Doct. That a blessed eternal life is the final reward of those that have their fruit to holiness.
1. What this eternal life is.
2. The reasons why this is our final reward.
First. What eternal life is. Though it be better industriously to seek after it than scrupulously to inquire into the nature of this excellent benefit; yet because unknown things have not such a power and efficacy to quicken our desires, let us know as much of it as we can. Indeed future things are but darkly spoken of ere they be accomplished; we are told, 'Prophecy is but in part,' 1 Cor. 13:9. Our knowledge of these things is but imperfect; our apprehensions are suitable to the state we are in, which is a state of imperfection; but yet they are not altogether useless, but fitted to our benefit. Before the coming of Christ in the flesh, the mysteries of the Christian religion were but darkly revealed to what they were afterward; but yet they were such as were comfortable, and gave them some kind of sight of Christ before his exhibition to the world, enough to engage them to live in the expectation of the Messiah. So here we have apprehensions fitted to the use of travellers, and such as may encourage us in our heavenly course, and raise an expectation in us. Briefly I shall show three things: -
1. It is life.
2. It is a good and happy life.
3. It is an endless and eternal life.
1. It is life, both in soul and body. In soul: Ps. 22:26, 'Your heart shall live for ever;' and again, Ps. 69:32, 'Your heart shall live that seek God.' In body: 2 Cor. 4:10, 'Always bearing in our bodies the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in our body;' that is, we are continually ready to be put to death for Christ's sake, that at length we may receive the effects of his quickening power in raising from the dead to the life of glory: so Phil, 3:21, 'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.' Well, this we know then, that the party must subsist and live after death, otherwise he is incapable to enjoy God, and the blessedness of that estate; and he must subsist in body and soul, otherwise he is not the same person, if he were all spirit, and had no body at all; for if his body were utterly perished, and his soul were changed into the nature of angels, which were never destinated to be conjoined to bodies, this were not altogether the same being; for it is not he that is glorified or debased, but some other thing. Well then, he that now serveth God shall then live, but in another manner than he now liveth.
[1.] Compare it with life natural. This life is a fluid thing, that runneth from us as fast as it cometh to us; but that is eternal. Besides, here we are exposed to many troubles in an uncertain world: Gen. 47:9, 'Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been;' there is full rest and peace: Rev. 14:13, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.' The supports of this life are base and low; it is called, 'The life of our hands,' Isa. 57:10; most men labour hard to maintain it, but there we are above these necessities. Once more, the capacities of this life are narrow, every strong passion overwhelmeth us; the disciples were not able to bear the glory of Christ's transfiguration: Mat. 17:6, 'When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were sore afraid.' Alas! strong winds soon overset weak vessels; if God should give us but a taste or glimpse of that blessedness which is reserved for us, we are ready to cry out,' Enough, Lord! we can hold no more;' but there we are fortified by the glory we enjoy, and the object strengthens the faculty.
[2.] Compare it with the life of grace, which puts us into some degree of communion with God; but this doth not exempt us from miseries, rather sometimes exposeth us to them: 2 Tim. 3:12, 'Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' Yea, we often provoke God to hide his face from us; all tears are not yet wiped from our eyes; our sins breed not only doubts of God's love, but put us under a sense of his displeasure: Isa. 49:2, 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from yon, that he will not hear.' Though we have obtained the life of grace, we are not yet got rid of the body of death, and that is matter of continual groaning: Rom. 8:23, 'And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, - to wit, the redemption of our body.' Here we serve God at a distance, in some remote service; there we are present with the Lord, and immediately before the throne: Rev. 7:15, 'Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.' Here we enjoy God in the ordinances at second or third hand, there face to face: 1 Cor. 13:12, 'For we see but through a glass darkly, then face to face,’ Here in part we do not enjoy so much, but more is lacking; but then we shall be satisfied with his image: Ps. 17:15, 'As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.' That which attaineth its end is perfect and blessed, there needeth no more to make us happy, for the most perfect estate excludeth all want and indigency; here is still some want, but there is none.
