance, not only of eternal life, but even of the common creatures: Fellowheirs we are, and copartners with hint; therefore inasmuch as GOD has appointed him to be Heir of all things, as the Apostle speaks, we likewise, in th e virtue of our fellowship with him, must in a subordinate sense be heirs of all things too. " All is yours," says the Apostle, "and you are CHRIST'S, and CHRIST IS Gob's." The saints, says ST. AUGUSTINE, have all the world for their possession. And if it be here demanded how this can be true, since we find the saints of GOD often in great want, and it would doubtless be sin in them to usurp another man's goods upon presumption of that promise, that CHRIST is theirs, and with him all things:

            To this I answer, 1: In general; as CHRIST, though he were the Heir of all things, yet for our sakes became poor, that we by his poverty might be made rich; so GOD often pleases to make the faithful partake, not only in the privileges, but in the poverty of CHRIST; that even by that means they may be rich in faith and dependence upon GOD, " having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

            2. All is ours in regard of Christian liberty; though our hands are bound from the possession, yet our consciences are not bound from the use of any.

            3. Though the faithful have not in the right of their inheritance any monopoly or engrossment of the creatures to themselves, yet still they have, and shall have, the ser­vice of them all. That is thus: If it were possible for any member of CHRIST to stand absolutely in need of the use and service of the whole creation, all the creatures in the world should surely wait upon him, and be appropriated unto him. The moon should stand still, the sun go back, the lions should stop their mouths, the fire should give over burning, the rocks should gush out with water, all the creatures should muster up themselves to defend the body of CHRIST. But as no such absolute necessity shall ever be, so ordinarily we must learn to believe, that those things which GOD allows us, are best suited to our particular estate, GOD knowing us better than we do ourselves: That as less would haply make us repine, so more would make us full, and lift up our hearts against GOD, and set them on the world; so that " all is ours," not absolutely, but subordinately, serviceably, accordingly to the exigence of our condition, to the proportion of faith, and furtherance of our salvation.

            The Third particular inquired into, was, How we do, by Prayer, sanctify the creature to ourselves? This is done in these three courses:

            I. In procuring them. We ought not to set about any of our lawful callings, without a particular addressing ourselves to GOD in prayer. This was the practice of NEHEMIAH in the distress of his people: " I prayed unto the GOD of heaven, and then I spoke unto the King." And surely the Heathens themselves shall, in this point; rise up in judgment against many profane Christians, who look oftener upon their gold, than upon their GOD, as SAL VIAN speaks. We read often in their writings, that in any general calamity they did jointly implore the favor of their idolatrous gods; that in any matter of consequence, they made their entry upon it by prayer, commending the success thereof to the providence of those deities which they believed. Insomuch that we read of PURI.IUS Sctrio, a great Roman, that he ever went to the Capitol before to the Senate, and began all the businesses of the Commonwealth with prayer. How much more then ought we to do it; who have not only the law of nature to guide us, who have not deaf and impotent idols to direct our prayers to, as their gods were; but have First the law of CHRIST requiring it: "Pray always, pray without ceasing. In every thing, by. prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto GOD." Who have, Secondly, the example of CHRIST, to enforce it; for not only morning and evening was it his custom to pray, but upon every other solemn occasion. As for example, before his preaching, before his eating, before the election of his disciples, before his transfiguration in the mount, before and in his passion. Who have, Thirdly, from CHRIST that fundamental prayer, as TERTULLIAN calls it, the LORD's Prayer, as a rule and directory by him framed, to instruct us how to pray, and to bound our extravagant desires; who Lastly have also the altar of CHRIST to receive, the incense of CHRIST to perfume, the name and intercession of CHRIST to present our prayers unto GOD by; who have CHRIST sanctifying, and, as I may so speak, praying our prayers unto his Father for us; as we read of the Angel of the co­venant, who had " a golden censer, and much incense," to offer up the prayers of the saints, which was nothing else but the mediation of CHRIST, bearing the " iniquity of our holy things," as AARON was appointed to do; nothing but his intercession for us at the right hand of his Father. I say, how much more reason have we, than any Gentile could have, to consecrate all our enterprises with prayer to Gov! Humbly to acknowledge how justly he might blast all our businesses, and make us labor in the fire; that unless He keep the city, the watchman watcheth. in vain; that unless He build the house, their labor is in vain that build it; that unless He give the increase, the planting of PAUL, and the watering of Arom.oS are but empty breath; that it is only his blessing on the diligent hand, which mak­eth rich without any sorrow; that unless He be pleased to favor our attempts, neither the plotting of our heads, nor the solicitousness of our hearts, nor the drudgery of our hands, nor the whole concurrence of our created strength, nor any other assistances which we can procure, will be able to bring to pass the otherwise most obvious and feasible events; and thereof to implore his direction in all our counsels, His concurrence with all our actions, His blessing on all our undertakings, to aim at His glory as the sole end of all that we are to do.

            For by this means we do First acknowledge our depen­dency on GOD as the first cause, and give him the glory of his sovereign power over all second agents, in acknowledging that without him we can do nothing: And the power of GOD is the ground of prayer.

            (2.) By this means we put GOD in mind of his promises, and so acknowledge not our dependence on his power only, but on his truth and goodness too: And the promises and truth of GOD are thefoundation of all our prayers.

            (3.) And Lastly, By this means we hasten the perform­ance of GOD’s mercies; we retard, yea quite hinder his purposed judgments. The LORD had resolved to restore Israel to their wonted peace and honor: " Yet for all these things will I be enquired unto by the house of Israel to do it for them," says he in the Prophet. The LORD had threat­ened destruction against Israel for their idolatry, " Had not MOSES stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath," as the Psalmist speaks. And we read of the primitive Christians, that their prayers procured rain from heaven, when the armies of the Emperors were even fa­mished for want of water, and that their very persecutors have begged their prayers.

