THE apostle having showed how miserable their estate past was, when they served sin, he showeth now the happiness of the opposite state, into which grace had translated them; 'But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' In which words observe -
1. The change wrought in them.
2. The effect of it
1. Their change of state, which is set forth -
[1.] Partly from the terms, from what to what they were turned - from sin to God. Observe, he had called them before servants of righteousness, now servants of God. To serve God is heartily to obey his will, which is called the service of righteousness, because of the equity of his commands, and the strength of the obligation upon us; it is right and equal, it is a due debt. So that the service of God and of righteousness is all one.
[2.] The power by which it was accomplished, which is implied in the passive forms of speech, eleuteroothentes and douloothentes. Before, it was douloi, and eleutheroi: ver. 20, 'When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness;' now it is 'made servants,' and 'made free.' We are prone enough to sin of ourselves, and ready enough to that which is evil; but God, by his effectual working, made us to be that by grace which by nature we could never be; we were born servants of sin, but made servants of God by his Spirit.
2. The effect of this change, which is either holiness or happiness; the one in this life, the other in the next.
[1.] Holiness in this life; 'Ye have your fruit unto holiness.' The apostle's discourse leadeth him to speak of the fruit by holiness; but he saith, 'Ye have your fruit to holiness,' for he is comparing the service of God and the service of sin. Now, in the service of sin there is nothing to be had but shame and death; those were his arguments there, 'What fruit had you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.' Now he only saith, 'Ye have your fruit to holiness,' in opposition to shame, which was the consequent of sin; and in opposition to death he saith, 'And the end eternal life.' Why doth he thus speak? I answer, because,
(1.) Holiness is a reward to itself, it is its own fruit. If a man doth attain to purity of soul, it is enough; honour and joy doth accompany it, as shame doth sin.
(2.) It may be meant of holiness increased; for the more we serve God, the more holy shall we be: every good work increaseth our holiness, or our fitness and ability for obedience to God. So that, in effect, this is the argument: this good you reap by your subjection to God, that you are in this world sanctified, and fitted to walk in newness of life.
[2.] Happiness in the life to come, 'and the end everlasting life.' That is the final issue; for the holy life is a beginning and pledge of that life which is immortal and glorious.
Doct. That when all things are well considered, the only amiable life is that which is spent in God's service.
I word the doctrine thus - (1.) Because the two lives are compared: the life spent in vanity and sin, and the life spent in holiness and righteousness; therefore I say, 'when all things are well considered.' (2.) Because those who are before called servants of righteousness, are now called servants of God; therefore I say, 'the life spent in the service of God,’ (3.) I assert, this is the only amiable life, because the life spent in sin is full of shame and horror; of shame, because of the baseness and turpitude of that life, disagreeable to the reasonable nature; of horror, because of the dreadful issue - 'The end of these things is death.' On the contrary, this life spent in the service of God is amiable,
1. Because of the present fruit, sanctification or holiness, which daily increasing in them, breedeth comfort and confidence, and will never be matter of shame to them.
2. Because of the final issue; eternal life is the consummation of it. The matter doth not rest in sanctification, but looketh further; at last they obtain everlasting happiness, the hope of which breedeth joy and comfort in us.
Well, then, it rests upon me to prove two things: that this life is the most amiable life, because of the pleasure and honour that doth accompany it: the pleasure, because of the end; the honour, because of the work.
First, The pleasure of a life spent in God's service. Man is ever inviting himself to some delight, and so far nature and grace are agreed; but the difference is, where true pleasure of mind is to be found. Man in his natural estate consults with flesh and blood, for then the beast rideth the man, and he careth for the body more than the soul, and nothing is sweet and pleasant but what gratifieth sensual appetite; but this soon bringeth slavery upon us; for it was our old bondage and servitude to prefer appetite before reason and conscience: Tit. 3:3, ‘We were sometimes disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures.’ These delights corrupt the mind, and make it an incompetent judge of what is true and sincere pleasantness to such a creature as man is, who hath a conscience, and is capable of an immortal estate, and to give an account of his actions to the God that made him. And besides, they pervert the heart, and dull our desires and endeavours towards better things, and breed such a peace as is not the quiet and repose of the soul in God, but a numbness and deadness of conscience as may be called carnal security, rather than a true and solid peace. But by grace we are invited to more chaste and rational delights, such as ennoble the soul, and raise it to God; whose matter is not base and dreggy, but heavenly and spiritual, and cannot ensnare nature by any excess, but perfect it: so that a man shall live as a man, not as a beast, and have a solid peace, and durable comfort and confidence, that will not fail him in any condition; and this pleasure we can only have by having our fruit unto holiness.
