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 Tooi,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 the issue of vehement and indefatigable affections is; they do but create vexations to a man's own soul, and all his wealth will at length he upon his conscience like a mountain.

3. The Third degree of vexation is from the enjoyment, or rather from the use, of earthly things: For though a wicked man may be said to use the creatures, yet, in a strict sense, he cannot be said to enjoy them. The LORD maketh his sun to shine upon them, giveth them a possession and use; but all this does not reach to fruition: For that imports a delightful orderly use of them, which things belong to the blessings and promises of the Gospel. In which respect the Apostle says, " that Go]) giveth us zsavla sic a7ro.,auomv, all things richly to enjoy."

This is the main sting and vexation of the creature alone, without Gon's' more especial blessing, that in it a man shall still taste a secret curse, which deprives him of that satisfaction which he looks for from it. False joy, like " the crackling of thorns," he may find, but still there is some fly in the ointment, some death in the pot, some madness in the laughter, which, in the midst of all, damps and surpriseth the soul with horror and sadness. Res severa est verum gaudium: True joy, says the Heathen man, is not a floating thing; it is serious and massy, it sinks to the centre of the heart. As in nature, the heavens, we know, are alway calm, serene, uniform, undisturbed; they are the clouds and lower regions that thunder: The sun and stars raise up no fogs so high, that they may imprint any real blot upon the beauty of those purer bodies,,or disquiet their constant and regular motions: But in the lower regions, by reason of their nearness to the earth, they raise up such meteors, as often break forth into thunders and tempests; so the more heavenly the mind is, the more untainted does it keep itself from the corruptions and temptations of worldly things, the more quiet and composed is it in all estates; but in minds merely sensual, the hotter GOD’s favors shine, and the faster his rain falls upon them, the more fogs are raised, the higher thorns grow up, the more darkness and distractions shake the soul.

Give me leave to explain this vexation in one or two of SOLO ioN'S particulars, and to unfold his enforcements thereof out of them.

(1.) And First, To begin with that with which he begins, the knowledge of things, either natural or moral and civil, both which he concludeth are " vanity and vexation of spirit." The first argument he takes from the weakness of it, either to restore or correct any thing that is amiss: " That which is crooked cannot be made straight." We may understand it several ways

[1.] AU our knowledge, by reason of man's corruption, is but a crooked, ragged knowledge, and for that reason a vexation to the mind: For rectitude is full of beauty, and crookedness of deformity. In man's creation, his understanding should have walked in the strait path of truth, should have had a distinct view of causes and effects in their immediate successions; but now sin has mingled such confusion with things, that the mind is fain to take many crooked and vast compasses for a little uncertain knowledge.

[2.] The weakness of all natural knowledge is seen in this, that it cannot any way either prevent or correct the natural crookedness of the smallest things, much less make a man solidly and substantially happy.

[3.] " That which is crooked cannot be made straight." It is impossible for a man by the exactest knowledge of natural things, to make the nature of a man, which by sin is departed from its primitive rectitude, straight again, to repair that image of GOD which is so much distorted. " When they knew GOD, they glorified him not as GOD; they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." It is the Apostle's speech of the wisest Heathens. ARISTOTLE, the most rational Heathen that the world knows of, in his doctrine confesseth the disability of moral knowledge, to rectify the intemperance of nature, and made it good in his practice.

A Second ground of vexation from knowledge, is, the defects and imperfections of it. " That which is wanting cannot be numbered." There are many thousand conclusions in nature, which the most exquisite judgments are not able to pierce into. Nay, the more a man knows, the more discoveries he makes of things he knows not.

Thirdly, " In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow." In civil wisdom, the more able a man is, the more service is cast upon him; the more businesses run through him, the less he can enjoy his time or liberty. His eminence loads him with envy, jealousies, suspicions; forceth him often upon unwelcome compliances, upon colours and inventions to palliate unjust counsels; fills him with fears of miscarriage and disgrace, with restless thoughts how to discover, prevent, conceal, accommodate his adversaries, or his own affairs; in one word, is very apt to make hire a stranger to GOD and his own soul. In other learning, let a man but consider, (1.) The confusion, uncertainty, perplexities of causes and effects by man's sin: (2.) The pains of the body, the travail of the mind, the sweat of the brain, the tugging of the understanding, the very drudgery of the soul to break through that confusion and her own difficulties: (3.) The many invincible doubts and errors which will still blemish our brightest notions: (4.) The great charges which the very instruments and furniture of learning will put men to: (5.) The insufficiency thereof, to perfect that which is amiss in our nature, the malignant property thereof to put sin into armour, to contemn the simplicity and purity of GOD’s word: And, Lastly, The near approach thereof to its own period; the same death that attends us being ready also to bury all our learning in the grave with us: These and infinite like considerations must needs mingle much sorrow with the choicest learning.

(2.) Let us take a view of pleasure. There is nothing does so much disable pleasure, as the mixture either of folly or want. When a man has wisdom to apprehend the exquisiteness of his delights, and variety to keep out the surfeit of any one, he is then fittest to examine what compass of goodness is in them. First, then, Solomon kept his wisdom, he pursued such manly and noble delights, as might not vitiate, but rather improve his intellectuals. (Eccles..ii. 18.) Secondly, His wisdom was furnished with variety of subjects to enquire into; he had magnificence and provisions suitable to the greatness of his royal mind. Sumptuous and delicate diet, under the name of wine, (ver. 3,) stately edifices, (ver. 4,) vineyards and orchards, yea, very paradises, as large as woods, (ver. 5, 6,) fishponds and great waters, multitudes of attendants and retinue of all sexes, mighty herds of cattle of all kinds, (ver. 7,) great treasures of silver and gold, all kinds of music, vocal and instrumental. Thirdly, SOLOMON exceeded, " in all these things, all that ever went before Lim." (Ver. 9.) Fourthly, As he had the most abundant, so likewise the most free, undisturbed, unabated enjoyment of them all; " he withheld not his heart from any joy." There was no mixture of sickness, war, or any intercurrent difficulties to corrupt their sweetness, or blunt the taste of them. Here are as great preparations as the heart of man can expect, to make an universal survey of those delights which are in the creature: And yet at last, upon an impartial inquiry, the conclusion is, they were but "vanity and vexation of spirit," (ver. 11,) which vexation he further explains: (1.) By the necessary divorce which was to come between him and them: " He was to leave them all." (Ver.’18.) (2.) By his disability so td dispose of them, as that after him they might remain in that manner as he had ordered thorn. (Ver. 19.) (3.) By the effects which these and the like considerations wrought in him, they were so far from giving him real satisfaction, that First, He hatedall his works; for there is nothing makes one hate more eagerly than disappointment in the good which a man expected. Secondly, He despaired of finding any good in them, because they beget nothing but travail, drudgery and unquiet thoughts.

