VER. 11.] SERMONS UrON PHILIPPIANS III. 71
thought worthy of the pains and difficulties to be sustained in going towards it. So it is in the case of heaven. Heaven is a good place, but out of indulgence to the ease of the flesh, and because of the strictness of holy walking, and the difficulties of obedience, we give over the pur- suit after heaven. Therefore if we would be sincere, we must submit to any means prescribed or required.
4. The hope propounded will bear this submission, and so the reason of the thing showeth it. Immortal happiness is most desirable, and endless misery is most terrible1. This world is vanity, and hath nothing in it worthy to be compared with the hopes which Christ hath given us of a better life; therefore upon due deliberation we must resolve to let go all that is inconsistent with these hopes. I say, this hope will bear all the costs we lay out upon it.
Reason will teach us two things — (1.) To submit to lesser evils to avoid a greater ; (2.) To undergo a lesser evil to obtain a greater good ; and both are in the present case.
[1.] To submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater. You escape at a dear rate when you must sin to escape any trouble in the world. You run into eternal sufferings that you may avoid temporal. No fire like the fire of hell. Christ says, Luke xii. 4, 5, ' Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do : but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear, Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; I say unto you, Fear him.' Farce dmperator, he carcerem, ille Gehennam — Excuse me, sir ; you threaten me only with a prison, but he with hell. It is better for a man to suffer the most cruel punishments, and the worst of torments which man can inflict, than to lie under extreme everlasting pains and the loss of heaven. This is the case here.
[2.] To undergo a lesser evil to obtain a greater good than that evil depriveth us of. This is another head of reasoning the scripture uses in this case : Eom. viii. 18, ' For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ; ' 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' The pain and suffering will be short ; within a little time you will feel it no more than if it had never been ; and if pain be remembered, it will be only to increase our joy.
Use 1. Let us not sit down contented with a worldly portion and happiness. There is another state to be enjoyed after the resurrection. This you must seek after, and propound to yourselves as your great end and scope. This life was not intended to be the place of our per- fection, but a preparation to it. God led his people out of Egypt, not to keep them in the wilderness, but to carry them through the wilder- ness into Canaan. The world was intended for our passage, but heaven for our home ; carry yourselves then as strangers and pilgrims, Heb. xi. 13, seeking for the city of God, where you may dwell for ever. You come to renew this profession in the Lord's supper. The Israel- ites in their first passover stood in the posture of pilgrims, with their loins girt, and their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hands, Exod. xii. 11 ; so must we be, in the course and frame of our souls, pilgrims seeking a heavenly country. The ordinances are our songs in the house of our pilgrimage.
72 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS in. [SeR. VII.
Use 2. Let us seek after this happiness without sticking at any difficulties either in active or passive obedience.
1. In active obedience. We must renounce all the pleasures of sense, how near and dear to us soever they be : Mat. v. 29, 30, ' If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee ; for it is profit- able for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee ; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.' Certainly the damage of sin is more considerable than the delight ; the honey will not countervail the sting. If you be men and women of pleasure, how do you keep down the body ? 1 Cor. ix. 27. Oh, what kind of hearts have they who prefer every vain delight and wanton pleasure before the honour of Christ and the glory of the world to come ! cannot leave a vain speech, a new-fangled fashion, deny themselves in anything ! Is this submitting to any means ? So also for any strict duty. Heaven is at the back of it, and that should sweeten it to us. If it cost you labour, it is for the meat that endureth for ever. Work out your salvation.