Chapter XI: Part 11

It was _through the blood of the everlasting covenant_, that Jesus _the great Shepherd of the sheep, was brought again from the dead_; and it was _the God of peace_ who raised him; Heb. xiii. 20. And it is by virtue of his own blood, and righteousness, that he, who once took our sins upon him, is now discharged: It is through his own sufferings that he appears with acceptance before the throne, and enjoys a divine life in the unchangeable favour of God; and all this as our head, surety, and representative, giving us assurance hereby, that we, through the blood of the same covenant, shall be brought again from the dead too: that we through the virtue of the same righteousness, and all-sufficiency of the same sacrifice, shall appear hereafter before God in glory, and stand in his eternal favour; and as an earnest of it, we enjoy a life of holy peace and acceptance with God in this world, through the same all-sufficient blood and righteousness: For he _appears in the holy of holies, in_ heaven itself, _in the presence of God for us_; Heb. ix. 24. He secures all the glories and blessings of spiritual and eternal life for us, as he has taken possession of them in our name.

2. Our life of grace, and especially our life of glory, may be said to be hidden with Christ, because he dwells in heaven, where God resides in glory; God, in whom is our life. He is set down on the right-hand of the Majesty on high; Heb. xii. 2. There our eternal life is. The things which are above, are the objects of our joyful hope, _where Christ is at the right-hand of God_; Col. iii. 1. It is the short, but sublime description of our heaven, that we shall be _present with the Lord_, we shall be where Christ is, to _behold his glory_; 2 Cor. v. 8. and John xvii. 24. And shall possess all that unknown and rich variety of blessings which are reserved for us in heavenly places, whither Christ our Lord is ascended. Thus I have endeavoured to explain, in the largest and most comprehensive sense, what we are to understand by the life of a christian hidden with Christ in God: It is reserved in the all-sufficiency, the purposes, and the engagements of God, under the care of the Mediator, and in the presence of Christ.

[This sermon may be divided here.]

The use I shall make of this doctrine, is, to draw four inferences from it for our instruction, and three for our consolation.

The inferences for our instructions are such as these:

1st Instruction. What a glorious person is the poorest, meanest christian? He lives by communion with God the Father and the Son; for his life is hid with Christ in God; 1 John i. 3.—“Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full; the joy that you may justly derive from so glorious an advancement.”

A true christian does not live upon the creatures, but upon the infinite and almighty Creator: upon God who created all things by Jesus Christ. Created beings were never designed to be his life and his happiness; they are too mean and coarse a fare for a christian to feed upon, in order to support his best life: He converses with them indeed, and transacts many affairs that relate to them in this lower world: While he dwells in flesh and blood, his heavenly Father has appointed these to be a great part of his business; but he does not make them his portion and his life. They possess but the lower degrees of his affection: He rejoices in the possession of them, as though he rejoiced not; and he weeps for the loss of them, as though he wept not: He enjoys the dearest comforts of life, as though he had them not; and buys with such a holy indifference, as though he were not to possess; 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30. for the fashion of them passes away: But the food of his life is infinite and immortal. It is no wonder that a man of this world lets loose all the powers of his soul in the pursuit and enjoyment of creatures, for they are his portion and his life. But it is quite otherwise with a christian: he has a nobler original, and sustains a higher character: His divine life must have divine food to support it.

Let our thoughts take a turn to some bare common, or to the side of a wood, and visit the humble christian there; we shall find him cheerful, perhaps, at his dinner of herbs, with all the circumstances of meanness around him: But what a glorious life he leads in that straw-cottage, and poor obscurity! The great and gay world shut him out from them with disdain: He lives, as it were, hidden in a cave of the earth; but the godhead dwells with him there. The high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, comes down to dwell with the humble and contrite soul; Is. lvii. 15. God, who is the spring of life, comes down to communicate fresh supplies of this life continually. _He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God_; 1 John iv. 16. He is not alone, for the Father is with him; John xvi. 32. The Father and the Son come and manifest themselves unto him, within the walls of that hovel, in so divine a manner, as they never do to the men of this world, in their robes and palaces: John xiv. 22, 23. And that he may have the honour of the presence of the blessed Trinity, his _body is the temple of the Holy Ghost_; 1 Cor. iii. 16. and vi. 19. O! the wonderful condescensions of divine grace, and the surprizing honours that are done to a humble saint! How is this habitation graced! Heaven is there, for God and Christ are there; and who knows what heavenly guards surround him! what flights of attending angels? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent down to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. i. 14. But our Lord Jesus Christ is now unseen, God and angels are unseen; the christian’s company belong to the invisible world: He lives a hidden, but a divine life; his life is hid with Christ in God.

