44° * FeYllClteY1 : umFiratilar. ® Summis nega- tum eft flare die,. P Job 19.9. q 1 Cor. 7.30: quad miraris, pampa eft. Oftendunti r if res, non poffidentur, & dam placent iranfeunr, Sen. Epift. t 10. Bow are we to live by with Serm. IS 4. Faith knows that there outward things are perifhing, . well as unpro- fitable and hurtful. Mutable, inconf ant, fading* Vanities. Bubbles llures drawn on'-fey Tablets ,grafs growing on the tops of houles. Faith lath feen and heard the Providence of God ring the changes of mens Eflates all the world over. Now exalted and lifted up, within a while depreff and car} down. Now honourable,eftfoon abafed,the rich becom- ing poor, Naomi becoming Mara. Hilts levelled into Valleys,and great Mountains becoming Plains.Thar fpokeofthe wheel which is now aloft, (as that Captive King told his CongUerour) is qucikly turn'd to the ground and brought low. The bef earthly eflate, is in it felf a tottering eflate. No ° mountain fo thong but may loon be moved. What we call fubflance, Faith knows is but a /Wen', and hath no continuance. There is on aff'urance in any earthly inheritance. How foon doth God fequester it from ur, or us from it. Thefe Externals cannot be held with all our care, nor kept with all our policy and power. The bell of earthly excellen- cies may loon be taken from us. lobs p Crown quickly falls of from 7oós head. Not only is all flefb graft, but all the goodlinefs thereof is as the flower of the field, Ifa.48.6. Not only is man of a brittle Conflitution in nature, but all the perfellions which he bath, be they either ì'íoral or Civil accompli) rnents, on this fide grace, are brittle roo. Reafon, Scri- pture, Experience, abundantly atteft this truth. i he 9 Milian of this world,faith the Apuf le, pa f f eth away : As fafhions in the world alter and change every day, fo Both the fafhion of this World. Creature - comforts are saotfá properly PofflionsasrPageants,which whiff } they plcafe us,paf away from us in a moment. Z hole we have here are running ban- quets, delicate, and ferved in with fiat, butfoon over. 5. Faith makes yet a farther difcovery, and finds that there Creature comforts are falfe, deceitful, lying Vanities. Which appears, r. In the report they make ofthemfelves, and oftheir own worth.If you ook upon the bill of the creature,it puts down not only an hundred for fifty, but a trillion for a mite. Like the Title -pages of force empty Pamphlets, more in them than in the whole Book. 2. In the Promifes which they make to fig. It promifes that in the'en- o,ment thereof we fhall be happy,whereas we are both poor and mifera- le in the fulleft poffefliion of the Creature, uniefs God himfelf be our ortion.It promifes to tale us of our cares ,yet it Both but multiply them, ke drinkto a dropfie- man,fo far from flaking that it enflames the thir[ . Riches are not food,but fuel to our defires,& are fo far from fatisfying, that they but widen the throat. They do not allay our appetite as bread deth, when received anti digeffeo#, but enflame it, as oyl doth, when call into
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=