VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 447
3. How shall we rouse up our faith, and more firmly believe the promised glory ?
Foundation stones can never be laid with care and exactness enough. None of us believe it so, but we may believe it again with more cer- tainty and assurance of understanding ; at least we need to revive it often, as when the picture waxeth old we refresh the colours. The motives of credibility I have given you in former discourses. I .shall only now mention its own intrinsic grounds, which have a more direct influence on the confidence of a believer. A blessed estate i.s very sure to the heirs of promise.
[1.] Partly as being appointed to them from all eternity : Mat. xxv. 34, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inheiit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' A purpose so long ago thought of, and prepared with such solemnity, and designed to us in Christ, will not easily be broken off: 2 Tim. i. 9, 10, ' He hath saved us with an holy calling, according to his purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light in the gospel.' It seemed good to God from everlasting to decree within himself concerning us, to give us eternal life by Christ Jesus, who came to free poor creatures from eternal death, and the wrath of God abiding on them, and to make the offer of a glorious estate to them in the world to come, as the fruit of his merit. Here was the first stone laid towards this eternal building, even the foundation of God, which standeth sure.
[2.] It is secured to them by the promise of the faithful God, 1 John ii. 25. And what needed God to promise what he would not perform? In other parts of scripture we own God's authority ; why not in the promises ? The same God which gave the commands which you find so powerful on your consciences, the same God gave the promises. In all other promises God standeth to his word, and is very faithful and punctual in them, as in those which are of a present accomplishment, in ultimo non deficiet. God hath entered into covenant with us. A covenant supposeth both parties engaged ; it doth not leave one bound and another at large : the precept doth not leave us free, and the promise maketh God a debtor. Therefore if he hath promised, he will be as good as his word.
[3] The third ground which raiseth this confidence is the raising and glorifying of Christ, who is entered into heaven as our fore- runner : Heb. vi. 20, and 1 Peter i. 21 ; God raised him, and gave him glory and honour, that your faith and hope might be in God. Heaven is possessed by our head, and surely in our name, John xiv. 2, which is a sure pledge that the members shall be glorified ; if our head be raised, he will not leave his members imder the power of death. He hath carried our nature into heaven, our flesh thither, and advanced to the Father's right hand in glory ; let us follow him, and we shall get thither also. Well now, these are the grounds of confidence, whereby we know that there is a blessed estate reserved for us.
Secondly, Hope for it. Next to a sound belief of such things, there must be an earnest expectation of them. For having a promise, hope with it for the accomplishment of the thing promised, and looketh not
448 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. III.
to see it a-coming. There is a twofold hope — the one necessary to grace, the other very profitable, but not absolutely necessary to the life and being of a christian. The one is the immediate effect of regeneration,
1 Peter i. 3 ; the other the fruit of experience, Kom. v. 4. The one dependeth upon the promises of God, which are proposed to men to beget in them a hope of the greatest good they can expect from God ; the other dependeth upon our own qualification. The one is ante- cedent to acts of holiness ; the other followeth after it, and resulteth from it.
1. An antecedent hope there must be, before the effect of the holy life can be produced ; for since hope is the principle of all human endeavours and actions, it is hope that sets every man a-work in the world. The merchant tradeth in hope, the husbandman plougheth in hope, the soldier fighteth in hope ; so it is hope that sets the christian a-work. The twelve tribes serve God instantly day and night, that they may come to the blessed hope. Before a man can engage in the spiritual life, he must have some hope ; and indeed this hope dependeth upon the conditional offer of eternal life, according to the terms of the gospel. This conditional offer is very comfortable to hunger-bitten sinners who do seriously mind their own happiness. Of this hope the apostle speaketh : Heb. iii. 6, ' Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.' This is the first taste of the pleasures of the world to come.