IId Instruction. See how it comes to pass that christians are capable of doing such wonders, at which the world stands amazed. The spring of their life is almighty; it is hid in God. It is by this divine strength they subdue their sinful natures, their stubborn appetites, and their old corrupt affections: It is by the power of God, derived through Jesus Christ, they bend the powers of their souls unto a conformity to all the laws of God and grace; and they yield their bodies as instruments to the same holy service, while the world wonders at them, that they should fight against their own nature, and be able to overcome it too.

And as they deny themselves in all the alluring instances of sinful pleasure, under the influence of almighty grace, so they endure sufferings, in the sharpest degree, from the hands of God, without murmuring. And when they have laboured night and day, and performed surprizing services for God in the world, they are yet contented to submit to smarting and heavy trials from the hands of their heavenly Father, without being angry at their God: they know he loves them, and he designs all things shall work together for their good.

Besides all this, they bear dreadful persecutions, cruel mockings, and scourings, and tortures, from the hands of men, and go through all the sorrows of martyrdom. What noble instances and miracles of this kind did the primitive age furnish us with, so that their tormentors were amazed? They saw not the secret springs of divine life which supported them; they knew not the grace of God and the power of Christ, by which the christians were upheld in all their labours and their sufferings. The spring of their life was almighty, but it was hidden from the eyes of men: It was concealed and reserved with Christ in God.

Read the labours and the sufferings of St. Paul; 2 Cor. xi. 23. “In stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths often: He was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he suffered shipwreck, in perpetual perils by land and sea, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings and fastings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness.” One would think his bones were iron, and his flesh were brass. He was invisibly supported by Christ the spring of his life. Read his wondrous virtues and self-denial; Phil. iv. 11, 12, 13. I know how to be abased and how to abound; I can be full, and be hungry; I can possess plenty, and I can suffer want: I can do all things through Christ strengthening me. This was the fountain of his life and strength. I acknowledge, says he, in another place, that I am nothing, I have no sufficiency of myself to think so much as one good thought: But all my sufficiency is of God, in whom my life is hid; 2 Cor. iii. 5. And with what a devout zeal does he ascribe his life to Christ, in that glorious amassment of spiritual paradoxes! Gal. ii. 20. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Therefore I can be delivered to death daily for Jesus Christ’s sake; troubled and perplexed, and yet not in despair; be cast down, and not be destroyed; because I believe that the life of Jesus must be made manifest in my mortal flesh, and he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you; 2 Cor. iv. 14.

IIId Instruction. See whither a dead sinner must go to attain spiritual and eternal life, and whither a decaying dying christian must go for the recruit of his fainting life too; it is to God by Jesus Christ, for it is all hidden with Christ in God.

In vain shall a man who is dead in trespasses and sins, toil and labour, and hope to attain life any other way. God is the spring of all life, and he has trusted it to the hands of Jesus Christ: _I am the way, the truth and the life_, says our Saviour; John xiv. 6. No man can have life without coming to the living Father; and no man cometh to the Father but by me. Seneca and Plato, with their moral lectures, and the writings of human philosophy, may give a man new garments, may make his outward life appear much better than before; they may teach him, in some measure to govern his passions too, and subdue some of the fleshly appetites; but they cannot raise him to the love of God, to the hatred of every sin, to the well grounded hopes of the favour of God, the blessed expectation of a holy immortality, and a preparation for heaven. They cannot give the man a new life: He must be born again of the Spirit of Christ, or he can never become a living christian.

And in vain would the poor backsliding christian, with his withering decaying graces, recruit and renew his divine life, without applying himself afresh to Jesus Christ: While he forgets Christ, he must go on to wither and decay still. There is nothing in earth or heaven can supply the utter absence of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the stream of spiritual life ebbs or runs low, it is not to be quickened, recovered, and increased, but by new supplies from the fountain which is on high. Remember, O degenerate christian, remember whence it was you derived your first life, when you were once dead in trespasses and sins; fly to the Saviour by new exercises of faith and dependance, mourning, in all humility, for your unwatchful walking, and your absence from the Lord. Commit your soul afresh to his care, exert your utmost powers, and beg of him renewed instances of the living Spirit, that the face of your soul may be like a watered garden, and the beauty of the divine life may be recovered again.

IVth Instruction. See the reason why a lively christian desires and delights to be so much, and so often, where God and Christ are; for his life is with them.

This was the divine temper and practice of the saints under a much darker dispensation than what we enjoy. How does the holy soul of David pant and long for the presence of God! and he brings even his animal nature, the very ferments of his flesh and blood, into his devotions; Ps. lxiii. 1. _My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee._ Ps. lxxxiv. 2. _My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God._ In all the various and fervent language of sacred passion and transport, he breathes after God, who is the strength of his life and his salvation; Ps. xxvii. 1. The Jewish saints cleaved to the Lord, _for he was their life, and the length of their days_; Deut. xxx. 20.