I prove it thus: -
1. It is pleasant to do good; there is a pleasure and a peace that resulteth from the very rectitude of our actions: Ps. 119:165, 'Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.' Our will is conformed to the law and will of God. Now the compliance of our will with the will of God carrieth a quieting pleasure with it, for then it agreeth with its proper rule and measure; all is right as it should be. Our subjection to God is to the soul as health to the body; when all the humours and members of the body keep their due proportion, temper, and place, according to the intention of nature, a man findeth himself at ease both in his work and in his rest, and as to his body, he enjoyeth himself with full contentment of mind. It is so as to his soul, when sense and appetite is subordinated to reason, and reason guided by the will of God; all is in its proper place, and there must needs be a serenity and contentment of mind.
2. God owneth him that liveth in his service; for those that love him, and keep his commandments, he will love them, and manifest himself to then, John 14: 21,23. Two ways doth God own them, -
[1.] He will forgive their sins.
[2.] Assure them of his love.
[1.] He will forgive their sins. How can any man be truly cheerful, till his sins be forgiven? If conscience be but a little awakened, in the midst of all his mirth he would see a sharp sword hanging over his head by a slender thread, and ready to drop upon him every moment, and that all his jollity is but like dancing about the bottomless pit, into which ever and anon he is ready to tumble. Nay. let him stifle conscience as much as he can, he can never totally get the victory of it, but he hath his qualms and pangs and hidden fears, and stinging remorse of conscience, which, though not always felt, are soon awakened. So that, if you could dig a carnal man to the bottom, you will find that he is never truly and sincerely merry. Suppose none of this ever felt, yet you must grant that there cannot be a man who ever recollects his ways or life, and hath any serious consideration why he came into the world, or where he shall be when he goes out of it but this trouble is revived, and will haunt him, and sour his contentments, and put a damp upon all his mirth. But now he that hath sued out his pardon, and being made free from sin, is become a servant unto God, and so hath his fruit to holiness; he hath true and solid cause of rejoicing, for God owneth him as one that is pardoned and adopted into his family, and admitted into fellowship with him: 1 John 1:7, 'If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.' His great care is over; his wounds are healed; he hath got rid of his great sore and burden, which made his soul sit uneasy with him: Mat. 9:2, 'Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.' When the guilt of sin is token away, the root of all trouble is taken away.
[2.] He will assure him of his love: John 15:10, 'If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.' Holiness and obedience, as it is an evidence of our love to Christ, so it is a means of keeping up the sense and assurance of his love to us. Holy walking giveth us a large share of the love of God and Christ; the Lord delighteth to own such, and to put peculiar marks of his favour upon them. Now it is a comfortable life to live in the love of God. If all the world loveth you, and God hateth you, you can have no solid peace, for you must at length fall into his hands; but if you have all the world at will, you may have it with God's hatred, who can make you miserable whenever he pleaseth; he can blast you with diseases, fill you with disquiets of soul, embitter all your comforts; but if God loveth you, and assureth you of his love, what is wanting to your satisfaction and peace? This is enough to support us in all conditions; one drop of it is enough to sweeten all our crosses: Rom. 5:5, 'Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.' And it is the life of all our comforts: Ps. 4:6,7, 'Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased;' and Ps. 63:3, 'Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.'
