[3.] Love. All your looking to the reward must be mixed with a love to God, that there may be longing as well as looking. Our spiritual joys consist in a holy love and fruition of God. This is that we desire and value : Phil. i. 23, ' Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.' To be with Christ is best of all : 2 Cor. v. 6, ' Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.' It is love must incline us heavenward, to long after the fruition of him whom we love, that we may see him, and enjoy him, and be ever present with him.
4. By all means labour to get and maintain the assurance of your title : 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto them also that love his
74 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III [SeR. VIII.
appearing.' Now this is gotten by doing rather than searching. It is sin that woundeth conscience, and wasteth comfort, and grieveth the spirit of adoption, by which we ' are sealed to the day of redemption/ Eph. iv. 30. But it is holiness, and faithful obedience, and diligence in the heavenly life, that you may keep up your assurance in vigour: Heb. vi. 11, 'And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end/ When we grow slothful and remiss, desertions follow to our great discomfort, but our •certainty is maintained by watchfulness and diligence : Acts xx. 24, ' But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' He went bound in" the spirit to Jerusalem. He had a call, but knew not fully what the issue would be, whether to die at Jerusalem or no ; that bonds and afflictions abide me, but I make no reckoning of any such thing : 1 Thes. iii. 3, ' That no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.' A christian should be of such a temper, that out of the hope of eternity he should not be greatly moved with any temporal things.
SERMON VIII.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already 'perfect ; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for ivhich also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. — Phil. iii. 12.
Paul having spoken much of his self-denial for Christ, would not be misinterpreted, as if there remained no more to be done by him. No ; his race was not yet finished, nor yet had he taken hold of the crown, which conquerors in those races were wont to do, from some high place where it was hung and fixed : ' Not as though I had already attained.' In the words we have —
1. A disclaiming of present perfection.
2. An earnest endeavour to attain it for the future.
3. The reason of his diligence and earnestness ; he was ' apprehended of Jesus Christ ' for this end.
1. A disclaiming or denial of present perfection, in two expressions, proper to agonistical matters. They had their Olympian, Nemean, Isthmian, and Pythian games, which were the same for nature, only the place differed. Their usual exercises were wrestling, running and the like.
[1.] 'Not as though I had already attained.' It is an agonistical word put for receiving the reward due to the conqueror. In the races there was a crown of leaves generally set over the goal, that he that came thither foremost might catch it and carry it away with him : 1 <Jor. ix. 24, ' One receiveth the prize.' So 1 Tim. vi. 12, ' Take hold of eternal life.' So here, oi>x on ^hrj e\a/3ov, I have not yet catched the crown from the top of the goal.
YER. 12.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 75
[2.] ' Or were already perfect.' This also is an agonistical word, jts Faber proveth at large. Though the runner was to catch at the srown, and seize upon it as his right, yet the iWavoBi/ccu, the judges, did first interpose their judgment before he could put it on his head, and when he received the crown from them, he was judged as a perfect wrestler and racer. The word ' perfect,' as applied to racing, was sometimes used of their strength, and sometimes of their reward. Of their strength and agility, having passed the agonistical exercises, 2 Cor. xiii. 9, ' For we are glad when we are weak, and ye are strong ; and this also we wish, even your perfection ; ' that is, it would be matter of joy to him to see them strong and able to run the spiritual race. Sometimes of their reward, that when the crown was adjudged to them, or that they had done worthily, the more excellent of the racers had the more excellent rewards : ret, re\.eia rots reXeloLs Sihofxeva, saith Philo, which were called perfect rewards or crowns. Well, then, Paul had not yet gotten his crown, but was as the racer in the pursuit, in the wray running as hard as he could, that at length he might possibly catch and receive that prize, the crown of eternal life. That he was not yet in heaven was evident, and needed not be so earnestly asserted ; therefore the meaning is, that though he were in the way to glory, yet further difficulties remained ; and though his estate were so far secured as to exclude diffidence and doubting, yet not so as to exclude caution and diligence ; he had not ended his race so as to catch the crown, or receive it from the hand of the judges. Though he were now in prison at Rome, yet some time of living remained, and some further diffi- culties to be undergone. He speaketh at another rate, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- eousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, iind not to me only, but unto them also that love his appearing.'