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All things that we see being compounded, may be dissolved again; the very visible Heavens, that are the purest piece of the material world (notwithstanding the pains the philosopher takes to exempt them) the Scriptures teach us that they are corruptibles. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall war old like a garment: as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. And from thence the Apostle to the Hebrews", and our Apostle in his other Epistle', use the same expression. But it is needless to fetch too great a compass, to evince the corruptibleness of all inheritances. Besides what

they are in themselves, it is a shorter way to prove them corruptible in relation to us and our possessing them, by our own corruptibleness and corruption, or perishng out of this life in which we enjoy them, we are here inter peritura perituri; the things are passing which we enjoy, and we are passing who enjoy them. An earthly inheritance is so 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 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 man dies, his inheritances and honours, and all things here, are at an end, in respect of him: yea, we may say the world ends to him.

Thus Solomon reasons, that a man's happiness cannot be upon this earth; because it 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 Chap. i. v. 10. Chap. iii. 11.

8 Psal. cii. 26.

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unda impellitur undá; therefore his rest and his happiness cannot be here,

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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 cieled 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. 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'. For we know, that the whole crea tion groaneth and travelleth in pain together until 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.

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We breathe up and down in an infected air, and are very receptive of the infection by our 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 * St. Luke xvi. 9. 1 Rom. viii. 22.

not matter of possession, this same meum and tuum, divide 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?

If we trace great estates to their first original, how few will be found that owe not their beginning, either to fraud, or rapine, or oppression? and the greatest empires, and kingdoms in the world have had their foundations laid in blood. Are not those defiled inheritances?

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.

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".

That fadeth not away.] No spot of sin, nor sorrow there, all pollution wiped away, 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

m 1 Cor. xv. 54.

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 antients, and this is its property, that the flowers in it are all Amaranthes, as a certain plant is named, and so it is called", A crown of glory that fadeth not away.

No change at all there, no winter and summer, not like 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; 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. A's 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 alway 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 intreaties 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

a 1 Pet. v. 4.

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, 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 hea

vens.

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 inheri tance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

Ver. 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

Ir is no doubt a great contentment to the children of God to hear of the excellencies of the life to come; they do not use to become weary of that subject; yet there is one doubt, that, if it be not removed, may damp their delight, in hearing and considering of all the rest. The richer the estate is, it will the more kindle the malice, and diligence of their enemies, to deprive them of it, and to cut them short of possessing it. And this 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 all ad

• 2 Cor. v. 1.

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