expressed in that Epistle that St. John was commanded to write Rev. 2. 10. to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna by no longer a Period than Ten days only shall be recompensed with a Crown of Life Reigning with our Master as is the Phrase of one Promise Being glorified 2 Tim. 3. 12. with him as is that of another shall be the reward of our suffering with and for him i. e. Joyning the Emphasis of both together our Condition shall be as great as Sovereignty and as happy as Glory can render it Prisons Rom. 8. 17 shall be exchanged for Thrones the darkness of Dungeons for Light too pure to be beheld by mortal Eye and Death shall purchase Immortality If we have been Sacrificed to publick Hatred for the cause of Christ or offered up on the Service of his Faith we shall be Priests to minister before the most High God in the Temple above If we bear our Masters Cross Rev. 4. 6. on our Shoulders now we shall triumph with him above and attending his Triumph carry Palms in our Hands If we have had a dark Night of Calamity here though it were short as that those Countries have which lie between the 60th and 70th Degree of Northern Latitude we shall for it enjoy an endless day in beholding the Light of God's immutable Glory If we have met with frequent occasions of Sorrow and Grief which yet when they come thickest are generally but alternative That the Waters have gone over our Heads and even entred into our Souls all our Faculties shall be immerst in and swallowed up of uninterrupted Joys hereafter And as these shall be the Rewards of our suffering patiently Rewards passing all Understanding to comprehend while by the Condescention of the Divine Spirit to comport with the Weakness of our Faculties they are shadowed out by Kingdoms Regality Crowns Triumph Priesthood Light Joy which shall be conferred upon us with respect to our Sufferings so were all the Sufferings of this present Life united in a Combination to fall upon us at one time they would hold no comparison with them For I reckon saith S. Paul Rom. 8 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Upon computing and calculating them both I find this Inequality That if all the Miseries of this could be melted down into one Lump they would bear no more proportion with the happiness of that than a single Gravel-stone doth with all the Sand of the Sea-shore or the drop of a Bucket with the Ocean or the Dust of a Balance with the whole Earth because still those Miseries would be but Temporary at the utmost no longer than our Lives which they would shorten too if not immediately destroy while the Happiness is eternal They could not be drawn down to such a Quintessence as not to have some Temperament while the Happiness shall have no Abatement And yet as incapable as they are of a Comparison by the Lightness of those and solidness of this the Mixture of those and the Purity of this the shortness even momentariness of those and the eternal duration of this These light afflictions which are but for 2 Cor. 5. a moment shall work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Or as it is more emphatically express'd in the Original Text by the Singular Number and Present Tense This light Affliction worketh for us all this Mark well the difference it s a single Affliction only and that single one a light one and that light one but for a moment a transient moment gone even while its named or as soon but it 's a weight an eternal weight an exceeding eternal weight a far more exceeding eternal weight of Glory such a far more exceeding eternal Weight that Tertullians eternal C. 40. de resurrect p. 408. weight of Glory from Supergression to Supergression St. Hierom's eternal weight of Glory above measure in Sublimeness Vers Hierom are too low and dwarfish Expressions to reach the Heighth of Emphasis which the words in the Original Language have the Hyperboles added to Hyperboles are too diminutive Figures to set forth its greatness And now did we in all our Sufferings with a fast and stedfast Eye of Faith look constantly forward towards this Weight of Glory which shall be revealed and laid upon us Did we with this in all our Afflictions look upwards toward the Reward which is laid up for us in the Heavens and that we shall receive and contemplate them such a Belief and Consideration as it would convince us we ought so it would enable us according to our Duty to support them with Patience when such a Carriage should meet at last with so immense a recompense A false Opinion or an Ambition to be had in reputation for a constancy in adhering to an erroneous Principle once entertained hath made Men insensible or what 's near the same regardless of Pain Anaxarchus in Nicocreon's Mortar felt or complained of no Pain but urged his Tormentors to pound on because it lighted not upon Anaxarchus but on his Case or Husk Possidonius a Noble Philosopher of Cic. Tusc 3. Rhodes would