Use. Direction what to do in a time of troubles and dangers.
1. Hope of exemption from the trial is not that which Christ pre- scribeth, but minding of higher things. We are poor creatures, tainted with carnal self-love, and governed by fancy and appetite, and place all our hopes and happiness in having our supplies and supports under the view of sense, and in being free from trials, Now Christ referreth not to sense, which would gratify this humour, but to faith ; ' Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me.' We love ourselves mqre than God, and the ease of the body more than the welfare of our souls, and the world more than heaven, and our temporal pleasure and contentment more than our spiritual and eternal benefit ; we would have our consolation here. No; Christ referreth us to another cure, not to seek the ease of the flesh, but the sure repose of the soul ; he referreth to the objects of faith, not the delights of sense. Spiritual peace is the best counter-balance for worldly trouble and bitterness : John xvi. 33, * These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good comfort, I have overcome the world.'
2. Those higher things which we should most regard are chiefly reconciliation with God and assured expectations of the heavenly rest. These are the two grand comforts which Christ insists upon in the sermon which ensueth the text. If we be reconciled to God, and have the pledge of it, the Spirit of God to dwell in us, and to sanctify and comfort us when dejected, it is enough : ' I will send the comforter/ ver. 26 ; and ' I am going to prepare a place for you,' ver. 2. These are Christ's two comforts. It doth not become a christian to be dejected in his troubles, but he must be sure his comforts come from spiritual grounds, from ' God's love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost,' Eom. v. 5, and from the hopes of heaven : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' These are God's comforts, and these give joy in tribulation.
3C2 SERMONS UPON JOHN XIV. 1.
3. There is no having these tilings till we have chosen God for our God and everlasting portion, and do make use of Christ as mediator. I put it into these notions, because the faith sj^oken of in the text is not a speculative assent, but a practical belief, and that lieth in a choice of God as our everlasting portion and happiness, and a coming to God by Christ : Heb. vii. 25, ' He is able also to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.' The first step which the soul taketh towards heaven is the making God our chief good and last end ; this goeth before faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, for faith in Jesus Christ as mediator is but subordinate hereunto, as the means leading to our chief end. These two acts are the abridgement of the gospel : Acts xx. 21, ' Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.' Our act towards God is called repentance, because we have deviated from our happiness ; we have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and till we grov/ wise, and change our course, we shall never return to it, Kepent- ance is a considering of our ways after we had gone wrong, and so run ourselves into ruin and mischief. The second act is faith, because the things we believe are above nature. Jesus Christ's whole undertaking, birth, death, resurrection, ascension, the promises of the gospel, are above nature. God, and our duty to him, are in a great measure evident by natural light. It is supposed in the text men will easily believe in God ; it is required that they believe in Christ ; let us make use of him as the only means of our recovery, by his merit and efficacy reconciling us to God, and changing our hearts, reconciling us to God's grace, and restoring his image.
4. The advantages w-e have by God and Christ must be often thought of, for a serious consideration is the great help of faith : Heb. iii. 1, ' Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.' Our knowledge is not operative but by lively and active thoughts : Heb. xii. 2, ' Looking unto Jesus.' God worketh by our thoughts : Ps. cxliv. 15, ' Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.' As under the law they were to consider their happiness : Deut. iv. 7, ' For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?' So are we to consider of the great privileges of the gospel, God reconciled, and pardon and life bestowed on us in and through Christ.
SERMONS UPON LUKE XIl. 48.
SEEMON I.
For iinto icJiomsoever much is given, of him shall he much required : and to whom men have committed much, of them icill they ask the more. — Luke xii. 48.