[1.] Things invisible, because of their essence and nature. There is an eternal God against a poor creature whose breath is in his nostrils, a God who is all in all, and a creature who is nothing. Nothing in opposition or contrariety to God or his people : Isa. xli. 11, ' Behold, they that are incensed against thee shall be as nothing.' Nothing in comparison with God : Isa. xl. 17, ' All nations before him are as nothing ; they are accounted less than nothing and vanity ; ' Dan. iv. 35, ' The inhabitants of the earth are reputed before him as nothing.' Nothing by way of exclusion of God ; as the sunbeam is nothing when the sun withdraweth, or the sound is nothing when the musician taketh away his mouth from the pipe or instrument : ' Thou takest away their breath, and they die.' The creature beareth a big bulk in the eye of sense, seemeth not only to be something, but all things ; and so long as we look to things visible, what hope or comfort have we to fasten upon ? but to a man that looketh to things invisible, the amiableness and frightfulness of the creature vanisheth into nothing : Heb. xi. 27, ' By faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as seeing him that is invisible ; ' that is, with loss of all attempted to bring the people out of Egypt. He saw him not by the eye of sense, but faith. And then all the princes and powers of the world are as nothing. Alas ! when we see great and, most enraged enemies, our hearts fail within us ; but faith, by closing the eye of sense, winketh the creature into nothing. On the other side, if a man had a due sense of God's being, the ".tempting baits of the world would
280 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS IV. 18.
scarce be seen ; riches, and honours, and pleasures, would be forgotten, as if they were not, Prov. xxiii. 5 ; all things would be as nothing in comparison of him.
[2.] Things invisible because of their distance, as they are future ; so a believer hath the advantage of other men. They that look to things invisible and eternal see something to outweigh all carnal allectives or terrors, and so have more incitations to piety than the world can afford temptations to the contrary. Take the terrors of sense ; what is a prison to hell ? the fire wherein God's servants are burnt to ashes, to the fire that shall never be quenched and the worm that shall never die ? Luke x. 4. So take the delights and allurements of sense ; what are those to the pleasures at God's right hand for evermore ? A man that looketh to things unseen seeth that the terrors and delights of faith are far greater than the terrors and delights of sense, and are more sure and certain. Alas ! the pleasures of the world are but as dung and dog's-meat to Christ, Phil. iii. 7-&. All the evils are but as a flea-biting in comparison of the promised glory : Kom. viii. 18, ' For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ; ' and 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of gloiy ; ' Heb. x. 34, ' Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.' They were liable to violence and rapine, brought before tribunals, &c., yet all this was nothing to these greater things. As it darkens the glory of worldly things, so it lesseneth the evil of them.
2. From the subject. They that make eternal things their scope, they have a new temper of heart. The soul naturally doth run out upon present things, as the greatest and only realities : ' That which is born of flesh is flesh,' John iii. 6. Yea, all the while the soul dwelleth in flesh, and worketh by the senses, these present things will be a temptation to us. But there is a new bias and bent put upon them by grace ; there is an eternal principle that carrieth them to eternal ends. It is called ' The seed of God,' 1 John iii. 9 ; ' The divine nature, which maketh us escape the corruption that is in the world 'Jirough lust,' 2 Peter i. 4. Such a nature as giveth eternal riches a due '^•alue and esteem. It is an immortal seed, 1 Peter i. 22. Eternal life is begun in all that shall be saved ; it is working towards its final per- fection. The apostle telleth us, ' That he that hateth his brother hath not eternal life abiding in him,' 1 John iii. 15 ; implying that he that loveth his brother, or hath any grace, hath eternal life begun in him which is working towards perfection:
3. From the slightness of temptations, when a man once groweth dead to the impressions of sense. The corrupt heart of man is all for present satisfactions, and though the pleasures of sin be short and inconsiderable, yet, because they are near at hand, they take more with us than the joys of heaven, which are future and absent : 2 Tim. iv. 10, ' Demas hath forsaken us, and loved the present world.' Esau for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, Heb. xii. 16. When lust impor- tunately craved a present satisfaction, all future considerations were laid aside. A little ease, honour, gain, and preferment in the world