comforts And others limit the word therefore to the following Crosses or sufferings which they must undergoe for the sake of Christ And accordingly they interpret the cause of their succceding joy But I see no reason but both are included in the Text but principally the first and the other consequently As if he had said When you see me Crucified your hearts and hopes will begin to fail and sorrow to overwhelm your minds and you will be exposed to the fury of the unbelieving World but it will be but for a moment for when you see thaâ— I am risen again your Joy will be revived and my Spirit afterwards and continual encouragements shall greatly increase and perpetuate your Joys which no persecutions or sufferings shall deprive you of but they shall at last be perfected in the heavenly everlasting Joys The cause of their sorrow is first his absence and next their sufferings with him in the World when the bridegroom is taken from them they must fast that is live an afflicted kind of life in various sorrows And the causes of their succeeding Joy are first his Resurrection and next his Spirit which is their comforter and lastly the presence of his Glory at their reception into his glorious Kingdom Their sorrow was to be short as that of a woman in Travail and it was to have a tendency to their Joy And their Joy was to be sure and near I will see you again and great your heart shall rejoice and everlasting your joy no man taketh from you The sense of the Text is contained in these six Doctrinal propositions Doct. 1. Sorrow goeth before joy with Christs Disciples Doct. 2. Christs death and departure was the cause of his Disciples Sorrows Doct. 3. The Sorrows of Christs Disciples are but short It is but Now. Doct. 4. Christ will again visit his Sorrowful Disciples though at the present he seem to be taken from them Doct. 5. When Christ returneth or appeareth to his Disciples their sorrows will be turned into joy Doct. 6. The joy of Christians in the return or reappearing of their Lord is such as no man shall take from them Of these by Gods assistance I shall speak in order and therefore be but short on each Doct. 1. Sorrow goeth before joy with Christs disciples The evening and the morning make their day They must sow in tears before they reap in joy They must have trouble in the World and peace in Christ God will first dwell in the contrite heart to prepare it to dwell with him in glory The pains of travail must go before the joy of the beloved birth Qu. what kind of sorrow is it that goeth before our joy Ans 1. There is a sorrow positively sinful which doth but should not go before our joy Though this be not meant directly in the text yet is it too constant a foregoer of our comforts It is not the joys of Innocency that are our portion but the joys of Restoration And the pains of our disease go before the ease and comfort of our recovery we have our worldly sorrows and our passionate and pievish sorrows like Jonas's for the withering of his gourd According to the degree of our remaining corruption we have our sorrows which must be sorrowed for again Sometimes we are troubled at the providences of God and sometimes at the dealings of men at the words or doings of enemies of friends of all about us we are grieved if we have not what we would have and when we have it it becomes our greater grief nothing well pleaseth us till we so devote our selves to please our God as to be pleased in the pleasing of him 2. And we have our sorrows which are sinful through our weakness imperfection when through the languishing feebleness of our Souls we are overmuch troubled at that which we may lawfully sorrow for with moderation When impatience causeth us to make a greater matter of our afflictions than we ought If God do but try us with wants or Crosses if we lose our friends or if they prove unkind we double the weight of the Cross by our impatiency This cometh from the remnants of unmortified selfishness carnality and overloving earthly things Were they less loved they would be less sorrowed for If we had seen their vanity and mortification had made them nothing to us we should then part with them as with vanity and nothing It 's seldom that God or men afflict us but we therefore afflict our selves much more As the destruction of the wicked so the troubles of the godly is chiefly of themselves 3. There is a mâ—er natural suffering or sorrow which is neither morally good or bad As to be weary with our labour to be pained with our diseases to be sensible of hunger and thirst of cold and heat to be averse to death as death as Christ himself was and at last to undergo it and lie down in the dust There are many sorrows which are the fruits of sin which yet in themselves are neither sin nor duty 4. There are castigatory sorrâ—ws from the hand of God which have a tendency to our cure if we use them according to his appointment Such are all the foresaid natural sufferings considered as Gods means and instruments of our benefit He woundeth the Body to heal the Soul He lanceth the sore to let out the corruption He letteth us blood to cure our Inflamations and Apostemated parts He chasteneth all that he loveth and receiveth and we must be subject to a chastening Father if we will live For he doth it for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness 5. There are honourable and gainful sufferings from blind malicious wicked men for the cause of Christ and righteousness Such as the Gospel frequently warneth believers to expect These are the sorrows that have the promises of fullest joy Not that the meer suffering in itself is acceptable to God But the Love which is manifested by suffering for him is that which he cannot but accept So that the same measure of sufferings are more or less aceptable as there is more or less Love to God expressed by them and as the honor of Christ is more or less intended in them For to give the body to be burned without Love will profit us nothing But when the cause is Christs and the heart intendeth him as the end of the suffering then Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven c. 6. There are penitential and medicinal sufferings for the killing of sin and helping on the work of grace which are made our duty In the former we are to be but submissive patients but in these we must be obedient agents and must inflict them on our selves Such are the sorrows of contrition and true repentance The exercises of fasting abstinence and humiliation The grief of the Soul for Gods displeasure for the hiding of his face
