3. For this end we are sanctified or effectually called. Christ's blessings are not bounded in time, but he hath ' blessed us with spi- ritual blessings in heavenly places,' Eph. i. 3. They are of a heavenly rise and nature, and of a heavenly tendency ; there they began, and there they are consummated.
Use 2. To persuade us often to think of this end and scope, or steadily to fix your eye on this blessedness which is reserved for the people of God, that you may have the mar,k still in view.
1. It is a certain and sure reward, so as we may expect it from him. You have his promise for your security : 1 John ii. 25, ' And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.' Now a promise of God should be as sure as if we had seen it with our eyes, or as those things which we see with our eyes, a greater satisfaction and encouragement to us than all the visible things upon earth. We should do more and go further upon such a promise than we will for all that man can give unto us. Though we be exposed to danger and suffer- ings and unwearied labours, despised by great and small, yet our end, secured by the Lord's promise, should bear us out.
2. It is a great and full reward. We should labour to get a due sense of the worth of the prize of our high calling. Heaven and eternal glory are no light things : Gen. xv. 1, ' I will be thy exceeding great reward.' To have God for our portion and felicity, and in the highest way of fruition we are capable of ; what can be added more to our happiness ?
3. It is a pure reward ; not only complete happiness, but exact holiness ; to see God, and be like him. Surely one that is so sanctified and purified in part, should level all his actions and endeavours to this mark : 1 John iii. 3, ' He that hath this hope in him, purifieth.
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himself as Christ is pure.' And be working toward his final per- fection.
Use 3. Measure and value all things with respect to your end. Man is made wise by his end. Xow above all things eternity must needs make us wise, because it is the last end which we can propound to ourselves, and so thereby we may understand the true measure and value of all things.
We understand what is evil and what is good.
1. Evil things ; as —
[1.] The weight and grievousness of sin. Present punishment doth somewhat discover it : Jer. ii. 19, ' Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee : know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord of hosts.' Briars and thorns and sensible smart will teach us that which bare contemplation doth not, but our end will most show it to us ; because for temporal pleasures men lose eternal joys ; for the ease, and mirth, and pleasure of a moment they have lost all that happiness to which they are called by Christ.
[2.] Afflictions are to be valued with respect to their end. It showeth their lightness ; they are not so bad as the world taketh them to be. Tedious for the present, but it is but for a season : 1 Peter i. 6, 'Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heavi- ness through manifold temptations.' All things are lessened by having eternity in our eye. It is grievous, but not eternal : 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.' A man in the deep waters, as long as he can see banks, is not out of all hope.
[3.] Sufferings for Christ. If we may win eternity with the loss of all the world, we are no losers : Heb. x. 34, ' And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, as knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and a more enduring substance.' On the contrary, it is a sorry bargain to lose eternity for the enjoyment of all the world : Mat. xvi. 26, ' What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? '
[4.] Death, the king of terrors. It is not feared by a christian, because it is the entrance into eternal life ; when he dieth he shall live : John xi. 25, ' Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' It separateth us from our worldly comforts, but bringeth us to God, with whom we shall abide for ever.
2. Good things are also to be valued with respect to their end.
[1.] There are many things which the vain deceived world dotes upon, but they suit not with our scope, help us not to the crown, but divert us rather. ' What doeth it ? ' is the question we should ask : ' The pleasures of sin are but for a season,' Heb. xi. 25.