fold and that in this life as elswhere in spiritual blessings And Faith eying these things relieves the Soul Observe but what follows there as to our purpose in hand for which I quote this place in v. 19. the very next v. In your Patience possess your Souls the meaning from the Coherence is you may well possess your Souls in Patience for I have told you the issue will be most blessed and Glorious Fifthly Faith brings in Heaven as the Reward of patient enduring thus in Chap. first v. 12. of our Apostle Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him And this is the conclusion of his persent discourse about patient enduring When he is tryed that is when his tryals are finisht and gone through with And his Faith hath all along wrought Patience in his course T is persevering Patience or endurance receives this Crown Other Graces strive but Faith and Patience they are Crowned And further in proportion is holds that as mans Tryals and Temptations have been and his Patience suitable such shall the greatness of his Reward be and accordingly measured forth unto him And Faith in the intuition of that Glory heartens Patience Rom. 5. Faith having caused us first to Rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God v. 2. causeth us also to Glory in Tribulations v. 3. in the strength of our hope in that Glory Which Hope is said further to be encreased in us through Tribulations their working Patience v. 4. As thus Patience works experience v. 5. that is many a fresh experiment of our own graces and Gods dealings in those Tryals And those experiences do work up an Hope or assurance of Glory as I John 3. â— to that degree of firmness that maketh us not ashamed not in respect only of the real disappointment of that Glory at death but not in a mans own hope thereof in his own heart For in respect to that hope of his this is spoken because that over above and besides those foresaid experiments The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost himself immediately who is given to us which shedding c. of Gods love is no other then the earnest and prelibation of that Glory And this is given as the reward of our Patience and Tribulations which are but the loss of things Earthly in Exchange for which we receive this hope and beginning of Glory If thou hadst had all the Brass and Pewter that was in thy house and hath been melted by this Fire therewithall turn'd into Gold the stones that paved thy yards or the bricks or lime that raised thy walls all changed into precious stones thy glass windows that were dissolved converted into Diamonds thou hadst little cause to complain at the loss Now read Is 54. 11 12. O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Behold I will lay thy â—tones with fair Colours and lay by foundations with Saphirs I â—ill make thy Windows of Agats â—â—d thy Gates of Carbuncles and 〈◊〉 thy borders of Pleasant stones And if thou hast gotten any encrease of Grace by these losses then hath much of this in Isaiah been truly and spiritually fulfilled in thee And these repaires are in this life But besides that Thou hast a building made without hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Which stands ready for thee Those believing Hebrews might well suffer the spoiling of their Goods with joy whilst they found sealed and put into their hearts Bills of Exchange to receive all again in Eternal treasures in heaven But this was their very Case Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your Goods knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven 〈◊〉 better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. And this happy lot will come to be thine if thou exercisest upon thy losses Faith and Patience It follows in that Heb. 10. the following verses Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye mighâ— receive the promise This foâ— Faith's working Patience II. Our LOVE to God works PATIENCE § LOve to God in us works Patience or Faith by Love aâ— I shewed out of v. 12. Love to God makes us cleave to God and so to follow him through all weathers and endurances That great Convert in whom at his Conversion Faith and Love were so abundant as 1 Tim. 1. 14. his Heart through Love to the Name of Christ caused him in the highest passion to utter What mean you to weep and break my heart for I am not ready to be BOVND only but also to DYE at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 21. v. 13. It was Love to that Name that fired him yea his Love was wrought up to such an intense degree as he could have wisht to have been accurst from Christ for Gods Glory in the conversion of his brethren Rom. 9. I wonder how he would have done for Patience under that curse if in Hell But that Love which wisht that curse would have wrought it and so thought he or he would never have wisht this Upon the like account of Love to this Name Those two Apostles rejoyced to suffer shame for his Name as Acts 5. 41. Love makes the Glorifying of God and Christ and the will of God which is alwayes for his Glory dearer then all things to us Yea that God should have his Will for his own Glory if it be the will of God says the Apostle of our Sufferings abundantly stils the heart in all T is true I may be punishâ— in my afflictions for my Sin and I humble my self for that But beyond that it is the good pleasure of God so to have it and I rejoyce in that says Love That his Will is done As truly that 't is done upon me as that by me And Good is the word of God in both and Hallowed be his Name In that Rom. 8. where as you heard We are more then Conquerours in all these things through him that loved us that love of His to us is alone indeed openly or expresly mentitioned yet withall it is our love to him that tacitly is insinuated to be a concurrent cause therewith you must take that in too For the intent of those very words is that the Soul apprehending his Love Who is THAT LOVER as that word imports out of a reciprocated Love to him again doth hearten us in the conflict unto this Conquest And yet there is one small word put in that further argues this 't is in v. 26. For thy sake we are killed all the day long Our lives being in jeopardy every hour and we are counted as sheep for the slaughter and this For thy sake you have in the 44. Psal And he quotes it out from thence As it is
