eveiy one is the good of all, and the good of all the good of every one. Tliere is one body, one heart, one soul, and one God that is all in all. Whence is it that one citizen loveth another rather than a stranger, one brother loveth another rather than another man, that the head loveth the feet of his own body rather than the eyes of another? Namely, that citizens dwell in one common city, or they are one com- mon house, and are of the same stock ; members live by conjunction of the same life. What conjunction then, what love between the blessed, that have one God, one country, one palace, one life ! How sweet will this friendship be, where there is no weakness to pervert or corrupt it ! After we have gotten through a short life here in the world, this will be our portion. As soon as we do but step into this house, we bid our everlasting farewell unto all sin and sorrow ; and step into it we do as soon as we die, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But above all, what joy is in the sight of God ! 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Oh, then, let us get a title to it, and be able with clearness to make out our qualification by two witnesses, conscience and the Spirit : Kom. viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God;' as in the mouth of two witnesses everything is established. God never giveth heaven but he giveth earnest : 2 Cor. i. 22, 'Who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.' God never giveth heaven to any but first he prepareth and fitteth them for it : Col. i. 12, ' Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' There is some suitableness between the person and the state. Therefore what hatli God done for you ? Or what have you done for God ? You must look to both. Deus coronal dona sua. Never think he will alter those eternal laws of justice to save you ; you are to do something to take hold of eternal life : 1 Tim. vi. 19, 'Lay- ing up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.' And then let us look for it, and long for it more, and seek after it with all earnestness. We have an house above, but we are not in it, thei'efore we should long to be at home, in the enjoyment of the house fitted for us. Your whole lives should be a continual motion and approach toward this eternal and glorious state of rest. Believers that look and long and groan for heaven are of a most noble and divine spirit. Can a man believe blessedness to come, and not long to enjoy it? Surely mind and heart will be set a-work ; a taste will make a man long for more ; it is but a little while and we shall have full possession. And the reason why we have not full possession sooner is not because heaven is not ready for us, but we are not ready for it. And then let us comfort ourselves with these hopes of blessedness: Heb. iii. 6, ' Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end.' Oh ! let us rouse this joy, and still keep it afoot to encourage our endeavours (Phil. iii. 13), to abate our fears (Luke xiii. 32), to moderate our sorrows (Heb. x. 34), to allay the fears of death. We do by it but change houses, and it is not an exchange for the worse, but for the better. Why should we then be so unwilling to it ?
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VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 431
SERMON IL
For toe know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- solved, we have a building of God, an house not made loith hands, eternal in the heavens. — 2 Cor. v. 1.
I COME now to the third consideration. That a sure confidence of this happy and blessed condition may be had. For,
1. Here is a sure right — 'We have.' A christian not only shall have heaven at last, but he hath it for the present ; he is not only sure of it at the close of his days, but now he hath it. He hath not a possession of this upper house, but he hath a full right to it, and is expecting and waiting when God shall call him up thither, and is still preparing for his remove, and ripening for his everlasting estate. The scripture speaketh this in many other places: John iii. 36, 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' So John v. 24, 'Verily, verily, he that heareth my word, and believeth in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.' So John vi. 54, ' Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.' How hath he it now? He hath it, (1.) In promise. In the promises of the gospel, when we take hold of the promise, we take hold of the blessing by the root. Therefore believers are said to take hold of eternal life, 1 Tim. vi. 12-19 — namely, as they take hold of the promise by which their right is secured to them. As soon as he is converted to God, he is made an heir of eternal life ; God hath made a charter and grant to him ; he hath it upon such terms as ho is out of the hazard of perishing. He hath, jus ad rem, though not in re, as a man hath a title to the estate which he is to possess after the death of another. We have it and hold it by covenant right, though not by actual possession. (2.) He hath it iVi capite — in his head : Eph. ii. 6, ' He hath raised us up, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ.' Though our glorification be yet to come, yet the apostle speaketh it all already past when the Father raised and glorified Christ. He hath it in Christ, wlio is the fountain, cause, and pledge of it. He rose again, and entered into heaven as our head. Christ seized upon heaven in our right, and possesseth it in our name : John xiv. 2, ' I go to prepare a place for you.' Though for the present we lie groan- ing under pressures and miseries, and though we are not glorifi.ed in our persons, yet in Christ our head we are. The head is crowned for all the rest of the members, which showeth an undoubted certainty, a greater certainty than that of a simple prediction and promise, even such a certainty as the giving of a pledge or the suffering us to take possession in our name of an estate. (3.) They have it in, spe etfide — in the sure belief and certain expectation of it : Heb. xi. 1, ' Faith is the substance cf things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' By faith and liope we preoccupy and foretaste those eternal and excellent delights which God hath prepared for us. The certain expectation ia