THE THREE TREATISES: THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE. THE SINFULNESS OF SIN. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. HONORATISSIMO ET CELEBERRIMO DOCTISSIMORUM JURISPRUDENTIUM COLLEGIO, HOSPITII LINCOLNIENSIS MAGISTRIS VENERABILIBUS, SOCIISQUE UNIVERSIS, AUDITORIBUS SUIS FAVENTISSIMIS, EDVARDUS REYNOLDS EIDEM HETÆRIÆ A SACRIS CONCIONIBUS TRES HOSCE TRACTATUS, De Rerum Secularium Vanitate, De Peccato supra modum peccante, MINISTERII IBIDEM SUI ἀποσπασμάτια QUIDAM, EXILE QUIDEM ET PEREXIGUUM, PERPETUÆ TAMEN OBSERVANTIÆ, SUMMÆQUE IN CHRISTO DILECTIONIS HUMILITER ET DEVOTE D. D. D. THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE. ECCLES. I. 14. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. SECTION 1.-To have a self-sufficiency in being and operation, and to be insubordinate to any further end above himself, as it is utterly repugnant to the condition of a creature, so, amongst the rest, to man especially; who, besides the limitedness of his nature, as he is a creature, hath contracted much deficiency and deformity, 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 whence God hath 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 doth it by an historical and penitential review of his former inquiries: from whence he states the point in two main conclusions: The first, the creature's insufficiency; in the beginning of the book, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity:"-The second, man's duty to God, and God's allsufficiency unto man; in the end of the book,a" Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is totum hominis,' the whole duty, the whole end, the whole happiness, of man." The former of these two, namely, the insufficiency of the creature to satiate the desires and quiet the motions of the soul of man, is the point I am now to speak of, out of these words. Sect. 2. 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. As pricks, and quavers, and rests in music, serve in their order to commend the cunning of the artist, and to delight the ear of the hearer, as well as more perfect notes; 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 doth it make him come short of contentation too, which is the rest of the soul in the fruition of God in his creatures. Sin took away God's favour 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. Sect. 3.-The desires of the soul can never be satisfied with any good, till they find in it these two qualities or relations, wherein indeed the formality of goodness doth consist; namely, proportion, and propriety. First, Nothing can satisfy the desires of the soul, till it bears convenience and 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 hath reference unto 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 unto reason and obedient to the spirit, the case is plain, that 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 b Rom. viii. 20, 22. c Rom. iii. 23. 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 a proportionable good unto the nature of devils, as well as of men or good angels; yet no good comes by that unto them, because he is none of their God; they have no interest in him; they have no union unto him. Wealth is as commensurate unto the mind and occasions of a beggar as of a prince; yet the goodness and comfort of it extends not unto him, because he hath no propriety unto any. Now sin hath taken away the propriety which we have in good; hath unlinked that golden chain, whereby the creature was joined unto God, and God with the creature came along unto 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 good the creature is not unto any, but by virtue of the blessing and word accompanying it. And man naturally hath no right unto the blessing of the creature; for it is godliness which hath the promises, and by consequence the blessing, as well of this as of the other life. And God is not in his favour reconciled unto us, nor re-united by his blessing unto the creature, but only in and through Christ. So then the mind of a man is fully and only satisfied with the creature, 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. Man Sect. 4.-These things thus explained, let us now consider the insufficiency of the creature to confer, and the unsatis fiableness of the flesh to receive, any solid or real satisfaction from any of the works which are done under the sun. is naturally a proud creature, of high projects, of unbounded desires, ever framing to himself I know not what imaginary and fantastical felicities, which have no more proportion unto real and true contentment, than a king on a stage to a king on a throne; than the houses which children make of cards, unto a prince's palace. Ever since the fall of Adam, he hath an itch in him to be a god within himself, the fountain of his |