2. To keep the heart sincere and upright. Oh, there is nothing makes the heart so sincere as to make God our paymaster, and to look for our reward from him only. Carnal affections will draw us to seek praise and honour of men, some present profit, some reward here : Mat. vi. 2, ' They have their reward,' and give God a discharge ; but a man's sincerity is to look for all his reward from God : Col. iii. 23, ' Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance.' You have a master good enough, and need not look for your pay elsewhere.
3. To quicken us in our duty, and make us vigorous and cheerful and diligent in our service : 1 Cor xv. 58, * Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
166 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXXIY.
the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.' Idols can do nothing for their worshippers ; these will deceive you, but God will not be served for nought ; your duty that you do to him will return into your bosoms, and will bring a blessing ; not like a ball struck into the air, that returns not again to you, but like a ball struck against a wall, that returns to your hand again. Let us who are bred up in the belief of this principle, bless God —
[1.] That there is a reward. He might have cut off all hopes and left us under the despair of the first covenant, and then our guilty fears would represent God under no other notion but that of an avenger ; and ourpunishment might have begun with our sin, as the fallen angels were held in chains of darkness, under an everlasting horrible despair of mending their condition. When once we had lost God, we might never have found him more ; his language to the fallen creature might have been only thunder and wrath. Or if he would quit us from what is past, and release our punishment for the future, he might only have ruled us with a rod of iron, and imposed laws upon us out of mere sovereignity, and say. Thus and thus shall ye do, 'I am the Lord ; ' or, at least, have held us in bondage, and suspended the pub- lication of a new and better covenant, and kept it in his own breast, that we miglit wholly stand to his arbitrary will, whether he would reward — yea, or no. Thus the Lord might have done with us ; but he will rather draw us by the cords of a man, hold us to our duty by the sense of our own interest, and give us leave to encourage ourselves with the thoughts of his bounty. There are many in the world that think it unsafe to use God's motives, and destroy his grace, for which we have cause to bless God. They say, God is to be v.rorshipped, though we had no benefit by him, merely for the excellency of his being ; but this is but a fancy and an airy religion ; to abstract religion from re- wards is to frame a religion in conceit. The two first notions of God are his being and his bounty, and we must reflect upon both. It is a description of the people of God, Rom. ii. 7, ' That by patient con- tinuance in well doing, they seek for honour, and glory, and immor- tality.' We may seek honour from God ; and a great part of our sin- cerity lies in this, to make God our paymaster ; and therefore let us bless God that there is a reward.
[2.] That there is so great a reward : Mat. v. 12, ' Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven ' — such as we may admire rather than conceive ; and 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' Our light afiliction, that is but for a moment,worketh for us — Kad'virep^oXrjv ek v7repl3o\r}v, — a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' Heaven will not admit of a hyperbole. In other things, fancy may easily overreach, the garment may be too big for the body ; but all our thoughts come short of heaven. God himself will be our reward : Gen. XV. 1, ' Fear not, Abraham ; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' When he would encourage us to well-doing, he goes to the utmost ; he hath no greater encouragement to propound to us. As the apostle said, Heb. vi. 13, ' When God made promise to Abraham, be- cause he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.' God hath no greater thing to give us, and therefore saith, ' I will be your reward ;' though he does not for the present make out himself in that latitude
VeK. 6.] SEKMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 167
to US, that he will hereafter when God is all in all. There is enough to counterbalance all the inconveniences of religion ; when you sit down and count the charges, you will be no losers. The difficulties of obedience, the sorrows of the cross, shall all be made up to you in this reward ; and therefore let not your hearts be faint, nor your hands shake, but ' Press on toward tlie mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' Phil. iii. 14. If it be a painful race, remem- ber what is- the crown; we run for the everlasting enjoyment of the blessed God. As we christians have the noblest work, so we have the highest motives ; there is a reward, and a great reward.