(2.) Out of love to Christ. We would fain get near him who is our great friend; Ps. Ixxiii. 25, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee?'
VeR, 7.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. II
And the saints are described to be those that 'love his appearing,' 2 Tim. iv. 8. If we have heard him, if we be christians indeed, if we loved him when we saw him not, and delighted in him, and tasted his grace in truth, and felt his power, we shall long to be near him, and see him, and converse with him intimately.
(3.) Taste. Communion begun maketh us long for communion per- fected: Ps. Ixiii, 1, 2, '0 God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee : my soul thii-steth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is : to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.'
(4.) Their complete happiness dependeth upon it : 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall see him as he is, and be like him : ' John xvii. 24, ' That they may be where I am, and behold my glory.' Christ cannot be fully seen on this side time.
Use 1. Is to condemn and disprove them from being true christians that cannot abide the presence of Christ. The Gadarenes desired him to depart out of their coasts, Mat. viii. Yet carnal men have such a spirit, Job xxii. 17, ' which say unto God, Depart from us;' cannot abide Christ in their neighbourhood, that he should come near their consciences.
Use 2. Is to press us to two things.
1. To prize the communion and fellowship of Christ for the present. It is constant and habitual; that 'he may dweU. in your hearts by faith,' Eph. iii. 17. Where Christ taketh up his abode, there his Sphit is the fountain of life. Gal. ii. 20 ; our defence against tempta- tions : 1 John iv. 4, ' Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world ; ' ' The seed and hope of glory,' Col. i. 27. Solemn and actual in holy duties ; there is heaven begun, there we ' behold his face in righteousness,' Ps. xvii. 15 ; ' And a day in his courts is better than a thousand elsewhere,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 10.
2. Let us long to be with him, to get out of the pesthouse of the world, and the prison of corrupt nature. I allude to that, Gen. xxiv. 57, 58, ' And they said. We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth. And they called Eebekah, and said to her, Wilt thou go with tliis man ? And she said, I will go.' Wilt thou go to Jesus ? Lord, I will go with thee. Hindrances are these.
[1.] A surfeit on the sinful pleasures and contentments of this world. This weakens your desires, and taketh oft' the edge of your aftections. Lot lingered when he was to go out of Sodom, Gen. xix. 16.
[2.] Do not darken your confidence by your sin and folly. Then you will as a malefactor fly from him as a judge, rather than rejoice to be with him as a saviour.
SERMON X.
For we loalh hy faith, and not hy sight. — 2 Cor. v. 7.
In this verse a reason is given why we are said to be absent from the Lord while we are at home in the bodv; because all things are
12 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. X.
transacted between him and us by faith, and not by sight or immediate vision — ' For we walk/ &c.
These words do notably set forth to us both the nature of faith, and the condition of believers here in the world.
1. They set forth the nature of faith, which mainly goeth upon things unseen, or not obvious to present sense.
2. The condition of a believer in the world : he dotli not now see God face to face ; he hath only the promise of blessedness, not the enjoyment.
But that I may draw forth the full scope and sense of the words, I shall give you six observations or propositions.
1. That faith and sight are opposed and contra-distinguished the one from the other.
2. That faith is for earth, and sight is for heaven ; the one is of use to us in this world, the other is reserved for the world to come.
3. That till we have sight it is some advantage that we have faith.
4. Those that have faith are not satisfied and contented till they have sight. For therefore the apostle groaneth and desireth.
5. That if we have faith, we may be sure that hereafter we shall have sight, or hereafter enjoy the beatifical vision.
6. That those that have faith must walk by it.
Boot. 1. That faith and sight are opposed and contra-distinguished the one from the other. Faith is a grace that is conversant about things unseen, or a dependence upon God for something that lieth out of sight. That this is the essential property and nature of faith appeareth by the definition of it, Heb. xi. 1, ' It is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.' The objects of faith are things invisible and future. The Lord is absent from us, who maketh the promise ; and heaven, which is the great promise which he hath promised us, is yet to come. The nature of faith and hope is destroyed if the object be seen and present, or ready at hand to be enjoyed: Eom. viii. 24, 'For hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, w'hy doth he hope for it ? ' Vision and posses- sion exclude faith and hope ; there is a constant opposition, you see, between faith and sight ; so that we may know that we have faith, when we can believe those things which are promised, though we have little probability in sense or reason to expect them. And hereby we may know the measure as well as the nature of our faith, for the excellency and strength of it is in believing things upon God's word, to which sense giveth little encouragement, as appeareth by those words of Christ to Thomas : John xx. 29, ' Thomas, because thou hast seen, thou hast believed ; but blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed.' Thomas must have the object of faith under the view of his senses, which though it did not argue a nullity in his faith, yet a very great weakness and imbecility. Weak christians must be carried in arms, dandled upon knees, fed with sensible pledges and ocular demonstrations, or else they are ready to faint; but strong christians can believe above sense and against sense. As it is said of the father of the faithful that he believed in hope and against hope : Rom. iv. 18, 19, 'And considered not his own body, being dead, being an hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb ; he