Thomas Manton · 50 of 67
Verse 20. · Part 3
[2.] By hearty groans, and sighs, and longings: Rom. viii. 23, ‘We groan in ourselves, waiting for the , the of our bodies.’ They have had a taste of the clusters of Canaan, and therefore long for more; they can never be soon enough with Christ: ‘When shall it once be?’ The nearer enjoyment, the more impatient of the want of his company. As the decays of nature do put them in mind of another world, they begin to lift up the head and look out, Rom. viii. 19, ἀποκαραδοκία κτίσεως, ‘the earnest expectation of the creature;’ the word signifieth the pushing out of the head to see if it can spy a thing a great way off, and noteth the extension of the soul towards the fruition of things hoped for; they would have a fuller draught of the consolations of the Spirit, more freedom from sin, more perfection of , &c.
[3.] By lively tastes and feelings. A believer hath eternal life, John xvii. 3; he beginneth it here. Hope is called ‘a lively hope,’ not only living, but lively, 1 Peter i. 3, because it the heart, and maketh us cheerful and sprightly: Rom. v. 2, ‘We rejoice under the hope of the glory of God,’ Joy is for enjoyment and possession; but yet that prepossession which hope getteth causeth all joy; see 1 Peter i. 8. I confess all feel it not in a like degree, because it dependeth upon a sense of grace, which believers always have not, yet all find a sweetness and some comfort, when they think of what they look for. hope is but the dream of a shadow; there is pain and trouble in the expectation, and no satisfaction in the fruition.
2. Let me show you the influence it hath upon .
[1.] It sets us a-work to purge out sin: 1 John iii. 3, ‘Every one that hath this hope purifieth himself as Christ is pure.’ The things that we look for are holy; it is a great part of our portion in heaven to be free from sin, and to be consorts of the immaculate Lamb. Can we hope for these things and cherish worldly lusts? If we did, we look for a sensual paradise; then we might indulge our lusts without any defiance of our hopes. But we look for a pure and holy as well as a glorious and blessed estate, and therefore we should begin to purify ourselves.
[2.] It withdraweth our hearts from present things: Phil. iii. 20, ‘Our is in heaven, from we look for a saviour.’ A man that hath been looking upon the sun findeth his eyes dazzled that he cannot behold an object less glorious; the oftener we look within this veil, the more is the glory of the world obscured. Abraham lived as a stranger in the promised land. Why? Because ‘he looked for a city,’ &c., Heb. xi. 9, 10. ‘Deny worldly lusts,’ saith the apostle, ‘looking for the blessed hope,’ Titus ii. 12, 13. A man who is much in heaven, his affections are pre-engaged, and therefore the world doth him little hurt. Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of heavenly thoughts the more we escape snares. Hope sets the wheels a-going: Phil. iii. 13, ‘I press onward because of the high prize of our calling.’ The thought of the end quickeneth to the use of means; we faint because we do not consider it more, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Heaven will pay for all.
[3.] It maketh us upright and sincere; looking asquint on secular rewards is the cause of all our declinings: Mat. vi. 2, μίσθον ἀπέχουσι, ‘they have their reward,’ Hired servants do not look for the inheritance, and therefore must have pay in hand; if they may have the world and live in honour and pleasure, they will discharge God from all other promises. A sincere man maketh God his paymaster, and that chiefly in the other world, Col. iii. 24; we have a master good enough in him, we need not look for pay elsewhere.
[4.] It supporteth us under those difficulties and afflictions which are wont to befall us in a course of godliness. We can counterbalance what we feel with what we expect; we feel nothing but trouble, and that which we expect is life and glory, Rom. viii. 18, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. In this respect hope is called an ‘anchor,’ Heb. vi. 19. In the stormy gusts of temptation it stayeth the soul, ‘which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entereth into that which is within the veil.’ It is a weighty anchor, that will not bow or break; and the ground is good; it ‘entereth into that within the veil,’ and therefore, though tempests arise, it will keep us from floating and dashing against the rocks. Again it is called a helmet: Eph. vi. 17, ‘The helmet of salvation;’ so 1 Thes. v. 8. The helmet is for the head in conflicts. As long as we can lift up our heads and look to heaven, we are safe.
[5.] It helpeth us to resist temptations. Sin maketh many promises, and prevaileth by hope. Balaam was enticed by promises to curse God’s people. Babylon’s fornications are presented in a golden cup. Men are corrupted with promises of preferment and greatness and present accommodations. Now hope sets promise against promise, heaven against earth, ‘pleasures at God’s right hand ‘against carnal delights and ‘taking our fill of loves;’ as one nail driveth out another, so doth hope defeat the promises of the world by propounding the promises of God.
