deluded in his expectation. The world useth a man as ivy doth an oak; the closer it gets to the heart, the more it clings and twists about the affections, though it seem to promise and flatter much, yet it doth indeed but eat out his real substance, and choke him in the embraces.

Sect. 53. First, then, they deceive our judgments, make us think better of them than they deserve; they deal with us as the Philistines with Samson, they begin at our eyes. Thus the Devil began to beguile Eve, when she saw that the tree was good and pleasant to the eyes; then being thus first deceived, she became a transgressor. And thus Esau' disputes himself out of his birthright: I am at the point of death; the pottage will make me live; the birthright will not go into the grave with me; I will prefer my life before my privilege.'

Sect. 54.-Secondly, They deceive our hopes and expectations. Achan promised himself much happiness in a wedge of gold and Babylonish garment; but they were 'devoted and cursed things,' they did not only deceive him, but undo him. The wedge of gold (if I may so speak) did serve to no other purpose, but to cleave asunder his soul from his body, and the Babylonish garment but for a shroud. Gehazi's presumptions were vast; and the bargain he thought very easy, to buy garments, and olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and man-servants and maid-servants, at the price of an officious and mercenary lie; he thought he had provided well for his posterity by the reward of Naaman : but the event proves quite contrary; he provided nothing but a leprosy for himself and his seed for ever.

b

Sect. 55. They deceive our hopes in respect of good. They promise long life, and yet the same night a man's soul is taken from him, and they the instruments of that calamity. How many men have perished by their honours! how many have been eaten up by their pleasures! how many hath the greedy desire of wealth poured out into the grave! They promise peace and safety (as we see how Israel boasted in their mountains, confederacies, supplies from Egypt and Assyria, in their own counsels and inventions), and yet all these end in shame and disappointment * ;

* Gen. iii. 6.
b Ezek. xxviii. 9.

y 1 Tim. ii. 14.

© Jer. ii. 36.

z Gen. xxv. 32. a Luke xii. 20. Hos. x. 6. Isa. xlvii. 8. 11. Job vi. 19. 20.

they promise liberty, and yet make men slaves unto 'vile lusts; they promise fitness for God's service, and nothing more apt to make men forget him or his worship. Thus all those fantastical felicities, which men build upon the creature, prove, in the end, to have been nothing else but the banquet of a dreaming man, nothing but lies and vanity in the conclusion.

f

Sect. 56.-Lastly, They deceive us, likewise, in respect of evil. No creatures, however they may promise immunity and deliverance, can do a man any good, when the Lord will be pleased to send evil upon him. And yet it is not for nothing, that a truth so universally confessed, should yet be repeated in the Scripture, that "silver, and gold, and corruptible things," are not a fit prices for the souls of men. Doubtless the holy men of God foresaw a time, when false Christs and false prophets should come into the world, which should set salvation to sale, and make merchandise of the souls of men: as we see at this day in Popish indulgencies and penance, and the like, no less ridiculous than impious superstitions. Neither is it for nothing that Solomoni tells us, that "riches, yea whole treasures, do not profit in the day of death;" a speech repeated by two prophets after him. For surely those holy men knew, how apt wealth and greatness is to bewitch a man with conceits of immortality, as hath been shewed. Who were they that made a covenant with death, and were at an agreement with Hell to pass from them, but the scornful men, the rulers of the people, which had abundance of wealth and honour? Who were they that did put far away the evil day, and, in despite of the prophet's' threatenings, did flatter themselves in the conceit of their firm and inconcussible estate; but they who were at ease in Sion", who trusted upon the mountains of Samaria, who lay upon beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches? Yet we see all this was but deceit; they go captive with the first of those that go captive; and the banquet of them that stretched themselves, is removed. All earthly supports, without God,

d Psal. lxii. 9.

h Rev. xviii. 13.

• Hos. x. 13. f Jer. xvi. 19.

i Prov. xi. 4. x. 2.

g 1 Pct. i. 18. Psal. xlix. 7, 8. Ezek. vii. 19. Zeph. i. 18,

1 Isa. xxviii. 14, 15.

m Amos. vi. 1, 7.

are but like a stately house on the sand, without a foundation; a man shall be buried in his own pride. He that is strong, shall be to seek of his strength; he that is mighty, and should deliver others, shall be too weak for his own defence; he that is swift, shall be amazed, and not dare to fly; if he be a bowman, at a great distance,-if he be a rider, and have a great advantage, he shall yet be overtaken; and he that is courageous, and adventures to stand out, shall be fain to fly away naked at the last. Whatever hopes or refuges any creature can afford a man in these troubles, they are nothing but froth and vanity; the Lord challenges and derides them all ". And the prophet Isaiah gives a sound reason of it all, "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth, shall fall and he that is holpen, shall fall down; and they all shall fail together."

1;

Sect. 57.-Before we proceed to the last thing proposed, here is a question to be answered.

