Glory will be revealed in us then which is hid Rom. 8. 18. from us now How much more of God will be communicated hereafter without means than is or can be by them in this present state We sit under Shadows now then we shall sit down by the Fountain of Light. 5. Believers wait for the transforming of their Bodies into the likeness of Christ's at the Resurrection The raising and quickening and new beautifying of our Dust which when we dye is scattered in the Grave is a work which requires an exceeding greatness of Power but yet it is a work which we expect to be done We groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to Rom. 8. 23. wit the redemption of our body The Redemption of our Bodies from the power of Death into a condition of endless Life is called the Adoption because it is the manifestation of the sons of God ver 19. as the Apostle speaks a little before as Christ himself was declared to be the Son of God by his chap. 1. 4. rising from the dead The same Apostle speaking upon this Subject elsewhere says We groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house 2 Cor. 5. 2. which is from heaven A Glorified Body may be stiled our house which is from heaven in opposition to the earthly house mentioned in the foregoing ver 1. verse because it will be of a more spiritual and lasting frame Distempers shall make no Breaches in it and Death shall not pull it down Infinite Goodness observes a method herein which is suitable to Infinite Wisdom first God advances the Inhabitant and then after a time he repairs the habitation first he unites the Soul more closely to himself and afterwards the Body to the Soul This is that admirable Change which Job says that he would wait all the days of his appointed Job 14. 14. time for that is of his continuance in the state of the dead as an Excellent Author How 's Bless of the Right p. 210 211 212. hath largely cleared Thus when we lay down our Mortal flesh in the bosom of the Earth we leave it to rest in hope of a certain Immortality I proceed now to the Second Thing which was proposed and that is to shew How this Work of waiting for God's Salvation is to be done by Believers while they live Three Things seem to be included in it 1. It includes Fervent Desires Waiting for Christ from Heaven and loving his appearing in 1 Thes 1. 10. 2 Tim. 4. 8. Scripture are the same thing some things are unwillingly expected by wicked men they foresee that death will come and they are afraid of it so there is a fearful looking for of Judgment Heb. 10. 27. which follows after death This is an Expectation accompanied with fear which hath a great deal of uneasiness and torment in it they that have it could wish to be disappointed and mistaken Hope is somewhat more than bare Expectation because it implies Desire and that we have an Affection to the same thing which we have a Prospect of Sisera's Mother was eagerly desirous to see her Son marching home in Triumph and therefore she lookt out at a window and cried out through the lattice Why is his chariot so long Judg. 5. 28. in coming The Creature which groans under the Curse for our sin is very desirous of ease and restitution and therefore we read of its earnest Rom. 8. 19. expectation waiting for such a time When the Church was waiting for God they tell him The desire of our soul is to thy name c. Do we then Isa 26. 8. wait for the Salvation of the Lord from a Principle of Love to him and to the Spiritual good things which we expect from him Can we say as David did That we wait for God more than Psal 130. 6. they that watch for the morning Some think that the Psalmist alludes in that place to Centinels in an Army or City who many times being wearied with their tedious Service in the night long till the day breaks that they may be reliev'd and discharg'd by others It is a necessary Question Are our hearts directed into such a passionate waiting for Christ 2. It includes stedfast Hopes It is a Fruit that springs from Faith for if that be shipwrack'd nothing will fix the soul in a waiting posture To hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lam. 3. 26. Lord are things which always go together so the great Apostle speaks If we hope for that which Rom. 8. 25. we see not then do we with patience wait for it The Inference is grounded upon the preceding Supposition we wait if we hope but else we do not Infidelity overthrows every thing of this kind as is manifest from that woful Instance of the King of Israel when the Famine was so great in the Land This evil is of the Lord wherefore 2 Kings 6. 33. should I wait for him any longer q. d. I have no such confidence either in God's Power or Goodness as to think that he can or will remove this Calamity though he hath inflicted it I never look for a return of plenty any more than the opening of windows in Heaven as one of his Courtiers exprest chap. 7. 2. himself afterwards Do we therefore heartily believe the record which God hath given us of his Son Are we firmly perswaded of Christ's Ability and Willingness to save Are we deeply convinc'd how securely we may trust in him how freely we may rowl our burdens on him how boldly we may make our applications to him when we are most terrified with the sense of sin and wrath As he that comes to God must believe that he is so he that waits for God's Salvation must believe that there is such a thing and rest satisfied in its reality A steady assurance of that which we expect will bear up our expectation but otherwise it will sink 3. It includes diligent endeavours of preparation for the thing that we desire and hope The Salvation of God is not to be hoped for out of the road of duty In the way of thy Judgments so the Commands Isa 26. 8. of God are sometimes called have we waited for thee Such as walk irregularly in their usual and ordinary course are not persons in a salvable state To him that ordereth his conversation Psal 50. arigbt will I shew the salvation of God that is to him and him only They cannot rejoice in the hope of glory who do not live in the exercise of grace A man that is dead in sin while he lives may flatter himself with an imagination of dying the death of the righteous at the last but the miserable event will undeceive him when the time of Reformation shall be no more I charge thee therefore oh sinner before God and the Lord Jesus Christ that thou expect nothing but vengeance
