charging God foolishly as if he did them wrong 3. It shall keep them from damning despair When Satan sifteth them Christs intercession shall keep their faith from failing Grace shall humble them and save them from sin and the flesh and world they shall cast soul and body upon Christ and trust him in hope in their several degrees And those that have been more believing heavenly and fruitful than the rest are likest to have the greatest peace and comfort especially in their greatest need Quest And how is Gods strength manifested in our weakness Ans 1. It is manifested to our selves by keeping us from sin and sinking into despair and enabling us to bear and trust and wait and usually in the peace or joy of hope We know we are insufficient for this our selves When flesh and heart as natural fail us God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Psal 73. 26. We do not think oft before that ever we can bear and overcome as grace enableth us 2. And it 's manifest oft to others who shall see that power of grace in the sufferings of believers which they did not see in their prosperity Vse 1. Let not then our own weakness and insufficiency too much distress us with fears of suffering and death yea when we feel the thorn let us not forget our help and strength By Grace here is meant the living and merciful help of God especially giving us the inward strength by which we may not only bear but improve the sufferings of the flesh This body was not made to be here incorruptible or immortal we were born in sin and therefore born to pain and death We have lived in sin and no wonder if we live in sorrow but the sufferings of our Redeemer have sanctified our sufferings The Cross is not now such a cursed thing as guilt had made it He took our suffering flesh and blood that he might destroy by death the devil that had the power of death and deliver us who by the fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. Our pain prepareth us for endless pleasures and our sorrows for our Masters joy When we have suffered with him we shall reign with him He liveth and we shall live by him He is risen and we shall rise by him He is in Glory and we must be with him In the mean time his Grace is sufficient for us not only in health and ease but in all our pain and sickness He is not so unskilful or unkind as to give such physick to his own which shall do them more harm than good Though it be grievous at the present it brings forth the quieting-fruit of righteousness but we must first be exercised therein Let us not then be his impatient patients Grace can support us and overcome Men are not sufficient Our wit our power our worthiness are not sufficient but God's grace is sufficient If ease and life had been better than Grace and Glory we might have had them But God giveth us better than flesh would chuse Though the body be weak the head weak the memory weak the stomack weak and all weak yet God is strong and his strength will support us and bring us safe to our journeys end Lazarus lay among dogs in weakness at the rich mans doors but the Angels convey'd him in strength to Abrahams bosom We must lie and languish and groan in weakness but Omnipotence is engaged for us We must die in weakness but we shall be raised in power by him who will change these vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by the power by which he can subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. Let us therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. Looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our saith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross And let us beg more for divine grace and strength than for the departing of the thorn Grace is better than ease and health If the soul be our nobler part than the body the health of it is more desirable Bodily ease is common to bruits and wicked men strength of Grace is proper to Saints Ease and health in this life are short but Holiness will be everlasting Health fits us for fleshly pleasure but Holiness for Communion with God O pray not carnally for the flesh more than for the spirit for earth more than for heaven Pray that while the outward man is perishing the inward man may be renewed day by day and that our light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are unseen to us 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. Why should we grudg at any sufferings which are for the glory of Gods grace and strength As Christ said of Lazarus This sickness is not unto death that is the end of it is not to end his life though he dye but that the glory of God may be revealed So pain and death are not Gods ends but the manifesting of his grace and strength But alas it is not only the flesh that is weak but Grace it self as it is in us though not as it is in God and of God nor is it flesh only that hath the thorn but the heart or conscience also hath its part The spirit of a man if sound and well will sustain his bodily infirmities But a wounded spirit who can bear If faith were not weak if hope and love and desire were not weak the weakness of the body might well be