Secondly, God hath added unto their vanity by shortening the lives of men, reducing their continuance in this world unto so short and uncertain a season as it is impossible they should take any solid satisfaction in what they enjoy here below. So it is expressed by the psalmist, “ Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee.” Hence he draws two con- clusions:—], That “ every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” 2, That “every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are dis- quieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them,” Ps. xxxix. 5, 6. The uncertainty and shortness of the lives of men render all their endeavours and contrivances about
CHAP, XI.] HOW THE AFFECTIONS ARE CALLED FROM THE WORLD. 403
earthly things both vain and foolish. When men lived eight or nine hundred years, they had opportunity to suck out all the sweet- ness that was in creature-comforts, to make large provisions of them, and to have long projections about them; but when they had so, they all issued in that violence, oppression, and wickedness, which brought the flood on the world of ungodly men. And it still so abides. The more of and the longer men enjoy these things, the more, without the sovereign preservative of grace, will they abound in sin and provocation of God. But God hath reduced the life of man unto the small pittance of seventy years, casting what may fall out of a longer continuance into travail and sorrow. Besides, that space is shortened with the most, by various and innumerable incidences and occasions. Wherefore, in these seventy years, consider how long it is before men begin to have a taste or gust of the things of this life; how many things fall in cross, to make us weary of them before the end of our days; how few among us (not one of a thousand) at- tain that age; what is the uncertainty of all men living as to the continuance of their lives unto the next day; and we shall see that the holy, wise God hath left no such season for their enjoyment as might put a value upon them. And when, on the other hand, it is’ remembered that this man, who is of such short continuance in this world, is yet made for eternity, eternal blessedness or misery, which state depends wholly on his interest on things above, and setting his affections on them, they must forfeit all their reason, as well as bid defiance unto the grace of God, who give them up unto things below.
Thirdly, God hath openly and fully declared the danger that 1s in these things, as unto their enjoyment and use. And what multi- tudes of souls miscarry by an inordinate adherence unto them! for they are the matter of those temptations whereby the souls of men are ruined for ever; the fuel that supplies the fire of their lusts, until they are consumed by it.
Men under the power of spiritual convictions fall not into sin, fail not eternally, but by the means of temptation; that is the mire wherein this rush doth grow. [As] for others, who live and die in the madness and wildness of nature, without any restraint in their minds from the power of convictions, they need no external tempta- tions, but only opportunities to exert their lusts. But [as] for those who, by any means, are convinced of sin, righteousness, and judg- ment, so as to design the ordering of their lives with respect unto the sense they have of them, they fall not into actual sin but upon temptations. That, whatever it be, which causeth, occasioneth, and prevaileth on, a convinced person unto sin, that is temptation. Wherefore, this is the great means of the ruin of the souls of men.
404 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART II.
Now, though there are many principles of temptation, many causes that actually concur unto its efficacy, as sin, Satan, and other men, yet the matter of almost all ruinous temptations is taken out of this world and the things of it. Thence doth Satan take all his darts; thence do evil men derive all the ways and means whereby they corrupt others; and from thence is all the fuel of sin and lust taken. And, which adds unto this evil, all that is in the world con- tributes its utmost thereunto. “All that is in the world” is “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the-pride of life,” 1 John ii, 16. Itis not a direct, formal annumeration of the things that are in the world, nor a distribution of them under several heads, but it is so of the principal lusts of the minds of men, whereunto all things in the world are subservient. Wherefore, not only the matter of all temptations is taken out of the world, but every thing that is in the world is apt and fit to be abused unto that end; for it were easy to show that there is nothing desirable or valuable in this whole world, but it is reducible unto a subserviency unto one or other of these lusts, and is applicable unto the interest and service of temptations and sins.
When men hear of these things, they are apt to say, “Let the dream be unto them that are openly wicked, and the interpretation of it unto them that are profligate in sin.” Unto unclean persons, drunkards, oppressors, proud, ambitious persons, it may be it is so; but as unto them, they use the things of this world with a due mo- . deration, so as they are no snare unto them! But to own they are used unto what end soever, if the affections of men are set upon them, one way or other, there is nothing in the world but is thus a snare and temptation. However, we should be very careful how we adhere unto or undervalue that which is the cause and means of the ruin of multitudes of ‘Souls. By the warnings given us hereof doth God design, as unto the use of means, to teach us the vanity and danger of fixing our affections on things below.