3. To those which are fled to Christ, and own him as the only sanctuary for poor souls. Press onward to take hold of eternal life. Now you have fled from deserved wrath, run to take hold of undeserved glory. You are past the worst, the rest is more easy. The apostle, Kom. V. 11, 12, puts a 'much more' upon this; 'Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life ; ' as if that were a more easy thing. Now the worst brunt is over; 'And not only so, but we also joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement' When you are reconciled to God, you may look to be entertained as friends ; being adopted in Christ, you may look for a child's portion. If God would pardon your sins, and take you with all your faults, quicken yourselves to be more diligent in the pursuit of eternal life, and put to your best strength. You will have many ups and downs in the world, but bear it with patience ; heaven will pay for all.
But here is a doubt — May we look to the rewards ? I answer — Yes, else there were no room for hope, for hope is nothing else but a longing expectation of blessedness to come. Sure those think themselves wiser than God that deny us the use of the Spirit's motives ; why else doth God set these things before us ? It requireth some faith to aim at things not seen. The world is drowned in sense and present satisfac- tion ; it is a great help to us to look upward. Christ made use of it : Heb. xii. 2, ' For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame.' As man, he was supported with human encouragements. Our flesh is weak, and our task is difficult, and therefore we need all helps. But yet we are not so to covet the reward as to sever it from duty and neglect our work.
SERMONS UPON JOHN XIV. 1.
SERMON I.
Let not your heart he troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me. —
John xiv. 1.
The disciples had heard our Lord Jesus discoursing of his death and departure, and the great trials which they were to undergo ; and that one disciple should betray him, another eminent among them deny him, and all take offence and leave him ; therefore fear and trouble seized upon them. Our Lord, perceiving this distemper growing upon them, seeketh to relieve and ease them. He had sorrow and agonies of his own to think upon, but he is so taken up with comforting his disciples, that he seemeth to forget himself and his own approaching death, and wholly applieth himself to them, ' Let not your heart be troubled,' &c.
In these words we have— (1.) An evil dissuaded, ' Let not your heart be troubled.' (2.) A cure prescribed, and that is the exercise of faith, set forth by its double object, God and Christ; ' Ye believe in God, believe also in me.' In God, as the supreme fountain of all blessing ; in Christ, as mediator, or the only way to come to God. In God, as the creator and preserver of all things ; in Christ, as the redeemer, to whom the care and conservation of the church belongeth. They did believe in God, they were trained up in that as Jews, but they had not hitherto so clear, so distinct, so strong a faith in Christ as they should have; their faith was but dark and weak as to the dignity of his person. Therefore he presseth them to believe, not only in God, as Jews, but in himself, as christians ; that was the point, the faith of which would be now assaulted by his ignominious death and sufferings.
There are two points —
1. That christians should carefully guard themselves against heart- trouble.
2. The proper cure of heart-trouble is faith.
Dod. 1. That christians should carefully guard themselves against heart-trouble.
I. What is this trouble of heart that is here spoken of? There is a twofold evil — natural evil, which is misery ; and moral evil, and that
346 SERMONS UPON JOHN XIV. 1.
is sin. The one we act of our own accord, the other we suffer against our wills ; the one ariseth from something within, the other from something without. This text speaketh not of troubles for sin, hut of troubles in the flesh, which being many, and grievous to be borne, it cannot be supposed but that the heart will be touched with them: 2 Cor. iv. 8, 'We are troubled on every side.' Yet, 'let not your heart be troubled,'
A sense of them is not only lawful, but necessary. The two extremes must be both avoided, slighting and fainting: Heb. xii. 5, 'My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.' Without a sense of them they cannot be improved, neither do Ave show that reverence that is due to our Father's anger, as not to be afflicted and humbled under his mighty hand : Num. xii. 14, ' If her father had spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days ? ' Some kind of spirits are stupid and senseless, neither affected with sin nor misery. Not with sin ; though they provoke God to his very face with their continual brutish practices, yet they never lay their condition to heart; conscience is seared, or at least benumbed; they are ' past feeling,' Eph. iv. 19. Shall we say to these, ' Let not 3^our hearts be troubled ? ' No ; these usurp a peace and exemption from trouble, as if joy and comfort were their portion. The only way for such is to be troubled, that their trouble may prepare them for comfort. Christ came to save sinners, but they are penitent and broken-hearted sinners, that are weary and heavy-laden under the burden of sin : Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.' Not the heart that is whole, but the heart that is wounded. These he calleth, and calleth to repentance : Mat. ix. 13, ' I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' Not with misery, neither with their Father's anger, nor their brethren's misery : Jer. v. 3, '0 Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth ? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction ; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return ; ' Amos vi. 3, ' Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near.' Fall out what will, they set their hearts for ease and. pleasure, and carnal delights, and are given altogether to mirth and jollity, riot and revelling, and all manner of vanity. Should we say to these, ' Let not your hearts be troubled,' and lull them more asleep in carnal security, by tincturing their sensuality with religion, and adding a drachm of spiritual comfort to make their carnal portion more effectual? No; Christ speaketh not to such kind of persons as mind neither his presence nor absence, and regard not whether he do good or evil. No ; to such we must rather say, ' Be afflicted, and weep, and mourn ; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness,' James iv. 9. We call not upon them to rejoice, but to howl for the misery that is coming upon them. A sense there must be. •