which the scriptures exhibit, and which are so necessary to our eternal bliss: for what signature is there stamped upon any of the creatures of a Trinity in Unity; of the eternal generation, or temporal incarnation of the Son of God? What creature could have informed us of our first fall, and guilt contracted by it? Or where can we find the copy of the Covenant of Works or of Grace, printed upon any of the creatures? All the great sages of the world, though they were nature's secretaries, and ransacked its abstrusest secrets, yet all their learning and knowledge could never discover that sacred mys, tery of a Crucified Saviour. These are truths, which nature and reason are so far from finding out, that they can scarce receive them when discovered*: and, therefore, God hath manifested them to us by the light and revelation of the Holy Scriptures. But yet so much of God as belongs to those two great titles of Creator and Governor of the World, our reason may collect from created and visible things; running up their consequences, till they are all resolved into the first cause and origin of all. 3. Therefore, ALL THE VANITY, THAT IS IN WORLDLY THINGS, IS ONLY IN RESPECT OF THE SIN AND FOLLY OF MAN. For those things are said to be vain, which neither do nor can perform what we expect from them. Our great expectation is happiness; and our great folly is, that we think to obtain it by the enjoyments of this world. This makes men pursue pleasures, hoard p riches, court honours and preferments, because they look with an overweening conceit on these things, as such as can make them truly happy. Whereas to seek for happiness among the worldly things, is but to seek the living among the dead: yea, it is but to search for happiness among those things, which are the very root and occasion of all our misery. They are all of them leaky and broken cisterns, and cannot hold this living water. This is it which makes them charged with vanity †, because, in our perverted fancy, we look upon them as stable, permanent, and satisfactory; fix them as our journey's end, * 1 Cor. ii. 14. † Ταραχος ὁ κυριωτατος ταις ανθρωπίναις ψυχαίς γίνεται εν τῷ ταυτα μακαρία Te dosage xai aplapra. Epic. apud Laert. in Vitâ Epicuri. which ought only to be used by us in our passage; and expect much more from them, than they can yield: and so, indeed, the vanity is not so much theirs, as ours. There are some things, as St. Austin and the Schools + from him do well distinguish, which must be only enjoyed, other things that must be only used. To enjoy, is, to cleave to an object by love, for its own sake‡: and this belongs only to God. What we use, we refer to the obtaining of what we desire to enjoy §: and this belongs to the Creatures. So that we ought to use the Creatures, that we may arrive at the Creator . We may serve ourselves of them, but we must alone enjoy him. Now that, which makes the whole world become vanity, is when we break this order of use and fruition; when we set up any particular created good as our end and happiness, which ought only to be used as a means to attain it. All things in the world are in themselves good; but, when we propound them as the greatest and highest good that we expect satisfaction from, this turns them all into vanity; and so every thing, besides God, becomes nothing. And thus we have a brief account whence proceeds this Vanity of the World: not from the nature of things; but from those vain hopes and expectations we build upon them, for that happiness which they cannot, afford. II. It remains, therefore, to DISPLAY before you this Vanity of the World, in some more remarkable particulars. Whereof take these following instances. 1. The Vanity of the World appears in this, THAT ALL ITS GLORY AND SPLENDOUR DEPENDS MERELY UPON OPINION AND FANCY. It is not so much what things are, as what we account them, that makes them good or evil: and what can be vainer, than * Aug. Doct. Christ. I. i. c. 3. † Lomb. l. i. d. 1. Aquin. 1. 12. q. 11. 16. Durand. l. i. d. 1. q. 4. Arim. d. 1. 4. 3. Art. 2. Altiss. 1. iii. tract. 10. Frui est, amore alicui rei inhærere propter seipsam. Aug. Doct. Christ. l.i. c. 4. § Uti, autem, quod in usum venerit ad id quod amas, obtinendum referre. Id. ibid. Utendum est hoc mundo, non fruendum; ut invisibilia Dei, per ea quæ facta sunt, intelligantur; hoc est, ut de temporalibus æterna capiantur. Aug. ibid. that, which borrows its worth from so vain and fickle a thing as our estimation? And, therefore, we find the things of the world rated diversely, according to the esteem that men have of them*. What were gold and silver, had not men's fancy stamped upon them an excellency far beyond their natural usefulness? This great idol of the world was of no value among those barbarous nations, where abundance made it vile. They preferred glass and beads before it; and made that their treasure, which we make our scorn. They despise our riches, and we theirs and true reason will tell us, that both the one and the other are in themselves alike despicable; and it is only fancy, that puts such an immodest and extravagant price upon them, far above their natural worth. Should the whole world conspire together to depose gold and silver from that sovereignty they have usurped over us, they might for ever lie hid in the bowels of the earth, ere their true usefulness would entice any to the pains and hazard of digging them out into the light. Indeed, the whole use of what we so much dote upon, is merely fantastical: and, to make ourselves needy, we have invented an artificial kind of riches; which are no more necessary to the service of sober nature, than jewels and bracelets were to that plane-tree which Xerxes so ridiculously adorned †. And, although we eagerly pursue these things, and count ourselves poor and indigent without them: yet possibly right reason will dictate, that they are no more needful to us, than to brute or senseless creatures; and that it would be altogether as ridiculous for a man to be decked with them, as for a beast or plant, were it but as uncommon. These precious trifles, when they are hung about us, make no more either to the warmth or defence of the body, than, if they were hung upon a tree, they could make its leaves more verdant, or its shade more refreshing. Doth any man lie the softer, because his bed-posts are gilt? * Quantum apud nos Indicis margaritis pretium est, tantum apud Indos in curalio. Namque ista persuasione gentium constant. Plin. lib. xxxii. de Gem. Benzoni del Mondo Nuovo. lib. i. † Elian. 