Lastly, Let us take a view of riches, the most adored idol of all the rest. The wise man says, First in general, " Neither riches, nor yet abundance of wealth, can satisfy the soul of man." (Eccles. 5:1O.) This he more particularly explains: First, From the sharers which the increase of them Both naturally draw after it; (ver. 11;) and between the owners and the sharers, there is no difference but this, an empty speculation,—one sees as his own what the other enjoys, to those real purposes for which they serve, as well as he. Secondly, From the unquietness which naturally grows by the increase of them, which makes an ordinary drudge in that respect more happy. (Ver. 12.) Thirdly, From the hurt which usually, without some due corrective, they bring, (ver. 13,) either they hurt a man in himself, being strong temptations and materials too of pride, vainglory; covetousness, luxury, intemperance, forgetfulness of GOD, love of the world, and by these, of disorder, dissoluteness, and diseases in body; or at least they expose him to the envy, accusations, violences of wicked men. Fourthly, From their uncertainty of abode, they perish by an evil travail; either GOD’s curse, or some particular humor, lust, or project, overturns a great estate, and posterity is beggared. Fifthly, From the cer_ tainty of an everlasting separation from them, (ver. 15, 16,) and this, he says, is a sore evil, which galls the heart of a worldly man, that has resolved upon no other heaven than his wealth; when sickness comes to snatch him away from this his idol,, there is not only sorrow, but wrath and fury in him. (Ver. 17.) Sixthly, From the disability to use or enjoy them, when a man through inordinate love, or distrust, or sordidness of spirit, or encumbrances of employ_ ments, will not, while he lives, enjoy his abundance; and when he dies, has not, either by his own covetous prevention, or his successor's inhumanity, an honorable burial, (Eccles. 6:1—3.) Seventhly, From the narrowness of any satisfaction which can be received from them. (Ver. 7.) All the wealth a man has can reach no higher than the filling of his mouth, than the outward services of the body; the desires of the soul remain empty still. A glutton may fill his belly, but he cannot fill his lust; a covetous man may have a house full of money, but he can never have a heart full of money; an ambitious man may have titles enough to overcharge his memory, but never to fill his pride; the agitations of the soul would not cease, the curiosity of the understanding would not stand at a stay, though a man could hold all the learning of the greatest library in his head at once; the sensuality of a lascivious man would never be satiated, it would be the more enraged, though he should tire out his strength and waste out his spirits, and stupify all his senses with an excessive intemperance. When men have done all they can with their wisdom and wealth, they can fill no more but the mouth, and poverty and folly make a shift to do so too; (Der. 8;) the desires wander, the soul roves up and down as ever. (Ver. 9.) Eighthly, From their disability to protect or rescue a man from evil, to advance the strength of a man beyond what it was before. (Ver. 1O.) Though a man could scrape all the wealth in the world together, he were but a man still, subject to the same dangers and infirmities as before; nothing can exalt him above, or exempt him from the common laws of humanity; neither shall he be ever able to contend with him that is mightier than he. All his wealth shall never be able to blind the eye, or bribe the justice, or restrain the power of Almighty GOD.

4. The Fourth degree of vexation is from the review of them:

(1.) If a man consider the means of his getting them; his conscience will often tell him, that he has pursued unwarrantable ways of gain, has ventured to lie, flatter, swear, deceive, supplant, undermine; to corrupt and adulterate wares, to hoard them up till a dearer season, to intrench upon GOD’s day for his own purposes, that so he might not only receive, but even steal away blessings from him.

(2.) If a mar, consider the manner, the inordinate, and overeager way of procuring them; how much precious time have you spent, which can never be recalled, for one hour whereof a tormented soul in hell would part with all the world, if. he had the disposal of it, to be but so small a space within the possibilities of salvation again; how much of this precious time have you spent for that which is no bread, and which satisfieth not! How many golden opportunities of increasing the graces of thy soul, of feeding thy faith with more noble and heavenly contemplation on GOD’s truth and promises, on his name and attributes, on his word and worship, of rousing up thy soul from the sleep of sin, of stirring up and new inflaming thy spiritual gifts, of addressing thyself to a more serious, durable communion with GOD, of mourning for thine own corruptions, of groaning and thirsting after heavenly promises, of renewing thy vows and resolutions, of besieging and besetting heaven with thy more ardent prayers, of humbling thyself before thy GOD, of bewailing the calamities, the stones, the dust of Sion, of deprecating and repelling approaching judgments, of glorifying GOD in all his way,—things of precious, spiritual, and everlasting consequence; how many of these golden opportunities has thy absurd love and attendance on the world stolen from thee! And surely, to a soul enlightened, these must needs be matters of much vexation.

(3.) If a man consider the use he has made of them: How they have stolen away his heart from trusting in GOD, to rely on them; how they have diverted his thoughts from the life to come, and bewitched him to dote on present contentments; to love life, to fear death, to dispense with much unjust liberty, to gather rust and security in Gem's worship, how much excess and intemperance they have provoked; how little of them have been spent in GOD’s glory; how small a portion we have repaid him in his Ministers or in his members; how few naked backs they have clothed; how few empty bellies they have filled; how few languishing bowels they have refreshed; how few good works they have rewarded; these are considerations which, unto sensible consciences, must some time or other beget much vexation.

(4.) If a man consider his own former experiences, or the examples of others, that bring the vanity of these earthly things to mind; how some of his choicest pleasures have now outlived him, and are expired; how the Lon') has snatched from his dearest embracements, those idols which were set up against his glory; how many of his hopes have failed, of his expectations proved abortive; how much money at one time a sickness, at another a suit, at a third a thief, at a fourth a shipwreck or miscarriage, at a fifth, yea, at a twentieth time, a lust has consumed and eaten out; how many examples there are in the world of withered and blasted estates, of the curse of GOD, not only like amoth insensibly consuming, but like a lion suddenly tearing asunder great possessions.

5. The last degree of vexation from the creature, is from the disposing of them. All creatures, sinners especially, that have no portion in another life, naturally love a present earthly immortality: And therefore, though they cannot have it in themselves, yet as the philosopher says of living creatures, the reason why they generate, is, that that immortality which in their own particulars they cannot have, they may, so far as they are able, procure in the species or kind which they thus preserve: So rich and worldly men, though they cannot he immortal on the earth themselves, yet they affect an immortality in their names and dwellingplaces. (Psalm xlix.11.) And therefore they desire to transmit their substance to such successors as may have wisdom and nobleness of mind to continue it. Now then if a man either have no heir, or one that is so active as to alter, or so careless and supine as to ruin all, either base to dishonor the house, or profuse to overthrow it:

These, and many other the like doubts, must needs infinitely perplex the minds of men, greedy to perpetuate their names and places. (Eccles. 2:18, 19.)

The second thing which we proposed to consider in this argument, was, the grounds of this vexation; I shall name but three, GOD’s curse, man's corruption, and the creature's deceitfulness.

