he still asks what you mean by this those things answer not me do ye think I can find Comâ—â—â—â— in them so long as my sin is unpardon'd and there is a 〈◊〉 of Eternal Death standing above my head I feel even an impress of somewhat of that hot Indignation some flashes of it flying and lighting upon the face of my Soul and how can I take pleasure in these things you speak of And though I should be sensless and feel nothing of this all my life yet how soon shall I have done with it and the delights that reach no further and then to have Everlasting burnings Eternity of wrath to enter to how can I be satisfyed with that estate All you offer a Man in this posture is as if ye should set dainty fair and bring musick with it to a Man lying almost pressed to death under great weights and ye bid him eat and be merry but lift not off his pressure you do but mock the Man and add to his misery On the other side he that hath got but a view of his Christ and reads his own pardon in Christs sufferings he can rejoyce in this in the midst of all other sufferings and look on death without apprehension yea with gladness the sting is out Christ hath made all pleasant to him by this one thing that he suffered once for sins Christ hath perfum'd the Cross and the Grave and made all sweet The pardoned Man finds himself light skips and leaps and through Christ strengthning him he can encounter with any trouble If you think to shut in his Spirit within outward sufferings it is now as Sampson in his strength able to carry away the Gates on his back that you would shut one withal yea can submit patiently to the Lords hands in any correction Thou hast forgiven my sin therefore deal with me as thou wilt all is well 1. Learn to consider more deeply and esteem more highly of Christ and his suffering to silence our grumbling at our petty light crosses for so they are in comparison of his will not the great odds of his perfect Innoâ—ency and oâ— his nature and measure of his sufferings will not the sense of that Redemption of our Souls from death by his death will none of these nor all of them argue us into more thankfulness and love to him and patience in our tryals Why will we then be called Christians it is impossible to be fretful and malecontent with the Lord 's dealing with us in any kind till first we have forgot how he dealt with his dearest Son for our sakes But these things are not weigh'd by the most we hear and speak of them but our hearts receive not the impressions of them therefore we repine against our Lord and Father and drown a hundred great blessings in any little touch of trouble that befalls us 2. Seek surer interest in Christ and his suffering than the most either have attained or are aspiring to otherwise all that is here suffered will not ease or comfort thee any thing in any kind of suffering no though thou suffer for a good cause even for his cause still this will be an extraneous foraign thing to thee to tell thee of his sufferings will work no otherwise with thee than some other common story And as in the day of peace thou regardest it no more so in the day of thy trouble thou shalt receive no more comfort from it Other things you esteemed shall have no comfort to speak to you though you persue them with words as Solomon says of the poor Man's friends yet they shall be wanting to you And then you would sure find how happy it were to have this to turn you to that the Lord Jesus suffered for sins and for yours and therefore hath made it a light and comfortable business to you to undergo momentary passing sufferings Days of tryal will come do you not see they are on us already Be perswaded to turn your eyes and desires more towards Christ. This is the thing we would still press the support and happiness of your Souls lyes on it But you will not believe it Oh! that ye knew the comforts and sweetness of Christ. Oh that one would speak that knew more of them were you once but entered into this knowledge of him and the virtue of his sufferings you would account all your days but lost wherein you have not known him and in all times your hearts would find no refreshment like to the remembrance of his love Having somewhat considered these sufferings as the Apostles Argument for his present purpose Now to take nearer notice of the particulars by which he illustrates them as the main point of our Faith and Comfort Of them here two things 1. Their Cause 2. Their Kind Their Cause both their meriting cause and their final cause 1. What in us procured these sufferings unto Christ. 2. What those his suffering procured unto us Our guiltiness brought suffering upon him and his suffering brings us unto God 1. The evil of sin hath the evil of punishment inseparably ty'd to it We have a natural obligation of obedience unto God and he justly urges it so that where the command of his Law is broke the Curse of it presently followeth And though it was simply in the Power of the supream Lawgiver to have dispensed the infliction yet having in his Wisdom purposed to be known a just God in that way following forth the tenor of his Law of necessity there must be a suffering for sin Thus the Angels that kept not their Station falling from it fell into a Dungeon where they are under chains of darkness reserved to the Iudgement of the Great day and Man fell under the sentence of Death But in this is the difference betwixt Man and them they were not of one as parent or common root of the rest but each one fell or stood for himself alone so a part of them only perisht but Man fell