Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

And the reason why people are so hardly brought ¹to suffer any thing for God, is because they have such high esteem of these things; that which a man hath high esteem of, he is loth to part withal; but when a mans heart is taken from them, as there is no longer a high esteem of them, he is willing to part with them. As Saint Paul said, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus; his life was not dear to him, he accounted it not worth the least degree of glory to God: A gracious heart, as it accounts nothing low in any duty that tends to this glorious reward, so it accounts nothing ⟨p. 608⟩high to part with for the recompense of reward. It is a notable passage we have of Joseph to his Father Jacob, Gen. 45. 20. Regard not your stuff, for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours: It may be Joseph thought his Father Jacob might think, I have many Goods here, and what, shall I leave all that I have here to go to Egypt, into a strange country? he might think this might be some let to his Father; but Joseph calls it all stuff: you have a deal of stuff and lumber, but let it not grieve you to leave your stuff and lumber, all the good of the Land of Egypt is yours: So God says to a gracious heart, when it looks upon any thing it should part withal, and it is loth to part with it, says God, Regard not your stuff, and lumber you have here; for not the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours, but all the good that is in Heaven is yours, and the good that is in the God of Heaven, and the good that is in Christ is all yours: That soul that understands the glory of Heaven, and the Interest that it hath in it, shall hear a voice tell it, That all the good in Heaven, and in God, and in Christ, is its own; and therefore he will not regard any thing here: if we knew no better things then these, we would be loth to part with them; if we had never seen the light of the Sun, we would have accounted the Moon a glorious creature, and as a mighty Ornament to Heaven, and to the world; but when we come to see the glory of the Sun, that is nothing to us in comparison. Children that are born in a dungeon, and know no better things, would be loth to part with that they have there; but when they come to know what is in the world, then all they had before is nothing to them; ⟨p. 626⟩