not suffer a Visit which the Great Pompey returning from his Syrian Expedition made him with an expectation of hearing him discourse of some Point of Philosophy to be frustrated by a sharp Distemper he then laboured under for when expressing his Concern that the Pain he was afflicted with would not permit him to gratifie him with this Pleasure this great Captain would have taken his leave of him Yes replied that Philosopher but you may have that Satisfaction for I will never give such way to my Pain as it shall render the Honour of your Visit vain and defeat its Design Whereupon tormented as he lay upon his Sick bed he discoursed upon the great Theme of the Stoicks That Nothing was good but what was Honest and tho' twinged ever and anon as he was by an acute Fit of the Gout he persevered in his Opinion and pursued his matter interrupting it only upon those Returns with this Apostrophe Pain thou canst do nothing at all not all the light Matches thou setst to my Joynts not all thy racking and torturing shall extort from me this Confession that thou art an Evil. Now if such an Opinion concerning Pain either mitigated it or was able to raise his Mind above the sence of it if a Wise Man in Epicurus his Opinion might by the help of Philosophy be able to say even in Perillus his Golden Bull How sweet is this How it nothing concerns me Certainly the having a firm Belief that Heaven and its Joys shall be the Reward of all the Affliction we endure with Patience here and the having our Contemplation fixt upon this will either abate a great deal of the Troubles we shall meet on our way thither
Enchantments of Circe and the Fury of Tempests with wandring and Poverty that his Design in all this was to make and approve him good The like is observ'd by him of Engaging Hercules in so many Labours and Hazards against wild Beasts Monsters of Men Tyrants and the like it was to make him a perfect Hero and that without such Adventures some such Difficulties to cope with Vertue woud be crampt and disabled Aelian Ael l. 11. c. 9. 43. Var. Hist makes the Remarks That the most renowned Worthies which the Grecian History hath furnish'd the World with were extremely poor And I dare say the most illustrious for Piety in Sacred History have been the most eminent in Sufferings Though it be not in our power to dispose of our selves and Affairs as pleaseth our Humour best and it 's well the goodness of God hath put it out of our Power because the choice we might make for our selves might be extreamly pernicious yet it 's within our power aided by his Grace to steer through the most disagreeable Condition with Patience As he who plays at Tables For to this Game Plato and others from him have compared the Life of Men cannot throw what Cast he will but yet he may if he hath skill manage the most unlucky one so as it shall be to the least Disadvantage of his Game If it be not within our Sphere to prevent Misfortunes as we foolishly miscall all sinister Accidents charging them upon Fortune yet it 's our own fault if we are miserable under them But the bearing any Calumny impatiently and frowardly which we had not the power if we had the foresight to prevent as it 's the greatest Gratification we can make our Enemies who were the occasion of bringing it upon us because their Malice intended it for a Vexation to us but could not effect their Design without our contributing our own pernicious Aid and disordering our selves thereat so it increases the Sharpness of it and makes our Misery only the more intolerable as Birds that unfortunately light upon Twiggs dawb'd with Bird-lime the more they flutter the more the viscous matter spreads it self o'er their Wings and the less serviceable they render them for that Flight they would be at Afflictions are oft-times designed by God as Preparatives to a great measure of Happiness and high degree of Glory in this World but shall most certainly if sustained with Patience and an entire Resignation of our selves to God's Will for a Reward be Crowned with both those in the World to come and therefore upon this Reflection we ought thus to support our selves under them Thus as to the Gen. 39. â— 1 2 3 4 first case Joseph's Dungeon made the way for his Ascent to the highest step of Honour next the Throne The Egyptian Bondage opened the Door for the Israelites glorious Deliverance the Red Sea and Wilderness were the Passage which led them into a Country flowing with Wine and Oyl Milk and Honey Daniel's Captivity and Mordecai's Esth 10. 