And what sweet delight does St. Paul take in mentioning the very name of Christ? How does he dwell upon it in long sentences, and loves to repeat the blessed sound! How often does he rejoice in the hope of dwelling with him hereafter, and persuades the Colossians, in this context, to be much with him here; ver. 1. If ye are risen with Christ, and have derived a quickening virtue from him to work a divine life in you, let your affections ascend above, where Christ your life is.

Is not a man, whose very soul and life is wrapped up in honour and ambition, desirous ever to be near the court! His life flourishes under the sunshine of the prince’s eye, and therefore he would fain dwell there. Does not the covetous wretch love to be near his hoards of gold or silver? He has put up his life in his bag, among his treasures, and he is not willing to be far distant, nor long separated from them. Whatever a man lives upon, he would willingly be ever near it, that so he may have the pleasure of feeding upon what is his greatest delight, and be refreshed and nourished by that which he feels to support him. Now, what honour is to the ambitious, what money is to the covetous, what all the various delights of sense are to the men of carnal pleasure; that is God to the saint, that is Christ Jesus to the christian; and therefore he is ever desirous of such further manifestations of God and Christ, that may invigorate his spiritual life, and give him the pleasing relish of living. Then a man feels that he lives, when he is near to the spring of his life, and derives fresh supplies from it every moment.

Thence it is, that in every distress or danger, the saints fly to God for refuge and relief: He is their great _hiding place_; Ps. xxxii. 7. And Christ Jesus is represented in prophecy under the same character; Is. xxxii. 2. This man, in whom the _Godhead dwells bodily_, shall be a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest. The name of God in Christ, _is a strong tower; the righteous run into it_, to hide themselves, _and are safe_; Prov. xviii. 10. Their life is in God, in the keeping of Christ, and they can defy deaths and dangers, when their faith is strong, and their thoughts are fixed above.

They know the meaning of that tender and divine language; Is. xxvi. 20. _Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be over-past._ In a time of public terror, and spreading desolation, they retire to their secret places of converse with God, and are secured, at least from the terror, if not from the destruction too. When the arrows of death fly thick around them by day, and the pestilence walks through the streets in darkness, when a thousand fall at their side, and ten thousand at their right-hand, they make the Lord their refuge, even the Most High their habitation, and dwelt at ease in his secret place. He covers them from evil, or he gives them courage, so that they are not afraid: They place themselves under the protection of his name; they find shelter in his attributes: These are their secret chambers; they hide within the curtains of his covenant, they wrap their souls, as it were, in a sheet, or rather in[23] a volume of promises; that ancient volume that has secured the saints in all ages; and though death be near them, they know that their better life is safe: He gives his angels charge over them, to keep them on earth, or to bear them up to heaven, where their life is; Ps. xci. 11, 12.

Thence it comes to pass that we see christians, searching after God in ordinances, and seeking for the Lord Jesus Christ in sermons, in prayers, in the closet, and in the sanctuary; for they live upon him. A holy soul pursues after the presence of his God, and his Saviour, with the same zeal of affection and fervent desire, that the men of this world indulge in their pursuit of created good: _My soul followeth hard after thee_; Ps. lxiii. 8. Carnal persons are contented to be absent from God, for he is not their life: They can satisfy themselves with a shew of religion, without the power of it; and with empty forms of ordinances, without Christ in them, because they are not born again, their life is not spiritual. The sinner lives upon visible creatures, and these awaken his warmest affections. A saint lives upon hidden and invisible things, upon the hopes of futurity, and upon the glories that are concealed in the promises: He lives upon the righteousness and the intercession of Jesus his Mediator, upon the strength and grace of Christ, who is his head in heaven; upon the word, the promise, and the all-sufficiency of a God; and therefore these are objects of his meditation and his desire.

I proceed now to the three inferences for our consolation.

1st Consolation. If our life be hidden with God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is in safe hands. The wisdom and mercy of God have joined together, to appoint, shall I say, such a secret repository for our spiritual life, that it might be for ever secure. What can we have, or what can we desire more for the safety of our best life, than that God himself should undertake to reserve it in himself for us, and appoint his own eternal Son, in our nature, to be the great Trustee and Surety, for his exhibition of it in every proper season?

Our original life was hid in the first Adam; it was intrusted with man, poor, feeble, inconstant man, and he lost it: He was of _the earth_, _earthy_, and our life with him goes down to the dust. Our new life is intrusted with Christ; it is hidden in God, who is almighty and unchangeable; and therefore it can never be lost. The second Adam is _the Lord from heaven_, a quickening Spirit; 1 Cor. xv. 45, &c. And _he that believeth on him, though he were dead in_ nature, _yet shall he live_ by grace, for _Christ is the resurrection and the life_: And if he be once made spiritually alive by Christ, he shall live for ever. This is the language of Christ himself; John xi. 25, 26.

