[2.] Let us often compare together the condition of the present and of the future life. All things that are liable to the view of sense soon pass away, whether comforts or crosses. The good and evil of the present world are soon over ; accordingly should be our carriage towards them, 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. Now consider how unreasonable it is the soul should be drawn away by transitory things from those which are eternal. The things we doat upon are not worthy to be compared with the greatness and duration of those things to which we are invited by the promises of the gospel. It may be you have health and strength and wealth now, but how long will you have it ? We are not sure of the enjoyment of these things the next day. How soon may they be withered ! the prosperity of the wicked is cut down as grass, withered as the green herb, Ps. xxxvii. 2 ; but things unseen will be yours to all eternity. God is an everlasting portion : Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.' Christ's redemption is an everlasting redemption : Heb. ix. 12, ' He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.' God and Christ will be yours to-day, and will be yours to all eternity. Those things which are seen, if they do not perish, may be taken from you, Mat. vi. 19, 20. We are not sure to get it, but you are sure to leave it. Job i. 21, but these other things cannot be taken from you : Luke x. 42, ' One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her.' The devil cannot and God will not take it from you.
[3.] Improve your experience of the vanity of this world : Ps. cxix 96, ' I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandments are exceeding broad.' Vain, light hearts pass over these things, and get
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no profit by them ; they find the creature vanity and vexation of spirit, yet run out as greedily after it as they did before : Ps. xlix. 13, ' This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings.' They are sensible of the folly of their ancestors, but are not mended by it ; they have eyes to see, but not an heart to see : Dent, xxix. 2-4, ' Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land : the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles : yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.'
[4.] Be sure when you are tempted to revive this meditation upon your hearts, that things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal. As (1.) When any temptation cometh to draw your hearts to give contentment to the flesh for a season ; as for instance, when you are tempted to please your eye, your taste, your sensual desire, or to wrong your souls, for wealth and honour ; remember these are not eternal pleasures, riches, honours ; and shall I dare run the hazard of wronging God or my soul for a little present satisfaction ? leave my fatness and sweetness to rule over the trees ? What ! hazard eternal things for temporal trifles ? (2.) When tempted by the bitterness of the cross to relent in God's cause, say, as Basil's forty martyrs, that were kept naked in the open air in a cold night, to be burned next day : Sharp is the cold, but sweet is paradise ; troublesome is the way, but pleasant is the end of the journey : let us endure a little cold, and the patriarch's bosom will soon warm us. Stephen saw heaven opened, and that fortified him against the showers of stones from the people, Acts vii. 51. It is for such a season.
[5.] Beg the light of the Spirit. It is necessary for us both with respect to things seen and unseen. (1.) Seen, that we may apprehend the vanity of the creature : Ps. xc. 92, ' So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom ; ' Ps. xlix. 4, ' I will incline mine ear to a parable ; I will open my dark saying upon the harp.' David is describing the vanity of worldly prosperity. And also to see things unseen : Eph. i. 17, 18, * That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' Our wisdom natural is carnal and sensual, James iii. 15. Either for riches, pleasures, or honours : Prov. xxiii. 4, ' Labour not to be rich ; cease from thine own wisdom.' Keason catereth for the body, true wisdom is from above,