Church discipline

 Here we have no rest: Micah ii. 10, ‘Arise, and depart hence, for this is not your rest:’ that is hereafter; Heb. iv. 9, ‘There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.’ Our home we count the place of our repose. Now there is no rest and content in this world, which is a place of vanity, misery, and discomfort. Yea, to the children of God there are stronger motives than crosses to drive them from the world—daily temptations, and our often falling by them. Crosses are grievous to all, but sin is more grievous to the godly; and nothing makes them more weary of the world than the constant in dwelling and frequent outbreaking of corruption and sin: Rom. vii. 24, ‘O miserable man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ The apostle was exercised with many crosses, but this doth make him complain in the bitterness of his soul, not of his misery, but of his corruption, which he found continually rebelling against God. Many complain of their crosses that complain not of sin. To loathe the world for crosses alone, is neither the mark nor work of grace. A beast can forsake the place where he findeth neither meat nor rest; but because we are sinning here, whilst others are glorifying God, this is the trouble of the saints.

. They believe and look for a better estate after this life is over: 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.’ No man can be a right sojourner on earth who doth not look for an abode in heaven; for that which doth
most effectually draw off the heart of man from this world is the expectation of a far better state in the world to come: 2 Cor. iv. 18, ‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ Heathens could call the world an inn, but they had only glimmering conceptions of another world. A Christian, that believeth it, and looketh for it on God’s assurance, he is only the joyful stranger and the pilgrim. Common sense will teach us the necessity of leaving this world, but faith can only assure us of another; they are believers and expectants of heaven.

 They do not only look for it, but seek after it. We read of both looking and seeking: Heb. xi. 14, ‘They declare plainly that they seek a country:’ Heb. xiii. 14, ‘Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.’ Seeking implieth diligence in the use of means. All the life of a Christian is nothing but the seeking after another country, every day advancing a step nearer to heaven; and therefore their πολίτευμα, their ‘conversation’ is said to be ‘in heaven,’ Phil. iii. 20. This is their great business upon earth, to do all to eternal ends: all other works and labours are but upon the bye, and subordinate to this. Their main care is to obtain this blessed condition; therefore they use word and sacraments, that they may grow in grace, faith, repentance, new obedience. Every degree in grace is another step towards heaven: Ps. lxxxiv. 5, ‘Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose hearts are the ways of them;’ ver. 7, ‘They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.’ Some of the saints are in patria, others in via, still bending homeward.