214 8ERM0NS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXIL
in that very day his thoughts perish.' Certainly the cares and pleasures of this world steal away the heart from the life to come ; worldly delights make us unwilling to remove.
3. Meditate often on the worth of this blessedness: Col. iii. 1, ' If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.' Are you unwilling to come to God, the object of your everlasting joy and love? to Christ, your blessed redeemer and saviour, who hath done so much for you, to bring you home to himself? to the innumerable company of saints and holy angels, and those peaceful regions that are above ? Surely if you hold your eye open upon the mark, you will press on with the more diligence, Phil. iii. 14.
4. The more earnestly you look for these things, the more doth heaven come to you before you come to it : Phil. iii. 20, ' But our conversation is in heaven ; ' living for heaven, or upon heaven here, by earnest hope, the joy of the Loi"d entereth into you ; Kom. xv. 13, ' Now the God of hope fill you will all joy in believing ; ' the more our hearts are exalted to look after it ; but usually we are taken up with toys and trifles.
Use 3. Have we this hope ? You may be contented with a pre- sumptuous conceit or idle expectation, and call it hope ; it is not a slight thinking of heaven ; no, but a certain and desired expectation of the promised blessedness, according to the terms of the new covenant ; the true hope is neither groundless nor fruitless.
1. A groundless hope is a false hope, which buildeth on false pro- mises ; you cannot render Xoyop or an account of it, 2 Peter iii. 5. As David asked the reason of his doubts, so we of our hopes : Ps. xlii. 15, 'Hope thou in God.' They think if they have confidence, though without holiness, they shall see God ; they hope to be saved without regeneration, and so hope for that which God never promised ; think to be saved while unsanctified ; these build on false evidences ; James i. 21 ; build on the sand. Mat. vii. 24 ; build on false experiences, God's patience, the blessings of this life, deliverance only : their cry from imminent danger, Ps. Ixxviii. 38 ; vanishing tastes, Heb. vi. 5.
2. It is not fruitless.
Use 4. Is direction in the Lord's Supper. This duty was appointed to raise and confirm our hope, for it is a seal of the covenant, and the principal covenant blessing is eternal life. Three things are consider- able : the acting of hope, the receiving new pledges of God's love, the binding ourselves to pursue everlasting life.
1. The acting of hope. We come to take Christ and all his benefits, which are pardon and life. He is drinking ' new wine in his Father's kingdom,' Mat. xxvi. 29. We come to think of the happiness of the blessed ; some are gotten to heaven already ; we are of the same family : Eph. iii. 15, ' Of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named.' It is but one household ; some live in the upper, some in the lower room ; those on earth are of the same society and community with them in heaven : Heb. xii. 23, ' To the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.' They have gotten the start of us, and are made perfect before us, that we may follow after ; we are reconciled to the same
VeK. 24.] SERMONS UPON EOMANS VIII. 215
God, by the same Christ, Col. i. 20 ; we expect our portion from the bounty of the same Father, Luke xii. 32. He that hath been so good to that part of the family which is now in heaven, will he not be as good to the other part also that remain here upon earth ? Therefore they that are working out their salvation with fear and trembling may and should encourage themselves, and look upon this felicity as pre- pared for them, though not enjoyed by them, and will one day be their portion, as well as of those others who have passed the pikes, and are now triumphing with God. The apostle telleth us, 1 Cor. xi. 26, ' As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye show forth the Lord's death till he come ; ' and he cometh to bring us up to those blessed mansions which are in his Father's house. When we show forth the Lord's death, we are to think of those that are in our Father's house : John xiv. 3, ' I will come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am, tliere you may be also.' To keep afoot this promise in the church, and to keep it alive in our hearts, we come to the Lord's table.
2. Our business is to receive new pledges of God's fatherly love and our blessed inheritance, which are represented under a double notion: as an earnest, to show how sure; as first-fruits, to show how good.