to live splendidly and gloriously to all eternity. And, thus to lay out, is to lay up, to lay up uncertain riches in a safe repository: God's promises shall be thy security, and every star in heaven a seal set upon the treasury-door, which none can break or violate.

Thus you see how mutable and inconstant all worldly things are. So that we may truly apply that, which the Psalmist speaks of the earth in another sense, That God hath founded it upon the sea, and established it upon the floods: Psalm xxiv. 2. Such is the waving and fluctuation of all things here below, that they are no more constant, than if they were merely built upon the ebbing and flowing of the tide.

10. The Vanity of the World appears in this, THAT IT IS AL

TOGETHER UNSATISFACTORY.

That must needs be vain, which when we enjoy it in its greatest abundance, can give us no real nor solid content. Such an empty thing is the whole world. You may as soon grasp a bundle of dreams, or take up an armfull of your own shadow, as fill the vast and boundless desires of your souls with these earthly enjoyments,

And, therefore, the Psalmist, speaking of prosperous sinners, sets forth their state by the most thin and empty things imaginable: Psalm lxxiii. 20, As a dream, when one awakes; so, O Lord, thou shalt despise their image. The images and representations, that a dream makes, seem very brisk and lively; but, when we reflect upon them with our waking thoughts, we find them confused and impertinent. Such is all the prosperity of this world: it is but as the image and fiction of a dream.

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As a hungry man*, that dreams he is at a furnished table, and fills himself with all varieties of delicates, how joyful and how pleased is he, how fully satisfied, if he were not to wake again! but some one jogs or calls him: he wakes, and finds himself hunger-starved; nothing fed, but his fancy. So is it with us in this world. While the soul lies under the coverlet of this body, it sleeps and one thinks himself rich; another, great and noble; a third, learned and wise: but, alas! all this is only a dream: when either afflictions or death make a noise and call upon him, the sleepy soul awakes; and finds itself empty and hungerstarved, after all the imaginary store it enjoyed.

Isaiah xxix. 8.

Now, the Unsatisfactoriness of the World, may be clearly evinced by these two things.

(1) In that the highest condition we can attain unto, cannot free us from cares and crosses. Yea indeed it is so far from freeing us, that it rather increaseth them. It doth but make us spread the wider, and stand the fairer mark for trouble.

And yet we are like children, that think the sky lies on yonder hill: thither they run, hoping to touch it there: when they come, they find it dislodged to another hill: after it they run, and pursue it from hill to hill; and, after all their pains and sweat, find themselves as far below it as at first. So it fares with us. We think happiness, and true content lies in some condition above us thither we hasten, hoping we shall reach it there. When we arrive thither, we find the happiness we sought for is dislodged, and seems to us to rest in a condition above that; but, when we attain this too, still we are as far below happiness and satisfaction, as we were in our lowest estate. When we change our outward condition, be it to never so great advantage, we do not lose, but only change our cares. If we are freed from the cares and crosses of a poor and private life, we fall into those of a pompous and envied greatness, which are both more numerous and more oppressive. The man, that lies most compacted and in least compass in the world, is like to scape best: whereas the great ones, that take up much room, do only shew in how many places and concernments they are liable to be wounded *.

It is not, therefore, any thing in this world, that can give you satisfaction. All the enjoyments of it are to the soul, as wind to the stomach: they may gripe it; but they can never satisfy it. Indeed, so vain are they, that they scarce have any other proof of their reality, but the pain and torment they bring with them.

(2) The world appears to be unsatisfactory, in that, be our condition what it will, yet still we desire change. We can no more

*

Angustanda sunt patrimonia, ut minùs ad injurias fortunæ simus expositi. Habiliora sunt corpora in bello, quæ in arma sua contrahi possunt, quàm quæ superfunduntur, et undique magnitudo sua vulneribus objicit. Sen. de Tranq. c. 8. Cogende in arctum res sunt, ut telum in vanum cadat. Id. c. 9.

rest in a high estate, than in a low; but still we desire something further, and something better.

As sick men toss to and fro*, from side to side, thinking to find ease, by changing their posture; whereas it is not their outward posture, but their inward distemper, that is the cause of their restlessness: so do we endeavour to change and shift conditions in the world, and lie sometimes in one posture and sometimes in another, but yet are restless in all; for, wheresoever we tumble, we carry our disease with us, false opinions, and foolish hopes, and impotent desires, and fond designs, which make us complain of our present state, and wish the amendment of that, when nothing wants cure but ourselves.

The servant thinks he shall be a happy man, when he is made free. Is the free man happy? No: but he shall be, when he hath gotten such an estate. Is the rich man happy? No: but he shall be, when he is invested with such an honour and dignity. Well is the honourable man happy? No: unless he be supreme. And those, who are supreme, cannot think themselves completely happy, unless they be universal monarchs. And those who were so, we find they could not rest there, but would needs be adored for gods. Oh, whither do the boundless desires of men hurry themt! Nothing in this world can put a stop to them.

It was a pertinent discourse of Cineas, dissuading Pyrrhus from undertaking a war against the Romans. "Sir," saith he‡, "When you have conquered them, what will you do next?" "Then Sicily is near at hand, and easy to master." "And what when you have subdued Sicily?" "Then we'll pass over to Africa, and take Carthage, which cannot long withstand us." "When these are conquered, what will be your next attempt ?"