What an unreasonable thing is it then for a christian to fear what men or devils can do against him, for they cannot hurt his best life! It is above the reach of all the assaults of earth or hell. Our Lord Jesus teaches us not to be afraid of them who only can kill the body; for the soul is not in their reach; nor is it possible for them to prevent the body from partaking of its share, in the glorious life appointed for a christian at the great rising-day.

We see here upon what firm grounds the doctrine of a christian’s perseverance is built, Christ is his life, _Jesus, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever_. The all-sufficient God, and his eternal Son, have undertaken for the security of it; John x. 28, 29, 30. _I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one._ God hath sworn by his holiness, that the seed of Christ shall endure for ever; Ps. lxxxix. 35, 36. and that his loving-kindness shall not be utterly taken away from his own children: And our Lord Jesus Christ doth little less than swear to the perseverance of his disciples, when he says; John xiv. 19. _Because I live, ye shall live also_: for, as I live, is the oath of God.

Why art thou cast down, O believer, and why is thy soul disquieted within thee? Hope in God thy life, for thou shalt yet praise him, how many and great soever thine adversaries are, and how difficult soever thy path and duty may be, and how loud soever thy foes threaten thy destruction. There may be many things in thy travels through this world, that may hurt or hinder the growth of thy spiritual life, and may for a season interpose, as it were, between thee and thy God: but neither life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall ever separate thee entirely from him, whose love is secured in Jesus Christ; Rom. viii. 38, 39. The disciples were much to blame, that they were overwhelmed with terror in the midst of the storm, while Jesus Christ was with them in the same ship; and ye should chide your own souls, when you feel yourselves under such unbelieving fears as our Lord Jesus Christ chid in his fearful followers: “O ye of little faith, wherefore did ye doubt?”

2nd Consolation. What a comfortable thought must it be to a poor feeble christian, that God and Christ know all the state of his spiritual life? for it is hid with them. Though the life of a saint has a cloud upon it, though it is entirely hidden from men, and sometimes too much hidden from himself too, yet the Father and the Saviour know every circumstance of it, how low it is, how feeble, what daily obstacles it meets with, what hourly enemies assault it. Christ our Lord well knows when our life is in danger, and what are the necessary supplies.

This is very encouraging to a poor trembling believer, when he hardly knows how to address the throne of grace himself in such a manner, as to represent all his wants, and all his spiritual sorrows and difficulties to God in prayer; but our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a compassionate high-priest, who is our Head, and near a-kin to us his members, is perfectly acquainted with our state: And the christian, mourning under the decays of grace, can look up to Christ with hope, he can mingle new exercises of faith and dependance, among his sighs and groans, and commit his case afresh to Jesus his Saviour, with a humble and a holy acquiescence in him. Christ himself, who is the believer’s life, must know and will take care of all affairs which relate to his spiritual and eternal welfare.

It is a matter of sweet consolation too, when a humble christian, who walks carefully before God, is reproached by the world for a deceiver and a hypocrite, that he can appeal to God, with whom his life is hid, and say, “My record is on high; though my friends, or my enemies, may scorn or deride me, yet he knoweth the way that I take, and the secret exercises of my hidden life: He knows my longings and breathings of soul after him, and that nothing but his love can satisfy me: He knows my diligence and my holy labour to please him: He knows the wrestlings and the conflicts that I go through hourly, to maintain my close walking with my God: He knows that I live, though it is but a feeble life; and the charges of the world against me are false and malicious.” It is with a relish of holy pleasure that the christian sometimes, in secret, appeals to our Lord Jesus Christ, as Peter did, and says, _Lord, thou who knowest all things, knowest that I love thee_, John xxi. 17.

IIId Consolation. It is a matter of unspeakable comfort to a christian, that the most terrible things to a sinner, are become the greatest blessings to a saint: And these are death and judgment. What can be more dreadful to those who know not God than those two words are; for they put an eternal end to all their present pleasures, and to all their hopes. But what greater happiness can a saint wish or hope for, than death and judgment will put him in possession of? The one carries his soul upward where his life is, that is, to God and Christ in heaven; the other brings his life down to earth, where his body is, for Christ shall then come to raise his dust from the grave.

I confess, I finished my former discourse on this text, with a meditation on death and judgment; how the gloom which hung around the saint in this life, is all dispelled at that blessed hour; and he who was unknown and despised among men, stands forth with honour amongst admiring angels: His hidden manner of life is for ever at an end. But in this discourse the secret and glorious springs of his life, _viz._ God and Christ, will naturally lead us to the same delightful meditations of futurity, as the hidden manner of it has done; and there is so rich a variety of new and transporting scenes and ideas attending that subject, that I have no need to tire you with unpleasing repetition, though I resume the glorious theme.