3. As God will own them so conscience speaketh peace and comfort to them that have their fruit to holiness. Before our full and final reward we have this solace, that our own hearts do not only acquit us, but approve what we do; and a holy course of life is usually rewarded with peace of conscience; it is not only without offence: Acts 24:16, 'Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man;' but it breedeth joy: 2 Cor. 1:2, ‘Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.' On the contrary, men's hearts smite and reproach them for their sins, and the breaches they make in their duty: Job 27:6, 'My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.' The words imply that the heart hath a reproaching and condemning power; when we do evil, we shall sensibly find it by accusing thoughts within ourselves: Rom. 2:15, 'Their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts in the meantime accusing, or else excusing one another.' Conscience must be better used, before it will speak a word of well-grounded peace to a man. They that keep the thorn in the foot will never walk without pain. If you would prevent the checks and upbraidings of your own consciences, you must take away the causes and occasions thereof; walk so that your hearts may not reproach you. Do you take care of your duty, and God will take care of your comfort; but if you give way to sin, conscience will awaken upon you.
4. Our title to the heavenly inheritance is more clear, and our right confirmed by holiness. There is fulness of joy reserved for God's people, Ps. 16:11; and if we look to the end, it must needs make the way the more pleasant and comfortable; especially when we have by faith a lively foresight of this endless glory and blessedness: Heb. 11:1, 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen;' and by hope and love a foretaste of it: Rom. 5:2, 'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Blessed will the time be when ye shall be for ever with the Lord, and see his glory; and this is the end of the way you walk in. Alas! others can never have solid comfort; they know where they are, but know not where they shall be when they die; they must into an unknown world, and which is worse, to an unknown God, of whose love they never had any taste or experience. But those that live always in the sight of the world to come, and keep themselves in the way that tendeth thither, and look continually when God will translate them into his immediate presence, they have the foretaste before they have the enjoyment: the promise is matter of joy to them, which is God's grant; Ps. 119:11, 'Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.' The way they walk in is matter of joy to them, because that confirmeth their right: 1 Tim. 6:12, '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.' While they are in the way, they look to the end of their journey; while running their race, they see a crown set before them; the very acts of faith, hope, and love are pleasant: Rom. 15:13, 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost;' 1 Peter 1:8, 'Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Well then, who live the more pleasant lives, they that walk upon the brink of hell every moment, or the heirs of eternal life and happiness, who have a heaven to wait for?
5. They have easier access to God, or more free communion with him here than others have; because there is nothing to hinder, neither on God's part, nor theirs. God hath assured them of audience and welcome, and they have in a great measure overcome their legal bondage, so as they are not shy of God, nor stand aloof from him; they do not allow themselves in the omission of any known duty, nor in the commission of any known sin, and are sincere though not perfect: 1 John 3:21, 22, 'If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do the things which are pleasing in his sight.' Two things obstruct our ready access to God, our own guiltiness, and God's terror. Our own guiltiness straitens the heart and stops the mouth, and makes us afraid and shy of God; but they who are renewed and pardoned come out of this state of bondage; their hearts do not condemn them for living in any known disobedience to God or course of sin, which whosoever doth carrieth his sting and his wound about him, and is subject to tormenting evils and legal fear. On God's part, he is reconciled to such as make conscience of holiness, and they may obtain at his hands whatever in reason and righteousness they ask of him. He hath given them liberty by his new covenant-grant and charter, founded in the blood of Christ; the covenant is large and gracious, and their claim firm and sure, and therefore they come boldly unto him. But now God's presence, which is the comfort of the faithful, is the burden of the carnal and the guilty, terrible to them that live in sin, and therefore they think they are never better than when they are furthest off from God. Well then, you see to have our fruit to holiness is the pleasure and comfort of our lives, for then we maintain our liberty in prayer, and our confidence towards God; there is an open door of access to admit us to God, and free and full communion with him.
