2Q4, OP SPTItLTtÍAL MINDEDNESS. First. He hath, in all manner of instances, poured contempt on the things of this world, in comparison of things spiritual and heavenly. All things here below were at first made beautiful and in order, and were de- clared by God himself to be exceedinggood, and that not only in their being and nature,:but in the use whereunto they were designed. They were then de- sirable to men, and the enjoyment of them would have been a blessing, without danger of temptation; for they were the ordinance of God, to lead us to the knowledge of him, and love to him : but since the en- trance of sin, whereby the world fell under the curse, and into the power of Satan, the things of it in his management, are become effectual means to draw off the heart and affections from God ; for it is the world and the things of it, as summed up by the apostle, 1 John ii. 15, 16, that alone strive for our affections to be the object of them. Sin and Satan do but woo for the world to take themoff from God : by them doth the god of this world blind the eyes of them that believe not : and the principal way whereby he worketh in them is by promises of satisfaction to all the lusts of the minds of men, with a proposal of whatever is dreadful and terrible in the want of them. Being now in this state and condition, and used to this end, through the craft of Satan, and the folly of the minds of men, God hath showed, by various instances, that they are all vain, empty, unsatisfactory, and every way to be despised, in comparison of things eternal. First. He did it most eminently and signally in the life, death, and cross, of Christ. What can be seen or found in this world, after the Son of God hath spent his life in it, not having where to lay his head ; and af- ter he went out of it on the cross 2 Had there been
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