altogether so that not one of all the Race could escape condemnation unless some other way of satisfaction be found out And here it is Christ suffered for sins the just for the unjust Father says he I have glorified thee on Earth In this Plot indeed do all the Divine Attributes shine in their full infinite Mercy and immense Justice and Power and Wisdom Looking on Christ as ordained for that purpose I have found a Ransom says the Father one fit to redeem Man a Kinsman one of that very same Stock the Son of Man one able to redeem Man by satisfying me and fullfilling all I lay upon him my Son my only begotten Son in whom my Soul delights And he is willing undertakes all says loe I come c. We are agreed upon the way of this Redemption yea upon the Persons to be redeemed it is not a roving blind Bargain a price paid for we know not to whom Hear his own words Thou hast given the Son
not through fire and water yea through death it self yea were it through many deaths to go after him 2. Consider as its due so it is made easie by that his suffering for us our burden that pressed us to hell taken off is not all as nothing that is left to suffer or do our Chains that bounds us over to eternal Death being knock'd off shall we not walk shall we not run in his ways Oh! think what that Burden and Yoke was he hath eased us of how heavy how unsufferable it was and then we shall think what he so truly says that all he lays on is sweet his yoke easie and his burden light Oh! the happy change rescued from the vilest slavery and called to conformity and Fellowship with the Son of God 2. The Nature of this Conformity to shew the nearness of it is exprest in the very same terms as in the pattern it is not a remote resemblance but the same thing even suffering in the flesh But that we may take it right what suffering is here meant it is plainly this ceasing from sin so suffering in the flesh here is not the enduring of afflictions which is a part of a Christians Conformity with his head Christ Rom. 8. But this is a more inward and spiritual suffering it is the suffering and the dying of our Corruption the taking away the life of sin by the death of Christ and that death of his sinless flesh works in the Believer the death of sinful flesh that is the Corruption of his Nature which is so usually in Scripture called flesh Sin makes Man base drowns him in flesh and the lusts of it makes the very Soul become gross and earthly turns it as it were to flesh so the Apostle calls the very Mind that is unrenewed a carnal mind Rom. 8. And what doth the mind of a Natural Man hunt after and run out into from one day and year to another is it not on things of this base World and the concernment of his flesh What would he have but be accommodated to eat and drink and dress and live at ease he minds earthly things savours and relishes them and cares for them examin the most of your pains and time and your strongest desires and most serious thoughts if they go not this way to raise your selves and yours in your Worldly condition yea the highest projects of the greatest natural Spirits are but earth still in respect of things truly spiritual all their State Designs go not beyond this poor life that perishes in the flesh and is daily perishing even while we are busiest upholding it and providing for it present things and this lodge of clay this flesh and its interest take up most of our time and pains the most yea all till that change be wrought the Apostle speaks of till Christ be put on Rom. 13. put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and then the other will easily follow that follows in the Words make no provision for the flesh to fullfil it in the lusts thereof Once in Christ and then your necessary general care for this natural life will be regulated and moderated by the Spirit And for all unlawful and enormous desires of the flesh you shall be rid of providing for these instead of all provision for the life of the flesh in that sense there is another guest and another life for you now to wait on and furnish for in them that are in Christ that flesh is dead they are frâ—ed from its drudgery he that hath suffered in the flesh hath rested from sin Ceased from sin â—e is at rest from it a Godly Death as thâ—y that die in the Lord rest from their labours he that hath suffered in the flesh and is dead to it dies indeed in the Lord rests from the base turmoil of sin it is no longer his Master As our sin was the cause of Christs death his death is the death of sin in us and that not simply as he bear a moral pattern of it but the real working cause of it hath an effectual influence on the Soul kills it to sin I am crucified with Christ says S. Paul Faith so looks on the death of Christ that it takes the impression of it sets it on the heart kills it unto sin Christ and the Believer do not only become one in law so as his death stands for theirs but are in nature so as his death for sin causes theirs to it Rom. 6. 