Let my consolations proceed then, and let the saints rejoice. At the moment of death, the soul may say, “Farewel, for ever, sins and sorrows, and perplexities; farewell, temptations of the alluring, and the affrighting kind; neither the vanities, nor the terrors of this world, shall reach me any more; for I shall from this moment for ever dwell where my joy, my life is. All my springs are in God, and I shall be for ever with him.”—And when the morning of the resurrection dawns upon the world, and the day of judgment appears, the body of a christian shall be called out of the dust, and shall bid farewell for ever to death and darkness; to disease and pain, to all the fruits of sin, and all the effects of the curse. Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, stands up a complete conqueror over all the powers of the grave: He bids the sacred dust, arise and live; the dust obeys, and revives; the whole saint appears exulting in life; the date of his immortality then begins, and his life shall run on to everlasting ages.

Methinks such lively views of death should incline us rather to desire to depart from the body, that we may dwell with Christ. Death is but a flight of the soul where its divine life is. Why should we make it a matter of fear then, to be absent from the body, if we are immediately present with the Lord! Methinks, under the influence of such meditations of the resurrection, faith should breathe, and long for the last appearance of Christ, and rejoice in the language of holy Job: _I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth_; Job xix. 25. A christian should send his hopes and his wishes forward to meet the chariot-wheels of our Lord Jesus the Judge; for the day of his appearance is but the display of our life, and the perfection of our blessedness. _When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory_; Col. iii. 4. My thoughts kindle at the sound of that blessed promise, and I long to let contemplation loose on a theme so divinely glorious. If ever the pomp of language be indulged, and the magnificence of words, it must be to display this bright solemnity, this illustrious appearance, which outshines all the pomp of words, and the utmost magnificence of language. Come, my friends, let us meditate the sacred conformity of the saints to Christ, first, in their hidden, and then in their glorious life; as he was on earth, so are they; both hated of the world, both unknown in it. The disciples must be trained up for public honours, as their Master was, in this hideous and howling wilderness, in caves of darkness, or rather in a den of savages. They must follow the Captain of their salvation through a thousand dangers and sufferings; and they shall receive their crown too, and a glory like that which arrays their divine Leader.

O may I never think it hard to trace the footsteps of my Lord, though it be in a miry, or a thorny way! May I never repine at poverty and meanness of circumstance in my present pilgrimage! nor think it strange if the world scorn and abuse me, or if Satan, the foul spirit, should assault and buffet me sorely! Dare I hope to appear in glory, when Christ, who is my life appears; and can I not bear to attend him in sufferings and shame? Am I better than my blessed Lord? What poor attendants had the Son of God, at his first entrance into our world! How mean was every thing that belonged to him on earth! What vile and despicable raiment, unworthy of the Prince of glory! What coarse provision, and sorry furniture, to entertain incarnate godhead! And how impious was the treatment he found among men, and impudent temptations from the same foul spirit! He had snares, sorrows, and temptations, watching all around him: The sorrows of death compassed him about, and the powers of darkness crowded him with their envious assaults; earth and hell were at once engaged against him; they hung him bleeding on a cursed and infamous tree, lifted on high to be made a more public gazing-stock, and an object of wider scorn! Blessed Saviour! how divine was thy patience to endure all these indignities, and not call for thy Father’s legions, nor thy own thunder.

But, this was the hour of thy appointed combat, the place of thy voluntary obscurity, and the season of thy hidden life; and thy saints must bear thy resemblance in both worlds. How unspeakable were thy past sorrows! and thy present glories all unspeakable! How infinitely different were these dark and mournful scenes, from the joys and honours thou hast purchased by those very sufferings! Sacred honours and joys without alloy, which thou art now possessed of as their great forerunner, and hast made ready for thy subjects in thy own kingdom! What robes of light shall array thy followers in that day; What bright planet, or brighter star, shall be the place of thy dwelling? or shall all those shining worlds be mansions of various residence, as thou shalt lead thy saints successively through the vast and numerous provinces of thy boundless dominion? Sorrow, sin, and temptation, shall be named no more, unless to triumph over them in immortal songs. The fairest spirits of light, in their own heavenly forms, shall be the companions and attendants of the children of God. Jesus, the Lord of glory, is their king and head, the leader of their triumph, and the pattern of their exaltation. Jesus shall appear in his meridian lustre, as the Sun of Righteousness in the noon of heaven; yet the beams of his influence shall be gentle as the morning-star. There needs no other sun in that upper world; the Lamb is the light thereof. Jesus, the ornament of paradise, and the delight of God, shall be the eternal and beatific object of their senses, and their souls; they must be _where he is, to behold his glory_.

The blessed God shall dwell among them, and lay out upon them the riches of his own all-sufficiency, riches of wisdom, grace, and power, all-suprising, and all-infinite. Divine power shall then reveal all the glory that has been laid up for them, of old, in the purposes of God, or in the promises of the book of life. But it was fit it should be hidden there, while the time of their probation lasted; it was fit they should live by faith, and under some degrees of darkness, while the ages of sin and temptation were rolling away: It was divinely proper that eternal life should not break forth; nor the splendours of the third heaven be made too conspicuous, till the six thousand years of mortality and death had finished their revolutions round the lower skies, and had answered the scheme of divine counsel and judgment, on a world where sin had entered.

