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…

The third thing proposed was the consideration of that Use which we should make of this vexation of the Creature. And first the consideration thereof mingled with faith in the heart must needs work humiliation in the spirit of a man, upon the sight of those sins which have so much defaced the good Creatures of God. Sin was the first thing that did pester the earth with thorns, Gen. 3. 17. 18. and hath filled all the Creation with vanity and bondage. Sin is the ulcer of the soul; touch a wound with the softest Lawn, and there will smart arise; so though the Creatures be never so harmless, yet as soon as they come to the heart of a man, there is so much sin and corruption there, as must needs beget pain to the soul. The palate, prepossessed with a bitter humour, finds it own distemper in the sweetest meat it tastes; so the soul, having the ground of bitterness in it self, finds the same affection in every thing that comes near it. Death it self, though it be none of Gods works, but the shame and deformity of the Creature, yet without ⟨p. 87⟩sin it hath no sting in it, 1. Cor. 15. 55. how much less sting, think we, have those things which were made for the comforts of mans life, if sin were not the Serpent that did lurk under them all? Doest thou then in thy swiftest career of earthly delights, when thou art posting in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, feel a curb privily galling thy conscience, a secret damp seizing upon thy soul, and affrighting it with dismal suspicions and trembling pre-occupations of attending judgements, see a hand against the wall writing bitter things against thee? Dost thou in all thy lawful Callings find much sweat of brow, much toil of brain, much plunging of thoughts, much care of heart in compassing thy just and lawful intendments? Do not lose the opportunity of that good which all this may suggest unto thee, take advantage to fish in this troubled water. Certainly there is some Jonah that hath raised this storm, there is some sin or other that hath caused all this trouble to thy soul. Do not repine at Gods providence, nor quarrel with the dumb Creatures, but let thine indignation reflect upon thine own heart;

The third thing proposed was the consideration of that Vse which we should make of this vexation of the Creature. And first the consideration thereof mingled with faith in the heart must needes worke humiliation in the spirit of a man, upon the sight of those sinnes which have so much defaced the good Creatures of God. Sinne was the first thing that did pester the earth with thornes,