Son through the Spirit with nothing but a state of grace and salvation and the fruition of God All that worth which silver and gold and such worldly things have is not so much in their own nature as from our esteem or from some outward humane appointment but we can never thus make them equally excellent with our selves 'T is true by a wilful slavery to sin we may as the Prophet speaks Jerem. 6. 30. turn our selves into brasse and iron and reprobate silver we may unman and unchristian our selves we may undervalue and debase our Souls blotting out the image of God and writing upon them the superscription of earth and the world Thus indeed the Epicure may greatly delight in sensual pleasures and the ambitious mind in flattering titles and the frothy wit in abusive lightness Thus 't is true carnal and worldly things to carnal and worldly hearts may become but too sutable dear and precious But the desires of a gracious heart are after higher and better things For every faithful Christian considers that God hath made even our bodies upright and our faces lifted from the earth that we might conceive how far from it our heaven-born Spirits should be elevated towards himself and Christ and heavenly Glory which are therefore most excellent because most proportionable and sutable to our Souls in their utmost capacities 5. And lastly the worthlesness of the world appears by its unprofitableness As Samuel said to the people 1 Sam. 12. 20 21. Turn ye not aside from serving and following the Lord for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit because they are vain Too many indeed are ready to think the profits of the world worth their gaining even by the loss of their consciences of heaven and God himself And as for those who make conscience of their waies and endevour to walk circumspectly closely and humbly with God who scrupulously forbear prophane rash oaths and idle discourse who are sensible of the least secret sin who avoid what they can all occasions and appearances of evil who withstand the corruptions of the times and places they live in though they gain less in the world these are often accounted such as know not what is best for themselves But S t Paul assures us that such Godliness with contentment is the truest gain whereas the world when you have spent all your thoughts and the labour of your lives upon it though it may further you in some lesser respects yet it cannot profit you in the main thing necessary It cannot procure us the favour of God who regardeth not the rich man more then the poor for they are all alike the work of his hands He accounts of all not according to their meanness or greatness but according to their real piety and goodness Prov. 19. 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity then he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool Prov. 28. 6. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness then he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich Observe They are the poor that walk in their integrity that know love and serve God not that kind of poor who are grossely ignorant and neglectful of God and who lead sensual sloathful and heathenish lives though they above others might be most easily convinced of the emptiness and unprofitableness of the world and so have greater care of their Souls salvation seeking out after God in Christ to supply their Spiritual necessities that it may be better with them in the life to come Again the world cannot ease the pain of an afflicted conscience nor can it give us the grace we want Ordinarily 't is so abused that it makes people not more thankful but more forgetful of God nor doth it as it ought draw their hearts nearer to God but sets them at a further distance from him nor doth it make them more humble but more haughty nor more constant and sincere in duties but more unfit for any good word or work Nor can the world profit us in the day of wrath When the sinful pleasures of youth are ended by sickness age or death what can be left but the worm of conscience bred out of them to torment the Soul for ever Have you not sometimes considered with your self how soon the world and its pleasures will turn you off How can you but now and then take notice of your own frailties which tell you how certainly and shortly you must lie down in the dust Do you not sometimes go to the house of mourning or stand by dying people confessing the world to be nothing worth and complaining of the losse of their time and strength spent upon it And do you not see how little it doth for them in their greatest need Oh therefore let this prevail with us to prize our Souls above the world let this with what hath been considered in the foregoing particulars make us set as light by it as it doth or will do by us Let us henceforth make Christ our treasure and count it our happiness to honour and worship him as we ought to do Let us make God our portion and sit down content with him alone and let them who can get no better take the world and the pleasures of it Having now seen what it is to gain the world and the worthlesness thereof though gained we are in the next place to consider what it is to lose the Soul and the preciousness of that if lost As to the losing of the Soul the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred to lose signifies to have a mulct or punishment inflicted and so may import not only the fatal final losse or damnation of the Soul but also any losse or damage that belongs to it here or hereafter 1. Therefore to lose the Soul is to lose ones self A mans Soul is the principal part of himself and so it is in S t Luke ch 9. 25. What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself Soul and body too and be cast away 2. To lose the Soul implies a being deprived of all further opportunities and seasons of grace of all virtuous and gracious endowments which are as the life of the Soul When Christ calls by death or Judgement they that like the foolish virgins have not oyl in their lamps and their lamps trimmed that have not their Souls adorned with the saving graces of his Spirit they shall not enter with him Having waited so long already and all in vain he will now stay no longer till they go and buy for themselves but will shut the door of mercy against them for ever 3. The losing of the Soul implyes the losse of all such earthly enjoyments as sensual hearts love and prize above their Souls and for which they undoe themselves for ever Oh who can express the wretchedness of such people when they shall stand before the Judgment seat of God to
