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difappointment; James i. 26. "If any man feem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man's religion is vain;" that is, he will be difappointed; he deceiveth himfelf. Thus the world is a cheat and a deceiver.

7. All is vanity; the word imports folly; Job xi. 12. "Vain man would be wife, though he be born like the wild. afs's colt." All is vanity, all is folly. "He that followeth vain perfons, is void of understanding."

8. All is vanity; it imports frailty and inconfiftency; vanishing away as fmoke: "The world paffeth away, and the lufts thereof, 1 John ii. 17. All flesh is grais; and all the goodnels thereof as a flower of the field; the grafs withereth and the flower fadeth; furely the people is grafs," Ifa. xl. 6,—9.

2dly, We propofed next to enquire into the emphafis of the phrafe," Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities.” Why, this phrafe, and the repetition of it, imports these fix things.

1. The exceffiveness of the vanity of thefe worldly things. Vanity implies, that they are not only vain, but exceedingly vain; as vain as vanity itself. "Vanity of vanities," is, in the Hebrew, a fuperlative form of speech, to fet forth the highest vanity: as the "Song of fongs;" i. e. the most excellent fong; the " King of kings;" i. e. the most excellent king. So " Vanity of vanity;" i. e. the greatest vanity.

2. It imports the multitude and variety of vanities that, are heaped up in earthly things; as Sampfon fpeaks in another cafe, 66 Heaps upon heaps," Judges xv. 16. There are vanities upon vanities; one heap upon the top

of another.

3. It imports the ftrangenefs of thefe vanities; he fpeaks by way of admiration, to fhew the wonderful and ftrange vanity of these things; O vanity of vanities! He breaketh forth into this exclamation.

4. It importeth the inexpreffiblenefs of it; it cannot be uttered with words: and therefore the fame words must be uttered again and again; to fhew what we cannot fufficiently comprehend, or exprefs, the vanity of things below.

5. It imports the fertility of thefe vanities of the world;

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one vanity begets another: one piece of vanity brings on another; therefore called, " Vanity of vanities:" fuch vanity as is the caufe of other vanities.

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6. It imports the certainty of the vanity of worldly things, and what impreffion it fhould have upon us, when vanity is five times repeated in this one fhort text: thefe repeated ftrokes fhould make impreffion upon us, to affect us with the certainty of the thing. Surely all is vanity.

III. We proceed to the third thing propofed, viz. To offer fome arguments to prove that all is vain and empty; or to prove, the vanity and emptinefs of the world.

1. The world is treacherous; it betrays both the hopes and the fouls of men at once. How big is man with expectations of remote diftant enjoyments! Like a man looking at a picture, or flatue, at a diflance; but coming near to it, and taking a clofe view, he fees it but a cheat, a dead lifelefs thing: fo, when a man comes to the enjoyment of the world, he falls infinitely short of his expectations. Like children that think the cloud is juft touching fuch a hill, and if they were at it, they would be juft in the cloud; and when they go there, they find the cloud removed away to another hill. Yea, the world betrays the foul, as well as the hopes; it betrays a man's foul to ruin: like sweet poifon, that goes down pleafantly, but kills prefently. The filken cords of the world have taken away a prifoner; and they have proven their fetters, which they could never break again. As Judas faid of our bleffed Lord, "Whomfoever I ki's, take him, hold him faft:" So the world being the devil's agent, fays, "Whomfoever I kifs and embrace, and "embraceth me mutually, and fetteth his heart upon me; take him, hold him fast." So the creature betrays the foul as well as the hope of the man.

2. The world is vanity, because it is vexatious; for, All is vanity and vexation of spirit," Eccl. i. 14. You cannot grafp the thorn of this world but you must be hurt. The world is vexation in the purchase of it. A man fpends night and day for a conqueft: he fits up late and rifes early; fets his invention upon the rack,

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how to conquer fuch a fortune, how to make fuch a purchafe. The world is vexation in the poffeffion of it: when a man hath it, what cares, what fears, what folicitude about the keeping of it! He knows not how to fecure it. If but a tyle or flate falls off his houfe, he thinks the whole fabric will be down next. If he takes but a penny out of a large fum, he thinks it will melt and diminish away to nothing. He is vext in keeping it. And again, the world is vexation in the lofs of it. When the man lofes it, he cries, "Alas! they have "taken away my gods, and what have I more?" My hope is gone, my all is gone, my portion is gone.”

