Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	work_v	world_n	worthy_a	22	3	5.7646	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66558	The vanity of mans present state proved and applyed in a sermon on Psalm 39.5. With divers sermons of the saints communion with God, and safety under his protection, in order to their future glory, on Psalm 73. 23, 24, 25, 26. By the late able and faithful minister of the Word John Wilson	Wilson, John, minister of the Word.; Golborne, J.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2905; ESTC R218560	137,734	239

sad that he for whose sake all the creatures were in some sort made should be vainer than any of them nay vainer than all of them taken together But thus it is and we are to know it and consider it for our good And 3. It is not thus with one particular man but with the whole race of mankind as they remain in this militant warfaring state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Adam all vanity so the Original word for word which our Translators have thought fit to render Every man is altogether vanity Vanity like an Universal contagion hath not only seized upon one or a few but hath overspread the whole posterity of Adam so that all without exception are born live and dye therein There is not any Nation or people under the whole heaven who are not concerned in this matter The Sun it self never beheld that man whose state here was not a state of vanity Had a man the wings of the morning so that he might fly into the uttermost parts of the earth and take a view of the several people thereof he would abundantly find the truth of what I now say and return with this report Oh the state of them all every one is a state of vanity And 4. It is not thus with man only when he is in adversity and things are at the lowest ebb with him but in his highest prosperity when things go best with him Verily every man at his best state c. The word here translated best state is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which how it should be rendred hath I find more then a little exercised the thoughts of interpreters But not to trouble you with a recital of different versions and opinions concerning it the design of the Psalmist in it seems to be this That man when he is in his prime consistency or when he is most erect or established is even then altogether vanity when like Josephs sheaf he stands upright and the sheaves round about him make obeysance to him Gen. 37. 7. Or when like David having overcome all his enemies he is setled in his Kingdom 2 Sam. 22. 1. even then he is altogether vanity That when a man is low in the world labouring under poverty pain sickness disgrace persecutions and the like he should be in a state of vanity is not so incredible but that when he abounds with all the felicities and good things of this life he should be so is not so easie to be apprehended Yet the Holy Ghost who is the most competent Judge in this as well as in all other cases will have us to know that when he is in the best condition and attended with the most favourable circumstances the world can afford him he is even then in a state of vanity 5. For working in us a stronger belief of this truth it is usher'd in with a note of asseveration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily as if the Psalmist had said it is a most real and certain truth and worthy to be believed of all mankind that every man in his best consistency or most flourishing condition even when he may promise himself the greatest measure of stability and happiness is altogether vanity When his circumstances are most benign and favourable and afford the best aspect they are capable of yielding even then he is meer vanity 6. And all this for the further confirmation of the matter is backed with a Selah which I am apt to think with Vatablus and Grotius stands here not only as a musical note directing the fingers in the Temple how to order their voice but as a note of excitation to stirr us all up to greater attention and observation And surely if there be any thing which is worthy the consideration of the sons of men and which may serve to take them off their pride and vain glory and make them base and vile in their own eyes it is this that all of them in their best condition are most certainly in a state of extream vanity And thus I have given you an account of the design extent and Emphasis of the Text And now desire to know how more could have been said in so few words nay in the greatest multitude The Psalmist seems to have served up this truth to the greatest height he could possibly raise it When a man hath studied and said all that ever he can what can he say more than we have here in these words When he hath exercised both brain and tongue when he hath gathered together whatever either wit or language can afford What can he say more than that every man at his best state is altogether vanity The importance of the words being thus laid before you I shall offer you the point I intend to insist on which is this That the present state of man is a state of extream vanity Notwithstanding his splendid appearances his high apprehensions of himself and his great hopes of a Terrest●al happiness yet his present state is a state of extream vanity He ruffles a while in the world makes a great bussle and stirr feeds himself with golden dreams promises to himself fine and delicate things and after he hath exercised himself a season herein in spight of all his pretences and hopes he finds the Text verified in him and that he is no other than a heap of meer vanity To fetch in proof of this from other places of Scripture were needless for the Text it self is so clear and full that to those who acknowledge the Authority of this Book it cannot but be abundantly sufficient However to shew you the agreement of other places of Scripture with this I shall offer you two or three passages holding forth the same thing Hereof God first gave notice in Adams name which signifies earth or dust whereunto he seems to have reference when he saith Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Gen. 3. 19. Not but that if he had persisted in his innocency he should contrary to what the Socinians teach have been free from death for God in pursuance of his Covenant with him would have secured him from it But having deserted his innocency and thereby forfeited the benefit of the covenant he was in himself or in respect of his constitutive principles lyable to dissolution and putrefaction And truly it was not difficult in the frame of his nature and some other circumstances to see that he was designed for a fall And as if this were not sufficient Adam himself taught it in his Son Abels name which is the very word used in the Text and signifies vanity Gen. 4. 3. So early did he see that he and his posterity were designed here for a state of vanity that the second Son which he hath he stiles Abel or Vanity But though these Texts afford much light as to this matter yet there are others wherein this doctrine is much more conspicuous Job 11. 12. Zophar speaking of man saith Vain man would be