from brute beasts What is it but the Soul by which you are thinking reading or asking what a Soul is What is it but the Soul which is the fountain of precious life and therefore much more precious in it self Prov. 6. 26. The adulteress will hunt for the precious life The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the precious Soul What is the Soul but the rational nature containing the sensitive and vegetative The Principle or first Act by which we move perceive understand and freely will And how do these acts speak the excellency of the Powers from whence they flow and how do those Powers shew the worth of the Soul it self 2. Consider its Excellency in relation to Christ our Redeemer What can more clearly demonstrate the preciousness of it then the greatness of that price which he payd for it Being willing to lay down his life to deliver the Soul from eternal misery 1 S t Pet. 1. 18 19. The Apostle says we are not redeemed with gold or silver or any such corruptible things but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ The more noble the person taken captive the larger is the summe required for his ransome Our Saviour in all likelihood would not have done what he did to keep the whole frame of heaven and earth from being dissolved but to save those precious immortal Souls from perishing which were capable of enjoying so much good from God and bringing so much glory to him he was ready to take our nature to suffer his Fathers wrath to live a painful life and dye an accursed death by all which we may read in most fair and large Characters the worth of the Soul 3. Consider its excellency in relation to the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier Oh how precious must that needs be which is cleansed quickned and beautified with precious faith as 't is called 2 Pet. 1. 1. And so we may say with precious hope and charity with precious wisdome meekness temperance patience Oh the Excellent supernatural operations of such a Soul The mind is busie to know God in Christ and to understand his will revealed in his word The memory thinks of him the conscience stands in awe of him the Will chooseth and embraceth him the heart trusts in him and is set upon him The affections are taken up in loving him rejoycing in him fearing to offend him desiring to please and enjoy him These are the truly noble and worthy imployments of the Soul as redeemed and sanctified and renewed after the image of God 4. Consider further its excellency with relation to the heavenly Angels For why should they attend us as ministring spirits if our Spirits were not of an excellent angelical nature and fit to minister unto God Nay 5. may not the faln accursed angels and Satan himself tell us the worth of a Soul by his being so much the enemy of its Salvation when he compasseth the earth Job 1. 7. and goeth about night and day to devour and deceive them 1 Pet. 5. 8. 6. Why should God if it were not for our precious immortal Souls give us the Scriptures and an excellent religion to shew us the way to happiness Or why should he in the Scriptures dignifie us with such honourable titles as to be called his Friends his Children to be called the spouse and the members of Christ 7. Why too should Ministers be appointed by him to preach and pray and labour for us if we had not such precious Souls to save or lose Hebr. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you for they watch for your Souls Why should they preach in season and out of season and be so reviled and suffer so much to perform their work but that they know That he that winneth Souls is wise Prov. 11. 30. And that he which converteth a sinner from the errour of his ways shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins 8. Moreover why should such store of other mercies be provided for us Why should a world of creatures whose corporeal substance seems as excellent as ours attend and serve us if we were but an ingenious sort of brutes and had not reasonable immortal Souls more worth then the world Other Creatures are made for man and man for God to glorifie him by them and for them And surely they have a right estimate of the Souls worth who measure by it the worth of all worldly things who reckon of their in-comes their friends estates preferments according as they help or hinder them in the service of God counting them more or less excellent as they are more or less subservient to his honour and their own or others Souls everlasting happiness 9. Consider the precious Soul in its tendency which is to an eternal enjoyment of God an infinite good and that as fully as humane nature is capable of and that in a state of absolute perfection Intellectus quaerit Deum The Soul reacheth after God and this speaks its excellency that he alone can satisfie it O Lord says S t Augustin thou hast made us for thy self and our heart is unquiet till it comes unto thy self Here O Christian thy weaknesses are thy grief and thy afflictions or meanness may render thee despicable in the eyes of the world but being sincerely converted thy Soul is in a tendency to that happiness where it shall be enlarged and perfected to partake the more of God Where it s best faculties shall be united to the best object in the best and fullest manner to eternal ages If sincerely converted to God thy Soul is in a tendency to that illustrious heavenly glory which is only sutable to it and which will render far more precious and illustrious both it and thy body too after the resurrection 10. Hence we adde one consideration more of the Souls excellency and that is in respect of the body here David speaking of the body Psa 139. 14 15. O Lord says he I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my Soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought or imbroydered in the lowest parts of the earth Galen more atheistical before when he came to see the anatomy of mans body and considered the excellent frame thereof Now says he I adore the God of nature Yet we know the body is but the case or instrument of the Soul which so far exceeds it that in many things with God the willingness and pure intention of the mind is chiefly lookt at without which bodily exercise profiteth little Though a man give his body to be burnt if there be wanting the charity of the Soul it availeth nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. Nay there are several actions of the Soul which are beyond that which concerns the body at all as the knowing of God and the life to come and many notions in mathematicks and other sciences