But life and heaven must not be hid for ever. The almighty word, in that day, shall bid the ancient decree bring forth, and the promise unfold itself in public light. What new worlds of unseen felicity! what scenes of delight, and celestial blessings, never yet revealed to the race of Adam! When the rivers of pleasure, that had run under ground from the earth’s foundation, shall break up in immortal fountains.

Mercy and truth shall lavish out upon men with an unsparing hand all those treasures of life which were hid in God, and in the gospel for them. The All-wise shall please himself in making so noble creatures, out of so mean materials, dust and ashes. Glorified saints are master-pieces of divine skill; and the blessed original, or first exemplar of them, the man Jesus, is the perfection of the contrivance of God; here he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence. Then the inhabitants of upper worlds shall see an illustrious and holy creation, rising out of the ruins of this wretched globe, involved all in guilt, and weltering in penal fire. When this scene opens, what sounding acclamations shall echo from world to world, and new universal honours be paid to Divine wisdom! The morning-stars shall sing together again, and those holy armies shout for joy. The grace of God descending to earth, in days past, had in some measure prepared his children for glory: But in that day he shall enlarge their capacities, both of sense and of mind, to an inconceivable extent, and shall fill the powers of their glorified nature with the fruits of his love, new and old.

And what if the limits of our capacity shall be for ever stretching themselves on all sides, and for ever drinking in larger measures of glory; What an astonishing state of ever-growing pleasure! What an eternal advance of our heaven! The godhead is an infinite ocean of life and blessedness, and finite vessels may be for ever swelling, and for ever filling in that sea of all-sufficiency. There must be no tiresome satiety in that everlasting entertainment. God shall create the joys of his saints ever fresh: He shall throw open his endless stores of blessing, unknown even to the first rank of angels; and feast the sons and daughters of men with pleasures a-kin to those which were prepared for the Son of God. For verily he took not upon him the nature of angels, but the likeness of sinful flesh: And when he shall appear the second time without sin to our salvation, we shall then be made like him, for we shall see him as he is. _Amen._

HYMN FOR SERMONS IX. and X.
_The Hidden Life of a Christian._

O happy soul, that lives on high,
While men lie groveling here!
His hopes are fix’d above the sky,
And faith forbids his fear.

His conscience knows no secret stings,
While grace and joy combine
To form a life, whose holy springs
Are hidden and divine.

He waits in secret on his God;
His God in secret sees:
Let earth be all in arms abroad,
He dwells in heavenly peace.

His pleasures rise from things unseen,
Beyond this world and time,
Where neither eyes nor ears have been,
Nor thoughts of mortals climb.

He wants no pomp, nor royal throne
To raise his figure here;
Content, and pleased to live unknown,
Till Christ his life appear.

He looks to heaven’s eternal hills,
To meet that glorious day;
Dear Lord, how slow thy chariot-wheels!
How long is thy delay!

Footnote 23:

The bible, of old, was written on several sheets of parchment tacked
together, and rolled up in a volume.

SERMON XI.
_Nearness to God the Felicity of Creatures._
PSALM lxv. 4.—Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to
approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts.
THE FIRST PART.

It was an elegant address that the queen of Sheba made to Solomon, when she had surveyed the magnificence of his court, and heard his wisdom; “Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee!” 1 Kings x. 8. And there was much truth and honour in her speech. But the harp of David strikes a diviner note; Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, O God, that he may approach unto thee, and dwell in thy courts, in the holy sanctuary.

Whether, in these words, the Psalmist blesses those levites and priests, whose duty it was to attend the ark, and to dwell near the tabernacle, or whether he pronounces blessedness on every man of Israel, whose habitation nigh the ark gave him frequent opportunities to attend at that solemn worship, is not very necessary to determine. Either of these may be called dwelling in the courts of God. But it is most probable, that the sacred writer designs the second sense of the word, and that he includes himself in the desire or possession of this blessedness, though he was neither a priest nor a levite; for he uses the same phrase in several places, and applies it to himself; Ps. xxvii. 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._ Ps. xxiii. 6.—_I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever._ By which he intimates, that he would seek the most frequent opportunities of approaching God in public worship.

It is sufficient to my present purpose, that the holy Psalmist makes the _blessedness of man_ to depend upon his _near approaches to God_.

Here we should remember that God is necessarily near to all his creatures, by his infinite knowledge, by his preserving and governing power: _He is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being_; Acts xvii. 27, 28. But the privilege which David speaks of in my text, is a _peculiar approach of a creature to God_, which is a fruit of divine choice and favour. The souls who enjoy this blessing are chosen to it, and by divine providence and mercy are _caused to approach him_. What further explication of this phrase is necessary, will be sufficiently given in the following parts of the discourse.

