Christ at that day. Cast off the works of darkness, and live, as believing you are, at all times, and in all places, under the eye of your Judge, who will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. Be fruitful in good works, knowing that as ye sow, ye shall reap. Study piety towards God, righteousness and charity towards men. Lay up in store plenty of works of charity and mercy, towards them who are in distress, especially such as are of the household of faith, that they may be produced that day as evidences, that ye belong to Christ. Shut not up your

bowels of mercy, now, towards the needy; lest ye, then, find no mercy. Take heed, that in all your works, ye be single and sincere; aiming, in them all, at the glory of your Lord, a testimony of your love to him, and obedience to his command. Leave it to hypocrites, who have their reward, to proclaim every man his own goodness, and to sound a trumpet, when they do their alms. It is a base and unchristian spirit, which cannot have satisfaction in a good work, unless it be exposed to the view of others; it is utterly unworthy of one who believes that the last trum pet shall call together the whole world; before whom the Judge himself shall publish works truly good, how secretly soever they were done. Live in a believing expectation of the coming of the Lord. Let your loins be always girt and your lamps burning; so when he comes, whether in the last day of your life, or in the last day of the world, shall be able to say with joy, Lo, this is our God, and we have waited for him.

ye

HEAD V.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

MAT. XXV. 34.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

HAVING, from this portion of Scripture, which the

text is a part of, discoursed of the general judgment; and being to speak of the everlasting happiness of the saints, and the everlasting misery of the wicked, from the respective sentences to be pronounced upon them in the great day; I shall take them in the order wherein they lie before us; the rather, that a sentence is first past upon the righteous, so the execution thereof is first begun, though possibly the other may be fully executed before it be completed.

The words of the text contain the joyful sentence itself, together with an historical introduction thereto, which gives us an account of the Judge pronouncing the sentence; the King, Jesus Christ; the parties on whom it is given, them on his right hand; and the time when, then, as soon as the trial is over. Of these I have spoken already. It is the sentence itself we are now to consider, Come.ye blessed of my Father, &c. Stand a-back, O ye profane goats; have away all unregenerate souls, not united to Jesus. Christ; this is not for you. Come, O ye saints, brought out of your natural state, into the state of grace; behold here the state of glory awaiting you. Here is glory let down to us in words and syllables; a looking-glass, in which you may see your everlasting happiness; a scheme

(or draught) of Christ's Father's house, wherein there are many mansions.

This glorious sentence bears two things. (1.) The complete happiness to which the saints are adjudged, the kingdom. (2.) Their solemn admission to it, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit," &c. First, their complete happiness is a kingdom. A kingdom is the top of worldly felicity; there is nothing on earth greater than a kingdom; therefore the hidden weight of glory in heaven, is held forth to us under that notion. But it is not an ordinary kingdom, it is the kingdom; the kingdom of heaven, surpassing all the kingdoms of the earth in glory, honour, profit and pleasure, infinitely more than they do in these excel the low and inglorious condition of a beggar in rags and on a dunghill. Secondly, There is a solemn admission of the saints into this their kingdom, "Come ye, inherit the kingdom." In the view of angels, men and devils, they are invested with royalty, and solemnly inaugurated before the whole world, by Jesus Christ the heir of all things, who hath all power in hea ven and in earth. Their right to the kingdom is solemn. ly recognized and owned! They are admitted 'to it, as undoubted heirs of the kingdom, to possess it by inheritance or lot, as the word properly signifies; because of old, inheritances were designed by lot, as Canaan to Israel, God's first-born, as they are called, Exod. iv. 22. And because this kingdom is the Father's kingdom, therefore they are openly acknowledged in their admission to it, to be the blessed of Christ's Father; the which blessing was given them long before this sentence, but is now solemnly recognized and confirmed to them by the Mediator, in his Father's name. It is observable, he says not, Ye blessed of the Father; but, Ye blessed of my Father; to shew us, that all blessings are derived upon us from the Father, the fountain of blessing, as he is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are blessed, Eph. i. 3. And finally they are admitted to this kingdom, as that which was prepared for them, from the foundation of the world, in God's eternal purpose, before they, or any of them were; that all the world may see eternal life to be the free gift of God.

DOCTRINE.

The Saints shall be made completely happy, in the Possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Two things I shall here enquire into, (1.) The nature of this kingdom. (2.) The admission of the saints thereto. And then I shall make a practical improvement of the whole.

FIRST, AS to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, our knowledge of it is very imperfect: for, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. ii. 9. As, by familiar resemblances, parents instruct their little children concerning things, of which otherwise they can have no tolerable notion; so our gracious God, in contemplatior of our weakness, is pleased to represent to us heaven's piness, under similitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men; since naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes, and in them we would but lose ourselves. Wherefore now, one can but speak as a child of these things, which the day will fully discover.

The state of glory is represented under the notion of a kingdom; a kingdom among men, being that in which the greatest number of earthly good things doth concenter. Now every saint shall, as a king, inherit a kingdom. All Christ's subjects shall be kings, each one with his crown upon his head: not that the great King shall divest himself of his royalty, but he will make all his children partakers of his kingdom.

I. The saints shall have kingly power and authority given. Our Lord gives not empty titles to his favourites; he makes them kings indeed. The dominion of the

saints will be a dominion far exceeding that of the greatest monarch ever was on earth. They will be absolute masters over sin, that sometime had dominion over them. They will have a complete rule over their own spirits; an entire management of all their affections and inclinations, which now create them so much molestation: the turbulent root of corrupt affections, shall be for ever expelled out of that kingdom, and never be able any more K. k

to give them the least disturbance. They shall have power over the nations, the ungodly of all nations, and shall rule them with a rod of iron, Rev. ii. 26, 27. The whole world of the wicked shall be broken before them: Satan shall be bruised under their feet, Rom. xvi. 20. He shall

never be able to fasten a temptation on them any more; but he will be judged by them; and in their sight cast, with the reprobate crew, into the lake of fire and brimstone. So shall they rule over their oppressors. Having fought the good fight, and got the victory, Christ will entertain them as Joshua did his captains, causing them come near, and put their feet upon the necks of kings, Josh. x. 24.

II. They shall have the Ensigns of Royalty. For a throne, Christ will grant them to sit with him on his throne, Rev. iii. 12. They will be advanced to the highest honour and dignity they are capable of; and, in the enjoyment of it, they will have an eternal undisturbed repose, after all the tossings they meet with in the world, in their way to the throne. For a crown, they shall receive a crown of glory, that fadeth not away, 1 Pet. v. 4. Not a crown of flowers, as subjects, being conquerors, or victors, sometimes have got; such a crown quickly fades; but their crown never fadeth. Not a crown of gold, such as earthly kings do wear; even a crown of gold is often stained, and can never make them happy who wear it. But it shall be a crown of glory. A crown of glory is a crown of life, Rev. ii. 10. that life which knows no end; a crown which death can never make to fall off one's head. It must be an abiding crown; for it is a crown of righteousness, 2 Tim. iv. 8. It was purchased for them by Christ's righteousness, which is imputed to them; they are qualified for it by inherent righte ousness; God's righteousness or faithfulness secures it to them. They shall have a sceptre, a rod of iron (Rev. ii. 27.) terrible to all the wicked world. And a sword too, a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishment upon the people, Psal. cxlix. 6, 7. They shall have royal apparel. The royal robes in this kingdom are white robes, Rev. iii. 4. "They shall walk with me in white." And these last do, in a very particular manner, point at the inconceiv able glory of the state of the saints in heaven.