            2. As by prayer the creature is sanctified in procurement, (for no man has reason to believe, that there is any bless­ing intended to him by GOD, in any of the good things which do not come to him by prayer,) so in the next place the creature is by prayer sanctified in the fruition thereof; because, to enjoy the portion allotted us, and to rejoice iri our labor, is the gift of GOD, as SOLOMON speaks. The creature of itself is not only dead, and therefore unable to minister life by itself alone, but, which is worse, by the means of man's sin, it is deadly too, and therefore apt to poison the receivers of it, without the corrective of Gov's grace.

Pleasure is a thing in itself lawful; but corruption of nature is apt to make a man a lover of pleasure, more than a lover of GOD, and then is that man's pleasure made unto him the metropolis of mischief, as CLEMENS ALEXANDRI­NUS speaks. A good name is better than sweet ointment; but corruption is apt to put a fly of vainglory and affecta­tion into this ointment, to make a man foolishly feed upon his own credit, and with the Pharisees to prefer the praise of men before the glory of GOD; and then our sweet oint­ment is degenerated into a curse: " Woe be unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!" Riches of themselves are the good gifts and blessings of Gov: As SOLOMON says, " The blessing of the LORD maketh rich;" but corruption is apt to breed by this means covetousness, pride, selfdependency, forgetfulness of GOD, scorn of the Gos­pel; and then these earthly blessings are turned into the curse of the earth, into thorns and briars, as the Apostle speaks: " They that will be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows." Learning in itself is an honorable and a noble endowment; but corruption is apt to turn learn­ing into leaven, to infect the heart with pride, which breaks forth into perverse disputes, and corrupts the mind: Yea, being thus corrupted, it is not only turned into weariness, but into very notorious and damnable folly.

            Every creature of GOD is good in itself, and allowed both for necessity and delight; but corruption is apt to abuse the creatures to luxury, excess,  to drunkenness, gluttony, and inordinate lusts; and by this means a man's table is turned, into a snare, as the Psalmist speaks. Now, then, since all the world is thus bespread with gins, it mainly con­cerns us always to pray, that we may use the world as not abusing it; that we may enjoy the creatures with such wis­dom, temperance, sobriety, heavenly affections, as may make them as so many ascents to raise us nearer to GOD, as so many glasses, in which to contemplate the wisdom, providence, and care of GOD to men, as so many witnesses of his love and of our duty. And thus does prayer sanc­tify the creature in the use of it.

The Third and last direction which I shall give you to find life in the creature, shall be to look on it, and love it in his right order, with subordination to GOD and his pro­mises; to love it after GOD, and for Goan, as the beam which conveys the influence of life from him; as his instru­ment, moved and moderated by him to those ends for which it serves; to love it as the cistern, not as the fountain of life; to make CHRIST the foundation, and all other things but as accessions unto him. Otherwise,. if we love it either alone, or above CHRIST, however it may by GOD’s provi­dence keep our breath a while in our nostrils, yet impossible it is, that it should ever minister the true and solid comforts of life to us, " which consisteth, not in the abundance of things which a man possesseth." But men will object, this is a needless caution, not to prefer the creature before the Creator; as if any man were so impious and absurd. Surely ST. PAUL tells us, that " men without faith are im­pious and absurd men," who do, in their affections and practices, as undoubtedly undervalue CHRIST as the Gada­renes that preferred their swine before him. What else did JUDAS and the Jews, who sold and bought the LORD of glory, for the price of a beast? What else do daily those men, who make religion serve turns, and GODliness wait upon gain? The Apostle's rule is general, " That sensual and earthlyminded men are all enemies of the cross of CHRIST." (Phil. 3:18, 19.)

The Third and last disproportion between the soul of man and the creature, arising from the vanity thereof, is in re­gard of duration. Man is by nature a provident creature, apt to lay up for the time to come; and that disposition should reach beyond the forecast of the fool in the Gospel for many years, even for immortality. For certainly there is no man who has but the general notions of reason, who has not his conscience quite vitiated, and his mind putre­fied with noisome lusts, who is not wrapped up in the mud of thick ignorance and palpable stupidity, but must of necessity have often the representations of immortality before his eyes. Let him never so much smother and suppress the truth, let him with all the art he can divert and entangle his thoughts in secular cares, let him shut his eyelids as close as hisnails are to his flesh, yet the flashes of immortality are of so penetrative and searching a nature, that they will undoubtedly get through all the obstacles, which a mind not wholly overdaubed with worldliness and ignorance can put between. I confess, the hearts of many men are so glued to the world, especially when they find all things prosperous with them, that they are apt enough to set up their rest, and to conceit a kind of steadfastness in the things they possess. But yet I say, where the LORD does not wholly give a man over to be eaten up with the canker of his own wealth, the soul must of necessity, some time or other, happen upon such thoughts as these:’ What ails my heart thus to eat up itself with care and to rob mine eyes of their beloved sleep for such things, to which the time will come when I must bid an everlasting farewell? Am I not a poor mortal creature, brother to the worms, sister to the dust? Do I not carry about with me, a soul full of corruptions, a skin full of diseases? Is not my breath in my nostrils, where there is room enough for it to go out, and possibility never to come in again? Is my flesh of brass, or my bones of iron, that I should think to hold out, and without interruption to enjoy these things? Or, if they were, yet are not the creatures themselves subject to mortality? Is there not a moth in my richest garments, a worm in my tallest cedars, a canker in my firmest gold, to corrupt and eat it out? Or if not, will there not come a day, when the whole frame of nature shall be set on fire, and the elements themselves shall melt with heat? When that universal flame shall devour all the bags, and lands, and offices, and honors, and treasures, and storehouses of worldly men? When heaven and hell shall divide the world; heaven, into which nothing can be admitted which is capable of moth or rust to corrupt it; and hell, into which, if any such things.could come, they would undoubt­edly in one instant be swallowed up in those violent and unextinguishable flames.'