offended at them than at our sins 8. But Death is the end of all the living The mourners also must come after us And alas how soon It maketh our fall more grievous to us to foresee how many must ere long come down How many hundred Pastors must shortly be separated from their flocks If there were no Epideicmal malady to destroy us our Ministry hath its mortality Your Fathers where are they and the prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1.5 This made us the more importunate with you in our Ministry because we knew that we must preach to you and pray with you and instruct you and watch over you but a little while Though we knew not what instrument death would use we knew our final day was coming when we must preach and exhort and pray our last with you we knew that it behoved us to work while it was day and O that we had done it better because the night was coming when none could work Joh. 9.4.9 And as it is appointed to all men once to die so after death there followeth Judgment And we also have our further judgment to undergo We must expect our hour of temptation We must be judged by men as well as chastened by God We must prepare to bear the reproach and slanders of malicious tongues and the unrighteous censures of those that know us not and of those who think it their interest to condemn us And we must also call our selves to judgment We are like to have unwelcom leisure to review the daies and duties which are past It will then be time for us to call our selves to account of our preaching and studies and other ministerial works and to sentence our labours and our lives And it will be time for you to call your selves to account of your hearing and profiting and to ask How have we used the mercies which are taken from us Yea God himself will judge us according to our works He will not justifie us if we have been unfaithful in our Little and have been such as Satan and his instruments the accusers of the Brethren do report us But if we have been faithful we may expect his double justification 1 By pardon he will justify us from our sins 2. By Plea and righteous sentence he will justify us against the false accusations of our enemies And that 's enough How small a thing should it seem to us to be judged of man who must stand or fall to the final sentence of the Almighty God 10. The separated Soul and Body do retain their Relations and the Soul its inclination to a re-union with its Body And though our nearest obligations may be now dissolved and the exercise of our communion hindered yet I know we shall never forget each other nor shall the bond of Love which doth unite us be ever loosed and made void And so much of our Relation shall still continue as is intimated in those texts 1 Cor. 4.15 16.12.14 Phil. 4.1 c. 11. And the power of Death will not be everlasting A Resurrection and re-union there will be at last But whether in this world I cannot prophesy I am apter to think that most of us must die in the wilderness and that our night must bear some proportion with our day But things unrevealed belong only unto God It sufficeth me to be sure of this that as our kingdom so our comforts are not of this world and that as Christ so his servants under him may say Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Heb. 2.13 and that we shall present you as chast Virgins unto Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 And therefore we have preached taught and warned that we might present you perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1.28 For what is our hope or joy or Crown of rejoycing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his Coming For ye are our glory and our joy 1 Thessalonians 2.19 20. But yet the Resemblance between Death and this our separation holdeth not in all things 1. It is not I nor any Pastour that is the Churches Soul or life This is the honour of Christ the Head Being planted into him you may live though all his Ministers were dead or all your Teachers driven into corners 2. The continuance of your Church-state dependeth not on the continuance of any one single Pastour whatsoever God can provide you others to succeed us that may do his work for you more successfully than we And could I but hope that they should be as able and holy and diligent as I desire how little should I partake with you in this daies sorrows Had I not given you these exceptions malicious tongues would have reported that I made my self your Life or Soul and take the Churches to be all dead when such as I are silenced and cast out But I remember Psal 12. Though what I have said and what you feel may make you think that a funeral Sermon is most seasonable on such a day yet I have rather chosen to preach to you the doctrine of Rejoycing because you sorrow not as men that have no hope and because I must consider what tendeth most to your strength stedfastness And that you may see herein I imitate our Lord I have chosen his words to his troubled Disciples before his departure from them Joh. 16.22 And though I make no question but it will be said with scorn that thus I make my self as Christ that I seditiously encourage you by the expectations of my restitution yet will I not therefore forbear to use my Saviours Consolatory words But will remember to whom and on what occasion he said Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch Math. 15 13.14 The words are Christs Comforts to his Orphane Sorrowful Disciples expressing first their present Condition and that which they were now to tast of and secondly their future state Their present case is a state of sorrow because that Christ must be taken from them Their future case will be a state of joy which is expressed 1. In the futurity of the cause But I will see you again 2. In the promise of the effect and your heart shall rejoice 3. In the duration and invincibâ—lity of it and your joy no man taketh from you or shall take from you He had before likened their sorrows on this occasion to the pains of a woman in her Child-bearing which is but short and endeth in joy And in relation to that similitude the Syriack translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickness and the Persian translateth it Calamity some expositors limit the cause of their sorrows to the absence of Christ or that death of his which will for a time both shake their faith and astonish their hopes and deprive them of their former
