The Subject, which I have propounded to discourse of, is this ⟨p. 9⟩Vanity of the world, and of all things here below; that being hereof convinced, we may desist our vain pursuit of vain objects, and may set our affections on those things which are above, which are the alone valuable, because the only permanent and stable good. Whence is it that we are become so degenerate, that we, who have immortal and heaven-born Souls, should stake them down to these perishing enjoyments? Whence is it, that we, who should soar aloft unto God, and were to that end fitted with the fleet wings of Meditation and affections, to cut through the Heavens in an instant, and to appear there before the Throne of the great God, that we should lye here grovelling in ⟨p. 10⟩the thick clay and muck of this world, as if the Serpents curse were become ours, to creep upon our bellies, 1and to lick up the dust of the earth? Do we not shamefully degrade our selves, when we stoop to admire, what is so vastly below us, and barter away our precious Souls, Souls more worth than ten thousand worlds, only to gain some small part of one? Certainly the God of this world hath blinded mens eyes, and cast a strange mist before them, that they cannot discern, what is most evident and obvious, even the instability and vanity, of all sublunary enjoyments. That I may therefore contribute somewhat to scatter this mist, I shall endeavour to represent to you the native and ⟨p. 11⟩genuine Vanity that is in all earthly things, free from that deceitful varnish, which the Devil usually puts upon them; and so to deform, and wound that great Sorcerer, that his charms may have no more power to prevail over you.
The Subject, which I have propounded to discourse of, is this ⟨p. 9⟩Vanity of the world, and of all things here below; that being hereof convinced, we may desist our vain pursuit of vain objects, and may set our affections on those things which are above, which are the alone valuable, because the only permanent and stable good. Whence is it that we are become so degenerate, that we, who have immortal and heaven-born Souls, should stake them down to these perishing injoyments? Whence is it, that we, who should soar aloft unto God, and were to that end fitted with the fleet wings of Meditation and affections, to cut through the Heavens in an instant, and to appear there before the Throne of the great God, that we should lye here groveling in ⟨p. 10⟩the thick clay and muck of this world, as if the Serpents curse were become ours, to creep upon our bellies, 1and to lick up the dust of the earth? Do we not shamefully degrade our selves, when we stoop to admire, what is so vastely below us, and barter away our pretious Souls, Souls more worth than ten thousand worlds, onely to gain some small part of one? Certainly the God of this world hath blinded mens eyes, and cast a strange mist before them, that they cannot discern, what is most evident and obvious, even the instability and vanity, of all sublunary enjoyments. That I may therefore contribute somewhat to scatter this mist, I shall endeavour to represent to you the native and ⟨p. 11⟩genuine Vanity that is in all earthly things, free from that deceitful varnish, which the Devil usually puts upon them; and so to deform, and wound that great Sorcerer, that his charms may have no more power to prevail over you.
- 1Gen. 3.14
