3. It informs us that it is a false hope that doth not urge to practice and strictness of life. Some men make full account to go to heaven, but make no preparation for it ; their course is another way ; there is not only an unsuitableness to their hopes, but a contrariety. If there were only an unsuitableness, it were enough to discover the cheat, for we are ' to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,' Col i. 12, and 'to walk worthy of God, who hath called us to his kingdom and glory,' 1 Thes. ii. 12, and ' to walk Avorthy of the vocation wherewith we are called,' Eph. iv. 1. There is a suitable- ness between a man and his great hopes. When David was a shepherd, he spent his time in keeping his father's sheep, and had the heart of a shepherd ; but when he was called to be king, then he behaved himself like a king, like a shepherd of the people. So a christian discovers his hopes in his disposition and in his practice, and doth walk as an heir of the grace of life. There may be a slight hope which hath no efficacy, but those serious sighs and hearty groans I speak of, certainly they will work a suitableness in the temper of our hearts and the con- stitution of our souls, and we shall be more holy , there will be more
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worthy walking, more detestation of sin, more contempt of tlie world, more diligence in the spiritual life. When you walk as if your hopes were altogether in this world, when princes in scarlet embrace a dung- hill, when those that are called to great and glorious hopes live as if their happiness were only here below, heaping up wealth, treasure, and worldly conveniences to themselves, it is a lamentation. If you saw a man labouring in filthy ditches, and sullying himself as poor men do with mire and dirt, who would believe he were an heir-apparent to a crown, and called to inherit a kingdom ? So when we live as men of the world, when there is an unsuitableness between us and our hopes, how do we walk as the heirs of grace ? But now, when there is not only an unsuitableness, but an open contrariety in their practice, and yet they think to go to heaven, it is as if a man whose journey lay north should travel just south. Can that man look to be filled up with God when God is not in all his thoughts ? Can he long for the com- pany of Christ that slights his ordinances ; Can he prize the com- munion of saints to whom good company is a prison ? Can he look for an immaculate and sinless state to whom purity is an eye-sore, and who hates the power of godliness ? Yet many such deceive themselves with false hopes, when there is not only unsuitableness, but a plain contrariety.
4. It informs us that an assured interest in heaven is no ground of looseness or laziness. Comfort serves to quicken, but not to slacken our endeavours. The more we look for heaven, the more it engageth us to strictness of life. The apostle, after he had professed his assurance, ' We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,' 2 Cor. v. 8. What then? ver. 9, ' Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be ac- cepted of him.' Here is a sure recompense ; our great care is that we may live and die in his grace, because we are confident we shall live with the Lord when we depart from the body: Jude 21, 'Keep your- selves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.' AVhen God is so gracious in Christ, providing such great things for such unworthy creatures as eternal life, and we come to receive glory out of the hands of mercy, what a mighty engage- ment is this to make us watch against all decays and coolings of love.
Use 2. To exhort us to this expectation or looking for the blessed tope. The method and way is first to believe, then to apply, then to expect,
1. Believe it, that there is such a happiness reserved for the children of God. Next to God's being we are bound to believe his bounty : Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' These two principles, that God is, and that he is a rewarder, are the fundamental notions that keep up all religion. There is a mist upon eternity to a carnal heart ; they are led by sense, and believe no more than they see : Heb. xi. 1, * Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.' Fancy and nature cannot outsee time and look beyond death. Faith holdeth the candle to hope, and then we are able to look into the other world, and to see a happy state to come. Now because foith is weak in most, and we waver more in the belief of God's bounty than of