there For it follows Therefore speak if thou hast any thing to say against this what thou knowest As if he had said this is not to be contradicted but to be wholly submitted to But my Brethren Faith brings home to the heart a message of an higher Soveraignty even of love from God born to you and tels all you that sincerely profess an interest in God that God hath shewn his absolute Dominion already towards you in saving your Souls It is an absolute Dominion that as Rom. 9. shews And what else is the meaning of that speech I will be merciful to whom I will be mercifull It is a speech of Dominion Well Hath God shewed his Dominion in saving thy Soul with difference hath he shewn it on this the good side Then truly thou maist very well give him leave to exercise his Dominion over all else that thou hast thou maist very well be content He shew his Dominion upon thy lumber and thy appurtenances He might have shewn his Dominion in destroying both your Goods and Souls too as he did the Sodomites when he burnt their City But Thirdly Faith brings home the love of God the Souls interest in God with a Communion and fellowship with God which may well serve to strengthen Patience in the greatest Distresses This you see in David at Ziglag when the City was burnt I therefore instance in it and his Goods all plunâ—red and his Wives carryed away And David was greatly distressed the people talking of Stoning him Then it is said But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God His interest in him and the coming in of his love as being his God did hearten and strenthen him against all 1 Sam. 30. 6. Likewise in extreamity of famine when there was not bread nor Oyle nor Wine nor meat to eat this wrought the like Hab. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the stock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stall Here are all those things enumerated as wanting that are the means to support life and nature and it is the want of food and raiment for you and yours is that you fear in the loss of yâ—â—r goods and loss of your lively-hoods YET says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation A man hath all in God afore him still And Faith brings home all in God or carries the heart out unto God to fetch in comfort from him in these the greatest extreamities There are two things there distinct He first says He will rejoyce in the Lord Even in what the Lord is in himself A God blessed for ever Amen! And If God be happy and blessed for evermore I cannot be miserable says that Soul that can rejoyce in this that However God enjoyes a perfect blessedness And I doe so rejoyce in that that whilst God continues to be God and these apprehensions and disposition of heart doe but continue in me I have enough The second is that he is my God the God of my salvation so Habbakuk I will joy in the God of my salvation And then to be sure while he is happy I shall be happy indeed The Lord is my portion saith my Soul Lam. 3. in the midst of those troubles The Lord help us to Faith My Brethren the love of God brought in by Faith will help a man to bear up under any condition You know that place Rom. 8. He had triumphed in the love of God v. 31. If God be for us who can be against us and v. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall Tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword Mark his resolution expressed thereupon in v. 37. NAY IN ALL THESE THINGS we are more then Conquerours through him that loved us That speech Nay in all these things c. is a triumphant slighting of all he had reckoned up and it was all any way formidable or that might be judg'd opposite to our comforts in this world And yet speaks at that rate as if Faith on the love of God and Christ scorned such low and weak and poor adversaries as not enough or not of might enough for them to try their strength upon and is as if he had said are these all that come out against us and threaten to hurt us But are these all indeed NAY then says he if these be all we are safe enough We are more then Conquerours in all these But how comes this to pass 'T is added Through him that loved us Not only in that he loving us joyns his strength to ours to support us But it is also meant Objectivè that the love of God and Christ coming in fresh upon our hearts the apprehension of that is sufficient and in that respect he says through him that loved us 'T is Objective spoken of Christs love as it is the object of our Faith and not only assistenter We are more then Conquerours through his love taken in by us and shed abroad in our hearts and by reason that his love comes in and supports us under all and helps us to Conquer all As Faith hath all in God to rejoyce in and so helps the Soul to Patience So especially it hath his love in all sorts of distresses Fourthly Faith tells us that there will be a good issue of all as to the other world yea and in this world also in such things that relate to that World Luke 21. 18 19. He had spoken afore in that Chapter of the greatest distresses that could befall men as if you read the verses before appeareth and also of such as should fall upon the people of God amongst them personally as well as upon the Nation of the Jews in their finall desolation And besides that common Calamity which befell the people of God with the rest of that Nation he says over and above they shall first lay their hand on YOV v. 12. And persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into prisons and shall put some of you to death It is in all three Evangelists And in the 16. v. Ye shall be betrayed both by Parents and Brethren and Kinsfolks and Friends and ye shall be hated of all men for my Names sake But says he Comfort your selves with what will certainly be the issue v. 18. There shal not an hair of your head perish How Not an hair of your head perish What a strange saying is this When he had said just afore they should be persecuted and put to death How doth he say then not an hair of your head shall perish Why because the issue shall be such as should make amends for every hair The soul shall say I have not lost an hair Nay besides those of you they cannot put to death shall have an hundred
