by Ezekiel Hopkins
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
Vanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity. - ECCLESIASTES 1:2
This is not a letter, or a sermon but a short treatise on the subject of worldly vanity. Certainly, religion allows us the possession of earthly comforts: only it regulates the use, and forbids the inordinate love of them. We may prize them as comforts, but not as treasures: and, while we employ a due part of our abundance in the works of a generous charity and true piety, we may well look upon what is left, as a salary that God gives us for being faithful Stewards of the rest. Thus to use the world for the interests of heaven, to make its enjoyments tributary to God's glory, it is to convert and proselyte it; and turn that into an Offering, which others make an Idol.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
To the Right Worshippful Sir Robert Viner
The Vanity of the World
There is Nothing in the World Vain in Respect of it's Natural Being
There is Nothing Vain in Respect of God the Creator
All the Vanity, that is in Worldly Things, is only in Respect of the Sin and Folly of Man
That a Little Cross will Embitter Great Comforts
A Display before you this Vanity of the World
That all its Glory and Splenfour Depends Merely Upon Opinion and Fancy
The Vanity of the World appears in Its Deceitfulness and Treachery
A Little Cross will Embitter Great Comforts
The Longer We Enjoy and Worldy Thing, The More Flat and Insipid Doth it Grow
All the Pleasure of the World, Is Nothing Else But a Tenius Repetition of the Same Things
That it Can Stand Us in No Stead, When We Have the Greatest Need of Support and Comfort
All things in the World are vain, Because they are Unsuitable.
The Vanity of the World appears in its Inconstancy and Fickleness
The Vanity of the World appears in this, That is it Altogether Unstaisfactory
The Uses We May Make of Them
To Admire and Adore the Good Providence of God to His Children
Gross Folly
The Poor Enjoyments of Vanity
To Fortify us Against the Fear of Death
Learning to Be Content in All Circumstances