Part 73

The name of Jesus my Saviour has yet a further power to oblige me to use all my earthly possessions for his honour. Has Christ Jesus purchased this large and fair inheritance for me with his blood, has he given me much on earth, and the hopes of greater treasures in heaven, then I will be my own no longer, but give my whole self up to him, with all my powers and talents, and possessions! They are thine, blessed Saviour, they are thine for ever. It is the solemn and deliberate wish of my heart, that I may never possess or enjoy any thing from which Christ has no revenue of glory. O that his grace may enable me to employ things present for this holy purpose! And when I arrive at the actual possession of things to come, they shall be improved in an unknown but a nobler manner, for the everlasting glory of my God, my Father, and my Saviour.

The Recollection of the doctrinal part.—“In this discourse, O my soul, thou hast not only been called to survey the riches of thy inheritance, but thou hast learned also, in what manner this inheritance is made over to thee, if thou art a sincere christian, and a believer on the Son of God.

“Look backward, my soul, to eternal ages, before the world began, when God marked out the bounds of this creation, and the limits of these heavens, and this earth, he designed them with all their treasures, for the service of his holy ones, for the benefit of his children, angels and men; and thy name and thy share was written down amongst them. The great God, in those early days of his eternity, has provided a rich sufficiency for thy present and future blessedness. O may my faith take this delightful and distant retrospect, and rejoice in God’s eternal love?

“God has given all things into the hands of his own Son Jesus, whom he hath ordained Lord of all, that he might govern and dispose of all things for the good of his people. Christ is risen from the dead, and hath taken possession of all the blessings of grace and glory, in the name of his saints, that he may make them possessors in their season, and according to their measure: That he may make thee, O my soul, a rich possessor of so fair an inheritance; and that he may keep every part of it secure for thee, till in succession of times and seasons, both in earth and in heaven, thou art fit to receive and enjoy it. If thou art made a joint-heir with Christ, thou art heir of all things.”

But remember, it is a living faith in Christ that must entitle thee to this rich inheritance. It is of infinite importance then, to search often and enquire, Am I a christian indeed? A sincere convert, a believer in Jesus? And does my faith evidence itself in all the fruits of repentance, love, and holiness? O may I feel my soul to live daily this divine life by the faith of the Son of God, that I may maintain a humble claim to these treasures of mercy laid up in the gospel, treasures committed to the hands of Christ to be kept safe for me.

“And may the blessed Spirit instruct me daily to improve all things to my spiritual and eternal benefit, that I may not be like a fool, who has a prize put into his right-hand, and knows not how to make use of it! May I be taught to draw some sacred advantage, some holy delight and refreshment from the continual new scenes and occurrences of life! May I derive knowledge, and love, and heavenly sweetness from the surprizing works of God, as the God of nature, and from the more surprizing wonders of his grace! May I learn something divine and holy from all the transactions of his providence, and the various turns and changes of this present state, till I am prepared and _made meet for_ a more fit and ample possession of the everlasting _inheritance of the saints in light_!” Amen.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXXVIII. _All things working together for Good._

My soul survey thy happiness, If thou art found a child of grace, How richly is the gospel stor’d! What joy the promises afford!

“All things are ours;” the gift of God, And purchas’d with our Saviour’s blood, While the good Spirit shews us how To use and to enjoy them too.

If peace and plenty crown my days, They help me, Lord, to speak thy praise; If bread of sorrows be my food, These sorrows work my real good.

I would not change my bless’d estate With all that flesh calls rich or great; And while my faith can keep her hold, I envy not the sinner’s gold.

Father I wait thy daily will, Thou shalt divide my portion still, Grant me on earth what seems thee best Till death and heav’n reveal the rest.

SERMON XXXIX. _The right Improvement of Life._ 1 COR. iii. 22.—Whether life or death,—all are yours.

It is a large and fair inheritance that belongs to the children of God. They have no need to divide themselves into little parties, and to quarrel about their particular interest in one minister or another, in one blessing or another; for whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, whether life or death, all things are theirs.