2. Contempt withal were the occasions if not the means of their Advancement to the Supreme Ministry of their Masters Affairs The low Estate of the Virgin Mary and her yet lower Opinion of her self were dispositions which fitted her for the subsequent Honour of being the Mother of her own and our common Saviour * Iren. l. 3. adv haer c. 30. St. John's Solitude and Sequestration from the World in Patmos prepared him for conversing with God and receiving from him by Revelation an account of the future Estate of the Church And so in Secular History Marius his Prison-door opened upon his Consulship And J. Caesar's being taken by Pyrats was preparitory to his Sovereign Command As to the Second that it shall be so we may securely depend on the truth of God's Promises which are to this purpose That a Seed-time of Tears shall be followed with a plenteous Harvest of Exultation They that sow in Psal 126. 5. 6. tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth and beareth precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his Sheaves with him That Desolation and Destitution of Comforts now shall then be recompensed with pure and chast Delights Christ came to appoint to them that Isa 61. 3. mourn in Sion What even to give them Beauty for Ashes Joy for Mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness i. e. Decking and Ornaments for the Ashes they cast upon their Heads or roll'd themselves in Odors and Perfumes for the ill Smells which usually accompany neglectful Sadness Robes of Estate or the Attire of high Festivals for sordid Rayment This hath been thought by some to have been one Spiritual meaning of God's Promise to his Afflicted People by some Prophet for the Spirit Isa 60. 7. spake not only in variety of Tongues by the Apostles but of Sence likewise by those whom he inspired For Brass I will bring Gold and for Iron Silver and for Wood Brass and for stones Iron that weeping now shall be converted into Laughter then and Mourning exchanged with Joy Blessed are Luke 6. 21 ye that weep now for ye shall laugh Blessed are they that mourn for they Mat. 5. 24. shall be comforted Ye shall be sorrowful John 16. 20 22. but your Sorrow shall be turned into Joy turn'd into an indefectible unalienable one so the following Words imply and your joy no man taketh from you And this Property that it is not liable to Violence makes it clean of another Condition from any sort of enjoyment here For our Treasure may be taken away by Thieves and Robbers our Estate and good Name by False Witnesses our Life and Honour may be forfeited our Lands and Goods confiscated our Power may have a mighty Declension or Full Period our Glory a Wane or Ebb or else a total Eclipse our Strength and Beauty be a Prey to Diseases or else most certainly to Time to consume But no Hand no Tongue no Power V. S. Chrysost hom 16 in t Jo. T. 2. p. 620. ed. Savil. no Fraud no nor devouring Time can rob or spoil us of this Joy when we shall be once possessed of it That Paved Work of Sapphire-stone on which God set his feet when he shew'd himself to Moses Nadab and Exod. 24. 11. Abihu in the Mount or Sapphire brick as Lyra and Arias have conceived it Lyra reddit opus Lateris Sapphirini Arias opus lateris Sapphir to be hath been thought to have had this mystical Signification That God should reward such who are harass'd here by Afflictions as the Israelites were in Egypt by making of Bricks with Sapphires of Glory hereafter I might add here Afflictions are not so much the ordinary Road as the only one which leads to Happiness but that I reserve it for a distinct and peculiar Consideration 5. The very Consideration of the S. 4. n. 5. The danger of
Condition if God should not use such a Medicinal course with him as that of Afflictions is made him say He should suspect and be afraid of such an Indulgence of the Lord as not a real kindness and which obliged St. Austin to caution us against congratulating a who Man prospers in his wicked ways whom God vouchsafes not to check by some severe Animadversion because instead of favouring such an one the Lord is incensed to such a degree against him that he will not let him suffer that is he will not correct him with the Scourge of Adversity This put St. Bernard upon praying S. Bern. hom 42. in Cant. That God would take some severe and sharp Method with him here for his Cure now and Safety hereafter Cut me slash me sear and burn me O my God here was a Petition in his Devotions that I may not be torn and racked thro' with Whips and Scorpions or broil amidst scorching and unquenchable Flames of Brimstone hereafter To this purpose the good Emperor Mauritius upon a Monk's carrying a naked Sword thro' the Streets of his chief City of Constantinople and predicting thereupon his sudden and lamentable end That he should perish by the Sword which had left on his Spirits an Impression as deep as if it were a Prophesie which came by Inspiration or a Message sent immediately from Heaven directed forthwith Supplications to be made by the Church on his behalf That God would be pleased to require from him the Punishment of his Sins in this World and not defer the Execution of it to another The Authors who relate this Passage Cedron Niceph l. 8. c. 35 36 37 38. P. Diacon l. 17. Simocatta l. 8. c. 11. add further that the great Judge of Mankind