i
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makes men part -with all that is sacred. Surely the presentness of things is a great snare ; therefore do afflictions seem too grievous, Heb. xii. 11, and temptations so pressing. We can taste the delights of the creature, and feel the pleasures of the flesh ; the happiness of the world to come is unseen and unknown. ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die,' is the language of every carnal heart ; therefore it will not venture upon the practice of duties difficult and distasteful to present affections, and forego what we see and enjoy upon the uncertain hopes of what is to come. Present things have more advantage to pervert the mind than good things at a distance to draw it to God. Here lieth the root of all temptations ; the inconveniencies of a strict religion are present, and the rewards are future. Well, this advantage is nothing to those that can overlook present things, and have their hearts wholly taken up about things to come. Sense and faith are the two opposite leaders and captains in the spiritual warfare. All the forces of the regenerate part are led up by faith ; sense on the other side, marshalleth all the temptations of the world and the flesh. Sense is all for enjoy- ment and actual possession. To meet it, faith giveth a substance and being to things to come, and maketh the soul soek out other satisfac- tions and contentments. The strength of the renewed part and success of the spiritual battle lieth in the liveliness of hope and the certainty of faith, which maketh these things present which sense would judge absent. It forestalleth the joys of heaven, that restraints from present delights may seem less irksome ; so that a little profit or present pleasure cannot prevail over that deep sense of everlasting joys and pleasures that are to come. Take, for instance, Moses : Heb. xi. 24- 26, ' By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.' Faith showeth we shall lose nothing in this world, but we shall have much better in the other world. Loolving to these things sweetens the bitterness of all crosses, and weakeneth the strength of all temptations : 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.'
4. From the nature of the scope and ^nd. It is a measure and a motive.
[1.] It is a measure to direct us how to use all things. When a man hath fixed his end, he will the sooner understand his way. The intention is as the eye of the body: Mat. vii. 22, 'The light of the body is the eye ; if a man's eye be single, the whole body is full of light.' Every man is made wise by his end, for the end is the measure of the means. Now, above all other ends, eternity must needs make us wise, because it is the last end, the most noble end which we can propound to ourselves; and so thereby can understand the true measure and value of all things, in things evil or good.
In things evil, it showeth how really evil things really evil are ; as Bin. The weight and grievousness of sin is best known by those eternal torments which are appointed for the punishment thereof. Present punishments do somewhat discover it : * Now know that it is an evil
282 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS IV. 18.
thing, and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,' Jer. ii. 19. Briars and thorns, and sensible smart, will teach us that which bare contemplation doth not. But if the temporal punishment maketh us know, ' What an evil thing and a bitter it is,' what will eternal do ? Go ask the damned in hell whether it be a light thing to sin against God : Mark ix. 44, ' Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'
Here is the great aggravation of sin, that for temporal trifles they have lost eternal joys, and run the hazard of eternal pains for the ease, mirth, and pleasure of a moment. And then for things evil in opinion, it showeth how falsely we are deluded ; as afflictions, sufferings, and losses for Christ, death, &c. It much concerneth us to have a true notion of these things. For afilictions, it showeth that they are not so bad as the world taketh them to be. They are tedious for the present, but it is but for a season : 1 Peter i. 6, ' Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season (if need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.' All things are lessened by having eternity in our minds, the delights of the world, and the sorrows of the world, 1 Cor. vii. 29. Since the world passeth away, and the fashion thereof, we should rejoice as if we rejoiced not, mourn as if we mourned not ; the good and evil will be soon over. We cry out. How long ? but it is not for ever. It is grievous, but it is not eternal, it is not hell ; yea, they maybe good : Ps. cxix. 71, ' It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.' All things are good as they help on a blessed eter- nity ; so afflictions may be good. That part of the world that is led by sense will never endure this, bat that part which is led by faith will easily assent to it. The world is led by sense. Say to a covetous man that the loss of an estate is good, to a worldly rich man that poverty is good, to an ambitious man that it is good to be despised and contemned, to a voluptuous man that it is good to be in pain, to afflict the body for the good of the soul, they will never believe you. But go to them that measure all things by eternity, and they will tell you that poverty maketh way for the true riches, mourning for the true glory, want for fulness of pleasure at God's right hand, that misery mortifieth sin : 1 Cor. xi. 32, ' When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.' Sufferings for Christ : if we win eternity with the loss of all the world, we are no losers ; for '' The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever,' 1 John ii. 17. But, on the contrary, it is a sorry bargain to lose eternity for the enjoyment of all the world : Mat. xvi. 26, ' For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ' And then death, the king of terrors; yet it is not feared by a christian, because it is an entrance into eternal life ; when he dieth, then shall he live : John xi. 25, 26, ' I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this ? ' If we have a sense of this, why should we be troubled to be unclothed, that we may be clothed upon with immortal- ity and glory ? It separateth us from our worldly friends and benefits, but bringeth us to God, with whom vi'e shall abide for ever ; it puts an