[The natural man seeks nothing above them. His mind is not occupied with any thing above them. He " is in the flesh; " he " walks according to the flesh," " fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." His " affections are altogether set upon things below, and not on things above." His thoughts, his conversation, his labours from day to day, all arise from, and terminate in, the things of time and sense: and from these things alone spring all his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows ]
These things also have great power over those who profess godliness —
[So our Lord has told us in the parable of the Sower. The thorny-ground hearers have made, in appearance at least, a great proficiency in religion. They have far surpassed the stony-ground hearers, who yet have heard the word with joy, and given many cheering and hopeful promises of a future harvest. They have been long established, and brought forth much which both they and others have deemed estimable fruit : but yet, " through the cares of this world, and the deceitful- ness of riches, and the lust of other things, the seed that has grown up in them is choked, and they bring forth no fruit to perfection."
Even persons truly and deeply pious are in great danger from them ; else why did our blessed Lord caution even his own immediate disciples in those memorable words, " Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares a." There is yet an earthly and sensual spirit dwelling in the best of us, and working power- fully to counteract the better dictates of our new manb: and he knows little of his own heart, who does not see and bewail his own proneness to look back again after the flesh-pots of Egypt.]
But whilst we point out thus the danger of earthly vanities, we would point out also,
II. The way to escape their baneful influence —
We should set a guard upon all our senses —
[The senses are inlets to all manner of evil. Alas! alas! how often has the mind been contaminated by what it has either seen or heard ! If it were no more than what we have read in books, or heard in conversation, that was calculated to encourage a worldly spirit, we should all feel abundant reason to lament, that we have not been sufficiently on our guard against the admission of bad impressions on the mind. But the vilest lusts have found an entrance into the heart by these
a Luke xxi. 34. " Gal. v. 17.
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