live always If I am sure to live why do I fear death If we lay hold on eternal life and finde the beginnings of that life in our souls we have that life set up in us which cannot expire Joh. 6.44 He that eats my flesh and drinks my bloud hath eternal life How can that be lost which is eternal that which is eternal cannot be lost It is a great skill to be able to distinguish between this natural life which we live in common with other men and that spiritual life which we live as Christians The natural life of a Saint is subject to death as other mens is although the curse of it be taken away but there is a life in a Saint and that is the life which he lives in and by the Spirit of God and this is such a life as cannot be extinguished We should labour for that spiritual skill as to be able to distinguish between these two kindes of life and not be without hope as other men when this natural life ceaseth we should remember there is a life in us that cannot dye If we have begun to know God to love God to live upon him and to live to him here on earth we shall not cease to know him to love him to live upon him to live to him in eternity and to eternity Vse 1 1. We come now to the Uses of this Doctrine and there are onely two that we shall make of it The first Use shall be of Reprehension If we ought to lay hold on eternal life two things are hence to be reprehended 1. That we are so much taken up in following this world and in the pursuit of temporal things 2. That we are so much addicted to the love of this life I. We are to be reprehended that we are so much taken up in following this world and in the pursuit of temporal things Lay hold on eternal life If we ought to lay hold on eternal life then we ought to live above the world and contemn it The eager pursuit of this world is most contrary to our laying hold on eternal life We cannot pursue two things at once while we are pursuing hard after the world we must needs let Heaven and Salvation go The greatest part of men think not on eternal things they live as if they were always to live here on earth they never think of a future state nor do they provide for it But if we ought to lay hold of eternal life if that ought to be the mark and scope in our eye that shews that we are far wide of that which ought to be our true mark and scope when we are wholly taken up with temporal things and neglect eternal II. We are to be reprehended that we are so much addicted to the love of this life We are commanded to love eternal life and to lay hold on that but we are found of this life and loth to part with it He is a rare soul that is satisfied with life here on earth and hath such an apprehension of the reality and excellencie of eternal life that this life groweth out of esteem with him I grant that this natural life is a blessing as other temporal blessings are but as it is possible for us to love other things too much so it is possible yea too common to love this life too much and it is the wisdom of God to imbitter this life to us by many afflictions because we are so fond of it and that he may weary us out of it and cause us to long for that which is the true life Vita longa long a infirmitas a long life is a long infirmity and we may adde Longa tentatio a long temptation What is our whole life but a life of tryals and temptations It is true we may value and prize life for these two ends 1. To work out our Salvation to make ready for the coming of the Bridegroom 2. That we may do some work and service for God that we may glorifie him upon the earth and finish the work that he hath given us to do But to be over-fond of this life meerly for lifes sake is a certain signe of unbelief It is a signe we have little knowledge of another life little acquaintance with eternal life Had we a prospect by faith of a better and more excellent life we should not be so over fond of this life Vse 2 2. By way of Exhortation to exhort us all to put the duty of the Text in practice Let us labour to lay hold on eternal life Oh! let us labour to call up our hearts from visible things to invisible from present things to future from momentary things to eternal the things of the other world are never the less real because they are out of sight Atheists think that eternal life and all future things are but a fiction but we may use to them that Speech of Cyprian In aeternam poenam serò tandem credent qui in aeternam vitam credere noluerunt Cyprian They shall believe too late to their eternal torment who would not believe to eternal life But let Atheists and Scoffers say what they please we do know or ought to know that eternal life is the greatest reality God that cannot lye hath promised us eternal life Titus 1.2 The great promise of the Gospel is eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath given to us eternal life Unless we make God to be a lyar we must take eternal life for the greatest reality In the prosecution of this Use I shall onely propound some Directions for the better putting in practice of this duty to shew us how we ought to lay hold of eternal life 1. Let us have great and admiring thoughts of eternal life We should labour to have our hearts raised up with the consideration of the excellencie of this life Quanta erit illa faelicitas ubi nullum erit malum nullum latebit bonum Aug. Civit. Dei. How great shall that happiness be where there shall be no evil present and no good shall be wanting where we shall be wholly taken up in the praises of God and God shall be all in all we shall see and love love and praise as Austin expresseth it This natural life which now we live is not worth the name of life in comparison of eternal life nay it deserves to be called a death rather then a life for we always carry about sin with us which is the matter cause of death But in eternal life we shall not onely be free from sorrow but from sin the cause of sorrow yea we shall be free from the possibility of sinning Mans first happiness in the state of Innocencie was posse non peccare a power not to have sinned His last happiness in Heaven is non posse peccare not to be able to sin at all Though man in his first estate was endowed with such a power
and endeavour for the having and enjoying of that thing which we so seek after Heb. 12.15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God The word in the original is an emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using diligent care and inspection over your selves lest any fail of the grace of God If we would therefore seek the things which are above we ought to use the uttermost care and diligence for the acquiring of these things Thus we have the Doctrine opened We come now to the Application Use The great Use which shall be made of this Doctrine shall be by way of Exhortation to exhort us all to put in practice this great duty of Heavenly-mindedness let us labour to get our hearts out of this world above this earth and to get up our hearts into Heaven where our true happiness and felicity lyes It was a familiar expression used by the ancient Church Let us lift up our hearts Sursum corda let our hearts be above our hearts should be above they should be above this lower world they should be conversant in the upper world where God and Christ the Saints and Angels are and where our true rest happiness and felicity is to he expected In the prosecution of this Use there are three things to be done 1. Give a few Motives briefly to quicken and to press us to the great duty of Heavenly-mindedness 2. Lay down some Directions for the putting in practice this duty 3. Shew what the great Impediments of Heavenly-mindedness are For Motives to quicken us to Heavenly-mindedness consider Motive 1 I. Our Regeneration and the life which we live as Christians calls u◠to Heavenly mindedness If ye be rise◠with Christ seek those things which ar◠above A Christian is one risen from the dead he is risen from the death of sin to the life of grace Now a man that is risen from the dead doth not live like other men we ought to live as those who are risen from th◠dead what an unsuitable thing were it to see a man risen from the dead to be much concerned about the affair of this world he is called to another state to another life a Christian is a man risen from the dead and therefore he ought not to converse as other men do our vocation and calling as we are Christians calls us off from sin from the world from sublunary vanities and calls us up to God to seek for our happiness and satisfaction in God 1 Cor. 1.9 God is faithful by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord A Christian is called unto fellowship with God and Christ to have his happiness in God and Christ This is life eternal Joh. 17.3 to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent A Christians happiness is to know God and enjoy God in Christ and therefore his heart should be where his happiness lyes Before conversion the soul seeks for happiness in the creature and in sensible things the work of conversion brings the soul off from the creature unto God in Christ Now then God and Christ being in Heaven our hearts should be where the centre lyes the end of our vocation or effectual calling was to bring us unto God in Christ as the point and centre of our rest we do not understand the end of our calling unless we know this that our calling was intended to bring us to God in Christ to take up our rest in God by Christ it is the end of our vocation that we should