Sermons Volume 4, Sermons on Titus · Sermon 13
SERMON XIII.
TITUS II.13.
Looking for, &c.
Vse 1. INformation.
1. It informs us, that we may look for the Reward. Those Men would be wiser than God, that deny us a Liberty to make use of the Spirit's Motives, they begrudg God's Bounty. To what end should God propound Rewards, but that we should close with them by Faith? Graces may be exercised about their proper Objects without Sin. It requireth some Faith to aim at things not seen. The World is drowned in Sense and present Satisfactions, they are Mercenaries that must have Pay in hand, their Souls droop if they do not meet with Credit, Applause and Profit, they make Man their Pay-master: They have the Spirit of a Servant, that prizes present Wages above the Inheritance; but it is the Work of Grace to look for the blessed Hope, and a great help to us in our Work. It was the Comfort of Christ's Human Soul, Heb. 12.2. Who for the Ioy that was set before him, endured the Cross, despising the Shame. Christ as Man, was to have rational Comforts and human Encouragements. Nothing is sinful, but coveting the Reward whilst we neglect the Work; when we will be Mercenarii, but not Operarii; we would receive the Reward, but not do our Work. We are all born Libertines, we would sever the Reward from the Duty. Hosea 10.11. Ephraim is an Heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the Corn, but not to break the Clods; in treading out the Corn there was Pleasure and Profit, but in breaking the Clods Pain and Labour. Or else we sin, in having a carnal Notion of Heaven; our looking for Heaven, is like their looking for Christ as the Consolation of Israel. Some of the Jews look for a carnal Messiah, so do many Christians for a carnal Heaven, for base Pleasures, fleshly Delights; such Hopes debase the Heart: it is the Priviledg of our Profession, that we have a sublime Hope. Or else we sin in looking for the Reward as the Fruit of Merit; if we expect it as Wages for Work done, we are Mercenaries. Sin and Death are as Work and Wages, Rom. 6.23. The Wages of Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life, through Iesus Christ our Lord. Eternal Life is a Donative. What is the reason of this Difference? because wicked Men stand upon their own bottom, but Christ hath obtained this Priviledg for us. Wicked Works are ours, meerly evil, but the Good we do is by God's Grace, as a Servant tradeth with his Master's Estate. I am bound to do Good, and am forbidden to sin; when I do that which is forbidden, I deserve Punishment; but when I do that which is commanded, I do not deserve a Reward, because I am bound to do it: Jude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life. It is Mercy that we are called, Mercy that we are glorified; neither before Conversion nor after Conversion do we deserve any thing. We serve a good Master, he hath provided Comforts for us, not only against our Misery, but our Unworthiness; we have not only Glory as a Reward, but Mercy as the cause of it, Glory out of the hands of Mercy. Thus must you look for the Reward, and build your Hopes of it. As you pray, so must you expect: now you will not pray, Lord! give me Heaven, for I deserve it: natural Conscience would blush at the Immodesty of such a Request. Who would not have the Title of Inheritance rather than of Hire? Again, our own Happiness must not be our ultimate End; Man was made for a twofold End, to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever; they must both go together, we must desire the Enjoyment of God, that we may glorify God to all Eternity, otherwise Interest swayeth us more than Duty. First, we love God out of Interest, and are drawn with the Cords of a Man; as first the Fire is kindled, and then it sendeth forth much Smoak; afterwards we love God out of pure Affection: at length as the new Nature gathers Strength and Perfection, Men rejoice in God's Glory as much as in their own Salvation; it is a simple Act of Adoration, in Heaven it will be so, we shall rejoice in God's Glory as much as in our own Interest and Profit.
