Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.2

s$2tAR. áCxxv7i.1 THE CHRtSTIAN'3 TREASt17iË. 123 happiness May know no end. Thus .things present, and things to corne are all yours; and there is nothing in tine or eternity, which can corne within the reach or notice, but in some of these senses shall subserve your interest, and turn toyour advantage. This is the genuine sense, and this the true limitation of these words, "all things are yours.". The second thing proposed in this discourse, was to prove, that notwithstanding the limited sense of these words, yet the true christian has a richer treasure in them than all the worldly wealth of the sinner. And without multiplying particulars, the proof of it will suf- ficientlyappear in these four things. I. The treasure of the meanest saint is vastly more large and extensive, than that of the richestsinner. Let the wicked man point to his heaps of money, and run over the names of his farms and manors, and call-him- self the lord and master of them all; it is but a narrow and poor survey, that a few pieces of shining earth can give us; or the fields that lie within the prospect of a mile or two, when compared with this vast and univer- sal treasure, " all things are yours." It is true, Christi- ans, that you have not the civil property and power over the earth or the heavens; but you receive a divine ad- vantage from all things, and that is more than the sinner can say concerning any one thing that he possesses in the way of civil property. II. This treasure of the saints is more secure, aml more durable, than any thing that a sinner enjoys ; there- fore the apostle calls the wealth of this world, -" uncer- tain riches, that cannot be trusted in," 1 Tim. vi. 17. Riches make to themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle toward heaven," Rrov. xxiii. 5. and leave the owner poor and destitute :. Many a wealthy man who flourished yesterday, in abundance of ease and plenty, may be stripped of al! to-morrow, and want the common supports of nature. What possessions soever are built upon the foundations of civil property, may be taken away from the saint or the sinner, by robbing and plun- der, by cheating and knavery, by inundations ofwater, or the rage of fire, or by the invasion of a foreign enemy; but the beneficial interest that a christian has in all things is preserved to him by the covenant of grace. He

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