Chapter XVIII.

Showing How Greatly God Is Offended, When Man Prefers Things That Are Temporal To Those That Are Eternal; And How Great The Evil Is, When Our Affections Cleave To The Creature And Not To The Creator.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them, etc.—Numb. 11:1.

Many there are, in our day, who, under cover of religion, seek after earthly and carnal things; who use more diligence to become great and affluent by the gospel, than to be good and happy. They love “the praise of men, more than the praise of God.” John 12:43. They choose rather to gratify the flesh in its sinful propensities, than to bring it down into true repentance and brokenness of spirit. But the character of the true Christian is of an opposite kind. He is more concerned about eternal than temporal things; he seeks the glory that endureth, more than that which passeth away; he thirsts after heavenly and invisible riches, and not after those that are earthly and visible. In short, he mortifies and crucifies the flesh, in order that the spirit may live.

2. The sum of Christianity is to follow Christ. Hence, it should be our chief care to imitate the example 55 which he has left us. Our thoughts and actions, our desires and labors, should all terminate in the attainment of this one thing needful, how we may come to Christ; how be saved by, and united with him to all eternity.

3. Never should we cease to consider that endless felicity to which we are called; but cheerfully await the dissolution of our earthly bodies, and a translation to that inheritance which is reserved in heaven for us.

4. By these means, which habituate the soul more and more to the presence of God, there is begotten in man a holy thirst after eternal things; while a desire after earthly objects, which is insatiable in its nature, is at the same time powerfully restrained. This is taught by St. Paul in that precious saying: “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Col. 3:17.

5. The name of God, in which all things are to be done, is the honor, praise, and glory of God. Ps. 48:10. To this great end of human life, all our works should tend; for then it is that they are wrought in God (John 3:21), and will follow us into a blessed eternity. Rev. 14:13.

6. In a word, Almighty God, our chief and sovereign Good should be the principle and end of all our designs, if we would not fail of eternal salvation. Hence St. Paul says, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things” (1 Tim. 6:11); namely, covetousness and the love of the world. He calls the Christian, “a man of God,” because he is born of God, and lives in God, and therefore is the son and heir of God; as, on the other hand, a man of the world, is one who lives in conformity to the world, who “has his portion in this life, and whose belly is filled with the hid treasure” of the earth. Psal. 17:14. From these snares the Christian is required carefully to flee, and to follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness; and to lay hold on eternal life, whereunto he is called.

7. When a man refuses to be guided by these salutary maxims, he falls of necessity into every kind of enormous and presumptuous sin, and will at last be punished with eternal fire. See, for an illustration, Numb. 11:1.

8. Inundations and war, famine, pestilence, and conflagrations, are, it should be remembered, punishments inflicted by God, on account of our preferring things temporal to things eternal; and because we are more careful of a weak and perishing body, than we are of an imperishable, immortal soul. All this betrays the highest ingratitude, and an open contempt of the blessed God, deserving to be visited with punishments, both here and hereafter. For, does not man by such conduct set aside an almighty, eternal Being, from whom he derives both his body and his soul; and convert an impotent creature into an idol, to which he surrenders his love and affection? He who loves the creature more than the Creator, and things transitory more than those which are eternal, offers surely the highest possible affront to his Maker, and opposes the great design of the Christian religion.

9. It is no doubt true, that all the creatures of God are good in themselves; but when men begin to set their affections on them, and by their irregular love to convert them, as it were, into idols, they then become an abomination in the sight of God, and are justly ranked among the most odious images of gold and silver.

10. What else can result from a 56 carnal love of the world but hell and damnation! Consider the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24), and the one in Numb. 11:1, already mentioned. These are illustrations of the eternal fire and damnation which must follow a rejection of God.

11. The love and joy, the wealth and honors of the true Christian, are circumscribed only by eternity itself; for, “where his treasure is, there will his heart be also.” Luke 12:34. From the lust and love of the world, on the contrary, nothing can result but eternal damnation. “The world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:17): and hence, St. John calls upon the faithful entirely to withdraw their affections from the world; saying, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” 1 John 2:15. These and similar considerations powerfully convince us, that God will not permit us to fix our affections on any creature whatsoever.

12. But this will more fully appear from the following reflections:

I. Love is the very heart of a man, and the noblest of all his affections; hence, it is due to God only, as the supreme object, and sovereign Good.

II. It is absolute folly to love temporal things, which cannot love us; whereas the infinitely blessed God deserves to be loved alone, since from a pure principle of love, he created us unto eternal life, and hath, to the same purpose, redeemed and sanctified us.

III. Like things are naturally loved by their like. Hence, God made us after his own image, in order that we might love Him; and that, next to himself, we might love our neighbor, created after the same image.

IV. The human soul resembles a mirror, representing every object indifferently that is placed before it, whether it be of heaven or of earth. Therefore turn thy soul wholly and only to God, that this image may be fully expressed in it.

V. The patriarch Jacob, when dwelling in Mesopotamia, far removed from his native soil, never abandoned his purpose to return, and, at length, after twenty years' service, demanded his wives and wages; and, cheered by the recollection of the place of his nativity, returned thither. So should thy soul, amidst the various engagements of this life, and the hurry of outward employments, long without ceasing after thy heavenly fatherland.

VI. Man is made either better or worse by that which he loves. He that loves God, partakes freely of the divine virtue and goodness that reside in Him; but he that loves the world, is defiled with all those sins and evils which attend it.

VII. When King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:33) was too much controlled by the love of the world, he lost the very form of a man, and degenerated into that of a beast. So all men, blotting from their hearts the image and love of God, are transformed, as it respects their inward man, into the nature of brutes. For surely those who wholly surrender themselves to the love of this world, are no better.

VIII. Lastly, that which a man has loved here, and carried about in his heart, shall be manifested in him hereafter; and with this he shall associate himself forever, whether it be God or the world. If the world have been the object of his love in this life, it will never leave him hereafter, but will prove his death and his tormentor to all eternity.