seek the things which are above Motive 2 II. To press us to Heavenly-mindedness consider our country is above mens hearts do naturally lye in their own Country now all the Saints of God may say Coelum nobis Patria heaven is our country It is said of the ancient Saints expresly They seek an heavenly country Heb. 11. That is a mans Country which is the place where he was born the place where he lives and where his inheritance lyes the Saints are born from above it is our Saviour's expression John 3. unless a man be born from above the Saints are born from above their original is from the Spirit of God who comes from above and their inheritance is above and they must live for ever above and therefore their hearts ought to be above whence their original was where their inheritance lyes and where they must live for ever Motive 3 III. Christ our Head is in Heaven and that is Motive sufficient to press us to Heavenly-mindedness Paul thought it so here in the Text Seek those things which are above Why so where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God As much as if he had said Christ our Head is in Heaven he is possessed of happiness and our hearts should be where our Head is look what happiness Christ as Man and Head of the Church injoys the same blessedness is destinated and appointed for us in our measure what happiness Christ as man is brought unto is but an instance what all the Saints in their measure shall be brought to Doth Christ as he is man live in the sight of God we also at last shall be brought to that sight Is Christ as he is man above misery above pain above death Is Christs humane body cloathed with glory and immortality unto the same condition shall we be brought at last So the Apostle tells us in Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body Now we ought to think what happiness Christ our Head enjoys and to consider that the same happiness in a degree and proportion is prepared for us Christ is entered into Heave◠as our fore-runner Heb. 6.20 and all the members shall follow the Head If Christ be in Heaven possessed of glory for us and have given us an earnest in wha◠he possesseth what we shall be brough◠unto it is an unworthy thing for 〈◊〉 to minde this earth and forge◠what our Head is possessed of for us and will bring us unto Motive 4 IV. Consider our true happines◠lyes above and it is a vain thing t◠expect it in this life This the Apostle intimates in this place You ar◠dead and your life is hid with Chris◠in God As much as if he should say You will never be happy you will never come to true happiness till yo◠come to be where Christ is till you come to enjoy what Christ enjoys your life is hid with Christ in God that is your happiness is to live as Christ lives to enjoy what Christ injoys and till you come to possess what Christ possesseth you are never happy Now then if our happiness consists in what Christ enjoys then it becomes us to study and meditate much what the happiness and glory of Christ is and what our happiness will be in conformity to what our Head enjoys we shall never be
that he might not have sinned yet it was possible for him to sin and he did sin but in eternal life the will shall be so confirmed as that there shall not be a possibility of sinning Oh! how great will that happiness be when the soul shall enjoy the sweetness of eternal joys without intermission when the soul shall forget all its sins and sorrows as to any sense or experience of them yet not so as to be unthankful to him who hath been its Saviour and Deliverer 2. We should breathe long and suspire after eternal life We should elevate and lift up our hearts abovetime and this lower world breathe after the sweetness and delights of the Heavenly Country Those breathings that are in the hearts of the Saints after eternal things Cum sitimus res coelestes tum sentimus perpetuò aliquid gaudii voluptatis Roloc. in Joh. give them some taste of those things When we thirst after heavenly things saith a judicious Divine we do always perceive and experiment something of joy and sweetness Those breathings that are in the hearts of the Saints after eternal life are some of the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.22 We our selves which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption the redemption of our bodies Other men feel no such longings and breathings as these are for although there be a natural instinct in all men which carries them out to desire happiness yet none but the Saints long and breathe after the enjoyment of God as their happiness Therefore so far as we finde a thirst kindled in our souls after the sight and enjoyment of God in eternal life so far we have an earnest of eternal life in our souls How great a thing should it be to us to be admitted to the sight of the Divine Majesty to be taken up from the light of the Sun and Moon to the light of him who made the Sun and the Moon as Austin expresseth it It is a good observation of Luther How much joy is there when God doth exhibit by the Word one drop of consolation to such as are tempted and afflicted in conscience but far greater and unexpressible will that joy be when the God of all consolation shall reveal himself and shall wholly pour himself forth unto us in eternal life How should we breathe after this life Thirdly let us place our happiness and expect it no where but in eternal life We should carry our hope and expectation above this world and never expect to finde happiness Ipse finis erit desideriorum nostorum qui sins fine videhitur sine fastidio amabitur sine fatigatione landabitur Aug. until we come to live with God in eternal life He shall be the end of our desires who shall be seen without end loved without nauseousness praised without wearisomness This is life eternal c. It is a vain thing to expect happiness until we come to see God and to live with him in his eternity If the Lord make our passage in any measure tolerable thorow this world this is a mercy if he give us any comfort in outward things in this world these are mercies so far as he is seen and loved in them otherwise the best comforts here on earth are pitiful things for what can be truely good from which the chief good is absent Deus est omnis boni bonum God is the good of every good and nothing is good but as he appears in it But we ought to remember that our true and great happiness is to live in the Divine presence above and to have the sight of God to eternity And it is not possible that any soul that hath had one glimpse or one true taste of him should think any thing to be happiness short of that sight This therefore is to lay hold of eternal life to keep our spirits aloof off from the world as much as may be and to keep our spirits reserved for the enjoyment of God in eternal life The enjoyment of God in eternal life is the point and centre that we should be moving and tending unto When the Lord gives us any of the comforts and blessings of this life when he gives us estates friends the comfort of relations we should say These are the gifts of God and so far they are good but these are not my happiness my happiness is God himself my happiness is to see him and to live with him in his eternity Here should our desires rest and terminate and though we defire and use many things for necessity in the present state yet our desire and expectation should be still carried above these things and end no where but in the enjoyment of God Quis alius noster est finis nisi pervenire ad regnum cujus nullus est finis Aug. What other end have we but to come to that kingdom of which there is no end Fourthly we should labour to be in a readiness and preparedness of spirit to enter upon eternal life 2 Pet. 3.14 Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blame Our ambition should be to be found in such a posture and to keep our souls in such an holy evenness as that nothing may impede or hinder our free passage out of Time into Eternity We should labour to keep our Consciences pure We should see that the guilt of no sin remain upon our Conscience unpardoned unrepented of We should see that our affections be not intangled with the inordinate love of lawful things much less with the love of any sin We should labour to have our hearts fortified with a stedfast belief of the things God hath promised us in the other world the weakness of our faith in believing the things promised makes us very unfit for the enjoyment of eternal life We should often contemplate eternal life we should be thinking of it night day all the comforts that we enjoy all the necessary employments we are engaged in should not take us off from the frequent meditation of eternal life What so necessary to be thought of as that state which when once it is begun shall never have an end This whole life is but like one long dream in comparison of eternal life Oh! let us not forget eternal life but be still preparing and making ready for it Fifthly we should not take up or rest satisfied with what we have already attained in grace but press forward toward that which lies before us and is yet wanting to us This is the direction the Apostle gives us from his own example Phil. 3.13 Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behinde and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Paul's aim and scope was to obtain