wise He is certainly vain but yet would believe himself and would likewise have the world to believe that he is otherwise There are some diseases which invading the head and there seizing on the animal spirits work such discomposure that the persons who are exercised therewith are unsensible of them And thus it is in the present case the vanity which hath seized upon man hath so far prevailed upon him that he is become unsensible of it which do's aggravate his misery in this respect that it disables him from those endeavours after relief which otherwise he might make use of And saith the Apostle Jam. 2. 20. Wilt thou know O vain man A vigorous and quick expression declaring the great vanity of man and as in other matters so particularly in his disputing and reasoning in the things of God And the Psalmist Psal. 89. 47. seems somewhat earnestly to expostulate with God about this matter saying Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain Or as Castellio turns it Quam frivolum creaveris omne genus hominum What a frivolous thing hast thou made all mankind Than these places what can be more plain What man is there who acknowledging the authority of the Scripture will not confess the truth of the point and grant that the present state of man is vain We commonly have good evidence ere we yield to what is spoken against our selves But here the evidence is so clear and strong that there is no room for gain-saying or doubting So that my business will not lye so much in confirming the point in general as in making it good in the several particulars belonging to it and setting it home on our hearts and Consciences that so we may do what is meet to be done upon the revealing of such an important and affecting truth For the prosecution and management whereof I shall 1. Shew what Vanity is or what it is to be in a state of vanity And the word Vanity is of such signification that it is ever used in a bad sense Where ever we find it in Scripture it still denotes either sin or misery or both The Apostle 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 18. calls a sinful Conversation a vain Conversation And Job 7. 3. terms those months of affliction and distress which he endured months of vanity I know sometimes it hath a more particular notation Yet still such as falls under one of these two heads Sin or Misery Sometimes it s put for deceitfulness or falseness and so Psal. 12. 3. David setting forth the deceitful false speaking of the wicked saith they speak vanity And because Idols do not answer the expectations of those who confide in them the Prophet Jer. 14. 22. speaks of them under the notion of vanities And in regard worldly injoyments do not yield the satisfaction and contentment which men are apt to expect from them Solomon Eccles. 1. 2. speaks of them under the same term Sometimes it s put for fruitless or ineffectual labour or pains which men take without receiving any profit therefrom And so Psal. 78. 33. its said of the Israelities That God consumed their dayes in vanity exercising them with tedious peregrinations in the Wilderness without bringing them into the Land of Canaan toward which they were so long in going Sometimes it s put for temporariness or short continuance And so Job 7. 16. tells us his days are vanity that is of very short continuance And sometimes it s put for obnoxiousness to the several evils whereunto the inferiour Creatures through Gods permission and mans tyranny do lye open so the Apostle Rom. 8. 20. tells us how the Creature was made subject to vanity that is to manifold abuses and grievances Thus as I said the word Vanity hath sometimes a more particular notation yet still such as falls under one of these two heads Sin or Misery From which it is easie to gather what the design of the Holy Ghost in the Text is when he tells us that mans present state is a state of vanity We must from the account I have now given you necessarily infer it is a state of sin or misery or both And it were well for us if it contained only one of them either Sin without Misery or Misery without Sin But such is the badness of it that it contains both the one and the other and that in a very high degree as will appear hereafter in its proper place The result then of this particular is this that when David tells us mans present state is a state of vanity his meaning is that it is a state of Sin and Misery We exercise our selves in sin and God in love do's chasten us and in justice do's punish us for it whereby it comes to pass that our best days are evil days according to that of the good Patriarch Gen. 47. 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been Who in those times lived either longer or better than Jacob And yet such was the nature of his days that they were both few and evil And when we our selves have lived as long and as well as ever we can we shall have occasion to give in the same account and say Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been There is not any thing comprehended under the name Vanity but it attends the days of the holiest and best men Thus it all along hath been and thus it will be to the end of the world 2. Having shewed what vanity is I shall shew you in what degree man falls under the charge of it or how vain he is Some account I have given you hereof in the opening of the Text but that not being sufficient I shall here do it a little more fully And 1. He is really vain Whether you look upon Vain as importing Sinful or Miserable or both Man is really so He do's not only seem to be so but he is so As sure as he is man so sure he is vain The same evidence we have for his existence the same we have for his vanity We cannot take any considerate serious view of the one but we must needs behold the other What faculty sense limb member injoyment concernment belonging to him can we look upon but we may see vanity as legibly engraven in it as if it were writ with a beam of the Sun Psal. 62. 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye Surely see how peremptory the Holy Ghost is in this matter What thing do's he offer to us throughout the whole Word which he prefaces with notes of greater certainty and truth then this So that we are not to look upon this doctrine as a fiction or device to work us to mean thoughts of our selves but as a real truth which whether we will or no we shall find made out to us every day throughout our whole lives For my part I look not for that day during my whole life