and suffers its proud Waves to be bounded and checkt by the Sand. There go the ships and there is that Leviathan whom he hath made to play therein The Earth faithfully performs the Task that was imposed upon it at its first Creation and ceases not to bring forth its fruit in its Season and the most inconsiderable Creature that it nourishes even the smallest Fly publishes the wisdom and power of its Creator as much as the greatest Elephant And who again that considers these things can chuse but proceed with the Psalmist and say Praise the Lord from the earth ye dragons and all deeps fire and hail snow and vapour stormy wind fulfilling his word Mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars beasts and all cattel creeping things and all fowl And shall all these inferiour Creatures daily laud and magnifie their Maker as most plainly they do while in their several Stations they perform his Commands shall the little Birds warble out Hymns of Praise and every Hedge produce a Quire to sing an Hallelujah and shall Man alone be silent Man whom God himself hath crowned with glory and honour whom he hath made to have dominion over the works of his hands and hath put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas Man whom when he had lost all this Honour when Sin had laid both it and himself together in the dust out of which they were both raised at the first God was pleased by a Miracle of mercy to restore to Honour once more nay to greater Honour than he had before even to the Honour if he forfeits it not again by his own monstrous Ingratitude of being made like unto the Angels in Heaven of being numbred among the children of God and having his lot among the saints I say shall Man whom of all the rest of his Creatures God hath delighted most to Honour be of all the rest of the Creatures the most ungrateful and most backward to give Praise and Glory to God Oh wheresoever this Ingratitude be to be found let it not be found amongst us but let us still joyn with the Psalmist and say Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth both young men and maidens old men and children Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name only is excellent his glory is above the earth and heaven Thirdly that this Duty of glorifying God is both reasonable and necessary is evident in as much as all Mankind both good and bad shall most certainly one way or other give glory to God For the Lord will be King for ever be the people never so tumultuous and unquiet and though he be offended and provoked and blasphemed every day yet he is strong as well as patient and will one day vindicate his abused patience and longsuffering and will exalt himself above the heavens and his glory above all the earth Then shall all those foolish Wretches that refused to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name and to celebrate the Praise of his mercy that endureth for ever be forced by their everlasting Punishment to glorifie his Justice For the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works For he hath made all things for himself saith Solomon Yea even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16.4 Thus did God get himself Honour as well by punishing the stubbornness of Pharaoh whom he overthrew in the Sea as by rewarding the obedience of Moses to whom he gave Power to command it And thus at the end of all things will he cause his Justice eternally to shine as bright and glorious below even in the midst of the infernal darkness as his mercy shall above in the Regions of light and happiness And Oh how sad how dreadful will our Condemnation be if we neglect this great Salvation that is offered us if notwithstanding this wonderful Redemption that God hath wrought for us we will again sell our selves Slaves to Sin and Satan And if but the tasting of a forbidden fruit brought Death into the world and made all Mankind obnoxious to the eternal wrath of God what Vengeance is reserved for them that tread under foot the Blood of his only begotten Son that despise the very height of his Love and the utmost riches of his Mercy Since then we must unavoidably glorifie either the Mercy of God or his Justice let us chuse rather to adore the former than to be broken in pieces by the latter for they that will not submit to his gentle Government while he holds forth his golden Sceptre shall be sure to feel the Severity of his rod of Iron Lastly for I must not be tedious though the Subject be so copious that I might heap up Arguments without number Since there is not the least part of the Creation excepting wicked Men and wicked Angels but what sets us an Example and invites us to glorifie our Creator this Duty of glorifying God is most highly reasonable for us to perform while we are upon Earth because it will be our eternal Task if ever we come to Heaven Those glorious Mansions above resound incessantly with Hymns of Praise unto the King of Saints To whom all Angels cry aloud continually the Heavous and all the powers therein Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory If therefore we desire to perform this Duty in the next Life it is not only reasonable but necessary that we begin is in this For certainly if we do not now tune our Voice to an Hallelujah and practise the Musick of Heaven while we are upon Earth Candidates for a Place in the celestial Choire we shall never be qualified to bear a part in that new Song which is to be sung before the throne of God and none shall be able to learn it but the Saints that are redeemed from the Earth Let us therefore now and evermore joyn with those blessed Spirits in glorifying our Almighty Creator saying as our Church teaches us and with which words we will at present break off our Discourse Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most high SERMON V. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price c. THE reasonableness of this Duty of glorifying God to which in these words the Apostle exhorts us we have already seen and indeed he must be blind that sees it not when the whole Creation joins unanimously in the constant performance of it and every Corner of it declares the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the
and Blood and the Gate that must admit him into those Mansions of Glory is exceeding strait and he must strive hard if he will enter in at it Thus ye see in general that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him much Labour and Sweat and Pains to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation through many and great Troubles and Afflictions through many amazing Difficulties and affrighting Dangers he shall at the last enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and receive a Crown of Glory And this will appear more plainly if we consider distinctly these several Difficulties which he hath to encounter in his way to Heaven And these are First his own natural Corruptions The best and holiest of Men our Blessed Saviour only excepted who was sanctified from the Womb are all conceived and born in Sin By one Man saith St. Paul Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 And this Original Sin as it is generally stiled by Divines which the Righteous themselves even the best of God's Saints as well as other Men bring into the World with them deriving it from Adam by a wonderful but certain Propagation is of a spreading and infectious Nature as dangerous and deadly to the Soul if it be not carefully subdued and mortified as Leprosie to the Body It is ever active and stirring labouring and struggling continually to get the Mastery over the Soul that so it may break out into open and actual Transgressions And too often it doth so even in good Men and prevails sometimes over the most pious and devoutest Christians This was that which moved David to commit Adultery and Murder This was that which shook the Constancy of Peter and made him so timorously and basely to deny his Master And this is that which causes so many Weaknesses and Failings in all the Saints of God so that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not but in every Man there is a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in his Members Rom. 7.23 In every Man as the same Apostle speaks Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that by means of this intestine War within him it comes to pass often times that he cannot do the things that he would Even the Heathen Philosophers did observe and complain of though they knew not the Cause of this strange Depravation of humane Nature Plato tells us that Men are by Nature wicked and cannot be perswaded to do that which is right and that the two great and principal Diseases of the Soul are Ignorance and Vice And to the same Effect Tully observes that Nature is to Man a Stepmother that brings him into the World with a naked Body feeble and helpless and with a Soul throughout the whole Course of his Life sorrowful and distracted with Multiplicity of Cares and Troubles tormented with Fears tired with Labour and prone to Lust wherein the Divine Light Wit and good Manners are as it were overwhelmed and stifled This sad Condition which all Mankind is in by Nature I say the wiser Sort even amongst the Heathen amidst the gross Darkness of Paganism and Idolatry had some little Knowledge of though they were utterly ignorant of the true Cause and Reason of it And therefore they made it their chief Care and Business by their Learning and Philosophy according to the best of their Power to correct and amend it But unto us Christians God hath unlocked this Secret and hath fully discovered this great and hidden Mystery which all the Learning of the profoundest Heathen Philosophers was not able to search out In the lively Oracles of the Holy Scriptures he hath fully explained unto us both the Cause and Danger and Remedy of this Corruption of our Nature In that Sacred Book we have it represented to us under divers Names and Characters all of them foul and abominable like it self This is that which Rom. 7.17 St. Paul calls the Sin that dwells in us Because since the Fall of our First Parents it is become natural and hereditary to us and never leaves us nor forsakes us in this World but abides continually in our Flesh even unto Death whence in the same Chapter it is called the Evil that is present with us and Hebr. 12.1 the Sin which doth so easily beset us because it cleaves to us so closely and inseparably and with so much Force and Violence presses and besieges all the Strength and Powers of our Soul The word in the Original is very Elegant and Emphatical and but once used in all the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin which doth so easily beset us that Sin which doth as it were hug and embrace us and