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 dishonour 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. ii. 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.

Sect. 50.-I have at large before insisted on the curse, considered alone; now I am to shew 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 and a dead man. This is just the case between a man and the creatures of themselves, without Christ to sanctify them unto 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 fulness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits; and while he is eating, the fury of wrath shall rain down upon him f." Let a man's meat be never so sweet in itself, yet if he should temper the sauce with dirt out of a sink, it would make it

f Job xx. 14, 16, 20, 22, 23.

g

:

altogether loathsome; and a wicked man eats all his meat like swine, wrapped up and overdaubed with dirt and curses. "A little," saith Solomon, "which the righteous hath, is better than great riches of the ungodly." In se' it is not, but 'quoad hominem,' in regard of the man, it is for that little which a righteous man hath, 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? St. Paul distinguisheth of a reward, and a dispensation: "If I preach the gospel willingly, I have a reward; if against my will, a dispensation is committed unto me." We may apply it to our purpose: those good things which the faithful enjoy, though but small, are yet rewards and accessions unto the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and, so long, they bring joy and peace with them: but, unto the wicked, they are merely a dispensation; they have only the burden and business, not the reward, nor benediction, of the creature.

Sect. 51.-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 some smatch of honey' in them. For this is a constant rule,-Then only doth the creature satisfy a man, when it is suitable to his occasions and necessities.' The reason why the same proportion is insufficient for a prince, which is abundant for a private man, is, because the occasions of the prince are more vast, massy, Hag. ii. 12, 13, 14.

Psal. lxix. 22.

h 1 Cor. ix. 17.

i Tit. i. 15. 1 Rev x.9.

Now

and numerous, than the occasions of a private man. the desires and occasions of a man in Christ, that doth not ransack the creature for happiness, are limited and shortened; whereas another man's are still at large. For he is in a way; his eye is upon an end; he useth the world but as an inn; and no man that travels homeward, will multiply businesses unnecessarily upon himself 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 of 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 to 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 comfortable refreshments in the way which therefore they use not as their grand occasions, to create businesses to them, but only as interims and 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, very satisfactory unto their desires. 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 be that is out of the way, wanders infinitely without any success. Rest is that which the desires and wings of the soul do still carry men upon. Now the faithful, being always in the way, do 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

m

m Solatia, non negotia.

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 Nero, that wicked emperor, have an officer about him, who was called Arbiter Neronianæ libidinis", the inventor and contriver of new ways of uncleanness, but because lust is infinite? What made Messalina, that prodigy of women, (whom I presume St. Paul had a particular relation to, Rom. i. 26,) "profluere ad incognitas libidines," as the historian speaks, prostitute herself with greediness unto unnatural and unknown abominations, but because lust is infinite? What makes the ambitious man never leave climbing, till he build a nest in the stars; the covetous 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 spewing, and staggering, and inventing new arts of catches, and rounds, and healths, and caps, and measures, and damnation; the swearer find out new gods to invoke, and have change of oaths, as it were of fashions; the superstitious traveller run from England to Rheims, from thence to Rome, and from Rome to Loretto, and after that to Jerusalem, to worship the milk of Our Lady, or the cratch and tomb of Our Saviour, 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.

Sect. 52. The third and last ground is the creature's deceitfulness. There is no one thing will more disquiet the mind than to be defeated. Those things wherein men fear miscarriage, or expect disappointment, they prepare such a disposition of mind as may be fit to bear it. But when a

» Ἡ πονηρία ἀνθρώπων ἄπληστον. Απειρος ἡ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας φύσις. Aristot. Polit. 1. cap. 7. o Tacit. Annal. 1. 16. c. 2. Ρ Εἰς ἄπειρον αὔξουσιν οἱ χρηματιζόμενοι τὸ νόμισμα. Arist. Polit. 1. 1. c. 9.

man is surprised with evil, the novelty increaseth the vexation. And therefore the Scripture useth to express the greatness of a judgment, by the unexpectedness of it: "When thou didst terrible things, which we looked not for "." -The unexpectance doth add unto the terror. "A breach in an instant', a momentary, a sudden destruction', a swift damnation, a flying roll", a winged woman; "-such are the expressions of a severe judgment. And therefore it was a wise observation which Tacitus made of a great Roman, he was "ambiguarum rerum sciens, eoque intrepidus;" he foresaw, and by consequence was not so much troubled with evil events, as those whom they did surprise. Now men are apt to promise themselves much contentment in the fruition of earthly things, like the fool in the parable; 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, his 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, honours, high places, eminent employments, and the like: but when he hath his heart's desire, and peradventure hath outclimbed the very modesty of his former wishes, hath ventured to break through many a hedge, to make gaps through God's law and 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; that all this is but like the Egyptian temples, where, through a stately frontispiece and magnificent structure, a man came, with much preparations of reverence and worship, but to the image of an ugly ape, the ridiculous idol of that people. A man comes to the world as to a lottery, with a head full of hopes and projects to get a prize; and returns with a heart full of blanks, utterly

q Isai. Ixiv. 3.
2 Pet. ii. 1.

r Isai. xxx. 13. u Zech. v. 2, 9.

Psal. lviii. 9.

s Isai. xlvii. 9. w Clem. Alex. in Pædag. lib. 3. cap. 2.