OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 225 aught of real worth here below, certainly he had enjoy- ed, if not crowns and empires, which were all in his power ; yet such goods and possessions as men of sober reasonings and moderate affections esteem a compe- tency. But things were quite otherwise disposed, to manifest that there is nothing of value or use in these things, but only to support nature to the performance of service to God, wherein they are serviceable to eter- nity. He never attained, he never enjoyed, more than daily supplies of bread out of the stores of Providence, and which alone he hath instructed us to pray for. Matt. viii. 20. In his cross the world proclaimed all its good qualities, and all its powers; and hath given to them that believe, its naked face to view and con= template. Nor is it now one jot more comely than it was when it had gotten Christ on the cross. Hence is that inference and conclusion of the apostle, Gal. vi. 14. ' But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.' Since I have believed, since I have a sense of the power and virtue of the cross of Christ, I have done with all things in this world : it is a dead thing to me, nor have I any affec- tion for it. This is that which made the difference be- tween the promises of the old covenant and the new ; for they were many of them about temporal things, the good things of this world and this life ; xhos.e of the new are mostly of things spiritual and eternal. God would not call off the church wholly from a regard to these things, until he had given a de- monstration of their emptiness, vanity, and insufficien- cy, in the cross of Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 16 -18. Whither so fast, my friend l ' What meaneth this rising so early, and going to bed late, eating the bread
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