3. They will be so to all eternity —
[All their present privileges and blessings are only pre- paratory to their future state, when their happiness will be perfect, unchangeable, and everlasting. They are to be "made meet for their inheritance" in this world; and, when they are completely ready for their nuptials with their heavenly Bride- groom, he will come and take them to himself, that they may
live for ever in the perfect fruition of his lovee To bring
them to this, was God's original design in choosing them. To
a Eph. i. 4, 5. b John xvii. 2, G. c 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14.
d Rev. xiii. 8. e Rev. xix. 7.
fit them for it, is the end of all his dispensations, both of pro- vidence and grace. And to possess it, is the one object which they have in view, in all their labours, in all their sufferings, in all their conflicts.]
Moreover, our text asserts that this their blessed- ness is visible to others, even to all who know them. We proceed therefore to inquire,
II. Whence it is that all who know them acknow- ledge this —
The world at large do not know themf : they stand at so great a distance from the Lord's people, that they cannot properly be said to " see" them : and hence, from the ^distinctiveness of their views, they imagine that these people are either vile hypocrites or deluded enthusiasts. But those who have an opportunity of ascertaining their real character, are constrained to acknowledge them as the blessed of the Lord. This conviction is wrought on the minds of others by,
1. Their delight in God —
[Their happiness is altogether in God, even in that God and Saviour who bought them with his blood : they delight in a sense of his favour, in the enjoyment of his presence, and
in the performance of his will In this respect they
differ from all other men on the face of the earth. Others may render unto God some external services ; but the be- liever alone " loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," so as to serve him with all the powers and faculties of his soul
Hence there arises to the believer a peculiarity of
character which elevates him above all other men, and makes it manifest that " he is of the seed which the Lord hath blessed."]
2. Their superiority to the world —
[Believers, though in the world, " are not of it, even as Jesus Christ himself was not of the world :" they rise above its maxims, its pleasures, its interests, its honours : " they are
crucified to it, and consider it as crucified to them "
But all other people are of the world : whether they live immersed in its cares, or secluded from its society, they still have their affections placed on things below, and not on things above ; and, however they may pretend to despise the world,
f 1 John iii. 1.