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future and afar off are as present : Heb. xi. 1, 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' Partly because love will not count it long : Gen. xxix. 20, ' Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.' If we had any love to Christ, we would be willing to suffer a little while for his sake. But chiefly in regard of our eternal reward and blessedness ; so it is a light affliction, that is but for a moment, like a rainy day to an everlasting sunshine. God will not always chide, but his mercy is for ever and ever.
II. Come we now to the other part of the comparison, our reward, and let us see how he greateneth heavenly things. They are set forth by unwonted forms of speech, but such as argue the super-excellency of what is propounded ; and there you may observe an exact opposition of our happiness to our misery ; there ' affliction,' here ' glory ; ' there 1 light affliction/ here a ' far more exceeding weight of glory ; ' there ' momentary affliction,' here ' eternal glory.' Let us illustrate all these circumstances.
1. There affliction, here glory ; very fitly. In our calamities we are depressed and put to shame, but whatever honour we lose in this mortal life shall be abundantly supplied and recompensed to us in heaven. Indeed, we do but prattle when we presume to describe the other world, for ' it doth not appear what we shall be,' 1 John iii. 2 ; and again, 1 Cor. ii. 9, ' It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive the great things which he hath prepared for them that love him.' Only our ear has received a little thereof, and somewhat I shall speak by and by ; only, in the general, there shall be great honour clone to us, both by the Father and the Son. By the Father : John xii. 26, 'If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall my servant be : if any man serve me, him shall my Father honour.' He that will suffer as Christ hath done shall fare as Christ hath done ; for he came, as to teach an afflicted persecuted people that it is no new and strange thing to be misrepresented and slandered in the world, and suffer for the hopes of a better life, so to assure and give them a visible demonstration that there is a life of glory prepared for us ; and he is in heaven, in possession of this glory, to convey it to us, and his Father will put all marks of honour upon us. And he himself, Luke xii. 37, ' He will gird himself, and make them to sit down, and come forth and serve them at the heavenly feast.' These general expressions intimate great glory which shall be put upon us ; there is enough discovered to counterbalance all the afflictions of the present world, of what nature soever they be. Are you pained with sickness, and roll to and fro in your bed like a door on the hinges, through the restless weariness of the flesh ? In heaven we shall have everlasting ease, for that is a state of rest, Heb. iv. 9. Are you cast out by man as unworthy to live in any civil society ? There you are received by the Lord into an everlasting abode with him : 1 Thes. iv. 17, ' Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' Have you lost the love of all men for your sincerity and faithfulness ? You shall everlastingly enjoy the love of God : Bom. viii. 39, ' Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
376 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS IV. 17.
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Are you reproached, calumniated in the world ? Then your faith shall be ' found to praise, glory, and honour,' 1 Peter i. 7. Are you cast into prison ? You will shortly be in your Father's house, ' where there are many mansions,' John xiv. 2. Are you reduced to sordid poverty ? There you read of the ' riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light,' Eph. ii. 18. Have you lost children for Christ? They shall not come to you, but you shall go to them. Your temptations will be over, and your enemies will all have done ; you go from hard taskmasters to your gracious and righteous Lord ; your fears and sorrows will be at an end, your desires accomplished, and your expec- tations satisfied. Must you die, and the guest be turned out of the old house ? You have ' a building of God eternal in the heavens.' You do but leave a shed to live in a palace : 2 Cor. v. 1, ' For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a buiidiug of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' If you are forced out by the violence of man, the sword is but the key to open heaven's doors for you.