born If sin and guilt were no wound or thorn in the soul and conscience we could be more indifferent as to the flesh and almost as quietly bear our own pain and death as our neighbours Though it 's hard to say is Tertullian Nihil crus sentit in nervo cum animus est in coelo yet our content and joy would overcome the evil of our suffering But alas when soul and body must be both at once lamented this this is hardly born Lord seeing it is thy sufficient Grace and not my bodily ease which I must trust to and my weakness must manifest thy strength O let not Grace also be in me insufficient and weak O let not Faith be weak nor Hope nor Love nor Heavenly desires and foretasts be weak Nor Patience and Obedience weak Head is weak and heart is weak but if Faith also be weak what shall support us At least let it be unfeigned and effectual and attain its end and never fail Flesh is failing and health as to its proper strength is failing But be thou my God the strength of my heart and my portion for ever And what ever thorn the flesh must feel yet let me finish my course with joy Amen I have run over many things in
own satisfaction and sincerity yet so lively were his apprehensions of the greatness of his approaching change and the weight of an everlasting state and what it is to enter upon another world that he was not without such fears as in our frail condition here poor mortals that are near death are lyable to And indeed fear signifieth a belief of the word of God and the life to come much more than dull insensibility But he signified his belief both by fear and hope and strong assurance XII He had the comfort of sensible growth in grace He easily perceived a notable increase of his faith and holiness and heavenliness and humility and contempt of worldly vanity especially of late years and under his affliction as the fruit of Gods correcting-rod I have truly given you the description of the man according to my familiar knowledge I shall yet review the similitude of his case with this of Paul described in my Text. I. Paul was accused by envious contentious Teachers And so was he Though I never heard any one person else speak evil of him as is said They that upbraided not Paul with his former persecution nor had any crime to charge him with yet accused his Ministry As they said of Daniel We shall find no fault against him except it be concerning the law of his God His Preaching and Writings though all for peace were the matter of his accusations The Bishop blamed him for Preaching even when the King had licensed him And a nameless Writer published a bloody Invective against his Pacificatory-book called The Interest of England as if it had been written to raise a War The enemies of Peace were his enemies II. He took boasting to be inexpedient as Paul did And when he was silenced as unworthy to be suffered in the Ministry he once offered a modest defence to the Bishop and wrote a short and peaceable account of his judgment about the sin of Schism in his own Vindication III. He had though not the Extasie of Paul yet great knowledge of things Divine and Heavenly to have been the matter of his glory IV. The heavenly Paradise was the place of his hopes where he daily studied to lay up his treasure which had his chiefest thoughts and care V. He found by experience that an immortal soul is not so tyed to this body of flesh but that it can get above it and all its interest and pleasure and live on the hopes of unseen glory VI. As he knew the incapacity of mortals to have formal and adequate conceptions of the state of the heavenly Paradise and separated souls so he submitted to Gods-concealing Will and lived on the measure of Gospel-revelation VII He knew the danger of being exalted above measure by occasion of holy Knowledge and how apt man is to be so puffed up VIII God himself saved him from that danger by his humbling wholesome sharper remedy IX A Thorn in the flesh was Gods remedy to keep him in a serious humble frame Three great Stones were found in his bladder and one small one in a corrupted Kidney And how painful a thorn these were for many years it is easie to conjecture X. Satan was permitted to try him as Job not only by the pain of his flesh but also by reproaches as aforesaid and by casting him out of his Ministry as unworthy to preach the Gospel of Christ unless he would say swear and do all that was by men imposed and the rest of those afflictions which are contained in such an ejected impoverished calumniated state are described in the late and former experience of may such XI Though I never heard him pray against poverty or reproach yet for the liberty of his Ministry he did that he might preach that Gospel of Salvation And pain forced him to have recourse to God for deliverance from the thorn in his flesh And if Christ and Paul prayed thrice with earnestness no wonder if continued pain made him continue his suit to God XII As Christ was heard in the thing which he feared and yet must drink that cup and Paul instead of the departing of the one was promised sufficient grace and the manifesting of Gods strength in his pain and