[1.] More pleasant, because it implieth a rectitude and harmony in the soul of man ; it is a feast to the mind to do those things that are good and holy. The heathens saw it, ra heovra irpdrTeiv, &c. It breeds serenity. Surely much of the happiness of a man is to enjoy himself, which a wicked man cannot do whilst his soul is in a mutiny, and his heart disalloweth himself in the things which he doth love and practise, and his convictions check his affections and inclina- tions : ' The fruit of righteousness is peace,' Isa. xxxii. 17 ; ' And all the paths of wisdom are pleasantness,' Prov. iii. 17. In the body the vigorous motion of the spirits breedeth cheerfulness, and health ariseth when all the humours of the body keep their due temperament and proportion. In the world, when all things keep their place, and the confederacies of nature are not disturbed, the seasons go on com- fortably. In a kingdom, ^3«x est iranquillitas ordinis — when all persons keep their rank and place, there is peace. So when all things are rightly governed and ordered in the soul.
[2.] No work more honourable : Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.' Many think it to be a low- spirited thing to be godly, and, on the contrary, imagine it a sort of excellency to be free from the restraints of religion, and to live a life of pomp and ease, without any care of the world to oonie. Th^? sen.sual world esteemeth little of a ;;ood man ; but alas ! that carnal
330 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XIX.
life, which maiceth show of ease, delight, honour, and riches, is nothing to the life of grace ; for if God be excellent, they are excel- lent ; they are ' made ])artakers of his nature,' 2 Peter i. 4 ; admitted into the communion of his life, which all others are deprived of, Eph. iv. 18 ; when others live as beasts, they live as God ; when others live as beasts, their life is employed about the noblest objects and ends, and is assisted by the immediate influence of God's own Spirit. Therefore, if honour be derived from the true fountain of honour, those who are most God-like are the most noble and excellent.
[3.] No work is more profitable ; for it giveth us the favour and fellowship of God for the present, and makes way for an everlasting fruition of him in glory.
(1.) The favour and fellowship of God for the present. What an unprofitable drudgery is the life of an unsanctified worldling, in com- parison of the work of a holy man, who lives in communion with God, and attendance upon God, and hath access to him when he pleaseth, with assurance of welcome and audience 1 He hath a surer interest in God than the greatest favourite in the love of princes. God never faileth him : Ps. cxviii. 8, 9, ' It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man : it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.' A poor christian, that liveth in obscurity in the world, is never upbraided with the frequency of his suits, never denied audience, never hath cause to doubt of suc- cess. The princes of the earth have uncertain minds, love to-day, hate to-morrow, as in the instance of Haman ; their being is uncer- tain : Ps. cxlvi. 4, ' His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day all his thoughts perish ;' 1 Kings i. 21, ' Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.' Therefore attendance upon God is surely a noble work, to be made courtiers and family servants of the infinite sovereign ; their hearts are employed in loving him, tongues in praising him, lives in serving him, and are constantly maintaining converse with him through the Spirit ; surely these have the most profitable service creatures can be em- ployed in.
(2.) The everlasting fruition of God in glory hereafter : Ps. xvii. 15, 'I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness ; ' 1 John iii. 2, ' Now we are the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but this we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Then we shall be admitted into his immediate presence, to see his face, and shall be changed into, and satisfied with his likeness : we shall then live with God for ever, and be in a larger capacity to know God, and love him ; and then our work shall be our reward, we shall be everlastingly loving and praising of God. Well, then, though we are not altogether at liberty when freed from sin, but enter into another service, yet this service is no bondage, but a blessedness, and a beginning of our eternal happiness, and therefore to be preferred before liberty itself.
No man can be a servant of righteousness but he that is first by the goodness and mercy of God freed from the power and slaveiy of sin ; for the apostle saith, ' Being made free from sin, ye became the