            Now if we consider the various roots of this corruption in the creature, it will further appear, that they are not only mortal but momentary and vanishing.

First, By the law of their creation, they were made sub­ject to alterations; there was an enmity and reluctancy in their entirest being.

Secondly, This has been exceedingly improved by the sin of man, whose evil, being the LORD of all creatures, must needs redound to the misery and mortality of all his retinue. For it is in the greater world, as in the admi­nistration of a private family: The poverty of the master is felt in the bowels of all the rest; his stain and dishonor runs into all the members of that society. As it is in the natural body, some parts may be distempered alone, others not without contagion on the rest. A man may have a dim eye, or a withered arm, or a lame foot, without any dan­ger to the parts adjoining; but a lethargy in the head, or an obstruction in the liver, diffuses universal malignity through the body, because these are sovereign parts of man: So likewise is it in the vast body of the creation. However other creatures might have kept their evil, if anv had been in them, within their own bounds, yet that evil which man, the LORD and head of the whole, brought into the world, was a spreading and infectious evil, which conveyed poison into the whole frame of nature, and planted the seed of that universal dissolution, which shall one day deface with darkness and horror the beauty of that glorious frame which we now admire. When KoRAIT, DATIIAN, and ABIRAM had provoked the LORD by their rebellion against his servants, the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed not only them up, but a all the houses, and men, and goods, that apper­tained to them." The heaven and earth, and all inferior creatures, did at first appertain to ADAM; the LORD gave him the free use of them, and dominion over them: When therefore man had committed that notorious rebellion against his Maker, which was not only to aspire, like KORAU and his associates, to the height of some fellowcreature, but even to the absoluteness, wisdom, and independency of GOD himself; no marvel if the wrath of GOD did, together with him, seize upon his house, and all the goods that belonged unto him, bringing in that confusion and disorder which, we even now see, does break asunder the bonds and ligaments of nature, does unjoint the confederacies and societies of the dumb creatures, and turneth the armies of the ALMIGHTY into mutinies and commotion; which, in one word, has so fast manacled the world in the bondage of corruption, that it does already groan and linger with pain, under the sin of plan and the curse of GOD; and will at last break forth into that universal flame, which will melt the very elements of nature into their primitive confusion.

            Thus we see, besides the created limitedness of the crea­ture, by which it was utterly unsuitable to the immortal desires of the soul of man, the sin of man has implanted in them a secret worm and rottenness which does set forward their mortality; and by adding to them confusion, enmity, disproportion, sedition, inequality, (all the seeds of corruption,) has made them not only, as before they were, mortal, but which adds one mortality to another, momen­tary and vanishing too. When any creature Ioseth any of its native and created vigor, it is a manifest sign, that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it. The ex­cellency of the heavens, we know, is their light, their beauty, their influence upon the lower world, and even these has the sin of man defaced. We find when the LORD pleases to reveal his wrath against men for sin, in any terrible man­ner, he does it from heaven: " There shall be wonders in the heaven, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood:" And the day of the LORD is called " a day of darkness and gloominess, and thick darkness." How often has GOD’s heavy displeasure declared itself from heaven in the confu­sion of nature! " In storms and horrible tempests; in thick clouds and dark waters; in arrows of lightning and coals of fire; in blackness and darkness:" In brimstone on Sodom; in a flaming sword over Jerusalem! We find likewise by plain experience, how languid the seeds of life, how faint the vigor, either of heavenly influences or of in­ferior agents, are grown, when that life of men, which was wont to reach to almost a thousand years, is esteemed almost a miraculous age, if it be extended but to the tenth part of that duration. We need not examine the inferior creatures, which we find expressly cursed for the sin of man with thorns and briars; (the usual expression of a curse in Scrip­ture;) if we but open our eyes and look about us, we shall see what pains husbandmen take to keep the earth from giving up the ghost, in opening the veins thereof, in apply­ing their soil and marl as so many cordials and preservatives to keep it alive, in laying it asleep, as it were, when it lieth fallow every second or third year, that by any means they may preserve in it that life which they see plainly approach­ing to its last gasp.

            Thus you see, how, besides the original limitedness of the creature, there is, in the Second place, a moth or canker, by the infection of sin, begotten in them, which hastens their mortality; GOD ordering the second causes so among themselves, that they, exercising enmity one against another, may punish the sin of man in their contentions, as the LORD stirred up the Babylonians against the Egyptians, to punish the sins of his own people. And therefore we find, that the times of the Gospel, when holiness was to be more universal, are expressed by such figures as restore perfec­tion and peace to the creatures. " The earth shall be fat and plenteous; there shall be, upon every high hill, rivers and streams of water; the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days." And again, " the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall he down with the kid, and a calf, and a young lion, and a fatling together." Which places, though figuratively to be understood, have yet methinks thus much of the letter in them, that whatever blemish since the creation any of those glorious heavenly bodies are either in themselves, or by interposition of foggy vapours, subject unto, whatever enmities and destructive qualities enrage one beast against another, they are all of them the consequents of that sin, which nothing can remove but the Gospel of CHRIST. And this is that universal contagion which runneth through the whole frame of na­ture into the bowels of every creature.