My former discourses have explained in what sense christians possess all things, and that is, that all things present or to come, that can any way affect or concern them, shall certainly turn to their benefit, and subserve their great and final interest. I proceed now more particularly to enlarge on the words, which I had chiefly in my design, _whether life or death, all are yours_. The first doctrine arising from the words is this, “Life itself, and the continuance of it to the saints, is for their advantage.” Now to improve this proposition to practical purposes, I shall do these things:

I. I shall make it appear under a variety of instances, that life is designed for the benefit of christians.—II. I would amplify and confirm the doctrine yet further, by discovering what a variety of graces may be exercised on earth, which can have no place in heaven; and make it appear, that in some respects, a saint below hath advantage above the saints that are on high.—III. I shall answer a considerable objection or two that seems to rise against the doctrine, while I am treating of it: And, at last some inferences will be drawn from the whole discourse.

First let me shew wherein life appears to be a benefit to true believers. _Life is yours_, O christians, for

1. This is the time that was given you for your reconciliation to God, and securing your everlasting interest. All the elect of God are born into this world sinful and miserable, by their relation to the first Adam, therefore St. Paul seems to include himself, as well as the heathen infidels, when he speaks of the iniquity of their nature, and the guilt of their state. Eph. ii. 2. _We all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others._ Now this life is the time given to seek deliverance from the wrath to come, to fly to the hope that is set before us; _now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation_; 1 Cor. vi. 2. Now while we are in our state of trial, before the gates of the grave have closed upon us, and before the gates of hell have been opened to receive us.

We are all, by nature, strangers to God, enemies in our minds by wicked works, and under sentence of condemnation: Remember, O sinners, this is the time to get acquaintance with God, to return to his service, and obtain his special favour. We are defiled and guilty creatures: This is the hour of cleansing while the fountain of the blood of Christ stands open, to wash us from sin and uncleanness. We are, by nature, utterly unfit for heaven, and all the works and the joys of it, because of the vicious inclinations that govern us. This is the day of repentance as well as pardon: This is the day given to us to insure those blessed mansions on high, and to obtain preparing graces. This temporal life is the only season, wherein the sentence of our condemnation can be reversed, and wherein we may obtain eternal forgiveness, and a right to life everlasting. The blood and righteousness of the Son of God, are not proposed nor offered to guilty creatures in the other world. Now is the time to acquire a meetness for the inheritance in light through the sanctifying influences of the blessed Spirit.

After death there is nothing of this kind to be done: There is no work, nor device, no knowledge, nor wisdom, no faith or repentance to be exercised, no such duty to be performed among the dead, no opportunity to rectify, the mistakes of life: There is no grace to be obtained for sinners _in the grave, whither we are all travelling_; Eccl. ix. 10. What is left undone at that awful moment, must be for ever undone. At the voice of the summons we must go, whether pardoned or unpardoned, whether holy or unholy, whether hoping or despairing. And a dreadful spectacle it is, as your eyes ever beheld, to see a sinner expiring in full and raging despair.

But O what infinite advantage has it been to christians, that they have enjoyed, this golden hour of grace, and been taught to improve it well! What, had become of you, O believers, if ye had been arrested some years ago by the messengers of death, and hurried away into eternity? Where had your portion been, if ye had been sent down to the grave in the midst of your sins, before you were awakened or convinced of your folly and danger, before you had felt inward repentance, or had been acquainted with Jesus that bought and bestows forgiveness; before ye had known the virtue of his reconciling blood, or seen the face of a God reconciled? While your hearts and life were all unclean and unholy, your death must have been dreadful, and your soul for ever unhappy. What infinite honours are due to the patience and long-suffering of your God, and to the mercy and mediation of Jesus your Saviour? Glory be to divine patience, and divine grace, for life prolonged, and a sinner saved!

