scudderpage016

Page 16

that remedy. Riches are desired not for themselves, but for the conveniences of life. Life is not so much desired for itself as for the enjoyment of happiness, which when a man has sought in the labyrinth of earthly vanities, after much vexation and disquietude of spirit, he must conclude, that it is only in that truest and chief good, which is the fountain whence true delight first flows, and the object, wherein finally it rests.

Secondly, That is man's happiness, in the possession and enjoyment whereof, his heart rests best satisfied. So far a man is from true happiness as he is from full contentment in that which he enjoys. The bee would not sit upon so many flowers, if she could gather honey enough from any one, neither would Solomon have tried so many conclusions, if the enjoyment of any creature could have made him happy. Would you know the cause why so many (like Ixion) make love to shadows and leave the substance, or (that I may speak in a better phrase) Jer. ii. 13, forsake the fountain of living water, and dig to themselves broken cisterns that will hold no water? Briefly, it is because man, who in his pride would have seen as much as God, is now become so blind that he sees not himself, Gen. iii. 5. For if men knew either the disposition of their souls by creation, or the indisposition of their souls by corruption, they would easily escape this delusion. 1. The soul is a spiritual substance, whose original is from God, and therefore its rest must be in God; as the rivers run into the sea, and as every body rests in his centre. The noblest faculties are abased, not improved; abused, not employed; vexed, not satisfied; when they are subjected to these inferior objects, as when Nebuchadnezzar fed among beasts, Dan. iv. 33;