[2.] God hath chosen this way to advance his glory, that he may perfect his power in our weakness, 2 Cor. xii, 9. By wants and weak- nesses his fatherly love appeareth to us, more than in an absolute and total exemption from them. God would not so often hear from us, nor would we have such renewed experiences to revive the sense of his fatherly love and grace, which would otherwise be dead and cold in our hearts, were it not for these wants and afflictions during our minority and nonage.
[3.] To wean and draw us off from things present to things to come ; that we may be contented to be bidden from, and hated by the world, if the course of our service expose us to it. For we must not look upon things as they are, or seem to be now, but what tliey will be hereafter. Now is the trouble, then the reward ; present time is quickly passed ; and therefore we should be dead to present profits, and present pleasures, and present honours ; and look to eternity, that is to come : 2 Cor. iv. 18, ' While we look not to the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which ai'e seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' 0 how glorious will the derided, vilified believer be then ! It should be our ambition to look after this honour ; it is the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. Though the wicked ha^^e a larger allowance by the bounty of God's common providence, yet you have his special love. We think God doth not place his hands aright; no! God doth not misplace his hands ; as Joseph thought of his father, Gen. xlviii, when he preferred
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Ephraim before Manasseh. What a poor condition was the only be- gotten Son of God in when he lived in the world ! When yon are poorer than Clirist, then complain ; thoup;li you do not enjoy pleasures, honours, riches, esteem, yet if you enjoy the favour of God, it is enough ; though mean, yet if heirs of glory. Jam. ii. 3. God doth not esteem persons according to their outward lustre : 1 Sam. xvi. 7, ' Look not on his countenance, or the height of his stature ; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth ; for man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.'
Secondly. How nianife.sted ? Their persons shall be known and owned : Rev. iii. 5, ' But I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.' It is no litigious debate then ; no more doubt when owned, not by character, but by name ; they shall be manifested to themselves, and their glory also revealed to the world by the visible marks of favour Christ will put upon them, when others are rejected : Isa. Ixvi. 5, ' But he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.' Yea, the world shall stand wondering: 2 Thes. i. 10, 'When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.'
Doct. 2. That the state of the creatures shall be renewed, when God's children come to be manifested in their glory ; for he saith, ' the whole creation groaneth and waiteth.'
1. This is clear,- — that heaven and earth, that is, the lower heavens and the elementary bodies, as well as the earth, shall suffer some kind of change at the last day ; for it is said : Ps. cii. 26, ' As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.' He will change them quite from the condition wherein they now are.
2. That this change of the world and the heavenly and elementary bodies shall be by fire : 2 Pet. iii. 7, ' The heavens and the earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and the perdition of ungodly men.'
3. That notwithstanding this fire and universal destruction, rational creatures shall subsist to all eternity, in their proper place assigned to each of them ; the godly in heaven, the wicked in hell : Mat. xxv. 46, ' These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.'
4. It is probable that the brutes and plants, and all such corruptible bodies as are necessary to the animal life, but superfluous to life ever- lasting, shall be utterly destroyed.
5. That the world and elementary bodies shall be refined and purged by this fire, and not utterly destroyed. This is the design of the scripture, and therefore this general conflagration seemeth not to turn all things into nothing in regard of their substance, but change of qualities ; and to change them with a perfective, not a destructive change ; to change the matter, not reduce it into nothing ; for that which is made matter of desire or hope, cannot be simple and total destruction or annihilation, as it is by the apostle here ; and it is compared with the deluge, where the form of the world was destroyed, not the substance : 2 Pet. ii. 6, As the world that was overflowed by water, perished ; so shall the world perish, which is consumed with