to be all his own: and, when cured of that pleasant madness, confessed, that he never in his whole life enjoyed so much. content, as in that conceited wealth those ships brought him *. And indeed for my part, I know not whether these things are more vain in the fancy, or in the reality. Such is the exceeding Vanity of all things in the World, that, were it not for the eternal concernments of the soul, which cannot be so well regarded under a suspension or distraction of reason, I should make no difficulty to account and prove them the happiest men on earth.

If then there be so great a power in fancy, how vain must all those things be, which you pursue with eagerness and impatience! since a vain fancy, without them, can give you as much satisfaction, as if you enjoyed them all: and a vain fancy can, on the other hand, in the greatest abundance of them, make your lives as wearisome and vexatious, as if you enjoyed nothing.

That is the First Demonstration.

2. The Vanity of the World appears in ITS DECEITFULNESS AND TREACHERY. It is not only vanity, but a lying vanity; and betrays both our hopes and our souls.

(1.) It betrays our Hopes, and leaves us nothing but disappointment, when it promiseth satisfaction and happiness. What strange confidences do we build upon the false flatteries of the world! In our prosperity we sing a Requiem to ourselves; and are ready to say, our mountain is so strong, that it shall never be moved: Psal, xxx. 6, 7. but, within a while, God hath shaken it, like that of Sinai; and wrapped it about with clouds and thick darkness.

(2.) It betrays the Soul to guilt and eternal condemnation : for, usually, the world entangles it in strong, though secret and insensible snares; and insinuates into the heart that love of itself, which is inconsistent with the love of God.

The world is the Devil's factor, and drives on the designs of hell. The Apostle hath told us, 1 Tim. vi. 9. They, that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

*

Έλεγεν μηδέποτε ήσθηναι τοσετον, όσον τοτε ήδετο επι ταις μηδεν αυτώ προσηκεσαις ναυσιν απο σωζόμεναις. Ie. ibid.

And, because of the subserviency of worldly enjoyments to men's lusts, it is almost as impossible a thing to moderate our affections towards them, or to bound our appetites and desires, as it is to assuage the thirst of a dropsy by drinking, or to keep that fire from increasing into which we are still casting new fuel. And, therefore, our Saviour hath pronounced it as hard for a rich man to enter into heaven, as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle*. As Judas gave a sign to the officers that came with him to apprehend Jesus, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same is he, hold him fast +: the same sign doth the world give the Devil: "Whomsoever I shall caress and favour, whomsoever I shall heap honour and riches on, whomsoever I shall embrace and kiss, the same is he, hold him fast." Such a darling of the world is too often fast bound in the silken bands of voluptuousness, and consigned over to be fast bound in chains of massy darkness.

3. As all things in the World are lying Vanities, so are they all VEXATIOUS. They are infamous, to a proverb: “uncertain comforts, but most certain crosses." And, therefore, the Wise Man concludes them all to be, not only Vanity, but Vexation of Spirit.

There is a Fourfold Vexatiousness in all worldly things.

(1.) There is a great deal of turmoil and trouble in getting them. Nothing can be acquired without it. The sweat of Adam's brows hath streamed down along upon ours; and the curse, together with it, that in sorrow we should eat of that which toil and labour hath provided for us ‡. Men rise early, and go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness; and such is either their curse or their folly, that they make their lives uncomfortable, only to get the comforts of life.

(2.) Whether they get them, or no, yet still they are disappointed in their hopes. If they cannot compass their designs, then they are tormented; because they fall short of what they laboured for: if they do compass them, yet still they are tormented; because what they laboured for, falls short of what they expected from it §.

The truth is, the world is much better in shew than sub

*Luke xviii. 25.

+ Mat. xxvi. 48.

Gen. iii. 19.

§ Ex his tristitia sequitur, si aut non successit, aut successus pudet. Senec. de Tranquil. c. 11.

stance: and those very things we admire before we enjoy them, yet afterward we find much less in them than we expected. As he, that sees a falling star shoot through the air and draw after it a long train of light, runs to the place, and, thinking to get some bright and glittering thing, catches up nothing but a filthy jelly; such is the disappointment we find in our pursuit after the enjoyments of this world: they make a glorious shew at a distance; but, when we come near them, we find our hopes deluded, and nothing upon the place but a vile slime.

(3.) They are all vexation while we enjoy them. Be it what it will, that we possess of the world, it is but by fits at most, that we take any great pleasure in it: and then, what between cares and designs to secure the continuance of it, and fears of losing it, the comfort of enjoying it is wholly swallowed up. For strong affections, begetting strong fears, do always lessen the delight of present enjoyments *. This is the unhappiness of all things in the world, that, if we set any price and value upon them, we lose much of the sweetness of them, by fearing to lose them.

(4.) They are all vexatious, as in their enjoyment, so especial ly in their loss. Whatever we set our hearts upon, we may assure ourselves, and experience will teach it us, that the pleasure of possessing it will not near countervail the bitterness of losing it and, as if God had on purpose so ordained it to take off our hearts from the world, the better we esteem any thing, the more vanity and vexation shall we find in it; for the more will our care and perplexity in keeping it, and the more our grief and torment in losing it, be encreased.

That is a Third Demonstration.

4. The Vanity of the World appears in this, THAT A LITTLE

CROSS WILL EMBITTER GREAT COMFORTS.

One dead flie is enough to corrupt a whole bor of the world's most fragrant ointment. How much will only the aching of a tooth, a fit of the stone or gout, deaden and dishearten us, to all the joys and pleasures of life! Certainly, the world must needs be vain, that cannot bear out the brunt of a little pain or

*

Ἡ γαρ σφοδρα περι έκαςον επιθυμια, σφοδρότατον φόβον εμποιούσα τε μη παρ ραμένειν, ασθενη την χαριν ποιεί και ἀβεβαιον, ώσπερ φλογα καταπνεομενην. Plut, dg Tranquil. xvi.

sickness. The least cross accident is enough to discompose all our delights. And, indeed, there are so many ingredients required to make up worldly felicity, riches, health, friends, honour, good name, and the like*; that, if any of these be wanting, the whole composition is spoiled, and we shall take advantage against ourselves to conclude we are miserable. For, such is the peevishness of our nature, that, if we have not all we would, we take no content in any thing we have.

And, besides, we are apt to slide off from the smoother part of our lives, as flies from glass, and to stick only on the rougher passages t. For, neither is sense capable to be so much or so long affected with the impressions of pleasure, as of pain; since never could there yet be any delights invented as piercing, as there are many torments: nor yet is our busy remembrance so officious, in calling back the pleasant passages of our days to our review, as those that have been more gloomy and dolorous. And though it be our sin to look more upon the crosses we find, than the comforts we enjoy; yet here we may likewise see how vain a thing it is for us to expect happiness and contentment from the world, whose crosses as they are more, so they are more considerable than its comforts.

5. Consider, THE LONGER WE ENJOY ANY WORLDLY THING, THE MORE FLAT AND INSIPID DOTH IT GROW. We are soon at the bottom, and find nothing but dregs there. In all the pleasures of life, either our spirits sink and fall under the continuance of them, as not able to bear a constant tension and emotion; or the delight consists merely in the novelty and variety of the objects, which when we are made more familiar with, are but dull, because ordinary and so they either tire our appetites, or deceive our hopes. And, therefore, the most artificial voluptuaries have always allowed themselves an intermission in their pleasures, to recruit nature and sharpen their sensual desires: without which, they would but cloy and sur

*

Φαίνεται και των εκτος αγαθων προσδεομενη ευδαιμονια). Ενιων τητωμενοι ού παινεσι το μακάριον, οἷον ευγένειας, ευτεχνίας, καλλις.-Ου πάνυ γαρ ευδαιμονικος, ὁ ιδειαν την παναισχης, η δυσγενης, η μονωτης και ατεκνος. Arist. Eth. l. i. c. 8. & 1

x. c. 8.

† Τετο την ευθυμιαν επιταράσσει· όταν ώσπερ αἱ μυιαι των λείων τόπων εν τοις κατοπίζοις απολισθαινουσι, ταις 8 σε τραχύτησι προσέχονται και ταις αμυχαις οὕτως ανθρωποι, των έλαβων και προσηνων απορρέοντες, εμπλέκονται ταις των αηδων avant. Plutarch. de Tranquil. xv.

feit; and, instead of pleasures, prove only a waste and oppression to the spirits. Epicurus himself*, the great Master and Servant of Pleasure, who made it the highest good and chiefest happiness of man, set himself certain days of abstinence in course, wherein he would but niggardly satisfy his stomach; well knowing, that the pleasure of gluttony could never be so much enhanced, as by an interval of hunger.

For what is a furnished table, to him, whose constant meals overtake one another, but only the heaping of food upon crudities and indigestion? What the titles of honour, to a person born noble? They signify no more to him, than it doth to another man, when he hears himself called by his ordinary name. What is respect and honour, to a man long accustomed to it? It brings him no great content when he hath it, but torments him when he fails of it. Give these things, to those, that are unacquainted with them, if you would have them valued. Bring a poor man to a table of delicates: invest an ignoble person with honours and dignities: give respect to a despised person; and, for the present, you bless them. But time and custom will wear off this content; and the tediousness† even of such a life as this will make them willing, at least for their divertisement and recreation, to retire to their homely cells and station . For, as it is with those that are accustomed to strong perfumes, they themselves cannot scent those odours, which to others that use them not are most sweet and fragrant; so it fares with us in the long continuance of worldly enjoyments: our senses are so stuffed and even suffocated with them, that we cannot perceive them; and, unless we purchase pleasures by alternate sorrow, they are but lost upon us.

Now, how vain must the world needs be, whose comforts are not valuable while we have them, but while we have them

* Certos habebat dies ipse Magister Voluptatis Epicurus, quibus malignè famem extingueret. Sen. Ep. 18.-Ep. ad Menaceum apud Diog. Laert. in Vitâ Epic. το συνεθίζειν εν ταις πλαις και 8 πολυτελεσι διαιταις..... τοις πολυτελεσιν εκ διαλειμματων προσερχομένους, κρείττονας ἡμας διατίθησι.

‡ Non existimes me ducere te ad modicas cenas et pauperum cellas, et quicquid aliud est per quod luxuria divitiarum tædio ludit. Sen. Ep. 18.