Let it be the top of your ambition,

and the height of all your designs,

to glorify God,

to secure your interest in Christ,

to serve your generation,

to provide for eternity,

to walk with God,

to be tender of all that have aliquid Christi,

anything of Christ,

shining in them,

and so to steer your course in this world as that you may give up your account at last with joy, Mat. 25:21, seq.

All other ambition is base and low. Ambition, saith one, [Bernard,]

is a gilded misery,

a secret poison,

a hidden plague,

the engineer of deceit,

the mother of hypocrisy,

the parent of envy,

the original of vices,

the moth of holiness,

the blinder of hearts,

turning medicines into maladies,

and remedies into diseases.

Matthew calls all the world’s glory Δόξαν, an opinion, Mat. 4:8;

and St Paul calls it Σχῆμα, a mathematical figure, 1 Cor. 7:31, which is a mere notion, and nothing in substance.

The word here used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmness or solid consistency in the creature; it is but a surface, outside, empty thing; all the beauty of it is but skin deep.

Mollerus, upon that Ps. 73:20, concludeth, ‘that men’s earthly dignities are but as idle dreams, their splendid braveries but lucid fantasies.’

High seats are never but uneasy,

and crowns are always stuffed with thorns, which made one say of his crown,

‘O crown, more noble than happy.’

Shall the Spirit of God,

the grace of God,

the power of God,

the presence of God,

arm you against all other sins,

evils,

snares,

and temptations,

as you are by a good hand of heaven armed against

worldly ambition

and worldly glory?

Thomas Brooks

A Golden Key to Hidden Treasures