Let us now apply this:—
Use 1. It informeth us that we may look for the reward without sin. Those men would be wiser than God that deny us a liberty to make use of the Spirit’s motives, they begrudge God’s bounty, To what end should the Lord 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 and languish if they do not meet with credit, applause, and profit; they make man their paymaster. They have the spirit of a servant that prefer present wages before the inheritance; but to do all upon the encouragements of ‘the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life ‘argueth grace. It was a relief to the soul of Christ to think of the reward, Heb. xii. 2. Christ, as man, was to have rational comforts and human encouragements. That is sinful indeed when we would have the reward but neglect the work; when we would be merrcenaii but not operarii, we sever the reward from the duty, and, like Ephraim, are ‘willing to tread the corn,’ but ‘not break the clods,’ Hosea x. 11. Again, we look amiss upon the reward when we have a carnal notion of heaven; as some Jews looked for a carnal Messiah, so do some Christians for a carnal heaven, for base pleasure and fleshly delights, for a Turkish paradise. Such kind of hopes debase the heart; or else when we look for it as merited by us, as if we could challenge it by our works, then we are mercenaries indeed; it is here ‘looking for the mercy of Jesus Christ,’ &c.
Again, our own happiness must not be our last end. There is a personal happiness that results to us from the enjoyment of God. Now, the glory of God must be preferred before it.
Use 2. If you would persevere in the love of God and a good frame of heart, revive your hopes, and set the soul a-looking and a-longing for eternal life. If we ‘keep the rejoicing of our hope firm to the end,’ then we are safe, Heb. iii. 6. Courtiers are more polite in their manners than ordinary subjects, because they are more in their prince’s eye and company. The oftener we are in God’s court the more holy. Well, then, be as much as you can in actual expectation of this blessedness. To this end—
1. Believe it There is a mist upon eternity to a carnal heart. They are led by sense and reason, and believe no more than is evident to a natural principle; but now ‘faith is the evidence of things not seen,’ Heb. xi. 1. Fancy and nature cannot outsee time, and look be yond death. Faith holdeth the candle to hope, and then we have a prospect into the other world, and can see a happy estate to come.
2. Apply it. 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. A hungry man taketh little pleasure in gazing upon a feast, when he tastes not of it. The reprobate hereafter are lookers-on; and David speaketh of a ‘table spread for him in the sight of his enemies.’ Hope hath never a more lively influence than when we can make out our own propriety and interest: Job xix. 25, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth;’ 2 Cor. v. 1, ‘We know that if this earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;’ 2 Tim. iv. 8, ‘Henceforth there is laid up for me,’ &c. They do not only believe there is a heaven, but apply it—for me. You will say, Is hope only the fruit of ? I answer—It is the fruit of faith as well as of assurance or experience; but the sense of our interest is very comfortable, and in some sort necessary. Be fore we can hope anything for ourselves, our qualification is to be sup posed. In a matter of such moment a man should not be at an uncertainty. Canst thou 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. It is possible a man may make a hard shift to creep to heaven through doubts and fears, and may be ‘scarcely saved,’ 1 Peter iv. 18, whilst others have ‘an abundant entrance;’ but then you lose your heaven upon earth, which consisteth in ‘peace and joy in the ,’ and lose much of the efficacy of hope; for uncertain, wavering thoughts work little, therefore assurance cannot be slighted. Further, I add; by showing what application there must be if we cannot attain to assurance; there are three degrees of application beneath assurance: there is acceptation, adherence, and affiance.
[1.] Acceptation of God’s offer upon God’s terms: Job v. 27, ‘Know thou it for thy good;’ put in for these hopes, and take God to his word upon this confidence; make good thy part of the stipation in the , and he will not fail thee. This application there must be in all, in answer to the demands of the covenant, 1 Peter iii. 21, Exod. xxiv. 6-8.
[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. ix. 26, ‘I run not as one that is uncertain.’
[3.] Affiance. Besting, waiting upon God for the accomplishment of this blessedness, though not without some doubts and fears as to our own interest. Though you cannot say it is yours, yet you will cast yourself upon ‘the mercy of God in Christ,’ as it is in the text, ‘Looking for the mercy of Christ.’ You dare venture your soul in that bottom. This is that ‘committing yourselves to him as unto a merciful and faithful creator,’ which the apostle speaketh of, 1 Peter iv. 19. You will go on with your work, and put yourselves in God’s hand for your eternal happiness, because he is merciful, faithful. See also Rom. ii. 7.
3. Meditate on it often. Meditation is a temperate ecstasy, a survey of the land of promise. God biddeth Abraham take a view of Canaan, Gen. xiii. 14, 15. Surely the more we lift up our thoughts in the contemplation of this blessed estate, the more lively will our hopes be. If every morning we spent a thought this way, it would season the heart against the love of present things. The morning is an emblem of the resurrection, when we awake out of the sleep of death, and the day cometh which will never have night more, Ps. xvii. 15. So in time of troubles we should be reckoning upon a better estate, Rom. viii. 18. So, when you are by bodily sickness summoned to the grave, and you are going down to converse with worms and skulls, then think of a blessed eternity, Job xix. 26.