Jesus Christ appearing to him in a Vision seated on the Throne of Judicature and demanding of him where he would chuse to receive the deserved Recompense of his Offences the Wages of his Iniquity whether in this present or the future state of Life he return'd for Answer immediately this Request O Lord Just Judge but yet affectionate Lover of Mankind inflict the Punishment I have incurred on me now lay on me what I have deserved here and respite not my Execution to hereafter Did we consider alike as he did that the Sufferings we are so ready to complain of were in prevention of more terrible ones were Medicinal not Penal Corrections for Amendment not Executions upon Condemnation we should not desire to have the Rod taken off from our Back for fear lest we should be barr'd of our Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven Were we conversant with such Meditations as these that God feedeth his own People which prayeth with the Psal 80. 5 6. Bread of Tears and gives them plenteousness of Tears to drink Diets them with the Bread of Wormwood and Water of Gall that Afflictions are the Signs by which he discriminates his Favourites from his ordinary Servants his beloved Children from the As Paternal Corrections and so as marks of Paternal Affection rest from the common general Mass of Mankind of which he is the common Parent that they are the Testimonies of his tender Paternal Affection to them and he sendeth them induced by Charity not moved in Anger as Tokens and Pledges of his Love For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth Heb. 12. 6. and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And had we when exercised by them sufficient reason to esteem them such to us the Proofs of our Adoption and our being highly favoured by our Heavenly Father certainly there would be no need of an Exhortation to press us to bear them with a quiet Spirit it being the natural Consequence of our Filial Relation or the Obligation arising thence to demean our selves so I am sure the Apostle to the Hebrews deduceth this as a matter of Duty from that Furthermore we have Heb. 12. 9. had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Nay the Reason on this side for a patient Subjection to the Father of Spirits when corrected by him is of much more Weight and Force than on the other side for paying Reverence to our Fathers according to the Flesh when we are so dealt with by them or the Argument concludes more strongly for the payment of this Duty to him than them For they as the Apostle urgeth it further for a few days chastneth us after their pleasure but he for our profit that we might be made partakers of his Holiness Certainly if the Law of Nature as dark as it was yet afforded Light enough to teach us in our Youth when we were not arrived at the due Exercise of Reason to love if as weak as it was it had power enough to constrain us to revere our Parents according to the Flesh though they corrected us and their Corrections many times proceeded from a froward and ill Humour from a Capricio and Whimsie taking them in the Crown tho the Infliction of them was not conducted by Prudence or moderated by Clemency nor desiged for our Temporal Good our Reformation the Law of Grace the Light of the Gospel must at least be as efficacious not to say more which I might justly if we do not wilfully oppose the one or obscure the other especially when our Age hath ripened our Judgment to discern Consequences to restrain or quell all Insurrections of boysterous Passions and keep us in quiet subjection to the Father of our Spirits when guided by his own Infinite Goodness and Wisdom he exerciseth his Paternal Authority in correcting us and doth this less than our Merits require and always having an Eye in it to our Advantage our Spiritual and Eternal Warfare yea farther than keeping us in quiet Subjection they would have Power enough to oblige us to be thankful to him that he should vouchsafe to be angry with us and reprove us and use the Discipline of his Rod when other gentler Methods for our Amendment had failed that he should condescend after in vain he had shew'd us Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept to instruct us with his Chastisements we should esteem it an Honour and an Happiness to be taught by him tho his teaching might be as rough as that of Gideons was to the wayward Elders of Succeth Judg. 8. 16 with Thorns and Briars and considering this to break out with Job in a Rapture What is man Or what Job 17. 17 18. are we that thou shouldst magnifie us and set thy heart upon us And that thou shoulst visit us every Morning and try us every Moment Or pronounce with the greatest Satisfaction concerning our selves What was Eliphaz his Judgment of a man under God's Chastisement Behold how happy are Job 3. 17. we whom God correcteth Were our Thoughts employed in making this Reflection on our Afflictions and Sufferings that
