Secondly, Those that go from strength to strength shall at length appear before God in a blessed and heavenly estate.
Doct. 1. Those whose hearts are set upon the ways of God, and do in the midst of all difficulties hope to come before him in Zion, it is their privilege and duty to go on from strength to strength.
1. It is their privilege as they grow older to grow better, wiser, and stronger : Isa. xl. 31, ' They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; they shall walk, and not faint.' They that wait on the Lord, that do with patience expect the performance of his promises, shall still have a new supply of strength, enabling them to bear up when they seem to be clean spent, so as to mount as on eagles' wings, which are fowls that fly strongly and swiftly, and renew their youth : Ps. ciii. 5, ' Thy youth is renewed like the eagles.' Whether as those fowls are famous for long life, vigorous and healthful, as if always joung, or it respects some particular qualities of the eagle. Some say the eagle by casting her feathers reneweth her youth; as Micah i. 16,
* Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle.' Some by casting her bill, when the upper beak groweth crooked with age, and shutteth up the lower. Well, then, this is the privilege of God's servants; so Ps. xcii. 13, 14,
* Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God ; they shall bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and flourishing.' Those plants which our heavenly Father hath planted, in the midst of all their troubles and difficulties, they flourish, as trees stand all weathers, and are helped by them ; yea, the courts of God are such a kindly soil, that they bring forth fruit in old age, so moistened by the dews of heaven and fountain of the gardens, which is the Spirit. The decay of the outward man shall not hinder the renewing of the inward man, but the last work is better than the first. Their bodies, when ruinous, are yet the temples of the Holy Ghost ; then are they kept fresh and lively, and shall have great delight in God, and be fertile to the last. So Pro v. x. 29, ' The way of the Lord is strength to the upright.' A man that is sincere and upright with God, the more he walketh with God the more encouragement he hath, more peace of conscience, more freedom from sin, greater readiness and ability for God's service ; there is a power that increaseth with every duty ; as the more a man swimmeth, or writeth, or playeth on an instrument, the facility is increased. Many are ready to faint, and think they shall never hold out in the midst of the difficulties they meet with in the valley of Baca, but every new difficulty bringeth new strength with it These promises serve to encourage us to continue with patience in well-doing ; there shall constantly be a renewed supply of gi-ace and strength.
2. It is their duty to go on from strength to strength ; that, as a river, the farther it runneth the broader and deeper it groweth ; it doth not lose, but get, by a further accession of waters ; the fountain is
318 SERMON UPON PSALM LXXXIV. 7.
small, as to the head and first rise, in comparison of the stream ; so a christian is to go on from one degree of righteousness unto another, and still grow stronger in the graces of the Spirit : John iv. 1 4, ' Who- soever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' And abound more in all holy actions. Paul's instance : Phil. iii. 13, 14, ' Forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' As a runner in a race doth not say. There is so much of the way already past, now I may slacken my pace ; but there is so much yet to come, and therefore run still ; so a christian says, There are so many sins to be mortified, so many graces to be attained, such difficulties to be encountered, still I must hold on my course, or else I shall come short of the goal. Eeasons why we must go on.
1. That we may recover what we have lost. We have lost in Adam complete and perfect innocency, and surely we should not cease till it be made up in Christ. He is more able to save than Adam to destroy : Eom. V. 17, ' For if by one man's ofience death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of right- eousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.' Adam was a public person by institution ; Christ was not only instituted, but had an intrinsic value ; he was God-man.