deliver'd up to the Father This is what remains to be done by Christ Secondly The Benefits which flow from Christ may be included in this term of the Lords Salvation and there are some such which believers while alive are not possest of but waiting for I grant that they receive several of Christs benefits when they are made believers yea even those which are the earnest and pledg of all the rest They have eternal life abiding in them assoon as their spiritual life is begun if they become the children of God by faith at their new birth then they are at that time the rightful Heirs Rom. 8. 17. of Heaven and of all that Heaven contains but still the Inheritance is reserved for them They have not 1 Pet. 1. 4. the perfect enjoyment of all that God hath promis'd and that Christ hath purchas'd though they have the title and the first fruits The following particulars will shew what they wait for as the effects of their Saviour's sufferings First to begin with the least and lowest of their Expectations A full deliverance from temporal and external evils such as pain and sickness Providential disappointments and losses unjust and violent Persecutions c. which they are more or less at one time or another subject to in this life Though these burdens are comparatively light yet many times they make a Believer to groan under them while he is in this Tabernacle They lye so heavy sometimes 2 Cor. 5. 4. especially when several kinds of them meet together like various Rivers which run into one Sea of trouble that they make a man bitter in soul and put him upon longing for death which otherwise Job 3. 20 21. he would be most desirous to shun Though these are lesser evils yet they are real and so long as we labour under them we cannot but look upon our selves as miserable in part Who can doubt that our blessedness is imperfect while our bones are vexed while Gods arrows stick in our flesh when so many Diseases are ready to assault us and unseen Casualties to fall upon us where our riches and all other worldly glory like birds upon the wing are prepar'd to fly away from us where our finest Hos 9. 11. garments are so quickly moth-eaten and our most valuable Goods corrupted where our whole inheritance is liable to the spoiler's hands and the Sons of blood if God at any time let them loose may arise and take possession How uncertainly is our health or ease or plenty or tranquility prolong'd while we are here in how small a moment may all the contrary mischiefs overtake us But we wait the time when God will finally save us out of all Secondly Deliverance from the remainders of Indwelling Corruption and the Temptations of Satan Here a Believer is often crying out with Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from Rom. 7. 24. the body of this death He hath not yet actually obtain'd such a deliverance but he waits for it I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We many Ver. 25. times feel the tyranny and force of sin though it hath lost its constant and allowed Dominion we are led into an unwilling Captivity though we have renounc'd the voluntary service Satan though he cannot command us does frequently overcome us though we do not yield our selves to him we are prevail'd upon by him He entangles us though we do not run into the snare he pursues and overtakes us when we shun him and fly from him How troublesome and tedious is this to a child of God! that he cannot go from the evil spirit nor stifle the lusts of his own heart What a sad exercise is this to a Saint that he should not only have Principalities and Powers to wrestle with but be divided against himself Indeed the sincerity of all those is to be suspected who can bear this with any quietness or satisfaction But the Heavenly state admits of no such disturbances we wait for an absolute freedom both from sin and temptation in the next world Thirdly A Declared Justification from the Guilt of every sin This was the motive to Repentance and Conversion which Peter laid before the Jews whose hands were stained with the blood of Christ That your sins may be blotted out wben the times of Act. 3. 19. refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. It is true that every sin is now blotted out to every true Believer but in the day of Christ he will shew that it is so The Books when they are open'd shall be visibly crost and we pronounc'd before Angels and men as Righteous by the sinless Obedience of the second Adam as if we never had offended There is a private act of Oblivion as it were already past but then it shall be publickly read in the hearing of the World. Our pardon is now certain upon the supposition of repentance and faith then it shall be as evident as certain and universally known both to others and our selves We are indeed Justified by Faith at present and abundantly Rom. 5. 1. John 5. 24. secur'd from future Condemnation but there will be a Judicial Declaration of our Righteousness at the appearing of our Lord Jesus which will tend more to the Honour of God's Grace and to the Increase of our Everlasting Joy All that we have done amiss shall be so absolutely forgiven that Christ will then audibly say in the General Assembly of Mankind Well done and will Matt. 25. 21 23. not that be a joyful sound We cannot conceive what Glory will redound hence to God and what Triumph of Spirit it will cause in us 4. A nearer view of God and Converse with him While we are sojourning here we are at a Distance and so see but darkly and enjoy but little We are nigh to God in comparison of the Unregenerate part of this World but we are afar off from God in comparison of the glorified Inhabitants of the next What signifies our sight of God in the Sanctuary compared with that sight which they have in Heaven How far short does our beholding in a Glass come of seeing God face to face What Communion have we in Ordinances worthy to be named with the immediate Fruition of the Divine Presence We wait for more open vision and more intimate fellowship for such a state wherein God himself Rev. 21. 3. shall be with us not the Word of God and other Instituted Means of Grace but God himself We cannot yet know by speculation how great such an happiness is but we expect to know by experience we are like persons standing at the door who cannot see what is within the house Death is the pulling of this door aside and then all things will be nakedly exposed to our perfected Understandings To what good purpose shall we lift up our Eyes above after our Friends have closed them for us here below What a