3. This suffering in the flesh being unto death and such a death Crucifying hath indeed pain in it but what then it must be so like his and the believer like him in willingly enduring it all the pain of his suffering in the flesh his love to us digested and went through it so all the pain to our nature in severing and pulling us from our beloved sins and our dying to them if his love be planted in our hearts that will sweeten it and make us delight in it love desires nothing more than likeness and shares willingly in all with the party loved and above all love this Divine Love is purest and highest and works strongliest that way takes pleasure in that pain and is a voluntary death as Plato calls love it is strong as death makes the strongest body fâ—ll to the ground so doth the love of Christ make the activest and liveliest sinner dead to his sin And as death fevers a Man from his dearest and most familiar friends thus doth the love of Christ and his death flowing from it fever the heart from its most beloved sins I beseech you seek to have your hearts set against sin to hate it to wound it and be dying daily to it Be not satisfy'd unless ye feel an abatement of it and a life within you disdain that base service and being bought at so high a rate think your selves too good to be slaves to any base lust you are called to a more excellent and more honourable service And of this suffering in the flesh we may safely say what the Apostle speaks of the sufferings with and for Christ that the partakers of these sufferings are co-heirs of glory with Christ if we suffer thus with him we shall also be glorified with him if we die with him we shall live with him for ever 3. The actual improvement of this Conformity Arm your selves with the same Mind or thoughts of this Mortification Death taken Naturally in its proper sense being an intire privation of life admits not of degrees but this figurative death this Mortification of the flesh in a Christian is gradual in so far as he is renewed and is animated and acted by the Spirit of Christ he is throughly mortified for this death and that new life joyned with it and here added ver 2. go together and grow together but because he is not totally renewed and there is in him of that corruption still that is here called flesh therefore is
that there is a 〈◊〉 need of this honouring that consists in not dâ—spiâ—â—g and in covering of â—railties as is even imply'd in this that the Woman is not called simply weak but the weaker and the Husband that is generally by Natures advantage or should be the stronger yet is weak too for both are Vessels of Earth and therefore frail both polluted with sin and therefore subject to a multitude of sinful sollies and frailties but as that particular frailty of nature pleads for Women that honour so the other reason added is not from particular disadvantage but from their common priviledge and advantage of grace as Christian that the Christian Husband and Wife are equally Co-heirs of the same grace of life As being Heirs together of the grace of life This is that which most strongly binds on all these duties on the hearts of Husbands and Wives And most strongly indeed binds their hearts together and makes them one 〈◊〉 each be reconciled unto God in Christ and so heirs of life and one with God then are they truly one in God each with other and that 's the surest and sweetest union that can be Natural love hath risen very high in some Husbands and Wives but the highest of it fallâ— far very short of that which holds in God hearts concentring in him are most and excellently one that love which is cemented by youth and beauty when these moulder and decay as soon they do it â—ades too that is somewhat purer and so more lasting 〈◊〉 holds in a natural or moral harmony of Minds yet these likewise may alter and change by some great accident but the most refin'd and spiritual and most â—â—disâ—olubleâ— is that which is knit with the highest and 〈◊〉 Spirit And the ignorance or disregard of this 〈◊〉 great cause of so much bitterness or so little true 〈◊〉 in the life of most married Persons because 〈…〉 meet not as one in him Heirs together Loath will they be to despise one another that are both bought with the precious blood of one Redeemer and loath to grieve one another being in him brought into peace with God they will entertain true peace betwixt themselves and not suffer any thing to disturb it They have hopes to meet one day where is nothing but perfect Concord and Peace they will live as heirs of that life here and make their present estate as like to Heaven as they can and so a pledge and evidence of their title to that Inheritance of peace that is there laid up for them and they will not fail to put one another often in Mind of thâ—se hopes and that Inheritance and to advance and further both each other towards it where this is not 't is to little purpose to speak of other rules where neither party aspires to this heiâ—ship live otherways as they will there is one common Inheritance abiding them one Inheritance of everlasting flames and as they do increase the sin and guiltiness of one another by their irreligâ—ous Conversation so that which some of them do wickedly here upon no great cause they shall have full cause there to curse the time of their coming together and that shall be a peice of their exercise for ever but happy those persons in any Society of Marriage or Friendship that converse so together as those that shall live eternally together in glory This indeed is the Sum of all duties Life A sweet word but sweetest of all in this sense that Life above indeed only worthy the name and this we have here in comparison let it not be called life but continual dying an incessant journey towards the Grave if you reckon years but a short moment to him that attains the fullest old age but reckon miserieâ— and sorrows 't is long to him that dyes young Oh! that that only blessed liâ—e were more known and then it would be more desir'd Grace This the tenor of this Heirship Free Grace this Life a free Gift Rom. 6. ult No life so spotless either in marriage or virginity as to lay claim to this life upon other terms if we consider but a little what it is and what we are this will be quickly out of question with us and we will be most gladly content to hold it thus by deed or gift and admire and extol that Grace that bestows it That your Prayers be not hindred He supposes in Christians the necessary and frequent use of this takes it for granted that the Heir of Life cannot live without prayer this is the proper breathing and language of these Heirs none of them dumb they can all speak these Heirs if they be alone they pray alone if Heirs together and living together they pray together Can the Husband and Wife have that love and wisdom and meekness that may make their life happy and that blessing that may make their Affairs successful while they neglect God the only giver of these and all good things You think these needless motives but you cannot think how it would sweeten your Converse if it were used 'T is prayer that sanctifies and seasons and blesses all and not enough that they pray when with the Family but even Husband and Wife together by themselves and with their Children that they especially the Mother as being most with them in their Child-hood when they begin to be capable may draw them apart and offer them to God often praying with them and instructing them in their youth for they are pliable while young as glass when hot but after sooner break than bend But above all Prayer is necessary as they are Heirs of Heaven often sending up their desires thither You that are not much in prayer look as if you look'd for no more than what you have here if you had an Inheritance and Treasure above would not your heart delight to be there Thus the Heart of a Christian is in the constant frame of it but after a special manner Prayer raises the Soul above the World and sets it in Heaven 't is its near access unto God and dealing with him especially about those Affairs that concern that Inheritance Now in this lies a great part of the comfort a Christian can have here and the Apostle knew this that he would gain any thing at their hands that he press'd by this Argument that otherwise they would be hinder'd in their prayers He knew that they who are acquainted with prayer find such unspeakable sweetness in it that they will rather do any thing than be prejudic'd in that Now the breach of conjugal Love the jarrs and contentions of Husband and Wife do out of doubt so leaven and imbitter their Spirits that they are exceeding unfit for Prayer which is the sweet Harmony of the Soul in God's ears and when the Soul is so far out of tune as those distempers make it he cannot but perceive it whose ear is the most exact of all for he made and tun'd the Ear and is the
undiscovered unbelief even in that point Therefore the Lord so often makes mention of it in the Prophets Isa. 50. 3. c. And in this point the Apostle particulary expresses I am perswaded that he is able to keep c. So this Apostle chap. 1. 5. Kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time This very needful to be considered in regard of the many and great oppositions and dangers the powerful enemies that seek after our Souls He is able to keep them for he is stronger than all and none can pluck them out of his hand says our Saviour This the Apostle here hath in that word Creator if he was able to give them being sure he is able to keep them from perishing This relation of a Creator implies likewise a benign propension and good will to the works of his hands if he gave them us at first when once they were not forming them of nothing will he not give us them again being put into his hand for safety And as he is powerful he is no less faithful a faithful Creator Truth it self They that believe on him he never deceives nor disappoints Well might St. Paul say I know whom◠I have trusted Oh! the advantage of faith It engages the truth and power of God his royal Word and honour lies upon it to preserve the Soul that faith gives him in keeping if he remain able and faithful to perform his Word that Soul shall not perish There be in the words other two grounds of quietness of Spirit in sufferings 1. It is according to the will of God The believing Soul subjected and levelled to that complying with his good pleasure in all cannot have a more powerful perswasive than this that all is ordered by his will This settled in the heart would settle it much and make it even in all things not only to know but wisely and deeply to consider that it is thus That all is measured in Heaven every dram of thy troubles weighed by that skilful hand that doth all in weight number and measure And then consider him as thy God and father who hath taken special charge of thee and thy Soul thou hast given it to him and he hath received it And upon this consideration study to follow his will in all to have no will but his This is thy duty and thy wisdom nothing gained by spurning and struggling but to hurt and vex thy self but by complying all is gained sweet peace it is the very secret the mystery of solid peace within to resign to his will to be disposed of at his pleasure without the least contrary thought And thus as two faced pictures those sufferings and troubles and whatsoever else to look to it on the one side as painful to the flesh hath an unpleasant visage yet go about a little and look upon it as thy fathers will and then it is smiling and beautiful and lovely This I would recommend to you not only for temporals as easier there but in spiritual things your