I have at large before insisted on the curse considered alone; now I am to show, in one word, the issuing of vexation therefrom. The curse of the creature, is, as it were, the poison and contagion of it; and let a man mix poison in the most delicate wine, it will but so much the easier, by the nimbleness of the spirits there, invade the parts of the body, and torment the bowels. Gold of itself is a precious thing, but to be shackled with fetters of gold, to have it turned into a use of bondage, adds mockery to the affliction; and far more precious to a particular man is a chain of iron which draws him’out of a pit, than a chain of gold which clogs him in a prison; a key of iron which lets him out of a dungeon, than a bar of gold that shuts him in. If a man should have a great diamond curiously cut into sharp angles, worth many thousand pounds, in his bladder, no man would count him a rich, but a miserable man: This is just the case between a man and the creatures of themselves, without CIHRRIST to sanctify them to us: Though the things be excellent in their own being, yet mingled with our corruptions and lusts, they are turned into poison, into the gall of asps within a man; they will not suffer him to feel any quietness in his belly. " In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits; and while he is eating, the fury of wrath shall rain down upon him." Let a man's meat be never so sweet in itself, yet if he should temper the sauce with dirt, it would make it altogether loathsome; and a wicked man eats all his meat like swine, overdaubed with dirt and curses. "A little," says SOLOMON, "which the righteous has, is better than great riches of the ungodly:" For that little which a righteous man has, is to him an experience of GOD's promise, a branch of his love, a means of thankful affections in him, a viaticum unto heaven; whereas the wicked man's abundance turns into his greater curse, their table becomes their snare; and those things, which should have been for their good, prove unto them an occasion of falling. " GOD makes his sun to shine on the just and on the unjust," on a garden of spices, and on a dunghill; but in the one, it begetteth a sweet savour of praise and obedience, in the other it raiseth up noisome lusts, which prove a savour unto death. And who had not rather be free in a cottage, than condemned in a palace

The Second ground is the corruption of nature, which maketh bitter and unclean every thing that toucheth it. It polluteth holy flesh, much more will it pollute ordinary things. We read of a roll which was sweet in the mouth, but bitterness in the belly: Such are the creatures. In the bowels of men, their hearts and consciences, (which are the seminaries of corruption,) they turn into gall, however in the mouth they have honey in them. For this is a constant rule, then only does the creature satisfy a man when it is suitable to his occasions and necessities.

The reason why the same proportion is unsuffiicent for a Prince, which is abundant for a private man, is because the occasions of the Prince are more vast and numerous than the occasions of a private man. Now the desires and occasions of a man in CHRIST are limited, whereas another man's are still at large: For he is in a way, his eye is upon an end; he uses the world but as an inn, and no man that travels homeward will multiply business unnecessarily in the way. In his house he can find sundry employments to busy himself about, the education of his children, the government of his family, the managing his estate, are able to fill up all his thoughts, whereas in the inn he cares for nothing but his refreshment and rest. So here, the faithful make their home their business, how to have their conversation in heaven, how to have a free and comfortable use of the food of life, how to relish the mercies of GOD, how to govern their evil hearts, how to please GOD their

Father, and CHRIST their Husband, how to secure their interest in their expected inheritance, how to thrive in grace, to be rich in good works, to purchase to themselves a farther degree of glory, how to entail their spiritual riches on their posterity, in a pious education of their children; these are their employments. The things of this life are not matters of their home, but only refreshments in the way, which there fore they use not as their grand businesses but only necessary respites. So that hereby their occasions being few and narrow, those things which they here enjoy, are unto those occasions largely suitable, and by consequent, satisfactory. But worldly men are here at home, they have their portion in this life; hereupon their desires are vast, and their occasions springing out of those desires infinite. A man in the right way finds at last an end to his journey, but he that is out of the way, wanders infinitely without any success. Rest is that which the desires and wings of the soul still carry men upon. Now the faithful, being always in the way, with comfort go on, though it be peradventure deep and heavy, because they are sure it will bring them home at last; but wicked men in a fairer way are never satisfied, because they have not before them that rest which their soul desires. For inordinate lusts are ever infinite.. What made the Heathen burn in lust one towards another, but because the way of nature is finite, but the way of sin infinite What made NEAO, that wicked Emperor, have an officer about him, who was called Arbiter Neronian, libidinis, the inventor and coiitriver of new ways of uncleanness, but because lust is infinite What makes the ambitious man never leave climbing, till he build a nest in the stars; the coveteous man never leave scraping, till he fill bags, and chests, and houses, and yet can never fill the hell of his own desires; the epicure never cease swallowing, and staggering, and inventing new arts of catches, and rounds, and health, and measures, and damnation; the swearer finds out new gods to invoke, and have change of oaths, as it were of fashions; the superstitious traveler runs from England to Mettles, from thence to Rome, and from Rome to Loretto, and after that to Jerusalem, to worship the milk of our Lady, or the tomb of our SAVIOR, or the nails of his cross, or the print of his feet, and I know not what other fond delusions of silly men, who had rather find salvation any where than in the Scriptures: What is the reason of these and infinite the like absurdities, but because lust is infinite And infinite lust will breed infinite occasions, and infinite occasions will require infinite wealth, and infinite wit, and infinite strength, and infinite instruments to bring them about. And this must needs beget much vexation of mind, not to have our possessions in any measure proportionable to our occasions.

The Third and last ground is the creature's deceitfulness; there is no one thing will more disquiet the mind than to be defeated. When men expect disappointment, they prepare such a disposition as may be fit to bear it: But when a man is surprised with evil, the novelty increases the vexation. And therefore the Scripture uses to express the greatness of a judgment, by the unexpectedness of it: "When you didst terrible things which we looked not for." Now men are apt to promise themselves much contentment in the fruition of earthly things, and to be herein disappointed is the ground of much vexation. When a man travels in a deep way, and sees before him a large smooth plain, he presumes that will recompense the toil he was formerly put to; but when he comes to it, and finds it as rotten, as full of sloughs, and bogs, and quagmires, as his former way, the trouble is the more multiplied, because his hopes are deceived. The devil and the world beget in men's minds large hopes, and make profuse promises to those that will worship them; and a man at a distance sees abundance of pleasure and happiness in riches, honors, high places, eminent employments, but when he has his heart's desire, and peradventure has ventured to break through many a hedge, to make gaps through Goes lawand his own conscience, that he might by shorter passages hasten to the idol he so much worshipped, he finds at last that there was more trouble in the fruition, than expectation at the distance.

1. They deceive our judgments, make us think better of them than they deserve; they deal with us as the Philistines with SAMSON, they begin at our eyes. Thus the devil began to beguile EVE, when she saw that the tree was good and pleasant to the eyes; then being thus first deceived, she became a transgressor. And thus Esau disputes himself out of his birthright; I am at the point of death, the pottage will make me live, the birthright will not go into the grave with me; I will prefer my life before my privilege.

2. They deceive our hopes and expectations. ACHAN promised himself much happiness in a wedge of gold and Babylonish garment; but they were devoted and cursed things, they did not only deceive him, but undo him: The wedge of gold (if I may so speak) did serve to no other purpose, but to cleave asunder his soul from his body, and the Babylonish garment but for a shroud.

3. They deceive our hopes in respect of good; they promise long life, and yet the same night a man's soul is taken from him, and they the instruments of that calamity. How many men have perished by their honors! How many have been eaten up by their pleasures! How many has the greedy desire of wealth poured out into the grave

They promise peace and safety, (as we see how Israel boasted in their mountains, confederacies, supplies from Egypt and Assyria, in their own counsels and inventions,) and yet all these end in shame and disappointment; they promise liberty, and yet make men slaves unto vile lusts thus all those fantastical felicities, which men build upon the creature, prove, in the end, to have been nothing else but the banquet of a dreaming man, nothing but lies and vanity in the conclusion.