some knowledge of God and Christ at first but we must labour to come to a more accurate exact knowledge of God and Christ 3. The Apostle would have them come to the riches of the full assurance of understanding 1. Here is riches that sets forth copiousness and abundance The Apostle would not have them have some slender tastes of God and Christ onely but he would have them inriched with the knowledge of God and Christ Phil. 1.9 This I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement 2. He would have them labour to attain unto the greatest certainty and assurance in their knowledge he would have them come to the riches of the full assurance of understanding This full assurance of understanding I take to be opposed to wavering and to doubting The Apostle would have us to come to a certainty in our knowledge A Christian should not be fluctuating and hesitating in his thoughts concerning God and Christ but he should endeavour to come to this that he may be able to say Upon this bottom I can live and dye that which I know concerning God and Christ is such a bottom that I can venture my hope my happiness my all upon This I take to be the meaning of that expression the full assurance of understanding Now these are the things above that we are to seek and to set our affections upon viz. God and Christ our thoughts are to be conversant about these things we ought to be taken up in the study of the mystery of God and Christ and then do we seek the things that are above when we converse much in our thoughts with God and Christ 2. By the things above we are to understand the glory and blessedness of heaven by the things above saith a Learned man we are to understand the kingdom of heaven Davenant the beatifical vision of God those joys which the saints shall one day partake of with Christ their head and the holy angels We ought to seek the things which are above as much as if he should say we ought to minde the glory and blessedness of the future state This is also to be gathered from the context If ye be risen with Christ seek the things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God as much as if the Apostle should say When I speak of the things above I intend nothing else but such things as are in Heaven such things as Christ injoys in the presence of the Father Seek the things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God It is as much as if the Apostle had said consider what it is Christ now injoys in the presence of the Father consider what glory Christ is possessed of Christ is above sorrow above pain above misery above death Christ enjoys perfect happiness in the presence of the Father now consider what Christ injoys and these are the things which are above This is manifest to be the Apostles scope from the fourth verse When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory It is as much as if it had been said Christ is now in glory and we shall one day be made like our Head we also shall appear with him in glory The Apostle would have us to minde this to think what that glory is that Christ our head is possessed of and what the glory is we shall be brought unto in conformity to Christ our Head the Head and Members must be like one another if Christ be now in glory the same glory is prepared for all that are Christs and this appears from our Saviours last prayer The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Joh. 17.22 Therefore look what glory Christ as man and Head of the Church injoys we in our measure shall have a share in if we be Christs and Members of his Body This then we are to understand by the things above the glory and blessedness of the future state I have often thought there is nothing we are more wanting and defective in then this viz. in studying and contemplating what the glory and blessedness of the future state is we stick in present sensible things and do not elevate our hearts to the future glory but we ought to be of another frame 2 Cor. 4. Paul tells us He looks to the things which are not seen that is unto the things of the invisible world to the glory of heaven and the blessedness of the Saints there elsewhere he saith He reckons that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 that was an argument he had his heart taken up with the glory of that state 3. By the things above we may understand the life and imployment of the saints in heaven and our communion with God in heaven we ought to seek the things above that is we ought to think much of our future life and consider what our life and imployment in eternity is like to be though this be of near affinity with the former because our happiness in heaven and the glory and blessedness of that estate consists in the life we shall live there yet we may consider this under a distinct head and the distinct consideration of this will help to illustrate the former particular The Apostle tells us when we are absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 From this Scripture we may argue If when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord then there is a life in which the soul shall live with God when it is in a separate state from the body a life that we shall live in the Divine Presence Now this is to seek the things that are above to consider what the life is that we shall live in the presence of God and the holy Angels when we have laid down this burden of flesh and are discharged from the body of death and shall be made free among the heavenly Society and admitted into the number of the Spirits of just men made perfect to know what our life and imployment shall be in that state this is to seek the things which are above Though we cannot comprehend fully and perfectly what this life will be yet we may understand a little of it as the Scripture doth reveal it the Scripture teacheth us thus much that hereafter we shall walk by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Now we walk by faith not by sight That intimates when the life of faith ends then the life of sight and vision begins Here indeed we live the life of faith hereafter we shall live the life of sight and vision Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The Scripture teacheth us when we shall appear we shall be
give that to the creature which is due to God onely this must needs be a great impediment to heavenly-mindedness A man that would be heavenly-minded whilst he is using lawful things ought to think with himself These things are good for present use these things are suitable to my present state these things are good so far as I see God in them but these things are not my happiness my happiness is a superiour happiness my happiness is to live with God and Christ in the other world therefore though I use these things I ought not to think them to be my chief good nor to take up my rest in them 7. Another impediment of heavenly-mindedness is too much addictedness to the love of this life We are exceeding loth to think of going hence we would fain live a little longer here on earth that we might solace our selves in outward comforts and enjoyments This addictedness to the present life is a great impediment to heavenly mindedness He that would be heavenly minded ought to sit loose from this world and the present life he should be able to think with contentment of going hence and entring into the future state the thoughts of the divine presence into which we are to enter should wean us from this world and the love of this present life We should labour to have such great thoughts of the Divine presence into which we are to enter that it should not be grievous to us to part with this world and all creatures and to part with this life to go into that presence 2 Cor. 5.8 Absent from the body and present with the Lord. No sooner do we leave the body but presently and immediately if we be the Lords we enter into the Divine presence Now the thoughts of that presence should so over-power our souls that we should be willing to quit our station here to enter into that presence It is a speech which one of the Ancients hath There are some saith he Solo leternitatis amore pâ—â—cuntur that are fed onely with the love of eternity O these are blessed souls indeed but how few such souls as these are there to be found We are so much wedded to the present life so much addicted to present things that we cannot rise up to the contemplation of eternal things we cannot be willing to forgo this life and present things to go to God and live with him in his eternity This fondness of the present life is a great impediment to Heavenly-mindedness 8. Another impediment of heavenly-mindedness is presumption of long life The generality of men are apt to think it is soon enough to think of eternity and the future life when they are grown old or brought into some great sickness so that they have no hope of a longer life and we are apt to think of a long life here on earth we are too apt to presume there are some more years we may live and this inclines us to think how we may make the best of this world while we live in it and so we put off the thoughts of the future state But we ought to be of another frame and temper we ought to pray as Moses did Psal 90. Teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom And what is it so to number our days as to apply our hearts to wisdom but this So to consider that our present life is short and uncertain here on earth as to think of another life and state that is more lasting and permanent and to prepare for it Death may surprise us before we are aware and to be sure we cannot live long much less always here on earth