ur eyes, and made you to see far off, if ye were elevated
above your own station, to the watch-tower of the holy scriptures, to
behold off(502) these, by the prospect of saving faith, things that are
afar off, such as heaven and hell, eternity, salvation and condemnation, O
how would all these differences in a present world evanish out of sight,
in the presence of these vast and infinite things! Food and raiment are
great things to the most part of men, therefore do they toil so much about
them, and take so much thought for them, how to feed, and how to be
clothed, how to have a full and delicate table, and fine clothes! Again,
many others apprehend some greatness and eminency in honour and respect
among men; others in pleasure and satisfaction to their senses, even as a
beast would judge. Others apprehend some worth and excellence in great
possessions, in silver and gold beside them, and have a kind of
complacency in these. But if once this kingdom of God entered into your
heart, if ye saw the worth of it, the vast dimensions of it, the pleasure,
honour, and profit of it, then certainly all other things would appear to
be mean and low, not worth a thought beforehand. Advantage and
disadvantage would be all one to you. Honour and dishonour, evil report
and good report, pleasure and pain, would have no distance from one
another; this gain, this honour, this pleasure of the kingdom of God,
would so overmaster them, so outshine them.

Nay, I may say, if ye but knew your immortal souls, or your own worth
beyond the rest of the creatures, such as silver, gold, lands, houses,
&c., I am confident ye would fall in your esteem of them. They would
appear but low, base things in regard of the soul. Suppose even this world
came in competition, (the gain of it now seems great gain,) but I pray
you, if ye laid all that world in the balance with your soul, what would
weigh most? Christ holds it forth to a rational man, to judge of it; "What
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul, or be cast away?" Would ye account yourselves gainers, when ye have
lost yourselves? Matt. xvi. 26; Luke ix. 25. Is not a man better than
meat? Are not your souls more precious than the finest gold? When you lose
your souls, whose shall these be? "What shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?" And if there be no one more to possess or use, what profit is
it? This then that we have in hand is one thing of greatest moment