Obs. 6. The next point is from that clause, the mercy. The ground of our waiting and looking for eternal life is God’s mercy, not for any works or merits of ours; we cannot challenge it as a debt: sin and death are as work and wages, but eternal life is a donative, Rom. vi. 23. Eternal life is not the wages of obedience, as damnation is the wages of sin. Why, wherein lieth the difference? I answer—Wicked men stand upon their own bottom, but Christ hath obtained this privilege for us. Wicked works are ours, and they are merely evil, the good that we do is imperfect, and God’s grace hath the main stroke, so that we are rewarded rather according to what we have received than what we have done. A servant is under a covenant of obedience, and tradeth with his master’s estate, he doth but his duty, he deserveth something. We are bound to do good and forbidden to sin; when we do what is forbidden we deserve punishment, but when we do what is commanded we do not deserve the reward, because we are bound, and because we have all from God’s grace: as you must pray for eternal life, so must you ‘look for eternal life.’ If you should say, Give me heaven for I deserve it, natural conscience would blush at the immodesty of such a request. It is as great an absurdity when you make your own works the ground of your hope, for in prayer our desires and hopes are put into language, and made more explicit; so that which is our plea in prayer must be the ground of our claim in point of confidence, unless we mean to compliment with God. Well, then—
1. Let this encourage us to wait with hope, notwithstanding infirmities as as well afflictions. What a good master do we serve! He hath provided comforts not only against our misery, but against our unworthiness; not only glory as a reward, but mercy as the cause of it that we may take glory out of the hands of mercy. He looked upon us not only as liable to suffering, but sinning; and therefore, as he hath provided life and safety for us, so upon terms of grace.
2. It showeth us how we should ascribe all to mercy, from the beginning to the end of our salvation. We were taken into a state of grace at first out of mere mercy: 1 Tim. i. 13, ἠλεήθην, I was all to be-mercied; Titus iii. 5, ‘Not by works of that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.’ He doth not barely say, Not for our works, but Not for our works ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, not for our best works, those works of righteousness which might be supposed to be foreseen as done by us. So also when we are taken into a state of glory, it is still mercy, we can merit no more after grace than before: 2 Tim. i. 18, ‘The Lord grant him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.’
Obs. 7. Once more, this mercy is called the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. observe, that this mercy which we look for is dispensed by Jesus Christ; he purchased it, and he hath the managing of it in the whole economy of grace: ‘He shall take of mine,’ saith he, concerning the Holy Ghost; and in the last day he distributeth to some ‘judgment without mercy,’ to others ‘mercy;’ they are judged upon gospel terms. Well, then—
1. Get an interest in Christ, otherwise we cannot look for mercy in that great day: 1 John ii. 28, ‘If we in him, then shall we have boldness.’ They that slight Christ in the offers of the gospel have no reason to look for benefit by him; you will howl and tremble then, and call upon the mountains to ‘hide you from the wrath of him that sitteth upon the throne.’ They that prize the mercy of Christ now, they find it to be the very last; mercy, that planted grace in their hearts, will then put the crown upon their heads. Here it was their care to glorify Christ and to honour him, though with the loss of all; there will Christ glorify them in the presence of all the world.
2. It maketh for the comfort of Christ’s people and members. Our blessed hopes are founded upon the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his hands to dispense them. From thence you may collect:—
[1.] The fulness of this blessedness. An infinite merit purchased it, an infinite mercy bestoweth it. Surely the building will be answerable to the foundation. It is no small thing that we may expect from infinite mercy and infinite merit. Would an emperor give brass farthings? Do men that understand themselves give vast sums for trifles?
[2.] The certainty of this blessedness. Christ hath the managing of it. He never discovered any backwardness to thy good nor inclination to thy ruin; he died for thee before thou wert born; he called thee when thou wert unworthy; warned thee of dangers which thou never fearedst; instead of deserved wrath, showed thee undeserved mercy; intercedeth for thee when thou little thinkest of it; hath been tender of thee in the whole conduct of his ; visited thee in ; is mindful of thee at every turn, and will he be harsh to thee at last?
The last note is from that clause unto eternal life. The great benefit which we have by Christ is eternal life.
1. There is life; all that you labour for is for life, that which you prize above other things is life: ‘Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life;’ that is, he will part with all things, even to his very skin, to save his life.
2. It is an excellent life. The life of sense, which is the beasts’, is better than that vegetative life which is in the plants, and the rational life which is in men is better than the sensitive, and the spiritual exceedeth the rational, and the glorious life the spiritual. Vegetative life is the vigour of the sap, sensitive life is the vigour of the blood, rational life is the union of the soul with the body, spiritual life is the union of the soul with Christ, and the life of glory exceedeth that in degree, for it standeth in the immediate fruition of God.
3. It is a happy life, not subjected to the necessities of meat and drink. We have then ‘spiritual bodies,’ 1 Cor. xv. 45. It is not encumbered with miseries as the present life is, Gen. xlvii. 9. It is a life which we are never weary of; in deep distress life itself may become a burden: Elijah said, ‘Take away my life,’ 1 Kings xix. 4. But this life cannot be a burden.
4. It is eternal life. This life is but a flower that is soon withered, a vapour that is soon blown over; but this is for ever and ever, as eternity increaseth the torment of the wicked, so the blessedness of the godly. Well, then, let this press you to keep yourselves in the love of God till this happy estate come about.
