(2.) The use for which the Holy Spirit and saving graces bestowed ou them serveth, is to be the earnest of the inheritance. An earnest is a pledge, or first part of a payment, which is an assurance or security that the rest of the whole price shall not fail to follow; so the Spirit and his graces is the earnest given by God to confirm and assure the bargain, that at last he will bestow upon us our full portion, or salvation and eternal life itself. The presence and working of the Spirit in our hearts is this earnest ; as soon as you give up yourselves to God in covenant, you have a right ; but the possession is delayed for a season ; therefore he giveth us part in hand, to assure us he will bestow the whole in due time ; for we need to be satisfied, not only as to our pre- sent right, but our future possession. The Spirit and his work of grace received here is glory begun ; a part it is, though but a small part in regard of what is to ensue.
(3.) The time how long the use of this earnest is to continue : ' until the redemption of the purchased possession.' The words are somewhat obscure. What is the purchased possession ? It is taken for the persons acquitted and purchased, that is to say, the church and people of God, holy and sincere christians ; for they are Christ's possession whom he hath dearly bought, 1 Cor. vi. 10, and recovered out of the hands of Satan their old possessor and master :
24 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XIV.
Col. i. 13. The reJemptioa of thetn is till their full and final deliverance : Eph. iv. 30. ' Whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption.' Their deliverance is but begun now, and their bonds but in part loosed ; but tliey are fully freed from the effects of sin at the last day, when death itself is abolished, and their bodies raised up in glory. The earnest is given ; the Holy Spirit with his graces to abide with us till then ; at that time tliere is no further use of an earnest, for there is no place left for doubts and fears. Till this day comes, God's earnest abideth with us, that is, in our souls, till our bodies be reunited to them ; and this fully proveth the matter in hand.
[5.] His respect to his old dwelling place ; he once dwelt in onr bodies as well as in our souls : 1 Cor. vi. 19, ' Know ye not that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost ? ' Our bodies were his temple, and honoured by his presence ; he sanctified our bodies as well as our souls : 1 Thes. v. 23. ' I pray God sanctify you wholly, your whole spirit, soul, and body.' He sanctifieth the body, as he maketh it obedient to his motions, and a ready instrument to the soul. Now ■when the body was given up to the Spirit to be sanctified, it was con- secrated to immortality ; it is by the Spirit's sanctifying the soul that it was made capable of seeing and loving God ; so the body of serving the soul in our duties to God. Now shall a temple of God be utterly demolished? that body that was kept clean for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, and to be presented immaculate at the day of Christ, come to nothing ? Indeed for a while it rotteth in the grave, but his interest in it is not made void by death, and his aff"ection ceaseth not ; this body was once his house and temple, and he had a property in it ; therefore he hath a love to our dust, and a care of our dust, and will raise it up again.
[fc'.] Because the great work of the Spirit is to retrench our bodily pleasures, and to bring us to resolve by all means to save the soul, whatever becometh of the body in this world, and to use the body for the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Spiiit would not put us upon the labours of the body, and take no care for the happiness of the body; these two always go together: 1 Cor. vi. 13, 'The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body ; ' Christ expecteth service from the body, and gave up himself for the redemption of it, as well as the soul : 1 Cor. vi. 20. The body is his in a way of duty, and his in a way of charge ; this reason should the more sink into you, because spirit and flesh are so opposed in scripture. Flesh signifieih our incli- nations to the bodily life, as spirit doth the bent and inclination of soul to God and heaven ; the great work of the Holy Spirit is to subdue the lusts of the flesh: Rom. viii. 13, 'If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ; ' if we obey him in his strivings against the flesh : Gal. v. 16, ' Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' Christ giveth us his Spirit to draw us off from bodily pleasures, that tasting manna, the diet of Egypt may have no more relish with us. So Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof;' they hold a severe hand over all the appetites and passions of the flesh : Rom. xiii. 14, ' Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.' Do not addict yourselves to pamper and please the body. One great part