Lastly, They deceive us likewise in respect of evil. No creatures, however they may promise immunity and deliverance, can do a man any good, when the LORD will be pleased to send evil upon him. And yet it is not for nothing, that a truth, so universally confessed, should be repeated in the Scripture, that silver and gold, and corruptible things, are not a fit price for the souls of men. Doubtless the holy men of GOD foresaw a time, when false CHRISTs and false Prophets should come into the world, which should set salvation to sale, and make merchandise of the souls of men: (as we see at this day in Popish indulgencies and penance, no less ridiculous than `impious superstitions.) Neither is it for nothing that SOLOMON tells us, "that riches, yea, whole treasures, do not profit in the day of death;" a speech repeated by two Prophets after him. For surely those holy men knew how apt wealth and greatness are to bewitch a man with conceits of immortality. Who were they that made a covenant with death, and were at an agreement with hell to pass from them, but the scornful men, the rulers of the people, who had abundance of wealth and honor Who were they that did put far away the evil day, and, in despite of the Prophet's threatenings, did flatter themselves in the conceit of their firm and inconcussible estate; but they who were at ease in Sion, who trusted upon the mountains of Samaria, who lay upon beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches Yet we see all this was but deceit, they go captive with the first of those that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves, is removed. All earthly supports, without GOD, are but like a stately house on the sand, without a foundation; a man shall be buried in his own pride. He that is strong, shall be to seek of his strength; he that is mighty, and should deliver others, shall be too weak for his own defense; he that is swift, shall be amazed, and dare not to fly; if he be a bowman, his bow shall be at a great distance; if he be a rider, and have a great advantage, he shall yet be overtaken; and he that is courageous, and adventures to stand out, shall be fain to fly away naked at the last. Whatever hopes or refuges any creature can afford a man in these troubles, they are nothing but froth and vanity, the LORD challenges and derides them all. And the Prophet ISAIAH gives a sound reason of it all: " The Egyptians are men and not GOD, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fall together."

The Third thing proposed was, the consideration of that use which we should make of this vexation of the creature.

And First, The consideration thereof, mingled with faith in the heart, must needs work humiliation in the spirit of a man, upon the sight of those sins which have so much defaced the good creatures of GOD. Sin was the first thing that did pester the earth with thorns, (Gen. 3:17, 18,) and has filled all the creation with vanity and bondage. Sin is the ulcer of the soul. Touch a wound with the softest lawn, and there will smart arise: So though the creatures be never so harmless, yet as soon as they come to the heart of a man, there is so much sin there, as must needs beget pain.

The palate, prepossessed with a bitter humor, finds its own distemper in the sweetest meats it tastes; so the soul, having the ground of bitterness in itself, finds the same affection in every thing that comes near it. Death itself, though it be none of GOD's works, but the shame and deformity of the creature, yet, without sin, has no sting in it. How much less sting, think we, have those things which were made for the comforts of man's life, if sin were not the serpent that did lurk under them all Dost you then, in thy swiftest career of earthly delights, when you art posting in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, feel a curb privily galling thy conscience, a secret damp seizing upon thy soul, and affrighting it with suspicions of attending judgments; see a hand against the wall writing bitter things against thee! Dost You, in all thy lawful callings, find much sweat of brow, much toil of brain, much care of heart, in compassing thy lawful intendments Do not lose the opportunity of that good which all this may suggest unto thee. Certainly, there is some JONAH that has raised this storm; there is some _sin or other that has caused all this trouble to thy soul.

Do not repine at GOD's providence, nor quarrel with the dumb creatures, but let thine indignation reflect upon thine own heart: And as ever you hopest to have the sweat of thy brow abated, or the care of thy heart remitted, or the curse of the creature removed, cast thyself down before GOD, throw out thy sin, awake thy SAVIOR with the cry of thy repentance, and all the storms will be suddenly calmed. Certainly, the more power any man has over the corruption of his nature, the less power has the sting of any creature over his heart. Though you have but a dinner of herbs with a quiet conscience, you dost therein find more sweetness, than in a fatted ox with a troubled heart. Whenever, therefore, we find this thorn in the creature, we should throw ourselves down before GOD, and, in some such manner as this, bewail the sin of our heart, which is the root of that thorn: " LORD, you art a GOD of peace and beauty, and whatever comes from thee must needs originally have peace and beauty in it. The earth was a paradise when you didst first bestow it upon me, but my sin has turned it into a desert, and cursed all the increase thereof with thorns. The honor which you gayest me was a glorious attribute, a sparkle of thine own fire, a beam of thine own light, an impress of thine own image, a character of thine own power; but my sin has put a thorn into mine honor; my greediness, when I look upward to get higher, and my giddiness, when I look downward for fear of falling, never leave my heart without anguish and vexation. The pleasure which you allowest me to enjoy, is full of sweet refreshment; but my sin has put a thorn into this likewise. My excess and sensuality have so choked thy word, so stifled all seeds of nobleness in my mind, so like a canker overgrown all my precious time, stolen away all opportunities of grace, that now my refreshments are become my diseases. The riches which you gayest me, as they come from thee, are sovereign blessings, wherewith I might abundantly have glorifled thy name, and served thy church, and supplied thy saints, and made the eyes that saw me to bless me, and the ears that heard me to bear witness to me; wherewith I might have covered the naked back, and cured the bleeding wounds, and filled the hungry bowels, and satisfied the fainting desires of mine own SAVIOR in his distressed members: But my sin has put in so many thorns of pride; hardness of heart, uncompassionateness, endless cares, and the like, as are ready to pierce me through with many sorrows. The calling wherein you have placed me is honest and profitable to men, wherein I might spend my time in glorifying thy name, in obedience to thy will, in attendance on thy blessings; but my sin has brought so much ignorance upon nay understanding, so much intricateness upon my employments, so much rust and sluggishness upon my faculties, so much earthlymindedness upon my heart, that I am not able, without much discomfort, to go on in my calling. All thy creatures are of themselves full of honor and beauty, the beams and glimpses of thine own glory; but our sin has stained the beauty of thine handywork, so that now thy wrath is as well revealed from heaven as thy glory: We now see in them the prints as well of thy terrors as of thy goodness.

" And now, LORD, I do, in humbleness of heart, abhor myself, and abominate those cursed sins which have not only defiled my nature and person, but have spread deformity and confusion upon all those creatures in which thy wisdom and power had planted so great a beauty and so sweet an order."

After some such manner as this ought the consideration of the thorniness of the creature to humble us in the sight of those sins which are the roots thereof.

Secondly, The consideration hereof should make us wise to prevent those cares which the creatures are so apt to beget in the heart; those, I mean, which are branches of the vexation of the creature. There is a twofold care, regular and irregular. Care is then regular, First, When it has a right end, such as is both suitable with and subordinate to our main end, the " kingdom of GOD and his righteousness." Secondly, When the means of procuring that end are right: for we may not do evil to effect good. ST. AUGUSTINE is resolute, that if it were possible by a he to compass the redemption of the whole world, yet so weighty a good must rather be let fall than brought about by evil. Thirdly, When the manner of it is good; and that is, 1. When the care is moderate. (Phil. 4:5, 6.) 2. When it is with " submission to the will and wisdom of GOD:" When we can, with comfort of heart and with much confidence of a happy issue, recommend every thing that concerns us to his providence and disposal; can be content to have our humors mastered, and conceits captivated to his obedience: When we can, with DAVID, resolve not to torment our hearts with needless and endless projects, but to roll ourselves upon GOD’s protection. " If I shall find favor in his eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both the ark,and his habitation: But if he say thus unto me, I have no delight in thee, let him do to me as seems good unto him." Now, in this respect, care is not a vexation, but a duty: " He is worse than an infidel that provides not for his own." Our SAVIOR himself had a bag in his family; and SoLomox sends foolish and improvident men unto the smallest creatures to learn this care. (Pron. 6:8.)

