of the Throne of God: Confider him that endured fuch contradiction of finners against himself, left ye be wearied, and faint in your minds, Heb. 12. 2, 3. You may well endure the buffeting, and scorn, if you forefee the honour. You may well endure the Crown of Thorns, if you foresee the Crown of Glory: You may endure to be forfaken of all, if you fee him that will never fail you, nor forfake you: This foretaste of the Rivers of pleasure with the Lord, will drown the tafte of the Vinegar and Gall. Whine not like worldlings that have loft their portion, when you are ftript as bare as Job. If you are true Believers, you have A fill, for God is All: You have loft Nothing; for Faith hath made the world as Nothing to you: And will you whine and vex your felf for Nothing? Can you call it Nothing fo frequently and cafily in your prayers, and ordinary speech; and do you now recall this;or tell us by your ferious grief, that you speak but in hypocrifie and jeaft. [Frangitur nemo moleftiâ adverforum, qui non capitur dele&atione profperorum. Auguft. Had there been lefs Idolatrous Love, there would have been lefs tormenting grief and care. Our life confifteth not in the abundance of the things that we peffeß. He is not happy that bath them, but he that neither needeth nor defireth them. [Cuna in bis que homines eripiunt, optant, cuftodiunt, nibil inveneris, non dico quod malis, fed quod velis. Sen. Super fluity doth but burden and break down: The Corn that's too rank lodgeth, and the branches break that are overladen with fruit. [Omnia que fuper fluunt nocent: fegetem nimia fternit ubertas: rami onera franguntur ad maturitatem non pervenit fæcunditas: Idem quos que animi evenit, quos immoderata profperitas rumpit, quia non tantum in aliorum injuriam, fed etiam in fuam utuntur. Sen.] It's pleasure, and not pain, that is the worlds most deadly! fting: It hath never fo much burt us, as when it hath flattered us into delights or hopes. [Et fera & pifcis fpe aliqua oblectante decipitur. Sen.] Hope is the bait; profperity and plea fure the net, that fouls are ordinarily enfnared by. Men lofe not their fouls for poverty, but for riches, nor for difhonour, but for honour; nor for forrow, but for delight. [Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque fecundu.] The The luxuriances of profperity, bring us fo frequently under the pruning hook. The furfeits and fummer fruits of fulness and carnal contentments and delights, do put us to the trouble of our fickneffes and our Phyfick. [How hardly shall rich men enter into Heaven?] faith he that well knew who fhould enter. Saith Auguftine [Difficile, immo impoffibile eft, ut præfentibus & futuris quis fruatur bonis: ut hic ventrem,& ibi mentem implea: ut à deliciis ad delicias tranfeat; & in utroque feculo primus fit; ut in terra & in cœlo appareat gloriofus The hope is, that [with God fuch humane impossibilities are poffible] But it's more terrible, than defirable to be put upon fo great a difficulty. Sweet difhes will have wafps and flies; but most of them are drowned in their delights. Saith Boetius of Profperity and Adverfity; Ila falit, hæc inftruit : illa mendacium fpecie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat: het cogis tatione fragilis felicitatis abfolvit : Itaque illam videas ventrosam fluentem, fuique femper ignaram: banc fobriam, fuccin&tamque ac ipfius adverfitatis exercitatione prudentem. A full meal feems beft in the eating; but a light meal is better the next day. More thank God in Heaven for adverfity, than for profperity: And more in Hell cry out of the fruit of profperity, than of adver fity. Many did never look towards Heaven, till affliction caft them on their backs, fo that they could look no other way. [It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy ftatutes] faith David, Pfal. 119.71. [Before I was afflided, I went aftrey.] v. 67. [In very faithfulness thou bast afflicted me] v. 75. One fight of Heaven by faith will force you to reckon that the fufferings of this prefent time are unworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ] Rom. 8. 18. To fuffer for Chrift and righteoufnefs fake, is but to turn an unavoidable fruitless pain, into that which being voluntary, is the more eafie, and hath a great reward in Heaven, Matth. 5. 11, 12. And to part with that for a Crown of Life, which elfe we must part with for nothing. Worldly friends, and wealth, and honour, are fummer fruit, that will quickly fall. Hungry fowl know where it's harvel [ At fimùl intonuit fugiunt: Thofe that muft dwell with you in Heaven, are your fure and stedfast friends [Cætera fortunæ, &c.] Those that are now higheft, and leaft acquainted with the tongue of of malice, the unfaithfulness of friends, or rage of enemies, shall shortly fay, [Atque bac exemplis quondam colle&a priorum: Nunc mibi funt propriis,cognita vera malis.] There is but the difference of an Est and an Erit, between their mirth and endless forrows: Their honour, and their endlefs fhame; nor between our forrow and our endless joy. Their final honour is to be embalmed, and their duft to be covered with a fumptuous monument, and their names extolled by the mouths of men, that little know how poor a comfort all this is to the miferable foul. In the height of their honour you may forefce the Chyrurgion opening their bowels, and thewing the receptacles of the treasure of the Epicure, and what remains of the price that he received for his betrayed foul. He cuts out the heart with a [He fedes livoris erant : jam pafcua vermis] you next tread on his interred corps, that's honoured but with a [Hic jacet] [Here lyeth the body of fuch one] And if he have the honour to be magnified by fame or hiftory, it's a fool-trap to enfnare the living, but cafeth not the foul in Hell. And thall we envy men fuch a happiness as this? what if they be able to command mens lives, and to hurt thofe that they hate for a little while? Is this a matter of honour or of delight? A Peftilence is more honourable, if deftroying be an honour. The Devil is more powerful (if God permit him) to do men hurt, than the greatest Tyrant in the world: And yet I hope you envy not his happiness, nor are ambitious to partake of it. If Witches were not kin to Devils, they would never fell their fouls for a power to do hurt: And how little do tyrannical worldlings confider, that under a mask of Government and Honour they do the fame ? Let the world then r.joyce while we lament and weep: Our forrow shall be speedily turned into joy; and our joy shall no man then take from us, Joh. 16. 