126 OUR TITLE TO [Chap. 8. that I desire besides thee !" If thou be an heir of rest, it is thus with thee. Though the flesh will be pleading for its own delights, and the world will be creeping into thine affections, yet in thyordinary, settled, prevailing judgment and affections, thou preferrest God before all things in the world. Thou makest him the very end of thy desires and endeavors. Thevery reason why thou hearest, and prayest, and desirest to live on earth, is chiefly this, that thou mayst seek the Lord, and make sure of thy rest. Though thou dost not seek it so zealously as thou shouldst, yet it bath the chief of thy desires and endeavors, so that nothing else is desired or preferred before it. Thpu wilt think no labor or suffering too great to obtain it. And though the flesh may sometimes shrink, yet thou art resolved and contented to go through all. Thy esteem for it will also be so high, and thy affection to it so great, that thou wouldst not ex- change thy title to it, and hopes of it, for any worldly good whatsoever. If God should set before thee an eter- nity of earthly pleasures on one hand, and the saints' rest on the other, and bid thee take thy choice, thou wouldst refuse the world and choose this rest. But if thou art yet unsanctified, then thou dost in thy heart prefer thy worldly happiness before God; and though thy tongue may say that God is thy chief good, yet thy heart doth not so es- teem him. For the world is the chief end of thy desires and endeavors. Thy veryheart is set upon it. Thygreatest care and labor is to maintain thy credit, or fleshly delights. But the life to come hath little of thy care or labor. Thou didst never perceive so much excellency in that unseen glory of another world, as to draw thy heart after it, and set thee a laboring heartily for it. The little pains thou be- stowest that way is but in the second place. God bath but the world's leavings; only that time and labor which thou canst spare from the world, or those few, cold, and careless thoughts which follow thy constant, earnest, and delightful thoughts of earthly things. Neither wouldst thou do any thing at all for heaven, if thou knewest how to keep the world. But lest thou shouldst be turned into hell when thou canst keep the world no longer, therefore thou wilt do something. For the same reason thou thinkest the way of God too strict, and wilt not be persuaded to the constant labor of walking according to the Gospel rule; and when
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=