ature,
and look it not only out of countenance, but also look it into its first
nothing--look it out of glory, out of being; and therefore you should not
trust in those uncertain things, that can take wings and leave you. When
you have accommodation outwardly to your mind do not build your nest in
it; these leaves of prosperity will not cover you always, there is a time
when they will fall. Nations have their winter and their summer, persons
have them likewise, as these must change in nature, so must they do in
their lot. Heaven only is one day, one spring perpetually blossoming and
bringing forth fruit. There is the tree of life that bringeth forth fruit
every month, that hath both spring and harvest all the year over.
Christians, sit not down under the green tree of worldly prosperity, if
you do, the leaves will come down about you, the gourd you trust in may be
eaten up in a night, your winter will come on so as you shall forget the
former days as if they had never been. We desire you to be armed for
changes; are not matters in the kingdom still going about? All things are
subject to revolution and change, and every year hath its own summer and
winter, so hath it pleased the Lord to set the one over against the other,
that man might find nothing after him, Eccl. vii. 14. Therefore we would
have you cast your accounts so as the former days of darkness may return,
and the land be covered with mourning clothes.

But would you know what is the original of the creatures' vanity, what is
the moth that eats up the glory and goodliness of creatures' enjoyments?
Here it is--sin and iniquities. It was sin that first subjected the
creation to vanity, Rom. viii. 19, 20. This inferior world was to have
been a durable house for an immortal soul, but sin made man mortal, and
the world corruptible, and from this proceed all the tempests and
disorders that seem to be in the creation. It is this still--it is sin that
raiseth the storm of the Lord's wrath, which bloweth away the withered
leaves of men's enjoyments. Sin drieth up all the sap and sweetness of the
creature comforts,--it maketh the leaves of the tree wither, drives the sap
away to the root, hindereth the influence of God's blessing to come
through the veins of worldly prosperity. For what is the virtue and sap of
creatures? It is even God's blessing, and therefore the bread nourisheth
not, but the word and command of God, Matt. iv. 4. That is a right unto
the creatures by J