metaphysical subtlety, and a certain ecstatical affection of piety, rather than of a simple, genuine, and solid knowledge of the Christian religion.

Or (if I may speak the same thing in my own words) these men teach a virtue not heroic, but romantic, impracticable, no where to be found but in the scene of fancy; and they require others to do that, which in truth themselves never did nor can do.

But the main foundation of this their fantastical divinity, relies only on this one argument: We are, say they, required in Scripture, to do all that we do to the glory of God, and out of love to Him; and therefore we ought not to serve Him out of hope of reward, no, not the heavenly reward.

Answ. I utterly deny the consequence, and do affirm, that the directly contrary conclusion may be rather inferred from hence, viz. that therefore we ought in serving God to aim at the heavenly reward. For the Divine Goodness hath so framed things in the economy of our salvation, that our glorifying of God, and our being glorified by Him, our love of God, and our love of ourselves, and desire of our own happiness, are inseparably linked together, so that we cannot truly intend the one without the other.

To desire and seek after the future happiness of heaven, what is it but to desire and seek after that blessed state, wherein alone we shall perfectly glorify God, and love and enjoy Him for ever? So that to say, we must not serve God in hope or desire of the heavenly reward, is in effect to say, we must not serve God out of love to Him; for to love God is to desire union with, and enjoyment of Him; and in a perfect union with and fruition of God that reward consisteth. I confess it is very possible, yea too common, for men to seek after heaven in such a manner, as in so doing to have little or no love or regard to God the Fountain of heavenly bliss. Thus do all those Christians, who, with the Jews and Mahometans, conceive of heaven as a place or state made up of carnal and sensual delights and pleasures, and under that notion only desire it.

These men do terram in cœlo quærere, “seek earth in heaven;" they are earthly-minded in their very thoughts and desires of heaven, and so in truth seek not heaven, but earth.

These men do not make God their chief good and felicity. But, on the other side, he that is throughly convinced of the perfect vanity of all earthly enjoyments, considering that most of them are brutish felicities, wherein we are partakers with the beasts; and that they all vanish and perish in the using; that the holy angels are far more happy and blessed creatures than we are in this state of mortality; and yet that they despise those worldly felicities that we so much dote on, as being sensible of another kind of happiness infinitely above them: he that believes and considers that God is the best and most blessed Being of all; and that whatsoever is truly good and desirable in any created being, is from Him the Fountain of goodness; and is therefore eminently and in an infinitely greater measure (or rather without measure) in Him; and, consequently, that the enjoyment of God must needs be man's chiefest good and happiness; and that this enjoyment of God is to be attained only in the future heavenly state: he, I say, that upon these or the like considerations, seeks after heaven in the way of righteousness, in his very doing so, truly loves and honours God above all things, and shall undoubtedly be for ever loved and blessed by Him.

At the same time that God gave us our being and nature, He planted in us an inclination to preserve it, and a desire also of our own well-being and happiness; and that so firmly, that these can never be eradicated or rooted out of us, without the very destruction of our being and nature. We do not sin therefore when we seek our own happiness, unless we seek it where we should not; that is, otherwhere than from and in God Himself.

It is true, indeed, that God made all things for His own glory, and that therefore all creatures, endowed with reason, are bound to honour and glorify Him. But this great truth, if rightly understood, is so far from confirming, that it utterly overthrows the objection propounded, and firmly establishes our assertion. The glory which God antecedently and primarily intended to Himself in making the world, was the glory of His goodness. For He being from all eternity avтápíns, “selfsufficient," fully and perfectly happy and blessed in Himself, needed not the praises of His creatures, or any thing else from them, as an accession to His happiness. But it pleased Him, when He saw good, as it were, to go forth from Himself, by

N n

making other beings besides Himself, in several ranks and orders, some remoter from, some nearer to Him; and to communicate to each of them such effluxes of His goodness, as His infinite wisdom thought most fitting. The glory of this Divine goodness is passively and materially declared by all creatures. universally, that is, it appears in every creature to all creatures that can understand it. But those creatures only that have understanding can glorify God for His goodness to them actively; and to this they are obliged, as soon as they have a being from God, and can know the Author of their being. And when they discharge this obligation, God hath the glory He aimed at in the communication of His goodness to them.

