When the Spanish ambassador boasted that his master was king of such a place, and of such a place, and of such a place, &c., the French ambassador answered, My master is king of France, king of France, king of France ; signifying thereby that France was of as much worth or more worth, than all the kingdoms under the power of the king of Spain. Ah, Christians ! when the men of the world shall cry out, Oh, their riches! oh, their honours! oh, their preferments! &c., you may well cry out, Oh, assurance, assurance, assurance! &c. ; there being more real worth and glory in that than is to be found in all the wealth and glory of the world ; therefore do not envy the outward prosperity and felicity of worldly men, &c.
[3.] The third use. If God hath given you assurance, then give no vjay to slavish fears. Fear not the scorn and reproaches of men, fear not wants. God will not deny him a crust to whom he hath given a Christ ; he will not deny him a crumb upon whom he hath bestowed a crown ; he will not deny him a less mercy upon whom he hath be- stowed assurance, which is the prince of mercies. Fear not death, for why shouldst thou fear death, that hast assurance of a better life 1 ^
[4.] The fourth use. If God hath given you a well-grounded as- surance of your everlasting happiness and blessedness, then question his love no raore. God doth not love to have his love at every turn called in question by those that he hath once assured of his love ; he doth expect, that as no sin of ours doth make any substantial alteration in his affections to us, so none, no, not his sharpest dispensations, should make any alteration in our thoughts and affections towards him, Ps. Ixxxix. 30-35 ; Jer. xxxi. 3 ; Eccles. ix. 8.
[5.] Ihe fifth use. If God hath given you assurance, then live holUy, live angelically, keep your garments pure and white, walk with an even foot, be shining lights, Rev. iii. 4 ; Mat. v. 16. Your happiness here is your holiness, and in heaven your highest happiness will be your perfect holiness. Holiness differs nothing from happiness, but in name. Holiness is happiness in the bud, and happiness is holiness at the full. Happiness is nothing but the quintessence of holiness. The more holy any man is, the more the Lord loves him, John xiv. 21-23.*
Augustine doth excellently observe, in his tract on John i. 14, ' that God loved the humanity of Christ more than any man, because he was fuller of grace and truth than any man.' The philosopher could say, ' that God was but an empty name without virtue.' So are all our professions without holiness.^ Holiness is the very marrow and quintes- sence of aU rehgion. Holiness is God stamped and printed upon the
* Saul had but fivepence to give the seer ; the seer after much good cheer gives him freely the kingdom, 1 Sam. ix. 8, and x. 1. So God deals with his.
* Vive ut vivas, live, that thou mayest live. Live in such sort, saith Periander, king of Corinth, that thou mayest have honour by thy life, and that after thy death men may account thee happy. [Diog. Laert., sub rwmine. — G.]
' Ille non est bonus qui non vult esse nelior. The loose walking of many Christiana was, as Salvian complains, made by the pagans the reproach of Christ himself, saying, Jf Christ had taught holy doctrine, surely his followers had led better lives. [Salvian, D. G,, lib. iv.— G.]
534 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34-.
soul ; it is Christ formed in the heart ; it is our light, our life, our beauty, our glory, our joy, our crown, our heaven, our all. The holy soul is happy in life, and blessed in death, and shall be transeendently glorious in the morning of the resurrection, when Christ shall say, Lo, here am I, and my holy ones, who are my joy ; Lo, here am I, and my holy ones, who are my crown ; and therefore, upon the heads of these holy ones will I set an immortal crown. Even so, Amen ! Lord Jesus.
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