Let this then be the doctrine which I shall attempt to confirm and improve, _viz._

Doctrine. Nearness to God is the foundation of a creature’s happiness.

This may be proved with ease, if we consider, what it is that makes an intelligent being happy: and how well such an approach to God furnishes us with all the means of attaining it. The ingredients of happiness are these three: 1. The contemplation of the most excellent object: 2. The love of the chiefest good: 3. And a delightful sense of being beloved by an all-sufficient power, or an almighty friend.

1. The contemplation of the most excellent object. And he who is nearest to God, has the fairest advantages of this kind. The understanding is a noble faculty of our natures; truth is its proper food; and truth, in all the boundless varieties and beauties of it, is the object of its pursuit, when it is refined from sensualities.

This is the delight of the _philosopher_, to search all the hidden wonders of nature, and pursue truth with a most pleasurable and restless fatigue: For this he climbs the heavens, traces the planetary and the starry worlds: For this he pries into the bowels of the earth, and sounds the depths of the ocean; and when, with immense toil of mind, he has found out some unknown natural truth, how are all the powers of his soul charmed within him, and he exults, as it were, in a little paradise!

But the souls who are admitted to draw nearest to God, contemplate infinite truth in its original. They converse with that divine artificer, who spread abroad these curtains of heaven, who moulded this globe of earth, and furnished the upper and the lower worlds with all their admirable varieties. He is a God of glory and beauty in himself, as well as the author of all the beauties of nature. All his perfections, as well as his works, yield heavenly matter for contemplation: He eminently contains in himself all the amazing scenes of nature, and the more transporting wonders of the world of grace; those mysteries wherein _he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence_: How the ruined sons of Adam were rescued from death, by the Son of God dying in their stead; how Satan was baffled in his most subtle designs, and the deepest policies of hell undermined, when the prince of darkness destroyed his own kingdom, by persuading men to put the Son of God to death.

What a divine pleasure is it to converse with that wisdom which laid the eternal scheme of all these wonders, and of ten thousand more unknown beauties in the transactions of providence and grace, with which the blessed minds above are feasted to satisfaction! And besides all these God has reserved in himself a hidden world of new scenes to open hereafter, and an everlasting profusion of new wonders to display before the eyes of his favourites. Heaven is described by _seeing God_, by _beholding him face to face_, and by _knowing_ him in the way and manner in which _we are known_; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. And he is pleased to indulge some taste of this felicity to his children in this life, by mediums and glasses, by types and figures, by his word and ordinances, under the enlightening beams of his spirit. This is the _beauty of the Lord_, for the view of which David desired to _dwell in_ the sanctuary; Ps. xxvii. 4, that he might see the power and glory of God continually, as he had sometimes seen it there: that he might behold his beauty, and talk of his glorious goodness in his holy temple. O _how great is his goodness! and how great is his beauty_; Zech. ix. 17.

But contemplation alone cannot make a creature happy: This only entertains the understanding, which is but one faculty of our natures: the will and affections must have their proper entertainment too. Their beatific exercise may be comprized in the word love, either in the out-goings, or the returns of it: And this leads me to the following particulars:

II. The next ingredient of a creature’s happiness, is, the love of the chiefest good. And those _whom God chooses, and causes to approach himself_, when they are under divine illuminations, see so much beauty and excellency in his nature, his power and wisdom, and so many lovely glories in his overflowing grace, that they cannot but love him above all things; and this love is a great part of their heaven. What sweeter pleasure is there in this lower world, than to give a loose to the affectionate powers of the soul, to converse with the most amiable and most desired object, to feed upon it without ceasing, and to dwell with it perpetually? But the most relishing enjoyments of this kind that mortality admits of, in the pursuit or possession of created good, are but faint and feeble shadows of the blessedness of holy souls in the love of God, who is the most amiable, and the best of beings: Therefore _they love him with all their heart and soul, with all their mind and strength_; and if they had more powers in nature that could be employed in love, they should all be laid out in the search and fruition of this first and best-beloved: for there are endless stores, and treasures of unknown loveliness in the godhead, to excite and entertain for ever the fresh efforts of the most exalted love. But for me to know, and to love the best of beings, cannot make me completely happy, unless I am _beloved_ of him also, and unless I _feel_ that he loves me. Happiness requires mutual love.

III. The third ingredient therefore of our felicity, and that which perfects the blessedness of a creature, is, the delightful sense of the love of an almighty friend. To know, to love, and to be beloved by such a being, must complete our bliss; one who hath all beauty, and all goodness in himself; one who can free us from every pain, secure us against every peril, and confer upon us every pleasure. This is the perfection of our heaven, when all these are enjoyed in a perfect degree, without any alloy. Now such is the state of those who _are chosen and caused to approach unto God_, so as to know him, and love him; that they have the chiefest advantages to obtain the assurance and taste of his love. The man whom the Psalmist pronounces blessed in my text, hopes for this pleasure in _the house of God_, that he shall be _satisfied with the_ divine _goodness_ there.

