2- he Vanity of the Creature. it is needleífe to fearch out the worth of the Creature. Our Saviour will decide the point, What fhall a man saine though hee ) rinne the whole World, andlofe his o)rnc foule, or what fball a man give in exchange for his foule ? To which of the Creatures laid God at any time. Let us create it after our Image ? Of which of the Angels laid He at any time, Let us refrore them to our Image againe ? there is no Creature in heaven or earth, which is recoin- pence enough for the Joffe of a foule. Can a man carry the world into hell with him to bribe the flames, or cor- rupt his tormentors ? No, faith the Pfalrmiii, His glorie fhall not dcfcend after him, Pfal. 49, i 7. but can hee buy out his pardon before he comes thither ? No neither, the Redemption of a Soule is more precious, Verfe g. we know the Apoílle counts all things Dung, Phil. g. 8. and will God take dung in exchange for a foule ? Certainely, Beloved, when.a.man can fow grace in the furrowes of the field, when hee can fill his Barnes with glory, when hee can get bagger -Ball of falvation, when he can plow up heaven out of the earth, and extract God out of the Creatures, then he may bee able to finde that in them which (hall fatisfie his delires. But till then, let a man have all the cxquifiteft curiofities of Nature heaped into one veffell, let him bee moulded out of the molt delicate ingredients, and nobleft principles that the world can . contribute, let there be in his body a concurrencie of all beauty and feature, in his nature an Eminence of all f\hTeetneffe and ingcnuitie, in his mimic a confpiration of the politeft, and }poll choice varieties of all kinde of learning, yet Rill the fpirit of that man is no whit more valuable and precious, no whit more proportionable to Eternall Happinelfe, than the foule of a poore and illite- rate begger. Difference indeed there is, andthat juftly, to be made betweene them in the eyes of men, which difference is to expire within a few yeares : and then af- ter, the duR of the beautiful) and deformed, ofthe lear- ned ,
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