56 .,...._.. ïl z Pet. .-. 9, `! he Panity af the Creature. above the Creature. A man fhalI never get to looke off from the world , till hee can looke beyond it. For the SouIc will have hold -fail of fometling, and the reafon why men cling fo much to thcearth is, becaufe they have no affurance, ifthey let goe that hold ofhaving any fub- íifrence elfewhere. Labour therefore to get an intereí'i in CHRIS T, to finde an everlailing footing in the iled- faf}neffc of Gods Promifes in him , and that will make thee willing to fuffer the Joffe ofall things, it will implant a kind ofhatred anddif- e$imation of all the moll pretious endearements which thy Soule did feede upon before. Saint Peter faith of wicked men , that they are 'Purblind, they cannot fie afa.rre of ; they can fee nothing but that which is next them , and therefore no marvell if their thoughts cannot reach unto the End of the Creature. There is in a dimme eye the fame con£ }ant and habiruall indifpofition which fometimes happened) unto a found eye by reafon of a thick miff ; though a man bee wal- king in a very fhort lane yet hee fees no end of it : and fo a naturali man cannot reach to the period of earthly . things, death and danger are Rill a great way out ofhis fight, whereas the eye of faith can look upon them as already expiring , and through them look upon him who therefore gives the Creatures unto us, that in them wee might fee his power and éaíle his goodneffe. And nature it felfe mee thinkes may fceme to have intended forne fueh things as this in the very order of the Crea- tures. Downeward a mans eye hath fomething imme- diately to frxe on ; All is fhut up in darkeneffe fave the very furface, to note that we fhould have our delires fhut up too from thofe earthly things which are put un- der our feet, and hid from our eyes, and buried in their owne deformity. A11 the beauty, and all the fruit of the earth is placed on the very outfide of it , to £hew how fhort and narrow our affeions fhould bee towards ir. But upwards the eye findes fcarce any thing to bound it, all
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