[3.] It is an endless and everlasting life. Such as are once possessed of it shall never be dispossessed again. If man be designed to enjoy a chief good, and this chief good must content all our desires, it must also be so firm and absolutely immutable as to secure us against all our fears ; for a fear of losing would disquiet our minds, and so hinder our blessedness. Now that there is no fear of that, let us consider what may be said concerning the firmness of it —
1. On God's part.
2. On the part of the blessed.
(1.) On God's part it standeth on three strong foundations —
(1st.) The infinite love of God, which is from eternity to eternity : Ps. ciii. 17, ' The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him ;' before the world was, and when the workl shall be no more.
(2d.) The everlasting merit of Christ, which never loseth its force and effect : Heb. ix. 12, ' Having obtained eternal redemption for us ;' not that Christ is always propitiating God by a continued sacrifice ; no, the work was once done in a short time, but the virtue of it is of ever- lasting continuance.
(3d.) The unchangeable covenant : so Heb. xiii. 20, ' Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
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covenant.' Though the covenant made with Israel "was abolished, yet this continueth for ever, and shall never be altered, because it was able to reach the end for which it was appointed, which is the eternal salvation of man ; that was a temporary covenant, this eternal.
(2.) On the part of the blessed, who being once admitted to the sight of God cannot any more cease from the love of God, or be sub- ject to sin. Heaven is a paradise, where the flowers that grow are ' incorruptible and undefiled, and never fade away,' 1 Peter i. 4.
Secondly, The reasons of it, why this is our final reward.
1. Because this is the end to which they are appointed. Every- thing hath its end and final perfection, for God made nothing in vain. Now, inanimate things tend to such an end as they are appointed unto by God's overruling providence ; such things as have a self-moving principle, as beasts, they are carried to their end by instinct, appetite, or natural inclination ; those things which have reason and knowledge, foreseeing the end, order the means thereunto ; they know the end, choose the means. As mere men, they seek to be happy ; and christians, who are holy men, seek to be most like him who is holy and happy. Now, then, since whatever acteth, acteth for an end, they that have their fruit to holiness have their end everlasting life. A capacity of an endless blessedness doth difiTerence a man from the beasts that perish ; a dis- position to it doth difference the saints from the ungodly; and the fruition of it at length doth difference the glorified from the damned.
2. God's government requireth it. The wisest lawgivers could not devise any other means to make men good besides pcena et prcemium, punishment and reward. For in the right dispensation of these two the life of government doth consist. Indeed many laws do more incline to punishments than rewards : for robbers and manslayers death is appointed, but the innocent subject hath only this reward, that he doth his duty, and escapeth these punishments. In few cases dotii the law promise a reward : the reason is, because fear is a greater and more commodious engine of human government than love ; and inflict- ing punishment is the proper work of man's law, for its end and use is to restrain evil. But God's law propoundeth rewards equal to the punishments, because the use of God's law is to guide men to their proper happiness. It is legts candor, the equity and favour of man's law to speak of a reward ; it commands many things, forbids many things, but still under a penalty, ex malts morihus nascuntur leges, to restrain evil is its natural work ; but God's covenant, being ordered for another end, doth not only threaten sinners, but promises life to the holy, and these threatenings and promises carry a proportion to God's nature, eternal life on the one hand, and eternal death on the other : Deut. XXX. 15, ' See, I have set before thee this day life and death, good and evil;' and Mat. xxv. 46, 'These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.' There are nowhere such dreadful punishments and such bountiful rewards as are pro- j)Ounded to us christians; eternal punishment is the reward of the disobedient, and eternal life is the privilege of the holy. Which, by the way, is a great shame, that we should be so defective in good, so fruitful in evil, less observant of the laws of the universal king, than the subjects of any prince. How often do we pawn our hopes of
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everlasting life upon less occasions than Esau did his birthright, and Ket Christ at a lower price than Judas did ?