to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So that we are not only born to Trouble by the common condition of our Nature which like the Earth that the Lord hath cursed brings forth nothing but Briers and Thorns but also born again to it in the State of our Christianity and trained up in the School of Crosses and Afflictions under the Discipline of our heavenly Master But he that hath called us to suffer with and for himself hath also given us the surest Supports and the strongest Consolations in the most needful time of our Distress by setting before us a Joy unspeakable and over-balancing our light Afflictions with a more exceeding weight of Glory exhorting us to Patience by his Precepts and perswading us to it by his Promises but more especially instructing us therein by his own most exemplary Submission and Resignation of Mind to the Will of his Father And his great Apostle having in the foregoing Chapter reckoned up in order several eminent Patterns of Faith and Patience in the beginning of this points as from those many Witnesses or Martyrs to this one glorious and triumphant Sufferer Christ Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith animating us by the Example of his victorious Patience to a passive Fortitude and Courage in our sharpest fight of Afflictions to an unwearied Perseverance in the roughest ways of Vertue Let us run with Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith Vers 1 2. who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame Look unto him not only to admire but to imitate the Resolution and Invincibility of his Spirit that you may not sink under the Cross which he endured nor be over-whelmed with the Shame which he despised for to this very end and purpose you are to consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against himself Vers 3. lest you be wearied and faint in your Minds Nay consider how much less you suffer then he did his Soul was exceeding sorrowful unto Death To Death which draws an everlasting Vail over all the Glories and Delights of this World but Joy and Comfort may again break through your closest Mourning He shed his precious Blood for you you only shed Tears for your selves tho you labour under many Sorrows and have more Sins to strive against yet you have not resisted unto Blood yet you live still Vers 4. and may out-live all your Afflictions unless you make them mortal by your own peevishness which in themselves or rather in the hand of your best Physician are only medicinal and healthful And he hath told you as much if you have not forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children Vers 4. and assureth you of his fatherly Love and Tenderness when he makes you smart most under his correcting Hand My Son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Be not stubborn against him nor insensible of his Displeasure for it is the chastning of the Lord who hath power and right to punish but yet be not too much dejected for he speaks you and deals with you not as Enemies nor Servants but as Children and plainly discovers his fatherly Tenderness even in these Exercises of his Lordly Dominion as it follows in the 6th 7th and 8th Verses of this Chapter For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastning God dealeth with you as with Sons for what Son is he whom the Father chastneth not but if ye be without Chastisement whereof all are Partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons This Consideration if any methinks should ease our Hearts in Trouble and keep us from fainting under God's Rebukes viz. that his Chastisements are the Effects and Arguments of his Love and Good-will towards us at least-wise if we endure them as becometh Children with a dutiful Regret for the Sins the Faults that procured them and an humble Subjection to the Hand that inflicts them And that it is our Interest as well as our Christian Duty so to do our Apostle further demonstrates by a very argumentative Comparison in the words of my Text We have had Fathers of our Flesh and we gave them Reverence shall we not much rather be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live We have had Fathers of our Flesh that is of our Body which consists for the most part of Flesh or Fathers of this Life which we now live in the Flesh a Life exercised with fleshly Instruments and maintained with fleshly Supplies these Fathers corrected and punished us as they saw occasion sometimes with-holding their Favours otherwhiles taking away our Toys and Vanities the Entertainments of our childish Affections sometimes threatning and otherwhiles laying on the Rod and we gave them Reverence we did not only take all patiently at present but stood in awe of them for the future honouring their Authority and fearing their Displeasure How much rather shall we be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits that is the Father of our Souls God's immediate Off-spring or of our Spiritual