weakness so it pleased not God to take away the Thorn from our dear Brothers flesh but he did better for him and gave him his supporting help and an increase of grace and shewed his own strength in all his weakness and also hastened his final deliverance beyond expectation And now he is past all at rest with Christ and all the blessed We see not them but they see God and God feeth us and is preparing us for the same felicity And if it be by the same means and we must bear the Cross and feel the Thorn it will be wholesome and short and good is the will and work of God Lord let me not account ease honour or life dear to me that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry received of the Lord and come in season and peace to thee And is not this Providence of God and this example of our deceased friend of use to us Yes no doubt of manifold use I. It is of great use to all the Land to good and bad to observe Gods threatning in the removal of his servants O how many excellent Christians and faithful Ministers of Christ have been taken hence within a few months The same week we hear of four or five more besides our brother and some of them the most excellent useful men And is it not time 1. To repent of our neglect of such helps as God is now removing 2 And to be presently awakened to use them better before the rest be taken away Alas poor Souls what a case are you in if you dye or the word be taken from you before you are regenerated and prepared for a better life It is not so much their loss and hurt as yours which Satan endeavoureth in silencing so many hundred such And it is your heavy punishment more than theirs which God inflicteth by their death O speedily repent before that death have stopt the mouths which call'd you to repentance And it should awaken the best to prepare for death and for publick suffering It seems there is some great evil to come when God thus takes away the best Yea if it should be a forerunner of a better state yet all save two of the old stock that dishonoured God in the Wilderness must fall and it was by bloody Wars a dreadful means that Joshua and the new generation were to possess the Land of promise II. It is of use to us unworthy Ministers of Christ who yet survive 1. It calleth loudly to us to work while it is day for our night is near when we cannot work Death will shortly silence us all more effectually than men have done Do Gods work prudently do it patiently peaceably and in as much concord and true obedience as you can
Revelations acquainting the soul with Heaven are matters most worthy of lawful humble modest Glorying It was Pauls Heavenly Visions which he gloryed in as his advancement when he had mentioned his many persecutions and sufferings in the way These tend to that perfection and felicity of souls In these men have to do with the glorious Jehovah the Angelical Chore the heavenly Society our glorified Head our highest Hopes and matter of the greatest everlasting joys O if God would but give you and me this Heavenly sight and let us but once see what Paul saw what little things would Crowns and Lordships seem to us when we look down from such an height What trifling should we think most of the busles of this world what toyes and dreams their wealthy honour and sinful Delights I should then say Now I see what it is that we seek and hope and suffer for what it is to enjoy God and our Redeemer And therefore now I know what it is to be a Beleiver a Saint a man indeed O what a help to mortification would such a sight of Paradise be How easily should we after resist temptations deny the Flesh contemn the world and hate our sins O how it would overcome all these distrustful trembling fears of death and make us long and grown and cry to be with Christ VVhat life would it put into all holy duty How easily should we bear our short afflictions How would it mellow our sowre contentious minds toward one another and teach us better whom to love and live in Peace with than pride and VVorldliness or Faction will teach us Fellow Christians Though you and I may not expect such Raptures and Extasies as Paul's yet we have the Gospel of Jesus a Divine Revelation of this same heavenly glory not to be set light by because we see it not our selves It is by the Son of God that saw it and now is there preparing it for us it is by a sealed certain word And the heavenly beams are sent down from him upon our hearts to shew it us and lead us up VVe are capable of a lively beleif of the full assurance of hope of the pledges earnest and first fruits and of rejoycing with unspeakable glorying joy We are capable in our manner and are sure of traffick for heaven and with heaven of sending up our treasures and there conversing in spirit as in the City which is our home and hearing by Faith the joyful harmony of the heavenly Songs and Praises of Jehovah Here we are capable of such a powerful touch with the Loadstone of Divine Love or to have our Spirits so refined and sublimated as shall make it as natural to them to make upward towards Christ and long for full and perfect union O had we lived as Beleivers should