quence take off every degree of their Love from the Creature; and collect together, and settle the whole Force and Weight of it upon God, that fo be may be All in All. This is the Measure of Divine Love in Heaven, and this ought to be the Measure of it upon Earth.

With Angels therefore and Arch-Angels, and with all the Company of Heaven, let us unclafp our Arms from the Imbraces of the Creation, and adore and love the Lord our God with our whole Heart, Soul and Mind. Let not God any longer divide with the Creature (which is not a fit Companion for fo Divine a Guest) but let him reign an abfolute Monarch in our Hearts, and ingrofs our whole Love, efpecially fince that whole is fo little. Love is the great Bias which God has put into our Natures to carry us towards himself. And thither let it carry us, and there let it fix and lodge our Souls, which are then in their greatest Perfection when in the full and intire Love and Enjoyment of God. To whom be all Glory and all Love. Amen.

A Dif

A Difcourfe concerning the Natural, and the Moral Vanity of Man.

PSA L. xxxix. 6.

Surely every Man walketh in a vain fhew, furely they are difquieted in vain.

Or as in the other Translation.

Man walketh in a vain shadow, and difquieteth himself in vain.

Ven Man, who was made and intended by God for the greatest and most excellent End, and was accordingly furnish'd with all proper Means for the attainment of this End, having an excellent Nature given him, duly temper'd and pois'd between dry Intelligence and blind Appetite, being altogether neither One nor the Other, but inrich'd with Vigour of Inclination, and a Bright Understanding to govern it, with the Light of Reason, and with the Flame of Paffion, having at once the advantage both of Sail and Compafs, and fo capable both of knowing, chufing, and enjoying his Supreme and Only Good.

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Even Man, who is the very Draught and Tranfcript of his Creator, and the Mafter piece of all his Lower Creation: Who has Dominion given him over all the Vegetable and Senfitive World; upon whom both Sun and Moon wait, and the Stars in their Courfes pay Attendance, to whom the very Angels are Guardians, and for whofe fake the Heavenly Bodies both Move and Shine. Who upon his entrance into Being, put his Maker to the Stand, gave Infinite Wisdom a Pause, and raised a Solemn Confultation in Heaven, as being at once the Conclufion and the Compendium of the fix days Work.

Even Man, who applies his heart to know, and to fearch, and to feek out Wisdom, and the Reafon of things, that Grafts the Accomplishments of Art upon the Stock of Nature, and by the improvement of Study and Education stands upon higher ground, and distinguishes himself as much from the common Pitch of Men, as they are diftinguish'd from the Level of Beafts. Man that is faluted with the Titles of Learned and Wife, that is supposed to understand all Mysteries, and all Knowledg, and (which is more) that does really understand his own Ignorance; that knows much, and that that much is little; and fo is not lifted up with his Knowledg, nor has his Head turn'd with the Height upon which he ftands. Man too that towres and plumes upon his Endowments, that views himself with the magnifying end of the Profpective; and others with that which Contracts; that has fome Wisdom,

and

and pretends to a great deal more; that fits down and enjoys his past Attainments, thinking himself too Wife (as others too Dull) for further Improvement: Man, let him be what he will for Eminence, either Really or in Opinion, either by Nature or by Art, as Great and Noble a Creature as he is, and as Great as he takes himself to be, notwithstanding all his real and all his imaginary Grandeur, He walketh in a vain shadow, and dif quieteth himself in vain.

The Words are a very mean and degrading Character of a very high and Noble Creature, enough to mortifie and take him down in the midst of all his Pride and Glory, as presenting to his View (what he feldom has the Happiness to fee) a true Picture of himself, and that fet in a true and proper Light, pointing out and defcribing a twofold Vanity of Man, the Vanity of his State, and the Vanity of his Life; the one a Moral, and the other a Natural Vanity; which indeed is all the Vanity that a Creature is capable of.

For 'tis to be confider'd, that the words are a particular instance and reafon of a general Propofition. The Pfalmift had faid juft before that every Man living is altogether Vanity, or, Vanity all over; and then immediately adds as a Reason of fo severe a Reflection, For man walketh in a vain fhadow, and difquieteth himself in vain. As if he had faid,there are but two poffible ways whereby Man may become Vain: Or, there is but a twofold Vanity that Man, or any other Creature is capable.

capable of, Vanity of State, and Vanity of Life ; that Vanity which relates to the Nature and Being,and that which relates to the Demeanour and Conduct of a Creature, and both these are found in Man. The Vanity of Nature, in that he walketh in a Vain Shadow,and the Vanity of Conduct, in that he also difquiets himself in Vain. And therefore Man is altogether Vanity.

Altogether Vanity, fo we render it, more according to the Septuagint than the Hebrew. In the Hebrew it is Univerfal Vanity; as if all the Vanity and Mifery that is fcatter'd up and down among other Creatures, were collected together and fum'd up in Man; fo that Man fhould be, as it were, a little Abridgment or Compendium of Vanity. In the Septuagint it is τὰ σύμπαντα ματαιότης, quoad Omnia Vanitas, Vanity as to all things, as to every part, and in every refpect, in what Pofture, or in what Light foever you place him, or in what Capacity or Relation foever you confider him. And between these two Rendrings there is confiderable difference, even as much as there is between faying, that Man is All Vanity, and that All of Man is Vanity; One making Vanity to poffefs the Whole of Man, and the other making Man to poffefs or ingrofs the Whole of Vanity; which indeed is the stronger and bolder expreffion of the two.

But we need not be very folicitous about this; for take it in what fenfe you will, either that Man is Universal Vanity, according to the Hebrew, or that he is Altogether Vanity according to the Septuagint