is continually insinuating and winding it self like a Serpent into our Hearts with a Design to deceive and beguile us This is that which ver 15. of the same Chapter is called a Root of Bitterness springing up to trouble us because it is ever plentiful in producing evil Branches and corrupt and deadly Fruit. This is that which by St. James is called the Lusts that war in our Members James 4.1 and by St. Peter the fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 St. Paul calls it the old Man and the Body of Sin Rom. 6 6. And what the Members of that Body are he tells us Coloss 3.5 Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Thus ye see the first Difficulty that the Righteous Man hath to encounter within his way to Heaven which renders that way so troublesome to him that notwithstanding all his Courage and Resolution he cannot walk in it without great Pains and Labour He carries a most unwelcome and heavy Clog about him from which he cannot possibly disengage himself which continually pulls him back and hinders and retards his Soul in its Flight towards those glorious Mansions of Joy and Happiness towards which it doth so eagerly press forward And had he no other Enemies but this one to vanquish even this alone might be sufficient to satisfie us that he shall scarcely be saved since it is most certain that he never shall be saved at all except he do overcome this first Enemy of his Salvation which of all others is the most formidable One deceitful Dalilab was worse to Samson than all the Philistines and this one innate intestine Foe of ours which lies continually in our Bosom is more dangerous to us than either the World or the Devil both which join their Forces together with this to bring us to Destruction And could we as we have all solemnly promised and engaged to do in our Baptismal Vow renounce all the sinfull Lusts
time when the blessed Son of God was thus sent forth it was when the fulness of the time was come 4. The reason or end of his Mission it was to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons But though I shall more or less touch upon all these Points yet for the more plainness I shall confine my self to this method I shall prove to you that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias whom God hath long since sent forth into the world and that no other is to be expected and this I shall do as by other Arguments so particularly by these which are mentioned in my Text the time when the manner how and the reason and end wherefore he came into the world The coming of the Messias is a matter of so great importance that it concerns all Mankind diligently to enquire about it and to inform themselves aright whether he be already come or no and if he be who is the true Messias whom God hath sent into the world For to erre in this Point is the most fatal Error imaginable an Error that inevitably entitles us to Damnation for it is most certain that in the Messias were all the Families of the Earth to be blessed and as all Mankind share in the transgression of our first Parents by which we lost our state of Innocence and fell into a state of Sin and Death and became obnoxious to the wrath of God so hath all Mankind an interest likewise in the Messias who hath destroyed the works of the Devil abolished Death and brought life and immortality to light and by vertue of this Interest every Son of Adam hath a right to God's favour and an unquestionable Title to the Kingdom of Heaven if he loses not this Interest and this Title to that glorious inheritance by unbelief And since God was graciously pleased to shew so great Mercy to Mankind greater than whatever he vouchsafed to any of his Creatures besides as to reconcile them unto himself through the Mediation of the Messias it was necessary for him to give the world timely notice that in his good time he would send such a person into it who should accomplish this great work and also to describe him so plainly by such infallible Marks and Characters as that the whole World might be sensible of his coming that he might be visibly discernible from all Mankind besides that no man might be mistaken in him so as to adhere to a false Messias or to reject the true one except it were such as took little or no care to inform themselves or such as were wilfully obstinate and resolved to shut their Eyes against the clearest light And that God hath done thus is granted even by the very enemies of Christianity The Jews themselves acknowledge it and indeed every man must needs do so that knows the Scriptures and owns them to be the word of God He declared this gracious Design of his to send the Messias even in the very beginning of the world and no sooner had our first Parents brought themselves into a condition to need a Saviour but God presently assures them that he hath ordained one for them and that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head He declared it afterwards more plainly to Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs more fully yet to Moses And lastly most clearly of all by the Prophets for to him give all the Prophets witness If then these things be so as most certainly they are it is plain that by the Scriptures we may most evidently discern whether the Messias be already come or no and if he be come who he is that we may believe in him And that he is already come and