have lived how much more of heavenly mindedness and delight might we have attained than we have done O thank God for the Gospel revelation and beg grace to bring it in power on your hearts And then let worldlings take their earthly portion VVe can spare them all that hindereth not the gathering and edification of the Church and the heavenly interest of souls Observ 5. There is a third Heaven and Heavenly Paradice where are the concerns and hopes of holy souls Paul was thither taken up had he no interest there no hopes no friends no business there VVhy then should he have been rapt up thither How many Heavens there be and why it is here called the third I will not interrupt your more necessary thoughts by conjecturing enquiries Most say the Air is called the first the Starry Heaven the second and the place of the glorified Spirits the third but these are vain conjectures No man knoweth how many there be the Globes or Stars are at vast distance from each other some great Philosophers have been tempted to think that VVorld is infinite as an adequate effect of infinite Power because God hath no unactive power All this is prophane rashness The Heavens which are our inheritance are the place where perfect Glorious Spirits shall live in blessed Society with Christ and one another joyfully beholding the Glory of God and feeling the delights of mutual Love And yet there are different degrees of Glory from the different degrees of the Capacity of Spirits Whether also from any difference in the place and communicating Causes we shall shortly better know There are more sorts of Spirits thatn we can now know Though I know not how to receive Aquinas's Doctrine that no two Angels are of the same Species the diversity as well as the incomprehensible Glory and Numbers are unknown to us Those that God employeth under Christ as his Pursuivants Messengers and Servants for his Church are called Angels Whether there be orders over orders quite above Angels and how Angels differ from the perfected Spirits of the Just we know not As it is designed for Saints its Glory consisteth 1. In the Glory of the Place 2. In the perfecting and glorifying the Natures and Persons that enjoy it 3. In the Glory of the Heavenly Society Christ Angels and Saints 4. In the Glory of their high and excellent work to Love and Magnifie God for ever 5. In the Communication of the Joyful Love and Light and Life of God upon these glorified Spirits O what doth every one of these words signifie Is not this a Paradise indeed that is a place of purest greatest pleasure Vse 1. And are we not taught by such a glass as this how Great and how Good a God we serve O look up to the Heavens and see what he is by that which he hath made Yea it s said Psal 113. 6. that he humbles himself to behold the things in Heaven as well as upon earth O sinners what a God do you despise neglect and forget and what a Heaven do you fell for fleshly lust and to feed a Corruptible Body for the Grave O Christians what a God have we to serve and fear and how Zealously and purely should we serve him What a God have we to trust and hope in and how great a sin is it to distrust him What a Heaven have we to seek and hope for and how chearfully and constantly should we do it Alas our cold Hearts and slothful Lives and worldly Cares and sinking Spirits beseem not such a God and Heaven Were we designed but to inhabit the Sun or some resplendent Star how high is it above this Earth Shall we creep only on Earth and feed on dust and defile our Souls as if we were preparing them by Sin for Hell when we have a third heaven and Paradise to look up to and seek and hope for Doth Satan say what is that to thee that is so far above thee It is to us it is the place where the Glory of God is which we seek where our glorified Head is The place of holy Spirits whither also Henoch and Elias were Translated where Abraham Isaac and
cry for Mercy and abuse it no more Christ did not blame the blind and lame for crying out Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on us Nor the Canaanite VVoman for begging for the Crums is any afflicted let him pray and send for the Elders Prayers The Thorn in the Flesh will make us feel and feeling will teach us to repent and pray and prayer is the means of hope for the deliverance of Body and Soul Grace maketh us not stupid yet there are some that think a man behaveth not himself like a Believer if he cry and pray that the Thorn may depart What think they of David in Psal 6. and 17. and 88. And many more What think they of Christ that prayed that if possible the Cup might passe by him He did it to shew that even innocent nature is averse to suffering and death through Grace makes us submit to the Will of God we continue men when we are Beleivers we must mourn with them that mourn and yet not love others better than our selves nor feel their Thorns more sensibly than our own VVe must neither despise chastenings nor faint But how doth Paul pray Doth he make any great matter of of his thornes He besought the Lord thrice that it might depart Observ 13. Even earnest and oft Prayer is suitable