3. Let us get our hearts confirmed against these temptations that may assault our confidence — life, death. If God prolong life, there is occasion for service ; if death cometh, that is our comfort : Kev. xiv. 8, ' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord ; ' Phil. i. 20, ' I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is much better.' Death is a passage to glory ; it shall not separate us from Christ, but join us to him, Phil. i. 23. Lay up this comfort against the hour of death. It is a separation that causeth a nearer conjunction. Then angels. The evil angels are under Christ, Col. i. 16. You are never in Satan's hand, but Satan is in God's hands. Then for principalities and powers. No potentates have any power but what is given them from above : John xix. 11, ' Thou couldest have no power at all against me, were it not given thee from above ; ' and Christ promiseth, Mat. xvi. 18, ' Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it! ' Things present, and things to come. Whatso- ever is present is either good or evil ; the good things are for our comfort in our pilgrimage, the evil fit us for a happier estate ; but we have no assurance of things to come : Mat. vi. 34, ' Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.' And then height and depth. We are acquainted with the heighth and depth of the love of God; we know a more glorious height, which is heaven ; and there is a dis- mal depth, which is hell. God can provide a harbour for his people; turneth the devil's design quite contrary to his intention.
SERMONS
FIFTH CHAPTER OF 2 CORINTHIANS.
SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS, V.
SEKMON I.
For loe know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- solved, we have a bxiildit^g of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. — 2 Cor. v. 1.
Having showed you how much of the true spirit of Christianity lieth in looking to things unseen, because the apostle goeth on with that argument, I shall pursue it in the following verses of this chapter. Paul here rendereth a reason why he could so overlook things seen, whether crosses or comforts, and so resolutely venture upon the hope of things unseen — For ive knoio, &c.
In which words there is not only a reason rendered of his courage and self-denying pursuit of unseen glory, but also an anticipation or secret prevention of an objection. Some might say to him, There may be a blessed state to come ; but dost thou certainly know that thou shalt be a partaker of that glory ? Tea, saith he, ' We know,' &c.
The words branch themselves into three parts : —
1. A supposal of the worst that could befall him in the world: If our earthly house of this tabernacle luere dissolved.
2. A proposal of a glorious estate to be enjoyed after death : We have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
3. An assertion of his own right, or the application to himself, or an assured expectation of this blessed and glorious estate : We know that tve have. It is not a bare conjecture, but a certain knowledge, o'lSaf^ev, ' We know.' And what is there known ? Not the general truth only, that there is a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, but that we have a particular confidence of our own blessed immortality.
The point is this —
That the difficulties, pressures, and dangers of the present life, even though they should end in death itself, are a matter, of no great terror to those who have a sure confidence of their own blessed immortality.
I shall explain this point by these considerations : —
1. That the present life is frail, miserable, and transitory, and within a little while will surely come to an end.
424 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. I.
2. That there is a much happier condition than this world is capable of, even an abiding estate of blessedness which God hath provided for his people. For the apostle, speaking of the present life, he calleth it a tent, but the other is an house : that is an earthly house ; this eternal in heaven, out of the reach of all sublunary dangers. That is an house in which man is instrumental in raising it up, or sometimes pulling it down; this is builded without hands by God himself, and continued to us for ever by his gracious grant.
3. That a sure confidence of this happy and blessed condition may be had. For there is a sure right — ' We have ;' a certain confidence — ' We know.' It is not, We think, We hope well, but, We know. It is propounded as a common privilege, you and I and all the suffering ser- vants— ' We know.'
4. That this sure confidence of our own right in it, and future pos- session of it, doth support and fortify the soul against all the dangers and pressures of the present life, yea, against death itself.