2 Thes. i. 10, ' Christ shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.' This place chiefly concerns the angels, when God puts such clarity and splendour upon the body that they shall wonder what Christ is about to do with such a contemptible creature as man, that newly came out of the grave of rottenness and dust. This text I am upon speaks of 'a hope set before us.' If this were but a little opened, as our ear hath received a little thereof, if we should tell you what pre- paration Christ hath made to bring the saints to glory, with what a glorious train of angels he will come from heaven, what mansions he hath pi'epared for us in his Father's house, and all this for those that have nothing and deserve nothing, unless it be extremity of misery ■, if a man should tell you Christ would come in such a state, and enter- tain the saints with such dearness of aft'ection, and receive sinners into his bosom, that he would make them his fellow-judges, liken their bodies to his own glorious body for brightness and splendour, that such pieces of worms, and clods of earth shall be many times brighter than the sun, I tell you this would require a strong faith to believe it, and
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we had need of all the averment and assurance that can be given us under heaven. If an angel admires at the saints, certainly inferior creatures will suspect it. Alas ! what a valuable price can we bring and pay to God for all this glory ! We that judge all things by the laws of reason and commutative justice, for we give nothing but upon valuable consideration, what valuable price can we bring to God? What consideration can we give him for so great a glory, and how shall we think ever to be partakers of an estate so disproportionable to our merit and condition ? Therefore, because our privileges in Christ are so great and wonderful, we need not only God's word, but also his oath.
4. Partly because we ourselves are so false and fickle in all our con- tracts with one another, especially in our dealings with God, that we need to be bound with promise upon promise, and oath' upon oath, and all little enough to restrain and hold us within the bounds of duty, Man is changeable, and breaks vows and covenants and promises, and snaps them asunder as a thread and tow is burnt asunder with fire, and will not be held with any obligation. It is a Greek proverb. Children play with nuts, and men with oaths. It is too often so. Peijury, though it be monstrous and barbarous, and dissolves the bonds of human societies and confederacies, yet it is no rare thing in the world, especially in the latter times. They are said among other sins to be infamous for covenant-breaking : 2 Tim. iii. 3, ' Truce-breakers/ &c. Thus we deal with one another. But if we should be more faithful to men for the safety of our interest, yet how often do we break with God, and compass him about with lies : 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, ' He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered iu all things, and sure,' We are false and fickle when God is sure. To-day we promise, to-morrow ■we fail. What vow did we ever make to God and kept it ? Now we are apt to judge of God's promises by our own. It is usual with man to transform God into his own likeness, and to muse of him as we use ourselves. The heathens did it grossly, and by a sensible picture ; the apostle chargeth it upon them : Kom. i. 23, ' They changed the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man.' They shaped God into the picture of man, and still according to the particular genius and fancy of each nation. The Spartans, being a warlike people, painted their gods in armour, suiting most with their disposition ; the Ethiopians painted their gods black and their devils white, because they were a black people. But now we do it all spiritually : Ps. 1. 23, ' Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself.' We judge of God by ourselves, and draw a monstrous misshapen picture of him in our minds, as if he were revengeful, fierce, fallacious, fickle, and changeable as we are. Therefore, to meet with this sin doth the Lord so often disclaim the dispositions of a man, that we should not fancy him according to the lineaments of a man : Hosea xi. 9, ' I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim ; for I am God, and not man.' As if he had said, Do not measure me according to your model ; I am not revengeful as you are, and changeable as you are ; this is not my fashion. So Isa. Iv. 8, 9, ' For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'