Secondly, That this must be our work as well as our scope ; and this design must be carried on with -the greatest seriousness, as our great care and business ; and with unwearied industry, as the main thing which we attend upon, as a matter of unspeakable importance, which must not be forgotten and left undone, for it is in the text, ' We labour.' There is a double notion which is of great use to us in the spiritual life : making religion our business, and making religion our recreation. It must be our business in opposition to slightness ; it must be our recreation in opposition to tecliousness and wearisomeness. The word in the text hath a special signification. We should with no less earnestness endeavour to please God than they that contend for honour in the world ; we should make it our constant employment that God may like us for the present and take us home to him at
40 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XII.
length into his blessed compan)' and presence. What is all tlie world to this ? There are a sort of men, whose hearts are upon God and the life to come, that make it their first care and chiefest business to seek him and serve him, whose minds and hearts, whose life and love and cares and labours, are taken up about the everlasting world ; but there are others who are plotting for preferment, gaping for worldly great- ness, gratifying the desires of the flesh, seeking the favour of great ones, raising their estate, name, and family; they look no higher than this world, and think only of their settlement upon earth, or laying designs for rising here, and perpetuating themselves and their names in their posterity by successive generations. ' The world, morally con- sidered, is divided into two societies : the one of the devil, the other of God.' — Aur/ustine de Civitate Dei. Some seek their happienss upon earth, others an eternal abode in heaven. By nature we are all of the earthly society, by grace transplanted, and then we first ' seek the kingdom of God,' Mat. vi. 33 ; ' Have our conversation in heaven,' Phil. iii. 20 ; carry ourselves as of a heavenly extraction. All is known by our business, a constant fidelity to approve ourselves to God, and a ready obedience in all conditions of life, showeth which sort we are of. What is it that you have been doing in the world, and the end and business for and in which you have laboured until now ? What thing or prize have you had in view and chase ? Have you laboured for paltry vanities, or the meat that perisheth not ? John vi. 27. A man is known by his labour. Have you lived for the world, or God ? If you have spent so many years, and you know not why, or about what, you have been strangely careless and forgetful. What hath your great care been ? To please the flesh, or to please God, and be saved by him ? Wbat have you made provision for, either for earth, or for heaven ? You do for both, but for which most ?
Thirdly, We must not only take care that we be accepted of God at last, when we go out of the body, but whilst we are present in the body it concerneth us to know that we are well-pleasing to him. We must strive to be accepted of him now. It is a blessed thing at the close of our pilgrimage that God will receive us into his glory ; but while we continue in the body, the believing apprehensions of the favour of God are very comfortable, before we come to enjoy the fruits
of it.
1. How else can we long for the coming of Christ, and expect his appearance, if before we pass to our judgment we know not whether we shall be accepted, yea or no ? Now within time it concerneth us to know how we shall f\u-e hereafter. Man hath a curiosity to know his destiny, as the king of Babylon stood at the beginning of the ways to make divination. The good and the evil of the world is of such light concernment, and of so short continuance, and God is so good, tlmt we may trust him blindfold for worldly things ; and it is a wicked, foolish, and needless curiosity to be so desirous to know our fortune. But it concerneth us much to know whether we shall be well or ill for ever — how the case will be carried in the last judgment : if it be evil, that we may prevent it, and correct our error ; in death we cannot err twice : if good, that we may know our portion, and rejoice in it ; if it be our happiness, then it must needs be very desirable to
VeR. y.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS T. 41
know it aforehand. In the next verse to the text, ver. 10, he speaketh of our judge ; our happiness and final doom dependeth upon his being pleased with us ; it we apprehend him as an angry judge, or an adversary, let us agree with him quickly by the way ; it he be a gracious father, let us have the solace and comfort of it during our pilgrimage, while we so much need it.