6. Their work is more easy, because it is not done against the bent of the heart, but it is the course of life which they have chosen: Ps. 40:8, 'I delight to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is within my heart;' 1 John 5:3, 'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.' And also for this reason, because it is their usual practice, and that which they are versed in: Prov. 10:29, 'The way of the Lord is strength to the upright.' Others, with much ado, bring their hearts to do a little good; but the more we walk in God's ways, the more we may; one part of godliness helpeth another, and the more we obey God, the more we are fitted to obey him. As in a watch there are many wheels, and the one doth protrude and thrust forward another; the motion could not be so constant and orderly if there were fewer wheels in it; so there are many duties implied in holiness, and one maketh another easy, and one duty puts forward another, as hearing fits us for prayer, and prayer for practice, and frequent and continual practice maketh the whole work go off the more roundly. Or as in the body labour begets an appetite, and when we have an appetite food is more pleasant, and that helpeth digestion, and that strengthens us to labour again; so the more we exercise ourselves to godliness, one part and degree fits for another: whereas Christian duties are difficult and tedious when men deal superficially with God; because the difficulty ever continueth, the work is not throughly minded. Partly also for this reason, because the more holiness prevaileth, the more the rebelling principle is curbed, and maketh least opposition, and is more weak and ineffectual to tempt and draw us from God: Gal. 5:16, 'Walk after the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,’ If you be sincere and true to God's interest, and cherish the better part, and follow the motions and directions of it, the flesh will languish and die away by degrees. There is yet a fourth reason, God's blessing goeth along with our sincere resolution to walk in his ways; for as he punisheth sin with sin, so he delighteth to reward grace with grace, and to crown his own work: Isa. 58:13,14, 'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord;' Ps. 27:14, 'Wait on the Lord, and be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' The way to pray is to pray, to delight yourselves in God is to delight in him. Pluck up your spirits, take courage, and God will give you courage for every holy action, and reward it with a new supply of grace, whereby strength is renewed; and the duty sincerely performed, bringeth its grace and hope along with it. Well, a life spent in holiness must needs be a pleasant life; because the more we mind it, and set about it, still the work is more easy. It is the partial superficial obedience that is difficult, and the hard heart that makes our work hard; for when men are biassed with fleshly lusts, and are not easily nor without much ado persuaded to set about religion in good earnest, they are only acquainted with the toil, but never with the comfort; conscience is still urging them to do that which they have no heart to do.
7. Those that have their fruit to holiness, all their mercies and comforts are more sweet, because they have them from God's love, and they use them for his glory.
[1.] They have their worldly blessings from God's love. A covenant-right is surely much sweeter than a bare providential right: 1 Cor. 3:22,23, 'All things are yours, for you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' That is a covenant-right, when we have these things, not only by the fair leave and allowance of his providence, but as fruits of his fatherly love in Christ. We find most sweetness in the creature when our persons and ways are pleasing to God. 'God accepteth thy works,’ Eccles. 9:7. Alas! others who are not reconciled to God, have their portion soured by remorse of conscience; God may give them a liberal share of these outward things, but this is all, they must look for no more. It is said, Prov. 10:22, 'The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it,’ There is a common blessing which is vouchsafed to the carnal, and there is a special blessing which is vouchsafed to the holy. Wicked men do not acquire wealth without God's common blessing; the wealth itself, and the comfortable use of it, they have it from him; elsewhere it is called food and gladness. But these words are much more true of the spiritual blessing, when an estate is sanctified; then we have not only the natural comfort of the creature, but a spiritual use of it, a comfortable supply of outward things, and a peaceable conscience, which is more than natural refreshing. Alas! unless we be upon good terms with God, all our rejoicings are but as stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret.
[2.] As they use them for his glory, when they take more occasions to do good. That is the sweetest use of the creature, when we use them with thankfulness, charity, and purity. With thankfulness to God: 1 Tim. 4:4, 'Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving;' that is, with a due acknowledgment of God, whose invisible hand reacheth out these supplies to us. We must use them as a glass, wherein to see our creator's goodness and glory; and surely this religious use of the creature is more sweet than the natural use. With charity with respect to our neighbours, ministering to others that want necessaries: Neh. 8:10, 'Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.' Man is not lord of these things, but a steward; for we have not the right of a lord, but the right of a servant, and must give an account, Luke 16:2. We do not receive these things to satisfy our fleshly mind, but to do good with them; and the pleasure is not in the possession, but the use: Luke 16:9, 'Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.' It is more God-like: Acts 20:35, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Sobriety respects ourselves, our Lord hath given us a caution: Luke 21:34, 'Take need to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life.' Now, temperance is much sweeter than excess, as being more healthy and refreshing to nature; whereas excess oppresseth it. Upon the whole, the holy man's comforts are sweeter than other men's; he hath them from God reconciled, and useth them for his glory. And thus I have proved to you, that to have our fruit unto holiness is the greatest pleasure: the very doing it is pleasant; and God owneth them, pardoning their sins and assuring them of his love, and conscience speaketh peace to them, so that they have no inward trouble to damp their joy, and their end is eternal life: for the present they have some access to God, their work is more easy, and their comforts are more sweet.