comforts and sensible enlargements to love all he does it s the sum of Christianity thy will crucify'd and the will of thy Lord thy alone desire joy or sorrow sickness or health life or death in all in all thy will be done The other ground is in the first word reflecting on the foregoing discourse Wherefore what seeing your reproaches and sufferings are not endless yea they are short they shall end and quickly end and end in glory be not troubled about them overlook them the eye of faith will do it a moment what are they this is the great cause of our disquietness in present troubles and griefs we forget their end we are affected withour condition of this present life as if it were all and it is nothing Oh! how quickly shall all the enjoyments and all the sufferings of this life pass away and be as if they had not been Tbe End of the Fourth Chapter 1 Ep. St. Peter Chap. V. Ver. 1. The elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed THE Church of Christ being one body is interessed in the condition and carriage of each particular Christian as a part of it but more eminently in those that are more eminent and organick parts of it Therefore the Apostle after many Excellent directions given to all his Christian Brethren to whom he writes doth most reasonably and fitly add this express Exhortation to these that had oversight and charge of the rest The Elders that are amongst you c. The words have 1. A particular definement of the Persons exhorted and exhorting 2. The Tenour of the Exhortation it self The former in the 1 verse the Persons exhorted The Elders among you First Elders This here as often is a name not of Age but of Office yet named by that Age that is or ought to be most suitably qualified to such an office and imports that men though not aged yet if called to that office should be noted with that Wisdom and 〈◊〉 of mind and carriage which may give that authority and command that respect that is requisite for their calling not Novices as St. Paul speaks not as a light bladder being easily blown up as young unstable minds are but such as young Timothy was in humility and diligence as the Apostle testifies of him Phil. 2. 20. and further exhorts him to be 1 Tim. 4. 12. Let no man despise thy youth but be an example of believers in word in conversation in charity in faith in purity The name of Elders indifferently signifies either their age or their calling and of ruling sometimes civil Rulers sometimes Pastors of the Church as amongst the Jews both Here it appears that Pastors are meant as the Exhortation of feeding the flock evidences which though it sometimes signifie ruling and here may comprise it yet is chiefly by Doctrine and then the stile given to Christ in the encouragement added the chief Shepherd A due frame of spirit and carriage in the Elders particularly the Apostles of the Church is a thing of prime concern for the good of it It is one of the heaviest threatnings when the Lord declares that he will give a rebellious People such Teachers and Prophets as they deserved and indeed desired If there be a man to prophecy of wine and strong drink such a one shall be a prophet says he to that People And on the other side amongst the sweetest promises of mercy this is not the least to be furnisht with plenty of faithful Teachers Though prophane men make no reckoning of it yet were it in the hardest times they that know the Lord will account of it as he doth a sweet allay of all sufferings and hardship though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not
than all fires kindled against it The love of Christ conquers and triumphs in the hardest sufferings of life and in death it self And this hath been the means of kindling it in other hearts that were strangers to it when they beheld the victorious patience of the Saints who conquer'd dying as their head did that wearied their tormenters and triumpht over their cruelty by a constancy far above it Thus these fiery trials made the lustre of faith appear most as gold shines brightest in the furnace and if any dross is mixt with it its refined and purged from it by these trials and so it remains by the fire purer than before And both these are in the resemblance here intended that the fire of sufferings is the advantage of Believers both trying the excellency of faith giving evidence of it what it is purifying it from earth and drossie mixtures and making it more excellently what it is raising it to a higher pitch of refinedness and worth In these fires as faith is tryed the word on which faith relies is tried and is found all gold most precious no refuse in it the truth and sweeetness of the promises much confirmed in the Christians heart upon his experiment of them in his sufferings his God as good as his word being with him when he goes through the fire preserving him that he loses nothing except dross which is a gainful loss leaves of his corruption behind him Oh! how much worth is it and how doth it endear the heart to God to have found him sensibly present in the times of trouble him refreshing the Soul with dews of spiritual comfort in the midst of the flames of fiery trial One special advantage of these fires is the purging of a Christians heart from the love of the World and present things its true at best it is base and despicable in respect of the high estate and hopes of a Believer yet still there is somewhat within him that would bend him downwards and draw him to too much complacency in outward things if they were much to his mind too kind usage might