they are the Instruments subscribed as it were by God's own hand certifying his having elected and predestinated us to Glory as that passage of our Lord to Ananias concerning Paul strongly implies when having acquainted him in a Vision that he was a chosen Vessel of his he presently subjoyns For I will shew Acts 19. 15 16. him how great things he must suffer for my Names sake the force of the Reason couch'd in it lying thus either that the Divine Determination was first fixt upon obliging him to suffer before it was on glorifying him or his suffering for his Name was a Demonstrative Proof of his being Elected by him to Glory That they are the Testimonials Signed and Sealed by the holy Spirit of our present Adoption and the Bonds he delivers to us in assurance of our future Glorification according as this place of the Apostle imports The Spirit witnesseth with our Rom. 8. Spirit that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ If we also suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him together That they are the evident Tokens God affords us to assure us of our Salvation So St. Paul calls them and would have the Philippians esteem them because it Phil. 28. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was given them in the behalf of his Name not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake That they are the Marks which the good Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls sets upon the Sheep of his Flock those which belong to his Fold whereof those Sufferings which are unto Blood resemble those Letters in Red-Oaker the rest though never so black and gloomy yet while they are on this side Martyrdom those in Tarr with which for Cognizance and distinction-sake from others great Sheep-masters are wont to brand their own Sheep So St. Paul esteemed his when he said I bear about me the marks of the Lord Gal. 6. 17. Jesus For by those marks he meant no other than the Scars of the old Wounds he received when he was battered and bruised with Stones than the Prints of the Irons and Chains he had wore in his several Imprisonments than the Furrows those Scourges he had felt for preaching in his Name had made and left behind them in his Flesh there would be no necessity of pressing us to carry about those Authentick Testimonials to have those Assurances of our Sonship and Inheritance to shew to wear these honourable Badges of our great Master or the same Livery he did on Earth meer Patience in sustaining them would be too mean and poor a Virtue we should exult and leap for joy in having received such satisfactory Testimonies of our being favoured of God such undeniable and incontestable Proofs and Characters of being his Children Our Saviour enjoyned this Deportment to his Disciples when they should be persecuted for his Cause and Men upon that account should revile them and separate them from their Company should reproach and cast out their Names as Evil for his sake Rejoyce Luke 6. 22 23. and leap for joy in that day for great is your Reward in Heaven And his Apostle St. James encourageth us by his Exhortation to the same My 1 Jam. 3. Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations And by the Reason he subjoyns the Beatitude of such a state provided it be antecedently supported with Patience for otherwise they are no distinctive Cognizance nay they serve only to procure our present Misery and to charge us with misery hereafter Blessed is 4 12. that man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him So doth St. Peter Forasmuch as by suffering for Christ we have not only a fellowship in his Sufferings suffer with him but are honoured to suffer what he did and while we do so the same Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon us which did on him whom God glorified amidst his Sufferings by the Darkness which overspread the Heavens and the Convulsions that shook the Earth by opening the Graves and renting the Veil of the Temple Proofs which convinced the Centurion he was the Son of God And besides all this when his Glory shall be revealed we shall appear in the same Glory and our Joy then shall be full the confident hope of all which to come to us in Reversion is enough to highten and encrease our present Joy Therefore rejoyce inasmuch as ye are 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be also glad with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you The Apostles filled with such Considerations as these acted according to those Rules they gave for the behaviour of all other Christians After being beaten by an Order of the Council for preaching Jesus they departed from their Presence rejoycing that they were counted Acts 5. 4. worthy to suffer for his names sake This was their constant Frame of Spirit while their outward appearance was quite contrary as Sorrowful but always rejoycing St. Paul did not only rejoyce upon 2 Cor. 6. 