THE

VANITY OF THE WORLD.

ECCLESIASTES I. 2.

Fanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity.

THE Preacher here mentioned, is no less a person than Solomon and this whole book is no other than his Recantation Sermon. The text he preached on, is the same that I have chosen; and it contains the true and severe judgment he passed upon all things under the sun. Certainly, he, who had riches as plentiful as the stones of the street and wisdom as large as the sand of the seat: could want no advantages, either to try experiments, or draw conclusions from them. And yet, when he had employed both ‡, in the critical search of true happiness and contentment, and had dissected and ransacked the whole world to find it, he returns disappointed of his hopes, and tired with his pursuit; and begins the sad narrative of his long wanderings and errors, with Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity.

The whole verse is loaden with emphases. And it is first observable, that he doth not glide into it, by any smooth connexion of sense or sentences; but, on a sudden breaks upon us, with a surprising abruptness, Vanity of Vanities: which shews a mind so full of matter, that it could not attend the circumstance of a prologue to usher it in.

Again; it is all expressed in the abstract. It sufficed not to censure all things to be vain, but they are vanity itself.

* 1 Kings x. 27.

+1 Kings iv. 29.

Eccles. i. 16. 17.

And this abstract hath another heaped upon it, vanity of vanities. Now this reflexion of the same word upon itself, is alway used to signify the height and greatness of the thing expressed, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, denotes the highest King and the most absolute Lord. So, here, vanity of vanities intimates to us the most exceeding superlative vanity imaginable,

Again; this is not only once pronounced, but doubled and repeated partly, the more to confirm this truth to our belief, and thus Pharaoh's dream was doubled* ; and, partly, the more to imprint it upon our consideration. Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

But, though this be expressed in most general and comprehensive terms, yet it must not be taken in the utmost latitude, as if there were nothing at all of solid and real good extant. It is enough, if we understand the words in a sense restrained to the subject matter whereof he here treats. For the Wise Man himself exempts the Fear and Service of Godt, from that Vanity under which he had concluded all other things. God and religion have in them a solid and substantial good: the one, as our utmost end and happiness; the other, as the best proportioned means to attain it.

When, therefore, he pronounceth all to be Vanity, it must be meant of all worldly and earthly things; for he speaks only of these.

And, if we enquire what these worldly things are, that have this censure of vanity so vehemently passed upon them, Saint John hath drawn up a full and true inventory of all the goods that are to be found in this great house of the universe: 1 John ii. 16. All that is in the world, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The lusts of the flesh, are the pleasures of the world; which are all of them suited to gratify the sensual and fleshly part of man. The lusts of the eye, are riches; so called, because their greatest serviceableness is only to make a glittering and dazzling shew. Which sense Solomon approves: Eccl. v. 11. What good is there to the owners thereof, save the beholding them with their eyes? The pride of life is honour and dignity; that flatulent and airy notion, that puffs up men's pride and vain-glory, and makes them look upon their † Eccl. xii. 13.

* Gen. xl. 32.

inferiors as though they were not their fellow-creatures. This is all that the world can shew, Pleasures, Riches, Honours; and this is that all, concerning which the wise man pronounceth that it is Vanity.

For these things, though they make a fair and gaudy shew, yet it is all but shew and appearance. As bubbles, blown into the air, will represent great variety of orient and glittering colours: not, as some suppose, that there are any such really there; but only they appear so to us, through a false reflexión of light cast upon them: so truly this world, this earth on which we live, is nothing else but a great bubble blown up by the breath of God in the midst of the air where it now hangs. It sparkles with ten thousand glories: not that they are so in themselves; but only they seem so to us through the false light, by which we look upon them. If we come to grasp it, like a thin film, it breaks, and leaves nothing but wind and disappointment in our hands: as histories report of the fruits that grow near the Dead Sea, where once Sodom and Gomorrah stood, they appear very fair and beautiful to the eye, but, if they be crushed, turn straight to smoke and ashes*.

The subject which I have propounded to discourse of, is this Vanity of the World, and of all things here below: that, being hereof convinced, we may desist our vain pursuit of vain objects; and may set our affections on those things which are above, which are the alone valuable, because the only permanent and stable good.

