[size=xx-small]Brothers and sisters, I started reading this yesterday and thought to share it here. It is quite long, but what a blessing to focus our eyes to eternity! I will post it in portions next few days, I am sure that someone, if not all, need to read this.
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[b][color=CC3300] How we should eye ETERNITY, that it may have its due influence upon us in all we do[/color][/b]

[i]Thomas Doolittle, 1630-1707[/i]

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

Eternal! What a sound does this word "eternal" make in my ears! what workings does it cause within my heart! what casting about of thoughts! What word is next to be added to it? Is it, "eternal world!" Where? for this is temporal. O! that eternal world is now by us unseen, and as to us is yet to come. But yet my trembling heart is still solicitous to what other word this word "eternal" might be prefixed as to myself, or those that hear me this day, when they and I, who, through the long-sufferance of God are yet in this present and temporal, shall be in that eternal world. Shall it be "eternal damnation" in that eternal world? How? after so many knockings of Christ, strivings of the Spirit, tenders of mercy, wooings of grace, calls of ministers, warnings of conscience, admonitions of men, waitings of patience—all which put us into a fair probability of escaping eternal damnation. O dreadful words! Can more terror be contained, can more misery be comprehended, in any two words, than in "eternal damnation?" But we in time are praying, hearing, repenting, believing, conflicting with devils, mortifying sin, weaning our hearts from this world—that, when we shall go out of time, we might find "life" or "salvation" added to "eternal." Eternal salvation! these are words as comfortable as the other were terrible, as sweet as they were bitter.

What, then? This word "eternal" is the horror of devils, the amazement of damned souls, which causes desperation in all that hellish crew; for it wounds like a dart, continually sticking in them, that they most certainly know that they are damned to all eternity. Eternal! it is the joy of angels, the delight of saints, that while they are made happy in the beatific vision, are filled with perfect love and joy, they sit and sing, "All this will he eternal." Eternal! this word—it is a loud alarm to all that be in time; a serious caution to make this our grand concern—that when we must go out of time, our "eternal" souls might not be doomed down to "eternal" damnation, but might obtain salvation that shall be "eternal;" of which we have hope and expectation, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Not only the experience of present spiritual good in the inward—by the pressing afflictions on the outward man, in weakening of sin, in purging away our dross, in weaning us from the world, in humbling us for our miscarriages, in reducing us from wandering, in emptying us of self-conceit, in trying our faith, in exercising our patience, in confirming our hope, in awakening of conscience, in bringing us to examine our ways, in renewing our repentance, in proving our love, in quickening us to prayer—but also the clear and certain prospect of glory after affliction, of a "weight of glory" after "light affliction," of eternal glory after short affliction, of a weight of glory "far more exceeding" all our present sorrows, burdens, calamities, than tongue can express, or pen describe, or the mind of man conceive; being more than "eye has seen, or ear has heard, or have entered into the heart of man," (1 Cor. 2:9,)—must needs be an alleviation of our sorrows, a lightening of our burdens, comfort in our grief, joy in our groans, strength in our weakness.

Though "we are troubled on every side, yet are we not distressed ; though perplexed, yet not in despair ;" (2 Cor. 4:8;) though under afflictions both felt and seen, yet "we faint not," while we keep our eye fixed upon the glorious things in the other world that are unseen and eternal too.

The reason moving believers to keep a steadfast eye upon things unseen, and to look off from things seen—is the eternal duration of the one, and the short continuance of the other: "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen—because the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The good things in this world which are seen—as riches, pleasures, honors—are things of time, and only for time; therefore we are not much concerned whether we win or lose them: and the bad things in this life which are seen—as poverty, imprisonment, persecution—are at longest but for a short space; and therefore we are not much concerned whether we endure them, or are freed from them. But that which adds weight to the things in the other world now not seen by the men of this world, and draws our eyes toward them, and keeps them fixed thereon—is the eternity of them.

Take, then, a summary account of all that wicked, worldly men have—all is "but for a while." See what the richest among them have: their grandeur endures "but a short time;" and then is past and gone, and has no more existence. See what the merriest among them have—pleasures, mirth, carnal delights and joy: and this is "but for a season;" their merry bouts will be quickly over, and then follows weeping and wailing forever! What the best among them have: even their hope but for a short time; at longest, until death shall close their eyes, and then they shall lie down in everlasting despair! So that all their comings-in—whether profits from the world, or pleasures from their sin, or supposed happiness from their supposed graces—have their goings-out; that, upon all they have, you may write, "All is temporal!" They had riches—but they are gone. They had honors and pleasures—but they are gone. They had many good things in time—but, at the end of time, all have an end; and then, when their endless misery comes, this will be their doleful tune, "All our good is past and gone!"

