[3.] The course of our living must suit with the properties of this happy estate. (1.) It is a great happiness ; (2.) It is a pure happi- ness ; (3.) A happiness that lieth in heaven.
(1.) It is a great happiness, and therefore must not be slightly sought after. No slight thing will become God and heaven ; all zeal and diligence is necessary to be exercised. There must be seeking : Col. iii. 1, ' Seek things above ; ' Heb. xi. 14, ' They seek a country." Working : Phil. ii. 12, ' Work out your salvation.' Labouring ; there must be diligence to get what we seek : John vi. 27, ' Labour for the meat that endures.' Watching, Luke xxi. 36. Striving : Luke xiii. 24, ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate.' Pressing hard : Phil. iii. 14, ' I press toward the mark.' We seek it because we want it ; here we have it not. We work and labour for it, because heaven will not come with a cold wish, or a few faint and feeble or heartless endeavours. Is this becoming everlasting glory ? Is this all we do for God and heaven ? We watch, that we may keep up our heavenly affections, and be found in a constant preparation at Christ's coming : 2 Peter iii.
154 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. XV.
14 ' Give all diligence, that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.' We strive because we meet with difficulties within and without ; without are temptations, and within are corrup- tions. And we press forward that every day we may be a step nearer. The life of a christian is a continual motion and nearer approach to the heavenly city. If we do thus, this is to have our conversation in heaven, when the thoughts and hopes put life and vigour into our graces and duties.
2. It is a pure happiness, not a Turkish paradise, but an immacu- late and sinless estate ; to see God and be like him. Therefore then our conversation is in heaven, when we purify ourselves yet more and more : 1 John iii. 2, 3, ' Behold, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure.' We expect to be presented faultless before the presence of his glory, Jude 24. There- fore now we strive every day more to be without blame before him in love. Christians have a carnal notion of heaven if they look only upon it as a state of personal contentment. No ; it is not that alone, but a state of exact conformity to God ; and the more pure and holy you are, the more heaven- like are your conversations ; as heaven is the perfecting of that life which is begun here by the Spirit.
3. It is a heavenly happiness ; and therefore true believers should be drawing off their hearts from earthly things, that they may wholly breathe and aspire after heavenly things. Worldly and sensual inclina- tions turn us to another happiness, and make the heart dead and sense- less. We seek our heaven and happiness here in the world, rather than in the salvation of the blessed : Luke xvi. 25, ' Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.' Because he lived a life of pomp and ease ; he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. If we enlarge ourselves in this kind of life, we discharge God from giving us any other happiness. Yon shall have riches, you shall have honours, because you do so greedily seek after them, but you shall have no more. Sure it is the mortified, self-denying conversation that becometh the citizens of heaven ; for they do not seek for their happiness here, but elsewhere : 1 Peter ii. 11, 'I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul/ The citizens of this world must make a fair show in the flesh, to be somebody here, have such provision for their sensuality, or they are comfortless; but the citizens of the other world seek to excel in grace, to be filled with the wisdom that is from above, to entertain communion with God, to get more assurance of his love ; for this manner of living suiteth with their hopes. They mortify their members which are upon earth, but seek to cherish and increase the graces of the Spirit which come from God, and lead them to God.
Reasons why.
1. They are made for eternity, and God has given them an immortal spirit that will never perish ; and therefore they cannot be satisfied with things that perish in the using. An immortal soul cannot be contented with a mortal happiness : Eccles. xii. 7, ' Then shall the dust return
VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON PHIL1PPIANS III. 155
to the earth as it was, and the spirit unto God that gave it.' The make and constitution of man showeth the estate he was made for. Some things were made for heaven and not for earth, as the angels, who are pure spirits ; and some things for earth and not for heaven, as the beasts, who have bodies, but a material spirit. Some things were made both for earth and heaven, as man, who hath a mortal body and an immortal spirit. He was made for earth, the place of bodies, in his passage ; for heaven as his home, which is the region of spirits. Now the children of God observe the cause for which they were made, and for which they were sent into the world ; and therefore regard present things only in their passage, and prepare themselves for the upper place of their abode. The whole drift of their conversation tends that way ; that is the estate most in the eye of their faith, hope, and love ; they believe it, look and long for it, and prepare for it.