Thirdly, The certain apprehension we have of this, ' We believe.' Here I shall handle — (1.) The necessity of this faith ; (2.) The grounds of it ; (3.) The profit of believing this.
1. The necessity of believing.
[1.] This life is not matter of sense, but of faith, whether you take it for the life of grace, or the life of glory.
(1.) The life of grace. If you consider the nature of it, which is of the order of things spiritual, and men that judge according to things of sense see no glory in it : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' Alas ! the rich preparations of grace, which God hath made for us in the gospel, a carnal heart hath no savour for them nor value and esteem of them, is nothing moved with the tender and offer ; we must have a higher light to see these things. Besides, the new nature is hidden under manifold infirmities and afflictions : Col. iii. 3, ' Your life is hid with Christ in God;' and 1 John iii. 2, ''It doth not yet appear what we shall be.' Once more, it is God's gift, and a matter full of difficulty for them to apprehend that are sensible of their own vileness, and are daily conflicting with so many lusts ; that they should be quickened and enabled to live to God is a matter which they cannot easily believe : ' Shall these dead bones live ? 0 Lord ! thou knowest/ Ezek. xxxvii. 3. It is a hard matter to persuade them that have a great sense of the power of their bewitching lusts that they shall ever overcome.
(2.) For the life of glory, that is also a matter of faith, because it is a thing future, unseen, and to be enjoyed in another world : ' Now
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faith is the substance of things not seen, and the evidence of things hoped for,' Heb. xi, 1.
[2.] The person, office, and power of our Eedeemer are all mystical truths : John xi. 25, 26, ' I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die: believest thou this ?' that Christ is able to raise the dead to life again now or hereafter.
[3.] The matter is difficult to be believed, that after worms have consumed this flesh it shall be raised again in glory, and at length reign with Christ for ever. Therefore Abraham's faith is so often propounded to the faithful, ' who considered not his own body now dead, nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb,' Rom. iv. 19 ; and the apostle showeth us that such a kind of faith shall be ' imputed to us for righteousness,' ver. 24, who believe Christ's resurrection, and then ours. All this showeth the necessity of faith in this case.
2. The grounds of believing this blessed estate, which is reserved for the mortified.
[1.] The infinite love of God, which prepared these mercies for us : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom ;' and 1 Cor. ii. 9, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him ;' Mat. xxv. 34, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit a kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' God prepared this glory for us, and by degrees traineth us up for it.
[2.] The everlasting merit of Christ : Heb. ix. 15, ' For this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.' It is by his means that we are redeemed from the guilt and power of sin, and have an eternal inheritance stated upon us. It behoved Christ, for the honour of the divine government, by the intervention of his merit and intercession, to satisfy God's justice, and acquire unto us those things which love and mercy had prepared for us, and among other things that blessed and glorious estate which is to be enjoyed upon the resurrection. This is made sure to the heirs of promise by the death of Christ, which is of everlasting merit, called therefore, ver. 12, ' everlasting redemption.'
[3.] The almighty power of the sanctifying Spirit both to change the soul and raise the body. To change the soul, which is made an act of omnipotency : 2 Peter i 3, 'According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.' There- fore it is often compared to creation, which is a making things out of nothing. To raise the body, as he did Christ's : Rom. i. 4, ' And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Si)irit of holiness, by the resurrection from tlie dead ; ' and will raise the bodies of the faithful, in whom he once dwelled : Rom. viii. 11, ' He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you ;' Phil. iii. 21, ' Who shall also change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious