But then it is said to be lively, not only objectively, but effectively, enlivening and comforting the children of God in all dis-Thus, Rom. vi. at large, and often elsewhere. tresses, enabling them to encounter and And thus likewise it is the cause of our surmount all difficulties in the way. And living hope, that which indeed inspires and then it is formerly so, it cannot fail, dies not maintains life in it, because he hath conbefore accomplishment. Worldly hopes often quered death, and is risen again; and that mock men, and so cause them to be asham-is implied which followeth, he is "set down ed, and men take it as a great blot, and are at the right hand of God," hath entered into most of all ashamed of those things that dis- | possession of that inheritance: This gives cover weakness of judgment in them. Now us a living hope, that according to his own worldly hopes do thus, they put the fool request, "where he is, there we may be upon a man: When he hath judged him- also." Thus this hope is strongly underset, self sure, and laid so much weight and ex-on the one side by the resurrection of Christ, pectation on them, then they break, and foil on the other by the abundant mercy of God

God is bountiful to all, gives to all men all that they have, health, riches, honour, strength, beauty, and wit; but those things he scatters, as it were, with an indifferent hand. Upon others he looks, as well as on his beloved children; but the inheritance is peculiarly theirs. Inheritance is convertible with sonship: For, Gen. xxv. 5. Abraham gave gifts to Keturah's sons, and dismissed them; but the inheritance was for the son of the promise. When we see a man rising in preferment, estate, or admired for excellent gifts and endowments of mind, we think there is a happy man: But we consider not that none of all those things are matter of inheritance; within a while he is to be turned out of all, and if he have not somewhat belame praises in comparison of his love? No-yond all those to look to, he is but a miser

Plo

able man, and so much the more miserable | might be such, as the continuance of it were not very desirable; it would be but a misery at best to continue always in this life. tinus thanked God that his soul was not tied to an immortal body. Then undefiled, it is not stained with the least spot. This signifies the purity and perfection of it, that the perpetuity of it; it doth not only abide, and is pure, but those together, it abideth always in its integrity. And lastly, it fadeth not away; it doth not fade nor wither at all, is not sometimes more, sometimes less pleasant, but ever the same, still like itself, and that is the immutability of it.

that once he seemed and was reputed happy. There is a certain time wherein heirs come to possess. Thus it is with this inheritance too; there is by the apostle mention made of a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 13. And though the inheritance is rich and honourable, yet the heir being young is held under discipline, and is more strictly dealt with possibly than the servants, sharply corrected for that which is let pass in them: yet still even then, in regard of that which he is born to, his condition is much better than theirs, and all the correction he suffers preju- As it is incorruptible, it carries it away dices him not, but fits him for inheriting. The from all earthly possessions and inheritances; love of our heavenly Father is beyond the for all those epithets are intended to signify love of mothers in tenderness, and yet beyond its opposition to the things of this world, and the love of fathers, which are usually said to to shew how far it excels them all. And love more wisely, in point of wisdom: He thus comparatively we are to consider it : will not undo his children, his heirs, with For as divines say of the knowledge of God too much indulgence. It is one of his heavy that we have here, the negative notion makes judgments upon the foolish children of dis- up a great part of it, we know rather what obedience, that ease shall slay them, and he is not, than what he is, infinite, incomtheir prosperity shall prove their destruction. prehensible, immutable, &c., so it is of this While the children of God are childish happiness, this inheritance, and indeed it is and weak in faith, they are like some great no other but God. We cannot tell you what heirs before they come to years of under- it is, but we can say so far what it is not, standing; they consider not their inheri-as declares it is unspeakably above all the tance, and what they are to come to, have most excellent things of the inferior world, not their spirits elevated to thoughts worthy of their estate, and their behaviour conformed to it but as they grow up in years, they come by little and little to be sensible of those things, and the nearer they come to possession, the more apprehensive they are All things that we see being compounded, of their quality, and what doth answerably may be dissolved again; the very visible become them to do: And this is the duty of heavens, that are the purest piece of the masuch as are indeed heirs of glory, to grow in terial world, notwithstanding the pains the the understanding and consideration of that philosopher takes to exempt them, the Scripwhich is prepared for them, and to suit tures teach us that they are corruptible, themselves as they are able, to those great Psal. cii. 26, They shall perish, but thou hopes. This is that the apostle St. Paul shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax prays for, for his Ephesians, chap. i. ver. 18, old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou ·The eyes of your understanding being en- change them, and they shall be changed. lightened, that ye may know what is the And from whence the apostle to the Hebrews, hope of his calling, and what the riches of (chap. i. 10,) and our apostle in his other the glory of his inheritance in the saints. epistle, (chap. iii. 11,) use the same expresThis would make them holy and heavenly, sion. But it is needless to fetch too great to have their conversation in heaven, from a compass, to evince the corruptibleness of whence they look for a Saviour. That we all inheritances. Besides what they are in may then the better know somewhat of the themselves, it is a shorter way to prove them dignity and riches of this inheritance, let us corruptible in relation to us, and our possessconsider the description that is here given using them, by our own corruptibleness and of it. And first,,it is

