before the Judgment-seat of Christ to receive in our Bodies according to what we have done in them and the Wheat shall be gathered into the Garner and the Tares shall be gathered by Mat. 3. 12. the Angels whom God shall employ as Reapers and cast into the Fire the Chaff and Refuse shall be burnt up with unquenchable Fire or till the last moment of our Lives when we like ripe Corn shall be cut down by the Fatal Sickle and our Bodies shall be gathered to those of our Fathers in the Grave as that is carried into the Barn at what time our Souls which cannot be touch'd by Death shall have a particular Award or Doom by themselves They only who defend themselves and keep their Integrity to the last against all the rude Shocks of Temptations without capitulating with them or surrendring themselves up to them shall be made partakers of that Bliss of whose Incorruptibleness Life and of whose great Dignity a Crown is made the Emblem by God's Spirit Blessed is the man saith that Spirit by Jam. 1. 12. the mouth of St. James who endureth Temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him They only who shall preserve their Loyalty untainted to the extreme Gasp against all the Blandishments and Allurements spread in the way to corrupt it which is probably a nobler sort of Defiance and a difficulter piece of Resistance than the former shall be crown'd St. John was commanded to give this conditional Assurance or Encouragement to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Be thou faithful Rev. 2. 9. unto the end and I will give thee a Crown of Life On the other hand we find the endless Misery which is pressed by God's insupportable Displeasure by the aggravation of his Anger by that being doubled and redoubled till it be kindled into a fearful Fiery Indignation is definitively denounced shall be the inevitable Portion of them who retire on their way to another World or in their Journey thither relapse into their former abandoned vitious courses or retreat in the Warfare they have engaged in or revolt to the side of those Enemies they have once forsaken and renounced The just shall live by Heb. 10. 38 Faith but if he draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him For if Heb. 10. 26 27. we sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries But now that Perseverance which is required as a Condition on our parts that we may be admitted unto and instated in the forementioned happiness or secured against this Misery depends upon our Patience in our active or suffering Estate for our Hope would quickly flag or sink if it were not cherish'd or sustain'd by this Vertue and we should grow faint and weary not meerly with labour and hardship but with length of Expectation if this did not keep us in Breath and Vigour our Loyalty and Fidelity be soon shaken if not supported by it and disheartned through the roughness and dangerousness of the way of Piety we should be ready to turn back or out of it if this did not keep up our Spirits and maintain in us a firm resolution of proceeding on in our Journey notwithstanding all the Discouragements of the Road soon be caught and entangled in the pollutions of the World did not this fortifie us with a true Gallantry of opposing all Temptations whether charming or terrifying ones to hold out against all their Sollicitations and endure all the Hardships they may create us rather than hearken to and comply with them It is upon this ground therefore that this single Virtue as being the support and consummation of all others is made the compleat Character of an upright Man how and such an one who shall have the recompence of his Integrity in Blessedness hereafter He is such an one who having heard the Word keeps it and brings forth with Patience That the Promise of Happiness is made to this Virtue in particular the Reward annext to it or to it in conjunction with Perseverance He will render to those who by patient Rom. 7 8 9. continuance in well doing seek and look for Honour and Glory and Immortality eternal Life He who endureth or patiently suffers or is patient to the end for Mark 13. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 19. 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that Verb whose Participle we have there rendred who endureth is derived from that Noun which we have elsewhere translated Patience shall be saved And its inseparable Connection with the Reward is asserted For ye Heb. 10. 36 12. 1. have need of Patience after ye have done the Will of God that ye may receive the Promise the Benefit of it or the Reward held forth in it Or its being absolutely requisite towards the successful finishing of the Course we are appointed here to run towards the gaining the Prize which hangs at the Goal Wherefore Let us run with patience the race that is set before us And again that Apostasie which shall be punished with the insupportable Effects of the Divine Wrath is the immediate and necessary Consequent of Impatience which makes Men affect Change and Variety whatever be the Inconvenience or Mischief ensuing upon it or grow weary of contesting with the Difficulties of the Journey or restless under the Pains they endure and incites them to seek a present Relief though the course they take be never so dangerous and at the long run it infinitely increaseth their Torments If such then be the intimate Conjunction between this Virtue of Patience and that of Perseverance if they are so closely and indivisibly combined that the last is not to be found without the first and the Recompence of our Warfare our Race of all the Labour we take of all the Pain we undergo lies at the foot of Perseverance or what 's the same of our patient continuance and that alone can take it up There is nothing can more plainly or more strongly evict the necessity of arming our selves with Patience than this unless we reckon there is no necessity of being happy hereafter or we can after such a Remonstrance of the Case and it's State choose to be miserable And now if any of these Arguments fetch'd from Reason and Religion or all of them together have convinced us that it is our Wisdom as well as Duty under all Events to possess our Souls in Patience to be the absolute Masters of all their Motions then like Men convinced we should yield and no longer perversely dispute i. e. Not act contrarily to that we are satisfied is our Obligation But our Practice should be conformable to our Judgment in the Point and our Deportment on all occasions requiring the special Exercise of this Vertue
or assist us to endure them and to perform the Journey throughout notwithstanding all the Fateigues of it If Empedocles had the Courage Cic. Tuscul 1. whether true or false it matters not to leap into glowing Aetna Peregrinus to throw himself into the Flames Mucius Tertul. c. 5. ad Mort. Scaevola to thrust his erring hand into the Fire and the Patience to hold it till it should have been burnt off for the punishment of its Mistake If Anaxarchus could suffer the being pounded and bruised in a Mortar If Regulus had the Patience to endure the nailed Barrel and the Youths of Lacedemon the scourging at the Altar And this their Resolution was inspired this their Patience upheld by a Thirst after Glory and a Conceit that it was to be purchased at the rate of such Actings and Sufferings surely the hopes of the Glory of Heaven nay the assurance it s to be had upon the Terms of doing well and suffering ill unto the end will make as behave our selves as equally brave show us much Fortitude and Constancy and Patience to gain them If it was accounted worth the acquiring Tert. c. 5. ad Mart. 158. Rigal the Glass the Pebble of vain and false Glory at so dear a rate as the parting with Life or sustaining the Miseries of it amounted to certainly the going as far the paying down or suffering as much to gain the Jewel of true and solid Glory must needs countervail the Pains the Cost and Charges If the Husbandman after he hath with much Toyl prepared the Earth waiteth with much Patience for the early and later Rain to impregnate the Seed he hath committed to it and with farther Patience to receive the precious Fruit it will produce certainly we may with a Patience like theirs at least after all our labour and pains endured after we have sown in abundance of Tears patiently expect till the Harvest of Glory be ripe for our reaping i. e. as St. James from their Examples draws the reasonableness of this Duty and then forceth his Exhortation to it We ought to be patient Jam. 5. 7. till the coming of the Lord and establish our Hearts for his coming draweth nigh Who is there on a Journey who would not be content to travel o'er a little ill way if he pondered with himself that at the end of it and that not very remote or at some great distance there lay a place the transcendent Deliciousness of which would abundantly requite for the Illness of the Road and the inconsiderable Trouble the going over it would cause Where is the Man so fond of Ease who would not willingly endure the Calenture of a Fever all the Needles the most sharp-pointed stone can run into the tenderest and most sensible Parts all the lighted Torches the Gout can apply to his Joynts the extreamest Pain that any other the most sharp and cruel Diseases can cause for some few Minutes if he could make his Composition upon these Terms that those moments of Torment being expired he should ever after enjoy an easie established Health a firm and lasting Peace of good Habitude of Body secure from the Hostile Incursions of Diseases for the future Or where is the Person so addicted to the Pleasures of his Palat that would not take the bitterest Potion art can prepare could he be morally assured that his Taste never after should be disaffected with a disagreeable thing But such as are these Cases is that of our present Life with relation to a future and such are our Circumstances Act therefore as reasonably in this case we should as we do in others bear all the Inconveniences of the Road here in consideration that having passed them over we shall arrive at Heaven a place which flows with continual Pleasures which shall last one eternal Sabbath where we shall celebrate one high and endless Festival of Joy and quench our Thirst after happiness in Rivers of it which are always streaming from the Right Hand of God Bear all the Pains which disordered Bodies or jarring Humours may now cause upon a firm Perswasion that Deut. 29. 5. our Bodies hereafter shall be no more annoyed by Diseases nor incommoded by our sensual Appetites nor impaired any more by an Eternal Age than the Israelites Cloathes and Shoes waxed Dan. 3. 27. old for Forty Years together in the Wilderness or the Three Childrens Coats or Hair which were not so much as singed in Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace V. Tertul. c. 58. de Resurrect though heated many degrees beyond ordinary For all this Priviledge and Immunity from whatever does Inconvenience our Body is imported in the Promise of the Bliss made by Isaiah or in the Description Isa 49. 