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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 holdfast 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. Labour, therefore, to get an interest in Christ, to find an everlasting footing in the steadfastness of God's promises in him, and that will make thee willing to suffer the loss of all things; it will implant a kind of hatred and disestimation of all the most precious endearments, which thy soul did feed upon before. Saint Peter" saith of wicked men, that they are purblind, they cannot see afar off:' they can see nothing but that which is next them; and therefore no marvel, if their thoughts cannot reach unto the end of the creature. There is in a dim eye the same constant and habitual indisposition, which sometimes happeneth unto 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 are still a great way 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 hath 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, and buried in their own deformity. All the beauty, and all the fruit of the earth is placed on the very outside of it, to shew how short. and narrow our affections should be towards it. But upward the eye finds scarce any thing to bound it all is transparent and diaphanous, to note how vast our affections should be towards God; how endless our thoughts and desires of his kingdom; how present to our faith the Heavenly things should be, even at the greatest distance. The apostle saith,

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■ 2 Pet. i. 9. Ο Ισασι γὰρ πάντες, ὅτι ἀποθανοῦνται, ἀλλ' ὅτι οὐκ ἐγγὺς, οὐδὲν φροντίζουσιν. Arist. Rhet. 1. 2. e Heb. xi. 1.

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, in regard of natural causes, are very remote,-in regard of God's promises, 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 excess of 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, or some vast country. And ever the greater magnitude and light there is in a body, the smaller will the medium or distance seem from it. The reason why a perspective glass draws remote objects close to the eye, is, because it multiplies the 'species.' 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, in regard of their own existence, yet the patriarchs did not only see, but embrace them; their faith seemed to nullify and swallow up all the distance. Abraham saw 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. Labour therefore to get a distinct view of the height and length, and breadth and depth, and 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.

Sect. 33. 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 Austin: "If you have not these earthly goods, (saith he) take heed how thou get them by evil works here; and if thou have them, labour by good to hold them even when thou art gone to

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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, in regard of natural causes, are very remote,-in regard of God's promises, to seem hard at hand. And therefore though there were many hun

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may be made of use even for immortality. To which purpose, excellent is that speech of holy Austin: "If you have not these earthly goods, (saith he) take heed how thou get them by evil works here; and if thou have them, labour by good works to hold them, even when thou art gone to Heaven."—" Make you friends," saith our Saviour", "of the unrighteous Mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." A religious and merciful use of earthly things makes way to immortality and blessed"Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days thou shalt 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 the earth, 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 thou draw out thy soul to the righteous, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day; then thy waters shall not lie unto thee:" that happiness which it falsely promiseth 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.

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Sect. 34.-The next disproportion is in their operation: they are vexing and molesting things. Rest is the satisfaction of every creature; all the rovings and agitations 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 Solomon tells us, that "All things under the Sun are full of labour, more than a man can utter." He was not used as an instrument of the Holy Ghost to speak it only, but to 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 very heart could de

* Si desunt, non per mala opera quærantur; in mundo si adsunt, per bona h Luk. xvi. 9. opera serventur in cœlo. Epis. 205. Isai. lviii. 10, 11. * Eccles. i. 8.