Use. It showeth us three things :
1. The certainty of our hopes. There is hope tliat the creature at length shall be delivered into a state agreeing with the future glory of God's children. Therefore much more is their deliverance to be hoped for by the children of God themselves. For if these dumb insensible things be made partakers of a better estate than they have now, will not God take care for the recompence of his people ?
2. The excellency of our hopes. It appeareth hence, what excel- lency of glory is reserved for the children of God, since all the world shall be i-efined and restored for their sakes ; and seeing the gloiy of that state requireth the creature should be changed before it can suit with it.
3. It showeth us the manner of entering into our hopes. As the creature must be freed from the state of corruption, before it can par- take with God's children in any degree of their glorious liberty, so must we be changed before we are capable of it. How changed ? First, By grace. Secondly, By death. We must be changed by grace, and freed from the corruption of sin : Eph. v. 6, ' For this we know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.'
170 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXVIII.
Common knowledge will easily show us, that those that impenitently persist in rfoss sins, are incapable of any right unto, and never shall come to the possession of that blessed estateof eternal glory. We have a larger catalogue, Gal. v. 20, 21 ; and the apostle concludeth, that they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ; there is no mixture of godly and ungodly in the kingdom of heaven. Nay, we may go further, not only exclude them who live iu gross sin ; but every unregenerate person : John iii. 3, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ; ' and in the .5th verse it is ex- plained, 'he cannot enter into it.' Every man in his natural estate, be he to appearance better or worse, is unmeet for glory ; and there must be a change wrought in him ; he must be delivered from the bondage of sinful corruption, or he cannot eujoy the glorious liberty of the children of God. Not only an epicure, or drunkard, or whoremonger is excluded ; but a painted pharisee, as long as his heart is corrupt and unrenewed, hath no right, and never shall have possession ; he must be changed from a state of corruption to a state of holiness ; and the image of God, in which he was created, must be restored in him.
2. Changed by death. The saints being mortal, must be changed before they can inherit eternal life. All that we derived from old Adam must be laid and left in the grave : 1 Cor xv. 50, ' flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.' These earthly frail bodies of ours cannot be received into heaven, till they be changed and immortalized : ver. 53, ' This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' As a man to build his house better, razeth it to the very bottom ; so God will have the body resolved into dust, before he will set it forth in this new fair edition. As the creature is dissolved, that is, delivered from the bondage of corruption ; first the creature is set free, and discharged from being obnoxious to change and alteration ; so we must first die, then be raised in incorruption ; which should make us the more ready and willing to submit to the appointed course, and not only even dare to die, but to be willing' to die, since death puts an end to sin, and all our calamities, and is the gate and entrance by which we pass into glory.
Doct. 2. That the liberty to which God's people are reserved is a glorious liberty.
Here I shall first speak of the liberty of God's children in this life ; secondly, the glorious liberty in the world to come. For the one is a step to the other. For it is called, ' a glorious liberty,' to distinguish it from the liberty of God's children here in this world, which is not glorious, but gracious, to show how it exceedeth this estate in glory. Therefore I must show —
First, What is the liberty of God's children in this world.
Secondly, What in the world to come.
First, What is the liberty of God's children in this world. There are three practical notions in which man is greatly mistaken, — misery and happiness ; wisdom and folly ; liberty and bondage. Misery and happiness : men count none miserable but the afflicted ; none happy but the prosperous ; because they j udge by the present ease and commodity of the flesh. Wisdom and folly : We all affect
VeE. 21] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIIl. 171
the repute of wisdom, Job xi. 12 ; please ourselves with a false show of wisdom, neglecting what is true and solid, which is to be wise to salvation. Liberty and bondage: man accepteth of a false liberty rather than none ; every man would be at his own dispose, live as he list; whereas the true liberty must be determined by our condition as creatures ; by our end, as creatures that are in pursuit of true happiness. To think the only true liberty is to be at the com- mand and control of none above ourselves, or to live at large according to our hearts' desire, is to affect a thraldom and bondage instead of liberty; therefore it concerneth us to state exactly what is the liberty of God's children now. It either relateth to our duty, or to our felicity.