218 IMPORTANCE OF LEADING A discovered heaven on earth ? Ah, wretch ! trust not to thy discoveries, boast not of thy gain till experience bid theeboast. Disquiet not thyself, in looking for that which is not on earth : lest thou learn thy experience with the loss of thy soul, which thou mightest have learned on easier terms ; even by the warnings of God in his word, and the loss of thousands of souls before thee. If Satan should take thee up to the mountain of temptation, and show thee all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.; he could show thee ño- thing that is worthy thy thoughts, much less to be pre - ferred before thy rest. Indeed, so far as duty and ne- cessity require it, we must be content to mind the things below : but who is he that contains himself within the compass of those limits ? And yet if we ever so dili- gently contract our cares and thoughts, we shall find the least to be bitter and burdensome. Christians, see the emptiness of all these things, and the preciousness of the things above. If thy thoughts should, like the laborious bee, go over the world from flower to flower, from creature to creature, they would bring no honey or sweetness home, save what they gathered from their relations to eternity. Though every truth of God is pre- cious, and ought to be defended ; yet even all our study of truth should be still in reference to our rest : for the observation is too true,, "that the lovers of controver- sies in religion, have never been warmed with one spark of the love of God." And as for minding the " affairs of church and state ;" so far as they illustrate the provi- dence of God, and tend to the settling of the gospel, 'and the government of Christ, and consequently to the saving our own souls, and those of our posterity, they are well worth our diligent observation : but these are only their relations to eternity. Even all our dealings in the world, our buying and selling, our eating and drinking, our building and marrying, our peace and war, so far as they relate not to the life to come, but tend only to the pleasing of the flesh, are not worthy the frequent thoughts of a Christian. And now doth not thy conscience say, that there is nothing but hea- ven, and the way to it, that is worth thy minding ?
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