3. It is a good and happy estate. I prove it -
[1.] From the nature of it; they that live this life see God and enjoy God. There is some last end of man's life, and therefore some chief good. There are intermediate ends, therefore there must be a last end; we must stop somewhere. As, suppose I eat for strength, my strength must be employed to some end; is it for the service of others? or myself? or God? Not for myself, for then I eat that I may have strength to labour, that I may eat again; not for others, non nascitur aliis moriturus sibi; then for God, who is man's chief good: Gen. 15:1, 'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward;' Ps. 16:5, 'The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup:' Ps. 36:9, 'For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.' There is all good in God, and beyond God nothing is to be desired: without him the soul is never satisfied; but having him, we are perfectly satisfied, and our desires acquiesce, as in their proper centre of rest. Well then, our enjoyment of him is our proper happiness. Certainly man's felicity must agree with the noblest part of a man, his soul, that his noblest faculty may be exercised in the noblest way of operation about its most noble object. Every living creature desireth good, but their highest way of perception being sense, it is sensible good; but man, being endowed with reason and understanding, must have some spiritual good before his desires can be perfectly satisfied; a good it must be for our souls. Now the noblest object the soul is capable of is God, and the noblest faculties of our souls are understanding and will, the noblest operations are therefore knowledge and love. Love is either desire or delight. Desire noteth a deficiency, or some imperfect possession; joy or delight is the repose of the soul in what is already obtained. So, then, the noblest acts are sight, love, and joy, which, assisted by the light of glory, are now most perfect in degree, as, being assisted by the light of grace, they were true m their kind. Well then, put all together, a living reasonable creature is admitted to the sight and love of God in the highest way he is capable of.
[2.] The end must be somewhat better than the means. The means is having our fruit to holiness, the end is everlasting life. This life exercised in holiness is the way, that the home; this the race, that the goal; this the warfare, that the crown; this the labour, that the reward; this the means, that the end. Here we have the beginning and first-fruits, there the whole crop and harvest. Now a holy man is here united to God: 1 Cor. 6:17, 'He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit;' therefore there the union is greater and more close; for 'God will be all in all:' 1 Cor. 15:28. Here a holy man knoweth and seeth God by faith: John 17:3, 'This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent;' and 2 Cor. 5:7, 'For we walk by faith, not by sight;' therefore there the vision is more clear: 1 John 3:2, 'We shall see him as he is.’ Here he is renewed according to the image of God: 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;' therefore there shall be another manner of transformation: 1 John 3:2, 'Then we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Here he enjoyeth communion with God: 1 John 1:3, 'Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;' there it shall be more full and uninterrupted. Here he rejoiceth and delighteth himself in God: Ps. 27:4, 'One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple;' there more especially, when there shall be nothing to divert that delight, and the participation of his benefits shall be more full. Here he promoteth the glory of God, and setteth forth his praise, either by way of design, making that his scope: 1 Cor. 10:31, 'Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God;' or of resemblance: 1 Peter 2:9, 'Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;' Eph. 1:12, 'That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ;' there his whole work is to laud and praise God, and he doth more perfectly resemble him, there being nothing to obscure his image.
[3.] It is an endless and everlasting life. Such as are once possessed of it shall never be dispossessed again. If man be designed to enjoy a chief good, and this chief good must content all our desires, it must also be so firm and absolutely immutable as to secure us against all our fears; for a fear of losing would disquiet our minds, and so hinder our blessedness. Now that there is no fear of that, let us consider what may be said concerning the firmness of it -
1. On God's part.
2. On the part of the blessed.
(1.) On God's part it standeth on three strong foundations -
(1st.) The infinite love of God, which is from eternity to eternity: Ps. 103:17, 'The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him;' before the world was, and when the world shall be no more.
(2d.) The everlasting merit of Christ, which never loseth its force and effect: Heb. 9:12, 'Having obtained eternal redemption for us;' not that Christ is always propitiating God by a continued sacrifice; no, the work was once done in a short time, but the virtue of it is of everlasting continuance.
(3d.) The unchangeable covenant: so Heb. 13:20, 'Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.' Though the covenant made with Israel was abolished, yet this continueth for ever, and shall never be altered, because it was able to reach the end for which it was appointed, which is the eternal salvation of man; that was a temporary covenant, this eternal.
(2.) On the part of the blessed, who being once admitted to the sight of God cannot any more cease from the love of God, or be subject to sin. Heaven is a paradise, where the flowers that grow are 'incorruptible and undefiled, and never fade away,' 1 Peter 1:4.
