What you have wrought : 2 John 8, ' Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.' You forfeit the reward of your good beginnings. A partial reward they may have in this life, while they continue their well-doing (for no man is a loser by God), but not a complete and full reward till the life to come. Some overflowings of God's temporal bounty they may Imve, but not the crown of life and glory. So Ezek. xviii. 24, ' All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be men- tioned.' All is obliterated and forgotten and made void, as to any interest in the great reward. This was represented in the type of the Nazarite : Num. vi. 12, ' The days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.' He was to begin all anew. All that you have suffered, as a man may make some petty losses for Jesus Christ : Gal. iii. 4, ' Have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if it be yet in vain.' This maketh all the cost and expense that you have been at to be to no purpose.
THE EXCELLENCY OF SAVING FAITH.
But ive are not of them wlio draw hack unto perdition; hut of them that believe to the saving of the soul. — Heb. X. 39.
In the verse immediately preceding there is a dreadful doom pro- nounced on apostates, that God will take no pleasure in them. Now lest they should be much affrighted with the terror of it, and suppose that he had too hard an opinion of them, he showeth, that though he did warn them, he did not suspect them, presuming other things of them, according to their profession : But loe are not of them that draw hack unto perdition ; hut of them that helieve to the saving of the soul.
In the words two things are observable : —
1. The denial of the suspicion of their apostasy.
2. An assertion of the truth and constancy of their faith.
That clause I shall insist upon, e'/c Trt'o-reco? el? irepcTroLrjcnv ^/^'f^T'}?. "Where, first, take notice of their faith, eV Trt'o-reft)? ; secondly, their perseverance, ek TreptTroirjaiv •\|fu;)^?}9. The word signifieth their purchasing, acquiring, obtaining, finding the soul ; meaning thereby, that though they lost other things, they did not lose their souls.
Doct. That a true and sound faith will cause us to save the soul, though with the loss of other things.
1 Peter i. 5, ' Ye are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' It is the power of God indeed that keepeth. He that reserveth heaven for us reserveth and keepeth us for heaven. But by what instrument or means ? By faith. To depend upon an invisible God for a happiness that lieth in an invisible world, when in the meantime he permitteth us to be harassed with difficulties and troubles, requireth faith ; and by faith alone can the heart be upheld, till we obtain this salvation. ^So ver. 9, ' Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.' It is faith maketh us row against the stream of flesh and blood, and deny its cravings, that we may obtain eternal salvation at length. The flesh is for sjjaring and favouring the body ; but faith is for saving the soul. That is the end and aim of faith.
To make this evident to you : —
1 . I shall prove that all other things must be hazarded for the saving of the soul.
HeB. X. 39.] THE EXCELLENCY OF SAVING FAITH. 141
2. That nothing will make us hazard all things for the purchasing or acquiring the salvation of the soul but only faith.
1. That all other things must be hazarded for the saving of the soul : Mat. x. 39, ' He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.' So it is repeated again upon the occasion of the doctrine of self-denial, Mat. xvi. 2.5, 26. The saving of the soul is more than the getting and keeping or having of all the world ; for the world coneerneth only the body and bodily life, but the saving of the soul coneerneth eternal life. If life be lost temporally, it is secured to eternity, when we shall have a life which no man can take from us. And the case standeth thus : that either we must bring eternal perdition upon ourselves, or else obtain eternal salvation. They that are thirsty of life bodily, and the comforts and interests of it, are certainly prodigal of their salvation. But on the other side, if we are willing to venture life temporal, and all the interests thereof, for the saving of the soul, we make a good bargain : that which is left for a while is preserved to us for ever. In short, so much as God is to be preferred before the creature, heaven before the world, the soul before the body, eternity before time, so much doth it concern us to have the better part safe. And as men in a great fire and general conflagration will hazard their lumber to preserve their treasure, their money, or their jewels, so should we take care, that if we must lose one or other, that the better part be out of hazard ; and whatever we lose by the way, we may be sure to come well to the end of our journey.