            But yet further, in the Third place, there is a particular ground of this mortality to many men, namely, the par­ticular curse upon that place or creature which men enjoy. For as a piece of oak, besides the natural corruptibleness of it, as it is a body compounded of contrary principles, whereby it would of itself at last return to its dust again, may further have a worm, like JONAH'S gourd, eating out the heart of it, and by that means hastening its corruption; find yet further, besides that may be presently put into the fire, which will make a more speedy riddance than either of the former: Or as in the body of a man, besides the general consumption, which lingeringly feedeth upon the whole, each particular member may have a particular disease, which may serve to hasten that corruption to itself,which the other threatens to the whole; so may it be, and often is, in the creatures of GOD: Besides their natural finiteness, and their general bondage of corruption, which, by a hidden and insensible insinuation, does emasculate the vigor and strength of the creatures, there may be a par­ticular curse, which may serve speedily to hasten that decay, which, without any such concurrence, would have made haste enough. " I will be unto EPHRAIM as a moth, and to the house of JUDAH as rottenness, says the LORD:" That is, GOD’s first instrument of mortality, whereby he will certainly, though indeed lingeringly, consume a thing. But now if for all this, when the moth secretly consumes him, so that he seeth his sickness, and feeleth his wound, he will yet trust in his own counsels and confederacies, sacrifice to his own net, go to Assyria, or King JAREB for succor, " I will then be unto EYHRAIM as a lion," in a more sudden and swift destruction. As he dealeth thus with men, so with the things about them too; first he puts a moth into them, rust in our gold, canker in our silver, heartlessness in our earth, faintness in the influences of heaven; and if, notwithstanding all this, men will trust in the cistern, GOD will put holes into it too, which shall make it run out as fast as they fill it; he will give wings to

their money, increase the occasions of expense; and if they clip their wings, that they fly not away, he will make holes in the bottom of their bags, that they shall drop away: He will not only send a moth and rust, which shall in time eat them out, but he will send a thief upon them too, which shall suddenly break through and carry them away.

            So many steps and gradations are there in the mortality of the creatures, when GOD pleases to add his curse unto them for sin.  " I will smite the winterhouse, and the summerhouse; the houses of ivory, and the great houses, shall have an end." If the LORD undertake to smite, if he send abroad the fire of his wrath, it shall seize on those palaces and great houses which men thought should have endured unto all generations. For that flying roll, importing judgment decreed and sudden, which was sent over the whole earth against the thief and the swearer, did not only smite the man, but his house, and, like a leprosy, consume the very timber and stones there. Therefore we read in the Levitical law of leprosies, not in men only, but in houses and garments, intimating unto us, that sin derives a con­tagion upon any thing that is about us, and like ivy in a wall, will get rooting in the very substance of the wall, and break it asunder. Whatever it is that men can find out under the sun to fasten their hearts upon for satisfaction and comfort, this leprosy will defile it and eat it out. If silver and gold; besides their secret rust, and proper cor­ruption, the LORD can make the thief rise up suddenly, and bite the possessors, and so unlade them of their thick clay: If real substance and increase; " the LORD casteth away," says the wise man, "the substance of the wicked; and the increase of his house," says Jon, " shall depart and flee away." If greatness and high places; the LORD can put ice under their feet, make their places slippery, and subject to a momentary desolation: If a great name and glory; the LORD can not only suffer time and ignorance to draw out all the memory of man, but can presently rot his name from heaven: If corn, and the fruits of the earth; the LORD can kill it in the blade, by withholding rain three months before the harvest: He can send a thief, a caterpillar, a palmerworm, to eat it up. If it hold out to come into the barn, even there he can blow upon it, and consume it like chaff. However men think, when they have their corn in their houses, and their wine in their cellars, they are sure and have no more to do with Goo; yet he can take away the staff and life of it in our very houses: Yea, when it is in our mouths and bowels, he can

send leanness and a curse after it. "Awake, ye drunkards, and howl, ye drinkers of wine," says the Prophet, "because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouths." The LORD could defer the punishment of these men till the last day, when undoubtedly there will be nothing for them to drink, but that "cup of the LORD's right hand," as the Prophet calls it: But yet often the LORD smites them with a more sudden blow, snatcheth away the cup from their very mouths, and so makes one curse anticipate another. Thus as the body of a man may have many summons unto one death, may labor at once under many desperate dis­eases; all which, by a malignant conjunction, must needs hasten a man's end, so the creatures of GOD, laboring under a manifold corruption,. do, as it were by so many wings, post away from the owners of them, and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the con­dition of an immortal soul.

            Now to make some application.  This does First discover the folly of worldlings, both in their opinions and affections to earthly things. Love is blind, and will easily make men believe any thing which they could wish to be in it; and therefore, because wicked men wish, for the love they bear the creatures, that they might continue together for ever, the Devil does at last so deeply delude them as to think that they shall continue for ever. Indeed, in the general, they must needs confess, that " one generation cometh, and another go;" but in their own particular they can never assume the truth of that general to their own estates. What a folly is it for men to build upon the sand, to erect an imaginary fabric of I know not what immortality, which has not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it? What man will ever go about to build a house with much cost (and when he has done, to inhabit it himself) of such rotten materials, as will undoubtedly, within a year or two after, fall upon his head, and bury him in the ruins of his own folly? Now then, suppose a man were LORD of all the world, and had his life coextended with it, were furnished with wisdom to manage, and strength to run through all the affairs incident to this vast frame, in as ample a measure as any one man for the government of a private family; yet the Scripture would assure even such a man, that there will come a day, "in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth, with the works that are therein, shall be burnt up:" And what man upon these terms would fix his heart, and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottom, as will within a little while crumble into dust, and leave the poor soul that resteth upon it to sink into hell? But when we consider, that none of us labor for any such inherit­ance, that the extremities of any man's hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth, which to the whole world cannot bear so near a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth; that all we toil for, is but to have our load of a little thick clay, that when we have gotten it, neither we nor it shall continue till the uni­versal dissolution, but in the midst of our dearest embrace­ments we may suddenly be pulled asunder, and come to a fearful end; it must needs be more than brutish stupidity for a man to weave the spider's webs, to wrap himself, from the consumption determined against the whole earth, in a covering that is so infinitely too short, and too narrow for him.