that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is he will be undeniably apparent from these following Arguments in the managing of which I shall shew you how exactly the New Testament and the Old agree together like two Indentures to prove this great Truth which both of them chiefly aim at that Jesus is the Messias or Christ which is the same thing in another Language signifying Anointed a Person set apart and appointed by God to a most high and eminent Office and Employment First then that Jesus is the true Messias appears from his coming into the world punctually at the time wherein God had foretold in the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the Messias should come So saith our Apostle here in my Text When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his son i. e. at that juncture of time which God had appointed and foretold by his Prophets That the coming of the Messias should be deferred for some considerable time was very reasonable that men might the more earnestly desire and long for the Accomplishment of so great a Blessing and it was as reasonable that the exact time of his coming should be pointed at and decyphered by some remarkable Signs and Tokens that they might not be weary of exspecting him before the time was come or when it was come that they might not be unable to know him and continue to expect another And accordingly God hath dealt with the world He sent not the Messias quickly for he came not until the World was near 4000 years old and besides other later Prophecies of it he punctually foretold the time when he should come near 1700 years before-hand all which Prophecies agree exactly even by the Jews own Confession to the time of our Saviour's coming in the Flesh I shall instance only in these three as being the chief and principal of them and abundantly sufficient of themselves without the concurrence of any other to prove this Point The first is that ancient Prophecy of Jacob Gen. 49.10 The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be All the ancient Expositors of the Jews understand these words as we do to be a Prophecy of the coming of the Messias called here by the name of Shiloh which signifies sent or as some perhaps better interpret it a Peace-maker viz. that the Sceptre should not depart from Judah i. e. that that Tribe should continue all along without any Interruption to be a Body politick having a power of Government and Jurisdiction within it self until the coming of the Messias the great Peace-maker whom God would send to reconcile the world unto himself Thus far the Jews and we are agreed about the sense of this Text But we say further that it means not only that the Tribe of Judah should continue to be invested with the power of Government within it self until the coming of the Messias as it is manifest that it did after it had once received that Power from David's time until the coming of our Saviour but that it should be deprived of this Power and cease to be
Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God Let us continually lift up our Hearts with most devout and ardent Affections unto him who is our Prophet our Priest and our King yielding as far as we are able an intire and impartial Obedience to all his Laws submitting our Selves wholly to his Will and to the guidance of his Holy Spirit in all Things So when this King of Glory shall come again with the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his Hands to render unto every Man according to his Works he shall open for us those everlasting Doors through which he himself is already passed as our Fore-runner and place us in those happy Mansions of Bliss and Joy which he hath prepared for us where we shall be Kings and Priests unto God for ever Unto which unconceivable Glory and Honour c. SERMON VII MATT. XI 28. Come unto me all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will give you Rest GREAT Travel is created for every Man saith the Son of Sirach Eccles 40.1 and an heavy Yoke is upon the Sons of Adam from the Day that they go out of their Mother's Womb till the Day that they return to the Mother of all Things Their imagination of Things to come and the Day of Death trouble their Thoughts and cause fear of Heart from him that sitteth on a Throne of Glory unto him that is humbled in Earth and Ashes from him that weareth Purple and a Crown unto him that is clothed with a Linen Frock This is the sad Condition of all the Sons of Men by Nature an unhappy Patrimony entailed upon us by the first Adam's Disobedience and from which nothing but the perfect Righteousness and satisfaction of the second Adam can deliver us The former utterly ruined and undid us when we were once Happy The latter came on purpose to seek and to save us when we were lost The former hung upon our Necks the heavy and intolerable Yoke of Satan a Burden under which the whole Creation groans and which if we shake it not off will at the last sink us down into the bottomless Pit The latter came to rescue us from this Bondage and to lay upon us a Yoke indeed too but such a Yoke that should be so far from pinching and oppressing us that it should exalt us and draw us up with it even to the highest Heavens a Yoke that should be light and easie to us at the present and that should procure for us Eternal Rest and Felicity hereafter And here in my Text he makes a most gracious