Chapter 5. Showing that things to Come are a Believer's.
apostle calls it the crown of life, Rev. 2:10. It is only the living Christian, who shall wear the crown of life.
2. Until this blessed work of regeneration, we are in a spiritual sense, ILLEGITIMATE. The Devil is his father. "You are of your father the Devil." Thus it is, until Christ be formed in the heart of a sinner; then his reproach is rolled away from him.
Regeneration ennobles a person; therefore such a one is said to be "born of God," 1 John 3:9. O how beautiful is that soul! I may say with Bernard, "O divine soul, invested with the image of God, espoused to him by faith, dignified with the Spirit! A person regenerate is embroidered with all the graces; he has the silver spangles of holiness, the angels" glory shining in him; he has upon him the image of Christ's beauty. The new creature is a new paradise set full of the heavenly plants. A heart ennobled with grace (to speak with reverence) is God's lesser heaven.
Chapter 5.
Showing that things to Come are a Believer's.
And so I slide into the second part of the text, "Things to come," are yours! Here is portion enough! It is a great comfort that when things present are taken away—yet things to come are ours.
Methinks the very naming this word, "things to come," should make the spirits of a Christian revive. It is a sweet word; our happiness is
"to come"—the best is ahead! Truly if we had nothing but what we have here on earth, we would be miserable; here on earth, are disgraces and martyrdoms; we must taste some of that gall and vinegar which Jesus Christ drank upon the cross. But, O Christian, be of good cheer, there is something to come! The best part of our portion is yet to be given—"all things to come are yours!" God deals with us as a merchant who shows the worst piece of cloth first. We meet sometimes with coarse usage in the world; that piece which is