the corrections which are not improved by us to our amendment and reformation But the promise belongeth 1. to those sorrows which in sincerity we undergo for the sake of Christ and righteousness 2. To those sorrows which we our selves perform as Duties either for the dishonour of God or the sins or miseries of others or our penitential sorrows for our own offences 3. And to those sorrows of chastisement which we patiently submit to and improve to a true amendment of our hearts and lives For though sin be the Material cause or the Meritorious cause yet Love which maketh Reformatâ—on the effect will also make the end to be our Comfort Vse 2. If this be Gods Method condemn not then the generation use 2 of the just because you see them undermost in the world and suffer more than other men Think it not a dishonour to them to be in poverty prisons banishment or reproach unless it be for a truly dishonourable cause Call not men miserable for that which God maketh the token of his love and the Prognostick of their joy Methinks he that hath once read the Psal 37. 73. and Mat. 5.10 11 12. Joh. 13. 15. 2 Thes 1. and well believeth them should never err this old condemned Errour any more And yet it is common among carnal men to do as some beasts do when one of their fellows is wounded they all forsake him so these stand looking with pity or fear or strangeness upon a man that is under sufferings and slanders as if it must needs be a deserved thing and think it a great dishonour to a man how innocent soever when they hear that he is used as offendours malefactours are forgetting how by this they condemn their Saviour and all his Apostles and Martyrs and the wisest best and happyest men that the earth hath born And all this is but the blind and hasty judgment of sense and unbelief which hath neither the wit to judge by the word of God nor yet the patience to stay the end and see how the sorrows of the godly will conclude and where the triumph of the hypocrite will leave him And yet some there be that are apt to err on the other extream and to think that every man is happy that is afflicted and that such have all their sorrow in this life and that the suffering party is alwaies in the right and therefore they are ready to fall in with any deluded sect which they see to be under reproach and suffering But the cause must be first known before the suffering can be well judged of doctrine 2 Doct. 2. Christs death and departure was the cause of his disciples sorrrows This is plain in the words Ye Now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again And the causes of this sorrow were these three conjunct 1. That their dear Lord whom they loved and whom they had heard and followed and put their trust in must now be taken from them If the parting of friends at death do turn our garments into the signs of our sad and mournful hearts and cause us to dwell in the houses of mourning we must allow Christs disciples some such affections upon their parting with their Lord. 2. And the Manner of his death no doubt did much increase their sorrows That the most innocent should suffer as a reputed malefactour that he that more contemned the wealth and pleasures and glory of the World than ever man did and chose a poor inferiour life and would not have a Kingdom of this World and never failed in any duty to high or low should yet be hanged ignominiously on a Cross as one that was about to usurp the Crown That deluded Sinners should put to death the Lord of life and spit in the face of such a Majesty and hasten destruction to their nation and themselves and that all Christs disciples must thus be esteemed the followers of a crucifyed usurper judg if we had been in their case our selves whether this would have been matter of sorrow to us or not Had it not been enough for Christ to have suffered the pain but he must also suffer the dishonor even the imputation of sin which no man was so far from being guilty of and of that particular sin usurpation of Dominion and Treason against Caesar which his heart and life were as contrary to as light to darkness And was it not enough for Christians to suffer so great calamities of bodies for righteousness sake but they must also suffer the reproach of being the seditious followers of a crucifyed malefactour whom they would have made a King No! our Lord would stoop to the lowest condition for our sakes which was consistent with his innocency and perfection Sin is so much worse than suffering that we may take this for the greatest part of his condescension and strangest expression of his Love that he should take not only the nature and the sufferings of a man but also the nature and the Imputation of sinners Though sin itself was inconsistent with his perfection yet so was not the false accusation and imputation of it He could not become a sinner for us but he could be reputed a sinner for us and die as such And when our Lord hath submitted to this most ignominious kind of suffering it is not fit that we should be the choosers of our sufferings and say Lord we will suffer any thing except the Reputation of being offenders and the false accusations of malicious men If in this we must be made conformable to our head we must not refuse it nor repine at his disposal of us 3. And their sorrow for Christs departure was the greater because they had so little foresight of his Resurrection and return It is strange to see how dark they were in these articles of the faith for all their long converse with Christ and his plain foretelling them his death and resurrection and how much of their teaching Christ reserved to the Spirit after his departure from them Joh. 12 16. Luk. 18.31.32.33.34 Then took he unto him the twelve and said unto them behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles and shall be mocked and spightfully entreated and spit upon and they shall scourge him and put him to death and the third day he shall rise again And they unstood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things which were spoken Had they known all that would follow and clearly foreseen his Resurrection and his Glory they would then have been troubled the less for his death But when they saw him dye and foresaw him not revive and rise and reign then did their hearrs begin to fail them and they said Luk. 24.21 We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel Even as we use