This care, then, which is a branch of this vexation, is not a cutting, dividing, distracting care; against which we ought the rather to strive, not only because it is so apt to arise from the creature, coupling in with the corruption of man's heart, but also because of its own evil quality; it being both superfluous and sinful.

First, Irregular cares are superfluous and improper to the ends which we direct them to; and that not to our main end only, happiness, which men, toiling to discover in the creature where it is not, do, instead thereof, find nothing but trouble and vexation, but even to those lower ends which the creatures are proper and suitable to. For unto us properly belongs the industry, but unto God the care; unto us the labor and use of means, but unto GOD the blessing and success of all. Though PAUL plant, and AroLLbs water, it is GOD only " that can give the increase;" he must be trusted i with the event of all our industry. PETER never began to sink till he began to doubt; that was the fruit of his unbelief. " Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature" says CHRIST. Our cares can never bring to pass our smallest desires, because, I say, the care of events was ever Gov's prerogative, and belonged only to his providence. Upon him we must cast our care, upon him we must unload our burdens, and he will sustain us. " We are all of one family, of the household of GOD and of faith." Now, we know, children are not to lay up for parents, but parents for children. If we should see a child toil for his living, we should presently conclude, that he was left to the wide world, and had no father to provide for him.; and that is our SAVIOUR's argument: " Take no thought, for your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things."

Let us, therefore, cast ourselves upon GOD:

1. In Faith, depending upon the truth of his promises: " He has said, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee:" And upon the allsufficiency of his power: " Our GOD whom we serve is able to deliver us." That which grieved the LORD with his people in the wilderness, was their distrust of his power and protection: G6 Can he spread a table in the wilderness Can he give bread also, and flesh for his people" And, indeed, as CAIN's despair, so, in some proportion, any fainting under temptation, any discontent with our estate, proceeds from this, that we measure GOD by ourselves; that we conceive of his power only by those ways of escape which we are, by our own wisdom, able to forecast; and when we are so straitened, that we can see no way to turn, there we give over trusting to GOD. It is, therefore, a notable means of establishing the heart in all estates, to have the eye of faith fixed upon the power of GOD; to consider, that his thoughts and contrivances are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth: And, therefore, to resolve with JEIIOSAPHAT, that when we know not what to do, yet we will have our eyes upon him still. " Son of man," says the LORD to EZEKIEL, " can these dead bones live" And he answered, " O LORD GOD, you knows." Thy thoughts are above our thoughts; and where things are to us impossible, they are easy unto thee.

2. By Prayer. This is a main remedy against careful thoughts. When the Apostle had exhorted the Philippians, that their moderation, that is, their equanimity and calmness of mind, should be known unto all men, he presseth it with this excellent reason, " The LORD is at hand:" He is ever at home in his family; he is near to see the wants, and to hear the cries, of all that come unto him: Therefore, says he, " Be careful for noticing; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving," (thanksgiving for what you have, and prayer for what you want,) " let your requests be made unto GOD," and he shall furnish you with peace in all estates.

Secondly, As irregular cares are needless and superfluous, so they are sinful too:

1. In regard of their object, they are worldly cares, the cares of the men of this world; therein we declare ourselves to walk in conformity to the Gentiles, as if we had no better foundation of content than the Heathen which know not GOD. And this is CHRIST'S argument: " After all these things do the Gentiles seek." We are taken out of the world, we have not received the spirit of the world; and, therefore, we must not be conformable to the world, nor bring forth the fruits of a worldly spirit; but walk as men that are set apart, as a peculiar people, and that have heavenly promises, and the grace of GOD to establish our hearts: Jill terrena sapient qui promissa ewlestia non habent: It is seemly for those alone, who have no other portion but in this life, to fix their thoughts and cares here.

2. They are sinful in regard of their causes, and theyare principally two: (1.) Inordinate lust or coveting, the running of the heart after covetousness. (2.) Distrust of GOD’s providence; for those desires which spring from lust can never have faith to secure the heart in the expectation of them.

Lastly, They are sinful in their effects: (1.) They are murdering cares; they work sadness, suspicions, uncomfortableness, and at last death. (2.) They are choking cares; they take off the heart from the word, and thereby make it unfruitful. (3.) They are adulterous cares; they steal away the heart from GOD, and set a man at enmity against him. In all which respects, we ought to arm ourselves against them.

Which that we may the better do, we will, in the Last place, propose two sorts of directions:1. How to make the creature no vexing creature. 2. Ilow to use it as a vexing creature. For the former:

1. Pray for conveniency; for that which is suitable to thy mind; I mean, not to the lusts, but to the abilities of thy mind. Labor ever to suit thy occasions to thy parts, and thy supplies to thy occasions. If a ship out of greediness be overloaden with gold, it will be in danger of sinking, notwithstanding the capacity of the sides be not a quarter filled: On the other side, fill it to the brim with feathers, and it will toss up and down for want of its due ballasting. So is it in the lives of men, some have such greedy desires, that they think they can run through all sorts of business, and so never leave loading themselves, till their hearts sink, and are swallowed up in worldly sorrow and security: Others set their affections on such trivial things, that though they should have the fill of all their desires, their minds would still be as floating and unsettled as before. Resolve therefore to do with thyself as men with their ships. There may a tempest arise, when you must be constrained to throw out all thy wares into the sea; such were the times of bloody persecutions, when men were put to forsake their father, mother, wife, children, nay, to have the very ship itself broken to pieces, that the mariner within might escape upon the ruins. But besides this, in the calmest and securest times of the church, these two things you must ever look to, if you tender thine own tranquility. (1.) Fill not thyself only with light things: Such are all the things of this world in themselves, besides the room and cumbersomeness of them, (as light things take up ever the most room,) they still leave the soul floating and unsettled. Do therefore as wise mariners, have strong and substantial ballasting in the bottom, faith in GOD’s promises, love and fear of his name, a foundation of good works, and then whatever becomes of thy other loading, thy ship itself shall he safe at last, you shall be sure in the greatest tempest to have thy life for a prey. (2.) Consider the burden of thy vessel: All ships are not of an equal capacity, and they must be freighted, and manned, and victualled in proportion to their burden. All men have not the same abilities; some have such a measure of grace as enables them, with much wisdom and improvement, to manage such an estate as would puff up some with pride, sensuality, superciliousness, and forgetfulness of Go]): Again, some men are fitted to some_kind of employments, not to others; as some ships are for merchandize, others for war; and in these varieties of states, every man should pray for that which is most suitable to his disposition and abilities, which may expose him to the fewest temptations, or at least by which he may be most serviceable in the body of CHRIST, and bring most glory to his master. This is that we all pray, "Give us our daily bread;" that which is most proportioned to our condition, that which is fittest for us to have, and most advantageous to the ends of that LORD whom we serve.

