But a little to set it before you. In blessedness there must be a removal of all evil, and a coacervation and complete presence of all that is good. As long as the least evil continueth, a man is not blessed, only he is less miserable. If a man had all things that heart could wish for, what would it avail him ? as Haman, when he wanted Mordecai's knee, Esther v. 13, ' All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.' Ahab had the kingdom of Israel, but yet he fell sick for want of Naboth's vineyard. If a man were never so well fitted for a journey, a little gravel in his shoe Avould founder him. As in carriages of war, though there be a great train, yet if one peg be missing or out of order, all stoppeth ; or in the body, if one humour be out of order, or one joint broken, it is enough to make us sick or ill at ease, though all the rest be sound and whole ; so if there be the least evil, a man cannot be a complete happy man ; complaining will not suit with blessedness. Now —
First, In the hope that we look for there is a removal of all evil Evil is twofold — either of sin or of punishment ; and in heaven there is neither sin nor misery.
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 189
1. To begin with sin, that is the worst evil. Affliction is evil, but it is not evil in itself, but only in our sense and feeling ; if a man had a dedolency, it is no pain to a benumbed joint to be scourged. But sin is evil, whether we feel it or no, but it is worst when we feel it not. Certainly that is evil which separateth from the chiefest good. Afflic- tion doth not separate from God, it is a means and an occasion to make us draw nigh to him ; many had never been acquainted with God but for their afflictions ; but sin separateth us from God : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear,' Let a man be never so loathsome, yet, if he be in a state of grace, he is dear to God, the Lord taketh pleasure in him ; though rough-cast with ulcers and sores, and thrown into a prison, yet God will kiss him with the kisses of his mouth. There is nothing so loathsome and odious to God as sin ; this grieveth the saints most : Rom. vii. 21, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' If any man had cause to complain of afflictions, Paul had ; he was often in perils, whipped, imprisoned, stoned ; but he doth not cry out. When shall I be delivered from these afflictions ? Oh ! but this body of death was worst of all ; lusts troubled him more than scourges, and his captivity to the law of sin more than chains and prisons. This is the disposi- tion of the saints , they are weary of the world, because they are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God, not only that they are suffering here whilst others are enjoying God. A beast will forsake the place where he hath neither meat nor rest. Carnal men, when they are beaten out of the world, have a fancy to heaven as a jjlace of retreat ; but that which troubles godly men is their sin. Well, but in heaven there is no sin : Eph. v. 27, ' That he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish.' There is neither spot nor wrinkle upon the face of the glorified saints. Their faces were once as black as yours, but now Christ presenteth them to God as a proof of the cleansing virtue of his blood. And how pure and clean they are, without spot or wrinkle, the apostle's words, ' that he might present it,' imply as if Christ did glory and rejoice in their purity as the fruits of his purchase. There you are freed from all sins. With much ado we mortify one lust, but nature recoileth ; as ivy in the wall, if you cut it down, it breaketh out again, It is much here if the dominion of sin be taken away ; there the being of it is abolished, in heaven it is not at all ; you will displease God no more, and are freed from all the immediate and inseparable consequences of original sin, distraction in duty, and the like. Here is no perfect love, and therefore the soul cannot be fixed in the contemplation of God ; that is the reason of wandering thoughts; but there the heart cleaves to God without straggling. In heaven we shall be freed from pride, which lasts as long as life, therefore called * Pride of life,' 1 John ii. 16. We cannot have a revelation now but we grow proud of it ; 2 Cor. xii. 7, ' And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.' Nor