to be wholly freed from the pain Can sin and suffering be perfectly separated Do you think to continue ignorant and proud and selfish and in so much remaining unbelief carnality worldliness and sloth and yet never to feel the Rod or Spur nor suffer any more than if you had been innocent Deceive not your selves it will not be Sin lieth at the door and be sure at last it will find you out Prov. 11.31 Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the Earth much more the ungodly and the sinner Judgment must begin at the House of God and the righteous are saved with much ado 1 Pet. 4.17 18. God is not reconciled to the sins of any man And as he will shew by his dealings that he is reconciled to their persons so will he shew that he is not reconciled to their sins If God continue your sufferings any longer than you continue your sin and if you can truly say I am afflicted though I am innocent then your impatience may have some excuse 2. Your sorrows shall be no longer than you make them necessary and will you grudge at your own benefit Or at the trouble of your Physick while you continue your disease It is but if need be that now for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 And who maketh the Need Is it God or you Who maketh you dull and sloathful and sensual Who turneth your hearts to earthly things and deprives you of the sweetness of things spiritual and heavenly Who maketh you proud and unbelieving and uncharitable It is he that doth this that causeth the need of your afflictions and is to be blamed for the bitterness of them but it is your Physician that is to be thanked and praised for fitting them so wisely to your Cure 3. Your sorrows shall not be so long as you deserve It is strange ingratitude for that man to grudge at a short affliction that is saved from everlasting misery and confesseth he hath deserved the pains of Hell Confess with thankfulness That it is his mercy that you are not consumed and condemned because his compassions fail not If God be your portion hope in him For the Lord is good to them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him It is good that you both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord It is good for a man that he bear the yoak in his youth He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope He giveth his Cheek to him that smiteth him he is filled full with reproach For the Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Lam. 3.22 to 33. Ezr. 9.13 All that is come upon us is for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses and God hath punished us less than our iniquities 4. Your sorrows shall not be so long as the sorrows of the ungodly nor as those that you must endure if you will chuse sin to escape these present sorrows Abels sorrow is not so long as Cains Nor Peters or Pauls so long as Judas's If the Offering of a more acceptable Sacrifice do cost a righteous man his life alas what is that to the punishment that malignant envious Cainites or treacherous Judas's must endure What is the worst that man can do or the most that God will here inflict to the Reprobates endless hellish torments O had you seen what they endure or had you felt those pains but a day or hour I can hardly think that you would ever after make so great a matter of the sufferings of a Christian here for Christ or that you would fear such sufferings more than hell It is disingenuous to repine at so gentle a Rod at the same time whilst millions are in the flames of Hell and when these sufferings tend to keep you thence 5. Your sorrows shall not be so long as your following joys if you be persevering conquering believers What is a sickness or a scorn or a Prison or banishment or shame or death when it must end in the endless joys of Heaven O do but believe these with a lively sound effectual Faith and you will make light of all the sufferings in the way Nihil crus sentit in nervo saith Tertullian cum animus est in Coelo The mind that is in Heaven and seeth him that is invisible will easily bear the Bodies pains Mistake not in your accounts and you will reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.17 18. For our light affliction which is but for a moment doth work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 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 Use 2. And if it be but for a Now that you must have sorrows how reasonable is it that those sorrows be moderated and mixt with joy And how just are those commands Rejoice evermore 1 Thes 5.16 Math. 5 10 11 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Rom. 12.12 Rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation Act. 5.42 How rational was their joy who being beaten and forbidden to Preach departed from the presence of the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ 1 Pet. 4.13 14. Rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified It is a shame to be dejected under a short and tolerable pain which is so near to the eternal pleasure and to suffer as if we believed not the end and so to sorrow as men that are without hope Doct. 4. Christ will again visit his sorrowful Disciples He removeth not from them with an intent to cast them off When he hideth his face he meaneth not to forsake them When he taketh away any ordinances or mercies he doth not give them a Bill of divorce When he seemeth to yield to the powers of darkness he is not overcome nor will he give up his Kingdom or Interest in the World When he letteth the Boar into his Vineyard it is not to make it utterly desolate or turn it common to the barren wilderness For 1. He hath conquered the greatest enemies already and therefore there remaineth none to conquer him He hath triumphed over Satan Death and Hell He hath conquered sin and what is there left to depose him from his Dominion 2. He retaineth still his