to sharp Afflictions There is a kind of Devils and so of Satans thornes which go not out but by fasting and prayer no not by Christs own Apostles The sense and means must be suited to the malady God can do it upon one prayer or upon none but we are not so easily fited to receive it And Paul in this also is conformed to Christ who in his Agony pray'd thrice against his Cup though with submission Vse 1. You see here that the Apostles gift of healing was not to be used at their own will nor for their own flesh that it might not suffer but for the confirmation of the Faith when it pleased the Holy Spirit Troplainus and Epaphroditus might be sick and Timothy need a little VVine with his VVater though Paul had the gift of healing Vse 2. O let our pains drive us all to God who hath not some Sicknesses are all abroad what house how few persons have not some and yet is there a Prayerless house or person If Faith have not taught you to pray as Christians methinks feeling should teach you to pray as men I say not that prayer must shut out Food and Physick but Food and Physick will not do if prayer prevail not with the Lord of all Vse 3. And think not thrice or continued praying to be too much or that importunity is in vain Luk. 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not wax faint VVhether God deliver us or not prayer is not lost it is a good posture for God to find us in we may get better if we get not what we ask Obey and Pray and Trust God But what answer doth the Lord give to Pauls thrice praying He said My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is manifested in weakness 1. It was not a promise that the thorn should depart 2. It seems to be rather a denial at the present and that Paul must not be yet cured of his thorn for it is called a weakness that must continue for the manifesting of Gods strength and what was the sufficiency of grace and strength for but to endure and improve the thorn 3. But this promised grace and strength is better than that which was desired Obs 14. Even oft and earnest prayer of the greatest Saint for deliverance from bodily pains may not be granted in the kind or thing desired For 1. we are not Lords but beggars and must leave the issue to the donor And God hath higher ends to accomplish than our ease or deliverance It 's meet that he should first fit all his actions to his own will and glory and next to the good of many and to his publick works in the World and then to look at our interest next 2. And we are utterly unmeet judges of matter manner time or measure what God should give us for the body and how much and how and when When should we be sick or pained or persecuted or dye if all our prayers must be absolutely granted We know not how much better God is preparing us for by pain and bringing us to by dismal death He will not keep us from grace and glory because our flesh is loth to suffer and to die 3. And in this Paul also was conformed to Christ He was heard in the thing that he feared when in his agony he prayed with strong cryes but it was not by the removing of the bitter cup but by divine strength and acceptance And so it is with Paul sufficient grace and strength to bear is the thing promised Vse 1. We see then that they are mistaken that think Christs promise of giving believers whatever they ask will prove him a breaker of his promise if the strongest believer receive not all that he asketh for the body Was not Paul a strong believer All that God hath promised and we are fit to receive God will be sure to give 2. Let not unbelief get advantage by Gods not granting such prayers for the body Say not Why then is it my duty to pray 1. You know not before-hand but God may give it Possibility bids you beg 2. Why did Christ pray against his Cup 3. You lose not prayer you draw nearer God you exercise repentance and desire you signifie your dependance you are prepared for much greater gifts Obs 15. When God will not take the thorn out of our flesh and deliver us when we pray from bodily sufferings he will be sure to do better for prepared persons even to give them his sufficient grace and manifest his strength in their pain and weakness It is not for want of Love or Power that he lets us tumble on our beds in pain or lie under slanderers or persecutors rage He that with a word could make the World with a word can save us from all this But if we suffer not how shall suffering-graces be exercised faith patience self-denial and hope Is not grace better than ease or life How shall we get the benefit of suffering if we feel it not How shall grace and divine strength be manifested to our selves and others Quest What is it that Grace is sufficient for Ans 1. Not to set us up above the frailties of humanity and mortality nor to raise us to the joy that souls in heaven have 2. Not to every one alike but in our several measures some fear pain and death more than others some have greater patience and joy and long to depart and be with Christ But to all the faithful it shall suffice 1. To keep them from revolting from Christ and repenting of their choice and hope 2. To save them from