2. Labor to get CHRIST into thy ship: He will check every tempest, and calm every vexation that grows upon thee. When you shall consider that his truth, and person, and honor are embarked in the same vessel with thee, you may safely resolve on one of these; either he will be my pilot in the ship, or,my plank in the sea, to carry me safe to land; if I suffer in his company, and as his member, he suffers with me, and then I may triumph to bemade any way conformable unto CHRIST My Head. If I have CHRIST with me, there can no estate come which can be cumbersome to me. Have I a load of misery and infirmity, inward,. outward, in mind, body, name, or estate This takes away the vexation of all, when I consider it all comes from CHRIST, and it all runs into CHRIST. It all comes from him, as the wise Disposer of his own body; and it all runs into him, as the compassionate sharer with his owls body: It all comes from him, who is the distributer of his Father's gifts; and it all runs into him, who is the partaker of his members' sorrows. If I am weak in body, CHRIST my Head was wounded; if weak in mind, CHRIST my Head was heavy unto death: If I suffer in my estate, CHRIST my Head became poor, as poor as a servant; if in my name, CHRIST My Head was esteemed vile, as vile as BEELZEBUB. PAUL was comforted in the greatest tempest with the presence of an angel; how much more with the grace of CHRIST! When the thorn was in his flesh, and the buffets of SATAN about his soul, yet then was his presense a plentiful protection, " My grace is sufficient for thee;" and he confesseth it elsewhere, " I am able to do all things through CHRIST that strengthens me." CHRIST'S head has sanctified any thorns, his back any furrows, his hands any nails, his side any spear, his heart any sorrow that can come to mine. Again, have I a great estate, am I loaden with abundance of earthly things This takes away all the vexation, that I have CHRIST with me; his promise to sanctify it, his wisdom to manage it, his glory to be by it advanced, his word to be by it maintained, his anointed ones to be by it supplied, his church to be by it repaired; in one word, his poverty to be by it relieved. For as CHRIST has strength and compassion to take off the burden of our afflictions; so has he poverty too, to ease that vexation which may grow from our abundance. If you have a whole wardrobe of cast apparel, CHRIST has more nakedness than all that can cover: If whole barns full of corn, and cellars of wine, CHRIST has more empty bowels than all that can fill: If all the precious drugs in a country, CHRIST has more sickness than all that can cure: If the power of a great Prince, CHRIST has more imprisonment than all that can enlarge: If a whole house full of silver and gold, CHRIST has more distressed members to be comforted, more breaches in his church to be repaired, more enemies of his Gospel to be opposed, more defenders of his faith to be supplied, more urgencies of his kingdom to be attended, than all that will, serve for. CIHEIST professeth himself to be still hungry, naked, sick, and in prison, and to stand in need of our visits and supplies. As all the good which CHRIST has done is ours, by reason of our communion with him; so all the evil we suffer is CHRIST'S, by reason of his compassion with us. The Apostle says, that " we sit together with CHRIST in heavenly places;" and the same Apostle says, that the sufferings of CHRIST are made up in his members, Nos ibi sedemus, et ille hie laborat. We are glorified in him, and he pained in us; in all his honor we are honored, and in all our afflictions he is afflicted.

3. Cast out thy JONAH, every sleeping and secure sin that brings a tempest upon thy ship, vexation to thy spirit. It may be you have an execrable thing, a wedge of gold, a Babylonish garment, a full bag of unjust gain, gotten by sacrilege, disobedience, mercilessness, or oppression, by detaining GOD’s or thy neighbor's rights: It may be you have a DELILAH, a strange woman, in thy bosom, that brings a rot upon thine estate; whatever thy sickness, whatever thy plague be, as you tenderest the tranquility of thine estate, rouse it up from its sleep by a faithful, serious, and impartial examination of thine own heart; and though it be as dear to thee as thy right eye, or thy right hand, thy choicest pleasure, or thy chiefest profit, yet cast it out in an humble confession to GOD, in a hearty and willing restitution to men, in opening thy close and contracted bowels to those that never yet enjoyed comforts from them; then shall quietness arise unto thy soul; and that very gain which you throwest away, is but cast upon the waters, the Loin) will provide a whale to keep it for thee, and will at last restore it thee whole again.

The last direction which I shall give to remove the vexation of the creature, is out of the text, and that is, " to keep it from thy spirit; " not to suffer it to take up thy thoughts and inner man. A man's heart ought to be upon his business, and not upon matters accidental. If in a tempest men should not address themselves to their offices, to loose their tacklings, to draw the pump, to strike sails and lighten the vessel, but should make it their sole work to gaze upon their commodities, who could expect that a calm should drop into such men's laps Beloved, when the creature has raised a tempest of vexation, think upon your offices; to the pump, to pour out thy corruptions; to the sails and tackling, to abate thy lusts and the provisions of them; to thy faith, to live above; to thy patience: " It is the LORD, let him do as seems good to him;" to thy thankfulness, " The LORD giveth, and the LORD taketh away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

But what is it to keep the creature from the spirit It is, in the phrase of Scripture, " Not to set the heart upon riches." Apponere con, to carry a man's heart to the creature, the Prophet gives a fit expression of it when he says, " that the heart does go after covetousness: " When a man makes all the motions of his soul wait upon his lusts, and drudgeth for them, and bringeth his heart to the edge of the creature: For the world does not wound the heart, but the heart woundeth itself upon the world. As it is not the rock alone that dasheth the ship, without its own motion, being first tossed by the wind and wave upon the rock so it is a man's own lust which vexeth his spirit, and not the things alone which he possesseth.

To set the heart on the creature denotes three things: 1. To pitch a man's thoughts and studies, to direct all the inquiries of his soul upon them, and the good he expects from them. This in the Scripture is expressed by devising, consulting, thinking within one's self, being tossed like a meteor with doubtfulness of mind, and careful suspense, joining one's self, making provision for lusts.

2. To care for, to employ a man's affections of love, delight, desire upon them, to set a high price on them. For this cause covetous men are called idolaters; because they prefer money, as a man does his GOD, before all other things. When the women would have comforted the wife of PHINEAS, with the birth of a son, after the. captivity of the ark, it is said, " She regarded it not;" the text is, " She did not put her heart upon it:" Though a woman rejoice when a man child is born; yet in comparison of the ark, she no more regarded the joy of a son, than a man would do, if the sun should be blotted out of heaven, and a little star put in the room. They will not "set their heart upon us, " say the people to David, " for you art worth ten thousand of us; " that is, they will no whit regard us in comparison of thee: So then a man's heart is set on the creature, when he prizeth it above other things, and declareth this estimation of his heart by those eager endeavors with which he pursueth them.

3. To rely upon, to put trust in the creature; and this is imported in the word by which the Prophet expresseth riches, which signifies strength of all sorts, Vires, and Propugnaculum, the inward strength of a. man, and the outward strength of munition and fortification: Therefore says SOLOMON, " The rich man's wealth is his strong city;" and rich men are said " to trust and glory in their riches."

Now a man ought not thus to set his heart on the creature: First, Because of the tenderness and delicacy of the spirit, which will quickly be bruised with any thing that lieth upon it and presseth it. As men wear the softest garments next their skin, that they be not disquieted, so should we apply the tenderest things, the mercies and the worth of the blood of CHRIST, the promises of grace and glory, the precepts and invitations of the Spirit unto our spirits. And now a subterraneous wind being pressed in by the earth, does often beget earthquakes; so the spirit of a man being swallowed up and quite closed in earthly things, must needs beget tremblings and distractions. The word here which we translate Vexation, is rendered likewise by Contritio, a pressing, grinding, wearing away of a thing; and by Depastio, afeeding on a thing, which makes some render the words thus, " All is vanity, and a feeding upon wind." That as windy meats, though they fill and swell a man up, nourish little, but turn into crudities and diseases; so the feeding upon the creature may puff up the heart, but it can bring no solid nutriment to the soul. The creature upon the spirit, is like a worm in wood, or a moth in a garment; it begets a rottenness of heart, it bites asunder the threads and sinews of the soul, and by that means works an undisposedness to any worthy service, and brings a decay upon the whole man; for cares will prevent age and change the colour of the hair before the time, and make a man like a silly dove, without any heart.