20, 22. Envy not a dying man the happiness of a feather-bed, or a merry dream. You think it hard in them to deny you the liberties and comforts of this life, though you look for Heaven: And will you be more cruel cruel than the ungodly? Will you envy the trifling commodities or delights of earth, to thofe that are like to have no more, but to lye in Hell when the fport is ended? It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure to fee them in filks and gallantry a few daies, that mati be fo extreamly miferable for ever. Your crums, and leavings, and overplus is their All. And will you grudge them this much? In this you are unlike your heavenly Father, that doth good to the just and unjuft would you change cafes with them? would you change the fruit of your adverfity, for the fruit of their prosperity. Affliction maketh you fomewhat more calm, and wife, and fober, and cautelous, and confiderate, and preventeth as well as cureth fin. Profperity makes them (through their abufe) inconfiderate, rash, infentible, foolish, proud, unperfwadable. And the turning away of the fimple flayeth them, and the prof perity of fools deftreyeth them, Prov. 1. 32. It's long fince LaZarus's fores were healed, and his wants relieved; and long fince Dives feaft was ended. O let me rather be affl.&ted, than rejected; and be a door-keeper in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness: and rather be under the rod, than turned out of doors. Look with a ferious Faith upon Eternity, and then make a great matter of enjoyments or fufferings here if you can. Great joyes and forrows forbid men to complain of the biting of a Flea. Thunder claps drown a whispering voice. O what unbelief our impatiency and difquietness in fufferings do discover! Is this living by faith? and converfing in another world? and taking God for All, and the world for Nothing? What! make fuch a do of poverty, imprisonment, injuries, difgrace, with Heaven and Hell before our eyes? The Lord vouchsafe me that condition, in which I shall be nearest to himself, and bave most communion with Heaven, be it what it will be for the things of earth. These are the defires to which I'le ftand. To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions, as the most neceffary mercies of our lives (as fome of us have daily caufe)and at the fame time to be impatient under prefent afflictions, or inordinately afraid of those to come, is an irrational as well as unbelieving incongruity. Arc Are we derided, flandered, abused by the ungodly? If we repine that we have enemics and muft fight; we repine that we are Chrifts fouldires, and that is, that we are Chriftians. [Quomodo poteft imperator militum fuorum virtutem probare, nifi habuerit hoftem faich Lallantine. Enemies of God do nor use to fight profffedly against himself, but against his fouldiers [Non qui contra ipfum Deum pugnent, fed contra milites ejus inquit idem] If the remnants of goodnefs had not been a derifion among the Heathens themfelves, in the more fober fort, a Heathen would not have faid, [Nondum fælix es, fi non te turba deviferit: fibeatus vis effe, cogita boc primum contemnere, & ab aliis contemni. Sen.] Thou art not yet happy, if the rabble devide thee not: If thou wilt be blessed, learn first to contemn this, and to be contemned of oibers.] No body will deride or perfecute us in Heaven. ... 5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your callings as Believers efpecially you that are Governours. God is the original and end of Government. The highest are but his minifters, Rom. 13.6. This world is but the way unto another. Things feen are for things unfeen: And Government is to order them to that end: Efpecially by terrifying evil doers, and by promoting holiness in the earth. The Moral as well as the Na tural motion of inferiour agents, muft proceed from the influence of the fuperiour. The fpring and the end of every action truly good, are out of fight. Where thefe are not difcerned, or are ignorantly or maliciously opposed,the action is vitiated, and tendeth to confufion and ruine. God is the end of all boly actions; and carnal felf is the end of fin. If God and felf are infinitely diftinct, you may easily fee that the actions ma terialy the fame, that are intended to fuch distant ends, mult needs be very diftant. Nothing but faving Faith and Holiness: can conquer felfifone in the loweft of the people. But where the flesh hath more plentiful provifion, and felf is accommodated with the fullest contents of honour and pleasure that the world affords, how difficult a work, then is felf-denyal! And the reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Chrift. Where the flesh and vifible things bear fway, the enemy of Chrift bears (way. The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not fubje&to bi Law, nor can be, Rom, 8.7. And how Chrifts L |