SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 10. 131
2. Positively ; and so —
[1.] The apostle speaketli not of their inward enjoyments, but their outward estate, which no ways seems to answer God's covenant love nor governing justice ; for the calamities of the godly raise two doubts — (1.) How this doth stand with the love and goodness of God to his l)eo{)le ? This was the psalmist's temptation : Ps. Ixxiii. 1, ' Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.' It is a most certain and a most infallible truth that God is abundantly gracious and kind, and not only ftxithful and just to all his sincere servants ; but we are under no small temptation to doubt of the truth of this when they are under severe scourges and chastisements, or exercised with continual afflictions, and others live in pomp and luxury, and all manner of secular felicity. (2.) But the other temp- tation to doubt of God's governing in righteousness was Jeremiah's temptation : Jer. xii. 1, * Righteous art thou, 0 Lord ; yet let me talk with thee of thy j udgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacher- ously ? ' Certain it is that God is righteous ; yet when his people are in a sad condition, and their enemies thrive and prosper by their ■wicked courses, their minds are troubled ; for to appearance none are in a worse condition than they that love God most, and serve him best, till he be considered not as to his external but eternal estate.
[2.] The apostle's meaning is, that a man cannot rationally be induced to submit to Christianity, and, in defiance of all temptations, to lead an holy godly life, without the expectation of the happiness of another world. The temptation lieth in things present, and our strength lieth in a due reflection on things to come. Faith must guide us, that sense may not mislead us ; and so, when the world's best and Christ's worst are brought into competition, the soul is the better enabled to make a right choice : Heb. xi. 26, ' Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ; for he had respect to the recompense of reward.' It is the liopes which Christ offereth in a better life which strike all temptations dead. Now in case this should not be, the apostle pronounceth christians to be of all men most miserable, upon a fourfold account —
(1.) Because their very present comforts would seem to be but a fantastical impression or a fanatical illusion ; for our whole religion would be a falsehood if the great promise be chimerical, or a mere dream and supposition : 1 John ii. 25, ' This is the promise which he hath promised us, even eternal life.' And so how can we imagine but that all the comfort which we take in the pardon of sins, communion with God, and the sense of his love, are mere conceit and vain ima- gination ?
(2.) Because their future hopes and trust would be utterly dis- appointed, and they deluded in their greatest expectations : 1 Tim. iv. 10, ' Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.' It is our hope in God through Christ, or the assurance of an eternal reward, which is the only ground of our suffering patiently anything that befalleth us. He is the preserver of all mankind, but hath promised eternally to save those that believe and obey him.
132 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19,
Therefore, if there were no world to come, christians would not only be disappointed of their great hope, which is the worst kind of vexation, bnt draw a suspicion upon all these advantages that we seem to reap by Christ and enjoy here upon earth.
(3.) Their earnest desires would not be fulfilled if there were no blessedness to come. We may prove eternal life by the disposition and instinct of nature towards happiness in general, yea, eternal happi- ness, which if we should not enjoy, that desire were in vain ; but God doth nothing in vain. The apostle intimateth this universal desire in all rational creatures ; they all grope and feel about for an eternal and infinite good : Acts xvii. 27, ' That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.' Other creatures besides man are satisfied with what they have here, but the soul of man is satisfied with nothing but the eternal enjoyment of what is good, an immortal estate, an infinite good ; this is the universal inclination of all mankind. Whence cometh that desire to be so universal if there be nothing to satisfy it ? Where is this immortality that we seek after? Not in temporal enjoyments, riches, honours, and pleasures ; they perish, and we perish. Yea, the lust of these things passeth away in time : 1 John ii. 17, * The world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' Not in surviving fame ; that is a shadow, like the pleasure which those take who want children in playing with little dogs and puppies. It lieth in the eternal enjoy- ment of God. But we urge not this now ; we urge the desires of the renewed and sanctified, which do much more prove it, for these act more regularly, and direct their desires and hopes to a certain scope and end ; and these are excited by the Holy Spirit of God, who im- printeth the firm persuasion of this happiness, and inclineth us to it, and stirreth up these groans after it: Kom. viii. 23, ' And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we our- selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,' The word of God warrants these desires, and the Spirit of God kindleth them in our hearts, and that usually in our gravest and severest moods, when we are solemnly conversing with God in his holy worship ; then doth he raise up these affections towards heavenly things, as in the word, prayer, and sacraments ; then is this relish left upon our hearts ; and the more serious and holy any are, the more do they feel of this. And also in our bitter sufferings for God : Kom. V. 3, ' And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; ' 1 Peter iv. 13, 14, ' But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you : on their part he is evil-spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." This is a greater argument than the bare instinct and desire of nature. Certainly if our holiness be our torment, and God beget in us these desires which he never meant to satisfy, then we are of all men most miserable.