10 the prospect of the Reward in the hope of the glory of God but gloried which is a Proceeding farther in Tribulations because by a train of consequences Rom. 5. 23 24 25 they wrought an assurance that the love of God was shed abroad in his Heart by the Holy Ghost He entertained and recreated his Mind with these He took pleasure in Infirmities 2 Cor. 12 10. in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake The Jews converted to Christianity had learnt these Instructions so well and followed their Example so close that they took joyfully the spoiling of Heb. 10. 34 their Goods And St. Paul prayed that his Colossians might reach this degree of Perfection as to joyn Joy with their Patience that they might be strengthened with all might according Col. 1. 11. to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness And those in the succeeding Ages of the Church came near this Point who could thankfully adore God in their Tribulations for none can give Thanks for that which is grievous as such and affords no occasion for Pleasure or rejoycing on any account and they who did so made it appear by such Considerations as the forementioned that they were Signs and Proofs of God's Favour and Affection So St. Chrysostome protested he would S. Chrysost ep 11. ad Clymp never cease ascribing Glory to God for all Events and Incidents and in that Protestation particularly respected his Deprivation and Banishment Philagrius practised this rendring Thanks to God for his Sickness and the Benefit he received by it though the first was involuntary
of our sight and company to which when we arrived at the appointed Boundary of our Lives we should be restored again and renew the Sweets of our uninterrupted Acquaintance and Communication But we who have a clearer and distincter perception of the Immortality of the Soul by that Gospel which brought it to Life have consequently the benefit of a stronger consideration thence where we are taught that by the mediation of Death we shall be conducted to the enjoyment of the Society of those dear Friends whose Conversation we so highly valued on Earth when it was not without its Errors and Failings which shall be to our highest satisfaction because we shall have it in the noblest and perfectest manner love them to the utmost pitch of Fervency and the most refined degree of Purity for whom we had kind and unspotted Affections here and we shall Heb. 11. 39 41. 12. 22 23. have an eternal Vacation from all other employments to do this to love God and them his as well as our Friends and joyntly with them to adore his infinitely amiable Excellencies which under any less space than Eternity cannot be sufficiently admired or worthily magnified But we have yet a stronger Consolation than this that our Souls which now only have an imperfect Communication by the assistance or rather hindrance of bodily Organs shall then disroab'd of such Bodies immediately know and correspond with each other and have a farther discovery by the help of that Light of the Resurrection of the Body that the Bodies of our departed Friends being raised out of the Dust and made like unto that glorious Body of our Lord which is seated on the right hand of the Throne of Majesty on high and being rejoyned by their Spirits shall be caught up in the Clouds when he shall return again with all that Power in Heaven and Earth that was given him upon his Resurrection and in all the pompous Triumph that a Train or Guard of innumerable Legions of Angels clad in shining Light can make up to judge the World and that we who shall be found alive at that day having in an instant changed our Weeds and put on or being cloathed upon with Roabs of 1 Thess 4. 13 16 17 18. 1 Cor. 15. 23. 25. Immortality shall likewise be caught up together with them or immediately after them to meet him and shall when that business is dispatched ascend up with him into the highest Heavens and be ever there with the Lord and one another in Glory The Apostle who began at first with perswading us to dry up our Eyes and wipe away all Tears which might trickle thence through a natural softness for such Friends who died in the Lord in his Grace and Favour upon a firm belief that Jesus died and rose again and an assured hope grounded thereupon that those also who sleep in Jesus parted hence when Death closed their Eyes with a belief of his Resurrection as pass'd and their own as future shall God bring to him when he returns to Judicature that we should not be sorry as men who had no hope no hope of seeing them more proceeds in the next stop to stir us up to chearfulness upon the account of this Faith and Hope and counsels us to use them for the raising and animating one another if dejected upon such imagined Losses Wherefore comfort 1 Thess 4. 