thankful for But as they are abstracted from God and inordinately loved sought and trusted in so they have this five-fold vanity which is but too easily discovered in them namely their unsatisfactoriness their commoness their deceitfulness their unsuitableness and unprofitableness 1. That which speaks the little worth but great vanity of worldly things is their unsatisfactoriness Ahab had the possession of a wealthy Kingdome and yet for want of Naboths vineyard only how was he heart-sick so as to take no content in all his other enjoyments 1 Kings 21. 4. In like manner to what a wonderful height of dignity and earthly happiness was Human advanced and yet how did so inconsiderable a thing as the want of poor Mordecaie's knee damp all the delights of his proud heart Esther 5. 11 12 13. Knock at the door of the Choicest earthly possessions and they will tell you one by one sufficiency is not in me The creature if parted from God is empty and the Soul too and what fulness can be had by adding one emptiness to another Many a poor man hath thought if I had but enough to supply such necessaries and discharge such debts how chearfully would I serve the Lord without distraction and not care so much for the world any more But when these desires have been granted they have found themselvs still unsatisfied being ready now to thirst as much after fulness as before after necessaries It is God only who is All-sufficient both as to his own happiness and our satisfaction Gen. 17. 1. It is Christ the uncreated Wisdome Prov. 8. 21. Who fills the treasures of those that love him and causeth them to inherit substance And if he do not make God ours as well as the creature our condition will be but like theirs mentioned Haggai 1. 6. Ye have sown much and bring in little Ye eat but ye have not enough Ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye clothe you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Solomon that was so rich to compass all worldly accommodations and so wise to find out what was best in them to be enjoyed after a full experience tells us that if they lead not to God they will be but vanity and vexation of Spirit 2. How doth the Commonness of these worldly things abate the value of them Eccl. 9. 1 2. They come alike to all and none can certainly know by them either love or hatred whether they be the friends or enemies of God You cannot say God gives me poverty therefore he hates me or he gives me riches therefore he loves me such conclusions are weak and deceitful For the good may be afflicted as well as the bad and sometimes undergoe the heaviest burden of earthly trouble Luke 16. 15. And on the other hand the wicked may flourish for a while as well as the righteous and sometimes enjoy the greatest measure of worldly prosperity Psal 17. 13 14. Renewing grace is a certain sign of Gods favour and a special distinguishing mercy and therefore highly to be esteemed and earnestly sought after but outward comforts common natural gifts and acquired abilities as a fair estate an healthful body a faithful memory a quick understanding a ready utterance or the like these though blessings in themselves yet are but blessings of the left hand such as are given to the heathen Idolater as well as to the Christian Worshipper to the clean and unclean to him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not And therefore this their commonness shews much of their vanity and worthlesness 3. How is there in worldly things a vanity of deceitfulness which also speaks them less valuable How many people come to the world as to a lottery looking for a prize but go away cheated with a blank How often doth the world by promising much and performing little first abuse our Judgements and then frustrate our hopes and expectations Have you not sometimes found creature-confidences like the trusting in the Staff of a brokenreed whereon if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it Isa 36. 6. Have you not sometimes enjoyed the pleasures of sin for a season and flattered your self with the long continuance of them Whereas that season is gone and never returns again Can you not remember what happiness you may have promised your self in such a friend such a purchase such a preferment but some unexpected disappointment or other some Crosse or other hath much imbittered them unto you and lessened your comfort in their enjoyment The mutability of the world is the great deceit of it which that we may avoid let us duly consider what the Apostle hath written 1 Tim. 6. 6 7 8 9 10 17 18 19. And again 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Oh let us not suffer our selves to be imposed upon counting that to continue long which he according to the experience of all tells us shall abide but a short while and then passe away Oh let us not think with them Isa 56. 12. what carnal delights we will have this day and to morrow much more abundant Oh let us not say with him S t Luke 12. 19 20. Soul take thine ease eat drink be merry thou hast much goods layd up for many years Least we be awakened with that terrible voice of God saying as unto him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Why should we inordinately set our hearts and affections on that which is not for as Prov. 23. 5. Riches honours pleasures make themselves wings and fly away When we think our selves most sure of them when we trust most in them when by the abuse of them we are become most proud stomackful secure and negligent of Gods service then are we most sadly deceived then the wing of prodigality of oppression of casualty sweeps them from us or else the wing of death carries us away from them in a moment But suppose the world to perform more then it promiseth and that we could be sure of it for a very considerable while yet have we not immortal Souls to provide for Have we not matters of life or death to look after And what can all the world be to this Oh therefore how nearly doth it concern us to lay up in store for our selves a sure foundation for the time to come to anchor our Souls upon Christ the rock of ages who will never deceive us and not to hazard them for any thing in this worthless because deceitful and changeable world 4. That which further shews the worthlesness of the things of the world is their vanity of unsutableness in respect of the precious Soul Those are corporeal and fading this is spiritual and immortal Those are limited and finite beings this a substance of unbounded desires and can be fully satisfied with nothing but communion with the Father and the