The object, then, of believers' looking is the unseen, the eternal God, as their happiness objectively considered, which is so eternal as to be without beginning and end; and the enjoyment of this unseen, eternal God in the invisible heavens—which fruition, being their happiness formally considered, has a beginning, but no ending.

How we eye eternity—which makes men eternally miserable or everlastingly blessed, should have a powerful influence upon every step we take in our daily travels to the unseen, eternal world—to look at unseen, eternal evil things, that we might not fall into them—to look at unseen, eternal good things, that we might not fall short of them. Which is the design of the question propounded from this text; namely, [b]How we should eye eternity, that it may have its due influence upon us in all we do.[/b]

We must look at eternal things that are unseen with an eye that also is unseen; namely, with an eye of knowledge, faith, love, desire, hope. While we have a certain knowledge of unseen, eternal things, a firm belief of them, fervent love unto them, ardent desires after them, lively hope and patient expectation of them—we faint not in all our tribulations.

There is a looking into eternal realities, by studying the nature of them, to know more of the reality, necessity, and dignity of them: "Which things the angels desire to look into." (1 Peter 1:12.) If angels do, men should. There is a looking for them; either as we look for things that we have lost—look until we find; as the man for his lost sheep, or the woman for her lost silver, (Luke xv. 4, 8,)—or to look for a thing that is yet to come. (Titus ii. 13; Isai. viii. 17.) And there is a looking at them; which is not an idle gazing at the unseen, eternal world, but a [b]practical, lively, affecting[/b] look in this manner following—

-contd.

[b][color=CC3300]1. We should look at eternal things with such an eye of FAITH,[/b][/color] that should show them unto us, though they are yet to come. Hence faith is said to be "the substance," or "subsistence," "of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. xi. 1.) Faith so looks at things that are far off, that they have a kind of mental, intellectual existence; though absent, as if they were present; being promised, as sure as if they were already possessed. Faith convinces and assures the heart of a believer more strongly of the truth of a thing, while it looks to the revelation and testimony of God, than any argument brought forth from natural reason could do; and does give as firm assent to the certainty and reality of eternal things, (though unseen,) as to anything which he beholds with his eyes, or perceives by the apprehension of any sense; because our eyes may be deceived, but God neither can deceive, nor be deceived.

Look, then, for instance, at the coming of Christ with such an eye of faith, as if with your bodily eyes you saw him descending from heaven, in flaming fire, with glorious attendance; as if you heard the trumpet sounding, and the cry made, "Arise, you dead, and come to judgment;" at which command, as if you saw the dead quickened, and peeping out of their graves, to see why they are raised; as if you saw the wicked come forth, fearfully amazed, with vile and filthy bodies, like toads from their holes, with pale and ghastly countenances, with trembling hearts, and their knees for horror knocking one against another, tearing their hair, smiting on their breasts, and crying out, "What is the matter? What meant that loud alarm, that thundering call, that awaked us out of the deep sleep of death?" "O, the Lord is come, the slighted Christ is come!" "Come! how does he come?" "How? Clothed with vengeance, with fury in his face; and his wrath, like fire, burns before him. Because of his indignation, the heavens melt over our heads, and the earth burns under our feet, and all is in flames round about us." "O terrible day! such as this we never saw. O the storms! the storms! O, such burning, scorching storms we never saw nor felt before! We have been sleeping all the night of death; and the morning is come, the day does dawn. Dawn! O, it is broad day all about. We were accustomed to wake, and go to work, and go to sin, to swear and lie, to drink and take our pleasure; but now we wake, and must to hell, to pain, and punishment. Now we must go from God to devils, from the only Savior to eternal torments. O, what day is this? What day? It seems to be rather night than day; for it is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against us all impenitent sinners; and to us all it will prove the great damnation-day. When our souls and bodies by death were separated, it was a sorrowful parting; but this is a sorer meeting."

The BODY, with doleful groans does strangely greet its re-united soul: "O you damned soul! must I be tied to you again with a faster knot than ever? Death did heretofore part you and me, but all the pains of hell hereafter cannot do it. You were commander over me, and should have managed your government better: you should have used this tongue to call upon your Maker: you should have used these ears to have hearkened to the calls of Christ, to the wooings of grace, to the entreaties of mercy; these feet to have carried you to the means of grace; these hands to have been instruments of good. They were all at your command: what you bade them do, they did; and where you commanded them to go, they went. O that I might continue to lay rotting in my grave! for then I had been at rest. For, though in the grave I had no pleasure—yet there I felt no pain: but since I have been again united to this before-damned soul, I feel intolerable punishment; and I now perceive it is past doubt that it will be eternal!"