Whence is it that we are become so degenerate, that we, who have immortal and heaven-born souls, should stake them down to these perishing enjoyments? Whence is it, that we, who should soar aloft unto God, and were to that end fitted with the fleet wings of meditation and affections, to cut through the heavens in an instant, and to appear there before the throne of the great God, that we should lie here groveling in the thick. clay and muck of this world, as if the serpent's curse were become ours, to creep upon our bellies, and to lick up the dust of the earth +? Do we not shamefully degrade ourselves, when we stoop to admire what is so vastly below us, and barter away

*Tacit. Hist. lib. v. Fumum exhalant, et fatiscunt in vagum pulverem. Solin. Joseph. Antiquit. I. v. c. 5.

† Gen. iii, 14.

our precious souls, souls more worth than ten thousand worlds, only to gain some small part of one? Certainly, the God of this World hath blinded men's eyes, and cast a strange mist before them, that they cannot discern, what is most evident and obvious; even the instability and vanity of all sublunary enjoyments.

That I may therefore contribute somewhat to scatter this mist, I shall endeavour to represent to you the native and genuine vanity that is in all earthly things, free from that deceitful varnish, which the Devil usually puts upon them; and so to deform and wound that great sorcerer, that his charms may have no more power to prevail over you.

I. Now, that we may rightly proceed in this, I shall PREMISE these two or three things.

1. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD VAIN IN RESPECT OF ITS NATURAL BEING.

Whatsoever God hath made, is, in its kind, good. And so the Great Creator pronounced of them, when he took a survey of all the works of his hands. Gen. i. 31. God saw every

thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. There is a most harmonious order and beauty in all the creation, and every part of it. And therefore Solomon must not be here so interpreted, as if he disparaged the works of God, in pronouncing them all Vanity. Certainly he doth not libel his Creator; nor upbraid him, as though he had filled the world only with vain toys and trifles.

If we regard the wonderful artifice and wisdom, that shines forth in the frame of nature, we cannot have so unworthy a thought, either of the world itself, or of God who made it.

View the Sun, next unto God, the great father of lights*: view the numerous assembly of the Stars: observe their influences, their courses and measures: is it a vain or impertinent thing, to spread forth the heavens, and to beat out a path for every one of these to walk in The Air, that thin and subtle vail, that God hath spread over the face of nature: the Earth, that God hath poised in the midst of the air: and the whole Universe, in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing: the great Sea, whose proud waves God binds in with a girdle of sand; and checks its rage by a body almost as unsettled and

* James i. 17.

rolling as itself: the various kinds of Creatures, that God governs by a wonderful economy: the great family of brute Beasts, which God brings up and educates without disorder: but especially Man, the lord and chief of the world, that knot that God hath tied between heaven and earth, that sacred band of time with eternity.

If we consider the frame and composure of all these things in themselves, or their usefulness and subserviency unto us, we shall be so far from branding them with vanity, that, unless our contemplations lead us from natural things to the great God who formed them, we might rather fear lest their beauty and excellency should inveigle us, as it did the heathen, to look no farther for a Deity, but worship them as gods.

2. THERE IS NOTHING VAIN IN RESPECT OF GOD THE CREATOR.

He makes his ends out of all; for they all glorify him according to their several ranks and orders; and to rational and considerate men, are most evident demonstrations of his infinite being, wisdom, and power. In which sense the Apostle tells us; Rom. i. 20. The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his. eternal power and Godhead*.

God hath composed two books, by the diligent study of which we may attain to the knowledge of himself; the Book of the Creatures, and the Book of the Scriptures.

The Book of the Creatures is written in those great letters of heaven and earth, the air and sea; and, by these, we may spell out somewhat of God. He made them for our instruction, as well as for our service. The least and vilest of them read us lectures of his glorious attributes; nor is it any absurdity to say, that, as they are all the works of his Hand, so they are all the words of his Mouth.

Indeed, this knowledge that the creatures give us of the Creator, cannot suffice to make us happy, though it may be sufficient to make us inexcusablet. We could never have collected from them those mysterious discoveries of God,

* Εχομεν δε εννοιαν Θες πρωτον μεν από το καλλές των ευφαινομένων προσλαμβάνοντες. Ουδεν γαρ των καλών είκη, και ώς έτυχε γινεται. Plut. de Placitis

Philos. 1. i. c. 6.

Rom. i. 20, 21.