II. Life is yours; it is your opportunity of doing much service for Christ, and manifesting your gratitude for his redeeming love; 2 Cor. v. 15. _They who live, should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him that died for them, and rose again._

Here on earth, you may speak of the wonders of his grace that has saved you, and publish his love that is unspeakable: You may tell sinners of the infinite dimensions of this love, to invite them to partake of the same salvation. Here your lips, and your tongues may be delightfully employed, in declaring what you have tasted of the blessings of the gospel, and the grace of Christ; and call others to _taste and see that the Lord is good, and how blessed the man is that trusteth in him_! Ps. xxxiv. 8. Here you make it known, for the support of poor convinced wretches that are ready to despair, what heights and what lengths, what breadths and what depths there are in the love of Christ; for it reached your soul even at the borders of hell, it spread wide to cover all your great and heinous iniquities; it rises high, for it has lifted your hopes to heaven, and it stretches its sweet and sovereign influence beyond the length of time, and provides for your life and happiness that shall measure out eternity. Here you may proclaim the praises of your Redeemer to an ignorant world, you may promote his interest a hundred ways on earth, and thus glorify your Saviour which is in heaven.

This is not to be done in the same manner, nor for the same blessed purposes amongst the saints above. When the body lies senseless and mouldering in the grave, the tongue cannot praise the Lord: _The living, the living, they praise thee as we do this day_, as Hezekiah did when he was recovered from sickness, and had a sense of pardoned sin. Is. xxxviii. 17, 18. _In love to my soul, thou hast delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. The grave cannot praise thee, the dead cannot celebrate thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth._ This is the proper work of the living saint, to make known to sinners the grace of salvation.

Life is the only time of such work and service. “Opportunity, (saith a writer on this subject) is like a golden instrument to dig for heavenly treasure: Do not wear it out as many have done in digging for pebbles, and at your latter end become a fool. Plead not your mean capacity: _Kings of the earth, and all people, old men and children may praise the Lord_; Ps. cxlviii. 11, 12. Serve your age according to your talent; Mat. xxv. 15. He that had but one talent, but a single capacity, was called to account for it, and cast into outer darkness. Think how many opportunities you have out-lived, which will never have their resurrection: Redeem lost time, by improving what remains. Project improvements of life, since your light is near extinguished. Make up in affection what may be wanting in action. If you cannot do much, yet love much. If our servants should work no better for us than many have done for God, we should turn them out of doors. Stir up others to work for God, that you may do by their hand what you cannot do by your own.” Thus this pious author.

Let us consider what glorious services have been done for God, by the long continuance of saints in this world. Survey the labours and the sufferings, the ministry, the zeal and the success of the blessed apostles, who planted the first christian churches. What monuments of honour did they raise among Jews and strangers, among Greeks and barbarians, the savage and the polite heathens, to their crucified and exalted Saviour! What multitudes of subjects were brought to bow the knee to Jesus by their preaching! What a large harvest of souls was gathered unto Christ, when the apostle scattered the seed of the gospel all round the countries, from Jerusalem, through the provinces of the lesser Asia, and through the southern parts of Europe, as some have supposed, as far as Spain! And the Redeemer was glorified by his labours where the name of the true God the Creator was hardly known before. What an extensive blessing to the world was the life of Paul? It is to this, that the following ages of christianity, as well as the primitive saints, owe the unspeakable benefit of his writings; and it is to this, that Great Britain owes the blessing of his divine epistles. How honourable was it for St. Paul himself, and how happy for us, that he was made an instrument of such service to Christ, such a glorious service, as spread itself around the nations, and reached to distant ages of mankind. His long life was an illustrious blessing both to himself and to the christian world.

III. Life is yours, O christians, for it allows many a proper season for giving examples of holiness to mankind. And it is a honour to a saint, to be made an example of religion amongst a nation of sinners, or a pattern of holiness, among the churches of believers. Herein you become followers and imitators of the blessed Lord your Master: He is the first pattern, he is the most glorious example; for in all things he must have the pre-eminence.

If you become a public and a shining example of virtue, and piety, and goodness, you may attain these four very valuable ends at once:

1. By this means you pay great and just honours to the blessed gospel whereby you are saved, and confound and silence the impious accusations and slanders of the wicked: And especially if your station and rank in the world make you the object of more public notice, either in a city, in a village, in a neighbourhood, or in any society of men, then like a candle or a torch set on a hill, you diffuse light and honour far around you, and God and the gospel are glorified on your account. And not only in the higher stations of life, but even servants of the lowest character, if they are but saints, _may adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things_; Titus ii. 10. It is greatly for the credit of our holy religion, when the men of this world seeing our good works, are forced to confess that there is something divine in christianity, that God is amongst us of a truth; and by these means they are constrained to glorify our Father, and our Redeemer, and our holy religion. This is the command of Christ; Mat. v. 16.

