2. As there are different persons, so there are different recompenses, and a different doom and sentence which is executed upon either ; the conclusion is dreadful to the wicked but comfortable to the godly, for everlasting life shall be the portion of the godly, and everlasting punishment the portion of the ungodly. This one scripture well improved should be enough to make us shun all sin, and embrace and pursue after all good. Wisdom lieth in considering the end of things, not what profit and pleasure it bringeth me now, and flattereth lue with now, but what it will bring me in the end : Rom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death ; but being made free from sin, and
VeR 10.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 83
become the servants of Grod, ye have yonr fruit to hohness, and the end everlasting life.' Alas ! sin bringeth little pleasure or satisfaction in the time of enjoying it ; and in the remembrance of it. it briugeth shame ; and in the conclusion, where it is not repented of, it bringeth death. Whereas, on the other side, the service of Christ will be matter of joy and pleasure at the present ; matter of comfort and confidence afterward ; and in the end, salvation and eternal life. There is a curiosity in man ; he would fain know his own destiny, what shall become of hun. or what lieth hid in the womb of futurity concerning his estate: as the king of Babylon stood upon the parting of the ways to make divination. Xo destiny deserveth to be known so much as this, Shall I be saved, or shall I be damned ; live everlastingly in heaven or hell ? If the question were. Shall I be rich, or shall I be poor, happy or miserable in the present world ? shall I have a long life, or shall I have a short ? that is not of such great moment. We cannot meet with such troubles and difficulties here, but they will have a speedy end ; so will persecutions, and disgraces, and sorrows ; but this is a matter of greater moment than so, whether I shall be eternally miserable. It is foolish curiosity to inquire into other things ; they are not of such imjx>rtance that we should know them aforehand ; and it may do us more hurt than good to know our worldly estate, the misery of which cannot be prevented by any prudence and foresight of ours. And it is better to trust ourselves with the providence of God than to anticipate future cares ; but it concerneth us much to know whether we are in a damnable or a saveable condition, whether we are of the number of those that shall go into everlasting punishment, or of the righteous who shall go into everlasting life ; if we be in the way to everlasting punishment, it is good to know it whilst we have time to remedy it. If heirs of salvation, the assurance of our interest is a pre-occupation of everlasting blessedness. This is that about which we should busy our thoughts and spend our time.
3. Observe the notions by which this different estate is expressed — life and punishment.
[1.] The happy condition of the godly is called life, and well deserveth it. This lite is but a continued death, it runneth from us as fast as it floweth to us, and it is burdened with a thousand mis- eries ; but that lite which is the portion of the faithful, it is a good and happy life, and it is endless, it hath a beginning, but it hath no end. One moment of immortality is worth a full age of all the health and happiness that can be had upon earth. What will you call life ? the vegetative life, or the life of a plant ? Alas, if that may be called life, it is not a happy life, for the plants have no sense of that kind of life they have. The sensitive life, or the life of the beasts, will you call that life ? They are indeed capable of pain and pleasure, but this is beneath the dignity of man ; and those that affect this kind of happi- ness, to enjoy sensual pleasure without remorse, degi'ade themselves from that dignity of nature wherein God hath placed them, and make themselves but a wiser sort of beasts, as they are able only to purvey for the flesh more than the brutes can. Wherein then will you place life ? Surely in reason ; man's life is a kind of light given us : John i. 4, ' In him was Hfe, and the life was the Ught of men.' Reason and
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understanding was man's perfection. Well then, this is the life which we must inquire after. Now when is this life of light in its full per- fection ? While the soul dwelleth in flesh, and looketh out by the senses to things near at hand, the proper contentments of the body are the poor, paltry vanities of this deceitful world. Now, this is not the life which we were made for, but when it seeth God, and enjoyeth God in the highest manner that we are capable of. Our true life lieth in the vision of God, 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; and Mat. v. 8, for he is only that universal and infinite object which can satiate the heart of man, and our proper and peculiar blessedness : ' Whom have I in heaven but thee?' Ps. Ixxiii. 25. This is our full and continued happiness. Alas ! the present life hath more gall than honey ; its enjoyments are low and base, and short and fading, and its troubles and miseries are many : Gen. xlix. 9, ' Few and evil are the days and years of my pilgrimage.' But in the other world, there is nothing but glory and blessedness. A glorified soul in a glorified body doth for ever behold God, and deliglit itself in God.