2. Apply it. It is a poor, comfortless meditation to think of a blessed hope and the certainty of it, unless we have an interest in these things. A hungry man taketh little pleasure in gazing upon a feast, when he tastes not of it. The reprobate hereafter are lookers-on ; and David speaketh of a ' table spread for him in the sight of his enemies.' Hope hath never a more lively influence than Avhen we can make out our own propriety and interest : Job xix. 25, ' I know that my Eedeemer liveth;' 2 Cor. v. 1, 'We know that if this earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building not made Avith hands, eternal in the heavens ;' 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me,' &c. They do not only believe there is a heaven, but apjily it — for me. You will say, Is hope only tlie fruit of assurance ? I answer — It is the fruit of faith as well as of assurance or experience ; but the sense of our interest is very comfortable, and in. some sort necessary. Be- fore we can hope anything for ourselves, our qualification is to be sup- posed. In a matter of such moment a man should not be at an uncer- tainty. Canst thou be quiet and not sure of heaven ? Not to look after it is a bad sign. A godly man may want it, but a godly man cannot slight it. It is possible a man may make a hard shift to creep to heaven through doubts and fears, and may be ' scarcely saved,' 1 Peter iv. 18, whilst others have 'an abundant entrance ;' but then you lose your heaven upon earth, which consisteth in ' peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,' and lose much of the eflicacy of hope ; for uncer- tain, waveiing thoughts work little, therefore assurance cannot be slighted. Further, I add ; by showing what application there must be if we cannot attain to assurance ; there are three degrees of applica- tion beneath assurance : there is acceptation, adherence, and affiance.
[1.] Acceptation of God's ofi"er upon God's terms : Job v. 27, ' Know thou it for thy good ;' put in for these hopes, and take God to his VOL. V. z
354 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [YeR. 21.
word upon this confidence ; make good tliy part of tlie stipation in the covenant, and he will not fail thee. This application there must be in all, in ans^Yer to the demands of the covenant, 1 Peter iii. 21, Exod. xxiv. 6-8.
[2.] Adherence. Stick close to this hope in a course of obedience. If we do God's work we shall not fail of wages : 1 Cor. ix. 26, ' 1 run not as one that is uncertain.'
[3.] Affiance. Eesting, waiting upon God for the accomplishment of this blessedness, though not without some doubts and fears as to our own interest. Though you cannot say it is yours, yet you will cast yourself upon ' the mercy of God in Christ,' as it is in the text, ' Look- ing for the mercy of Christ.' You dare venture your soul in that bottom. This is that ' committing yourselves to him as unto a merci- ful and faithful creator,' wdiich the apostle speaketh of, 1 Peter iv. 19. You will go on with your w^ork, and put yourselves in God's hand for your eternal happiness, because he is merciful, faithful. See also Rom. ii. 7.
3. Meditate on it often. ]\Ieditation is a temperate ecstasy, a sur- vey of the land of promise. God biddeth Abraham take a view of Canaan, Gen. xiii. 14, 15. Surely the more we lift up our thoughts in the contemplation of this blessed estate, the more lively will our hopes be. If every morning we spent a thought this way, it would season the heart against the love of present things. The morning is an emblem of the resurrection, when we awake out of the sleep of death, and the day cometh which will never have night more, Ps. xvii. 15. So in time of troubles we should be reckoning upon a better estate, Eom. viii. 18. So, when you are by bodily sickness sum- moned to the grave, and you are going down to converse with worms and skulls, then think of a blessed eternity. Job xix, 26.
Obs. 6. The next point is from that clause, the mercy. The ground of our waiting and looking for eternal life is God's mercy, not for any works or merits of ours ; we cannot challenge it as a debt : sin and death are as w^ork and wages, but eternal life is a donative, Rom. vi. 23. Eternal life is not the wages of obedience, as damnation is the wages of sin. Why, wherein lieth the difference ? I answer — Wicked men stand upon their own bottom, but Christ hath obtained this privilege for us. Wicked works are ours, and they are merely evil, the good that we do is imperfect, and God's grace hath the main stroke, so that we are rewarded rather according to what we have received than what we have done. A servant is under a covenant of obedience, and tradeth with his master's estate, he doth but his duty, he deserveth something.i We are bound to do good and forbidden to sin ; when we do what is forbidden we deserve punishment, but when we do what is commanded we do not deserve the reward, because we are bound, and because we have all from God's grace : as you must pray for eternal life, so must you ' look for eternal life.' If you should Bay, Give me heaven for I deserve it, natural conscience would blush at the immodesty of such a request. It is as great an absurdity when you make your own works the ground of your hope, for in prayer our desires and hopes are put into language, and made more explicit ; so that which is our plea in prayer must be the ground of our