2. This is the time of our exercise and trial.
[1.] There must be this exercise before we come to heaven. We do not leap into heaven without any preparation. The vessels of glory must first be seasoned with grace : Col. i. 12, ' Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' First we are qualified and seasoned, then filled brim-full. As when the virgins were chosen for Ahasuerus, they were to accomplish their months of purification, so we must have a time of purifying and clean- sing from corruption before we can get to heaven. Balaam would die the death of the righteous, but not live his life : Num. xxiii. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' As it is said of the snake, that when it is stricken with death, it stretch eth out itself straight, though crooked before; at oporiuit sic vixisse, you should have so lived ; you shoulcl be sober, righteous, and godly. ' Enoch before his translation had this testimony, that he pleased God,' Heb. xi. 5. Something must be done here ; there is no triumph with- out a warfare : 2 Tim. ii. 5, ' If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned unless he strive lawfully ; ' that is, according to the laws of the race or exercise ; so we cannot expect to die in the Lord unless we live in the Lord: Eev. xiv. 13, ' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their Avorks do follow them.' Your works die not when you die : Eccles. xi. 3, ' If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.' In the time of the law there was nothing to be gathered upon the sabbath day, but a double portion to be gatliered before ; those that provided nothing on the sixth day, had nothing on the sabbath day. The sabbath is a figure of heaven, of that eternal rest we shall have there. If we do not make provision during the time of life, there can be nothing done afterwards.
[2.] It is only here ; this is the fittest place for exercise. Here are difficulties, snares, and temptations, and tliese serve to discover the
168 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. XI.
glory of grace ; and this makes it worthy of praise, that we can act for God in the present world, where so many miscarry : 2 Tim. iv. 10, * Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world.' Here is the fit place for our trial, where we have so many difficulties, snares, baits, avocations, and scandals, to take us off from performing the duty of our heavenly calling. As death leaves us so judgment finds us. Upon our behaviour in the present life both our everlasting woe or weal depends. Hereafter is not a time of labour, but of reward and punishment ; there is no room for exercise and trial there, no snares in the next world. Grace cannot be found worthy of praise there, for that is God's day, called the day of the Lord : 2 Peter iii. 10, ' The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night/ Here is our day, because God affords time to us as a space and season of repentance and refor- mation ; but the day of judgment, that is the Lord's day, the day of recompense, rewards, and punishments.
Use 1. To reprove them that delay the work of repentance and their change of state. There is nothing more usual than delays and put-offs. Some are full of employment, and after their business is a little over, then they will think of saving their souls : Luke ix. 59, ' Suffer me first to go and bury my father ; ' still there is something in the way. Others, when they have arrived to such a degree of wealth, and made such provision for their families, then they will look after their souls. Others, when their youthful heats are spent, then they dream of a devout retire- ment and a religious age; there is nothing more usual. The Lord knows these are our inward thoughts ; still there is something in the way when we should act holily, righteously, and godly. This is Satan's last shift to elude the importunity of a present conviction by a future promise. As a bad debtor promises payment for the future to be rid of the importunate creditor, though he means no such matter, so we make promises for the future. Felix, when his conscience boggled, dreams of a more convenient season: Acts xxiv. 25, 'Go thy way for this time ; when I have a more convenient season, I will send for thee.' And Mat. xxii., when they were invited to the wedding, the answer is not scornful, but civil ; it is not non ijlacet, but non vacat ; they do not deny, but make excuse ; they had present business, and were not at leisure to comply with God's will. Always God comes unsea- sonably in the sinner's esteem, reckoning, and account : and Satan's usual clamour is, when we begin to be serious and mind our salva- tion, ' Art thou come to torment us before our time ? ' Mat. viii. 29. The devil would fain have a little longer possession, and therefore something is pleaded by way of bar and hesitancy. You find it in par- ticular cases ; when you go to perform anything that is good, to pray, to meditate, to renew your communion with God, something is in the way. If such a business were over, then I were at leisure. Thus we dream of another time, a more convenient season, and we linger and draw back as Lot in Sodom. Oh ! consider, the work must be once done, or you are for ever miserable ; and you will never have a better season than now, when you are under conviction, and the warm impulses of the Spirit of God. David takes hold of the present season when his heart was engaged and he had a religious bent towards God : Ps. cxix. 60, ' I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.' So