Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

what is the reason of these and infinite the like absurdities, but because Lust is infinite? and infinite Lust will breed infinite occasions, and infinite occasions will require infinite wealth, and infinite wit, and infinite strength, and infinite instruments to bring them about: and this must needs beget much Vexation of mind not to have our possessions in any measure proportionable to our occasions.

what is the reason of these and infinite the like absurdities, but because Lust is infinite? and infinite Lust will breed infinite occasions, and infinite occasions will require infinite wealth, and infinite wit, and infinite strength, and infinite instruments to bring them about: and this must needs beget much Vexation of minde not to have our possessions in any measure proportionable to our occasions.

The third and last ground is the Creatures deceitfulness, there is no one thing will more disquiet the mind then to be defeated. Those things wherein men fear miscarriage, or expect disappointment, they prepare such a disposition of mind as may be fit to bear it: but when a man is surprised with evil, the novelty increaseth the vexation. And therefore the Scripture useth to express the greatness of a judgement by the unexpectedness of it: ¹When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for. The unexpectance doth add unto the Terror. A breach in an instant, a momentary, a sudden destruction, a swift ⟨p. 81⟩damnation, a flying roll, a winged woman; such are the² expressions of a severe Judgement. And therefore it was a wise observation which Tacitus made of a great Roman, he was Ambiguarum rerum sciens, eoque intrepidus; He foresaw, and by consequence was not so much troubled with evil events, as those whom they did surprise. Now men are apt to promise themselves much contentment in the fruition of earthly things, like the fool in the Parable, and to be herein disappointed is the ground of much vexation. When a man travels in deep way & sees before him a large smooth plain, he presumes that will recompense the wile he was formerly put to; but when he comes to it, and finds it as rotten, as full of sloughs, and bogs and quagmires as his former way, his trouble is the more multiplied, because his hopes are deceived: The devil and the world beget in mens minds large hopes, and make profuse promises to those that will worship them; and a man at a distance sees abundance of pleasure and happiness in riches, honours, high place, eminent employments, and the like; but when he hath his hearts desire, and peradventure hath out-climbed the very modesty of his former wishes, hath ventured to break through many a hedge, to make gaps through Gods Law and his own conscience, that he might by shorter passages hasten to the idol he so much worshipped, he finds at last that there was more trouble in the fruition, then expectation at the distance; that all this is but like the Egyptian Temples, where through a stately