BOOK 1. THE SUBJECT.
CHAPTER 2.
1.2.2. An Exhortation to look off all other Things.
One word of exhortation, Christians! I beseech you look off all other things, especially all evil things. I know I am pleading with you for an hard thing, I had need of the rhetoric of an angel, to persuade you to turn your eyes from off these things; nay, if I had all were too little, "It is God only must persuade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, and yet let me offer a few considerations, venture at a persuading of you, and leave the issue with God.
1. Consider that all other evil things are in God's account as very nothing. "Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity," Psalm xxxix. 5. Not only man, but every man; nor every man in his worst condition, but every man at his best estate; nor every man at his best estate is little worth, but every man at his best estate is vanity, emptiness, nothing; it may be so in part, nay, but in every part, he is wholly, totally, altogether vanity. Would any man think, that a great, rich, honourable man whom we look upon with such high admiring thoughts, should be laid thus low in God's esteem? O wonder, -wonder! and yet it is no such wonder, but one day you shall find the experience of this truth yourselves. "Rich men have slept their sleeps, and none of the men of might have found their hands," or as others render it, "They have found nothing in their hands," Psal. lxxvi. 5. That is, rich men have passed over this life, as men do pass over a sleep, imagining themselves to have golden mountains, and rocks of diamonds, but when they awake at the day of death, they find themselves to have nothing. Why, Christian, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?" Prov. xxiii. 5. First, Observe that riches are not, they are nothing, those things that make men great in the eyes of the world, are nothing in the eyes of God. 2ndly, Observe, That God would not have us so much as set our eyes upon them, they are not objects worth the looking on. 3rdly, Observe with what indignation he speaks against those that will set their eyes upon these vanities, wilt thou set thine eyes upon a thing which is not? q.d. What a vain, unreasonable, sottish, senseless thing is this?
2. Consider, That all such things (if they are anything) they are but trifles, deceits, thorns, miseries, uncertain things; this is an ordinary theme, it is every man's object, and every man's subject, and a very easy thing it is, to declaim upon the vanity, misery, uncertainty of the creatures: aye, but do you make it the matter of your meditation, and be you serious in it, think of it deeply, and desire God to be in your thoughts. Oh what work will it then make in your breasts! Oh how would it wean your loves and desires off all these things! Christians! consider all these adjuncts of all sublunary things. When the creatures tempt you, be not enticed by the beauty of them, so as to forget their vanity; say, there is a flower, fair, but fading; here is a glass that is bright, but very brittle.
3. Consider the difference of these objects, Christ and all other things; as thus, all other things are vanities, but Christ is a real, solid, substantial, excellent, glorious thing; all other things are temporary, fading things, but Christ is an enduring substance, "The same yesterday, to-day, and forever, which is, and which was, and which is to come," Rev. i. 4. All other things are thorns, vexations of spirit, but Christ is full of joy and comfort, a most ravishing object, all composed of loves, or "altogether lovely." O who would make it his business to fill his coffers with pebbles when he may have pearls, or gold, or silver, or precious things? What, must you look off your sins? Why, see before you the graces of the Spirit of Christ. Must you look off your idle sinful company? See before you "the fellowship of the Father, and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ," 1 John i. 3. Must you look off your pomp and glory? See before you the privilege of adoption; you shall be called the sons and daughters of God, heirs and co-heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 13. Must you look off worldly riches? See before you the riches of the graces of Christ. Must you look off sinful pleasures? See before you the fulness of joy, "at Christ's right hand are pleasures evermore," Psalm xvi. 11. Must you look off your own righteousness? See before you the righteousness of Christ Jesus. O what a vast difference is there betwixt these objects, Christ, and all other things!
4. Consider, that Christ looked off heaven and heavenly things for you, how much more should you look off the earth and earthly things; the world and worldly things for him? Christ left the glory, the company, the pleasures of paradise for you, and "he made himself of no reputation,'' he nothing'd himself (as it were) for you; "you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christy who though he was rich, yet for our sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich," 2 Cor. viii. 9. O let that melting love win you to him, and wean you off all other things!
5. Consider, that the rational soul of man is of too high a birth to spend its strength upon other things; the soul of man is of the same nature with angels; is a kind of divine spark. Now if a man have a golden miln, he will not use it to grind dirt, straws and rotten sticks in. The soul, the mind, the thinking faculty of man is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth. The soul is of a most excellent capacious nature, it is fit to converse not only with angels, but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son and Holy Ghost; it is of a transcendant being; put all the world into the balance with it, and it is nothing in comparison. The soul of the meanest galley slave is more than heaven and earth, than sun and moon and stars, and all the host of heaven. Now, if a man's soul, be of such an high-born nature, if the Lord hath put such a spirit into the bosom of man; for him, to bestow the strength of it upon low, base, mean and earthly things. Oh what an evil is this!
6. Consider, how short is the time that you have here in this world; this is the argument of the apostle, "Because the time is short, therefore let us use the world as if we used it not," 1 Cor. vii. 29, 31. Therefore let our hearts be taken off these things, yet a few days, and you shall be here no more; time passeth on, many hundred diseases are ready to assault you, you that are reading, or hearing, talking or walking, you must very shortly be carried on men's shoulders, and laid in the dust, and there left to the worms in darkness and corruption: you are almost there already, it is but a few days, or months, or years, and what is that when once they are gone and past! And Oh! "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and then lose his soul?" Matth. xvi. 26.
7. Consider the great account that you are to give of all earthly things; it is the sin of most of the sons of men, to look on creature comforts, but they consider not the account they must give for them. Oh here is a prevailing motive to take off your eyes! Consider the last accounts; what if ye were now to die, and to go the way of all flesh, and then to make up your reckoning, what good would it do you to remember all those contentments, and pleasures you once enjoyed upon the earth? If the factor after many years spent in foreign countries, at last returns home with his bill of accounts, "Thus much for singing, so much for dancing, this for courting, that for feasting." Who would not blame him for so fond a reckoning! Oh it will be a sad reckoning! if the bill come in, that you have spent most of your time in looking and gazing upon earthly things.