IV. The Fourth thing proposed in the general method was, To give some reasons of the vanity and emptiness of the world, and unsatisfactoriness thereof. Why,

1. God alone is the centre of a man's soul; Christ alone is the bread of life, the solid food of the soul, God is the centre of the intellectual world, the centre of spirits; and no rest shall spirits, souls, have till they centre in him; and the soul that never centres in him, shall never find rest to eternity. Every body hath its centre; the stone goes downward, and the fire goes upward. Every body is, as it were, in motion, or hath a tendency to motion, if obstacles were out of the way, till it comes to its centre: now, God alone being the centre of the soul, the creature can never give rest to the soul; the soul is still in disquiet, till it come to a God in Christ, which is the true rest; " Return to thy rest, O my soul," Psal. cxvi. 7. The covetous man, if he has riches, will say, "Return to thy rest, O my soul: Soul, thou hast goods laid up for many years." But he was mistaken of his centre; for he had no rest at all: he was disinherited that night, and sent out of the world. No quarters for the soul in the creature; there is no suitableness to the soul in the creature. Why? The soul is a spirit; the creature is a body: the soul hath vast infinite desires; the creature is finite: the soul is eternal and immortal; the creature is but of yesterday, and perisheth to-morrow and so there is no suitableness between the soul and the creature. It is only between God and the soul that there is a suitableness; and therefore the creature is empty and vain, and cannot satisfy the vast and immense desires of the immortal soul. But then,

2. There is the curse upon the creature, a manifold curse; a curse by Adam's fall, a curse after Cain's murder, a curse after the deluge, a curse upon every enjoyment of every wicked man: He is cursed in his basket and his store; cursed in his children, cursed in his table, cursed in all his comforts. How then can the creature, and worldly things, be any other than vanity and emptiness to us, seeing the curse is lying upon them since the fall! Gen. iii. 17.

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3. All is vanity, because of the end for which God made them; they were made for us, not we for them. The Lord never designed the things of the world for the use that men would turn them to, namely, to be a god, a portion, a happiness to them: and therefore they shall never find an happiness in them. And so,

4. Because they seek happiness in the creature, therefore they shall never find it in the creature: because they put confidence in it, therefore God will blast that confidence; "The Lord hath rejected thy confidences; thou shalt not prosper in them," Jer. ii. 39. Since the fall, man's corruption makes him promise more from the creature, trust more to it, and delight more in it than before the virtue of the creature is on the weaning and decaying hand, yet man's expectation from it is on the waxing and growing hand. How then can there be any thing but disappointment and emptiness?

5. No wonder then that it is vain, empty, and unsatisfactory, seeing the world is the great occasion of sin, and the fuel of lust. Many corruptions are starved till the world minister to their support: and it is the root of manifold sins; "The love of money, [the love of the world,] is the root of all evil." It is the root of damnable neglect of the gospel: One went to his farm, another to his merchandise, and made light of the gospeloffer, Matth. xxii. 5. It is the root of heart-wandering from the Lord, and enmity against God; "The carnal mind is enmity against God. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." It is the root of unfruitfulness under the means of grace: The thorns of this world choke the good seed of the word. It is the root of woful apostacy from the Lord; "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world."

V. The last thing proposed in the method, was the application of the subject; which we shall essay in an use of information, reproof, lamentation, examination, and trial and in the whole study all brevity.

Use 1. The first use that we make of the doctrine then is for information. Is it so, That all earthly things, and worldly enjoyments, are vain and empty? Then we may hence see,

1. The folly of mankind, in placing their happiness where it never was. Men would have happiness, but. the general error is, they imagine the creature can give it and therefore they pursue pleasure, and court honours, and hoard up riches, thinking their happiness lies there but they are seeking the living among the dead; they are seeking hot water among cold ice, who seek happiness among the creatures. Alas! what a woful exchange do they make, who sell their souls to commit sin, for any earthly benefit, which is but vanity! Jonah ii. 8. "They who observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercy." Temptations from earthly things may draw on sin like cart-ropes; but they are cart-ropes of vanity, Isa. v. 8.

