The Art of Divine Contentment

SECT. 12.

12. Rule. Study the vanity of the creature.

It matters not whether we have more or less of these things, they have vanity written upon the frontispiece of them; the world is like a shadow •hat declineth; it is delightful, but deceitful, it promiseth more then we find, and it fails us when we have most need of it^*. All the world rings changes, and is constant only in its disappointments: what then if we have less of that which is at best but voluble and fluid? The world is as full of mutation as motion; and what if God cuts us short in sublunaries? The more a man hath to do with the world, the more he hath to do with vanity. The world may be compared to ye, which is smooth, ⟨p. 265⟩but slippery; or to the Egyptian Temples, without very beautiful and sumptuous, but within nothing to be seen but the image of an Ape; every creature saith concerning satisfaction, It is not in me. The world is not a filling, but a flying comfort. 'Tis like a game at Tennis; Providence bandies her golden balls, first to one, then to another. Why are we discontented at the loss of these things, but because we expect that from them which is not, and repose that in them, which ought not? Jonah was exceeding glad of the Gourd^*? what a vanity was it?³