SEKMON XXVII.
For the creature luas made suhject to vanity, not willinghj, hut hj reason of Mm luho hath subjected the same in hope. — Rom. VIII. 20.
Here is the reason why the creature waiteth- with earnest expectation for the consummate state of the faithful : because it is for the present in a disordered estate, subject to vanity. In the words three things:
1. The jjresent state of the creature.
2. The manner how it came into that estate.
3. The hope of getting out of it.
Doct. The creature is made subject to vanity for man's sin.
Here I shall enquire, —
Fii-st, In what sense the creature is made subject to vanity.
Secondly, The manner how it came into it.
Thirdly, The reason why the innocent creature is punished for man's sin.
First In what sense the creature is made subject to vanity. Iq several respects :
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1. It is put by the order of its natural estate, or much of that har- monious and perfect condition wherein God disposed it. Tlie perfection and harmony of the workl is often now disturbed by tempests, inun- dations, distempered weather, pestilential airs, and noxious fogs and vapours ; whence come plagues, and famine, and murrains, and other diseases. The world is a theatre whereon much sin and many changes have been acted for thousands of years ; not only among men, but much destructive enmity is to be found among elements themselves, and a mutual invasion of one another ; for the confederacies of nature are ia a great measure loosened, though not altogether dissettled. This is the vanity of disorder. It is very observable, that when God cometh to punish a people or a nation for their sins, the prophets express it as if the whole creation were to be put into a rout and disorder ; as when Babylon's destruction is threatened : Isa. xiii. 13, 14, ' I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of its place in the day of his fierce anger ; and it shall be as a chased roe, and a sheep whom no man taketh up ; ' so Isa. xxxiii. 9, ' The earth mourneth and lan- guisheth ; Lebanon is ashamed and hewed down ; Sharon is like a wilderness ; Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits ; ' so Isa. xxxiv. 4, when God threateneth the Idumeans and other enemies of the church, it is said, ' All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling leaf from the fig-tree ; for my sword shall be bathed in heaven ; it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. It was but a particular judgment, yet the expressions carry it as if the whole universe were to be put into a disorder ; for by the sin of man came all those mutations which we see in the world. On the contrary, you shall see in the promises the scripture speak as if the whole creation were to be restored when man is reduced to God. I shall only instance in that : Isa. li. 16, ' I have put my words in thy mouth, that I may cover thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people ; ' implying, that if mankind were better, the marks and prints of the curse would cease and be quite extinguished; there would not be such disorder in the creature as now appeareth ; but it would seem to be plant-ed again ; man's re-establishment in a state of obedience to the creator would be a re-establishment of the order of the world.
2. There is the vanity of corruption. It is put into a corruptible condition; the creature is now frail and fleeting, and still decaying: Eccles. i. 2, ' Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ; ' not only vain, but vanity itself ; and vanity of vanities, is extreme vanity ; thus not only some things, but all things are tiuis fluid and vain, because of their incon- stancy and mutability : so Ps. xxxix. 5, G, ' Verily every man in his best estate is altogether vanity ; surely every man walketh in a vain show ; surely they are disquieted in vain.' The uncertainty, weakness, and emptiness of all earthly things is soon discovered, and within a little while the most shining glory is burnt to a snufif. We vain creatures trouble ourselves about these transitory nothings, as if they would continue with us to all eternityj and had some solid, durable
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enjoyment and satisfaction in them : whereas they wither like flowers while we smell at them.
3. Vain in regard of its final dissolution and last change, when ' the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up,' 2 Pet. iii. 10. ' As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed,' Ps. cii. 26. Though tliis change be not an abolition, an annihilation, yet a great waste it will be, and an utter destruction of many things in the world.