Secondly, Let me now speak of the honour that doth accompany a holy life. It will never be matter of shame to us, as sin is to all that practise it, first or last.
1. Because holiness is the very image of God upon the soul, or that work by which he sets forth his praise to the world. If God be excellent, it can be no disgrace or dishonour to us to be like God, and nothing on this side of heaven so like him as a holy soul. This was the blessed perfection in which we were created at first: Gen. 1:26. 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ And when it was lost, for this end were we redeemed by Christ, who came to set up God's image in our nature: John 1:14, 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ That we may be renewed by the Spirit: 2 Cor. 3:18, 'We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God.’ It is an image not made by painter or carver, but the Holy Ghost. Now certainly that which was our primitive glory and excellency, and is renewed and repaired with so much ado, will never be matter of shame to us.
2. They which have their fruit unto holiness have the best temper and constitution of soul of any men in the world; they have a new and divine nature, which inclineth them to the noblest objects and ends: 2 Peter 1:4; nothing below God can satisfy them. Their ends are the glorifying of God, and the eternal enjoyment of him: 2 Cor. 4:18, ‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ Alas! what a poor drossy soul is an unsanctified soul, they that drive no higher a trade than providing for the flesh, or accommodating a life which shortly must expire. When these are seeking after the world, and scrambling for the honours and delights thereof, they are seeking after heaven, and adorning the soul while they are pampering the flesh. Surely they which contemn the world are more honourable than they which enjoy it; and it is much better to please God that we may live with him in heaven, than to flatter men that we may rise in the world.
3. Their way and course of life, as well as their temper and disposition of heart, is more noble; for when others live according to the vain course of this corrupt world, they live according to the will of God, which is the highest pattern of all perfection. The one live to the lusts of men, the other according to the will of God: 1 Peter 4:2, 'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God,’ The one walk kat’ aioona tou kosmou toutou Eph. 2:2, 'According to the course of this world,' the other kata kanona: Gal. 6:16, 'As many as walk according to this rule,' &c. Now, which course is better? Let us refer this question to the sentiments of nature. Even though men be so much depraved by their slavery to their brutish lusts that they might justly be refused as incompetent judges; yet natural conscience in the worst doth homage to the image of God shining in the saints: as, 'Herod feared John, because he was a strict and just man,' Mark 6:20; and Exod. 11:3, 'Moses was great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of all the people;' his person and presence was awful to them. Nature hath a secret sentiment of the excellency of holiness; those that regard not to practise it wonder at it: 1 Peter 4:4, 'They think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot.' Especially when they come to die, then do they approve a sober godly life, though they had no heart to embrace it before, Num. 23:10, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' Though they chose to live with the carnal, yet they would die with the righteous, such an approbation is conscience forced to give first or last to a holy course of life.
4. That is honourable and glorious which is most esteemed by God; for he can best judge, and the great sovereign of the world is the fountain of all honour. Now, holiness is most esteemed by him, which he hath declared both by word and deed.
[1.] By word: Isa. 43:4, 'Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable.' God, that was refreshed in the review of the works of creation, is also delighted in the works that belong to redemption; yea more, as these gifts are more worthy, and brought about with greater expense and difficulty, therefore he delights most in the holy and righteous; any part of holiness is an ornament of great price in the sight of God: 1 Peter 3:4, 'Let your adorning be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and of a quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.'