            Secondly, This serves to justify the wisdom and provi­dence of GOD in his proceedings with men. The wicked here provoke GOD, and cry aloud for vengeance on their own heads, and the LORD seems to stop his ears at the cry of sin, and still. to load them with his blessings: "He maketh their war to prosper, they take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit." And now the impatiency of man, that cannot let iniquity ripen, nor reconcile one day and a thousand years together, begins to question GOD's proceed­ings, and is afraid lest the world be governed blindfold, and blessings and curses thrown confusedly abroad for men, as it were, to scramble and scuffle for them. But our Got;, who keepeth times and seasons in his own power, who has given to every creature under the sun, limits which it shall not exceed, has set bounds unto sin likewise, wherein to ripen. Though wicked men flourish and oppress, and pro­voke GOD every day, and rage like the sea, yet the LORD has set their bounds which they shall not pass; they have an appointed time to take their fill of the creature; and then when they have glutted themselves with excess, when their humors are grown to a full ripeness, the LOAD will temper them a potion of his wrath, which shall make them turnall up again, and shameful spewing shall be their glory. In the fourth generation; says GOD to ABRAHAM, thy posterity shall come out of the land where they shall be strangers, and shall inherit this land, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." There is a time when sin grows ripe and full, and then the sickle comes upon it. When the Prophet saw a basket of summer fruits, that were so ripe as that they were gathered off the tree, (which was a type of the sins of Gov's people, which are sooner ripe than the sins of Heathens which knew him not, because they have the constant light and heat of his word to hasten their maturity,) then says the LORD, " The end is come upon my people, I will not pass by them any more;" I will have no more patience towards them. "JEREMIAH, what seest thou? I see the rod of an almond tree. You have well seen," says the Loin), "for I will hasten my word to perform it." When men hasten, the maturity of sin like the blossoms of an almond tree, (which come soonest out,) then says the LORD, " will I hasten the judgments which I have pronounced." There are " days of visitation and recompence for sin," which being come, Israel, which would not know before, shall know, that GOD keeps their sins in store sealed up amongst his treasures, and that, therefore, their

foot shall slip "in due time," namely, " in the day of their calamity."

            The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth; but though he plot, he shall not prosper; though he gnasheth with his teeth, he shall not bite with his teeth; for the LORD shall laugh at him, because he seeth that his day is coming. So much mischief as he can do within the compass of his chain, the LORD permits him to do; but when he is come to his day, then all his thoughts and projects perish with him. " The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction;" he is but like a prisoner, shackled peradventure in fetters of gold, but he shall be brought forth to the day of wrath; and though he could rise out of the grave before CHRIST'S tri­bunal, as AGAG appeared before SAMUEL delicately clothed, yet the sword should cut him in pieces, and bitterness should overtake him. Thus we see how infinitely unable the crea­ture shall be to shelter a man from the tribunal of CHRIST, and how wise, just, and wonderful the LORD is in the administration of the world, in bearing with patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.

            Lastly, This must serve for a needful caution to us, to take heed of deifying the creatures, and attributing that immortality to them which they are not capable of. But inasmuch as they are only for present refreshment in this vale of misery, and have no matter of real and abiding happiness in them, not to look on them with an admiring or adoring eye, but to use them with such due correctives, as become such mortal and mean things.

            First, In using the creature, be sure you keep thine intellectuals untainted; for earthly things are apt to cast a film over men's eyes, and to misguide them into corrupt apprehensions of them. We find nothing more frequent in the Prophets, than to upbraid the people with their strange confidences, which they were wont to rest upon against all the judgments which were denounced against them, by objecting their wealth, greatness, strong con­federacies, inexpugnable munitions, their nests in the clouds, and their houses in the stars; they could never be brought to repent for sin, or to tremble at GOD'S voice, till they were driven off from these holds. A man can never be brought to GOD, till he forsake the creature; a man will never forsake the creature, till he see vanity in the crea­ture.

            In the Roman triumphs, the General that rode in honor through the city, with the principal of his enemies bound in chains behind his chariot, had always a servant running along by him with this corrective of his glory, Respice post te, hominem memento te. Look behind thee, and in the persons of thine enemies, learn that you thyself art a man, subject to the same casualities and dishonors with others. Surely, if men who had nothing but the creatures to trust to, "being aliens from the covenant of promise, and without GOD in the world," had ye, so much care to keep their judgments sound, touching the vanity of their greatest honors, how much more ought Christians, who profess themselves heirs of better and more abiding promises? But especially arm thyself against those vanities which most easily beset and beguile thee; apply the authority of the word to thine own particular sickness; treasure up all the experiences that meet thee in thine own course, or are remarkable in the lives of others; remember how a moment swallowed up such a pleasure, which will never return again; how an indirect purchase embittered such a preferment, and you never didst feel that comfort in it which thy hopes promised thee; how a frown and disgrace at another time dashed all thy contrivances for further advancement; how death seized upon such a friend, in whom you hadst laid up much of thy dependence; how time has not only robbed thee of the things, but even turned the edge of thy desires, and made thee loathe thy wonted idols, and look upon thy old designs, as AMNON  upon TAMAR, with exceeding hatred. But above all, address thyself to the throne of Grace, and beseech the LORD so to sanctify his creatures to thee, that they may not be either thieves against him to steal away his honor, or snares to thee to entangle thy soul.