this therefore is true wisdom to consider how we are like to spend the days of eternity and what the life is we are like to live in the other world A wise man will consider the end of things he will consider how things are like to be with him at last True wisdom respects the longest state and duration of things To presume of a long life here on earth which if it were the longest is not so much as a moment to eternity and to forget the future state which is everlasting this is the greatest folly 9. Another impediment of heavenly mindedness is a false opinion of the world and of earthly things Men think there is more good more happiness more satisfaction in the world then indeed there is to be found in it No man will minde and look after an absent and an unseen happiness when there is an happiness as he imagines that is present and lies before him The world lies before men as a fair and a pleasant field and there are variety of flowers appear in it this and the other pleasure this and the other contentment that presents it self Surely think men if I am in such a condition I shall finde something there if I have this enjoyment I shall finde happiness there but the world is not that which men take it for when they have tried the variety of pleasures and conditions they expected happiness in they do not finde that happiness and satisfaction in them they expected All earthly pleasures have an emptiness in them and leave the soul under a greater thirst after the enjoyment of them then it was in before It was the speech of a Philosopher that Plutarch mentions What gluttonous person is there that saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I have eaten and it is enough and what amorous person saith Now I have loved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is enough Carnal pleasures are so far from quenching the thirst of the soul that they do increase it and though it commonly falls out that sensual men are soon surfeited and cloyed with one pleasure yet not finding that which they expect in one pleasure that doth beget in them a thirst after some new pleasures These golden dreams of finding happiness in earthly delights makes men forget the true pleasures the pleasures that are at Gods right hand This imaginary happiness which men please themselves with in earthly things takes them off from minding that which is solid substantial happiness indeed 10. Another impediment of Heavenly-mindedness is want of a due consideration of the glory and eternity of the future state The reason why men desire no more and long no more after future things it is because they do not duely consider the glory and eternity of future things The Scripture tells us Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him In his presence there is fulness of joy at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore and they shall drink abundantly of the river of his pleasure The glory which thou hast given to me I have given to them All these things and much more doth the Scripture speak concerning the future
is in any earthly thing and when he is come to the end of that sweetne's which he did injoy he desires more therefore when a mans enjoyment hath been highest he still desires more Nothing can satisfie the soul but some transcendent good such a good as is so great as is more then the soul can take in So long as the soul is capable of taking in more it is not satisfied Now a man may take in all the delight and contentment that is to be found in earthly things and when he hath taken in all he is capable of taking in more This is clear in Solomon who made an experiment of all things under the Sun and when he had tryed all he cryed out All is vanity and vexation of spirit The capacity of the soul is too great and too big for any earthly thing to fill it and therefore when the soul hath passed from one temporal thing to another and tryed what is in one and in another it remains unsatisfied still Reas 4 4. Earthly things will not comfort a man when he comes to dye Riches avail not in the day of wrath it will be little comfort to a man when he comes to dye to think what he hath enjoyed or what he is like to leave behinde him nay if a man have placed his happiness and felicity in earthly things it will be the greatest torment to him to think that he must leave these things Come to a man that is at the point of death and who knows for certain that he shall dye shew him gold and silver bring forth his Jewels and most precious Treasures tell him of his Lands and Fossessions and how little will these things signifie Oh but tell him of everlasting happiness assure him that death shall do him no harm that there is a life beyond this and that he shall be câ—rtainly happy in that life and this will signifie something to him Reas 5 5. Earthly things are not our last happiness our last and true happiness is beyond any thing in this world Mundus non patria sed captivitas nobiâ— est The world is not our country but the place of our captivity and bondage Our last and true happiness is to live in he Divine presence to see and enjoy God in the heavens Now that which is not our last happiness deserves not to have the main of our affections that which deserves to take up our hearts is our last happiness we should be setting our hearts upon that which will continue always we should be thinking of the life we must live in the other world and how we are like to spend the days of eternity that is the state that is worth thinking of when time shall be no more when there shall be no more changes when we shall be wholly taken up in the contemplation of the first original of all things that is the state that is worth thinking of of which I can say Thus it shall be for ever that is the state that is worth thinking of of which I can say When once I am come into it there is no alteration in it Here is always joy always life always satisfaction Here is no sorrow no pain no grief no death no fear of death Reas 6 6. Earthly things have no influence as to a mans happiness so as of themselves to make him ever the happier at last It is true Temporal blessings so far as they are sanctified so far as they further a man in the ways of God and help him forward toward the heavenly Country so far they are mercies and so far they may in a sort be said to conduce to a mans last happiness but consider temporal things in themselves they have no influence upon a mans last happiness Love or hatred cannot be known by any thing under the Sun No man can conclude by the meer enjoyment of thâ—se things that he is the more beloved of God at present or that he shall have the higher place in heaven hereafter Abraham saith to the rich man Son Luk. 16.25 remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus his evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented God gives to some men their portion in this life This they shall have this is all they shall have He fills their bellies with his hid treasures but this is all they shall have he denies to them the heavenly inheritance Reas 7 7. Earthly things are so far from having an influence upon a mans last happiness as that they do many times blunt and hinder the soul in its pursuit ater eternal things Amor terrenarum viscum spiritualium The love of earthly things is as bird lime to the soul as to the pursuite of spiritual things when a poor Bird is taken in the lime-twigs his wings are pinioned that he cannot flie upward the love of earthly things pinions the wings of the soul that it cannot ascend to God and eternal things Terrenarum appetitus tenebras animarum nostrarum densat The inordinate desire of earthly things thickens the darkness of the soul the violence and impetuousness of the affections to carthly things blindes the judgement and darkens the eye of the minde when the affections are violently set upon earthly things the minde cannot see and behold the excellencie of spiritual things Nothing so great an enemy to growth in grace as the love of earthly things A man that is addicted to the love of earthly things can neither see the evil that is in sin nor the beauty that is in holiness Mundo alligati spiritualis vitii vix possunt nomen apprehendere Men that are bound and tyed fast to the world can hardly understand the name of a spiritual sin Tell a man that is immers'd and drowned in the world of spiritual sins of spiritual pride self-love inordinate affection hypocrisie formality in duty and the like he understands none of these things his conscience is so benummed through the love of the world that he is not sensible of these things And as the love of earthly things dulls the spiritual senses of the soul that a man cannot apprchend sin so it blunts the soul in the pursuit after grace and holiness the love of earthly things kills and extinguishes the love of God If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 I remember it is an expression of Peter Martyr concerning Soloman What love could Solomon have for God who distributed and parted his love among a thousand wives And we may say What love can men retain for God the chief good who part and divide their love to so many lower and inferiour goods Reas 8 8. It is the depressing and debasing of the soul for a man to set his affections on earthly things The soul was made for higher things and 't is capable of higher things the soul was made for converse
