Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
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A57182
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A discourse of the vanity of the creature by a person of honour.
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Radnor, John Robartes, Earl of, 1606-1685.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing R131; ESTC R17178
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11,133
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32
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things no other than of Vanities and that by Gradation Vanity of vanities The Assertor gives us the certainty of the Assertion 't is not the saying of an ignorant man nor is it said probably or problematically but positively saith the Preacher said he who had Wisdom above all Mortals But this is not all says he who is the Wisdom of God by the Pen of Solomon who made all Mortals so as this truth is not to be doubted being uttered by the God of Truth Vanity of vanities Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher From the Duplication we may draw the importance of the truth as well as the certainty thereof and therefore we should be doubly diligent to awaken our hearts to quell the inordinate love of earthly things to see the emptiness and nothingness of them lively expressed in the twice vanity thereof to remember to abstain from those fleshly vanities which fight against the soul to double the files of our thoughts and fortifie our imaginations against being carried away with the trifles and dotages of this World with the empty Pomps and petty Pageantry of Wax and Parchment of the fading breaths and false acclamations of men or with fleeting things which sometimes attend a wasting life the necessary Ushers to a certain death to know we are here as strangers and pilgrims travellers not dwellers such as death will draw from our houses or adversity them from us to winde up our bottom upon stable things to see the difference between counterfeit Ware and true Riches between worldly Pelf and everlasting Righteousness between the deceit of appearances and reality of good between walking in a vain show and waiting for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness From the Universality of the Assertion we may learn that it is not one or two particular things which are Vanity the whole System of worldly things the Creature it self is subject to vanity and groaneth under the bondage of corruption So that it is not this or that but all is vanity and not singly so but in gradation Vanity of vanities Whatsoever good appears is momentany and unsatisfactory whence it is that humane desires hunt after varieties inidentities and please themselves with somewhat new though there be nothing so but what number makes Pliny speaks of some Inhabitants in Asia who not wearied with adversity but surfeited with prosperities of this life tired with the repetition of earthly things cast themselves into the Sea to avoid an irksom life which doing the same things so many thousand times over and over make that to them intolerable which most of Mankind do esteem desirable Where then should we place our thoughts seeing nothing is to be found here but Vanity of vanities but on that City which has foundation whose builder and maker is God That leaving the pursuit of these earthly trifles we may be mortified not only toward all evil but toward all earthly things that so ascending in our thoughts and aspiring by our endeavours to surmount this World and to get the ascendant as to our appetites towards these transitory things we may arrive at that blessed Region where there is no Time but Eternity no Accurant but Felicity no Change but Perpetuity and where there is no Vanity but a blessed Stability where an infinite good shall everlastingly entertain such as have wisely judged and righteously walked in this World with those Joys that are at his right hand for evermore which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man hath conceived So as they that have walked as they should in this Valley of Tears shall be there transfigured and transplanted into eternal Glory Which God of his infinite mercy grant us all for his Son Jesus Christ's sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory and Honour Amen FINIS
have much honour when they have much power and are then truly great when they have made such little but what is this more than to be Butchers of men Is it brave to exercise ferine cruelty on our fellow Creatures Is it a blessed condition to make others wretched to use the natural force common with beasts and leave the moral proper to man Can it be thought brave to be a great Thief as the Pirate told Alexander and infamous to be a little one Is not the Sword bloody enough unless it kill whole Nations and must glory be acquired by the destruction of States How much better were it said of Pericles the Athenian sirnamed Olympius which title some say was given him for his supereminent eloquence Other Writers for this that being long a powerful man in Athens he never abused his power so far as to cause any Citizen to wear a black Gown where then is the honour of these Executioners of the World these general Hangmen and Butchers of Mankind Is not that office held ignominious among men albeit these are usually the Ministers of Justice they of injustice Doth the Crown endure to all generations Are they not