If the creatures be so full of vexation, it should seem that it is unprofitable, and, by consequence, unlawful, either to labour or to pray for them: Which yet is plainly contrary to Christ's direction, "Give us our daily bread;" and contrary to the practice of the saints, who use to call for the fatness of the earth, and dew of heaven, peace of walls, and prosperity of palaces, upon those whom they bless.

To which I answer, That which is evil by accident, doth not prejudice that which is good in itself, and by God's ordination. Now the vexation which hath been spoken of, is not an effect flowing naturally out of the condition of the creature, but ariseth merely by accident, upon the reason of its separation from God, who, at first, did appoint his own blessed communion to go along with his creatures. Now things which are good in themselves, but accidentally evil, may justly be the object of our prayers and endeavours. And so, on the other side, many things there are, which, in themselves alone, are evil; yet, by the providence and disposition of God, they have a good issue; they work together

n Amos ii. 14, 16. Amos ix. 2, 5. Obad. ver. 3, 9. Isa. lvii. 13. Deut. xxxii. 37, 42. Jer. xi. 12. Isa. x.3, 4. Ezek. xxii. 14. Jer. iv. 30.

Jer. ii. 28.

Isa. xxxi. 3.

for the best to them that love God. It was good for David, that he had been afflicted; yet we may not lawfully pray for such evils on ourselves, or others, upon presumption of God's goodness to turn them to the best. Who doubts that the calamities of the Church do, at this time, stir up the hearts of men to seek the Lord, and his face, and walk humbly and fearfully before him? Yet that man should be a curse and prodigy in the eyes of God and men, who should still pray for the calamities of Sion, and to see the stones of Jerusalem still in the dust. Death is in itself an evil thing (for the apostle calls it an enemy°'); yet, by the infinite power and mercy of God, who delights to bring good out of evil, and beauty out of ashes, it hath not only the sting taken away, but is made an entrance into God's own presence with reference unto which benefit, the apostle desireth "to be dissolved, and to be with Christ." Now, notwithstanding this goodness, which death, by accident, brings along with it, yet being in itself a destructive thing, we may lawfully, in the desires of our soul, shrink from it, and decline it. Example whereof we have in the death of Christ himself, which was of all, as the most bitter, so the most precious; and yet by reason of that bitterness which was in it, he prays against it, presenting unto his Father the desires of his soul for that life which he came to lay down: as his obedience to his Father, and love to his church, made him most willingly embrace death; so his love to the integrity of his human nature, and fear of so heavy pressures as he was to feel, made him as seriously to decline it. And though the apostle did most earnestly desire to be with Christ, yet he did in the same desire decline the common road thither, through the dark passages of death". Unlawful indeed it is for any man to pray universally against death, because that were to withstand the statutes of God'. But against any particular danger we may, as Hezekiah did '; reserving still a general submission to the will and decrees of God: for we are bound, in such a case, to use all good means, and to pray for God's blessing upon them, which amounts to a prayer against the danger itself. So then, by the

• 1 Cor. xv.

P Phil. i. 23. q 2 Cor. v. 4.
I Kings xx. 1, 2.

Heb. ix. 27.

rule of contraries, though the creatures be full of vanity and vexation, yet this must not swallow up the apprehension of that goodness which God hath put into them; nor put off the desires of men from seeking them of God, in those just prayers which he hath prescribed, and in those lawful endeavours which he hath commanded and allowed.

Sect. 58. The third thing proposed was, The consideration of that use which we should make of this vexation of the creature.

And first, the consideration thereof, mingled with faith in the heart, must needs work humiliation in the spirit of a man, upon the sight of those sins which have so much defaced the good creatures of God. Sin was the first thing that did pester the earth with thorns; and hath filled all the creation with vanity and bondage. Sin is the ulcer of the soul. Touch a wound with the softest lawn, and there will smart arise: so, though the creatures be never so harmless, yet as soon as they come to the heart of a man, there is so much sin and corruption there, as must needs beget pain to the soul. The palate, prepossessed with a bitter humour, finds its own distemper in the sweetest meats it tastes: so the soul, having the ground of bitterness in itself, finds the same affection in every thing that comes near it. Death itself, though it be none of God's works, but the shame and deformity of the creature, yet, without sin, it hath no sting in it". How much less sting, think we, have those things which were made for the comforts of man's life, if sin were not the serpent that did lurk under them all? Dost thou, then, in thy swiftest career of earthly delights, when thou art posting in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes,-feel a curb privily galling thy conscience, a secret damp seizing upon thy soul, and affrighting it with dismal suspicions, and trembling pre-occupations of attending judgments,-see a hand against the wall writing bitter things against thee? Dost thou, in all thy lawful callings, find much sweat of brow, much toil of brain, much plunging of thoughts, much care of heart in compassing thy just and lawful intendments? Do not lose the opportunity of that good which all this may suggest unto thee;