Invitation and a promise of Refreshment to every Man that finding himself thus Burdened and Oppressed will come unto him for help Come unto me all ye c. In the handling of which Words we will consider these three Things First Who they are that are here invited Secondly Unto whom they are invited Thirdly For what end they are invited First Then they to whom this Invitation is made are they that Labour and are heavy Laden and that not some few of them only but all without any exception all such are welcome Guests unto Christ Come unto me saith he all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden This Invitation then seems to be made without respect of Persons to all Mankind For nothing is more certain than that all Mankind is heavy laden with the burden of Sin which is the Thing here meant in these Words This is so evident from innumerable Texts of Scripture that I need not produce Arguments to prove it For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God But tho' nothing be more plain than that all have sinned and consequently that all are laden with this Burden yet nothing is more plain also than that all do not Labour under it Many Men indeed most Men are so far from labouring under the Burden of Sin that they delight and take pleasure in it and can by no means be perswaded to think of parting with it Such Persons as these are so far from seeking Rest in being eased of their Sins that on the contrary they seek for Rest and Happiness in Sin it self where it is certain that it never can be found For there is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked Such therefore are excluded from this Invitation of our Saviour who tho' he calls Sinners unto him yet calls none but such as are weary of their Sins and desire to be delivered from them Secondly Such are excluded likewise who trust in their own Righteousness and presume that they have little or no need of a Saviour Such were the Pharisees of Old of whom our Lord gives us a Character Luk. 18.11 in the Example of the Pharisee that justified himself and despised the Publican praying on this manner God I thank thee that I am not as other Men are Extortioners Unjust Adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the Week I give Tithes of all that I Possess And such are those of the Church of Rome at this Day who presume that they can merit Heaven by their own Works nay more than so that they can do Works of Supererrogation and sell them also for the benefit of others that stand in need of them contrary to the express Command of our Saviour to his Disciples Luk. 17.10 When ye have done all those Things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants We have done that which was our Duty to do and contrary to the Example of the wise Virgins Matt. 25.9 who refused to part with any of their Oyl unto the Foolish lest there be not enough say they for us and you But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves Such Persons as these then both such as delight in Sin and such as trust in their own Righteousness are utterly excluded from this Invitation of our Saviour There is no Promise no hopes of Rest for any such But all they that would be welcome Guests unto Christ must be sensible of the heavy Load and Burden of their Sins so as to be heartily weary of it and most earnestly to desire to be rid of it So that here is a double Qualification required in all those Persons whom Christ here so graciously calls unto him First They must feel the Burden of their Sins so as to Labour under it to be extremely wearied and oppressed with it Secondly They must unfeignedly desire to be rid of this Burthen so as to be delivered not only from the Punishment that is due unto Sin but from the Guilt also and Pollution of Sin that it may no longer reign in their mortal Body that they should obey it in the Lusts thereof First I say all that will come unto Christ must feel the burthen of their Sins so as to labour under it and to be extremly wearied and oppressed with it This is evident from the express Words of our Saviour's Invitation
of the Flesh we might easily renounce also the Devil and all his Works and the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World But still to render the Righteous Man's Task harder and his way to Heaven more rugged and difficult he hath besides this Enemy within him his own original Corruptions two Enemies more without to engage with the World and the Devil First The World which with all its Pomps and Vanities its gilded Baits and deceitful Enticements allures and invites him to set his Heart and Affections wholly upon these worthless Toyes and Trifles here below With all the specious Promises of Pleasure Riches Honour and what not It seeks to alienate and estrange his Thoughts from God from his native Country from the Heavenly Canaan that Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all and to perswade him to set up his staff here in this Vale of Tears where he is but a stranger and a Pilgrim and like the Children of Reuben and Gad to content himself with an inheritance on this side Jordan for the Transitory and perishing enjoyments of this present Life to exclude himself out of the Kingdom of Heaven and to lose the eternal Glory and Happyness of the Saints in light This World is a Shop an inexhaustible Magazine of Temptations suitable and correspondent to the Constitution