The vanity of the worldThe vanity of the vvorld

Fifthly, What desperate folly is it to purchase a vain World, with the loss of our precious Souls! So our Saviour Matth. 16.26. What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul? O think what great losers they ⟨p. 120⟩must needs be, who lose their Souls, to gain the World, and must at last lose the World too, together with their Souls! This is the only thing that damns men, that they prefer the Pleasures, Honours, Profits, and pitiful nothings of this World, before their precious and immortal Souls, which are more worth than ten thousand Worlds. What is this but a stupidity as gross, as that of the old Heathens, to make a vile Worm our God, and sacrifice an Ox to it; or a Monster our God, and sacrifice a Man to it? Think how dreadful and grating will be the reflections of worldlings in hell, to consider that there they must lye and burn to eternity, ⟨p. 121⟩for their inordinate love to that World, of which they have nothing left them, besides the bitter remembrance. What will it then avail them that they have lived here in ease and delights, when all their mirth shall be turned into groans and howling? What will all their treasures and riches avail them, when these shall be melted down about them, to increase their torment? Believe it, 'tis sad to be left to the conviction of that day, when the Vanity of Earth, shall appear in the torments of Hell. Be persuaded therefore, as you have renounced it in all its pomps and and vanities, when you gave up your Names to Christianity, so to renounce it likewise in your lives; habitually, at all ⟨p. 122⟩times, by setting loose from it, and living above it; and actually, whensoever God calls for any of your temporal enjoyments, that is, when you cannot keep them without wounding your consciences, and hazarding your souls.

Fifthly, What desperate folly is it to purchase a vain World, with the loss of our precious Souls! So our Saviour Matth. 16.26. What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul? O think what great losers they