First, That sense of the vanity of our minds which this consideration duly attended unto will give us, ought greatly to humble and abase our souls. Whence is it thus with us, that we cannot abide in thoughts and meditations of things spiritual and heavenly ? Is it because they are such things as we have no great concernment in ? It may be they are things worthless and unprofitable, so that it is to no purpose to spend our thoughts about them. The truth is, they alone are worthy, useful, and desirable ; all other things, in com- parison of them, are but loss and dung. Or is it because the faculties and powers of our souls v/ere not originally suited unto the contemplation of them and delight in them? This also is otherwise ; they were all given unto us, all created of God for this end, all fitted with inclinations and power to abide with God in all things, without aversation or weariness. Nothing was so natural, easy, and pleasant unto them, as steadiness in the contemplation of God and his works. The cause, therefore, of all this evil lies at our own doors. All this, therefore, and all other evils, came upon us by the entrance of sin. And therefore Solomon, in his in- quiry after all the causes and effects of vanity, brings it under this head; ' Lo this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions;' Eccles. vii. 29. For hereby our minds that were created in
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a state of blessed adherence unto God, were wholly turned off from him, and not only so, but filled with enmity against him. In this state, that vanity which is prevalent in them is both their sin and their punishment. Their sin is a per- petual inclination unto things vain, foolish, sensual, and wicked. So the apostle describes it at large, Ephes. iv. 17 — 19. Tit. iii. 3. And their punishment in that, being turned off from the chiefest good, wherein alone rest is to be found, they are filled with darkness, confusion, and disquietment, being like ' a troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.'
By grace our minds are renewed ; that is, changed and delivered from this frame ; but they are so partially only. The principle of vanity is no longer predominant in us, to alienate us from the life of God, or to keep us in enmity against him. Those who are so renewed, do not walk in the vanity of their minds as others do, Ephes. iv. 17. They go up and down in all their ways and occasions with a stream of vain thoughts in their minds. But the remain- ders of it are effectually operative in us, in all the actings of our minds towards God, affecting them with imcertainty and instability. As he who hath received a great wound in any principal part of his body, though it may be so cured, as that death shall not immediately ensue thereon ; yet it may make him go weak and lame all his days, and hinder him in the exercise of all the powers of life. The vanity of our minds is so cured, as to deliver us from spiritual death ; but yet such a wound, such a weakness doth remain, as both weakens and hinders us in all the operations of spi- ritual life. Hence those who have made any progress in grace, are sensible of their vanity, as the greatest burden of their souls, and do groan after such a complete renovation of their minds, as whereby they may be perfectly freed from it. This is that which they principally regard in that com- plaining desire, Rom. vii. 24. ' O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death?' Yea, they groan under a sense of it every day ; nor is any thing such a trouble unto them, observing how it defeats them in their designs to contemplate on heavenly things ; how it frus- trates their best resolutions to abide in the spiritual actings of faith and love ; how they are imposed on by it with the
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thoughts of things which either in themselves, or in their consequences, they most abhor ; nothing are they so afraid of, nothing is so grievous and burdensome unto them, no- thing do they more groan for deliverance from. When there is war in any place, it behoveth them that are concerned, to have an eye and regard unto all their enemies, and their attempts against them. But if they are vigilant and dili- gent in their opposition unto those that are without, that visibly contend with them, and in the mean time neglect such as traiterously act within among themselves, betraying their counsels, and weakening their strength, they will be undoubtedly ruined. Wise men do first take care of what is within, as knowing if they are there betrayed, all they do against their open enemies is to no purpose. In the war- fare wherein we are engaged, we have enemies of all sorts that openly and visibly, in various temptations, fight against our souls. These it is our duty to watch against, to con- flict with, and to seek a conquest over. But it is this in- ternal vanity of mind, that endeavours in all things to betray us, to weaken us in all our graces, or to hinder their due operations ; and to open the doors of our hearts unto our cursed enemies. If our principal endeavour be not to discover, suppress, and destroy this traitor, we shall not succeed in our spiritual warfare.