fold and that in this life as elswhere in spiritual blessings And Faith eying these things relieves the Soul Observe but what follows there as to our purpose in hand for which I quote this place in v. 19. the very next v. In your Patience possess your Souls the meaning from the Coherence is you may well possess your Souls in Patience for I have told you the issue will be most blessed and Glorious Fifthly Faith brings in Heaven as the Reward of patient enduring thus in Chap. first v. 12. of our Apostle Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him And this is the conclusion of his persent discourse about patient enduring When he is tryed that is when his tryals are finisht and gone through with And his Faith hath all along wrought Patience in his course T is persevering Patience or endurance receives this Crown Other Graces strive but Faith and Patience they are Crowned And further in proportion is holds that as mans Tryals and Temptations have been and his Patience suitable such shall the greatness of his Reward be and accordingly measured forth unto him And Faith in the intuition of that Glory heartens Patience Rom. 5. Faith having caused us first to Rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God v. 2. causeth us also to Glory in Tribulations v. 3. in the strength of our hope in that Glory Which Hope is said further to be encreased in us through Tribulations their working Patience v. 4. As thus Patience works experience v. 5. that is many a fresh experiment of our own graces and Gods dealings in those Tryals And those experiences do work up an Hope or assurance of Glory as I John 3. â— to that degree of firmness that maketh us not ashamed not in respect only of the real disappointment of that Glory at death but not in a mans own hope thereof in his own heart For in respect to that hope of his this is spoken because that over above and besides those foresaid experiments The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost himself immediately who is given to us which shedding c. of Gods love is no other then the earnest and prelibation of that Glory And this is given as the reward of our Patience and Tribulations which are but the loss of things Earthly in Exchange for which we receive this hope and beginning of Glory If thou hadst had all the Brass and Pewter that was in thy house and hath been melted by this Fire therewithall turn'd into Gold the stones that paved thy yards or the bricks or lime that raised thy walls all changed into precious stones thy glass windows that were dissolved converted into Diamonds thou hadst little cause to complain at the loss Now read Is 54. 11 12. O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Behold I will lay thy â—tones with fair Colours and lay by foundations with Saphirs I â—ill make thy Windows of Agats â—â—d thy Gates of Carbuncles and 〈◊〉 thy borders of Pleasant stones And if thou hast gotten any encrease of Grace by these losses then hath much of this in Isaiah been truly and spiritually fulfilled in thee And these repaires are in this life But besides that Thou hast a building made without hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Which stands ready for thee Those believing Hebrews might well suffer the spoiling of their Goods with joy whilst they found sealed and put into their hearts Bills of Exchange to receive all again in Eternal treasures in heaven But this was their very Case Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your Goods knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven 〈◊〉 better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. And this happy lot will come to be thine if thou exercisest upon thy losses Faith and Patience It follows in that Heb. 10. the following verses Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye mighâ— receive the promise This foâ— Faith's working Patience II. Our LOVE to God works PATIENCE § LOve to God in us works Patience or Faith by Love aâ— I shewed out of v. 12. Love to God makes us cleave to God and so to follow him through all weathers and endurances That great Convert in whom at his Conversion Faith and Love were so abundant as 1 Tim. 1. 14. his Heart through Love to the Name of Christ caused him in the highest passion to utter What mean you to weep and break my heart for I am not ready to be BOVND only but also to DYE at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 21. v. 13. It was Love to that Name that fired him yea his Love was wrought up to such an intense degree as he could have wisht to have been accurst from Christ for Gods Glory in the conversion of his brethren Rom. 9. I wonder how he would have done for Patience under that curse if in Hell But that Love which wisht that curse would have wrought it and so thought he or he would never have wisht this Upon the like account of Love to this Name Those two Apostles rejoyced to suffer shame for his Name as Acts 5. 41. Love makes the Glorifying of God and Christ and the will of God which is alwayes for his Glory dearer then all things to us Yea that God should have his Will for his own Glory if it be the will of God says the Apostle of our Sufferings abundantly stils the heart in all T is true I may be punishâ— in my afflictions for my Sin and I humble my self for that But beyond that it is the good pleasure of God so to have it and I rejoyce in that says Love That his Will is done As truly that 't is done upon me as that by me And Good is the word of God in both and Hallowed be his Name In that Rom. 8. where as you heard We are more then Conquerours in all these things through him that loved us that love of His to us is alone indeed openly or expresly mentitioned yet withall it is our love to him that tacitly is insinuated to be a concurrent cause therewith you must take that in too For the intent of those very words is that the Soul apprehending his Love Who is THAT LOVER as that word imports out of a reciprocated Love to him again doth hearten us in the conflict unto this Conquest And yet there is one small word put in that further argues this 't is in v. 26. For thy sake we are killed all the day long Our lives being in jeopardy every hour and we are counted as sheep for the slaughter and this For thy sake you have in the 44. Psal And he quotes it out from thence As it is
