Christs temptation and transfiguration practically explained and improved in several sermons /

3. That Good is not always the Good of the Flesh, or the Good of outward Prosperity; and therefore certainly the Good of our Condition is not to be determined by the Interest of the Flesh, but the welfare of our Souls. If God should bestow upon us so much of the Good of the outward and animal Life as we desire, we could not be said to be in a good Condition: if he should deny us Good Spiritual, we should lose the one half of the Blessings of the Covenant by doting upon, and falling in love with the rest. The Flesh is importunate to be pleased, but God will not serve our carnal Appetites. We are more concerned as a Soul than as a Body; Heb. 12. 10. He verily chastened us for our profit, that we might be partakers ⟨p. 122⟩of his Holiness. Certain it is, God will chasten us for our profit: What do we call Profit? the good things of this World, the great Mammon which so many Worship? If we call it so, God will not; he meaneth to impart some Spiritual and Divine Benefit, which is a Participation of his own Holiness. And truly the People of God, if they be in their right Temper, value themselves, not by their outward enjoyments, but by their inward Improvement of Graces; 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day. A discerning Christian puts more value upon Holiness wrought by Affliction, then upon all his Comforts; so that though Affliction be evil in it self, it is good as sanctified.

3. That Good is not alwayes the Good of the Flesh, or the Good of outward Prosperity; and therefore certainly the Good of our Condition is not to be determined by the Interest of the Flesh, but the welfare of our Souls. If God should bestow upon us so much of the Good of the outward and animal Life as we desire, we could not be said to be in a good Condition: if he should deny us Good Spiritual, we should lose the one half of the Blessings of the Covenant by doting upon, and falling in love with the rest. The Flesh is importunate to be pleased, but God will not serve our carnal Appetites. We are more concerned as a Soul than as a Body; Heb. 12. 10. He verily chastened us for our profit, that we might be partakers