sometimes make him forget himself and think himself at home at least so much as not to entertain those longings after home and that ardent progress homewards that became him It is good for us certainly to find hardship and enmities and contempts here and to find them frequent that we may not think them strange but our selves strangers and think it were strange for us to be otherwise entertained This keeps the affections more clear and disingaged sets it upward Thus the Lord makes the World displeasing to his own that they may turn in to him and seek all their consolations in himself Oh! unspeakable advantage 2. The composure of a Christian in reference to sufferings is prescrib'd in these two following Resolving and Rejoycing 1. Resolving for them reckoning so think it not strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Rejoycing in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be glad in as much c. Be not strangers in it Which yet naturally we would be are willing to hear of peace and ease and would gladly believe what we extreamly desire It is a thing of prime concern to take at first a right notion of Christianity which many do not and so either fall off quickly or walk on slowly and heavily do not reckon right the charges take not the duties of doing and suffering but think to perform some duties if they may with ease and have no other foresight do not consider that self denial that fighting against a Mans self and vehemently with the World these trials fiery trials which a Christian must encounter with As they observe of other points Popery in this is very compliant with nature which is a very bad sign in religion we would be content it were true that the true Church of Christ had rather Prosperity and Pomp for her badge than the Cross much ease and riches and few or no crosses except they were painted and guilded crosses such as that Church hath chosen instead of real ones Most Men would give religion a fair countenance if it gave them fair weather and they that do indeed acknowledge Christ the Son of God as St. Peter did Matt. 16. Yet are naturally as unwilling as he was to hear the hard news of suffering and if their advice might have place would readily be of his mind Be it far from thee Lord. His good confession was not but this kind advice was from flesh and blood and from an evil Spirit as the sharp answer tells get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me You know what kind of Messiah the Jews generally dreamt of and therefore took scandal at the meanness and sufferings of Christ expecting an earthly King of him and an outward flourishing State and the Disciples themselves after they had been long with him were still in that same dream when they were contesting about imaginary places yea they were scarce well out of it even after his suffering and death all the noise and trouble of that had not well awakt them Luk. 24. we trusted it had been he which should have restored Israel And after all that we have read and heard of antient times and of Jesus Christ himself his sufferings in the flesh and of his Apostles and his Saints from one Age to another yet still we have our inclinations to this of driving troubles far off from our thoughts till they come upon our backs and fancying nothing but rest and ease till we be shaken rudely out of it How have we of late flatter'd our selves many of us one year after another upon slight appearances Oh! now it will be peace and behold still trouble hath increased and these thoughts proved the lying visions of our own hearts while the Lord hath not spoken it And thus of late have we thought it at hand And taken ways of our own to hasten it that I fear will prove fools hast as you say You that know the Lord seek him earnestly for the averting of further troubles and combustions which if you look aright you will find threaten us as much as ever And withal seek hearts prepar'd and fixed for days of trial fiery trial yea though we did obtain some breathing of our outward peace yet shall not the followers of Christ want their trials from the hatred of the ungodly World if it persecuted me says he it will also persecute you Acquaint therefore your thoughts and hearts with sufferings that when they come thou and they not being strangers may agree and comply the better Do not afflict your selves with vain fears before hand of troubles to come and so make uncertain evils a certain vexation by advance But thus fore think the hardest things you may readily be put to for the name and cause of Christ and labour for a holy stability of mind for encountering it if it should come upon you things certainly fall the lighter
on us when they fall first upon our thoughts This way indeed of an imagined suffering the conquest before hand may be but imaginary and fail in the trial therefore be still humble and dependent on the strength of Christ and seek to be prefurnisht with much distrust of thy self and much trust in him with much denial of thy self and love to him And thus the preparing and training of the heart may prove useful and make it more dexterous when brought to conflicting in all both before hand and in time of the trial make thy Lord Jesus all thy strength That is our only way in all to be conquerours to be more than conquâ—rors through him that loved us Think it not strngae for it is not sure your thoughts to the experience and verdict of all times and to the warnings that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and our Saviour himself hath given us from his own mouth