4. If you look, and long, and prepare for a better estate : 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, ' For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.' There will be an earnest waiting for this. glory. Certainly God will never bestow it upon us against our wills, nor without our consent ; there must be an earnest desire and a serious preparation. Those that cannot endure to hear of a remove would be always here ; they are satisfied with what is now, and cannot part with it for what is to come. We groan chiefly for the intimate presence of our souls with Christ, and some unwilling- ness ariseth because we are loath to part with the body ; but if we are sure that in due time we shall have the society of the body in glory, why should we hang back? These beloved friends, which part with so much pain and grief, shall meet together again with pleasure and joy ; therefore we should overcome our natural inclinations to the present life
SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS L 21.
SERMON I.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — Phil. i. 21 .
Paul had professed his indifferency to life or death, so Christ might be glorified by either ; either by his ministry or martyrdom ; -his aim and scope was Christ's glory. Now how God would use him to such a purpose he was altogether unconcerned, and professeth, if he might have his option and choice, he would give the case back again to God to determine it as it might be most for his service and glory. Now here he beginneth to debate the case, and showeth in what respects life and death were valuable. If you put life in one scale and side of the balance, there is his service in the gospel ; if death in the other side, there is eternal profit : ' To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'
Here I shall show —
1. Why he desired life, ' To me to live is Christ.'
2. Why he submitted to death, ' To die is gain.'
[1.] The purpose and business of the present life is Christ's service.
[2.] The gain and profit of his death is the perfect enjoyment of Christ ; if he did live, he should preach Christ ; if he did die, he should go to Christ, and remain with him for ever.
I must not dissemble it that some read the text thus, ' Christ is gain to me both in life and death, whatsoever falleth out.' This interpreta- tion, though not unsuitable to the context, yet it doth not run so smoothly, and cannot be so easily wrought out of the Greek tongue as our translation.
I shall treat of the purpose and business of life ; ifiol to §)v Xiio-tos. The infinitive of the verb is put for the substantive, to j»/i» for £g»7, my life is Christ. Now Christ may be said to be the life two ways — as the principle or as the end. As the principle : Gal. ii. 20, ' Christ liveth in me.' Secondly, as the end and scope; so here he is both author and end. As we live in him and by him, so we live for him and to him. The latter supposeth the former. Our tendency is according to the principle by which we are acted. That life which we have from Christ is used for Christ; his meaning is, that the service and honour of Christ was the scope and business of his life.
Loot. That the great end and business of a christian's life should be to honour and glorify Christ.
180 SERMONS UPON PH1LIPPIANS I. 21. [SER. I.
I argue it thus —
First, We have life from hiin, and therefore it will be to him. I speak it not of life natural, but spiritual. The tendency of it is to Christ, from whose influence we receive it ; the end is according to the principle. We live in Christ, to Christ. A supernatural influence causeth a supernatural tendency. Carnal men, that act by their own life, live upon their own root, bring forth fruit to themselves, make it their business to please the flesh. Water riseth no higher than its fountain, and the fruit is always according to the influence of the root; but they that are ingrafted into Christ, they live out of themselves, and therefore do not live for themselves, but that their heavenly Father may be glorified, John xv. 8. It is the application of the parable of the vine ; as rivers run into the sea from whence their channels are filled, so doth grace cause all the issues and outgoings of the spiritual life to return to Christ from whence they came.
Secondly, I argue from the right Christ hath to our service. We are his by every kind of right and title. If we were at our own dispose, we might live as we list ; but no creature is sui juris, its own, to use as it will, much less the saints : Eom. xiv. 7-9, ' For no man of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself ; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.' The apostle is there pressing to unity, notwithstanding lesser differences. The saints do not always agree in the means, by reason of the difference of light. They all agree in the scope ; they do all things to the Lord, that is, the Lord Christ ; for he speaketh of his dying and rising again. Now this he argueth from Christ's right, because we are the Lord's, which is acknowledged and improved to this end by the saints. Christ hath a right over all ; weak and strong christians all agree in this, and wholly surrender themselves to Christ's use, living and dying. A whole christian is Christ's ; take him in his person, his relations, conditions of life, and all his concernments, he is Christ's, and therefore to him to live is Christ.