iful in
the eyes of the covetous mind is any gain and advantage! The sound of
money is sweeter to him than this blessed sound of peace and salvation.
How sweet is pleasure to the voluptuous! What suitableness and conveniency
is apprehended in these perishing things! But how little moment or weight
is conceived and believed to be in things eternal? O how substantial do
things visible seem to men, and how trifling do other things invisible
appear! But for you whose eyes are opened, to you Christ is precious; to
you the things of the Spirit are beautiful, and all your grief is, that
you cannot affect them according to their worth, or love them according to
their beauty. I say, some there are who do see a substance and subsistence
only in things not seen (Heb. xi. 1), and for things that are seen and
visible in this world, they do account them shadows only in comparison of
things invisible. The world apprehends no realities, but in what they
see, but a Christian apprehends no solid reality in that he sees, but only
in that he sees not, and therefore, as in his judgment he looks upon the
one as a shadow, the other as a substance, so he labours to proportion and
conform his affection to a suitable entertainment of them, to give a
shadow of show of affection to the things of this life, but the marrow and
substance of his heart to the things invisible of another life. Thus the
apostle, 1 Cor. vii. 29: "Rejoicing, as if we rejoiced not, enjoying, as
if we possessed not, using, as if we used not," half acts for half
objects. If we give our whole spirits, the strength of our souls and minds
to them, we are as foolish as he that strikes with all his strength at the
air, or a feather. There is no solidity or reality in these things, able
to bottom much estimation or affection, only mind them and use them as in
the by, as in passing through towards your country.

Sermon XVIII.

Verses 5, 6.--"For they that are after the flesh do mind," &c. "For
to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace."

There are many differences among men in this world, that, as to outward
appearance, are great and wide, and indeed they are so eagerly pursued,
and seriously minded by men, as if they were great and momentous. You see
what a strife and contention there is among men, how to be extracted out
of the dregs of the multitude, and set a little higher in dignity and
degree than they. How do men a