504 CHARACTER OF A SOUND, not at thingsas at the present they seem or relish to the flesh, or to short-sighted men, but as they will appear and be judged of at last. The first letter maketh not the word, nor the first word the 'sentence, without the last. Present time is quickly past, and therefore he less regardeth what things seem at present, than what they will prove to all eternity. When temptationsoffer hith a bait to sin, with_ the present profit, or pleasure, or honor, he seeth at once the final shame : he seeth all worldly things as they are seen by a dying man, and as after thegeneral conflagrationtheywill be. He seeth the godly man, in his adversity and patience, as entering into his Master's joys : he seeth the derided, vilified saint, as ready to stand justified by Christ at his right hand; and the liars of the ma- liçious world as ready to cover themselves with shame. He seeth the wicked,in the height of their prosperity, as ready to be cutdown and withered,, and their pampered flesh to turn to dirt ; and their filthy and malicious souls to stand condemned' by Christ at his left hand ; and to hear, "Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ; " Matt. xxv. 1 Pet. i. 24. James i. 10, 11. Psal. lxxiii. xxxvii. Therefore it is that he valued grace,be- cause he knoweth what it will be ; and therefore it is that he flieth from sin, "because he knoweth the terrors of the Lord," and what it will prove to the sinner in the end ; and how sinners themselves will curse theday that ever theydid commit it ; and wish,when it is too late, that they had chosen the holiness and patience of the saints. And therefore it is that he pitieth ratherthan envieth the prosperous enemiesof the church,because he foreseeth whatthe "endwill be of them that obey not the gospel of Christ. And if the righteous be scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear ?" 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18.. 2 Thes. i. 8-10. If the wicked unbelievers sawbut the ending of all things as he ,doth, they would be all then of his mind and way. This putteth so much life into his prayers, his obedience, and patience, because be seeth the end in all; Deut.. xxxii. 29. Prov. xix. 20. Isa. xlvii. 7. 2. And the weakest Christian doth the same in the main, so fat as to turn his heart from things temporal to things eternal ; and to resolve him in his main choice, and toconduct the course of hislife towards heaven. But yet in particular action; he is often stopped in present things, and forgetfully loseth the sight of the-end, and so is deluded andenticed into sin,for want of seeing that which- should have preserved him. He is like one that traveleth over hills and valleys, who, when he is upon thehills, doth see the place that he is going to ; but when he cometh into the valleys, it is out of his sight. Too oft doth the weak Christian think of things as they appear at the present,with little sense of the change that is near. When he seeth the baits df sin, whether riches, or beauty, or meat and drink,
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