Secondly, Because the strength of every man is his spirit: Hens cujusque is est quisque. Now if the creature seize on a man's strength, it serves him as DELILAH did SAMSON; it will quickly let in the Philistines to vex him. Strength has two parts or offices: Passive in undergoing and withstanding evil; and active, in doing that which belongs to a man to do. Now when the heart and spirit of a man is set upon any creature, it is weakened in both these respects.

1. It is disabled from bearing and withstanding evil. We will consider it, (1.) In temptations: (2.) In afflictions.

1. A man who has set his heart upon any creature, is altogether unfit to withstand any temptation. In the Law, when a man had new married a wife, he was not to go to war that year. One reason whereof, I suppose, was this, because when the mind is strongly set upon any one object, till the strength of that desire be abated, a man will be utterly unfit to deal with an enemy; so is it with any lust, to which a man weds himself, it altogether disables him to resist any enemy.

The reason hereof, is, the subtilty of SATAN, who will be sure to proportion his temptations to the heart, and those Iusts which there predominate, setting upon men with those persuasions wherewith he is most likely to seduce them. The Devil dealeth as men in a siege, casts his projects and applies his batteries to the weakest place. Therefore the Apostle says, that " a man is tempted, when he is led away of his own lust and enticed:" The Devil will be sure to hold intelligence with a man's own lusts, to advise and sit in counsel with his own heart, to follow the tide and stream of a man's own affections in the tempting of him. ADAM was tempted in knowledge, PHARAOH by lying wonders, the Prophet by the pretence of an angel's speech, AHAB by the consent of false Prophets, the Jews by the temple of the LORD and carnal privileges, the Heathens by pretence of universality and antiquity.

2. A heart set on any lust, is unfit to withstand temptation, because temptations are commonly edged with promises or threatenings. Now if a man's heart be set on GOD, there can no promises. be made of any such good as the heart cares for: Spiritual promises the Devil will make few, or if he do, such a heart knows that evil is not the way to good: If he make promises of earthly things, such promises the heart has already from one who can better make them. Neither can he promise any thing which was not more mine before, than his; for either that which he promises, is convenient for me, and so is manna, food for my nature; or else inconvenient, and then it is quails, food for my lust. If the former, GOD has taught me to call it mine own already, " Give us our bread," and not to go to the Devil's market to fetch it; if the other, though GOD shouldsuffer the Devil to give it, yet he sends a curse into our mouths along with it. And as such a heart neglects any promises the Devil can make, so is it as heedless of any of his threatenings; because if GOD be on our side, neither "principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, call ever separate from him: Stronger is he that is with us, than he that is in the world:" It is the businessof our calling, to fight against spiritual wickednesses, and to resist the Devil. But when the heart is set on any creature, and has not GOD to rest upon, then has the Devil an easy way to win a man to any sin, or withdraw him from any good, by pointing his temptations with promises or threatenings, fitted to the things which the heart is set on.

Let the Devil promise BALAAM honor and preferment, on which his ambitious heart was set, and he will rise early, run and ride, and be more senseless of Gov's fury than the dumb creature that he may curse GOD’s own people: Let the. Devil promise thirty pieces of silver to JUDAS, whose heart ran upon covetousness, and there is no more scruple, the bargain of treason is presently concluded: Let the Devil tempt MICAH's Levite with a little better reward than the beggarly stipend which he had before, theft and idolatry are swallowed down both together, and the man is easily won to be a snare and seminary of spiritual uncleanness to a whole tribe. On the other side, let SATAN threaten JEROBOAM with the loss of his kingdom, if he go up to Jerusalem and serve GOD in the way of his own worship, and that is argument enough to draw him and all his successors to notorious and Egyptian idolatry; and the reason was, because their hearts were more set upon their own counsels, than upon the worship or truth of GOD. Let the Devil, by the edicts and ministers of JEROBOAM, lay snares in Mizpah, and spread nets upon Tabor; that is, use laws, menaces, subtleties to keep the people from the city of GOD, and to confine them to regal and state idolatry, presently the people tremble at the injunction of the King, and walk willingly after the commandment.

If a man's heart be not set on GOD, and taught to rest on his providence, to answer all SATAN'S promises with his allsufficiency to reward us, and all his threatenings with his allsufficiency to protect us; how easily will promises beguile, and threatenings deter unstable and earthly minds i Let the Devil tell one man, All this will I give thee. If you wilt speak in a cause to pervert judgment; how quickly will men create subtleties, and coin evasions, to rob a man and his house, even a man and his inheritance! Let him say to another, I will do whatsoever you sayest to me, if you wilt dissemble thy conscience, divide thy heart, comply with both sides, keep down the power of GODliness, persecute zeal, set up superstitions; how quickly shall such a man's religion be disguised, and sincerity, if it were possible, put to shame! If to another, You shall by such a time purchase such a LORDship, swallow up such a prodigal, if you enhance thy rents, enlarge thy fines, set unreasonable rates upon thy farms; how quickly will men grind the faces of the poor, and purchase unGodly possessions with the blood of their tenants! If to another, Beware of laying open thy conscience, of being too scrupulous in thy office, lest you purchase the disfavor of the world, lest the times cloud over thee, lest you make thyself obnoxious to censures; how will men be ready to start back, to shrink from their wonted forwardness, to abate their former zeal, to connive at the corruptions of the age; in one word, to tremble when EPHRAIM speaks, and not when GOD speaks So hard is it, when the heart is wedded to earthly things, and they are got into a man's bosom, to bear the assaults of any temptation.

3. A heart set upon any lust, is unfit likewise to, bear any affliction. The young man, whose heart was upon his riches, could not endure to hear of selling all, and entering upon a poor and persecuted profession. (I.) Lusts are choice and dainty, they make the heart very delicate, and nice of any assaults. (2.) They are very wilful, and set upon their own ends; therefore they are expressed by the name of concupiscence, and a the will of the flesh," and wilfulness is the ground of impatience. (3.) They are natural, and move strongly to their own point; they are a body, and our very members: No marvel then if they be sensible of pain from afflictions, which are contrary to nature. The stronger the water runs, the more will it roar and foam upon any opposition. Lust is like a furiousbeast, enraged with the affliction, the chain that binds it. (4.) Lusts are very wise, after a fleshly and sensual manner; and worldly wisdom is impatient of any affliction that crusheth and disappoints it; therefore the Apostle does herein principally note the opposition between heavenly and carnal wisdom, that the one is meek, peaceable, and gentle; the other devilish, and full of strife. (5.) Lusts are proud, especially those that arise from abundance; and pride being set upon by any affliction, makes the heart break forth into impatience, debates, and stoutness against GOD; a proud heart grows harder by afflictions, as metals or clay after they have past through the furnace. Besides, pride in earthly things swallows up the very expectation of afflictions, and therefore must needs leave the heart unprepared against them. (6.) Lusts are rooted in selflove; and therefore when CHRIST will have a man forsake his lusts, he directs him to deny himself. Now the very essence of afflictions, is to be grievous and adverse to a man's self. (7.) Lusts are contentious, armed things, and their enmity is against GOD, and therefore utterly unfit to accept of the punishment of sin, and to bear the indignation of the LORD, or to submit to any afflictions. (8.) Lusts resist the truth, set up themselves against the word, and thereby utterly disable men to bear afflictions; for the word sanctifies and lightens all afflictions, the word shows GOD’s moderation and intention in them, an issue out of them, the benefits which will come from them, the supplies of strength and abilities to bear them, the promises of a more abundant and exceeding weight of glory, in comparison whereof they are as nothing. (9.) If we could conceive some afflictions not contrary to lust, yet afflictions are ever contrary to the provisions of lusts, to the materials and instruments of lusts, such as are health, pleasure, riches, honors. And in all these respects, a heart set upon lust is weakened and disabled to bear afflictions.