2. See what a great change sin hath made in the world; it doth, as it were, blast the virtue and beauty of the creature. The time was, before sin entered, when God saw all the creatures to be very good, Gen. i. 31. Now, after sin hath blown upon them, he looks upon them again; and lo! all is vanity. Such a change will sin make in us, and in our counsels and courses, if it be not removed by the blood of Christ.

3. See what little reason they have to envy the wicked of their portion: they have all their portion in this world, Psal. xvii. 14. What a portion must it be, when it is but a sowing of vanity, and a reaping lies! " All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Why should a godly man grudge when he sees the prosperity of the wicked, seeing it is all their portion? A godly man may have a portion in the world; but he never hath this world for a portion; no: The lines are fallen to him in more pleasant places; he hath a goodly heritage: The Lord is the portion of his soul.

4. See that the godly are no losers, though they should lose all things in the world for Christ's sake. What makes them venture the loss of all for the cause and interest of Christ? Why, they know Christ to be all, and the world nothing but vanity. They may easily forsake all things, and follow Christ; for they lose but vanity, and reap solid comfort, solid happiness. We see this abundantly clear from Mark x. 29, 30. "Jesus said,

There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." This seems to be a contradiction: but though they lose their houses and lands, &c. yet they shall reap them equivalently; yea, what is more than the equivalent; they reap true comfort here, and true happiness hereafter so that their light afflictions work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Use 2. The next use that we make of the doctrine, is for reproof. Since all things here are but vanity, this doctrine reproves these that set their hearts upon vanity, upon the world, so as to forget God, and Christ, and religion, and their souls: O my dear friends, What will it profit a man, though he gain the whole world, if he Jose his own soul? All is but wind and vanity, that the world can afford. What will become of the worldling in the day of death, when they must part with these things? What a miserable parting must it be, if you have no other thing for your happiness! I mean not to persuade men to a voluntary poverty; so the church of Rome make some of her votaries swear to be beggars all their life-time; and they have gone, and abstracted from all secular affairs, under pretence of employing themselves wholly in devotion: and yet many of them are so ignorant, that they know nothing at all of religion. I have read of one who lived always in a mountain, and was appointed to spend his whole time in religion: and he told that he cried to God, and said his Pater-Noster all the day, over and over and over again, to the Virgin Mary just a horrible blunder in religion, a damnable delusion, that no man, in his wits, could be guilty of. They think, that by turning to a solitary desart, and abstract life, they may overcome the world: but as Luther saith well concerning it, "A monk in "his closet says, he thinks he is crucified to the world, "and the world to him; but, alas! poor wretch, he is crucified to Christ, and Christ is a stranger to him."

But, sirs, the thing that we are reproving is, that the world gets so much of your heart, and God so little. The creature should but have a small portion of your affections, if it be not the creature, but God, that is your portion. But, alas! many are like the great man, that, being asked if ever he saw an eclipse of the sun, said, "He had so much ado upon earth, he never had time to look up to heaven." "Just so may it be said of multitudes in the world, they are so much taken up with the things of time, the vain and perishing things of the world, they never get time to look up into, and call upon God. Therefore we have reason to bewail the

matter.

Use 3. Let our next use then be for lamentation, that notwithstanding of the vanity of the world, yet many discover themselves to be wholly destitute of religion, by their inordinate desire after the world. For clearing this, I would shew you, 1. What sort of a desire the wicked have after the world. 2. Prove and make it evident, that their desires are after these vanities. 3. Shew whence it is. 4. Point out the evil of it. And in all these we will see much ground of lamentation.

[1] What sort of a desire is it that the wicked have after the world. Here we shall condescend on a fourfold desire they discover themselves to have after the world.

1. It is an original desire; they are born with a world in their heart: any thing in the world is better to them than God, or Christ. Had we continued in our origi nal, primitive integrity, the first words of the infant would have been, the praises of God; the first breathings would have been after communion with God: but now they are after the world, and earthly things, which gratify the outward senses.

2. It is universal, after any thing that is in the world; "Who will shew us any good?" The beggar, who wants grace, before he make God his portion, he will rather make his staff or his meal-pock his portion; as well as the king his crown, or kingdom: "Who will shew us any good?" any good whatsoever, Psal. iv. 6.

3. It is a strong and violent desire they have after

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