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…

Every member of the body, every appetite of the soul, so many chinks to let out an estate. But now the faithful have their lusts abated, their hearts ordered, the dropsy and intemperance of their affections removed, and so all the holes at which Gods blessings might soak away are stopped up. Secondly, the cisterns of wicked men are broken, and their bags full of holes by the secret judgement and curse of God punishing their sinful lusts in their sinful gain, blasting and withering their fruitless estates, as Christ did the barren fig-tree. We see how the Lord threatens to curse the people for their sins in their going out and coming in, in their basket and in their store: to break the staff of their bread, to take away their cup from their mouth, to take his Wine and his Oil to himself again, to consume their palaces with fire, to remove their bankers, to discover their treasures, and to seek out their hidden things, to hear the cry of the beam, and of the stone out of the wall, and to pull them out of their nests, even from among the Stars, with infinite other the like expressions, in which the Lord useth to show unto us the power and vigilancie of his Justice in the administration of the World: Whereas the faithful have the Bread and the Word, the Creatures and the blessings of God together, and so have more certainty in these things. The Woman's Oil and ⟨p. 492⟩Meal was not much, yet it increased, and went along with her occasions, there was a Spring in the Cruse and in the Barrel, it was living Oil, and living Meal, that grew, and held out in the famine. As a mans occasions are, so the Fountain supplies him. If he want a Cup, a Bucket, a Cistern full, there is in the Fountain answerable to all his wants: so whatever necessity the Lord brings the faithful unto, he gives them an eye to see, a heart to rest in, and to expect in the use of honest means a supply proportionable to each of them. And as they have more certainty, so have they more sweetness in the waters which they fetch from the Fountain. Water in pits and cisterns rots, and grows muddy and unsavoury; so do the Creatures of God to wicked men. Cares, fears, jealousies, desires, hopes, ends, infinite commixtures and disturbances deprive the Creatures of their native relish and pureness.

Every member of the body, every appetite of the soule, so many chinkes to let out an estate. But now the faithfull have their lusts abated, their hearts ordered, the dropsie and intemperancie of their affections removed, and so all the holes at which Gods blessings might soke away are stopped up. Secondly, the cisternes of wicked men are broken, and their bagges full of holes by the secret iudgement and curse of God punishing their sinfull lusts in their sinfull gaine, blasting and withering their fruitlesse estates, as Christ did the barren fig-tree. We see how the Lord threatens to curse the people for their sinnes in their going out and comming in, in their basket and in their store: to breake the staffe of their bread, to take away their cup from their mouth, to take his Wine and his Oyle to himselfe againe, to consume their palaces with fire, to remove their bankers, to discover their treasures, and to seeke out their hidden things, to heare the cry of the beame, and of the stone out of the wall, and to pull them out of their nests, even from among the Starres, with infinite other the like expressions, in which the Lord useth to shew unto us the power and vigilancie of his Iustice in the administration of the World: Wheras the faithfull have the Bread and the Word, the Creatures and the blessings of God together, and so have more certaintie in these things. The Womans Oyle and