(2.) And partly with respect to the very thing itself. Our blessed estate shall be an estate of the highest dignity and dominion, of the fullest joy and content that heart can wish for. We have no higher notions whereby to express a blessed and happy estate ; and therefore our eternal glory, whereof we are partakers, is thus set forth ; especially to counterbalance our mean and low estate in the world : James ii. 5, ' God hath chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom ;' ' The saints shall have dominion in the morning,' Ps. xlix. 14. They shall sit with Christ as kings upon the throne, to execute the judgment written. Oh ! how should this warm our hearts- with the thoughts of these things !
(3.) Partly with respect to our loss by the fall. In the creation God put man in dominion, but by subjecting ourselves to the creature, who was made to be under our feet, we lost our kingdom, and are become slaves under the power of brutish lusts ; and till our blessed estate, we never fully recover it again; but then we are absolutely free, and at liberty to love and serve God.
Well, then, it is no mean thing Christ inviteth us unto, but unto a kingdom, which we shall all jointly and severally possess. There are two quarrellous pronouns, meum and iuum, mine and thine, which are the occasion of all the strifes in the world. These shall be excluded out of heaven as the common barrettors and makebates. There is no envy, no uncharitableness. There one cannot say to another, This part of this glorious kingdom is mine, that is yours ; for every heir of this kingdom shall be as much an heir as if he were sole heir. Here we straiten others as much as we are enlarged ourselves ; but there each one hath his full proportion in that blessed estate ; each hath the whole, and the rest never the less ; as the same speech may be heard entirely by me and all, as the light of the sun serveth all the world ; another hath not the less, because I enjoy the whole of it.
Secondly, The adjunct of this kingdom is that it was prepared for us. The word significth made ready. God made ready this state of
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happiness long ere we were ready for the possession of it. Eternal love laid the foundation of it. Merit of infinite value carried on the build- ing, and powerful and effectual grace still pursueth the work in our hearts ; for we must be prepared for the kingdom, as well as this kingdom prepared for us. So that, in short, this kingdom was prepared for us —
1. By the Father's love. It was his own love and most free good- ness that inwardly moved him to do all this for us : Luke xii. 32, ' It is your Father's good pleasure.'
2. By the Son's merit and mediation, who ' died that we should live together with him,' 1 Thes. v. 10.
3. By the sanctification of the Spirit, by which we are fitted for this estate, 2 Cor. v. 5.
1. The Father's love. The preparation is ascribed unto God : 1 Cor. ii. 9, ' The things which God hath prepared for them that love him;' and Heb. xi. 16, 'For God hath prepared for them a city.' Particularly by God the Father. So Mat. xx. 23, ' It is not mine to give, but to them for whom it was prepared of my Father.' The Father's act may be thus conceived : God loved us so much, as he decreed to give Christ for us, that by his precious blood he might purchase and acquire for us a blessedness in heaven; and in the fulness of time accordingly sent him into the world for that end, and bound himself by eternal paction and covenant that all that believe in his name should have this kingdom. This was the preparation of his decree.
2. Jesus Christ, by way of execution of this decree, maketh a further preparation, when by his death he purchased it, and by his ascension went to seize upon it in our name : John xiv. 2, ' I go to 23repare a place for you.' As Christ by his death did purchase a right and title to heaven, so by his ascension he prosecuteth and applieth that right. He is gone, as our harbinger, to take up rooms for us. As the high priest entered into the most holy place with the names of the children of Israel upon his breast and shoulders, and with the blood of the sacrifices, so he hath entered heaven with our names, to present the merit of his blood continually, and to pour out the Spirit to fit us for glory : this is his errand and business in heaven, and he is not unmindful of it.
3. The Spirit prepareth us, without which all the rest would come to no effect; for it is the wisdom of God to dispose all things into their apt and proper places. Therefore the persons are prepared, as well as the place : Kom. ix. 23, ' Vessels of mercy, which he hath aforehand prepared unto glory.' He worketh faith in their hearts, giveth them a title, and by sanctifying prepareth them for the possession and enjoy- ment of it : ' He that worketh us for this self-same thing is God,' 2 Cor. V. 5.