Life and all that appertains more directly thereunto Shall we not much rather be in Subjection to this heavenly Father who is infinitely more excellent in himself in his Wisdom Power and Goodness who is the Author of our more noble part the Soul and upholds us in a better Being than that which we derive from our natural Parents and designs us a fruit and benefit of his Correction beyond the Confines of this World a happy Immortality after a troublesome dying Life which is implied in the last word of my Text Live Shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live In the Words thus explained and paraphrased we have 1st A Duty implied or supposed the Submission of Children to their particular Parents 2dly A Duty expressed the Subjection of all Mankind but especially of Christians to the Vniversal Father 3dly The Preference of this Duty to the former 1. In respect of the Excellency and Superiority of Fatherhood 2. In regard of the End and Benefit of his Discipline 1st We are taught the Duty of Children's Submission to their immediate and proper Parents viz. That they ought to own and honour their Authority in their Corrections as well as in their Commands or Instructions We had Fathers of our Flesh who corrected us and we gave them Reverence that is we did well so to do 2dly By an Argument at least à pari from an Equality of Comparison we are taught that we ought to fear and honour our Common Father to be in Subjection to him because he is a Father too 3dly By an Argument in another respect à dispari from the less to the greater we are taught that we ought to be more subject to him 1. In regard of the Excellency and Superiority
of his Nature and his Relation to us Shall we not much rather be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits 2. In regard of the End and Benefit of his Discipline which reacheth beyond the Interests of this present State and giveth Life and Happiness in another Shall we not rather be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live I begin to speak something very briefly upon the Duty supposed viz. I. That Children ought to submit to the Corrections of their natural Parents They must neither sturdily shake off nor complain and droop too much under the Yoke but reverence their Authority in the harshest and most unpleasant Exercises thereof tempering Joy with Fear and pious Sorrow into a true Patience and seemly Moderation of Spirit equally bearing the Smiles and Frowns of their comforting and their chastning Love and overcoming those Evils by suffering to which they might not oppose an active Force For the Law of Nature and Nations as well as the Law of God in the fifth Commandment teach us the same that Ben-Sirach doth Ecclus. 3.2 The Lord hath given the Father Honour or Power over the Children and hath confirmed the Authority of the Mother over the Sons and therefore he exhorts Verse 8 Honour thy Father in thy Work and in thy Word in omni Patientia as it is in the Vulgar Latine in all Patience that is submit to his Animadversions and Chastisements and this the young Greek that Plutarch speaks of was taught in Zeno's School I have learned saith he patiently to bear my Father's Anger And indeed the Anger of a Father being not only the right of his Power and Place but for the most part the effect of his Love too Children are not to bear it only as a Burden but to receive it as a Blessing as a means to secure that their filial Obedience and Reverence to which God hath made so many and so ample Promises of Good even in this Life And the same Reasons of Subjection will hold if not improve in reverence to a more common Father the Governour of a larger Family yet in a sense the Father of our Flesh too and subordinate to the Father of Spirits as having a right to direct and rule our outward Deportment in order to a general Good and publick Peace though by a particular Grievance or personal Distress sometimes I mean the Father of our Country whom we must reverence even when he corrects and rules with Rigor and to whom we must be subject not only for Wrath or Fear but for Love and Interest yea for Conscience sake and by virtue of our Subjection unto the Father of Spirits who hath placed us only with a reserve for his own Prerogative under his Dominion and Jurisdiction But this minds me to proceed to the second Particular viz. to shew you II. That it is the Duty of all Mankind especially of us Christians to be in Subjection to God the common Father and chief of all the Tribes and Families Here I shall undertake to shew you 1. Wherein our Subjection to this Father doth consist And then 2. Confirm the Doctrine by Proof and Reason 1. Touching the nature and extent of this Subjection it must be of a vast Latitude not only exceeding broad as God's Commandments but as his Corrections too embracing every Law and kissing every Rod of his complying with all the Ends of his Providence so far as he is pleased to notify them to us being equally