purest piece of the material world, the Scriptures teachi us are corruptible. But it is needless to evince the corruptibleness of all inheritances. Besides what they are in themselves, it is a shorter way to prove them 'corrup tible in relation to us and our possessing them, by our own corruptibleness and corruption, or perishing out of this life in which we enjoy them. We are here among things that are perishing, and ourselves are perishing also; the things are passing which we enjoy, and we are pas sing who enjoy them.

Undefiled. All possessions here are defiled and stained with many defects and failings; still somewhat wanting, some damp on them or crack in them; fair houses, but sad cares flying about the gilded and ceiled roofs; stately and soft beds and a full table, but a sickly body and 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 they are called the mammon of unrighteousness. Iniquity is so involved in the notion of riches, that it can very hardly be separated from them. Our sin defiles what we possess; it burdens the whole creation, and presses groans out of the very frame of the world; Rom. viii, 22, For we know, that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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. 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 who can carry, as they say, a full cup even; who can have digestión strong enough for the right use of great places and estates; who can bear preferment without pride, and riches without covetousness, and ease without wantonness!

3

Then, as these earthly inheritances are stained with sin in their use, so what grief, and strife, and contentions

are there about obtaining or retaining them! Doth not the matter of possession divide many times the affections of those who are knit together in nature or other strict 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 these defiled inheritances?

That fadeth not away; a borrowed phrase, alluding to the decaying of plants and flowers, which bud and florish 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 ba ser 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 these evils. It falls not under the stroke of time, comes not within the compass of its scythe, which 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.

It 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 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. No change at all there, no winter and summer; not like the poor comforts here, but

a bliss always florishing. The grief of the saints here is not so much for the changes of outward things, as of their inward comforts. 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. As 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, would weary them who are most delighted with it. What we have here, cloys, but satisfies not; the joys above never cloy, and yet always satisfy.

Now for some use of all this. If these things were believed, they would persuade for themselves; we should not need 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 not time to consider whether we be provided with any thing surer and better than what we have here; whether we have any inheritance to go home to after our wandering; or can say with the apostle, 2 Cor. v, 1, 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 heavens.

Ver. 4. Reserved in heaven for you,

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

the last time.

IT is doubtless 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, which, if it be not removed, may damp their delight in hearing and considering of it. 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 possessiug it. And this they know, that those

spiritual powers who 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 where it is out of the reach of all adverse powers, reserved in heaven for them. Besides this being a further evidence of the worth and excellency of this inheritance, it makes it sure. It confirms what was said of its excellency; for it must be a thing of greatest worth, that is laid up in the highest and best place of the world, namely, in heaven, where nothing that is impure once enters, much less is laid up and kept. Thus, the land where this inheritance lies, makes good all that hath been spoken of the dignity and riches of it.

But further, as it is a rich and pleasant country where it lieth, it hath also this privilege, to be the only land of rest and peace, free from all possibility of invasion. There is no spoiling of it, and laying it waste, and defacing its beauty, by leading armies into it and making it the seat of war; no noise of drums or trumpets, no inundations of one people driving out another and sitting down in their possessions. In a word, there is nothing there subject to decay of itself, so neither is it in danger of fraud or violence. When our Saviour speaks of this same happiness, Matt. vi, 20, what is here called an inheritance, is there called a treasure. He expresses the permanency of it by these two figures, that it hath neither moth nor rust in itself to corrupt it, nor can thieves break through and steal it. There is a worm at the root of all our enjoyments here, corrupting causes within themselves; and besides that, they are exposed to injury from without, which may deprive us of them. How many stately palaces, which have been possibly divers years in building, hath fire upon a very small beginning destroyed in a few hours! What great hopes of gain by traffic hath one tempest mocked and disappointed! How many who have thought their possessions very sure, yet have lost them by some trick of law, and others, as in time of war, been driven from them by the sword! Nothing is free from all danger but this inheritance, which

is laid up in the hands of God, and kept in heaven for us. The highest stations in the world, the estate of kings, are but mountains of prey, one robbing and spoiling another; but in that holy mountain above, there is none to hurt, or spoil, or offer violence. What the prophet speaks of the church here, is more perfectly and eminently true of it above, Isaiah lxv, 25.

This is, indeed a necessary condition of our joy in the thoughts of this happy estate, that we have some persuasion of our property in it, that it is ours; that we do not speak and hear of it, as travellers passing by a pleasant place do behold and discourse of its fair structure, the sweetness of the seat, the planting, the gardens, the meadows that are about it, and so pass on; having no further interest in it; but when we hear of this glorious inheritance, this treasure, this kingdom that is pure, and rich, and lasting, we may add, It is mine; it is reserved in Heaven, and reserved for me. I have received the evidences and the earnest of it. And as it is kept safe for me, so I shall likewise be preserved to it; and that is the other part of the certainty that completes the comforts of it. The salvation which Christ hath purchased is indeed laid up in heaven, but we who seek after it are on earth, compassed about with dangers and temptations. What avails it us, that our salvation is in heaven, in the place of safety and quietness, while we ourselves are tossed upon the stormy seas of the world, amidst rocks and shelves, every hour in danger of shipwreck? Our inheritance is in a sure hand indeed, our enemies cannot come at it; but they may over-run and destroy us at their pleasure, for we are in the midst of them. Thus might we think and complain, and lose the sweetness of all our other thoughts concerning heaven, if there were not as firm a promise for our own safety in the midst of our dangers, as there is of our inheritance that is out of danger. The assurance is full; thus-it is kept for us in heaven, and we kept on earth for it; as it is reserved for us, we are no less surely preserved to it.

There is here, 1. the estate itself, salvation; 2. the preservation or securing of those that expect it, kept; 3. the time of full possession, in the last time.