The _loving-kindness_ of God is life, or something _better than life_; Ps. lxiii. 3. and to have a sensation of this loving-kindness, is to feel that I live. To think, to know, and to be assured that I am beloved, by an all-sufficient power, _who can do more_ for me _than I can ask or think_, in life, and death, and in eternity, and to have pleasing and spiritual sensations of _this shed abroad in the heart_; this raises the christian near to the upper heaven, while he dwells on earth, and he _rejoices with joy unspeakable, and full glory_.

Some may object here and say, Is it no part of our blessedness then to love the saints, to rejoice in their love, to contemplate the works of God, and his wonders in creation and providence? Answer, Yes surely; and we have allowed it before: But when we take true satisfaction in any of these, it is as they proceed from God, as they relate to God, and lead our souls to centre in him; for God, who is the first cause, must be the last end of all, and no creatures, as divided from him, can make us either holy or happy.

I proceed to make some improvement of the few thoughts I have delivered on this subject.

I. My first reflection should be upon the scale of blessedness, or the several degrees of felicity that creatures are possessed of, according to their advancing approaches toward God: But my meditations dilate themselves here to so large an extent, as makes it necessary to adjourn this thought to the next discourse. I proceed therefore to the

II. Reflection, What unknown evil is contained in the nature of every sin, for it divides the creature from God and from happiness? It may be said to every soul on earth, as it was once said to Israel; _Your iniquities have separated between you and your God_; Is. lix. 2. What a world of endless mischief was comprized in the first sin of Adam, whereby this lower creation was, as it were, cut off from God at once? Man was at first happy in the image and love of his Maker, a-kin to him by nature and creation, as a son to a father: Adam was _the Son of God_; Luke iii. 38. and he enjoyed the privilege and the pleasure of holy nearness to God, and humble converse with him. He read the name of his Maker in all his works; he could contemplate divine wisdom, power, and goodness there; he loved his Creator with all his soul, and was happy in his Creator’s love. But when sin entered, Adam fled from his heavenly Father, and his friend; _he hid himself among the trees in the garden_, when the voice of the Lord called after him, _Adam, where art thou?_ And it has been the dismal description of sinners ever since, that they are _afar off from God_.

O what tongue can express, or what heart can conceive, the immense load, and everlasting train of mischiefs and miseries, that lie heavy on poor mankind, and have pursued human nature, in all the infinite members and branches of it, through all ages and nations, for almost six thousand years? All these were introduced by man’s first disobedience. We are a sinful race of creatures, born in the likeness of the original sinner; We come into the world _estranged from God, and go astray from the womb_; for we were _shapen_ in iniquity, and conceived in sin; Ps. lviii. 3. and li. 5. It is the temper and spirit of mankind, by nature, to desire an absence from God, and to wish their own misery; Job xxi. 14. “What is the Almighty that we should serve him?—Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” By nature we love him not, nor do we seek after his love. This is your state, and this mine by nature: These are our hateful and deplorable circumstances, and yet we go on to aggravate our own guilt, to run further from God hourly, and to make haste to everlasting wretchedness, if divine grace prevent us not.

III. Reflection. Is nearness to God the foundation of the creature’s felicity, then how vain are all pretences to happiness, while man is a stranger to God? Let him be surrounded with all imaginable delights of sense, or let him be furnished with all advantages of reason or natural knowledge, to entertain the mind; yet if he be afar off from God, he must be afar off from blessedness. _Without God, and without hope_, is the character of the sinful world. Do the profane and sensual wretches boast of their pleasures, while God is not in all their thoughts? Empty shews of pleasure, and vain shadows! And even these shadows, these vain flatteries, are ever flying from their embraces; they delude their pursuit in this world, and shall vanish all at once at the moment of death, and leave them in everlasting sorrow.

Let the sensualist _sport himself in his own deceivings_, and bless himself in the midst of his madness: Let the rich worldling say, “Soul take thine ease, for thy barns and thy chests are full.” Let the mere philosopher glory that he has found happiness out; let him busy himself in refined subtilties, and swell in the pride of his reason: let all these pretenders to felicity, compliment each other, if they please, or call themselves the only happy men; yet the meanest, and the weakest of all the saints, would not make an exchange with them; for the saint is brought nigh to God: And though his poverty here be never so great and his understanding never so contemptible, yet he knows this great truth well, that to exchange God for the creature, would be infinite loss, and misery unspeakable. They who never drew near to God, who never saw God in his works or his word, so as to love him above all things, and partake of his love, must be miserable in spite of all their pretences: _They that are far from God shall perish_; Ps. lxxiii. 27.