18. ye one another with these words The Evangelical Prophet Isaiah did before him propound the Consideration of this Doctrine though then but darkly delivered or faintly entertained for the same purpose for the inspiriting with Joy such Mourners in Judah who were disconsolate upon the Mortality of their Friends that their Dead should live again His Words are Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing Isa 26. 19. ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast forth the dead And the sence of them seems to be this Chear and raise up your Hearts ye whom Affliction hath brought low whose Bellies by reason thereof cleave to the dust of the Ground who lie overwhelmed with and buried under loads of Sorrow for the Slain of your People whose Bodies lie scattered upon the ground or for your deceased Friends of whom Death hath by other ways possibly than the Sword bereft you for they o'er whom ye mourn shall at the last day together with my dead Body be raised out of the Dust or state of Corruption enlivened by the quickning Breath that shall return into them at the Word of the Almighty even as tender Herbs killed by the sharpness of Winter Frosts and Colds shall by those vital Dews and Heat the kind Spring liberally affords recover rear up their fallen Heads and put on their gaudy Livery again Let us therefore comport with the Apostles Exhortation instead of consuming our selves with Grief which corrodes and eats as much as Envy and Cares do for our departed Friends those I mean whose Piety and Virtue have made the Conjunction nearer and the Cement closer than meer Flesh and Blood could and whom we have ground to hope departed hence in the Lord let us comfort our selves that they have made so happy an Exit yea rather rejoyce considering their departure hence not as a forsaking but a preceding us who survive not as a going quite away from us but as an orderly passing on before into another World as a turning out of the ordinary road of Time wearied with the Journey that way into that of Eternity Those Persons indeed on whom Death executes the Office of a Sergeant arrests them to deliver them up to Divine Vengeance those for whom Tophet of old was ordained for whom everlasting Fire was prepared ought in just pity to be lamented because their departure hence is into that Lake of Brimstone which burneth which burneth with this Fire the mouth of Hell receives and devours their Souls as the Pit doth their Bodies and a second Death gnaws on them as Worms and creeping things do on their putrified Carcases Tears of Compassion may be shed for such Unbelievers and wicked impenitent Doers because they pass hence into the most sad deplorable Estate out of which neither our Prayers nor their own Cries can relieve them any more than the Tears of either can allay their Flames But we are to exult at the departure of the Righteous such blessed ones of their Father as had an Inheritance designed for them in his Kingdom before the foundation of the world of whom he gave his Angels charge here commanded them to serve and attend on them as ministring Spirits to their Salvation about whom he gave his Heavenly Host Orders to pitch their Camp to guard them from Evil as quitting only their incommodious Tabernacles of Flesh leaving only the Miseries and Disquietudes and Filthiness of this World to pass into Mansions of Rest and Bliss and Glory provided
for them in their Fathers House and to which the same Guardian Angels shall take care to convoy their Souls safe which at the moment of parting from their Bodies they commended into the hands of their merciful Redeemer The Thracians thought they had Valer. Max. l. 2. c. 6. Solin mela good reason to rejoyce at the Funerals of their Friends on one part meerly of this consideration because they were delivered from the Calamities which environed their Life here And others who thought they had reason to lament the Dead because they had lost the Light yet judged there was a Modesty to be observed in Grief and a measure set to Tears the Voluptuousness of a sick Mind as well as to other Pleasure And if after Death we make Lamentations for them it ought to be upon a Reflection that they were constrained to be so long absent from the Lord while they sojourned in Mesech either a Country or time of prolongation and were confined to the Tents of Kedar this Land of Darkness and Blackness or these gloomy Tabernacles of Earth as the same Thracians howl'd at the Birth of their own or Friends Children looking upon it as an entrance upon a woful Tragical Scene When he maketh the Storm a Calm Psal 107 28 29. translates our Friends from this Life into another so that the waves thereof are still they are no longer tossed upon instable Billows nor driven by uncertain Winds then as they are glad because they are at quiet and he bringeth them to their desired Haven So ought we to praise the Lord for his Goodness to them that they have got off the tempestuous and dangerous Sea and reach'd their quiet Port. Thus S. Hierom. Ep. 30. ad Oceanum the Christians at Rome