[3.] They prefer earth before heaven and time before eternity. All their business is rather to make sure of the prosperity of the body than the salvation of the soul. And though it is plain, and they do or may know and see that this will not cure their diseases, nor ease their pain, nor save them from the grave nor hell, yet because riches will help them to live in pleasure and reputation with the world, and in plenty of all things, and to have their will as long as they live, that is enough for them, for they care not for the pleasures and happiness which are to be enjoyed in the other world. Though death and the grave may put an end to all they have here much sooner than they imagined, yet their minds and hearts are set upon these things as their happiness, and will not be diverted from them ; they have their portion in this world : Ps. xvii. 14, ' From men which are thy hand, 0 Lord ; from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.'
2. The danger. As it is a base thing to act so disproportionably to the light of reason, so within a little while it will be a bitter thing : Jer. ii. 19, ' Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee ; know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee.' Sure it will be bitterness in the end to forsake the Lord, and walk in the inventions and imaginations of thine own heart. You are posting to your eternal misery, where a reflection upon your evil choice will be the greatest part of your misery : Isa. 1. 11, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks ; walk in the light of your fire, and the sparks which ye have kindled : this shall 3'e have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' The allusion is not to such a fire as burnetii and consumeth, but such as doth warm and cherish. Those stakes wliich wicked worldlings rely upon for succour will in time prove their greatest calamities, and those tufts and fuzes which they promised the greatest comfort to themselves from will occasion the greatest sorrow ; the brands which they heaped together will affoixl them little heat and light, but smoke to vex and choke them. He that will warm himself by his own sparks can expect no other issue from his own rash folly and God's righteous vengeance.
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 59
Use 2. To exhort us not only to lament it, but to come out of this condition. And here to this end —
1. Kenounce that crooked carnal wisdom which is man's undoing. Man at first seeking to be wise, became a fool. Now ' he must be a fool, that he may be wise,' 1 Cor. iii. 18 ; a fool to the flesh and the world, that he may be wise to God.
2. Give up yourselves to God in covenant, as your Lord and felicity. A man is never in his wits till he cometli to this : Ps. xxii. 27, ' All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.' Our misery is in departing from him, so our happiness is in putting ourselves into his hands again. Now you must give up yourselves to him as your supreme Lord and chief felicity or happiness, depending upon him as your happiness, obeying him as your Lord ; obey his counsel though against your own reason, and stick to his ways though they seem to be against your present happiness. Remember that duty is safety, that cleaving to God with loss is better than departing from him with seeming gain ; and God, that outwits the subtle designer, doth take care of and preserve the plain and simple person, that avowedly adhereth to him, when all the contrivances of foolish and worldly-minded men prove vain and unprosperous. Your obedience will be your safety. Dependence and obedience do mutually cherish one another ; the more we depend, the more we obey ; and the more we obey, the more we depend ; and so they discover one another. Let us show our depen- dence on God, that in all the changes of this life, by a firm, fast adhe- rence and resolution, we stick fast to God, whatever comes of it, using no means but what he allows, and counting his favour our happiness. They that depend not on him are left to their own inventions.
3. Your great design must be to approve yourselves to God : 2 Cor. T. 9, ' Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of the Lord.'
Use 3. It showeth what need we have to give up ourselves to the conduct of God's word and Spirit. Man is so full of his own inventions that none can be safe but they that depend upon God for direction : James i. 5, * If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God.' Such a fallible ci'eature as man is in point of truth, such an impotent creature is he in point of power, such an indigent creature in point of happiness and self-sufficiencies, such a sinful corrupt creature, so full of imagina- tions and lusts, so many crooked dispositions in his heart, so many wiles to justify his irregular choice, so many temptations, and they represented with such sophistry, that he should be willing to accept of direction. Yea, the people of God themselves have need of the direction of the word, in regard of the weakness of their understandings and the per- verseness of their affections.