and example shewed in his own person But the other point goes higher rejoyce though we think not the sufferings strange yet may we not well think that rule somewhat strange to rejoyce in them No it will be found as reasonable as the other being duly considered And upon the same ground 't wil bear both in as much as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. If the Children of God consider not their trials in their natural bitterness but in the sweet love from whence they spring and the sweet fruits that spring from them that we are our Lords gold and he tries us in the furnace to purifie us as in the former verse this may beget not only patience but gladness even in the sufferings But add we this and truly it compleats the reason of this way in our saddest sufferings that in them we are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. So then 1. Consider this twofold connexed participance of the Sufferings of Christ and of the after Glory 2. The present joy even in sufferings springing from that participance I need not tell you that this Communion in sufferings is not in point of expiation or satisfaction to Divine Justice which was the peculiar end of the sufferings of Christ personal not of the common sufferings of Christ mystical he bare our sin on his own body on the Tree and in bearing them took them away we bear his sufferings as his body united to him by his Spirit Those sufferings that were his personal burden we partake the sweet fruits of they are accounted ours and we acquitted by them but the endurance of them was his high and incommunicable task in which none at all were with him our Communion in these as fully compleated by himself in his natural body is the ground of our comfort and joy in these sufferings that are compleated in his mystical body the Church This is indeed our joy that we have so light a burden so sweet an exchange the weight of sin quite taken off our backs and only all bound on his cross and our crosses badges of our conformity laid on our shoulders and the great weight of them likewise held up by his hand that they overpress us not These fires of our trial may be corrective and purgative of the remaining power of sin and they are so intended but Jesus Christ alone in the sufferings of his own Cross was the burnt offering the propitiation for our sins Now although he hath perfectly satisfied for us and saved us by his sufferings yet this conformity with him in way of suffering is most reasonable As our holiness doth not stand in point of law nor come in at all in the matter of justifying us yet we are called and appointed to holiness in Christ as suiting us with him our glorious head and we do really receive it from him that we may be like him so these our sufferings bear a very congruous likeness with him though no way as accession to his in expiation yet as a part of his and therefore the Apostle says even in this respect that we are predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son were it fit that we should not follow where our Captain led and went first but that he should lead through ragged thorny ways and we pass about to get away through flow'ry meadows as his natural body shared with his head in his sufferings so ought his mystical with him as its head The buffetings and spitings on his face and thorny crown on his head a pierced side nailed hands and feet and if we be parts of him think we that a body finding nothing but ease and bathing in delights were agreeable to a head so tormented I remember what that pious Duke said at Ierusalem when they offer'd to crown him King there No Crown of Gold where Christ Iesus was Crowned with thorns This is the way we must follow or else resolve to leave him the way of the Cross is the royal way to the Câ—own He said it and remembred them of it again that they might take the deep impression of it remember what I said unto you the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also And particularly in point of reproaches if they called the Master â—eelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold a bitter scost an evil name reproaches for Christ why doth this â—ret thee it s a part of thy Lords entertainment while he was here thou art even in this a partaker of his sufferings and in this way is he bringing thee foreward to the partaking of his Glory That is the other thing when his Glory shall be revealed Now he is hid little of his Glory seen it was hid while he was on earth and now 't is hid up in Heaven where he is aâ—d for his body here his Church no pompous dress nor outward splendour and the particular parts of it the Saints poor despised creatures the very refuse of Men in outward respects and common esteem so he himself is not seen and his followers the more they are seen and lookt on by the Worlds eye the more meanness appears true that as in the days of humiliation some rays were breaking forth through the vail of his flesh and cloud of his low despiseable condition thus is it with his followers sometimes a glance of his Image strikes the very eye of the World and forces some acknowledgment and a kind of reverence in the ungodly But commonly Christ and his followers are covered with all the disgraces and ignominies the World can put on them But there is a day wherein he will appear and 't is at hand and then he shall be glorious even in his despised Saints and admired in them that believe how much more in the matchless brightness of his own glorious person In the mean time he is hid and they hid in him our life