Oh then ! what a vanity is it to set the heart, and let out the af- fections on them ! you can never depend too much upon God, nor too little upon the creature, 1 Tim. vi. 17. " Charge them that are " rich in this world, that they be not high-minded and trust in un- *' certain riches."*'
Are all earthly things thus transitory and vain ? Then what a re- proach and shame is it to me, that the men of this world should be more industrious and eager in the prosecution of sucli vanities, than
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I am to enrich ray soul with solid and everlasting treasure ? 0 that ever a sensual lust should be more operative in them tlian the love of God in me ! O my soul, thou dost not lay out thy strength and earnestness for heaven with any proportion to what they do for the world. I have indeed higher motives, and a surer reward than they : but as I have an advantage above them herein, so they have an ad- vantage above me in the strength and entireness of the principle by which they are acted. What they do for the world, they do it with all their might; they have no contrary principle to oppose them; their thoughts, strength, and affections are entirely carried in one channel ; but I find "a law in my members warring against the law " of my mind ;" I must strive through a thousand difficulties and contradictions to the discharge of a duty. O my God ! shall not my heart be more enlarged in zeal, love, and delight in thee, than theirs are after their lusts .^^ O let me once find it so.
Again, is the creature so vain and unstable ? Then why are my affections so hot and eager after it ? And why am I so apt to doat upon its beauty, especially when God is staining all its pride and glory ! Jer. xlv. 5, 6. Surely it is unbecoming the spirit of a Chris- tian at any time, but at such a time we may say of it, as Hushai of Ahithophefs counsel, " It is not good at this time."
O that my spirit were raised above them, and my conversation more in heaven ! O that like that angel. Rev. x. 1, 2. which came down from heaven, and set one foot upon the sea, and another upon the earth, having a crown upon his head, so I might set one foot upon all the cares, fears, and terrors of the world, and another upon all the tempting splendor and glory of the world, treading both un- derfoot in the dust, and crowning myself with nothing but spiritual excellencies and glory !
tl UDGE in thyself, O Christian ! is it meet
To set thy heart on what beasts set their feet ?
'Tis no hyperbole, if you be told.
You dig for dross with mattocks made of gold.
Affections are too costly to bestow
Upon the fair-fac'd nothings here below.
The eaffle scorns to fall down from on hio-h,
(The proverb saith) to catch the silly fly.
And can a Christian leave the face of God,
T' embrace th** earth, or doat upon a clod ?
Can earthly things thy heart so strangely move,
To tenipt it down from the delights above; /
And now to court the world at such a time
When God is laying judgment to the line?
'Tis just like him that doth his cabin sweep
And trim, when all is sinking in the deep :
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Or like the silly bird that to her nest Doth carry straws, and never is at rest, Till it be feathered well, but doth not see The axe beneath, that's hewing down the tree. If on a thorn thy heart itself repose With such delight, what if it were a rose ? Admire, O saint, the wisdom of thy God, Who of the self-same tree doth make a rod, Lest thou shouldst surfeit on forbidden fruit, And Uve not like a saint, but like a brute.
Like hungry lions, waves for sinners gape : Leave then your sins behind, ifyoiCll escape.
A HE waves of the sea are sometimes raised by God's commission, to be executioners of his threatenings upon sinners. When Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord to Tarshish, the text saith, " The *' Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty " tempest, so that the ship was like to be broken,"" Jonah i. 4. These were God's bailiffs to arrest the run-away prophet. And Psal. cxlviii. 8. The stormy winds are said X.o fulfil his word ; not only his word of command, in rising when God bids them, but his word of threatening also. And hence it is called a destroying wind, Jer. li. 1. and a stormy wind in God's Jury, Ezek. xiii. 13.
If these be the executioners of God's threatenings, how sad then is their condition that put forth to sea under the guilt of all their sins ? Or, if God should commissionate the winds to go after and arrest tliee for all thou owest him, where art thou then ? How dare you put forth under the power of a divine threat, before all be cleared betwixt God and thee.? Sins in scripture are called debts, Matth. vi. 12. They are debts to God ; not that we owe them to him, or ought to sin, but metonymically, because they render the sinner ob- noxious to God's judgments, even as pecuniary debts oblige him that hath not wherewith to pay, to suffer punishment. All sinners must undergo the cur^e, either in their own person, according to the ex- press letter of the law, Gen. ii. 17. Gal. iii. 10. or their surety, ac- cording to the tacit intent of the law, manifested to be tlie mind of the lawgiver, Gen. iii. 13, 14.
Now he that by faith hath interest in this surety, hath his dis- charge, his quietus est, sealed in the blood of Christ ; all process at law, or from the law, is stopt, Rom. viii. 1. But if thou be an im- penitent, persisting sinner, thy debt remains upon thine own score,
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" And be sure thy sin will find tliee out, wherever tliou goest,'' Numb, xxxii. 23. i. e. God's revenging hand for sin will be upon thee : Thou mayest lose the sight and memory of thy sins, but they lose not the sight of thee ; they follow after, as the hound doth the fleet- ing game upon the scent, till they have fetched thee up : And then consider, " How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the " living God," Heb. x. 31. How soon may a storm arrest, and bring thee before the bar of God ?