often made the Footstools of Power who had domineer'd in the Throne over others Is not History full of the variety and calamity of Princes How often they that have reigned over others have been made subject to the vilest death by others How often Families have been thrown out as well as Princes from their Thrones and how the forms of Governments themselves have changed and yet must the Map of their Magnificence be drawn out with the purple gore and blood of Mankind Is it bravery to make the whole Earth a Golgotha and to pave the High-ways with dead mens Skulls to turn fenced Cities into ruinous heaps and to endeavour as far as they can to destroy the Works of God by erecting those of the Devil whilst they seek to enravle this beauteous Frame and to introduce the old Chaos If these crested Plumes swollen up with Cruelty and Carnage have any pretence to Honour and if those Arms so destructive to Mankind must be inrolled in the Heraldry of Fame and painted out in Shields I hope no sober mind can deny but this ought to be the Motto Vanity of vanities And as in the empty bubbles of Honour the puff-pastes of the pride of men nothing is found but vanity humane honour not being in the honoured but in the honouring and so the great Potentates borrow their splendour from the meanest Peasants and Vassals of them so is vanity inscribed on all the Treasures of the Earth for what is gold and silver but white and red Clay made estimable only by the folly and covetousness of men What is there in the Pearls and precious Stones of the World more than in Beads and the Shells of Fishes which some Indians are willing to purchase with expence of any the former amongst us accounted valuable What is the difference between a Jewel and its counterfeit but our uneven estimation and what good is in all these but from the vain conceits and common follies of mankind 'T is reported of the Emperor Tiberius that he hanged an Artist who had made Glass to endure the stroke of the Hammer ne aurum prae vitra vilesceret lest gold should lose its estimation so careful was this Prince of the reputation of that metal I need not say cruel or vain both which the execution manifests There was a Spanish Merchant who observing what some Jewellers had gained by selling of Jewels sold all the Land and Goods he had to buy some on the evening following when he went to bed he was disturbed with this anxious thought which kept him that night sleepless what if men should return to their wits and value these Pebbles at their true worth which is nothing I were then undone This tormented him till he had sold away what he so greedily had purchased and did men consider the vanity of Apparel stript off from the backs of Birds and Beasts and creeping Worms who can but think every Plume of Feathers and every gawdy Dress to be all over Vanity whilst we wrapped up in the Skins of Beasts think our selves more than men and having stript all Animals and Vegetables for Cloathing we prick up our selves and look big as if thus apparelled we triumphed over the whole Creation forgetting our Wardrobes are filled with Moths the devourer of all this Bravery and not remembring the rust which is the Canker of our valued Metals and all these laid up in places where thieves may break through and steal and so deprive us of all those Treasures which are hardly acquired with great difficulty preserved in solicitude of mind and lost with anguish and trouble of spirit riches make themselves wings and flye away they are styled uncertain riches riches Job 20. 15. often swallowed down and vomited up again often heaping up riches and knows not who shall gather them riches are not Prov. 27. 24. for ever and yet for all this mans vain eye is not satisfied with riches they are uncertain riches therefore we are advised not to trust in them and they are such things as are corrupt and garments moth-eaten what then are these things summ'd up but truly nothing or something worse than that that have an appearance of Treasure and are not so that have an appearance of Bravery as the triangular Glass hath of colours yet indeed have none that serve only to deceive to abuse and to undo us wherefore we may safely say of these as the Poet did of Parentage Vix ea nostra voco and may label the whole Inventory of these things with the Proposition in the Text Vanity of vanities But what if riches be vain must pleasures be so those brisk entertainments of Nature the choice delights of the Sons of men Were not the Cinque-ports of the Senses made to entertain this and is the satisfaction of them to no purpose Did not the Epicureans hold the chief good to be in pleasure and could such Learned men mistake nothing for a superlative Being Who will shew us any good is the voice of Nature and if pleasure be not so what is Doth not our Preacher say in this Book Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the Eccl. 11. 7. eyes to behold the Sun Was it not pleasant to behold Solomon in his Royalty and is it not so to see the Lillies in the field better cloathed than he when the Spring hath made the Earth like the Garden of Eden deck'd with all things sightly and comely except the Tree of Life and is the partaking of this rich Carpet spread by the Divinity for our admiration and content a vanity Is not beauty a real good the heart of man loveth nothing better it is that which triumphed over the strength of Sampson the holiness of David the wisdom of Solomon that which