Secondly, The reasons of it, why this is our final reward.
1. Because this is the end to which they are appointed. Everything hath its end and final perfection, for God made nothing in vain. Now, inanimate things tend to such an end as they are appointed unto by God's overruling providence; such things as have a self-moving principle, as beasts, they are carried to their end by instinct, appetite, or natural inclination; those things which have reason and knowledge, foreseeing the end, order the means thereunto; they know the end, choose the means. As mere men, they seek to be happy; and Christians, who are holy men, seek to be most like him who is holy and happy. Now, then, since whatever acteth, acteth for an end, they that have their fruit to holiness have their end everlasting life. A capacity of an endless blessedness doth difference a man from the beasts that perish; a disposition to it doth difference the saints from the ungodly; and the fruition of it at length doth difference the glorified from the damned.
2. God's government requireth it. The wisest lawgivers could not devise any other means to make men good besides poena et premium, punishment and reward. For in the right dispensation of these two the life of government doth consist. Indeed many laws do more incline to punishments than rewards: for robbers and manslayers death is appointed, but the innocent subject hath only this reward, that he doth his duty, and escapeth these punishments. In few cases doth the law promise a reward: the reason is, because fear is a greater and more commodious engine of human government than love; and inflicting punishment is the proper work of man's law, for its end and use is to restrain evil. But God's law propoundeth rewards equal to the punishments, because the use of God's law is to guide men to their proper happiness. It is legis candor, the equity and favour of man's law to speak of a reward; it commands many things, forbids many things, but still under a penalty, ex malis moribus nascuntur leges, to restrain evil is its natural work; but God's covenant, being ordered for another end, doth not only threaten sinners, but promises life to the holy, and these threatenings and promises carry a proportion to God's nature, eternal life on the one hand, and eternal death on the other: Deut. 30:15, 'See, I have set before thee this day life and death, good and evil;' and Mat 25:46, 'These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.' There are nowhere such dreadful punishments and such bountiful rewards as are propounded to us Christians; eternal punishment is the reward of the disobedient, and eternal life is the privilege of the holy. Which, by the way, is a great shame, that we should be so defective in good, so fruitful in evil, less observant of the laws of the universal king, than the subjects of any prince. How often do we pawn our hopes of everlasting life upon less occasions than Esau did his birthright, and set Christ at a lower price than Judas did?
3. All that have their fruit to holiness are capacitated for this blessed estate.
1st. They earnestly desire this blessed estate, 'they hunger and thirst after righteousness,' after a larger measure of God's sanctifying grace, or likeness to God, Mat 5:6. The thirst after honour, greatness, and preferment in the world are tortures to the soul wherein they are harboured; but they that thirst after more holiness shall be satisfied.
2dly. They are prepared for it. For purity of heart is the root whereof happiness is the fruit: Mat. 5:8, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'
3dly. They have the pledge and earnest of it: 2 Cor. 1:22, 'Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts;' and 2 Cor. 5:5, 'Now he which hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.' The sanctifying Spirit is given us by God as the earnest of the glory which he will give us, for it is the seed of it, and breedeth an inclination thereunto.
Use 1. If this be the reward of the holy, then it informeth us that certainly there is such a thing as everlasting life and happiness; for God would not feed us with fancies, or flatter us into a fool’s paradise.
[1.] The nature of man showeth it; why else did he make a reasonable creature? Man of all creatures would be most miserable, if obnoxious to so many infelicities, and were not capable of true happiness some way or other. Certainly he made him to be happy. Is it to be happy here? In what? Here is no happiness. Is it in eating, drinking, and sleeping? These are to strengthen us for our service, which tendeth to our aid. Better be without meat, if we could be without the need of it, as it will be hereafter: 1 Cor. 6:13, 'Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them.' Beasts have not the cares and sorrows of mind that man hath to get and keep what they need. Wherein, then, lieth the dignity of men above the beasts? Surely there is a life to come.
[2.] The government of God showeth it. Why doth he use such methods, by his precepts and promises, but to bring us to our eternal end? Why hath he required moral duties of temperance, sobriety, contentation with a little; such evangelical duties of self-denial, obedience to Christ; such instituted duties as praying, hearing, sacraments, and seriousness in all, such constant diligence in his service, but that by all these we might come to the blessed hope? Believers use them to these ends: Acts 26:7, 'Unto which promise the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come;' and Phil. 3:14, 'I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.'
