[4.] By the first fruits of the Spirit our title and right is assured. For it is compared to a seal, to warrant our present interest: Eph. iv. 3, ' Ye are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise ; ' to an earnest, to secure our future enjoyment : 2 Cor. iv. 22, ' Who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.' This blessed state belongeth only to those who have the first fruits of the Spirit ; their title is clear ; for God will own his seal and impress, will never take back his earnest, but it remaineth with us till there be no place left for doubts and fears. Now who, being secured of a better estate, and ibr the present burdened with sorrow and temptations, would not groan and long after it ?
Use. [1.] Is information. It informeth us of the certainty of blessed- ness to come. If there were any perfect estate in this life nothing would sooner bring us to it than a participation of the Spirit ; but this doth not ; for they that are partakers of the Spirit groan, wait, and are not satisfied with their present estate, but long for a better, brenthe after something greater, a,nd beyond what they here enjoy. Therefore certainly God hath reserved for them a better estate in another world,
VOL. XII. N
194 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXX.
We prove another life by the disposition and instinct of nature towards happiness in the general, yea, eternal happiness ; all would be happy ; they grope and feel about after eternal good, Acts xvii. 26. This being tlie universal desire of all mankind, it is an argument that there is such a thing as eternal good, for natural desires are not frustrate ; for nature doth nothing in vain. But the desires of the sanctified do much more prove it ; for these act more regularly, direct their desires and groans to a certain scope and end ; and those are excited by the Holy Spirit of God ; he imprinteth the firm persuasion of this happiness in them, and stirreth up these groans after it, and that usually in our gravest and severest moods, when we are solemnly conversing with God in his holy worship ; then he doth raise up these affections towards heavenly tilings, by the word, prayer, and sacraments, and leaveth this heavenly relish upon our hearts as the present reward of our duties. And the more serious and lioly any are, the more do they feel of this. Now this is a greater argument ; for holiness was never designed for our torment ; and these desires being of God's own planting, they will not be disappointed.
[2.] That none but those who have the first fruits of the Spirit will groan and hope for eternal life. Others have no warrant, for they have not God's earnest ; and God never giveth the whole bargain, but he first giveth earnest ; for ' without holiness no man shall see God.' Others have no inclination ; for most men's thoughts are not busied about this, but rather go after worldly things ; they are for serving their lusts, and pleasing their fleshly appetites and fancies ; whereas the apostle biddeth us be sober, and truss up the loins of our minds, 1 Pet. i. 13, if we would hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is true, death is the ordiua^-y refuge for embittered spirits, and the back-door we seek to get out at in our discontent. In passion men will desire to die ; when beaten out of the world, heaven is their retreat ; but do serious groans, and desires of heaven.
.[3.] That we must so groan under the present misery, that we may wait for deliverance with patience. Hope is not only made up of look- ing and longing, but waiting also : Heb. vi. 12, ' Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise.'
[4.] That one great means to support our faith and patience is the hope of the redemption of our bodies. (1.) Because the man cannot be happy till the body be raised again ; for the soul alone doth not consummate the man, neither was it made to live eternally apart from the body, but is in a state of widowhood till it be united to it again, and live with its old mate and companion. The man is not happy till then. (2.) It is the body is most pained in obedience, and endured all the troubles and labours of Christianity; there it hath part in the reward as well as the work; Heb. xi. 3.5, 'Not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.' (3.) It is tlie body which Feemed to be lost. Some of the bodies of the faithful were devoured by wild beasts, others consumed in the fire ; some swallowed up in the sea ; all resolved in dust. Therefore because here the temptation lays the smart or destruction and torture of the body, the cordial is suited ; christians do not only desire the blessed immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the body. The body is weak, frail, subject to