Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. Let not our thoughts dwell much upon them. Do but consider those Souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable God, that behold his never fading Glory! Would it not be a kind of Hell to them, to have their thoughts starting out to these things, or find any desire in themselves to the changeable trifles of the Earth? Nay, have we not reason to think, that they cover their faces with shame, that ever they should have such a weakness of Spirit when they were here below, as to spend more thoughts upon them than were necessary for this present Life; much more that they should at any time value and court them above an unchangeable Good? Do they not disdain themselves that they should ever debase the immutable perfections of God, as to have neglecting thoughts of him at any time, for the entertainment of such a mean and inconstant Rival?

2. Much less should we trust in them or rejoice in them. The best things are mutable, and things of such a Nature are not fit Objects of confidence. Trust not in Riches, they have their wanes as well as increases; they rise sometimes like a Torrent and flow in upon men, but resemble also a Torrent in as sudden a fall and departure, and leave nothing but slime behind them. Trust not in Honour, all the Honour and Applause in the World, is no better than an Inheritance of Wind, which the Pilot is not sure of, but shifts from one corner to another, and stands not perpetually in the same point of the Heavens. How in a few Ages did the house of David a great Monarch, and a man after Gods own heart, descend to a mean condition, and all the glory of that house shut up in the stock of a Carpenter? David's Sheep-hook was turned into a Sceptre, and the Sceptre by the same hand of Providence turned into a Hatchet in Joseph his Descendent.

2. Much less should we trust in them or rejoyce in them. The best things are mutable, and things of such a Nature are not fit Objects of confidence. Trust not in Riches, they have their wanes as well as increases; they rise sometimes like a Torrent and flow in upon men, but resemble also a Torrent in as suddain a fall and departure, and leave nothing but slime behind them. Trust not in Honour, all the Honour and Applause in the World, is no better than an Inheritance of Wind, which the Pilot is not sure of, but shifts from one corner to another, and stands not perpetually in the same point of the Heavens. How in a few Ages did the house of David a great Monarch, and a man after Gods own heart, descend to a mean condition, and all the glory of that house shut up in the stock of a Carpenter? David's Sheep-hook was turned into a Scepter, and the Scepter by the same hand of Providence turned into a Hatchet in Joseph his Descendent.