§ 13. (8.) No man so highly honoreth God, as he whose conversation is in heaven. Is not a parent disgraced, when children feed on husks, are clothed in rags, and keep company with none but rogues and beggars? Is it not so to our heavenly Father, when we, who call ourselves his children, feed on earth, and the garb of our souls is like that of the naked world; and our hearts familiarly converse with, and _cleave to the dust_, rather than stand continually in our Father's presence? Surely we live below the children of a king, not according to the height of our hopes, nor the provision of our Father's house, and the great preparations made for his saints. It is well we have a Father of tender bowels, who will own his children in rags. If he did not first challenge his interest in us, neither ourselves, nor others could know us to be his people. But when a Christian can live above, and rejoice his soul with the things that are unseen; how is God honored by such a one! The Lord will testify for him, "This man believes me, and takes me at my word; he rejoiceth in my promise, before he hath possession; he can be thankful for what his bodily eyes never saw; his rejoicing is not in the flesh; his heart is with me; he loves my presence; and he shall surely enjoy it in my kingdom for ever. _Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Them that honor me, I will honor._" How did God esteem himself honored by Caleb and Joshua, when they went into the promised land, and brought back to their brethren a taste of the fruits, and spake well of the good land, and encouraged the people? What a promise and recompense did they receive?
§ 14. (9.) A soul that doth not set its affections on things above, disobeys the commands, and loses the most gracious and delightful discoveries of the Word of God. The same God that hath commanded thee to believe, and to be a Christian, hath commanded thee to _seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God_, and to _set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth_.[307] The same God that hath forbidden thee to murder, steal, or commit adultery, hath forbidden thee the neglect of this great duty; and darest thou wilfully disobey him? Why not make conscience of one, as well as the other? He hath made it thy duty, as well as the means of thy comfort, that a double bond may engage thee not to forsake thy own mercies. Besides, what are all the most glorious descriptions of heaven, all those discoveries of our future blessedness, and precious promises of our rest, but lost to thee? Are not these the stars in the firmament of Scripture, and the golden lines in that book of God? Methinks thou shouldst not part with one of those promises, no not for a world. As heaven is the perfection of all our mercies, so the promises of it in the gospel, are the very soul of the gospel. Is a comfortable word from the mouth of God of such worth, that all the comforts in the world are nothing to it? And dost thou neglect and overlook so many of them? Why should God reveal so much of his counsel, and tell us beforehand of the joys we shall possess, but to make us know it for our joy? If it had not been to fill us with the delights of our foreknown blessedness, he might have kept his purpose to himself, and never have let us know it till we come to enjoy it. Yea, when we had got possession of our rest, he might still have concealed its eternity from us, and then the fears of losing it would have much diminished the sweetness of our joys. But it hath pleased our Father to open his counsel, and let us know the very intent of his heart, that our joy might be full, and that we might live as the heirs of such a kingdom. And shall we now overlook all? Shall we live in earthly cares and sorrows, and rejoice no more in these discoveries, than if the Lord had never wrote them? If thy prince had but sealed thee a patent of some lordship, how oft wouldst thou cast thine eye upon it, and make it thy delightful study, till thou shouldst come to possess the dignify itself? And hath God sealed thee a patent of heaven, and dost thou let it lie by thee, as if thou hadst forgot it? O that our hearts were as high as our hopes, and our hopes as high as these infallible promises!
[Footnote 307] Colossians iii, 1, 2.