[1.] Union with Christ. There is some enjoyment of God in Christ here, this is the chiefest part of eternal life. What is heaven but the eternal enjoyment of God in Christ ? And it is in a sort begun here. Union makes way for presence ; though we are not present with Christ, yet we are united to Christ ; and faith makes way for fruition. Then it will be ' God all in all,' 1 Cor. xv. 28 ; now it is ' Christ in us the hope of glory,' Col. i. 27. Xow he comes to dwell in our hearts by way of pledge, that once the soul shall come to be filled up with God ; this is an earnest and beginning of our full enjoyment of him. And when once this is done, then we may l^e certain of glory. I say, eter- nal life is begun when we are united to Christ. It is the same in substance, though not in degree, with the life of heaven. When once we are united to Christ, we can never be separated. Christ is still a head, he can never leave his old mansion and dwelling-place. Saith Luther, * You can as soon separate the leaven from the dough, when one is wrought into the other, as you may separate Christ and a soul that is once united to him : ' 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life.' You have the fairest part of eternal life already when you have Christ in you.
[2.] The joys of the Holy Ghost. When a man hath received the consolations oi the Spirit, he is in the skirts and suburbs of heaven, he
VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPOX HEBREWS XI. 331
begins to enter upon his country and inheritance. Heaven begins in us, when the Holy Ghost comes with peace, confidence, and joy, and doth leave a sweet sense and relish upon the soul. Fulness of joy, that is the portion of the life to come, and is reserved for God's right hand ; but here is the beginning of heaven ; and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost is but the pledge of that joy which the blessed spirits have. And therefore the comforts of the Holy Ghost which we have here in this world are called 'joy unspeakable and full of glory/
1 Peter i. 8, because it tends and works that way towards our glorious and happy estate in heaven. As the odours and sweet smells of Arabia are carried by the winds and air into the neighbouring provinces, so that before travellers come thither they have the scent of that aromatic country ; so the joys of heaven are by the sweet breathings and gales of the Holy Ghost blown into the hearts of believers, and the sweet smells of the upper paradise are conveyed into the gardens of the churches ; those joys which are stirred up in us by the Spirit before we get to heaven are a pledge of what we may expect hereafter. God would not weary our hopes by expecting too much, therefore he hath not only given us his word, but he gives a taste and earnest here as part of the sum which shall be paid us in heaven ; by these sweet refreshments of the Spirit we may conceive of the glory of the ever- lasting state. Look, as before the sun ariseth, there are some forerun- ning beams and streaks of light that usher it in ; so the joys of the Holy Ghost are but the morning glances of the daylight of glory, and of the sun of happiness that shall arise upon us in another world.
[3.] There is grace also which is the earnest of glory ; it is the livery and seizin, the turf that puts us into possession of the whole field. Grace is the beginning of glory, and glory is but grace perfected, Grace is glory in the bud, and moulding, and making ; for when the apostle would express our whole conformity to Christ, he only expresseth it thus. ' We are changed into his image from glory to glory/
2 Cor iii. 18, that is, from one degree of grace to another. It is called glory, because the progress of holiness never ceaseth till it comes to the perfection of glory and life eternal. The first degree of grace is glory begun, and the final consummation is glory perfected. All the degrees of our conformity to Christ are so called. It is a bud of that sinless, pure, immaculate estate which shall be without spot and wrinkle ; the seed of that perfect holiness which shall be bestowed upon us hereafter. Thus the spiritual life is described in its whole flux ; it begins in grace, and ends in glory. See the golden chain : Kom. viii. 30, 'Whom he hath called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' There is no mention of sanctification, for that is included in glory. Grace is but young glory, and differs from glory as an infant doth from a man ; therefore by degrees the Lord will have you enter upon your everlasting inheritance. As the heir receives his estate by parcels, so do we ; first God gives us a seed, and an initial fruition, then we are drawn on further and further to a full enjoyment. The new creature, like metal in the forge, it is heaven in the moulding and framing ; and God gives us the draught here below, which glory will at length finish above. Upon all these grounds faith works as if the thing were enjoyed ; while we