they have not they could not be happy for this is the nature of happiness to have all the good a man would have The Saints and Angels in heaven have God for their happiness and they are satisfied in him and desire nothing more Now when the heart is carried out after other things and pursues them as the chief good this is most contrary to our future life It was the speech of a wise and holy man Since God shall be all in all hereafter the less we have to do with the creature here any more then we needs must the better If we were of a right temper of spirit we should desire earthly things no farther then were for present necessity and as they were accommodated to our present state True happiness lyes out of the road of these things true happiness is in another chanel true happiness is to see God to love God to injoy God This is life eternal to know thee the onely true God When we pursue earthly things as our great happiness and have vast designes after these things this is most contrary to our future life which is to injoy God and him onely Lastly Covetousness is the root of many other sins The Scripture tells us expresly That covetousness is the root of all evil 1 Tim 6.10 A covetous person sticks at no sin so he may inrich himself and compass his own ends he will omit the duties God requires and commit the sins God forbids God enjoyns secret Prayer Family-duties and attendance upon the Ordinances a covetous person is so intent upon the world that he cannot finde time for these things So for sins of commission a covetous person will break through many a known command of God to come at the world Covetousness is a fruitful sin a covetous person sins against his Neighbour against himself and against God 1. A covetous man sins against his Neighbour he extorts from another more then is just and equal and so covetousness is a sin that is contrary to equity Avaritia excedit in acciâ—iendo desicit in dando Covetousness exceeds in taking and is defective in giving so is a sin against equity 2. Covetousness is a sin against mans self by this sin a mans affections are disordered and turned out of the right chanel Our affections were given us to love God the chief good by this sin they are turned aside to inferiour goods And hence is it that Austin calls that a perverse love whereby the will is turned aside from an unchangeable good to a mutable changeable good 3. It is a sin against God forasmuch as a covetous person for a temporal good contemns an eternal good All these considerations may serve to set forth something of the evil of this sin 4. I come in the last place to propound some Remedies against this sin 1. As an Antidote against covetousness Let us consider we must shortly leave these things that is not worth setting a mans heart upon which he must shortly leave We know what our Saviour saith Luk. 12.20 Thou fool this night shall they take thy soul from thee and then whose shall these things be What folly is it to make that our happiness which we cannot keep always that is true happiness which a man may enjoy always and it is a pityful happiness that must have an end Why should we covet that much which when we have gotten it we can keep but a little while It is an expression of Austin upon those words The world passeth away and the lust thereof Quod vis utrum amare temporalia transire cum tempore an t mundum non amare vivereâ— cum Deo What wilt thou wilt thou love temporal things and pass away with time or else wilt thou not love the world and live with God It might be one good remedy against covetousness to meditate of death often It is Austins observation The disease of covetousness is by nothing better cured then when the day of death is continually thought of if a man could think this with himself I must shortly dye and leave these things this would moderate his desire to these things 2. Consider a mans life lyes not in these things whilst he hath them So our Saviour teacheth us expresly Luk. 12.15 Take heed and beware of covetousness for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Our life lyes not in these things and there are two reasons of it 1. Because the abundance of outward things cannot preserve a mans life the rich dye as well as the poor the noble as well as the ignoble Pale death with an equal foot knocks at the palaces of princes and at the cottages of poor men 2. Because true happiness doth not lye in these things whilst a man injoys them every creature hath vanity written upon it and when a man hath most of the world he still remains unsatisfied No earthly thing is suitable to the nature and capacity of the soul The soul is a spiritual thing and desires a spiritual happiness the soul is an immortal thing and desires an immortal happiness and therefore when a man hath most of this world he still desires something more 3. Consider a little will serve the turn to carry us to our journeys end It is not likely we should live longer then the rest of mankinde have lived before us it is no difficult thing to see to the end of our life now a little provision will serve the turn for a short journey 4. We shall have no need of earthly things in the other state It is certain we brought nothing into this world and we shall carry nothing out of it We shall carry nothing into the next world with us but our grace earthly things will be of no use to us at the end of time Our happiness in the next world is a spiritual happiness the holy Angels and glorified Saints are happy without those things we so much admire and we must be happy by another happiness at last if ever we be happy 5. If we would be kept from this sin Avarus nimis est cui Deus non sufficit Aug. let us study Gods all-sufficiencie and the divine perfection He is too covetous a person indeed to whom God himself is not sufficient God is a happiness sufficient for himself he is an happiness sufficient to the Saints and Angels and therefore in reason he should be a happiness sufficient for us God is the chief good the centre of all perfection Austin What is it that thou lovest that thou wilt not love God If thou wilt love any thing love the best thing if thou wilt covet any thing covet the best thing study Gods all-sufficiencie and the divine perfection there thou wilt finde the highest object for thy affections 6. Let our desires run out much after eternal life It is an expression of Austin We ought saith he to be covetous
Neither is there any thing we can conceive to be truely excellent and good but it is in him yea whatsoever perfection is possible to be it is in God Deus est bonum infinitissime infinitum Bradwardin God is such a good as is most insinitely infinite O! what folly is it then to have our hearts taken off from the infinitely-blessed God and to have them set upon little narrow things It is an expression that one of the Ancients hath to this purpose The Angels are so inflamed with divine love that all other things yea they themselves seem vile to themselves in respect of God whom they love Did we know God more we should not be so fond of other things Oh! let us turn our souls upon God the chief good there may we love freely and cannot exceed in loving him Fourthly consider the world and earthly things cannot give happiness unto men That is wise love when a man loves that which will make him happie Earthly things cannot do this You may say How doth that appear That is easily made out in few words Earthly things cannot give a man satisfaction while he hath them they cannot keep him from death they cannot comfort him in death and least of all can they be a happiness to him after death Now who would love that which will not answer the end for which he loves it The reason why men love earthly things although they will not confess it it is because they think to finde happiness in them but now that happiness that men think to finde is far from them No temporal thing will afford that to a man which he desires and expects from it Men expect satisfaction from what they do pursue but satisfaction is far from them Why should a man be fond of that which when he hath it his happiness must be in something above it and when he wants it it is possible for him to be happie without it If we had all the things in this world we could desire if we are the children of God and have indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious there is something above those things that we shall still desire Now if when we have the greatest abundance and confluence of earthly things there is something else that we desire and something else that must make us happie in the midst of these things viz. the presence of God and the enjoyment of him and that it is possible for us to be happie in those things without earthly things then there is no reason why our hearts should be so inordinately set upon these earthly things Fifthly consider the inordinate love of earthly things is a perverting of the End for which God gives us these things God never gave us the creatures that we might make them our happiness or pursue them as our last end but God gives us the creatures that we might see himself in them admire him in them and pass from them to him It is a speech of Austin The creature is to be praised for the sake of God the author and original of it not to be worshipped and adored as if it self were God All things are of him and by him and to him Rom. 11.36 All things are from God and they ought to lead to him therefore when we love the creatures as our chief good and stick in them as our last happiness we pervert the end for which they were given to