[3.] The graces planted in us by his Spirit show it. What use is there for faith and hope, if there be no object to be believed and hoped for? Heb. 11:1, 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.' As the apostle saith, 'Our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also vain,' 1 Cor. 15:14. Now, is faith and hope a dotage? and the whole doctrine of the gospel a forgery? and all the sufferings which God's servants have endured for him a mere frenzy and madness? Surely then there is a reward, and an everlasting reward, for the righteous.
Use 2. To persuade us:
[1.] To have our fruit to holiness. Heaven is the perfection of what is begun by sanctification, and the more we increase in it, the more our right is clear. Let us labour, therefore, to be throughly sanctified, and to fill our lives with the fruits of holiness. Heaven is described to be 'the inheritance of the sanctified by the faith which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,’ Acts 26:18; the sanctified is there put for the perfected. Our blessedness is in a fair progress when we are drawn from caring for the body to the saving of the soul, from things earthly to heavenly, from the life of the world to the life of God; in a word, from sin to holiness.
[2.] To fix your hearts more in the hope of eternal life. It is the want of this hope that maketh men swerve from holiness; some want it in habit, some in act.
1st. Some want it in habit, because they want faith; for no men will look for that which they do not believe. Now these wallow in sin and filthiness: 2 Peter 1:9, 'He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.’ He that is blind as to heavenly things which lie at a distance, can never purify his heart, nor walk holily; for they will not trouble themselves with it. On the contrary, 1 John 3:3, 'He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.'
2d. Some want it in act, do not revive upon themselves the remembrance of the blessed hope, or keep their hearts in heaven as much as they should do, because they lose their taste, or suffer it to be interrupted and deadened by worldly cares and voluptuous living. When the heart runneth out inordinately after secular ends and contentments, our affections are estranged from heavenly things. Alas! we presently find the inconvenience; we lose our taste of the powers of the world to come; so also by negligence and carelessness. Now, a good Christian should always stand with his loins girt and lamp burning, looking for his master's coming; the pledge and earnest of eternal life which we have received is of more worth and value than all the pleasures and contentments of the world, and should not be lost for trifles. We did rejoice at our first entrance on Christianity in these hopes, now we must keep this firm to the end: Heb. 3:6, 'If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end;' and ver. 14, 'If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.' Often draw up your hearts from things transitory to things eternal and heavenly.
Use 3. Direction to us in the Lord's Supper. We come to this duty to bind ourselves to two things:
[1.] To have our fruit to holiness, as those who are free from sin, and are become his by covenant with him. Here we resume and ratify the vow made in baptism, and so we are (1.) to arraign, accuse, and judge ourselves for our former neglect, that we have made no more progress in purifying our souls, and fitting ourselves for the eternal estate; (2.) to beg pardon of God, with promises of greater diligence for the future; (3.) to implore the special aid and assistance of God's Spirit for the better performance of what we promise; (4.) we are to obtain it by the means of Christ's sacrifice and intercession, 'who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,’ Heb. 10:14; there needeth no other sacrifice. If we thus humbly apply ourselves to God, and desire again to bind our bond, the duty will be comfortable to us.
[2.] Our second general work is to revive afresh the hopes of eternal life, and to get our taste and relishes of that blessed estate renewed and confirmed upon our hearts, that we may be fortified against the troubles of the world, and inconveniences of our pilgrimage, that we may not only be encouraged to do well, but to suffer evil with patience. That this duty is a pledge of heaven appeareth by Christ's words: Mat 26:29, ‘I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.' It is an ante-past of that blessed and eternal feast, 'when we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. 8:11. And the end of both sacraments is to prepare us for sufferings: Mat. 20: 22,23, 'Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.' These terms show that the sacraments imply a preparation for sufferings; for there seemeth to be a plain allusion to both sacraments, drinking of his cup, and being baptized with his baptism. Now counterballasting our troubles with our hopes begets the true spirit of Christian courage and fortitude: Rom. 8:18, 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us;' 2 Cor. 4:17, 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' Therefore here is your work; mind it, and God will bless you.
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