contentment is great gain." Ye are now only seeking
temporal gain, but that is neither great gain, nor gain at all, when ye
lose your soul. For that is an irrecoverable and incomparable loss. Ye may
have these outward things, God's blessing, and peace with them, and heaven
too if ye choose this kingdom before all things, and above all things. But
if ye give these other things the pre-eminence, it is uncertain if ye will
get what ye seek, and ye shall certainly be eternal losers beside. If
there were no more but this kingdom alone, it might weigh all down. If
heaven and earth were laid in a balance, would not heaven, if it were
ponderous according to its magnitude, weigh down the earth exceedingly out
of sight? Would it not evanish as a point? Even so, though this kingdom of
grace and glory were alone, in opposition to all these things that ye take
thought for, it would weigh them down eternally. Look what the weight of
glory was to Paul, when he says, 2 Cor. iv. 17, "For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal." The weight of glory is
eternal, and far exceeds any thing temporal. The one scale of the balance
goes up, as it were, eternally out of sight, out of thought, the one goes
up for lightness and vanity, and the other goeth down, for weight and
solidity, out of sight, and out of the thought and imagination. If ye
looked upon these things which are invisible and eternal, as Paul did, it
would be so with you also.

But when withal the earth and its fulness is in the scale with God's
kingdom and righteousness, will not these, with that accession, weigh down
the earth alone? Is it food and raiment that ye seek? Then I say, food and
raiment is on this kingdom's side also. And ye shall be more sure of these
things, because ye have God's promise for them. The wicked have not his
word and promise for prosperity, even not so much as to answer their
necessities, but only they may sometimes prosper in the world, in his
providence. But God's people shall have him engaged in their need for
their temporal being here in this world. "O fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and
suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not