* Ὥσπερ οἱ δειλοι και ναυτιώντες εν τω πλείν, είτα ραον οιόμενοι διάξειν εαν εις γαυλον εξ ακατέ, και παλιν εαν εις τριηρη μεταβωσιν, εδεν περαίνεσι, την χολήν και την δειλίαν συμμεταφεροντες ἑαυτοις· οὕτως αἱ των βίων αντιμεταληψεις εκ εξαίρεσι της ψυχης τα λυπεντα και ταρατ]οντα· ταυτα δε εςιν απειρία των πραγματων, αλογισιά, το μη δυνασθαι μηδ' επισασθαι χρησθαι τοις παρεσιν ορθώς. Plut. de Tranquil. Anim. iii.

† Οἱ δεδεμενοι ευδαιμονίζεσι τις λελυμένες, εκείνοι δε της ελευθερες· οἱ δε ελεύθεροι τις πολιτας, οὗτοι δε παλιν αυ τις πλεσίες· οἱ δε πλέσιοι τις σα]ραπας· οἱ δε σατραπαι τις βασιλεις· οἱ δε βασίλεις τες θεάς, μονον χι βρονταν και αςραπλειν εθελοντες" Ειτα έτως αει των ὑπερ έαυτες ενδεις οντες, εδέποτε τοις καθ' ἑαυτες χαριν εχουσιν, &c. Plut. Ib. x.

Plutarch, in Vitâ Pyrrhi.

Then," saith Pyrrhus, "we'll fall in upon Greece and Macedon, and recover what we have lost there." "Well, when all are subdued, what fruit do you expect from all your victories?" "Then," saith he, "we'll sit down and enjoy ourselves." "Sir," replies Cineas, "may we not do it now? Have you not already a kingdom of your own? and he, that cannot enjoy himself with a kingdom, cannot with the whole world."

Such are the designs of men, and so we may answer them. Most are projecting how they may get such an estate; then how they may raise themselves to honour: and think that their advancement in both, will bring them satisfaction. Alas! this will not do. Their desires will still run before them: and they may as well sit down content where they are, as where they hope to be.

And the reason of this unsatisfactoriness in worldly things, is, because none of them are so good as the soul is. The soul, next to angels, is the very top and cream of the whole creation: other things are but dregs and lees compared to it. Now that, which is our happiness, must be better than ourselves; for it must perfect us. But these things being far worse and inferior, the soul, in cleaving to them, is secretly conscious that it abaseth and disparageth itself; and therefore cannot find true satisfaction.

Nothing can fill the soul, but that, which eminently contains in it all good. But now, as light is only divided and parcelled out among the stars, but is all united in the sun; so goodness is only parcelled out among the creatures: this creature hath one share, and that another: not any of them contains the whole sum of goodness: this is proper to God only, who is the Author and Original of them all; in whom all excellencies and perfections are concentred: and, therefore, in him alone can be found that rest and satisfaction, which the soul in vain seeks for, in any thing besides himself.

These are the Demonstrations of the World's Vanity; which, though they be many and various, yet I doubt not but every man's particular experience may furnish him with divers others.

III. But, whatever our Observations are, the USES we may make of them are these.

1. It should teach us TO ADMIRE AND ADORE THE GOOD PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO HIS CHILDREN, IN SO ORDERING IT, THAT THE

WORLD SHOULD BE THUS VAIN, AND DEAL SO ILL WITH THOSE WHO SERVE IT.

For, if it were not so infamous and deceitful as it is; if it did not frustrate and disappoint our hopes; and pay us with vexation, when it promiseth fruition and content: what thinkest thou, O Christian, would be the end of this? would any one think of God, or remember heaven and the life to come? St. Augustin somewhere speaks excellently, Turbat me mundus, et ego eum diligo: quid si non turbaret?" The world troubles and molests me, and yet I love it: what if it did not trouble me ?" Certainly, we should fall into an utter forgetfulness of God, if we could find any true satisfaction here. We should never think of returning to the Fountain of Living Waters, if we could find enough in cisterns to quench the thirst of our souls.

And, therefore, God deals with us, as some great person would do with a disobedient son, that forsakes his house, and riots among his tenants: his father gives order; they should treat him ill, affront, and chase him from them; and all, that he might reduce him. The same doth God. Man is his wild and debauched son. He flies from the commands of his father, and cannot endure to live under his strict and severe government. Whither goes he, but to the pleasures of the world; and revels and riots among the creatures? but God resolves to recover him; and, therefore, commands every creature to handle him roughly. "Burn him, Fire: toss him, Tempests; and shipwreck his estate: forsake him, Friends: Designs, fail him: Children, be rebellious to him, as he is to me: let his supports and dependances sink under him; his riches melt away, leave him poor, and despised, and destitute." These are all God's servants, and must obey his will. And to what end is all this; but that, seeing himself forsaken of all, he may at length, like the beggared prodigal, return again to his father?

2. If the Vanity of the World be such, and so great; if it be only an empty bubble, a swelling nothing, less solid than the dream of a shadow; if it be thus unsuitable, uncertain, and unsatisfactory, as I have demonstrated to you: WHAT GROSS FOLLY

THEN ARE MOST MEN GUILTY OF IN SETTING SO HIGH A PRICE UPON THAT, WHICH IS OF NO WORTH NOR SUBSTANCE?

Though formerly we have been so much deceived as to take the world's paint and varnish for true beauty, and its glittering