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present concernment. From the beginning it was not so : and it is well if, in such a way, men are able to maintain the frame of mind inquired after, which is life and peace.
3. God continues to cast contempt on these things, by giving always incomparably the greatest portion of them unto the vilest men, and his own avowed enemies. This was a temptation under the old covenant, but is highly instructive under the new. None will judge those things to be of real value, which a wise man casts out daily unto swine, making little or no use of them in his family. Those monsters of men, Nero and Heliogabalus, had more interest in, and more power over, the things of this world, than ever Jiad the best of men. Such villains in nature, so pernicious unto human society, that their not being was the interest of mankind ; but yet more of the world poured on them, than they knew either how to enjoy, possess, use, or abuse. Look on all the principal treasures and powers of this world, as in the hand of one of these monsters, an3 there disposed of by divine providence, and you may see at what rate God values them.
At this day, the greatest, most noble, wealthy, and fruit- ful parts of the earth, are given unto the great Turk, with some other eastern potentates, either Mahometans or Pagans> who are prepared for eternal destruction. And if we look nearer liome, we may see in whose hands is the power of the chiefest nations of Europe, and unto what end it is used. The utmost of what some Christian professors am,ong our- selves are intent and designing upon, as that which would render them wondrous happy in their own apprehensions, put hundreds of them together, and it would not answer tile waste made by the forementioned beasts every day.
Doth not God proclaim herein, that the things of this world arc not to be valued or esteemed? if they were so, and had a real worth in themselves, would the holy and righteous God make such a distribution of them ? The most of those whom he loves, who enjoy his favour, not only comparatively have the meanest share of them, but are exercised with all the evils that the destitution and want of them can be accompanied withal : his o))en and avow- ed enemies, in the mean time, have more than they know what to do withal. Who would set his heart and ad'ections
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on those things which God poureth into the bosoms of the vilest raen,to be a snare unto them here, and an aggravation of their condemnation for ever? It seems, you may go and take the world, and take the curse, death and hell along with it, and ' what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul V What can any man do on the considera- tion hereof, who will not forego all his hopes and expecta- tions from God, but retreat unto the faith of things spiritual and eternal, as containing an excellency in them incom- parably above all that be enjoyed here below ?
4. He doth continue to give perpetual instances of their uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness in the utter dis- appointment of men that have had expectations from them. The ways hereof are various, and the instances so multi- plied, as that most men in the world, unless they are like the fool in the gospel, who bade his soul take its ease for many years, because his barns were full, live in perpetual fears and apprehensions, that they shall speedily lose what- ever they enjoy ; or are under the power of stupid security. But as unto this consideration of them, there is such an account given by the wise man, as unto which nothing can be added, or which no reason or experience is able to contradict ; Eccles. ii. By these and the like ways doth God cast contempt on all things here below ; discovering the folly and falseness of the promises which the world makes use of to allure our affections unto itself. This therefore is to be laid as the foundation in all our considerations, unto what or whom we shall cleave by our affections, that God hath not only declared the insufficiency of these things, to give us that rest and happiness which we seek after, but also poured contempt upon them, in his holy, wise disposal of them in the world.
Secondly, God hath added unto their vanity, by shorten- ing the lives of men, reducing their continuance in this world unto so short and uncertain a season, as it is impos- sible they should take any solid satisfaction in what they enjoy here below. So it is expressed by the psalmist; ' Be- hold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth ; and my age is nothing before thee.' Hence he draws two conclu- sions.
1. That ' every man at his best estate, is but vanity.'
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2. That ' every man walks in a vain show : surely they are disquieted in vain ; he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them ;' Psal. xxxix. 5, 6. The uncertainty and shortness of the lives of men, render all their endeavours and contrivances about earthly things both vain and foolish. When men lived eight or nine hun- dred 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 Avhen they had so, they all issued in that violence, oppres- sion, 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 provocations 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. Where- fore 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, attain 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.