(3.) Though he meet with often disappointments, yet he is unwilling to return even after God hath showed a remedy, and brought life and immortality to light in the gospel, in which way he may have peace and happiness, and so rest for his soul. God hath showed us the way to rest: Jer. vi. 16, 'Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls ; ' Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' But yet man is for his shifts still, till God changeth his heart and giveth him counsel in his reins, and disappoints him in his worldly inventions and pursuits, by blasting the creature, or occasioning some wound in his conscience. God speaketh often in his word, but it is disregarded till he speak by real arguments, and speak to the quick, so as to force an hearing ; till he take away their comforts, or take away their use of them, by some languishing sickness or anguish in their own conscience, or both ; by smiting them with a rod dipped in guilt : 'When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth,' Ps. xxxix. 11 ; so that then they see the fruitlessness of all their inventions, their vain pleasures, costly buildings, great honour and riches, how little these can stead them against the wrath of an angry God. So loath is man to submit to God's remedy ; he laboureth all that he can to patch up his sorry happiness, and is very unwilling to confess his misery ; he turneth and windeth every way, and seeketh help from the creature before he will be brought to implore aid from grace ; he will use all means within his grasp and reach, till his despair teach him to return from whence he fell, and that it is better to seek God's favour than continue his vain pursuits : Hosea ii. 7, ' I will return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.'
Secondly, Why many inventions ?
1. In opposition to that one straight line which leadeth to true happiness. Christ telleth us, ' One thing is necessary,' Luke x. 42, namely, to serve and please God, and enjoy him for ever. To enjoy God and please him is that one thing which is enough. But error is manifold ; though there be but one path to heaven, yet there are many ways of sinning and going to hell. Every man hath his several course and way of sinning: Isa. liii. 6, 'All we like sheep hav^e gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; ' a'ccording to the several constitutions and business and affairs of men. Velle suum cuique est, nee voto vivitur uno. As the channel is cut, so corrupt nature in every
56 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
man findeth an issue and passage. No sin cometli amiss to a carnal heart, yet some are more kindly and suitable ; one is worldly, another sensual, another proud and ambitious. It is our wisdom to observe our own haunt, and the tender parts of our souls : Ps. xviii. 23, * I was upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.' All sin is but carnal self-love disguised ; or many, with respect to the successive entertainment of divers sins : Titus iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts and pleasures.' Sins take the throne by turns. By age and experience men grow weary of former vanities, but others are adopted into their room, and so their lusts are but exchanged, not abrogated. Now we are fallen from our primitive happiness, we multiply means and cares ; yea, at the same time the pleasures of the flesh draw the sinner several ways : James iv. 1, ' Whence come wars and fightings among you ? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, which war in your members ? ' Desire of riches contradicts idleness, and the toilsome cares and labours of this world that ease which the flesh affecteth ; disgraceful lusts are contradicted by ambition and pride.
2. Many inventions, in opposition to that simplicity and singleness of heart which original rectitude did include. The heart of man was originally of one constant, uniform frame ; but now, instead of simpli- city, there is a multiplicity. The heart now is never right till it be one with God. Therefore David prays, Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, ' Unite my heart to fear thy name.' He begs a heart entirely fixed upon God, who, as our great end, uniteth all our afi'ections in this one scope, that we might jDlease him, and enjoy him as our chief good and last end ; that fixeth man's mind ; which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual uncertainties, and distracted by a multiplicity of ends and objects, that it cannot continue in any composed and settled frame. No one part of our lives will agree with another. A divided heart breedeth an un- certain life : James i. 8, 'A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways ; ' the whole not firmly knit together by the power of the last end running through all ; so that our lives are a mere lottery, the fancies and appetites we are governed by being jumbled together by chance. The heart by natural corruption is loosed from God, and distracted with variety of vain objects, which offer themselves to our senses. The interest of the world and flesh is taken into competition with God ; and whilst the heart rangeth abroad, it is such a variable and double heart as will never be true to God ; and while men are tossed from one dependence to another, and do not firmly adhere to God, being weaned from the vanities of the world, they are carried hither and thither by their perverse affections, sometimes to one thing, sometimes to another.