and this present life. It is by privatives, by removing imperfections from it, that we describe it, and we can go no further, viz. incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

corruption, or perishing out of this life in Incorruptible.] Although this seems to which we enjoy them. We are here inter be much the same with the third quality, peritura perituri; the things are passing that fadeth not away, which is a borrowed which we enjoy, and we are passing who enexpression for the illustrating of its incor-joy them. An earthly inheritance is so ruptibleness: yet I conceive there is some difference, and that in these three qualities there is a gradation. Thus it is called incorruptible, that is, it perisheth not, cannot come to nothing, is an estate that cannot be spent; but though it were abiding, yet it

called in regard of succession; but to every one it is but at the most for term of life. As one of the kings of Spain answered to one of his courtiers, who, thinking to please his master, wished that kings were immortal; If that had been,' said he, 'I should never

many times the affections of those who are knit together in nature, or other strait ties, and prove the very apple of strife betwixt nearest friends?

have been king. When death comes, that removes a man out of all his possessions to give place to another; therefore are these inheritances decaying and dying in relation to us, because we decay and die; and when a If we trace great estates to their first oriman dies, his inheritances and honours, and ginal, how few will be found that owe not all things here, are at an end, in respect of their beginning, either to fraud, or rapine, him: Yca, we may say the world ends to or oppression? and the greatest empires and him. kingdoms in the world, have had their founThus Solomon reasons, that a man's hap-dations laid in blood. Are not those defiled piness cannot be upon this earth; because it inheritances? must be some durable abiding thing that must make him happy, abiding, to wit, in his enjoyment. Now, though the earth abide, yet because man abides not on the earth to possess it, but one age drives out another, one generation passeth, and another cometh, velut unda impellitur unda; therefore his rest and his happiness cannot be here.

That withereth not.] A borrowed speech, alluding to the decaying of plants and flowers that bud and flourish at a certain time of the year, and then fade and wither, and in winter are as if they were dead.

And this is the third disadvantage of possessions, and all things worldly, that they abide not in one estate, but are in a more uncertain and irregular inconstancy, than either the flowers and plants of the field, or the moon, from which they are called sublunary ; like Nebuchadnezzar's image, degenerating by degrees into baser metals, and in the end into a mixture of iron and clay.

The excellency then of this inheritance is, that it is free from all those evils, falls not under the stroke of time, comes not within the compass of its scythe, that hath so large a compass, and cuts down all other things.

Undefiled.] All possessions here are defiled and stained with many other defects and failings, still somewhat wanting, some damp on them, or crack in them; fair houses, but sad cares flying about the gilded and ceiled roofs: stately and soft beds ; a full table, but a sickly body and queasy stomach. As the fairest face has some mole or wart in it, so all possessions are stained with sin, either in acquiring or in using them, and therefore called mammon of unrighteousness, St. Luke xvi. 9. Iniquity is so involved in the notion of riches, that it can very hardly be separated from them. St. Hierom says, Verum mihi videtur illud, dives aut iniquus est, aut iniqui hæres. Foul hands pollute all they touch; it is our sin that defiles what we possess; it is sin that burdens the whole creation, and presses groans out of the very frame of the world, (Rom. viii. 22,) That fadeth not away.] No spot of sin For we know that the whole creation groan-nor sorrow there, all pollution wiped away, eth, and travaileth in pain together until now. This our leprosy defiles our houses, the very walls and floors, our meat and drink, and all we touch, polluted when alone, and polluted in society, our meetings and conversations together being for the greatest part nothing but a commerce and interchange of sin and vanity.