2. It informs us of the Reason why the World and Sin have such a Power over Men, why they lie under the Power of present things; we do not awaken our Hopes, and consider Blessedness to come so much as we should. It is not only a difference between Sinners and Saints, but between Christian and Christian, one is more heavenly than another. As there is a difference between ordinary Subjects and Courtiers, those that are always in their Princes Eye and Company are more polite in their Manners than others: so the oftner the Soul is in God's Court, the more holy; our Hopes will have an Influence upon our Practice. It is Hope that carries the Soul aloft out of the reach of Temptation; as Birds when flying on high in the Air, need not fear Nets nor Snares, nor the Crafts of the Fowler. Keep Hope alive, and then a Christian cannot fail, Heb. 3.6. — Whose House we are, if we hold fast the Confidence, and the rejoycing of Hope firm unto the end. If a Man had such a lively Hope, and some taste and feeling of Heaven, and Blessedness to come, and a constant groaning after them; if we could but glory in our Hopes as much as if we had present Possession, then we need not fear miscarrying.
3. It informs us, that it is a false Hope that doth not urge to Practice and Strictness of Life. Some Men make full account to go to Heaven, but make no preparation for it, their Course is another way, there is not only an Unsutableness to their Hopes, but a Contrariety: If there were only an Unsutableness, it were enough to discover the Cheat, for we are to be made meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light, Col. 1.12. and to walk worthy of God, who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory, 1 Thess. 2.12. and to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called, Ephes. 4.1. There is a Sutableness between a Man and his great Hopes. When David was a Shepherd, he spent his time in keeping his Father's Sheep, and had the Heart of a Shepherd; but when he was called to be King, then he behaved himself like a King, like a Shepherd of the People: So a Christian discovers his Hopes in his Disposition, and in his Practice, and doth walk as an Heir of the Grace of Life. There may be a slight Hope which hath no Efficacy, but those serious Sighs, and hearty Groans I speak of, certainly they will work a Sutableness in the Temper of our Hearts, and the Constitution of our Souls, and we shall be more holy, there will be more worthy walking, more Detestation of Sin, more Contempt of the World, more Diligence in the Spiritual Life. When you walk as if your Hopes were altogether in this World; when Princes in Scarlet embrace a Dunghil; when those that are called to great and glorious Hopes, live as if their Happiness were only here below, heaping up Wealth, Treasure and Worldly Conveniences to themselves, it is a Lamentation. If you saw a Man labouring in filthy Ditches, and sullying himself as poor Men do with Mire and Dirt, who would believe he were an Heir apparent to a Crown, and called to inherit a Kingdom? So when we live as Men of the World, when there is an Unsutableness between us and our Hopes, how do we walk as the Heirs of Grace? But now when there is not only an Unsutableness, but an open Contrariety in their Practice, and yet they think to go to Heaven; it is as if a Man whose Journey lay North, should travel just South. Can that Man look to be filled up with God, when God is not in all his Thoughts? Can he long for the Company of Christ that slights his Ordinances? Can he prize the Communion of Saints, to whom good Company is a Prison? Can he look for an immaculate and sinless State, to whom Purity is an Eyesore, and who hates the Power of Godliness? Yet many such deceive themselves with false Hopes, when there is not only Unsutableness, but a plain Contrariety.
4. It informs us, That an assured Interest in Heaven is no Ground of Loosness or Laziness. Comfort serves to quicken, but not to slacken our Endeavours. The more we look for Heaven, the more it engageth us to Strictness of Life. The Apostle after he had professed his Assurance, We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body, and to be present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.8. What then? v. 9. Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Here is a sure Recompence, our great Care is, that we may live and die in his Grace, because we are confident we shall live with the Lord when we depart from the Body. Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God, looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life. When God is so gracious in Christ, providing such great things for such unworthy Creatures, as Eternal Life, and we come to receive Glory out of the hands of Mercy, what a mighty Engagement is this to make us watch against all Decays and Coolings of Love.
Vse 2. To exhort us to this Expectation, or looking for the blessed Hope. The method and way is first to believe, then to apply, then to expect.