disposed to do and suffer his Will in one Instance as well as another without dispute or repining But in my Text it hath respect to the suffering part principally if not only to our bearing those Afflictious which God sends sometimes to humble us for our Sins past sometimes to check a growing Vice and otherwhile to prevent a future Vanity and Disorder of Life And I shall endeavour to shew you briefly 1. Wherein this Subjection doth not consist And 2. Positively wherein it doth 1. It doth not consist in choosing Affliction or bringing Trouble upon our selves when we may fairly avoid it Nor 2. In being insensible under it when it lights upon us 1. It doth not consist in chusing Affliction or expesing our selves to unnecessary Danger and Trouble Estius indeed renders it actively nonne subjiciemus nos ipsos shall we not subject our selves But then the meaning will not be that we should make or lay on our own Burdens but that we should bow and stoop to God's Impositions Seneca Epla 62. For Afflictions considered formally in themselves are Oppressions and Distresses of Nature and so evil and it is only the Grace Power and Providence of God that brings good out of them and makes them at any time profitable to us And therefore Tormenta à me abesse velim said the great Stoick himself I am not in love with Torments I do not desire Crosses Sed si sustinenda fuerint ut me in illis fortiter animose honestè geram opiabo but if they be imposed I will pray that I may bear them with an unbroken Spirit and a becoming Courage and Resolution And questionless though our Christian Religion best enableth us to undergo and and overcome all outward Troubles yet it furnisheth us as well with Wisdom to decline them when we may as with Strength and Fortitude to encounter their most violent Assaults A wise Man saith Soloman foresees a Danger and will do his best to avoid it Wherefore it was our Blessed Saviour's own Advice to his Disciples Mat. 10.17 23. to be wise as Serpents in this sense to keep out of harms way and to beware of Men that would deliver up to Counsels yea further in the 23d Verse of that Chapter When they persecute them in one City to flee to another Prov. 17.17 And Solomon had told the World long before or rather recorded it among his Proverbs as a profitable Result of common Observation and Experience A prudent Man seeth the Plague and hideth himself but the foolish Man goeth on still and is punished And again Blessed is he that feareth always saith the same wise King for Distrust is the Sinew of Wisdom Et bonum est timere omnia ut nihil timeamus It is good to fear all things that we may fear nothing that is a prudent Caution will set us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the reach and power of what we fear This Caution the Stoicks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A prudent declining of any hurtful thing And although to some this seems a distrust of God's Providence yet our Apostle assures us it may be an Act of Faith Heb. 11.23 in the foregoing Chapter By Faith Moses when he was born was hid three Months of his Parents to escape the Fury of Pbaraoh We who are at best but God's adopted Children who are what we are merely by his Grace and of our selves have no Sufficiency either to do or suffer as we ought may well pray with
are not reserving only in their Minds such as ye slander us to be but they durst not practise these Shifts nor must we shun Misery by running into Sin chusing Afflictions with the People of God rather than all the Pleasures and Prosperity of the wicked But 2. This Subjection consists in bearing Afflictions with Patience not mourning immoderately nor murmuring at all 1. Not mourning immoderately To be insensible of Evils is not to be Men to be impatient under them is not to be Christians Lugere amicos luctu moderato decet c. It was good and pious Counsel that of Ben-Sirach Let Tears fall upon the dead Ecclus. 38.16 17. and use Lamentations as he is worthy Jesus wept over his Friend Lazarus The Church lamented the Death of St. Stephen and the Apostle Paul the dangerous sickness of his Epaphroditus To laugh or look chearfully at a Funeral yea not to drop some Tears upon the Hearse of our deceased Friend is a Breach of our Christian Behaviour yet there must be a mean in this Lachrymandum est sed non plorandum Sen. Ep. 63. we must weep under our Father's Rod but not complain of his Severity which is a further Instance of our Patience and Submission to God's Will For 2. We must not murmur at all I was dumb said David Psal 39.9 I opened not my Mouth because thou didst it Whatever the voluntary or unwilling Instruments of my Trouble may be I see thy Finger in their Hand I acknowledg thy Justice and adore thy Wisdom and Goodness in all that I suffer either from the Unkindness or Mistakes of Men and therefore I will not repine or complain so much as in a word of thy dealings with me 1 Sam. 3.18 Thou didst it and therefore I opened not