Secondly, When the heart is set upon the creature, it is utterly disabled in respect of its active strength, made unfit to do any duty with that strength as GOD requires.

1. Because bonum fit ex causes integra: A good duty must proceed from an entire cause, from the whole heart. Now lust divides the heart, and makes it unsteadfast, and unfaithful to GOD. There is a twofold unsteadfastness, one in degrees, another in objects; the former proceeds from the remainders of corruption, the other from the predominancy of lust, which oversways the heart to evil. Good motions and resolutions in evil hearts, are like violent impressions upon a stone; though it move upward for a while, yet nature will at last prevail, and make it return to its own motion.

2. A heart set on lusts, moves to no end but its own; and selfish ends defile an action, though otherwise never so specious; turn zeal itself, and obedience into murder; hinder all faith in us, and acceptance with GOD, nullify all other ends, swallow up GOD’s glory, and the good of others, as the lean kine did the fat.

3. The heart is a fountain and principle, and principles are ever one and uniform; out of the same fountain cannot come bitter water and sweet: And therefore the Apostle speaks of some, that they are doubleminded men, that have a heart and a heart; yet the truth is, that is but with reference to their pretences; for the heart really and totally looks but one way. Every man is spiritually a married person, and he can be joined but to one; CHRIS: and an idol, (as every lust is,) cannot subsist; he will have a chaste spouse, he will have all our desires and affections subject to him; if the heart cannot count him altogether lovely, and all things else but dung in comparison of him, he will refuse the match, and withhold his consent.

Let us see, in some few particulars, what impotency to any good the creatures bring upon the hearts of men. To pray requires an hungry spirit, a heart convinced of its own emptiness, a desire of intimate communion with GOD; but the creature draws the heart and all the desires thereof to itself, lust makes men pray amiss, fixeth the desires only on its own provisions, makesa man unwilling to be carried any way to heaven, but his own. The young

man prayed to CHRIST to show him the way to eternal life; but when CHRIST told him, that his riches, his covetousness, his bosom lust, stood between him and salvation, his prayer was turned into sorrow, repentance, and apostasy.

Meditation requires a sequestration of the thoughts, a mind unmixed with other cares, a sincere and uncorrupted relish of the word. Now when the heart is prepossessed with lust, and taken up with another treasure, it is as impossible to be weaned from it, as for an hungry eagle (a creature of the sharpest sight to fix upon, and of the sharpest appetite to desire its object) to forbear the body on which it would prey; as unable to conceive aright of the preciousness and power of the word, as a feverish palate to taste the proper sweetness of the meat it eats.

In hearing the word, the heart can never accept GOD’s commands, till it be first empty; a man cannot receive the richest gift that is, with a hand that was full before. Now thorns, which are the cares of the world, filling the heart, must needs choke the seed of the word. The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of GOD against themselves, because their pride would not let them yield to such a baptism, or to such as requires confession of sins, justifying GOD, and condemning themselves; for these were the purposes of JoHN's baptism, and of the preaching of repentance. That man comes but to be rejected, who makes love to one who has fixed her heart and affection already. A man must come to GOD’s word as to a physician, a mere patient, without reservations or exceptions; he must set his corruptions as an open mark for the word to shoot at; he must not come with capitulations and provisos; but lay down the body of sin before GOD, to have every earthly member hewed off. Till a man come with such a resolution as to be willing to part from all naughtiness, he will never receive the ingrafted word with meekness and an honest heart. A man will never follow CHRIST in the ways of his word, till first he has learnt to deny himself and his own lusts. Nay, if aman should bind his devotion to his heart with vows, yet a DELILAH in his bosom, a lust in his spirit, would easily nullify the strongest vows. Some, when their conscience awakens and begins to disquiet them, make vows to bind themselves to better obedience, and forms of GODliness; but as SAMSON was bound in vain with any cords, so long as his hair grew to its length; so in vain does any man bind himself with vows, so long as he nourisheth his lusts within: A vow in the hand of a fleshly lust will be like the chains of that fierce lunatic, (Luke 8:29,) easily broken. This is not the right way. First, Labor with thy heart, cleanse out thy corruptions, purge thy life, as the Prophet did the waters, with seasoning and rectifying the fountain. It is one thing to give ease from a present pain, another thing to root out the disease itself. In a word, whereas in the service of GOD there are two main things required, faith to begin, and courage or patience to go through, lust hinders both these. " How can ye believe, since ye seek for glory one from another " (John 5:44.) "When persecution arose because of the word, some were presently offended." (Matt. 13:21.)

Thirdly and lastly, A man ought not to set his heart on the creature, because of the nobleness of the heart. To set the heart on the creature, is to set a diamond in lead: None are so mad to keep their jewels in a cellar, and their coals in a closet; and yet such is the profaneness of wicked men, to keep GOD in their lips only, and Mammon in their hearts; to make earth their treasure, and heaven but as an appendix to that. And now, as SAMUEL spoke unto SAUL, " Set not thine heart upon thine asses; for the desire of Israel is upon thee: Why should a King's heart be set upon asses" So may I say, Why should Christians' hearts be set upon earthly things, since they have the Desire of all flesh to fix upon

I will conclude with one word upon the last particular, How to use the creatures as thorns, or as vexing things.

1. Let not the bramble be King; let not earthly things bear rule over thy affections. Fire will rise out of them, which will consume all thy cedars, emasculate the powers of thy soul. Let grace sit in the throne, and earthly things be subordinate to the wisdom and rule of GOD’s Spirit in thine heart: They are excellent servants, but pernicious masters.

2. Be armed when you touchest or meddlest with them; armed against the lusts, and against the temptations that arise from them. Get faith, to place thy heart upon better promises; enter not upon them without prayer to GOD, that since you art going amongst snares, he would carry thee through with wisdom and faithfulness, and teach thee how to use them as his blessings and as instruments of his glory. Make a covenant with thine heart, as Jon with his eyes; have a jealousy and suspicion of thine evil heart, lest it be surprised and bewitched with sinful affections.

3. Touch them gently; do not hug, love, dote upon the creature, nor grasp it with adulterous embraces: The love of money is a root of mischief, and is enmity against GOD.

4. Use them for hedges and fences, to relieve the saints, to make friends of the unrighteous Mammon, to defend the church of CHRIST; but by no means have them in thy field, but only about it; mingle it not with thy corn, lest it choke and stifle all. And, Lastly, Use them as GIDEON, for weapons of just revenge against the enemies of GOD’s church, to vindicate his truth and glory; and then, by being wise and faithful in a little, you shall at last be made ruler over much, and enter into thy Master's joy.