1. Believe it, that there is such a Happiness reserved for the Children of God. Next to God's Being, we are bound to believe his Bounty, Heb. 11.6. He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him. These two Principles, that God is, and that he is a Rewarder, are the Fundamental Notions that keep up all Religion. There is a Mist upon Eternity to a carnal Heart, they are led by Sense, and believe no more than they see; Heb. 11.1. Faith is the Substance of things hoped for, and the Evidence of things not seen. Fancy and Nature cannot out-see Time, and look beyond Death. Faith holdeth the Candle to Hope, and then we are able to look into the other World, and to see a happy State to come. Now because Faith is weak in most, and we waver more in the Belief of God's Bounty, than of his Being; his Godhead is manifested by present sensible Effects, but we scruple his Rewards, which are wholly to come; therefore let us strengthen and help Faith as much as we can. The Word is clear in this Point. Now God hath been true in all things: Fidelis in omnibus, in ultimo non deficiet; He that hath been faithful in all things, will not fail us at last. The calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of the Jews, the sending of the Messiah, these were things as invisible, and as much to come, as Heaven is to us: new all these things have been fulfilled, and why should we not trust God to the last? Experience is wont to beget Hope, Rom. 5.4. And Patience Experience, and Experience Hope. Can God lie, or Truth it self be false? What need hath God to flatter thee, or deceive thee? If we did preach a God that needed the Creatures, then you might suspect what we tell you in his Name; but he hath no Interest to be gratified: his vehement Longings are for your Good and Profit; Deut. 5.29. O that there were such an Heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my Commandments always, that it may be well with them, and with their Children for ever! God doth not say, that it may be well with me, but with them. Again, let Reason be heard to speak how sutable it is to God's Nature. Consider, the Being of God is infinite and eternal, and so is the Reward; the Apostle calls it, 2 Cor. 4.17. a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory. Ara…nah gave like a King. God's Gifts are like himself, sutable to his infinite Mercy, and eternal Duration; how likely is it, that God will once shew himself like himself! And they are suitable to the Merit of Christ: Is God at such expence for Trifles? The Comforts of this World may be bought with Gold and Silver; but the Apostle saith, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as Silver and Gold, &c. but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish, and without spot. Why would God give so great a Price out of his own Treasury, but to take a Debt upon himself, and to oblige his Justice to be our Friend? If Christ can be in the Womb, and in the Grave, why may not we be in Heaven? It is more credible to believe that a Creature should be in Heaven, than a God should be in the Grave: and Christ's Abasement (which is first) is more than our Advancement. There is not so great a distance between us and Happiness, as between Christ and Misery. Men naturally being made capable of an higher Condition of Mind and Affections, to love and know God, Godliness must have a better Recompence than is to be had in the World. These are but the Offals of Providence enjoyed by God's Enemies, they have the greatest Share; Psal. 17.14. From Men of the World, which have their Portion in this Life. The wiser Men are, the more they contemn these things: Children are taken with Rattles. Grace cannot be satisfied with the World, without an higher Enjoyment of God. Pleasures are common to us with the Beasts; wicked Men flow in Ease and Plenty. A Reward there must be; it is impossible a Creature should rest in its own Action. We see that natural Actions that tend to maintain Life, have a Sweetness and Pleasure mingled with them, that we may not neglect them, or our own Preservation, as Eating and Drinking, and the like. Therefore vertuous Actions, much more such as are against the hair and bent of Nature, must have a Reward, a Reward better than the Work, or else it would be lost Labour. There is a disposition and instinct of Nature towards Eternal Happiness: Man's Soul, like a Spunge, is thirsty, and seeketh to be satisfied; Psal. 4.6. Who will shew us any Good? And every Good will not serve their turn. Men at first take up with the Creature, because it is next at hand, but it satisfieth not; their Sore runneth till they come to enjoy God: Acts 17.27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they may feel after him, and find him. When we have all outward Blessings, the Soul of Man is not filled up; there is something wanting to our Peace and Quiet: Solomon made Experiments, but had no satisfaction. Thus you see there is no such Reward so sutable to what is declared of God, of Christ, of the Nature of Man, of Grace, as this blessed Hope.