            We will conclude this First direction with the words of the Apostle: " The time is short: It remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it;" that is, as not to be smothered in the businesses of this life; for, says he, " the fashion of this world passes away." The Apostle's exhortation is beset at both ends with the same enforcement, from whence I have raised mine. First, " The time is short:" The Apostle, as the learned conceive, used), a metaphor from sails or cur­tains, or shepherd's tents, such things as may be gathered up together into a narrow room. " Time is short," that is, that time which the LORD has spread over all things like a sail, has now this,five thousand years been rolling up, and the end is now at hand, as ST. PETER speaks: " The day is approaching when time shall be no more;" and so the words in the original will well bear it, O xaigos vvva6TaAj aevos To?oi,rov eoriv, The remainder of time is short, or, Time is short, for so much as yet remaineth of it to be folded up; and therefore we ought so to behave ourselves, as men that have more serious things to consider of, as such that are very near to that everlasting haven, where there shall be no use of such sails any more. And in the Apostle's close, the same reason is further yet enforced: " For the fashion of this world passes away;" oxw.ca, the figure, that there is nothing of any firmness or solid con­sistency in the creature; it is but a surface, an outside, an empty promise, all the beauty of it is but skindeep; and then that little which is desirable and precious in the eyes of men, which the Apostle calls "the lust of the world," (1 John 2:17,) zragayETai, it passes away, and is quickly gone.

            The word, as the learned differently render it, has three several arguments in it:

            1. It deceives, and therefore use it as if you used it not; use it as a man in a serious business would use a false friend that proffers his assistance; though his protestations be never so fair, yet so employ him, that the business may be done though he should, fail thee.

            2. It carries a man headlong: The lusts of the world are so strong and impetuous, that they are apt to inflame the desires, and even violently to carry away the heart of a man; and for this cause likewise use it as if you used it not; engage yourselves as little upon it as you can; do as mariners in a mighty wind, hoist up a few sails; expose as few of thy affections to the rage of worldly lusts as may be; beware of being carried where two seas meet, as the ship wherein PAUL suffered shipwreck; I mean, of plung­ing thyself in a confluence of many boisterous and conflict­ing businesses, lest the LORD either give thy soul over to suffer ships reek in them, or strip thee of all thy lading and tackling, break thine estate all to pieces, and make thee glad to get to heaven upon a broken plank.

            3. The fashion of this world passes over, it does but go along by thee, and salute thee; and therefore use it as if you usedst it not: Do to it as you wouldest do to a stranger whom you meetest in the way; he goes one way, and you another; salute him, stay so long in his company till from him you have received better instructions touching thy own way, but take heed you turn not into the way of the creature, lest you lose thine own home.

            Secondly, Get an eye of faith, to look through and above the creature A man shall never get to look off from the world, till he can look beyond it. For the soul will have hold of something; and the reason why men cling so much to the earth is, because they have no assurance, if they let go that hold, of having any subsistence elsewhere. Labor thereforeto get an interest in CHRIST, to find an everlast­ing footing in GOD’s promises, and that will make thee willing to suffer the loss of all things, it will implant a kind of hatred of the most precious endearments, which thy soul fed upon before.

            ST. PETER says of wicked men, that they are "pur­blind, they cannot see afar off;" they can see nothing but that which is next to them, and therefore no marvel if their thoughts cannot reach the end of the creature. There is in a dim eye the same indisposition always, which sometimes happeneth to a sound eye, by reason of a thick mist: Though a man be walking in a very short lane, yet he sees no end of it: And so a natural man cannot reach to the period of earthly things; death and danger arc still a greatway out of his sight, whereas the eye of faith can look upon them as already expiring, and through them look upon him who therefore gives the creatures unto us, that in them we might see his power, and taste his goodness: And nature itself methinks may seem to have intended some such thing as this, in the very order of the creatures Downwards a man's eye has something immediately to fix on; all is shut up in darkness save the very surface, to note, that we should have our desires shut up too from those earthly things which are put under our feet, and hid from our eyes. All the beauty, and all the fruit of the earth, is placed on the very outside of it, to show how short and narrow our affections should be towards it. But upward the eye finds scarce any thing to bound it; all is transparent, to note how vast our affections should be towards GOD, how endless our desires of his kingdom, how present to our faith the heavenly things should be even at the greatest distance.

            The Apostle says, that "faith is the substance of things hoped for;" that it gives being and present subsistency to things far distant from us; makes those things which are very remote, to seem hard at hand. And therefore though there were many hundred years to come in the Apostle's time, and for aught we know, may yet be, to the dissolution of the world, yet the Apostle tells us, that even then it was the last hour, because faith being able distinctly to see the truth and promises of GOD, and the endlessness of that life which is then presently to be revealed; the infinite vastness in that, made that which was otherwise a great space, even seem as nothing, no more in comparison, than the length of a cane or trunk, through which a man looks on the heavens. We then by faith apprehending an infinite and everlasting glory, must needs conceive any thing through which we look upon it, to be but short and van­ishing. And therefore, though the promises were afar off; yet the Patriarchs did not only see, hut embrace them; their faith seemed to swallow up all distance. ABRAHAM sate CHRIST'S day, and was glad; he looked upon those many ages which were between him and his promised seed, as upon small and inconsiderable distances, in comparison of that endless glory into which they ran; they were but as a curtain or piece of hangings, which divide one room in a house from another. Labor, therefore, to get a dis­tinct view of " the height, and length, and breadth, and depth of the unsearchable love of GOD in CHRIST," to find in thine own soul the truth of GOD in his promises, and that his word abideth for ever, and that will make all the glory of other things to seem but as grass.