and desires of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam Here then the Righteous Man the constant and faithful Souldier and Champion of Jesus Christ is again fiercely assaulted in his way to Heaven by this second Adversary the World Here he meets with every thing that can gratifie the most carnal and sensual Appetite Which way soever he stands most inclined and some way or other that natural Corruption wherein all Men are conceived and born will be apt more or less to sway him he shall be sure to have a Bait fitted to his Humour Whatsoever it be that is most likely to seduce and intice him into the Snares of Sin the World is amply stored with all things and is ever ready to furnish him so that it highly concerns him to stand continually upon his guard praying always that God would turn away his Eyes from beholding Vanity and quicken him in his way that he may so pass through things Temporal that he finally lose not the things Eternal But further yet besides these two Enemies of his Salvation his own flesh and the World he hath still another that is indefatigable in plotting and contriving his Destruction and that is the Devil whose business it is continually like a roaring Lion to walk to and fro in the earth seeking whom he may devour This is the great and chief Enemy of Mankind to whose accursed designs the other two are fatally helpful and subservient It was he that beguiled our first Parents in the state of Innocence and by that Means plunged both them and all their posterity into a state of Sin and Corruption And now he makes use of that advantage he hath gained over us he joyns against us together with our lusts and when they seek to draw us away to any thing that is evil he is ever ready to back and strengthen their Temptations with his own secret whispers and suggestions When the World offers any thing to us that is pleasant and inviting he is ready to set a fresh gloss upon it that may render its Charms more prevalent He leaves no Stone unturned no project nor Design unattempted by which he may bring us into the Bondage and Slavery of Sin His Power is great his Industry unwearied and his Malice implacable against all the Sons of Men and by how much the more vigilant and careful the Person against whom he bends his Force is to stand upon his Guard and to defend himself against his Assaults and Stratagems so much the fiercer are his On-fets so much the more violent and outragious is his Fury So that above all others the Righteous Man that constantly withstands and resists his Wiles hath the hardest Task to perform Other Persons that easily yield to his Temptations he may safely leave to themselves He knows that they have an Enemy within them that will be sure to be their Ruin that their own Lusts will be sufficient to prevail against them and that they themselves without his help will work out their own Damnation But where he meets with Opposition there he doubles his Diligence and uses all the Means that Power or Policy or Malice can suggest to him in order to the effecting of his Designs No sooner hath the Man of God overcome one Temptation but he presently sets upon him with another No sooner hath the Shield of Faith quenched one of his fiery Darts but it is again assaulted with a second We read that he dealt thus with our Blessed Saviour himself Three several Attempts he made upon him and would not leave him until he found that he was indeed the Son of God and that it was utterly in vain for him to hope to prevail against him by any of his Temptations And surely if he had so much impudence as not to leave Christ our Head before the third Assault he will much more hardly suffer a repulse from any of his Members Thus ye see how great opposition the Righteous Man is sure to meet with and with what cruel and dangerous Enemies he is daily to fight during the time of his Sojourning here upon Earth And by this Means it comes to pass that he is scarcely saved so scarcely that if the incessant importunities of his own corruptions the sweet and alluring Baits and Temptations of the World and all the restless Malice and Power and Policy of Hell could prevail against him he should certainly be damned All these Adversaries must be subdued by him before he can be esteemed worthy through the merits of Christ to receive a crown of Life Yea and besides all this I might proceed further and shew you that as to outward Appearance and in the Opinion of Men even God himself sometimes seems to be his Enemy here in this World forasmuch as he often laies upon him heavy and great Afflictions for the Trial of his Patience and Faith His Portion in this Life is Sorrow Persecution taking up the Cross and suffering for Righteousness sake All these things are entailed upon every true Disciple of Christ and he must expect to have his share more or less of every one of them While the wicked are in great Power and spread themselves like a green Bay-tree while they enjoy the world at will and live in Ease and Plenty and Prosperity the Righteous are killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the Slaughter This was our blessed Saviour's own Condition here upon Earth All his whole Life was but one continued scene of sufferings and even from his Mother's Womb to his Death he was all along a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief When he first came into the World he