written says he For thy sake c. Now therefore it is evidently the Love that is in us to him and our cleaving to him therewith that is there held forth as that which makes us willing to suffer and endure in that it is for his sake And although the Apostle in his discourse runs upon the magnifying Gods Love and Christs Love to us as that which apprehended and taken in by us doth principally work this effect Yet the Psalmist on the other side sets out The Love of the Church to God as the concurrent cause v. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealâ— falsly in thy Covenant And v. 18 19 20 21 22. Our heart is not turned back neither havâ— our steps declined from thy way Though thou hast sore broken uâ— in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death If we have forgotten the Name oâ— our God or stretched out ouâ— hands to a strange God shall noâ— God search this out For hâ— knoweth the secrets of the heart Yea FOR THY SAKE are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep to the slaughter If Faith and Love once but says It is for thy sake oh God Why then says Patience I can bear it yea rejoyce in it for his sake that loved me And look as the Apostle says he could do all things through Christ that strengthened him so Love can doe all things for Christ that loved him and gave himself for him And to conclude this If Love to our Brethren which springs from Love to God works so great a Patience towards them as in that Scripture Love suffereth long and is kind envieth not rejoyceth not in evil bears all things hopes all things endures all things 1 Cor. Chap. 13. All which is spoken of as in those words of our Love to man Though it was our love to God that is urged and spoken of in all the words afore and is the Spring of this our love to man Now if love I say unto man works so much Patience in things perhaps that are yet injurious to us and not only burthensome from them And in a manner all those Elogies of love there doe run upon and speaks Patience that Patience being the proper fruit of that love What else doe suffering long bearing and enduring all things with the rest sound and signifie Then much more I say will love unto God the cause of this love to our Brethren enable us to doe the like towards him who can doe us no wrong nor hurt but is Holy Righteous in all his works and all whose wayes and goings forth to us are Mercy and Truth And for whose sake also it is that we bear so with our Brethren and who hath loved and given his Son for us It was a great speech of an holy Soul in an unkindly trial from man That man should deal thus with me I should have much adoe to bear it as David said But it is God and I can take any thing well at his hands And this for the second general Head III. Section III. GENERAL HEAD What is the Perfect Work of Patience § IN General A thing then is perfect when all the parts that belong to it are finished As then the Creation of the world is said to be perfect when as Gen. 2. 1 2. The heavens and the earth were finished and the hosts of them So when all the whole of the work of Patience in its several parts c. is accomplished then patience hath its perfect work There are four BRANCHES of this HEAD that compleat it 1. It s Privative work 2. It s Positive Acts. 3. It s Positive Fruits 4. Its Adjuncts of perfection All which go to make Patience perfect And the Proofs thereof will confirm every tittle of the forepart and body of that description I gave of Patience pag. 46. I. Branch It s Privative Work § I Begin with its Privative work And that lies in this when Faith by Patience doth mortifie turbulent passions that still arise and are opposites thereto And as love when PERFECT casts out fear 1 Joh. 4. 18 So then PATIENCE is PERFECT when it expells those contrary Passions or else likewise too intense thoughts or porings upon our misery and crosses so as our minds are chained and tyed to those objects and taken off from all other I take THOUGHTS in because Christ says Luke 24. 38. Why doe THOUGHTS arise in your hearts Why are you TROUBLED For when troubles sink deep they send thoughts up fast as when weights are hung upon a clock or jack they make the wheeles run swiftly And so inordinate affections cause an â—nordinacy of thoughts and a fixing our minds to one thing as upon what we have lost or are â—ike to suffer Now perfect Patience corrects and orders the exâ—ravagancies of all these reduceth a man to possess his own soul as Christs phrase is in Luke 21. 19. In your Patience possess ye your souls and thereby to dwell in ae mans self whereas the violence of such affections hurry us out of our selves and throw our soul out of doors that we are not within or our selves To instance in some particular passions 1. Inordinate Grief You know how Jobs Patience is cryed up and that by our Apostle Foâ— when he suffered the loss of all both his children and estate c yet he expressed no grief nâ— trouble at all that we read of upon the hearsay and tiding thereof and sure if there had been any upon those occasions the story would have told it as 〈◊〉 doth his other impatiences whicâ— were upon other and higheâ— pressures of another kind after wards But all you read of hiâ— upon occasion of those outwarâ— losses in chap. 1. is All meer Patience and submission to God Thâ— Lord says he gave and the Lorâ— hath taken away and 't is thâ— Lord who hath done both an blessed be the Name of the Lord for both And in ALL THIS charged not God foolishly says the last verse 2. Envy and Passionate Anger 1. Envy which is apt to rise when others have no such afflictions or losses As that such and such an one and of my rank should escape with his goods c. when the loss falls heavy on me saith the sad heart This secretly regreets Good people are greatly apt to this The Spirit that is in VS in us Saints lusteth to envy But God in the end gives more Grace that is when men are humbled as there t is said and broken which is usually when they have been exercised with great sufferings The different condition of the holy Apostles and some other Christians in those primitive times gives demonstration of such a Patience in this case There were no men so eminent for sufferings and Patience next the Lord Christ as the Apostles were who yet viewing other Christians as take the Corinthians 1 Cor 4. 8 9. how they