from him till thou yieldest up thy self in a way of dutiful subjection to him If you pretend to wait for God's Salvation you must shew that it is more than a pretence by taking care to work it out your selves Consider those words of our Saviour Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and you your selves like Luke 12. 35 36. to men that wait for their Lord c. Are they that give Indulgence to Spiritual sloth that live in the customary neglect of unquestionable Duties that let themselves loose in their Conversations to the same vanities with the children of this world and perhaps to some of the same vices that suffer their lamps to go out having not Grace in their hearts to supply and feed them and behave themselves as if Eternity like the morrow would take thought Matt. 6. 34. for the things of it self are they indeed like to such men Do these sluggards and licentious persons deserve the name of Waiters No surely Salvation will never câ—me home to any but such as diligently seek it and labour after it Heaven will not drop into our Mouths though we open them never so wide as long as our hands lye folded together Our Duties must prove our hopes legitimate and our Obedience must justifie our Expectation He that would sleep in Jesus at Death must watch with him in his life and whosoever thinks of dying to the Lord must resolve against living to himself I come now to the Third Thing which is to open briefly How this waiting for the Salvation of the Lord will yield comfort to Believers when they come to dye This may appear in two Respects 1. A Reflection on our own Act of waiting will be comfortable to us at that time Hezekiah when he was sick unto death refreshes himself with the view of his past Conversation and appeals to God Remember now oh Lord how I have walked before Isa 38. 3. thee c. When Death finds a man in his proper place and work in that station and employment which belongs to him the Terror and Force of it is very much broken but when it surprizes him in his sin and comes upon him while he is fighting against God no wonder if his Flesh tremble and his Heart fail he cannot look back without sad confusion nor look forward without dreadful amazement A Believer that hath liv'd long in the expectations of a Summons to remove and made suitable provision may calmly shoot the gulph the exercising of himself to Godliness beforehand is a means to prevent all trouble or affrightment in his passage to Blessedness Not that any of our Services are our Saviours or that we can build a Tower of our own works whereby to reach to Heaven for multitudes in attempting this have tumbled into Hell but the Fruits of Sanctification Rom. 8. 23. are a kind of First-fruits with respect to Glorification and our living unto God here is a certain token of our being ordain'd to live with him hereafter If we have kept the Precepts we may know that we are Heirs of Promise it yields comfort as a sign though not as a cause The Lord is good says the Lam. 3. 25. Prophet to them that wait for him we do not by our waiting merit to partake of the Goodness of God any more than a beggar would deserve an Alms by standing at our doors but God hath ordered that we shall be thus qualified and disposed for it 2. The consideration of the Object God's Salvation is very comfortable to a Believer when he is at the point to dye How sweet is it to think of being with Christ when the Soul is standing like Abraham in the door of its tent ready to depart out of Gen. 18. 1. the body What a vigorous Impression must the Powers of the World to come make upon the Soul when it is stepping out of this How strong a Cordial must the prospect of Heaven be to a Saint that 's just leaving of the Earth What Comfort so great as to know that our Redeemer lives when these vile Carkasses are dying and the Worms ready to destroy Job 19. 25. them How little satisfaction is the having of goods laid up for many years to one that must leave them all behind him in a few moments What miserable Comforters in a mans last distress are bags which wax old and treasures which fail Therefore when holy David had been meditating on our common frailty and folly Psal 39. 6. how we walk in a vain shew and yet disquiet our selves in vain c. he adds And now oh Lord what ver 7. wait I for my hope is in thee q. d. I cannot hope to be delivered from death nor supported in death nor made happy after death by such perishing and corruptible things as silver and gold but my eye is towards thee as my Everlasting Portion and upon the durable riches which thou hast to bestow the sense whereof is sufficiently reviving though I were now drawing my last breath and falling into the hand of the Grave Dying Believers are mightily supported when they consider how much nearer their Salvation now is than when they were first united Rom. 13. 11. unto Christ The Fourth and last thing propounded was the Application of this Doctrine Several Inferences might be gather'd from it agreeable enough to the Text and the occasion I shall only hint a few First We may learn hence that it is a mercy to be taken notice of both by living and dying Believers that Christ did not consult the saving of himself for if he had he could not have been the Salvation of God to us If our Lord had followed his Disciples counsel and spared his own life we must have liv'd and died in remediless despair A little of that self-love in him which reigns so much in us would have ruin'd all our confidences subverted our hopes and left us to lye down in sorrow without recovery To what mountains or hills should we have lookt for salvation if he had declin'd the drinking of the bitter cup Secondly This teaches us that the present world was not design'd for the place of our abode or ultimate felicity It is our travelling way but not our Country and our Home Expectation ceases in a state of perfect fruition why should we wait if our hope were in this life and not beyond it We must put a stop to all our desires and thoughts of a future happiness if the state which we now are in were the state of full enjoyment Take your measures of this world from the nature and quality of that work which God hath given you to do in it We walk by faith 2 Cor. 5. 7. and not by sight therefore here is not our continuing City or the Center of our rest Thirdly What a wretched case are the neglecters of this Salvation in What will they do in their own last moments and how