7. Those that have their fruit to holiness, all their mercies and com- forts are more sweet, because they have them from God's love, and they use them for his glory.
[1.] They have their worldly blessings from God's love. A covenant- right is surely much sweeter than a "bare providential right : ' 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23, ' All things are yours, for you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' That is a covenant-right, when we have these things, not only by the fair leave and allowance of his providence, but as fruits of his fatherly love in Christ. We find most sweetness in the creature when our persons and ways are pleasing to God, ' God accepteth thy works,' Eccles. ix. 7. Alas ! others who are not reconciled to God, have their portion soured by remorse of conscience ; God may give them a liberal share of these outward things, but this is all, they must look for no more. It is said, Prov. x. 22, * The blessing of the Lord maketh rich^ and he addeth no sorrow with it.' There is a common blessing which is
VeR. 22.J SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 359
vouchsafed to the carnal, and there is a special blessing which is vouch- safed to the holy. Wicked men do not acquire wealth without God's common blessing ; the wealth itself, and the comfortable use of it, they have it from him ; elsewhere it is called food and gladness. But these words are much more true of the spiritual blessing, when an estate is sanctified ; then we have not only the natural comfort of the creature, but a spiritual use of it, a comfortable supply of outward things, and a peaceable conscience, which is more than natural refreshing. Alas ! unless we be upon good terms with God, all our rejoicings are but as stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret.
[2.] As they use them for his glory, when they take more occasions to do good. That is the sweetest use of the creature, when we use them with thankfulness, charity, and purity. With thankfulness to God : 1 Tim. iv. 4, ' Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving ;' that is, with a due acknowledg- ment of God, whose invisible hand reacheth out these supplies to us. We must use them as a glass, wherein to see our creator's goodness and glory ; and surely this religious use of the creature is more sweet than the natural use. With charity with respect to our neighbours, ministering to others that want necessaries : Neh. viii. 10, ' Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.' Man is not lord of these things, but a steward ; for we have not the right of a lord, but the right of a ser- vant, and must give an account, Luke xvi. 2. We do not receive these things to satisfy our fleshly mind, but to do good with them ; and the pleasure is not in the possession, but the use : Luke xvi. 9, ' Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.' It is more God-like: Acts xx. 35, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Sobriety respects ourselves, our Lord hath given us a caution : Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life.' Now, temperance is much sweeter than excess, as being more healthy and refreshing to nature ; whereas excess oppresseth it. Upon the •whole, the holy man's comforts are sweeter than other men's ; he hath them from God reconciled, and useth them for his glory. And thus I have proved to you, that to have our fruit unto holiness is the greatest pleasure : the very doing it is pleasant ; and God owneth them, pardoning their sins and assuring them of his love, and conscience speaketh peace to them, so that they have no inward trouble to damj) their joy, and their end is eternal life : for the present they have some access to God, their work is more easy, and their comforts are more sweet.
Secondly, Let mc now speak of the honour that doth accompany a lioly life. It will never be matter of shame to us, as sin is to all that practise it, first or last.
1. Because holiness is the very image of God upon the soul, or that work by which he sets forth his praise to the world. If God be excellent, it can be no disgrace or dishonour to us to be like God, and nothing on this side of heaven so like him as a holy soul. This was the blessed perfection in which we were created at first : Gen. i. 26,
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'And God Scaid, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' And when it was lost, for this end were we redeemed by Christ, who came to set up God's image in our nature : John i. 14, * And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' That we may be renewed by the Spirit : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God.' It is an image not made by painter or carver, but the Holy Ghost. Now certainly that which was our primitive glory and excellency, and is renewed and repaired with so much ado, will never be matter of shame tons.