But what, you will say, is all this to the purpose? I answer, Very much. For the result of this discourse is, that God made us to do us good, and that we should glorify and serve Him for the good He doth us: from whence it apparently follows, that our respect to our own good, and our regard to God's glory, are inseparable; and that the consideration of God's goodness, derived to ourselves, cannot be an irregular, sinful motive of our obedience to God; seeing God designed it for the motive of our obedience in our very creation. And if we may, nay, must glorify, love, and serve God for that goodness of His, wherewith He hath prevented us, and of which we are already possessed; then certainly we may as well honour, love, and obey Him for that farther goodness which He hath promised us, and which we hope for and expect from Him; especially for that greatest good which He hath reserved for us in the life to come, on condition we faithfully serve Him in this life, viz. the everlasting enjoyment of Himself in heaven.

Wherefore, to conclude, let us not fear, throughout the whole course of our service and obedience to God on earth, continually to eye and aim at the future glorious reward in heaven; for so to do is not only lawful, but highly necessary for us.

1. This constant fixed intuition of the heavenly reward will invigorate, quicken, and animate us to a mighty diligence in the ways of righteousness and holiness: this will sweeten all our labours in God's service, and make our very work a part of our reward. 2. This will enable us to overcome the world by a holy contempt of it and all its vanities. 3. This will arm us

against all the temptations of the devil and the flesh; for he that hath continually in his thought the transcendent excellency of the heavenly bliss, how can he ever be persuaded to part with his right therein for "a mess of pottage," or to barter it for an empty honour, or for a heap of glittering earth, or for the gratifying of a vile lust, and the enjoyment of a vanishing sinful pleasure? 4. This will make the burden of those afflictions and sorrows, that necessarily attend us in this vale of tears, light and easy. 5. This will be our only support and comfort in the hour of death, when all other earthly comforts fail and forsake us.

In a word, let us with Moses and all the faithful from the beginning of the world, have a constant "respect to the recompense of reward," by a firm and stedfast faith; and by the encouragement thereof follow them in the paths of holiness, patience, and self-denial, which they have trod before us; and so at last, in God's due time, we shall undoubtedly "with them be partakers of His heavenly Kingdom."

To which God of His infinite mercy bring us all, through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour.

To Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, adoration and worship, both now and for evermore. Amen.

SERMON XV.

THAT MANY MAY HAVE A FORM OR SHOW OF GODLINESS, WHEN THEY DENY ITS POWER, AND ARE FAR FROM THE TRUTH AND REALITY OF IT.

2 TIM. iii. 5.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. IN the beginning of this chapter, we have an illustrious prophecy of St. Paul's delivered to Timothy, concerning what should happen in the Church of Christ after his decease; which is thus ushered ina; "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come;" év éσxáτais ημépais i. e. not only the very last days, towards the end of the world, but in general, (according to the Hebrew phrase,) "the days to come," or "the future time," whether nearer or afar off. For what in the following verses he doth foretel, he supposeth would begin to happen in the age of Timothy, to whom he delivers the prophecy, and that by way of caution or warning to him, as most evidently appears from the end of this fifth verse, immediately after the words of my text, τούτους ἀποτρέπου, “ from such do thou" (thou, Timothy) " turn away," and avoid them. But yet the full completion of the prophecy doubtless reacheth farther than Timothy's days, and extends itself even to the end of the world.

So among very many other interpreters Mr. Calvin thinks, who hath this gloss upon the text: "Under the last days he comprehends the whole state of the Christian Church "." For (as the same author goes on) his design is not to compare his

a Ver. 1.

universum Ecclesiæ Christianæ sta

Sub extremis diebus comprehendit tum.