upon this world than upon Christ Jesus, would not our Saviour be uppermost
in your thoughts? Would not Christ interrupt your thoughts of the world?
Would not heaven come in the midst of your business, and get a spare look
and ejaculation? The world uses to interrupt your thoughts of God, and the
mind is given to wander in prayer. But put you upon something temporal, ye
can fix your heart as long as you please, and never wander. David was not
so. He awaked, and was still with God. He meditates upon him in the night
watches. He remembers him day and night, (Psal. lxiii. 8) and this made
him a lively Christian. But, (2) If ye be seeking any thing, ye seek it
so, as insobriety is stamped upon it. Your seeking of the world is
prejudicial to your seeking of God, and takes away much time for prayer.
Ye will be so eager in the pursuit of a momentary passing vanity, as ever
ye were in the seeking of God, Col. iii. 1, 2. Care and anxiety comes in
to be your provision, and ye put not prayer in the place of it, to make
your requests known unto God. Ye seek it as if it were your portion and
inheritance, surely this is insobriety. (3) Look upon your affections
toward present enjoyments, and are ye sober? Ye can delight in these
things, and take the sweetness of them, but the consolations of God are a
small thing to you. Any thing adds to your joy and lifts you up. Albeit ye
be not in good terms with God, yet ye can take your pleasure in the world.
Ye see not a worm and moth in your pleasures, ye are not afraid to fill
your belly with honey. Some think themselves made up when they get such a
lot. But saints, are ye sober when such a thing changes your condition? O
but the children of God look upon this world as David did in his fretting
condition, (Psal. xxxviii.) and in his prosperous condition, Psal. xxx. Ye
sit down and say, "My mountain stands strong, and I shall never be moved."
Ye have more delight in your outward lot than ever ye had in Jesus Christ.
But, (4) When any outward thing goes cross to your mind, then your
insobriety appears. The taking(508) of a sad and cross dispensation will
evidence how ye sought the world. The taking away of a friend or idol,
will declare ye idolized it. As the saints have too longing desires for
the things of this world, and look upon them as the paradise of God, not
as Paul did, who thought the world a dead thing, so remove any thing that
ye enjoy, and your joy is taken from you. Give you something