n them, and
pass a resolute and well grounded choice upon deliberation? Remember what
Christ says, "No man can serve two masters." Ye may indeed have both these
things, and the kingdom. But ye cannot seek them both, they are not so
consistent. "But seek first the kingdom of God," and then all these things
shall be given you.

Now there is no more need of any second seeking. For "all these things
shall be added" as an accessory to the first. O see then, ye whose
projects and thoughts are towards present things,--ye spend the prime and
flower of your affections, and time upon them,--ye cannot also seek the
kingdom of heaven. Unless ye seek them as if ye sought them not, ye cannot
seek this blessed kingdom. If ye seek not this kingdom as the one thing
necessary, and your seeking proclaim that ye account it so, ye do not seek
it aright. If ye be careful and troubled about many things, ye proclaim
that ye do not think there is but one thing needful, ye do not, like Mary,
choose the good part which shall not be taken from you, Luke x. 41, 42. If
ye would abandon the distracting care of the world, and let all your
anxiety and care vent itself here upon the kingdom of God, all these
things would be added besides the kingdom itself. "Seek the kingdom of God
_and his righteousness_." I conceive this is added to make us understand
the better what it is, and what is the way to it. The kingdom of God is
the kingdom of grace, in which he rules in us by his Spirit. For Jesus
Christ is come for this end, and made grace to superabound over the
abounding of sin, that as sin reigned unto death, so grace might reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. v.
21), that as sin had a throne in us, so grace might have a throne, and
subject the whole man, rendered obedient to that rule of righteousness
that he here holds forth in his word. But this kingdom of God also
includes the kingdom of glory, wherein these who overcome this world by
faith in the Son of God, reign as kings set upon thrones with God the
Father of all. Now because the most part, when they heard of the kingdom
of God, dreamed of nothing but a state of happiness in heaven, and passed
over the way to it, which is holiness, and they thought not upon the
kingdom of grace, which is preparatory unto, and disposes us for the
kingdom of glory, therefore Christ exhorts us also to seek his
righteousness, opposite to the righteousness of the scribes and Pha