The SOUL will give no better salutations to the body: "O cursed flesh! What! alive again? Must I be linked to such a loathsome lump, worse than any carrion? You did rebel against the commands of reason; and your appetite was pleased, and your lusts were obeyed; and all the time of life on earth was spent and fooled away in feeding, clothing, and pleasing you: and as I was led away and enticed by you to live with you a sensual, flesh-pleasing life, so, formerly sowing to the flesh, now of the flesh we reap that damnation which shall be eternal. For the Judge is come, his throne is set, and all the world is summoned to appear; the separation is made, the books are opened; all on the right hand are acquitted, and called to the possession of an everlasting kingdom; while we are doomed down to eternal torments. Lo! they are going with their blessed, glorious Lord unto eternal glory; and we with cursed devils, like cursed wretches—to everlasting shame and pain, and banishment from God and Christ and saints and angels forever!"

[b]Look thus believingly on these unseen things, as if you saw all these, and a thousand times more terrible and more joyful, transacted now before your eyes.[/b]

[b][color=CC3300] 2. Look DIRECTLY at unseen, eternal things.[/color][/b] Many do look indirectly at things eternal, but directly at things temporal; pretending things not seen, intending things that are seen: in praying, preaching, and professing, they seem to have an eye to God and Christ and heaven; but they look asquint to their worldly profits, credit, and applause. Should they pray that they might see God, it is but that they might be "seen of men." (Matt. vi. 5; xxiu. 14.) But this is to look awry, contrary to Solomon's advice: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eye-lids look straight before you." (Proverbs iv. 25.)

[b][color=CC3300] 3. Let unseen, eternal things be the FIRST that you look at.[/color][/b] Do not first look at riches, honors, pleasures; and please yourselves with purposes, after that, to look after God and Christ and the happiness of heaven, when sickness comes, and death approaches and when near the end of time, to begin to make preparation for eternity. Men spend their days in getting a visible estate, while the unseen, eternal God and glorious Savior and heaven's happiness are neglected by them; but it would make a considering man to tremble to think what a sight these sinners shall have after death has closed their eyes; when the separated soul shall see an angry God, a condemning Judge, the gates of heaven shut against it, and itself in everlasting misery.

Unseen, eternal things are first in order of duration; for the invisible God was, when nothing was beside himself: and first in order of dignity; and should have the priority of our thoughts, care, and diligent endeavors: "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33.) When we first take care about eternity, the things of time shall be given to us over and above: but the eternal happiness of heaven shall never be given over and above to those who primarily look at and seek the things of time.

But this damnable preferring of things temporal, and cursed postponing of things eternal, is the setting of God in the room of the creature, and the creature in the throne of God; as if they would set the heavens where the earth does stand, and the earth where the heavens are, and so subvert the order of things which God has appointed to be observed in the nature of things.

[b][color=CC3300]4. Look HEEDFULLY at eternity.[/color][/b] All the things that are only for time, are toys and trifles: the things for an eternal world are the grand concerns that we should narrowly look to in time. The gathering of riches in time—to the getting of grace and an interest in Christ, for the escaping of damnation and obtaining of happiness to eternity—is busy idleness, careful negligence, and laborious sloth. If God, "who inhabits eternity" (Isai. Ivii. 15,) "looks narrowly unto all" our actions done in time; (Job xiii. 27;) how narrowly should we look to our own, when everyone is a step to everlasting happiness or eternal misery! We should look narrowly that we do not walk in the broad way which leads unto the one, but in the narrow that will bring us to the other. (Matt. vii. 13, 14.)

