The third is, ' Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit.' Who- soever finds in them the Spirit of God, sanctifying their souls and bodies, stirring them up to holy duties, guiding, and leading, and moving them to holy actions, they may, from the sanctifying Spirit that is an earnest to them, know what shall become of their bodies : ' He hath given us the earnest of the Spirit.'
To confirm this, there is an excellent place in Rom. viii. 10, ' If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' ' If Christ be in you, the body is dead,' &c. It is a vile body : it is as good as dead ; it hath the sentence of death already. It is dead, in regard it is sentenced to death for sin, as a malefactor that hath his sentence. ' But the Spirit is life in regard of righteousness.' What then ? If the sanctifying Spirit of Christ dwell in you, ' he that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.' The same Spirit that sanctifies these souls of ours, and quickens them to holy duties, the same Spirit shall raise our bodies. As the same Spirit that sanctified the blessed mass of the body of Christ that he carried, and raised his body, the same Spirit that sanctifies our souls shall raise our bodies. The Spirit of God, when he hath begun to sanctify us, he never leaves us. He goes along in all changes, in life, in death, to the grave, as God said to Jacob, ' I will be with thee there,' Gen. xxxii. 28, seq. The Spirit of God he will mould our dead bodies, and make them like the glorious body of Christ. The Spirit of God never leaves our souls or bodies. Therefore, if we find the earnest of the Spirit, if we find the work of the Spirit, or the comfort of the Spirit, which is the term the Scripture gives, 'joy in the Holy Ghost, and peace of conscience,' together with the Spirit sanctifying us, especially in the time of trouble, when God sees his children have most need, they have the earnest of the Spirit, the beginnings of grace and joy, the beginnings of heaven upon earth. By
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this they may know, as the first fruit is, so likewise is the harvest ; as tho earnest is, even so is the bargain ; as we have it now in our souls, so we shall also have it in our bodies and souls hereafter. These three grounds St Paul hath, why his hope of heaven was a good hope. We groan for it, and we are wrought for it, we are fitted for it. There is no man can hope to be glorious in his body, but his soul must be fitted for it. It must bo a fit jewel for so glorious a casket, a fit inhabitant for so glorious a temple as the body shall be. The body shall be fitted for the soul, and the soul for the body : they arc ' wrought' for it. And then he hath given us ' the earnest of the Spirit.' What need I quote further evidences, the Scripture being thus pregnant ?
I beseech you, often consider your desires, whether you be content to live here alway or no, to satisfy the vile lusts of your body ; or whether you desire ' to be dissolved and to be with Christ,' when you have done the work that God sent you for into the world. If we be content to abase ourselves for God here, who hath provided so much glory for us hereafter, and when the time comes, we can desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, it is a good sign, — if we have the beginnings of the new creature, ' ye are wrought for it' — that our souls are fitted for a glorious body. We have ' the earnest of the Spirit,' the same Spirit that sanctifieth our souls, and that quickens our souls with joy and peace, the same Spirit shall raise om- bodies. Comfort yourselves, you that are Christians, though you be weak, with this, that if you have but the earnest of the Spirit, undoubtedly you shall have a glorious house, instead of this tabernacle of dust.
^ Christ ' will change these vile bodies, that they shall be fashioned like bis glorious body.' I beseech you, therefore, oft think of this ; think of the time to come, comfort yourselves with things to come. In 1 Thes. iv. 18, St Paul would have us talk one to another often of this. This should be the matter of our conference : not only the state of the church, and our own estate here, but how it shall be with us when we are gone hence ; how it shall be with us world without end hereafter. AVe should confer and speak, and oft meditate and think of these things.
What can be grievous, — what can be over-burdensome to that soul that knows it hath the pledge and earnest of glory hereafter ? How doth it quicken the soul to any endeavour, when once we know that howsoever we abase ourselves here, yet we shall have glorious bodies hereafter ! It will quicken us to any endeavour, to anything for Christ. Therefore let us oft think of our estate to come : let us set our thoughts forward to the time to come ; let faith make the times to come present, and that will make us heavenly-minded. What made St Paul converse as if he were in heaven ? Faith made the estate to come present ; and hope, which is grounded on faith, it looks to Christ's coming to change our vile bodies. So faith and hope they make the soul look upward, they make it heavenly-minded.