[2.] In deed, as they are taken into a nearness to himself, and here enjoy his favour and fellowship, and hereafter shall live with him for ever. Now they have his favour, and enjoy communion with him: Ps. 11:7, 'For the righteous God loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright;' hereafter they shall see his blessed face: Mat 5:8, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;' Heb. 12:14, 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.' They are capacitated for true happiness. This is so certain a truth, that all who are made partakers of a divine nature have the same disposition in them: Ps. 15:4, 'In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.' They look not to the outward pomp and prosperity of the world, and therefore have a heart to honour and respect godly men, as being beloved, prized, and set apart by God, and as they are made partakers of these sure, great, and glorious things, which are infinitely more worthy of our love than anything below. So again: Ps. 16:3, 'To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.' When we think too highly and pleasingly of the condition of the rich, and too meanly and contemptibly of the state of the holy and godly, as if it were a better thing to be great in the world than to excel in grace, we discover more of the spirit of the world than of the Spirit of God.
5. That excellency which is more intrinsic puts a truer honour upon us than that which is extrinsic and foreign; as we do not value a horse by his trappings, but by his mettle and vigour. A corpse may be laid in state, and sumptuously adorned, but there is no life within. Crowns and garlands may be put upon an image; the white bulls destined for sacrifices to Jupiter were brought to the gates with garlands on their horns, Acts 14:13. So men are not to be valued by their external advantages, wealth, and greatness, but their intrinsic perfections, knowledge, holiness, humility, faith, sobriety, godliness: Ps. 45:13, 'The king's daughter is all-glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold;' not the things without a man do commend him, but the things within him.
6. That is honourable and glorious which will everlastingly be so. But we cannot say so of the things of the world; 'All flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of the field,’ 1 Peter 1:24. The best estate of men, considered with all their ornaments, wherein they use to glory, is frail and perishing; riches, wisdom, strength, and beauty are soon blasted; but they that are holy are lovely for ever, amiable and acceptable to God for ever; 1 John 2:17, 'The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever;' he abideth when other things fade.
Use 1. To exhort you to undertake the service of God, that you may have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.
1. To serve God is our true liberty. His servants live the noblest and freest lives in the world; servire Deo regnare est - you never reign or command till you learn to serve God. His right is unquestionable: Acts 27:23, 'There stood by me this night an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve.' It would help you much often to consider whose you are, and whom you ought to serve. If you were your own, you might live to yourselves; but since you are God's, you must live to him, and serve him.
[1.] His service will be your pleasure; for then you are in your due posture, when you have a power over inferior things, and are subject to God, using all things for his glory: 1 Cor. 6:12, 'All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any;' and vers. 19,20, 'Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.' You are out of joint, not in your proper posture, till it be so; and,
[2.] It will be also your honour, for all his servants are also his children, and heirs of eternal life: Tit 3:7, 'That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'
[3.] The benefit of this service will be exceeding great. The world often inquireth, 'What profit shall we have, if we serve him?' Job 21:15; 'Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance?' Mal. 3:14. The whole reward of serving God is not altogether laid up for the world to come: God giveth a reward before he giveth the full reward. Obedience is a reward to itself, for holiness is the health of the soul; and if we grow more in grace and godliness, we have enough. The apostle saith, 'You have your fruit to holiness.' Besides, we have many spiritual and temporal blessings: 1 Tim. 4:8, 'Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;' and, 1 Tim. 6:6, 'Godliness with contentment is great gain.' Once more, though the great blessedness of the saints be in the life to come, yet here we have the foresight and foretaste, there our full portion.
Now, that you may do so, I press you -
1. To give over the service of sin. None can be true servants of God till there be a change both of the heart and of the course of the life; till the power of sin be broken we shall neither be fit nor willing to serve God. Therefore we must first be freed from sin by a hearty renunciation of this slavery and bondage, wherein God will help the striving soul.
2. I would press you to a high esteem of God, and holiness, and everlasting life.
[1.] Of God; for till we have high thoughts of God, as an all-sufficient God, who is able to protect, and do all things needful for them that serve him, we shall not entirely trust ourselves in his hands: Gen. 17:1, ‘I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect.' The incredulous world looketh on God's glorious titles as so many fine words.
[2.] Of holiness, purity of heart and life, a recompense worthy of your labours, how dearly soever gotten: Heb. 12:10, 'They verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.'
[3.] Of eternal life. They are true servants of God who make it their work and business to serve and please God, and their scope to obtain eternal life: Phil. 3:14, ‘I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;' and ver. 20, 'Our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.' This is their happiness.
Home | Sermons | Biography | Writings | Links