1. ii. c. 14. * Ταύτα παντα γιγνεται, των μεν ποικίλων ἱματιων εδεν τι μαλλον θλάσειν δε ναμενων των δε χρυσοφόρων οικιων εδεν τι μαλλον σκεπάσων· των δε εκποματων των αργύρων εκ ωφελόντων τον ποτον, εδε των χρυσών, εδε των ελεφαντινων αυ κλίνων τον ύπνον ndow παρεχομένων Lucian. Cynicus. Doth his meat and drink relish the better, because served up in gold? Is his house more convenient, because better carved or painted? Or are his cloaths more fit, because more fashionable than another's? And, if they are not necessary to these natural uses, all that is left them is but fancy and opinion. Indeed, mankind cozen themselves by compact; and, by setting a value upon things that are rare, have made many think themselves poor: whereas God and nature made all equally wealthy, had they not artificially impoverished themselves. It is nothing but conceit, that makes the difference between the richest and the meanest, if both enjoy necessaries for what are all their superfluous riches, but a load, that men's covetousness lays upon them? They are but like Roman Slaves, that were wont to carry heavy burdens of bread upon their backs, whereof others eat as large a share as they *. Whatsoever is more than barely to satisfy the cravings of nature, is of no other use but only to look upon †. Thy lands, thy houses, and fair estate, are but pictures of things. The poorest, that sees them, enjoys as much of them as thyself: yea, and if men could be contented with reason, all, that they behold with their eyes, is as much theirs, as it is the owner's. And, indeed, if we strip all these admired nothings to their naked principles, we shall find them as base and sordid, as the meanest of those things which we spurn and despise: only, art or nature put new shapes upon them; and fancy, a price upon those shapes. What are gold and silver, but diversified earth, hard and shining clay? The very place where they are bred, the entrails of the earth, upbraids us for accounting them precious. The best and richest perfumes, what are they, but * † Eccl. v. 11. Ut, si Reticulum panis venales inter onusto Fortè vehas humero, nihilo plus accipias quàm † Ο φαλερνος χυλαριον εςι ςαφύλια και ἡ περιπορφυρος τριχια προβατιε αίμα τις κόγχης δεδευμενα. Οὕτως δεν πας όλον τον βίον ποιειν, και οπε λιαν αξιοπιςου τατα πράγματα φαντάζεται απογυμνων αυτα, και την ευτέλειαν αυτών καθοραν, και την ισοριαν ὑφ ̓ ἡ σεμνύνεται περιαιρειν. M. Anto. de Seipso. 1. vi. s. 13. Edit. Cas. Το σαπρον της έκαςῳ ὑποκείμενης ύλης· ύδως, κονις, «σαρία, γράσος, η πα λον, πωροι γης, τα μαρμαρα· καὶ ὑποσαθμαι, ὁ χρυσος, ὁ άργυρος· και τριχία, ή εσ θης και αιμα, ἡ πορφυρα. Id. l. ix. s. 36. the clammy sweat of trees, or the mucous froth of beasts? The softest silks are but the excrement of a vile worm. The most racy and generous wines are nothing else but puddlewater strained through a vine. Our choicest delicates are but dirt, cooked and served up to us in various forms. The very same things which we contemn under one shape, we admire in another; and, with this, fancy and custom have conspired together to cheat us. Think, O Worldling! when thou castest thy greedy eyes upon thy riches, think, “Here are bags, that only fancy hath filled with treasure, which else were filled with dirt. Here are trifles, that only fancy hath called jewels, which else were no better than common pebbles. And shall I lay the foundation of my content and happiness upon a fancy; a thing more light and wavering than the very air?" Nay, consider, that a distempered fancy can easily alter a man's condition, and put what shape it pleaseth upon it. If a black and sullen melancholy seizeth the spirits, it will make him complain of poverty, in the midst of his abundance; of pain and sickness, in the midst of his health and strength. It is true, these are but the effects of a distorted fancy; but, though his sickness and poverty be not real, yet the torment of them is. It is all one, as to our disquiet, whether we be indeed unhappy, or only imagine ourselves so *. Again If the fancy be more merrily perverted, straight they are nothing less than kings or emperors, in their own conceit. A straw is as majestic as a sceptre. They will speak of their rags as magnificently, as if they were robes; and look upon all that come near them, as their subjects or servants. They make every stone a gem, every cottage a palace. All they see is their own; and all their own is most excellent. Now, what think you: are these things vain, or no? I doubt not but you will conclude them most extremely vain; and yet they serve their turns as well, and bring them in as much solace and contentment, as if they were really what they imagine them. Thus Thrasyllus noted down all the ships, that arrived at the port of Athens +; thinking them and their merchandize * Ταράσσει τες ανθρωπος, 8 τα πράγματα, αλλά τα περί των πραγμάτων δόγματα. Epictet. Enchir. c. 5. & Dissert. 1. iii. c. 19. † Elian. 1. iv. c. 25. |