            Lastly, Though the creature be mortal in itself, yet in, regard of man, as it is an instrument serviceable to his purposes, and subordinate to the graces of GOD in him, it may be made of use even for immortality. To which pur­pose excellent is that speech of holy AUGUSTINE,’ If you have not these earthly goods,' says he,’take heed how you get them by evil works here; and if you have them, labor by good works to hold them, even when you art gone to heaven.' " Make you friends," says our Saviou R, " of the unrighteous Mammon, that, when you fail, they may receive you into eternal habitations;" a religious and merciful use of earthly things makes way to immortality and blessedness. " Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days you shall find it." It is an allusion unto husbandmen: They do not eat up and sell away all their corn, for then the world would quickly be destitute; but the way they take to perpetuate the fruits of theearth, is to cast some of it back again into a fruitful soil where the waters come, and then in due time they receive it with increase: So should we do with these worldly blessings, sow them in the bowels and backs of the poor members of CHRIST, and in the day of harvest we shall find a great increase. " If you draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscu­rity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; then thy waters shall not lye unto thee;" that happiness which it falsely promises unto other men, it shall perform to thee. And so much be spoken touching the great disproportion between the soul of man and the creature, in regard of the vanity of it.

            The next disproportion is in their operation: They are vexing and molesting things. Rest is the satisfaction of every creature; all the rovings of the soul are but to find out something on which to rest; and therefore where there is vexation, there can be no proportion to the soul of man: And SoI oMoN tells us, that " all things under the sun are full of labor; more than a man can utter." He did not speak it only, but try it too: The LORD was pleased for that very purpose to confer on him a confluence of all outward happiness, and inward abilities, which his heart could desire, that he at last might discover the utter insufficiency of all created excellencies to quiet the soul of man. But if we will not believe the experience of SOLOMON, let us believe the authority of Him that was greater than SohoMoN, who has plainly compared the things and the cares of the earth to thorns, which, as the Apostle speaks, " pierce a man through with many sorrows."

First, They are wounding thorns; for that which is but a prick in the flesh, is a wound in the spirit; because the spirit is most tender of smart: And the wise man calls them " vexation of spirit." The Apostle tells us, " they beget many sorrows, and those sorrows bring death with them." If it were possible for a man to see in one view those oceans of blood which have been let out of men's veins by this one thorn; to hear in one noise all the groans of those poor men, whose lives, from the beginning of the world to these days of blood wherein we live, have been set at sale, and sacrificed to the insatiable ambition of their bloody rulers; to see and hear the endless remorse and bitter yellings of so many rich and mighty men as are now in hell, everlastingly cursing the deceit and murder of these earthly creatures; it would make every man with pity and amazement believe, that the creatures of them. selves, without CHRIST to qualify their venom, and to blunt their edge, are in good earnest wounding thorns.

            Secondly, They are choaking thorns; they stifle and keep down all the gracious seeds of the word, yea, all nobleness, ingenuity, morality in the dispositions of men. Seed requires emptiness in the ground, that there may be a free admission of the rain and influences of the heavens to cherish it: And so the Gospel requires nakedness and poverty of mind, a sense of our own utter insufficiency to ourselves for happiness. But earthly things, meeting with corruption in the heart, are very apt, 1. To fill it, and 2. To swell it; both which are conditions contrary to the pre­parations of the Gospel.

            1. They fill the heart, (1.) With business; yokes of oxen, and farms, and wives, and the like contentments, take up the studies and delights of men, that they cannot find leisure to come to CHRIST.

            (2.) They fill the heart with love; " and the love of the world shuts out the love of the Father." When the heart goes after covetousness, the power and obedience of the Word is shut quite out. " They will not do thy words," says the LoRn to the Prophet, " for their heart go after their covetousness." A dear and superlative love, such as the Gospel ever requires, (for a man must love CHRIST upon such terms, as to be ready, not to forsake only, but to hate father, and mother, and wife, and any the choicest worldly endearments for his sake,) I say, such a love ad­mits of no competition. And therefore the love of the world must needs extinguish the love of the word.

            (3.) They fill the heart with fear of foregoing them; and fear takes off the heart from any thoughts, save those which look upon the matter of our fear, when men, who make gold their confidence, hear that they must forsake all for CHltisT, and are sometime haply put upon a trial, they start aside, choose rather to enjoy what they have present hold of, than venture the loss of it for such things, the beauty whereof the Prince of this world has blinded _their eyes, that they.should not see. For certainly, till the mind be settled to believe, that in GOD there is an ample recompence for any thing which we forego for him, it is impossible that man should soundly embrace the love of the truth, or renounce the love of the world.

            2. As they fill, so they swell the heart too, and by that means work in it a contempt of the simplicity of the Gospel. We have both together in the Prophet, " Accord­ing to their pasture, so were they filled: They were filled, and their heart was exalted: Therefore have they forgotten me." Now, the immediate child of pride is selfdependence and a reflection on our own sufficiency, and from thence the next issue is, a contempt of the simplicity of that Gospel which should drive us out of ourselves. The Gentiles, out of the pride of their own wisdom, counted the Gospel of CHRIST foolishness; and the Pharisees, who were the learned Doctors of Jerusalem, when they heard CHRIST preach against earthly affections, out of their pride and covetousness " derided him," as the Evangelist speaks. Nay, farther, they stifle the seeds of all nobleness, inge­nuity, or common virtues in the lives of men: From whence come oppression, extortion, bribery, cruelty, rapine, fraud, sordid ignoble courses, a very dissolution of the laws of nature among men, but from the adoration of earthly, things, from that idol of covetousness which is set up in the heart?

            Thirdly, They are deceitful thorns, as our SAVIOR expresseth it. Let a man in a tempest go to a thorn for shelter, and he shall light upon a thief instead of a fence, which will tear his flesh instead,of succoring him, and do bins more injury than the evil which he fled from; and such are the creatures of themselves; so far are they from protecting, that indeed they tempt and betray us.

            Lastly, They are vanishing thorns: Nothing so apt, nothing so easy to catch fire, and be presently extinguished. They are " quenched like a fire of thorns."

To consider yet more distinctly the vexation of the creature, we will observe, First, The degrees; Secondly, The grounds of it; and Thirdly, The use which we should put it to.