We breathe up and down in an infected air, and are very receptive of the infection, by cur own corruption within us. We readily turn the things we possess here to occasions and instruments of sin, and think there is no | liberty nor delight in their use, without abusing them. How few are they that can carry, as they say, a full cup even ? that can have digestion strong enough for the right use of great places and estates? that can bear preferment without pride, and riches without covetousness, and ease without wantonness? Then as those earthly inheritances are stained with sin in their use; so what grief, and strife, and contentions, about obtaining or retaining them? Doth not matter of possession, this same meum and tuum, divide

There is nothing in it weighing it towards corruption. It is immortal, everlasting, for it is the fruition of the immortal, everlasting God, by immortal souls, and the body rejoined with it, shall likewise be immortal, having put on incorruption, as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xv. 54.

and all tears with it; no envy nor strife, not as here among men, one supplanting another, one pleading and fighting against another, dividing this point of earth with fire and sword: No, this inheritance is not the less by division, by being parted amongst so many brethren, every one hath it all, each his crown, and all agreeing in casting them down before his throne, from whom they have received them, and in the harmony of his praises.

This inheritance is often called a kingdom, and a crown of glory. This word may allude to those garlands of the ancients, and this is its property, that the flowers in it are all amaranthes, as a certain plant is named, and so it is called, (1 Pet. v. 4,) a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

No change at all there, no winter and summer, not Wke the poor comforts here, but a bliss always flourishing. The grief of the saints here, is not so much for the changes of outward things, as of their inward comforts. Suavis hora, sed brevis mora. Sweet presences of God they sometimes have;

B

but they are short and often interrupted: But there, no cloud shall come betwixt them and their sun they shall behold him in his full brightness for ever. As there shall be no change in their beholding, so no weariness nor abatement of their delight in beholding. They sing a new song, always the same, and yet always new. The sweetest of our music, if it were to be heard but for one whole day, will weary them that are most delighted with it. What we have here, cloys, but satisfies not: The joys above never cloy, and yet always satisfy.

We should here consider the last property of this inheritance, namely, the certainty of

it.

Reserved in heaven for you.] But that is connected with the following verse, and so will be fitly joined with it. Now for some use of all this.

If these things were believed, they would persuade for themselves; we needed not add any entreaties to move you to seek after this inheritance: Have we not experience enough of the vanity and misery of things corruptible? and are not a great part of our days already spent amongst them? Is it not time to consider whether we be provided of any thing surer and better than what we have here, if we have any inheritance to go home to after our wandering? or can say with the apostle, (2 Cor. v. 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.

If those things gain our assent while we hear them, yet it dies soon; scarce any retire themselves after to pursue those thoughts, and to make a work indeed of them, but busy their heads rather another way, building castles in the air, and spinning out their thoughts in vain contrivances. Happy are they whose hearts the Spirit of God sets and fixes upon this inheritance; they may join in with the apostle, and say as here, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto this lively hope, to this inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not

they know, that those spiritual powers that seek to ruin them, do overmatch them far, both in craft and force.

Against the fears of this, the apostle comforts the heirs of salvation, assuring them, that as the estate they look for is excellent, so it is certain and safe, laid up there, where it is out of the reach of adverse powers, reserved in heaven for you. Besides, that this is a further evidence of the worth and excellency of this inheritance; it makes it sure; it confirms what was said of its excellency; for it must be a thing of greatest worth, that is laid up in the highest and best place of the world, namely, in heaven for you, where nothing that is impure once enters, much less is laid up and kept. Thus the land where this inheritance lies, makes good all that hath been spoken of the dignity and riches of it.

But further, as it is a rich and pleasant country where it lieth, it hath this privilege, to be the alone land of rest and peace, free from all possibility of invasion. There is no spoiling of it, and laying it waste, and defacing its beauty, by leading armies into it, and making it the seat of war; no noise of drums nor trumpets, no inundations of one people driving out another, and sitting down in their possessions. In a word, as there is nothing there subject to decay of itself, so neither is it in danger of fraud or violence. When our Saviour speaks of this same happiness, (St. Matth. vi. 20,) in a like term, what is here called an inheritance, is there called a treasure. He expresses the permanency of it by these two, that it hath neither moth nor rust in itself to corrupt it; nor can thieves break through and steal it. There is a worm at the root of all our enjoyments here, corrupting causes within themselves; and besides that, they are exposed to injury from without, that may deprive us of them. How many stately palaces, that have been possibly divers years in building, hath fire upon a very small beginning destroyed in a few hours! What great hopes of gain by traffic hath one tempest mocked and disappointed! How many that have thought their possessions very sure, yet have lost them by some trick of law! And others, as in time of war, driven from them by the sword! Nothing free from all danger, but this inheritance, that is laid up in the hands of God, and kept in heaven for us. The highest stations in the world, namely, the estate of kings, they are but mountains of prey, one robbing and spoiling another : But in that holy mountain above, there is. none to hurt nor spoil, nor offer violence., What the prophet speaks of the church here, is more perfectly and eminently true of it, above, Isaiah lxv. 25.

This is indeed a necessary condition of our joy in the thoughts of this happy