[b][color=CC3300]5. Look EARNESTLY, with a longing look, at unseen, eternal things.[/color][/b] Let your hearts be filled with greatest intense desires after them, as one who looks and thinks it long until the desire be accomplished: as "the mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariot?" (Judges v. 28.) "Why does time make no more haste to be gone and flee away, that, when it is gone and past, I might enter into eternal joys—which never shall be past and gone? Why does the sun, that, by its alternate presence and absence, is the measure of my nights and days, make no swifter speed in its diurnal motion? If it be 'as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race,' (Psalm xix. 5,) why does it seem to my longing soul (as in the days of Joshua) to stand still?' If the sun in the skies is so slow, let the Sun of Righteousness make more haste, and come, and lighten my passage to the other, eternal world; that I might see him as he is, and be more like unto him than at this distance I can be! 'Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that I may look upon you. Make haste, my beloved, and be like to a roe or to a young deer upon the mountains of spices;' (Canticles vi. 13 j viii. 14;) that my looking for and after you might be turned into looking upon you! Did you say?—'A little while, and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you shall see me.' (John xvi. 16.) Why, dearest Lord, shall I count that 'a little while,' in which I do not see you? Have you left it upon record?—'Yet a little while, and he who shall come will come, and will not tarry.' (Heb. x. 37.) Sweetest Savior! to my thirsty, panting soul—it seems a great while, while you do tarry, and not come; time seems long until I do see you: but when I shall see you, in looking on your lovely, glorious self, eternity shall not seem long. I will remind you of your promise, 'Surely I come quickly;' and make it matter of my prayer; and, in confidence of the performance of your promise and audience of my prayer, will say, 'Amen. Even so,' so quickly, 'come, Lord Jesus.' (Rev. xxii. 20.) For according to my 'earnest expectation' and my hope, I 'groan and am travailing in pain,' (Romans viii. 19, 22,) until I see you, who to me are now unseen; that then I might live 'by sight,' and no longer 'walk by faith.'" (2 Cor. v. 7.)

[b][color=CC3300]6. Look, though with earnest, yet with PATIENT, expectation, at unseen, eternal things. [/color][/b] He who walks now by faith, that he shall hereafter live by sight, will not make undue, untimely haste: though what he sees by faith in unseen, eternal joys and glory, does fill his soul with longing desires after them, yet hope does help with patience to wait for them. (Romans viii. 25.) For the beatific "vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end" of temporal life it will be given: "though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Hab. ii. 3.) Though it tarries beyond some months or years that you desire to be there, yet it shall not tarry one moment beyond the time that God has appointed to take you to it. Therefore, in the meantime live by faith, and see in things unseen what can be seen by faith; until things unseen shall clearly, and with open face, be seen by you.

[b][color=CC3300]7. Look with a fixed, STEADFAST eye at unseen, eternal things.[/color][/b] If you give a glance or cast of the eye toward things seen and temporal, the eye and heart, too, are ready to fix upon them. If you would fix your eye upon eternity, upon God and Christ and the joys above, Satan, sin, the flesh and world will be diverting of it; so that now in time, comparatively, you can but glance upon eternity. If you look that way, many objects will interpose themselves, to hinder your sight, and to turn your eyes from things eternal to things temporal, from God to the creature, from things above to things below. But yet if we were "full of the Holy Spirit," as Stephen was, we might "look up steadfastly into heaven," as Stephen did; and, though not with the same eye, yet to the same effect and purpose, "see the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." (Acts vii. 55.) Though the thoughts are immanent, yet in this respect they are too transient—that they do no longer dwell upon eternity. But if the devil and the world find your thoughts tied to this subject, and go about to loosen them.

Or if you are at any season seasonably got up into the mount, viewing eternity, and they send messengers to you to come down, reply, (for they "think to do you mischief;") "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?" And though they send more than "four times after this sort," yet "answer them still after the same manner." (Neh. vi. 3, 4.)

[b][color=CC3300]8. Look UNWEARIEDLY at unseen, eternal things.[/color][/b] The eye might be fixed for a while upon an object, and after a while be weary in looking at it. [b]Can you look unweariedly at the vanities of this world?[/b] and will you be so soon tired in beholding the glorious things in the other world? Do you look on things temporal, where seeing is not satisfying, and yet are never satisfied with looking? and will you not look on things eternal, where seeing would be such a filling of your heart with satisfactory content, that looking would not be tedious to your eye? There is so much in God, in Christ, in all eternal things in heaven—so much beauty, glory, fullness—that methinks we might stand looking at them night and day, without any irksomeness at all. But, alas! when "the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak;" (Matt. xxvi. 41;) [b]and while the soul must look out of flesh to see those glorious things, it is so clogged with corruption, that is like dust within its eyes, that makes it weep, because it can look no longer.[/b] But yet in time we should endeavor to be more like to those who are already in that eternity, where they look at God and Christ unweariedly; and though their looking is not measured by days or months or years, but by immensurable eternity, yet they shall [b]never be weary of looking at them to all eternity.[/b]

Romans 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory
and honor and immortality, eternal life: