The creature is all shadow, and vanity of vanities. Vanity is the very quintessence of the creature, and all that can possibly be ex- tracted out of it. It is Jilia noctis, like Jonah's gourd. A man may sil under its shadow for a while, but it soon decays and dies. ' Why shouldst thou set thy heart upon that which is not ? ' Prov. xxiii. 5. Were ever riches true to them that tnisted them? As the bird hops from twig to twig, so doth riches hop from man to man, &c. Worldly Christians, cease complaining of the want of assurance, and sincerely humble and abase your souls before the Lord; for that you have so eagerly pursued after lying vanities; for that you have in so great a measure forsaken the fountain of living water ; for that with Martha you have been busied about many things, when Christ and assurance, the two things necessary, have been so much neglected and disregarded by you. Get this world, this moon, under your feet; take no rest till you have broken through this silken net, till you have got off' these golden fetters.*^ A heart that is full of the world, is a heart full of wants. Ah ! the joy, the peace, the comfort, the confidence, the assurance, that such hearts wants. The stars which have least circuit, are nearest the pole; and men whose hearts are least entangled with the world, are always nearest to God, and to the assurance of his favour. Worldly Christians, remember this, you and the world must part, or else assur- ance and your souls will never meet. When a worldly Christian is saved, he is saved as by fire; and before ever he shall be assured of
^ Divitibus ideo pietat deest, quia nihil deest, rich men's wealth proves an hindrance to their happiness.
* Divitio) corporales pauperiatis plena sunt. — Augustine. . . . Earthly riches are full of poverty. ^ Diodonts Siculus. The same saith Aristotle.
* Quam tordet mihi terra cum ccelum intueor f — Adrian.
* Hi terrain amas terra et ; si Deum amas, quid vis ul dicam, Deuses. — Augustine. . . . If thou lovest the earth, thou art earthly ; but if thou lovest God, thou shalt have whatever thou wilt ask of Ood.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 391
his salvation, he must cry out, OTnves humancB consolationes, aunt desolationes, all human consolations are but desolations. God will not give the sweetmeats of heaven, to those that are gorged and surfeited with the delicates of the earth. The cock upon the dunghill prefers a barley-corn above the choicest pearl ; such dunghill Christians that prefer a little barley-corn above this pearl of price, assurance; that, with Esau, prefer a morsel of meat before this blessing of blessings ; that prefer Paris above Paradise,' God's coin above his countenance, may at last with Esau seek, and seek with tears, this heavenly jewel assurance, and yet, as he, be rejected and repulsed, Heb. xii. 16, 17.'
(10.) The tenth impediment that keeps Christians from assurance, is, The secret cherishing and running out of their hearts to sonfie bosom, darling sin. It is dark night with the soul, when the soul will cast a propitious eye upon this or that bosom sin, and secretly say, *Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live V Gen. xix. 20, though God and conscience hath formerly checked and whipped the soul for so doing. Ah ! how many be there that dally and play with sin, even after they have put up many prayers and complaints against sin, and after they have lamented and bitterly mourned over their sins. Many there be that complain of their deadness, barrenness, frowardness, con- ceitedness, censoriousness, and other baseness ; and yet are ready at every turn to gratify, if not to justify, those very sins that they com- plain against. No wonder that such want assurance. After the Israehtes had ate manna in the wilderness, and drunk ' water out of the rock,' after God had been to them a ' cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night,' after he had led them by the arms, and kept them as the apple of his eye, after he had made them spectators of his wonders, they hankered after * the flesh-pots of Egypt;' so when, after God hath given a man a new name and a white stone, after he hath made a report of his love to the soul, after he hath taken a man up into paradise, after he hath set a man upon his knee, and carried him in his bosom, after he bath spoke peace and pardon to the soul, Ps. Ixxxv. 8, for the soul to return to folly, oh ! this cannot but prove a woful hindrance to assurance, this will provoke God to change his countenance, and to carry it not as a friend, but as an enemy. When love is abused, justice takes up the iron rod. God will strike hard and home, when men kick against the bowels of mercy. God hath made an everlasting separation betwixt sin and peace, betwixt sin and joy, and betwixt sin and assurance. God will be out with that man, that is in with his sin. If sin and the soul be one, God and the soul must needs be two. He that is resolved to dally with any sin, he must resolve to live in many fears. Never forget this; he that savoureth any one sin, though he foregoeth many, doth but as Benadab, recover of one -disease, and die of another ; ^ yea, he takes pains to plunge himself into two hells, a hell here, and a hell hereafter. Therefore, as ever thou would st have assu- rance, offer up thy Isaac, part with thy Benjamin, pull out thy right
1 Probably the allusion is to the saying of the Duke of Bourbon : ' Give me but a palace in Paris, and I care not for a place in paradise.' See Epistle Dedicatory to * An Ark for all God's Noahs.' — G.
• {Mundus cadaver est, et petenUs eum sunt eanes, is an Arabic proverb ; that is, the world is a carcase, and those that hunt after it are dogs. This proverb makes a great many of our glistering professors to be but dogs. ^ Query, Benhadad ? — G.
392 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
eye, cut off thy right hand ; otherwise assurance and joy will not be thy portion.
Now that I may remove this impediment, which is of such dangerous consequence to Christians' souls, and keep Christians for ever from smiling upon any bosom sin, I shall first lay down a few considerations to provoke them to dally and play no more with sin, but to put off that sin that does so easily beset them, that sticks so close unto them, Heb. xii. 1 (ivvspieraTov)-^ and then in the second place, I shall propound some means that may contribute to the bringing under of bosom sins, that so it may be no longer night with the soul.