2. Hereby sinners are not only convinced that there is a power and glory in the doctrine of Christ, but many a soul has been converted to the faith of Jesus, by beholding the pious conversation, the heavenly graces, the holy love, the divine zeal, the constancy, the patience, and the sufferings of christians. The good women in St. Peter’s days were exhorted to invite and draw their unbelieving husbands to the faith and love of the gospel, by beholding their chaste conversation, coupled with religious fear, and the ornament of a meak and a quiet spirit; 1 Pet. iii. 1-4. Look forward, O christians, to the last great day, and think with what a pleasing joy you shall hear those who have been converted by your example, and reformed from a licentious course of life, declare this to your public honour before men and angels: Your holy example though buried long in silence, shall have a glorious resurrection in that day, and the Judge himself shall proclaim it to your praise, that he used your piety here on earth, as an instrument of his grace to enlarge his kingdom.

3. Hereby christians of a lower form, and those that are babes in Christ, are awakened to a holy imitation of your superior virtues and graces. It was the continuance of St. Paul in this life, through the various stages of it, that recommended him as a pattern to the believers of his day, in all the various circumstances of their lives; and the longer he lived, the more glorious example he left behind him, for the benefit of the saints, that they might _be followers of him as he was of Christ_; 1 Cor. xi. 1. And I may add in the

Fourth place, Where a christian of shining virtues and of diffusive goodness is blessed with a long life, the memory of his example, and the sweet savour of his graces, remain the longer on earth, after his own departure to heaven. It is like a rich perfume that has lain some considerable time among garments, it communicates a pleasant fragrancy to the apparel long after the perfume itself is removed. Thus many a saint, by the sweet odour of his name, has done honour to the gospel in the place where he lived, while his bones are mouldering in the dust: The history of his various virtues has dwelt long on the lips of the surviving neighbours, and perhaps, hath awakened others to an imitation of such a pattern many years after his decease.

Whether example be of any use in heaven, or whether the saints of lower rank there may be excited to holy imitation, by the superior graces or glories of more eminent saints, is not so well known to us; but this we may be well assured of, that the example of christians can have no use in that happy world, to guard the doctrine of Christ from profane reproaches, or to convince or convert sinners and infidels. It is the living, and the living alone, that can do this service for Christ, and glorify his gospel in such instances as these:

But I proceed to another advantage of our continuance in this world.

IV. Life is yours; for it gives opportunity for abounding in good works to the great benefit of mankind. The longer a saint lives, if he maintains his character with honour, he becomes so much a greater blessing to the world. But what a deal of good ceases with the life of a good man!

Christians, ye are required to maintain good works for the honour of your Father, and for the glory of your Saviour, who hath purchased you to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works: But there is another reason for them too, and that is, “these things are good and profitable to men;” Titus ii. 14. compared with the third chapter, verse 8. Every day of life opens some new scenes, wherein you may be serviceable to your neighbours, your relatives, your fellow-creatures, and so make the world the better for you.

The days and years of life should be numbered by the multitude of good works, as much as by the revolutions of the sun and moon: For lost and wasted time should not come into the account of life. But if this were our way of counting, what should we say of thousands, who have lived to no other purpose but to eat and drink, and to make up the number of mankind? O it is a mean and pitiful thing only to be old in time, and not in duties to God, or benefits to men. And, as an author speaks on this subject, All the good works of many who are stricken in years will lie in a very little compass: To be an ancient man or woman of two or three years old, sounds like a contradiction, and it is, indeed, a matter of great shame, and ought to awaken deep repentance.

How many are there that live to no purpose at all, and the world will not miss them when they are gone? How many that live to wicked purpose, and the world is glad to be rid of them? Some are mere cumberers of the ground, and some are perfect nuisances, and public mischiefs. Such should never pretend to the name of christians. Let us remember it was the character of our blessed Lord, that _he went about doing good; and he was willing to work those works while it was his day of life; for the night was coming on him wherein he should have no such sort of work to do_; John ix. 4. O may our Saviour be our pattern, and let us be followers of the holy Jesus! Alas! what a noble pattern! what slow and distant followers.