III. That we shall lose nothing but what shall be made up.
196 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS I. 21. [SeR. II.
1. Do we lose friends ? There are better in heaven ; our best friends love us not so dearly as every one doth there. This is the true com- munion of saints ; we have communion not only with one or two, but all ; now two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough. It is well if two or three mortified humble christians can meet together, and breathe out their souls in supplications : ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name.' There is an innumerable company ; there is none but such. Here saints and hypocrites are mixed and blended together in promiscuous herds, there none but the wheat is gathered into the barn. There will need no fears and suspicions, no unclean enters there. Christ, that giveth entrance into heaven, cannot be deceived ; there they are perfect. Our communion is often inter- rupted by our infirmities ; here full of contention or clashing, there all agree in the same aim and the same work ; and this union and communion is constant without end ; now often diverted by present weaknesses and intervenient occasions ; we must break off company and societies, if not affections ; there we shall never part, but always be praising God.
2. Is it ordinances we lose ? There the Lamb shall be the light of the new temple. We shall study divinity in Christ's face ; that will be our bible, there we shall drink of the fruit of the vine new with Christ, Mat. xxvi. 29.
3. Communion with God. Then ' we shall ever be with the Lord,' 1 Thes. iv. 17. There will be no cloud on that day.
4. Service and opportunities of glorifying God. We shall be more active to his praise. The instrument will be perfectly in tune. Here we often jar, there will be no spot or blemish, Eph. v. 27.
5. Comforts of this world, they are of use in our passage, and we must possess as if we possessed not, 1 Cor. vii. 31 ; but there we are free from all needs. No man complains, when he is recovered out of a disease, that he has no more need of physic.
Use 1. To commend Christ's service to you. If you have dedicated your life to the flesh, then death will be bitter : Gal. vi. 8, ' For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.' A man should consider all things with respect to his latter end, that he may have the same notion of things living and dying. But Christ's servant, what comfort shall he have when he goeth hence to his master ? John xii. 16, ' If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall my servant be.' Oh, follow him ; you will not repent of it at last. Believe this that is spoken ; if you did believe, surely you could not be so slack in his service : John xi. 26, ' Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, though he die yet shall he live. Believest thou this ? ' Did we strongly consider and soundly believe these truths, Christ would have more servants than he hath. Oh, then, there is a great deal of profit in Christ's service as to present comfort and final reward.
Use 2. A meditation for the dying. We should hear for the time to come, and not only hear, to learn to live by the word, but learn to die. To make you willing to die, consider, death is not a loss, but a gain. You leave earth for heaven, misery for complete happiness, a temporal life for an eternal; a shed is taken down that a palace
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPFIANS I. 21. 197
may be raised up in its stead ; you exchange a lease for an inheritance, and hard service for perfect freedom. Death is terrible upon a natural and legal account, as it puts an end to our present comforts ; and upon a legal account, as it is attended with sin : 1 Cor. xv. 56, ' The sting of death is sin.'
Use 3. To confute their fondness that would divide these two. Many would have death to be gain, but do not take care to live to Christ. Alas ! that is a foolish thought. You would have comfort, but you deny duty ; you would live to the flesh, yet die in the Lord. God might have customers more than enough for heaven upon these terms. To die to you will be loss : ' Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.' You cannot expect to go from Delilah's lap to Abraham's bosom. No ; you go from pleasure to pain, from your friends to devils, from opportunities of grace to torments and inflicting of punishments, from your house to the prison of hell.
Use 4. Comfort concerning departed friends. Will you envy at their preferment, whine and murmur at their gain ? If you loved them indeed, you would be glad when it is well with them ; and where can it be better for them than in heaven, in the bosom of Jesus Christ ? The soul is there. You leave the body in the grave, but Christ will not leave it there : ' Thou fool ! that which thou sowest lives not except 't die.' Oh, then comfort you one another with these words.