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 wise man saith That God made all things beautiful in their time, and then much more man, whom he created after his own Image in righteousness and holiness with an universal harmony & rectitude in soul and body. He never said of any of the Creatures, Let u• make it after our o•ne Image as he did of Man, and yet the Creatures have no more beauty in them, then th•y have footsteps of the power, wisdom, and goodness of him that made them. How much more beautiful ⟨p. 323⟩then was the soul of man, for whose service this whole glorious frame was erected, and who was filled with the knowledge and love of all Gods revealed Will? Now sin brought confusion, disorder, vanity, both upon the whole Creation, and upon the Image of God in Men and Angels. What thing more glorious then an Angel, what more hideous then a Devil, and it was nothing but sin which made an Angel a Devil. What thing more beautiful and benign then Heaven, what more horrid and merciless then Hell, and yet it was sin which drew a^* Hell out of Heaven, even fire and brimstone upon Gods enemies. What more excellent and befitting the hands of such a workman then an universal fullness and goodness in the whole frame of nature? What more base and unserviceable then emptiness and disorder? And it is sin which hath put chinks into all the Creatures to let out their virtue, and hath brought vanity and vexation of Spirit upon all things under the Sun. In one word what more honourable then to obtain the end for which a thing is made? What more abhorred then to subsist in a condition infinitely more woeful then not to be? and it is sin only which shall one time or other make all impenitent sinners wish rather to be hurried into that fearful gulf of annihilation, and to be swallowed up in everlasting forgetfulness, then live with those marks of vengeance, under those mountainous and unsupportable pressures, which their sins will bring upon them.

The wise man saith That God made all things beautifull in their time, and then much more man, whom hee created after his owne Image in righteousnesse and holynesse with an universall harmony & rectitude in soule and body. Hee never said of any of the Crea•ures, Let u make it after our one Image as he did of Man, and yet the Creatures have no more beautie in them, then thy have footesteps of the power, wisedome, and goodnesse of him that made them. How much more beautifull