2. Apply it. Besides the Truth of the Promises, look to the clearing up of your own Interest and Title. It is a poor comfortless Meditation to think of a blessed Hope, and the certainty of it, unless we have an Interest in these things; this will be but like the gaze of an hungry Man upon a Feast. The Reprobates hereafter are lookers on; and David speaks of a Table spread for him in the presence of his Enemies, Psal. 23.5. Hope hath never a more lively Influence, than when it is founded in Property, and a sense of our own Interest. Job 19.25. I know that my Redeemer liveth. And 2 Cor. 5.1. We know, that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. 2 Tim. 4.8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Iudg shall give me at that Day. There is not only an Heaven, but for me. Thus are the Saints wont to profess their Interest and assured Hope. But is Hope only the fruit of Assurance? I answer, It is the fruit of Faith, as well as of Assurance or Experience: but certainly it is very comfortable, when we can discern our own Interest, and in some sort necessary. Before we can hope for our selves, our Qualification is to be supposed, for that is our Evidence. Therefore I shall, 1st. Press you to get this Assurance. 2dly. Shew what kind of Application is absolutely required, that you may thus look for the blessed Hope.
1st. Let me press you to get an assured Title to Heaven. In a Matter of such moment, would a Man be at an Uncertainty? Can he be quiet, and not sure of Heaven? Not to look after it, is a bad sign: A godly Man may want it, but a godly Man cannot slight it. A Man may want it, he may creep to Heaven: some are scarcely saved, 1 Pet. 4.18. Others have an abundant Entrance, 2 Pet. 1.10, 11. Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an Entrance shall be ministred to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. For want of this, you quite lose your Heaven upon Earth, which consisteth in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost; and you lose much of the Influence of Hope: Uncertain wavering Thoughts have little Efficacy. But a good Man cannot slight it, it is a breach of a Command which requireth Diligence. It argueth spiritual Security, when Men can be content to live long, and yet do not know what will become of them: How can you think of the Coming of Christ without Terror? That which others look for, and long for, is your Fear: as Felix trembled assoon as he heard of Judgment to come.
2dly. I shall tell you what Application there must be, if we cannot attain to Assurance. There are three degrees of Application beneath Assurance.
(1.) Acceptation of God's Offer, that is one degree of Application. Iob 5.27. Hear it, and know thou it for thy good. Put in for these Hopes, and take God on his Word; stipulate with him, and undertake thy part of the Covenant, upon a confidence God will not fail thee. As Moses, when the Book of the Law was read, Exod. 24.6. took half the Blood, and sprinkled it on the Altar, to shew that God undertook to bless them: and ver. 8. the other half he sprinkled on the People, by which they were engaged to obey. There must be in all Christians, the Answer of a good Conscience, 1 Pet. 3.21.
(2.) Adherence. Stick close to this Hope in a course of Obedience. If we do God's Work, we shall not fail of Wages: 1 Cor. 9.26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the Air.
(3.) Affiance, noting waiting upon God, tho with some Doubts and Fears, for the Revelation of this Glory. Tho you cannot say, It is yours, yet wait with hope till your Change come, looking for the Mercy of Christ; so that you durst venture your Soul in that Bottom. This is committing our Souls to him in well-doing, as to a merciful and faithful Creator, 1 Pet. 4.19. You put your Souls into God's Hands that made them.
3. Expect it. This is the formal Act of Hope, which is pressed in the Text. This Hope and Expectation of Blessedness, is the Strength of the inward Man. The Devils have a Faith, but because it is without Hope, it yieldeth no Refreshment: James 2.19. Thou believest that there is one God, thou dost well; the Devils also believe and tremble. The word signifies such a trembling as the raging of the Sea; it is a Light that does not refresh, but scorch. There would be Comfort in Hell, if there could be Hope there. It is the Duty now in season, here we must expect: Rom. 8.24. We are saved by Hope. In Innocency there was little or no use of Hope; and in Heaven there will be none at all; the Object of Man's Happiness will be present and enjoyed; but now all is to come: we have only a Taste and Pledg to make us long for more, and expect more. Faith by Hope maketh them present Substance; Heb. 11.1. Faith is the Substance of Things hoped for. Things of Eternal Life seem as a Shadow and Fiction to a carnal Heart. This Hope is an earnest Elevation of the Mind to look for what Faith counteth real.