all in and orders all to keep home and not stir out of doors abroad composeth all so as a man possèsseth his own Soul In Phil. 4 6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God c. I instance likewise for this in the difference of the two grounds in the Parâ—ble of the Sower 8 Luke 14 15. Of the Thorny ground 't is said That the word was choaked by the CARES of the world But of the good ground oppositely that it brings forth fruit with PATIENCE Patience is contrary unto cares as well as unto Vnquietness or to other inordinate affections This for Patience its privative Work II. Branch of the III. HEAD I Come secondly to POSITIVE ACTS and workings of Patience which are many To begin with the lowest and so rise to the higher § 1. Patience includes and comprehends an Act of WAITING upon God and his good pleasure Waiting is an act of Faith continued or lengthened out and where Faith would of it self be short-winded Patience eeks it out The daughter helps the Mother with an expectation of anhappy issue 5. Jam. You find waiting involved in Patience as an eminent act thereof v. 7. Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain Look how and in what manner the Husbandman waits so he sets out and exhorts a Christian Patient man should doe Mic. 7. 7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me c. VNTIL he plead my cause and execute judgement for me c. v. 9. 2. It is a waiting with quietness And that 's Patience work too Patience is not an enduring simply by force which we call patience per force but with quietness In the third of Lament the Church in her doleful condition expresseth the actings and workings of her own soul Although she speaks in the third person which is usual in the Scripture yet means her self v. 26. It is good that a man should bothhope and QUIETLY WAIT for the salvation of the Lord. This was uttered when she was under the yoak and so was a fruit of Patience v. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoak in his youth It is the Nature of Faith to quiet the heart in God Isaiah 26. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee And chap. 30. 30. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength And when Faith hath wrought Patience it quiets the heart much more Patience speaks quietness in the very sound of it And the reason is because it hath a strength accompanies it 1 Col. 11. Strengthened with all might unto all Patience and long-suffering And thence so far forth as Faith and Patience doe strengthen the heart so far we are able to bear and that with quietness Let not your hearts be troubled saith Christ John 14. Why You believe in God believe also in me Faith on them will cause trouble to fly away Which is a great part of Christs meaning when he says in patience possess your Souls that 〈◊〉 dwell quietly in your own Spirits as a man doth in his house which our Law tearms his Castle 3. Patience carries on the heart without FAINâ—ING or discouragement Isaiah 42. 4. The Meekness and Patience of Christ is there first set forth v. 2. He shall not cry nor list up his voyce to be heard in the streets Thâ—n follows v. 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged not be broken as the Hebrew is that is in Spirit so as to cease from what God had given him to do or suffer he should goe on with his work till he had perfected it 4. Patience in all sufferings submits to God and the will of God The Apostle sedulously puts in if it be the will of God when he had occasion to mention their sufferings and he doth it twice 1 Pet. 3. 17. If it be the will of God that ye suffer And chap. 4. v. last Wherefore let him that suffers according to the will of God c. And in chap. 1. 6. If need be that is if God see it requisite to bring them on you And the Apostle would needs bring these clauses in though by way of Parenthesis so in two of these places mentioned The stronger the sufferings are the stronger is the will of God in bringing those sufferings And it is Patience in the Soul that works the heart to submission to that will Psal 39. v. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth BECAVSE THOV DIDST IT Then when he confest his sin of Bathsheba and murdering Vriah he considered not the wrong done them in comparison of That he had done against God therein Against THEE against THEE only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight And now when a retaliation for that sin in the rebellion of his own Son Absolon came upon him and Shimei had likewise bitterly cursed and reviled him which some latter expositors have deemed to have been the occasions of that Psalm He in like manner in this his punishment layeth aside the consideration of all instruments that had brought those evils on him whoever they were whether it were these or some other and looks only unto God and submits because thou hast done it And though he confesseth that he was in a fume at first notwithstanding his fixed resolution to have been dumb as for speaking any thing that should savour of murmuring afore men Yet his flesh and corruption boyled within him as that useth to rise and work in us first so v. 2. 3. I was Dumb with silence I held my peace even from good And my sorrow was stirred or my distemper wrought the more my heart was hot within me whilst I was musing the Fire burned Then spake I with my tongue And what he spake savors of a man weary of life it self For he would needs know of God when his life should be at end thus v. 4. So impatient was he Yea but then when his grace came more deeply and throughly to be stirred and Patience to have in perfect Work he then considers Gods hand alone in it how that it was HE had stirred up the Spirits of these wicked Oneâ— against him and found thaâ— himself had to doe with Goâ— alone And then he was 〈◊〉 and silent indeed to purpose Anâ— truly his heart at that time 〈◊〉 the occasion were that of Shimeâ— and Absalom had been wroughâ— up into as blessed a frame of submission to God as ever afore 〈◊〉 after in all his life time as hiâ— words in that chapter afore mentioned doe declare 2 Samâ— 15. 25 26. And David said if shall find