(2c?/?/.) It helps us to contentation under the want and distance of our future comforts. Let it not seem a paradox, that here the conflict is hardest. It is easier to bear the evil than wait for the promised good, for sorrows are better and sooner allayed than desires. Desires are the vigorous bent of the soul, and they are impatient of check, chiefly when they are drawn forth upon reasons of religion, and usually after much mortification. It is very hard to tarry the Lord's leisure for the enjoyment of their hopes, when their hearts are weaned from the world ; their pulse then beats strongly towards Christ, and it is a hard matter to cool and restrain the vehemency of their desires, especially towards our latter end. The nearer we are to the enjoyment of any good, the more impatient we are of the want of it ; as a stone moveth faster, when nearest the centre. All natural motion is swifter in the close ; so a christian's motions, though slow in the beginning, are swift in the close ; therefore their hearts beat with longing desires, ready to break within them for the enjoyment of Christ. And this burden is the greater, because faith gives a partial enjoyment ; but the same faith, which stirs up those desires, also yields the remedy against the vehe- mency of them. Desire is not only the fruit of hope, but patience : 2 Peter iii, 12, ' Looking for,' or waiting for, and yet ' hastening to the coming of the Lord.' The word in the original, ' looking for,' notes a patient bearing: now these two words seem contrary, waiting, yet hastening. This is the disposition of the people of God, they look for, and they hasten to the Lord's coming. They covet the everlasting state, and yet wait God's leisure. There is a vehemency and yet a regularity in their expectations, and both are promoted by this act of faith: for faith gives certainty, and that quiets the soul, though there be not present enjoyment. The first eflect of faith is a present interest and title, and ' He that belie veth maketh not haste,' Isa. xxviii. 16. Those prelibations of heaven we have in the world, the scripture gives us under a double notion ; the first-fruits, and earnest ; the first-fruits or tastes how good ; and an earnest or pledge, how sure. Under the quality of the first-fruits, so they do awaken desires and vehement longings : Eom. viii. 23, ' We that have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to
Yer. 1.] ser:.ion.s upox Hebrews xr. 339
wit, the redemption of our bodies.' A christian hath tasted how sweet God is in Christ, therefore he groans after the full enjoyment of him. As they are an earnest, 2 Cor. i. 22, * Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts ; ' so it is a ground of waiting. We may trust God if he hath given ns an earnest. It is not for the comfort of a man to carry his inheritance at his back, it is enough that he hath a right and title. Faith is every way as sure, though not as sweet as sense ; and therefore a believer waits as long as God hath anything for him to do in this world upon this security of faith. It is true, he is in a strait, his desires press him, yet he will wait. Thus St. Paul, Phil. i. 23, 24, ' I am in a strait between two, having a desire to be dissolved, and be with Christ ; but to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.' A christian is thus divided between his own profit and God's will, and God's glory ; but at length faith casts the scales. and brings him to a holy contentation with the pleasure of God. The first-fruits beget longings ; and the earnest keeps us from murmuring and discontent ; so the sureness sweetens the pain which the remote- ness occasions.
Use 1. To examine whether you have this kind of faith or no, which is the substance of things hoped for. To discover how little of this faith there is in the world, consider —
1. Many men say they believe, but alas, what influence have their hopes upon them ? Do they affect them ? Do they engage them as things present and sensible do ? Alas, in the general, things temporal work more upon us than things eternal, and things visible than things invisible. A small matter will prove a temptation ; a little pleasure and profit, how doth it set you a-work? We have not half that seriousness in spiritual business that we have in earthly. Surely men do not believe heaven, because they are so little aftected with it; because they mind and care for it and labour for it so little. Alas ! they live as if they never heard of any such thing, or believe not what they hear ; every toy and trifle is preferred before it. If a poor man understood that some great inheritance was bequeathed to him-, would not he often think of it, and rejoice in it, and long to go and see it, and take possession of it ? There is a promise of eternal life left with us in the gospel, but who puts in for a share ? Who longs for it ? Who takes hold of it ? Who gives all diligence to make it sure ? Who desires to go and see it ? Oh, that I might be dissolved, and be with Christ ! Because these hopes have so little influence on us, it is a sign we do not make them exist in our hearts.