us the creatures were never given for such an end but they were given for this end that we might ascend to God by them We ought to use the creatures not to enjoy them Now then do we use a thing when we use it to a farther end we ought to use the creatures in order to our enjoyment of God as our last end but we ought not to take up with them as if we had no higher end then to enjoy them Sixthly consider the inordinate love of earthly things is an argument of great ignorance and unbelief Every man would desire and love the best thing did he certainly know and believe that there are better things then these that are present to Sence he would love those things We look not to the things that are seen 2 Cor. 4. Paul knew that there were better things then those things that are seen and that these things were real and substantial and therefore his heart was carried out after these things Now because the generality of men do not see these things nor are acquainted with them therefore they desire them not The world lies before men as a fair and pleasant garden and there is many a goodly flower to be seen in it here is pleasure there is profit there is honour these captivate the eyes of men and because things invisible to the outward sences are not seen or perceived by them therefore they minde not these things But O ye sons of men how long will ye turn the glory of God into shame how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing Psal 4.2 What folly and ignorance is it to think that there are no higher things then those which the Brutes are capable of conversing with as well as you The Brutes may have their outward senses delighted as well as you they may be taken and affected with present visible things as well as you but where are your souls in the mean time where is your intellectual part Can Reason discover nothing to you but what is present and obvious to Sence why then is the candle of the Lord set up within you What sottishness and stupidity is it to believe that there is no happiness to be found but what is to be found in this world As if the life which God lives were no happiness as iâ— so be the life which the Saints and Angels live in above were no happiness While men onely seek earthly things it is a certain signe that they are ignorant of these things Seventhly consider the inordinate love of the world and of earthly things doth greatly unfit a man for death Die we must that is certain and the time of our life here is mosâ— uncertain Now what folly is it to be found in such a frame as will certainly unfit us for death Pythagoras saith of Philosophy That it is a meditation of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certainly the life of a Christian should be a continued meditation of death and if a Christian should always be meditating of death that he may die well die happily and die comfortably then certainly it will be his greatest folly to be taken up with those things that must greatly unfit him for death Now there is nothing that will more unfit a man for death then the inordinate love of earthly things If a mans heart lie in the world how â—oth will he be to part with the world No man is willing to part with that which he loves much When a man that is a lover of the world comes to
to be in them when we come to try them We think to finde much more good sweetness and contentment in these things then indeed we finde in them when we come to experiment what is in them Now that is a vain thing which is empty of that it promiseth that is called vain Vanum dicitur quod re ipsâ destituitur which is destitute of solidity and substance 2. They can never satisfie us now whatsoever cannot satisfie is vain Happiness lyes in satisfaction happiness consists in having all the good a man would have in having all the good that he desires while there is any good a man would have and doth desire and hath it not he is not happy Now there is no man by the enjoyment of any or all earthly things that hath all the good he would have and therefore he is far from satisfaction far from happiness Secondly Earthly things as they are vain so they are vexations the labour and travail in getting them the care and sollicitude in keeping them the fear of loosing them the grief that follows upon the loosing of them the defectiveness of something or other in them when we have the greatest abundance of them the bitternesses that are mingled with them bring a great deal of vexation into earthly things When men are carried away with inordinate love of earthly things they pierce themselves through with many sorrows Qui mundanis se implicat tela parat quibus consodiatur He that intangles himself with worldly things doth but provide darts for himself by which he is thrust through Austin in a discourse of his about the contempt of the world hath a passage to this purpose The bands of this world have a true sharpness but a false sweetness a certain grief but uncertain pleasure hard labour timerous and fearful quiet they are full of misery but empty of happiness Lastly the mordinate love of earthly things doth greatly unfit us for communion with God here and for the enjoyment of him hereafter 1. It unfits us for communion with God here God will not be assable and familiar with that person who desires prizeth loves and delights in any thing more then himself The way to enjoy most of God is to be taken more with God himself then with other things When we are more taken with God himself then with all his gifts when we are inamoured of the Lord himself and God is more sweet to us then all things that come from him this is the way to enjoy most of God Wisdom saith Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me If we love God himself more then his gifts then shall we know what it is to be loved of him Joh. 14.21 If any man love me he shall he loved of my Father and I will love him c. but if we lavish out our hearts upon earthly things and have great and admiring thoughts of them and are vigorous in our pursuit of them and God hath the least part of our thoughts and affections God cares not for such lovers neither may such expect to attain to any friendship or familiatity with him here on earth 2. The love of earthly things as it unfits us for communion with God here so it unfits us for the enjoyment of him hereafter In heaven the faculties of the soul shall be immediately acted upon God the soul will be wholly taken up in contemplating admiring loving delighting in God in praising and adoring of him Now when the heart is wholly taken up with earthly things it is altogether unfitted and indisposed for such a life The soul is coloured as it were with the objects that it converseth with and receives a tincture and an impression from them A man whose spirit is immers'd and drenched in the world will be very unfit to have the faculties of his soul carryed forth upon God The best way to have our souls suited and adapted to the future life it is to keep our spirits at as great a distance as may be from present things We should be saying often in our own souls Oh the blessed state Oh the blessed life that is above Oh to see God to love him to go to him to live with him in his eternity How sweet is that life When we are without those earthly things which we desire we should say our true life our true happiness is above where there shall be no more need or use of these things when we have the most of these things our hearts should be carried up above these things and say We expect and look for and long after another happiness a happiness that is above these things We should keep our hearts in the most reserved frame for the future life and the future state We should not suffer our spirits to mingle too far with present things Our hearts should sit so loose to present things that we may be ready to lay down these things and to take up with the happiness that is above If we suffer our spirits to launch forth too far into the world it will be a hard matter to reduce them and when the cry is made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him we shall be very unfit to entertain his Call If our souls stick and be taken up in the things of time we shall be very unfit and unready to deliver them up into eternity AN APPENDIX Concerning Laying hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 Lay hold on eternal life The whole verse is read thus Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses Lay hold on eternal life LIFE is the great thing which we all desire there is nothing we fear so much as death nothing we desire so much as life This Text acquaints us what is the true life Lay hold on eternal life Amemus vitam aeternam Austin O let us love eternal life It is eternal life that is onely worth the name of life therefore since we are so fond of life since life is most pleasing to us of all other things let us love that life that is truly so This temporal life which we now live is not worth the name of life in comparison of eternal life The Text contains in it a double Gospel-precept 1. Fight the good fight of faith 2. Lay hold on eternal life It is the later of these precepts that I shall a little insist upon Lay hold on eternal life The Doctrine that offers it self to our consideration from the words is this Doctrine That it is the duty of Christians t◠lay hold of eternal life In this Point there are two things to be spoken unto 1. The Object 2. The Act. The Object is eternal life The Act is Lay hold on eternal life So that that which will bound our discourse as to the Explication of the Point will be these two things 1. To shew what