3. The vanity and emptiness of the world appears in this, that a little crofs will imbitter all the pleafures and enjoyments of time. Solomon faith, "That the dead fly makes all the box of the apothecary's ointment to ftink,' Eccl. x. I. So the whole box of the world's greatest enjoyments, one fmall crofs, fuch as a tooth-ach, a touch of the ftone, of the cholic or gout, will imbitter all, and make all to stink. We have an eminent inftance of this in Haman, Efther v. 11. 13. If any man in the world might have promifed himself fatisfaction from the world, Haman now might have done it: he was raised from a low degree to the highest pinacle and dignity of a fubject; being the chief minifter of flate to one of the greatest kings on earth. If a man be born to a great eftate, it turns, as it were, natural to him; it never increases, never elevates him: but promotion from a low eftate to an high, doth enhance the value of the eftate, and gives a relifh to the enjoyment, if we may fpeak fo. Well, Haman had all riches; he had a numerous family, plenty of children; he was the greatest favourite of the king, and reckoned himfelf a favourite of the queen alfo; and yet, "All this avails me nothing," faith he: Why? what is the bufinefs, man? What hath poifoned your box of ointment? There is a wretched Jew, faith he, an ill-natured, ill-mannered fellow, that will not give me a hat, when I go in to the court, and come out again. And that marred all his happinefs, becaufe a poor man would not yield him obeifance. A little crofs will imbitter the greatest enjoyments. U 4

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4. The world's emptiness and vanity appears in this, that it is fo changeable, and of fuch a fhort duration. It is compared in fcripture to the motion of an eagle;

Riches take wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven," Prov. xxiii. 5. When they fly away, they will not fly like a tame bird, to return to you again; they go away like an eagle out of fight. Many a man thinks, by his good rights and fecurity, by his heritable bonds, and the like, he will clip the wings of the world, that it fhall not fly away from him: but for all that, it will take the wings of the morning, whofe wings cannot be clipt. The world is compared to the moon, Rev, xii. 1. which is fometimes full, and fhining brightly; but inftantly it changes again. Men are ready to fay, in a worldly fenfe, as David in a fpiritual, "My mountain ftandeth ftrong;" and, behold! inftead of health we have fickness; instead of reputation, we have difgrace; instead of eafe we will have pain; inflead of riches, we have poverty.

5. The vanity and emptinefs of the world appears in this, that it will never be of fervice to you in a day of need. Are you in fickness? All the riches of the world will not heal you; it will not cure you of a gout or a gravel: make an experiment of it, lay your head on a pillow of gold, fee if that will make you flecp found. Nay, all the enjoyments of time will not eafe you of the pain of a cholic. And then, in the day of death, when death fays, "I am coming; I am at the door; the tri

bunal is fixing to judge you :" what will the world avail you! Nay, it cannot fecure you from the wrath of God, from a hell, from a tribunal.

IV. The fourth thing propofed in the general method, was, To give fome reafons of the vanity and emptiness of the world, and unfatisfactorinefs thereof. Why,

1. God alone is the centre of a man's foul; Chrift alone is the bread of life, the folid food of the foul. God is the centre of the intellectual world, the centre of fpirits; and no rest shall spirits, fouls, have till they centre in him; and the foul that never centres in him, fhall never find reft to eternity. Every body hath, its centre; the flone goes downward, and the fire goes

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upward. Every body is, as it were, in motion, or hath a tendency to motion, if obftacles were out of the way, till it comes to its centre: now, God alone being the centre of the foul, the creature can never give relt to the foul; the foul is ftill in difquiet, till it come to a God in Chrift, which is the true reft; "Return to thy rest, O my foul," Pfal. cxvi. 7. The covetous man, if he has riches, will fay, "Return to thy reft, O my foul: Soul, thou haft goods laid up for many years." But he was miftaken of his centre; for he had no rest at all: he was difinherited that night, and fent out of the world. No quarters for the foul in the creature; there is no fuitablenefs to the foul in the creature. Why? The foul is a spirit; the creature is a body: the foul hath vaft infinite defires; the creature is finite: the foul is eternal and immortal; the creature is but of yesterday, and perifheth to-morrow: and fo there is no fuitablenefs between the foul and the creature. It is only between God and the foul that there is a fuitablenefs; and therefore the creature is empty and vain, and cannot fatisfy the vaft and immenfe defires of the immortal foul. But then,

2: There is the curfe upon the creature, a manifold curse; a curse by Adam's fall, a curfe after Cain's murder, a curfe after the deluge, a curfe upon every enjoyment of every wicked man: He is curfed in his basket and his ftore; curfed in his children, curfed in his table, curfed in all his comforts. How then can the creature, and worldly things, be any other than vanity and emptinefs to us, feeing the curfe is lying upon them fince the fall! Gen. iii. 17.

3. All is vanity, becaule of the end for which God made them; they were made for us, not we for them. The Lord never defigned the things of the world for the ufe that men would turn them to, namely, to be a god, a portion, a happiness to them: and therefore they fhall never find an happiness in them. And fo,

4. Because they feek happiness in the creature, therefore they fhall never find it in the creature: because they put confidence in it, therefore God will blast that confidence; "The Lord hath rejected thy confidences;

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