celebrated the Obsequies of Fabiola with Psalms of Thansgiving and the loud sounding of the Hallelujahs upon this occasion shook the Temple's Roofs If we behave our selves otherwise grieve and make bitter Moan for their Death we do them wrong i. e. as much as we can do them any whose Felicity is incapable of being lessened by our ill Suspicions Jealousies and Fears or seeming ill ones of their condition whether it be happy or not or else our selves by distrusting or appearing to distrust the Immortality of the Soul and Resurrection of the Body as if supposing that the one at the moment of Death evaporates into Air and the other after some time shall be irrevocably lost in the Dust Upon which account St. Hierom adviseth Ep. 3. ad Heliodor Heliodorus to correct his Tenderness and repress his Tears for Nepotian left what was Affection to his Nephew might be construed by Infidels as Despair in God Or it seems as if we envyed their Beatitude if we believe they are possessed of it and repined at our own Lot that we are left in a state of Misery And we stain the Glory of our Faith while with the assistance of that we do not what Men of Infidelity could i. e. support the Death of their Friends without any piteous mourning or Complaints And yet it may not be indecent for them to weep for them whom they may think or at least cannot tell but they have utterly lost but its dishonourable for a Christian to do so while he knows they live or but professeth to believe that their Death is a translation to Life Eternal Mourning and Blacks are improper on this occasion and very disagreeable to their state of Felicity whom we believe to be arrayed in White Garments and Palms Since then such is the Advantage accrewing by Patience that it shall be rewarded with immortal Happiness and Diseases lead to the Door Death opens it or is the very Door it self through which we must pass to take Possession of it considering this What can we do more reasonably than upon a Bed of Sickness to uphold our weak Spirits and sustain our feeble afflicted Limbs with Patience Then to be armed with it when we see our last Enemy Death approaching towards us to seize our Persons and the more if it be violent with how much more terrible appearances Malice and Barbarity have dressed it or with how much more Horror it is arrayed by them on purpose to disorder us provided always our Cause be good and we are condemned to suffer it for Righteousness sake Or what can we do more reasonably than to support our Minds with this that they do not droop or flag when Death hath removed from us any of our beloved Friends if such whom we may upon sufficient grounds believe to have died in the Lord in peace with him while they died not for him or laid not down their Lives for a Testimony to him or signed his Doctrine with their Blood esteeming their Death to have done them the favour of instating them in the Regions of Bliss and thereupon looking on the other way of behaving our selves of immoderate Mourning for them as that which betrays either Infidelity in general of the Souls subsisting after this Life or too much suspicion and fear in particular of their happy Estate or if none of these yet too much partial Love to our selves because they are separated from us for a time or something of Envy while we lament their being made happy before us and our selves being left still to combat for that Prize they have obtained To this Armour this Shield of Faith S 7. § 7. 5. Ephes 13. 17. and Helmet of Salvation as the belief and hope of Eternal Rewards the consideration of which I have been recommending is called let us in the last place joyn the Sword of God's To read frequently the holy Scriptures and meditate on the Precepts and Examples of Patience there set forth and to be diligent in praying for this Grace Spirit which in the Apostles Interpretation who adviseth to take it is the Word of God i. e. Let us be frequent in conversing with the Holy Scriptures which inculcate the Practice of this Virtue that so our Obligation to do so being fresh in our Memories we may the more readily comply with it whereas for want of such a renewing as in time it my be effaced there so we shall be the more unfit to discharge it those Oracles put us upon labouring and striving to get the mastery of our Affections from which as long as they remain unsubdew'd arises all our disturbance all our intestine Wars and Fightings proceed whereas the Conquest of them yields the pleasing Fruit of Peace and renders us for ever after invincible for we can never be baffled while we desire nothing but what we have or are while God's Will is ours and the Circumstances his Providence hath placed us in are those which our very Hearts would wish for we are not to be disordered by the loss of Goods Lands Liberty good Name or when that of Life is threatned us nor to be transported with Success as Children when they have good Luck at