494 CHARACtER OF A SOUND, .20, 21.) "he looketh not at the things which are seen, which are temporal, but at the things which are not seen, which are eternal ; " (2 Cor. iv. 18.) he is a stranger upon earth, and heaven is to him as his home. 2. The weak Christian also hath the same end, and hope; and motive ; and preferreth his hopes of the life to come before all 'the wealth and pleasures of this life; but yet his thoughts of heaven are much more strange and dull : he hath so muckdoubting and fear yet mixedwith his faith and hope, that he looketh before him to his everlasting state, with backwardness and trouble, end with small desire and delight. He bath so much hope of heaven, as to abate his fears of hell, and make him think of eternity with more quietness than he could do, if he found himself unregenerate ; but not so much as to make his thoughts of heaven so free, and sweet, and frequent, nor his desires after it so strong, as the confirmed Christian's are ; and therefore his duties, and his speech of heaven, and his endeavors to obtain it, are all more languid and unconstant; and he is much 'more prone to fall in love with earth, and to enter- tain the motions of reconciliation to the world, and to have his *heart too much set upon some place, or person, or thing below, and to be either delighted too much in the possession of it, or afflicted and troubled too much with the loss of it: earthly things are too much the,motives of his life, and the reasons of his joys and griefs; though he bath the true beliefof a life to come, and it prevaileth in the main against the world, yet it is but little that he useth to the commanding, and raising, and comforting his soul, in compari- son of what a strong believer doth ; Matt. xvi. 22, 23. 3. But the seeming Christian would serve God and mammon, andplaceth hischief and most certain happiness practically on earth. Though speculatively he know and say, that heaven is better, yet doth he not practically judge it to be so to him and therefore he loveth the world above it, and he doth most carefully lay up a treasure on earth ; (Matt. vi. 19.) and is resolved first to.seek and secure his portion here below; and yet he taketh heaven fora reserve, as knowing that the world will cast him off at last, and die he must, there is no remedy ; and therefore he taketh heaven as next unto the best, as his secónd hope, as better than hell, and will go in re- ligion as far as he can, without the loss of his prosperity here ; so that earth and flesh do govern and command the design and tenor of his life ; but heaven and his soul shall have all that they can spare ; which may be enough to make him pass with men for one eminently religious ; 1 John ii. 15. Matt. xiii. 22. Luke xviii. 22, 23. xiv. 24. 33. Psal. xvii. 14. Phil. iii. 18-20. XIV. 1. AChristian indeed is one that, having taken heaven for his felicity, doth account no labor or cdst too great for the ob-
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