2. How blessed is the true Christian !
[As there is no state, however prosperous, in which an unconverted man is not an object of pity, so there is no state, however afflictive, wherein the Christian may not be considered as a happy man. However severe or long-continued his troubles may be, they appear to him but light and momentary ; and however they may be productive of present pain, he has the consolation of knowing that they work for him a weight of glory, which will infinitely overbalance all that he can endure in the body. " Who then, or what, can harm him, while he continues thus a follower of that which is good?" Surely, even in this present world the Christian has incomparably the best portion. What he will enjoy hereafter, when he shall come to the full possession of his inheritance, it is needless to say. We can have no doubt but that the invisible realities will be found a very sufficient recompence for all his zeal and diligence in the pursuit of them. Let us then keep those realities in view, and the nearer we come to the goal, let us be the more earnest in " running the race that is set before us."]
THE christian's ASSURED PROSPECT OF GLORY.
2 Cor. V. 1 — 5. JVe know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, tve have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tve groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed vpon loith our house which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be fotmd naked. For tve that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not for that tve tvould be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Notu he that hath ivrought us for the selfsame thing is God, tvho also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
IT has justly been said of Christians, that if in this hfe only they had hope, they would be of all men in the most pitiable condition; seeing that they renounce all the pleasures of sin, and are exposed to all manner of trials for their Lord's sake. And certainly, if we consider the variety and greatness of St. Paul's sufferings, this may be applied to him with more propriety than to any other of the children of men. But, notwithstanding he was " delivered daily unto death for Jesus' sake, he was still cheerful and still happy : and, notwitlistanding " his outward man decayed, his inward man was renewed day by day." Do we seek the cause of this ? he had his eye fixed on eternal things, and derived from thence a fund of consolation sufficient to bear him up above all his afflictions. Death had no terrors for him ; because " he knew that, when his earthly tabernacle should be dissolved, he had a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
But, as this experience was not confined to him, we shall take occasion from the words which we have read to shew,
I. The Christian's experience in the prospect of the eternal world —
He knows that there is a glorious mansion pre- pared for him —
[Here he dwells in a poor frail " tabernacle," like the
2017.] THE christian's PROSPECT OF GLORY. 503
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patriarchs of old*, exposed to vicissitudes of every kind, and uncertain how soon he may be called to change his precarious abode. But he has a better tabernacle prepared for him, a house more glorious in its structure, and more lasting in its duration, even *' a building of God, not made vs^ith hands, eternal in the heavens." Nor is his speedy enjoyment of this house a matter of conjecture with him, nor even of hope ; it is a certainty, of which he is assured : he " knows " that such a tabernacle is prepared, prepared for him too ; and that, " as soon as his earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved," he shall instantly be translated to it. It is the inheritance to which he has been born ; and which is therefore " reserved for him," as he also is for it ; the very power which made it for him being pledged to put him into the possession of it^ To it the patriarchs looked forward as the certain termination of their earthly pilgrimage = : and with still greater certainty does the Christian look forward to it, as being at this instant occupied by his forerunner, the Lord Jesus Christ, " who is gone before to prepare it for him, and is coming speedily to remove him to it"^." Like Job, he can say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and mine eyes shall behold him«;" and with the same blessed assurance also he can add, " I shall be with him, and be like him," for ever and ever*^.]