            Five degrees we shall observe of this vexation.

            1. The creatures are apt to molest the spirit in the procuring of them, even as thorns will certainly prick in their gathering. They make all " a man's days sorrow, and his travail grief, they suffer not his heart to take rest in the night." What pains will men take! What hazards will they run to procure their desires! Pains of body, plotting of brain, conflicts of passions, biting of conscience, dis­reputation amongst men, scourge of tongues, any thing, every thing will men adventure, to obtain at last that which it may be is not a competent reward for the smallest of these vexations. How will men exchange their salva­tion, throw away their own mercy, make themselves per­petual drudges, fawn, flatter, comply, hazard their own blood in desperate undertakings, and stain their consciences with the blood of others, to swim through all to their adored haven! Adorare vulgus, jacere oscula et amnia serviliter pro imperio. The Historian spoke it of OTHO, that Roman ABSALOM; be worshipped the people, dis­pensed his courtesies, crouched to the basest, that thereby he might creep into an usurped honor. And that the like vexation is ordinary in the procurement of any earthly things, will appear, if we compare the disposition of the mind with the obstacles that meet us in the pursuit of them. Suppose we a man importunately set to travel to some place where the certainty of some great profit or preferment attends his coming; the way through which he must go is intricate, deep, impassable; the beast that car­ries him lame and tired; his acquaintance none, his instruc­tions few: What a heavy vexation must this needs be to the soul of that man, to be crossed with so many difficulties in so eager a desire! Just this is the case with natural men in the prosecution of earthly things. First, the desires of men are very violent: Qui dives fleri wilt, et cito vult fieri; they that will be rich, cannot be quiet till their desires are accomplished: And therefore we find strong desires, in the Scripture phrase, expressed by such things as give in­timation of pain with them. The Apostle describes them by " groaning and sighing;" the Prophet DAVID by " panting and gasping;" the Spouse in the Canticles by " sickness," " I am sick with love." Thus AMNON grew lean for the desire of his sister, and was vexed and sick: Thus AHAn waxed heavy, and laid him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would not eat, because of NABOTH'S vineyard. So that the very importunity of desire is full of vexation in itself. But besides, the means for fulfilling these desires are very difficult, the instruments very weak: Peradventure a man's wits are not suitable to his desires, or his strength not to his wits, or his stock not to his strength, his friends few, his rivals many, his busi­ness intricate, his counsels uncertain, his projects waylaid and prevented, his contrivance dashed and disappointed; such a circumstance unseen, such a casualty starting sud­denly out, such an occurrence meeting the action, has made it unfeasible, and shipwrecked the expectation. A man deals with the earth, he finds it weak and languid; every foot of that must often he fallow, when his desires do still plough; with men, he finds their hearts hard, and their hands close; with servants, he finds them slow and unfaithful; with trading, he finds the time hard: So that now, that vexation, which was at first begun with vehe­mency of desire, is mightily improved with impatiency of opposition, and lastly much increased with the fear of utter disappointment. /For according as the desires are either more urgent, or more difficult, so will the fears of their miscarriage groi,V; and it is a miserable thing for the mind to be torn asunder between two such violent passions, as desire and fear.

            2. The Second degree of vexation is in the multiplying of the creature, that men may have it to look upon with their eyes. And in this case, the more the heap grows, the more the heart is enlarged to it; and impossible it is, that that desire should ever be quieted, which grows by the fruition of the thing desired. A wolf that has once tasted blood, is more fierce in the desire of it than he was before; experience puts an edge upon the appetite: And so it is in the desires of men, they grow more savage and raging in the second or third prosecution than in the first. It is an usual selfdeceit to think, if 1 had such an accession to mine estate, such a dignity with mine other preferments, I should then rest satisfied, and desire no more. This is a most notorious cheat of the heart of man: First, thereby to beget a secret conceit, that since this being gotten, I should sit quietly down, I may therefore set myself with might and main to procure it; and in the mean time, neglect the state' Of my soul, and peradventure shipwreck my conscience upon unwarrantable means for fulfilling so warrantable a desire. And, Secondly, thereby likewise to inure the affections to the love of the world, to plunge the soul in earthly delights, and to distil a secret poison of greediness into the heart. For it is with worldly love, as with the sea; let it have at the first never so little a gap at which to creep in, and it will eat out a wider way, till at last it grow too strong for all the bulwarks, and overrun the soul. Omne peccatum habet in se mendacium: There is something of the he in every sin; but very much in this of worldliness, which gets upon a man with modest pre­tences, till at last it gather impudence and violence by degrees; even as a man that runs down a steep hill, is at last carried, not barely by the impulsion of his own will, but because at first he engaged himself upon such a motion, which it would prove impossible for him to stop at his pleasure. It is in the case of sin, as it is in treason, qui deliberant desciverunt; to entertain any terms of parley with Goss's enemy, is downright to forsake him. And if it be so in any thing, then much more in the love of the world; for the Apostle tells us, that that is a " root," and therefore we must expect, if ever it get footing in us, partly by reason of its own fruitful quality, partly by reason of the fertile soil wherein it is, the corrupt heart of man, partly by reason of SATAN's constant plying it with his sug­gestions, it will every day grow faster, settle deeper, and spread wider in our souls: By which means it must needs create abundance of vexation to the spirit. " They pant

after the dust of the earth, on the head of the poor," says the Prophet, of those cruel oppressors: It notes how the fierceness of a greedy desire will wear out the strength of a man, make hint spend all his wits, and even gasp out his spirits. " Woe unto him," says the Prophet, " that increases that which is not his, enlarging his desires as hell and death, that loadeth himself with thick clay;" that is, in other expressions, " that heapeth up treasures against the last day." The words show us what