my Mouth and there was as much Submission in Eli's and Job's Speeches as in David's Silence It is the Lord Job 1.21 let him do whatsoever he will said Eli after he received the sad Prophecy of his Family's Destruction The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Job 2.10 blessed be the Name of the Lord said Job He discovers more of this excellent Spirit not only in bearing with his Wife's Frowardness but in his meek Expostulation with her and declaring the Equity of God's dealings with them both in so general a Calamity Shall we receive Good at the hand of God and shall we not receive Evil To apply this in a word to our selves It is the same blessed Hand that distributes and smites and we ought to adore it with equal Reverence and Affection whether it be opened wide in Bounty or contracted close in Severity Beloved we have had much more Experience of God's Goodness towards us in giving us Prosperity and a flow of Blessings than we have had of his Anger in taking from us our Comforts and adding to our Miseries And shall we receive Good at the Hand of God and so much Good as we have done and shall we not receive Evil Shall we not patiently bear a little Affliction not repining at the sharpness of God's Discipline but meekly kissing the Rod that strikes us humbly acknowledging the Equity of our Father's severest Chastnings that all his Ways are equal and that in Righteousness he doth afflict us that our own Ini quities have wrought Evil to us and that the Moths which fret and consumeo ur Garments have their Being and Nourishment from them which is another good Evidence of our Submission to the Divine Disposals and Punishments 3. Our Subjection in some Cases must shew it self not only by a Resignation and yielding up of our Wills to the Will of God and by an owning all Manifestations of his Justice but by a Submission of our Vnderstandings to his infinite Wisdom and resting satisfied in the most mysterious and hidden ways of his Providence such as his distressing the Vertuous and prospering the Ungodly There is a good reason why the provident Father who would make a lasting Conserve of the Roses and Violets should cut mangle and bruise them though the silly Child stand amazed at this Work and as the noble Mornay expresses it Floribus illis illachrymatur ciulat weeps over those Flowers because he would have them preserved for Poesies and Garlands In like manner the Dealings and Proceedings of Almighty God even those which are most intricate and involved want not their reasonable Considerations to move and rest upon Though we who are Children in Understanding cannot find them out yet we know so much of our heavenly Father as to be assured that his Judgments are according to Truth and that there is no Vnrighteousness in him And therefore that we are in Duty obliged to adore and submit to that hidden Equity and Wisdom of his Proceedings which we cannot comprehend and by this humbling of our Reason this confining of our Spirits within their proper Sphere of Knowledg we give a farther Testimony of our Subjection to the Father of them which yet is compleated 4. By Amendment of Life by a careful avoiding and Reformation of these Faults which were most like to move our Father's Displeasure This is it which the Prophet Isaiah expresseth by a turning unto him that smiteth us Isa 9.13 this is it which the Prophet Micah intends by hearing the Rod Micah 6.9 and him who hath appointed it Every Rod of God hath a Voice and comes to reprove us for some Sin or to instruct us in some Duty and our Subjection to it consists not only in a patient bearing of its smart but in a towardly learning its Lessons learning to be less sensual and more heavenly-minded less dejected with Adversity and more humble in Prosperity in a word more holy in all manner of Conversation That though we may say with David Before we were afflicted we went astray we may add with him also but now have we kept thy Word making it appear that God indeed hath chastned us for our Profit Psal 119.67 that we might be Partakers of his Holiness This is that worthy Fruit of Repentance which our blessed Saviour in the third of St. Matthew would have us to bring forth This is the Work which God expects from us when his Rod is shaken over us or laid upon us in any sore Calamity publick or personal even to consider our Ways that is our Omissions our Actions our Passions what we have done and how we have suffered and to turn our feet to his Testimonies as David speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punishments saith Damascen are the forced Off-spring of willing Faults If we had the true conceit of our Duty towards God imprinted upon our Hearts and would we but add thereunto diligent Observation of our daily and hourly Neglects thereof every particular Cross would direct us to some particular Sin from which the Lord in Mercy would purge us And we then are subject and bear the Affliction as we ought to do if by