written says he For thy sake c. Now therefore it is evidently the Love that is in us to him and our cleaving to him therewith that is there held forth as that which makes us willing to suffer and endure in that it is for his sake And although the Apostle in his discourse runs upon the magnifying Gods Love and Christs Love to us as that which apprehended and taken in by us doth principally work this effect Yet the Psalmist on the other side sets out The Love of the Church to God as the concurrent cause v. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealâ— falsly in thy Covenant And v. 18 19 20 21 22. Our heart is not turned back neither havâ— our steps declined from thy way Though thou hast sore broken uâ— in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death If we have forgotten the Name oâ— our God or stretched out ouâ— hands to a strange God shall noâ— God search this out For hâ— knoweth the secrets of the heart Yea FOR THY SAKE are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep to the slaughter If Faith and Love once but says It is for thy sake oh God Why then says Patience I can bear it yea rejoyce in it for his sake that loved me And look as the Apostle says he could do all things through Christ that strengthened him so Love can doe all things for Christ that loved him and gave himself for him And to conclude this If Love to our Brethren which springs from Love to God works so great a Patience towards them as in that Scripture Love suffereth long and is kind envieth not rejoyceth not in evil bears all things hopes all things endures all things 1 Cor. Chap. 13. All which is spoken of as in those words of our Love to man Though it was our love to God that is urged and spoken of in all the words afore and is the Spring of this our love to man Now if love I say unto man works so much Patience in things perhaps that are yet injurious to us and not only burthensome from them And in a manner all those Elogies of love there doe run upon and speaks Patience that Patience being the proper fruit of that love What else doe suffering long bearing and enduring all things with the rest sound and signifie Then much more I say will love unto God the cause of this love to our Brethren enable us to doe the like towards him who can doe us no wrong nor hurt but is Holy Righteous in all his works and all whose wayes and goings forth to us are Mercy and Truth And for whose sake also it is that we bear so with our Brethren and who hath loved and given his Son for us It was a great speech of an holy Soul in an unkindly trial from man That man should deal thus with me I should have much adoe to bear it as David said But it is God and I can take any thing well at his hands And this for the second general Head III. Section III. GENERAL HEAD What is the Perfect Work of Patience § IN General A thing then is perfect when all the parts that belong to it are finished As then the Creation of the world is said to be perfect when as Gen. 2. 1 2. The heavens and the earth were finished and the hosts of them So when all the whole of the work of Patience in its several parts c. is accomplished then patience hath its perfect work There are four BRANCHES of this HEAD that compleat it 1. It s Privative work 2. It s Positive Acts. 3. It s Positive Fruits 4. Its Adjuncts of perfection All which go to make Patience perfect And the Proofs thereof will confirm every tittle of the forepart and body of that description I gave of Patience pag. 46. I. Branch It s Privative Work § I Begin with its Privative work And that lies in this when Faith by Patience doth mortifie turbulent passions that still arise and are opposites thereto And as love when PERFECT casts out fear 1 Joh. 4. 18 So then PATIENCE is PERFECT when it expells those contrary Passions or else likewise too intense thoughts or porings upon our misery and crosses so as our minds are chained and tyed to those objects and taken off from all other I take THOUGHTS in because Christ says Luke 24. 38. Why doe THOUGHTS arise in your hearts Why are you TROUBLED For when troubles sink deep they send thoughts up fast as when weights are hung upon a clock or jack they make the wheeles run swiftly And so inordinate affections cause an â—nordinacy of thoughts and a fixing our minds to one thing as upon what we have lost or are â—ike to suffer Now perfect Patience corrects and orders the exâ—ravagancies of all these reduceth a man to possess his own soul as Christs phrase is in Luke 21. 19. In your Patience possess ye your souls and thereby to dwell in ae mans self whereas the violence of such affections hurry us out of our selves and throw our soul out of doors that we are not within or our selves To instance in some particular passions 1. Inordinate Grief You know how Jobs Patience is cryed up and that by our Apostle Foâ— when he suffered the loss of all both his children and estate c yet he expressed no grief nâ— trouble at all that we read of upon the hearsay and tiding thereof and sure if there had been any upon those occasions the story would have told it as 〈◊〉 doth his other impatiences whicâ— were upon other and higheâ— pressures of another kind after wards But all you read of hiâ— upon occasion of those outwarâ— losses in chap. 1. is All meer Patience and submission to God Thâ— Lord says he gave and the Lorâ— hath taken away and 't is thâ— Lord who hath done both an blessed be the Name of the Lord for both And in ALL THIS charged not God foolishly says the last verse 2. Envy and Passionate Anger 1. Envy which is apt to rise when others have no such afflictions or losses As that such and such an one and of my rank should escape with his goods c. when the loss falls heavy on me saith the sad heart This secretly regreets Good people are greatly apt to this The Spirit that is in VS in us Saints lusteth to envy But God in the end gives more Grace that is when men are humbled as there t is said and broken which is usually when they have been exercised with great sufferings The different condition of the holy Apostles and some other Christians in those primitive times gives demonstration of such a Patience in this case There were no men so eminent for sufferings and Patience next the Lord Christ as the Apostles were who yet viewing other Christians as take the Corinthians 1 Cor 4. 8 9. how they