(2 ) We must look for this blessed estate by hope, which is acted by serious and heart-warming thoughts. A believer is not already in heaven, but his better part is there ; his heart and mind are there, and he expects one day to be there glorified : Titus ii. 13, ' Looki ng for the blessed hope ; ' Jude 21, ' Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ; ' and here in the text, ' From whence we look for a saviour.'
VeR. 20.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 151
Surely they whose minds and thoughts are strangers to heaven do not live in the world as if they were in heaven. Can a man look for any great benefit, and not think of it ? It is against the common experi- ence of mankind. If you were adopted to a rich inheritance, would you not think of it ? And do they expect such a glorious estate that never look up all the week long, or have such slight thoughts as rather damp and put out this holy fire than kindle it and keep it alive in you ; rather shun all sober and lively thoughts of the life to come, lest they should awaken them out of their security, and that dull form of religiousness wherein they please themselves ? Oh, therefore think often and much of that glorious estate, when you shall enjoy the endless sight and love of God, and live with all his blessed ones, and praise and serve him to all eternity. Can you travel one whole day toward such a city, and never think of the place you are going to ? Is it your drift to get home, and shall home be never seriously thought of ? Have we thoughts enough and to spare for other things, and none for Christ and heaven? If the carnal are delighted in minding earthly things, the souls of the godly should much more be heavenly. Surely if your conversations be in heaven, you would oftener think of it. The great instrument of the soul, next to sound belief, is serious consideration, not cursory and heartless thoughts, but such as are pressing, deep, and ponderous.
(3.) Love bends our desires that way, as well as hope sendeth our thoughts thither. And besides looking, there must be longing ; and where the treasure is, there will the heart be also. If you have laid up treasure in heaven, you will be there in heart and mind, in affection and thoughts : Col. iii. 2, ' Set your affections on things above, and not on things that are on earth.' That place is your home where you desire to be. If heaven be your home, you still groan and long to be there. But it is the world that is your home, and heaven a strange place, when you are loath to go out of the one, or get into the other. Yea, believers, such as love the world, they do not prize it, they do not love it ; but they that believe it long after the enjoyment of this city more than for anything in the world. Have you the heart of christians, and love the world more than heaven ? Is any happiness like the enjoyment of God ? or do you meet with any such company upon earth as you shall have in heaven ? Here we live mixed with hypocrites and unbelievers, as the wheat with the chaff, obnoxious to the calamities of the earthly life ; and shall not all this wean us from a vain and vexatious world, that we may long to be at home ? What is it tempts you, maketh your desires so cold ? Is it the enjoyment of a plentiful portion in the world? It is a curse to be 'written in the earth,' Jer. xvii. 13, as it is our felicity and joy to have our ' names written in heaven,' Luke x. 20. Which city is best in your account, and where lieth your portion, in the fruition of the world or the vision of God ? Ps. xvii. 14, 15, * From men which are thy hand, 0 Lord ; from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose bellies thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.' Surely it is not the partial fruition of God maketh you so loath to depart, for those kind of enjoyments do not divert you from God, but draw you
152 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. XV.
to him ; having a taste, you will long for more. Earth is not heaven when it is at best, nor can you find Mount Sion or the city of the living God in the wilderness. Oh, therefore, if you have any love to God, long for heaven, where you have most of God. Here you have his presence with you, but you are absent from him : 2 Cor. v. 8, ' We are willing rather to be absent from the body, that we may be present with the Lord.'