eternal life is 2. To shew what it is to lay hold on eternal life 1. What is eternal life I shall not speak to this so largely as the subject will bear that indeed were a noble Argument to discourse at large of eternal life and that would afford a long discourse but I shall give some few Hints onely concerning eternal life that we may a little conceive of it I shall endeavour to open a little briefly the nature of eternal life in seven Propositions I. Eternal life is the state of the blessed in the other world Eternal life is the life which the Saints live in the presence of God 2 Cor. 5.8 Absent from the body and present with the Lord. To understand this we must know that there is a natural life and there is a spiritual life 1. There is a natural life and this we may again distinguish into the animal life and the rational life That which we call the animal life it is the life which we live in common with the brutes There is a life which man enjoys in common with the brutes and this is that which is commonly called the animal life But then there is the rational life and this is that life which is proper to men as men There is an intellectual principle in man whereby he is distinguished from the sensitive creatures and that life which man lives by this intellectual principle that is in him this is the rational life But then as there is the natural life so 2. There is the spiritual life This also is twofold The spiritual life is either the life of grace or the life of glory 1. There is the life of grace The life of grace is that life which the Saints live here in this world in Justification and in Sanctification 2. The life of glory is that life which the Saints live with God in the other world Now the life of glory that life which the Saints live with God in the other world is that which in a strict sence is called eternal life It is true eternal life is inchoate and begun in this world in the life of grace in the life of Justification and Sanctification but eternal life is perfect and consummate in the life of glory when we shall live with God in heaven So that eternal life is that life we shall live in the heavenly country It is said of the ancient Saints that they seek for a better country even a heavenly Heb. 11.16 Now this is eternal life that life which we shall live with God in the heavenly country II. Eternal life is a constant uniform life The life which we live in this world it is bounded and limited by time it is a certain space and duration of things and there is an end but eternal life knows no end Eternity is always standing Semper stans semper praesens always present thus and always thus When we are sate down to live in eternal life then we may conclude As we are now so shall we be always there is no interruption no cessation in â—ternal life III. Eternal life is a life free from sorrow and trouble Isai 57.2 He shall enter into peace It is spoken of a godly man how it shall be with him after this life He shall enter into peace So again God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people and sorrow and sighing shall flee away This life it is a life of affliction a life of temptation a life of grief and sorrow a life of trouble and perturbation but in eternal life there shall be none of these things eternal life is a serene tranquil estate IV. Eternal life is a life free from sin and all the relicts and remainders of it 1 Cor. 13.10 When that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away Heb. 12.23 The spirits of just men made perfect When we come to live with God in eternal life sin shall be perfectly rased out of our nature those relicts of sin Reliquiae peccati as Luther calls them in the Saints which are as thorns in their eyes and goads in their sides shall be done away and they shall be made like to God holy in their measure as God is holy V. Eternal life is a life of perfect joy Psal 16.11 In his presence there is fulness of joy at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore In eternal life the Saints possess God who is the chief good and all good and having God who is the chief good and all good they must needs have all joy The joys of this life are false deceitful joys they are far from satisfying quieting and contenting the heart the joys of this life are bitter-sweâ—t joys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best joys here on earth are allayed with many bitternesses O but the joys of eternal life are pure sincere joys there is all joy no sorrow all pleasure no grief And then as they are pure sincere joys so they are soul-satiâ—fying joys he that hath all the good that he would have and can desire no more must needs be satisfied the Saints in eternal life have all the good they would have and can desire no more whatever various good things we sought after among the creatures in eternal life one God shall supply all Quiâ—quid hî◠quaerehas quicquid â—iâ— pro magâ—o habebâ—â— iâ—se tibi crit Whatsoever says Austin thou soughtest after here on earth whatsoever thou accountedst for great here in this life God shall be all that unto thee God shall be the comfort of meat and drink of Sun and Moon of friends and relations God shall supply all things to his Saints Eternal life is a life of perfect joy VI. Eternal life is a life free from changes This life is made up of Changes we change from health to sickness from settlement to unsettlement from prosperity to adversity yea we change from one affliction to another and at last we change from life to death So that we may say Nunquid non humana vita tentatio super terram Is not the whole life of man a temptation upon earth Oh but in eternal life there are none of these changes in eternal life there is one constant uniform state of peace joy blessedness and satisfaction Oh do you not finde your selves weary of changes Is not this the secret language of your souls When will these changes have an end O lift up your eyes on high cast a look to the heavenly country there shall you finde that which you so much desire there is perfect serenity perfect tranquillity there is no trouble or perturbation nor fear of trouble no death nor fear of death no changes nor fear of changes there is an even serene state of things And the Lord in his infinite wisdom causes us to pass through so many changes here on earth that so we may long after that unchangeable state above VII Lastly as that
expression Lay hold on eternal life contemn this world and raise thy thoughts to something higher Let this world seem a little thing in thy eye and let eternal life be the mark and white in thy eye let thy desires and longings be carried out after life We ought to lay hold on eternal life that is we ought to set eternal things as the fairest things in our eye the main of our desires inclinations and affections should be carryed out that way Our hearts should be carried above this world and our affections should be soaring up aloft to the injoyment of God in the next world It is an emphatical expression of the Apostle Paul Phil. 3.14 I press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words in the Original are very emphatical as much as if he had said I press towards eternal glory as making that my uttermost end and scope Eternal life should be our scope the great thing that we should breath and aspire after whatsoever is short of the injoyment of God in heaven should seem but a little thing to us It is a speech of Luther We ought with a great soul to contemn this world and with a full gale of affection breath after the glory of the future life 3. To lay hold on eternal life is to have our thoughts fixt and intent upon eternal life 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God 2 Cor. 4.18 We look not to the things which are seen but to the things which are not seen We ought to have our hearts taken up much with the contemplation of the things of the invisible world Though it be but a little of the glory of heaven and the blessedness of eternal life that we can apprehend yet something we may understand of it as the Word hath revealed it The Word gives us some glimpses of the heavenly state the Word tells us that we shall be present with the Lord. 2 Cor. 5. Absent from the body and present with the Lord. The Word tells us that we shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 The Word tells us we shall see God Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The Word tells us we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 The Word tells us that our vile bodies shall be made like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The Word tells us that all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes Rev. 21.4 and that everlasting joy shall be upon our heads Isai 35.10 These things and much more doth the Scripture speak of the glory of the future life Now our thoughts and meditations should work on these things He that hath a fair inheritance left him will be willing some time or other to go to see it we have the heavenly inheritance given to us an inheritance incorruptible undefiled 1 Pet. 1.4 and that fadeth not away reserved in the heavens for us Now since there is so great an inheritance reserved for us we should not slight it but be willing as often as may be to take a prospect of it by faith Nothing is so sweet as the contemplation of eternal things