Vse 3. To direct us how to look for this blessed Hope.
1. Consider it. Hope is a temperate Extasy, a Survey of the Land of Promise. As God said to Abraham, Gen. 13.14, 15. Lift up now thine Eyes, and look from the Place where thou art, Northward, and Southward, and Eastward, and Westward. For all the Land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed for ever. So Psal. 48.12. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the Towers thereof. It is a great Advantage to think often of Heaven, it maketh it present to us. Heaven deserveth our best Thoughts. We should always do it; in the Morning it were a good Preservative to keep us from being under the power of present things; Psal. 17.15. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy Likeness. In some special Seasons doth Hope set the Mind a-work: in times of Trouble and present Sufferings, we enjoy a happy Dedolency: the Mind is untouched, whatever the Body suffereth. When we are summoned to the Grave, and bodily Sicknesses put you in mind of Death, when Sense and Speech fail, the Love of God never fails; this pale Horse is sent from Christ to carry us to Glory: and though we go down to the Grave to converse with Worms and Skulls, this Hope may comfort us, Iob 19.26, 27. And thoug… after my Skin Worms destroy this Body, yet in my Flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for my self, and mine Eyes shall behold, and not another, tho my Reins be consumed within me.
2. Long for it. Hope cannot be without Groans. Every day wind up your Affections, for here is nothing but Conflicts and Sorrows. Love to Christ cannot be without him, it will never be content. Nature desires Perfection; Col. 3.1, 2. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right Hand of God. Set your Affections on Things above, not on Things on the Earth. There is our God, our Christ, our Rest: Where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also, Mat. 6.22. not only the Mind, but the Heart: what we are much thinking of, the Desires will be working that way. The new Nature cannot be without these Desires; every thing tendeth thither whence it came: Eph. 1.3. Who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings, foreign, in heavenly Places. God sits in Heaven that dispenseth Grace, Christ that conveyeth it; thence come our Mercies, Comforts and Joys: therefore it is against the tendency of the new Nature not to be tending thither, where Christ is, who is our greatest Happiness. There is your Father, your elder Brother, the best of the Family, and your spiritual Relations, whom you most valued; the best Company is in the other World. Here you have Maintenance, as in a foreign Land, but there is your Interest and Estate. How unworthy soever we are, there is infinite Mercy to give it, there it acts like it self; infinite Merit to purchase it, there we receive the full Fruits of our Redemption; and the present Fruits of the Spirit are the Earnest of it, as an Earnest is something in part of a greater Sum.
3. Wait for it. There are Groans of Expectation as well as of Desire. You have a fair Charter granted by God the Father, written with the Blood of Christ, sealed by the Spirit. To make your Expectation more firm, consider;
(1.) Christ's Goodness and Mercy. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal Life, Jude, v. 21. He never discovered any backwardness to thy Good, or inclination to thy Ruin.
(2.) God's Faithfulness. Heb. 9.18, 19. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong Consolation. God stands more on his Word, than on Heaven and Earth. If an honest Man has made a promise of any thing, he will make it good; much more may we depend on the faithful God.
(3.) God's Power. If our Souls were in our own keeping, we might fear; but we are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation, 1 Pet. 1.5. Abraham being perswaded of God's Power, against Hope believed in Hope, Rom. 4.18.
(4.) Christ's Merit and Intercession. Rom. 8.34. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right Hand of God, who also maketh Intercession for us. By his Merit our Right to Heaven is purchased, and by his Intercession it is maintained for us.