the contemplation of eternal things is much more sweet then the highest enjoyment of present sensible things Eternal things satisfie and quiet the minde no temporal thing can do it let us then lay hold on eternal life in this sence let us keep our thoughts fixt and intent upon it 4. To lay hold on eternal life it is to pursue after it in our endeavours As the bent and tendencie of our affections should lie towards eternal life so we should pursue after it in our endeavours Lay hold on eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word signifies to pursue after a thing and in pursuing after it to apprehend and take hold of it The main scope of our endeavours should be to attain eternal life all our endeavours should run out that way that we may attain eternal life We should never think that we can pray too much that we can believe in Christ too much that we can love God too much that we can be too much in obedience and holy walking so we may but attain eternal life in the end Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life The meaning is God will certainly give and bestow eternal life on them who by a patient continuance in well doing seek for it But we may not mistake here we ought not to think that God gives us eternal life upon the account of the merit of any thing that we do it is the righteousness and obedience of Christ onely that gives us a right and a title to eternal life But thus we are to conceive of it This is the race and course that God hath appointed us to run God hath appointed us to run this course and race of faith and obedience here on earth that so we may come to eternal life in the end Hence is that of Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith What then Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto all them also that love his appearing Certainly Paul did not expect eternal life upon the merit of his obedience or of his services but Paul knew that God had appointed him such a course of obedience to run here on earth and his course being finished he knew that God would be faithful to give him the Crown God hath propounded and set before us the Crown of eternal life it becomes us to pursue after this Crown with our uttermost endeavours that we may attain it Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee the crown of life O how sweet how unexpressibly sweet will it be to be sure of eternal life when this natural life fails If we b◠faithful to the death we shall then have the crown of life that is If we persevere in a way of faith and obedience to the end we shall have the crown of eternal life and immortality set upon our heads when this short life doth expire Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life it is as much as if Christ had said I will give thee eternal life when this natural life is at end 5. To lay hold on eternal life it is to live much in the hope and expectation of eternal life Titus 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Rom. 5.2 We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God The main of our hopes should not lie in this world we should not fancie to our selves and expect
of Mr. Rutherford were these Glory glory dwells in Emmanuels land We should pray for the clearest sights and prospects that may be of the heavenly glory The clearer sights we can get of eternal things the more shall we finde our hearts crucified to the things of time and the more shall we finde our hearts carried up aloft to those things that are above even whilst we are fain to use these other things for our present necessitie We come now to the Reasons of the Doctrine why we ought to lay hold on eternal life Reason 1 1. This life is a short transient thing it soon glides and slips away How soon do we pass from one state to another from infancie to childhood from thence to youth thence to grown age and from thence to old age and death My days are swifter then a weavers shuttle Job 7.6 Swifter then a post they go away Job 9.25 This life is a vanishing thing it is an easie prospect to see to the end of it the longest life here on earth is nothing to eternity Therefore since this life is so shppery short and uncertain it is our great wisdom to set our hearts upon that life that is solid durable permanent What wisdom is it to set our hearts upon that which is not perminent We have here no continuing city Heb. 13.14 Thsi life is madeup of changes and vicissitudes and abides in no consistency it is our great concernment to minde that life which is stable and enduring Reason 2 2. Eternal life is that state that we must rest and abide in That life which we shall live in the other world will always stick and abide by us as we are then we shall ever be It is not so with us now we are not now as we shall ever be we are still changing from one state to another But eternal life is that state we shall always rest and abide in When once we are entred into eternal life we may say It shall never be otherwise with me then now it is this is the state I must take up with and thus it shall be for ever Now doth it not become us to be reaching out in our souls after this state Certainly we ought to overlook this life and the whole of our time as a little short thing and fasten our eyes upon the unchangeable state above where we must six and abide for ever We look not to the things that are seen for they are temporal but to the things which are not seen for they are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 Reason 3 3. Eternal life is the onely true life it is the most noble and excellent life What a poor life is this life to converse with this world and the things of it in comparison of eternal life in which we shall converse with God and the holy Angels What a poor life is this life which is made up of wants of sorrows of complaints of miseries of distresses of he constant fear and expection of death in comparison of that life where there is all joy no sorrow all fulness no want all satisfaction no complaint all happiness no misery all life no death nor fear of death Oh this is the life that we should be suspiring and breathing after Reason 4 4. We ought to lay hold on eternal life because the thoughts and expection of eternal life will carry us up above the difficulties troubles and afflictions of this life He that seeth the Port before him though he be out at Sea and is tossed with waves and tmepests yet he knows if he can get safe to the Port all is quiet placid and serene there He that hatha prospect by the eye of Faith of eternal life and the heavenly Country though he be tossed up and down with many afflictions tryals and distresses here yet he knows all is tranquil and serene above Ibi nulla mors nulla aegritudo There is no sickness no death The thoughts of eternal life may well swallow up all our afflictions This life is but for a moment in eternal life there shall be none of these things to trouble or disquiet us Let us wait patiently for the blessed hope and the revelation of eternal life and we shall know these sorrows no more Reason 5 5. If we lay hold on eternal life death will be no surprise or terror to us when this life fails we shall have another life in view nay we shall feel the beginningso f another life in us This is eternal life to know thee c. Joh. 7.3 So much as we know God adhere to him rest in him live upon him and are satisfied with him we have the beginning of eternal life and this is such a life as shall never end That natural life which is in a Saint fails and must have anend Oh! but there is in his soul the seed of eternal life Joh. 4.14 The water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life A true Believer hath the Spirit of God an the grace of the Spirit dwelling in him and this is the seed o eternal life The Spirit of God which hath begâ—â— the knowledge of God and love to God in the soul of a Saint here on earth will continue that knowledge of God and love to God in the soul to eternity yea in eternal life this knowledge this love shall be perfected and consummated Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. 8.10 The body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness The body dies and the life of it perisheth and vanisheth away but the spirit the soul of a Saint which is the seat of Grace and the habitation of the Spirit of God continueth and lives when the life of the body ceaseth If the soul should dye with the body then grace it self must be extinct and perish But saith the Apostle the spirit is life because of righteousness The spirit of a godly man having a principle of righteousness in it continues in being and the spiritual life of it remains when the body dyes It is true the soul of a wicked man is immortal and continues to live when his body dyeth but the life which remains to a wicked man after this life being a life of misery and torment the Scripture chooseth to call it by the name of death rather then of life But a godly man enjoys an happy and a blessed life in his soul when this life ceaseth Hence is it that we read of the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 And Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with christ which was far better Phil. 1.23 Now when we feel such a life in us as cannot expire neither can be taken away from us why should we fear death Luther observes that the great cause why men fear death is a secret suspition that lyes at the bottom of their hearts Quasi non semper victuri as if they should not