16. of it by St. John in those who Rev. 7. 16. are the Possessors of it They neither hunger nor thirst nor Heat nor Sun 21. 4. falls on them any more all tears are wiped from their Eyes neither seeing any more than feeling any misery which may occasion them we should therefore chearfully carry about in our Bodies those Marks which the World reckons when it imprints them there Brands of Disgrace in consideration and firm hope that they shall be one day changed into Stars or Rays of Glory nay that Dan. 12. 3 our whole Bodies shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament for evermore Mat. 13. 43 or as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father be like the glorious Body of our Lord that is now seated at the Phil. 3. 21. right hand of Majesty in the highest Heavens whose Face on Earth when but transfigured on the Mount shone like that Luminary in its Meridian Vigour The Martyrs and Confessors had this consideration of the happiness of another Life the Joys of Heaven they set God before their Eyes as their great Reward look'd up with an Eye of Faith to Jesus who stood ready to Crown them with the Glory that he himself had and this made them rather enjoy than suffer those Torments which were preparatory to infinite and eternal Pleasures and Honours count their Prisons fair Pallaces and esteem their Chains as Bracelets and Ornaments as Ignatius did This made them embrace the Cross the Gibbet the Scaffold with as much Chearfulness as dear and cordial Friends do one another after a long Absence looking upon them as so many several Ascents towards Thrones and those in their native Country from whence they came as Stairs by which they were to go up to the Gates of the Heavenly Palace and have admission there this made them hasten to their Execution with as much speed as ever Conquerors in any Games to receive the Prize they had won because they look'd upon it as that which put them into an immediate Capacity of obtaining a Crown of Glory Thus St. Cyprian with such a quickness closed his own Eyes in order to receive the Fatal Stroke as seem'd to chide the Executioners slow delay So Moses and
withal abundantly compassionate to them look down in much pity upon me thy poor afflicted Servant Be not angry with me for ever nor suffer thy wrath to burn continually like Fire Forget not to be gracious and shut not up thy loving-kindness in displeasure But in Judgment remember Mercy and shew it by removing or mitigating my Sufferings or if it shall be thy good pleasure to afflict me yet farther by continuing them support me by thy mighty Arm to bear them with Patience and Courage To this end give me a Heart to consider that misery is the common incident of humane Life that Calamities of one kind or other attend upon every state and condition of it especially on the Christian and that they who are called by that honourable Name abstracting from their hopes of happiness in another life are in this of all men most miserable that they who will live godly in Christ Jesus besides the ordinary Evils they are liable to as Men must over and above suffer Persecution as Christians And yet to ponder withal that none of those happen without thy knowledge and designation that my Afflictions do not come out of the Dust nor trouble spring out of the ground but are the Demerits of my Sins and the just Punishment inflicted by thee for them And then assist me in arguing with my self how unreasonable it is for me a Malefactor to complain of being punished according to the deserts of my Offences that I ought rather in all equity to bear thy Indignation O Lord because I have sinned against thee Convince me likewise that how harsh soever thy dealing with me is apt to seem to Flesh and Blood to which all Correction is grievous yet of very faithfulness thou hast caused me to be troubled and then open my Lips to make this humble acknowledgment That righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy Judgments towards me in particular Enable me to proceed yet farther and in an entire submission of my self to thee and an absolute resignation of all my Concerns to thy Will and Pleasure say Good is the hand of the Lord let him do with me as seemeth good to him To this purpose make me see and know that thy Chastisements while they are always the effects of thy Justice are not always the marks of thy heavy displeasure but oft-times on the contrary the badges of thy favour the cognizance of thy Children and the proofs of thy Paternal Love to them And upon this ground make me not meerly to submit my self to thy absolute disposal as my Heavenly Father but to adore thee likewise and return thee all possible thanks for vouchsafing to use thy Rod for my Correction and Instruction O may I amidst thy Justice in causing me to drink of a bitter Cup for my portion look upon thy loving kindness in tempering this at the same time with Sweetness and thy Goodness in administring it too forasmuch as thy infinite Wisdom knows the draught will conduce to my Health may I therefore take it from thy hand with all Reverence and Benediction of thy holy Name O may I consider the end for which thou afflictest me which is to try and prove me to purge away all my Dross and refine me to bring me nearer to thy self that thou hast appointed the way which leads to the Kingdom of Heaven to be by Suffering and hast ordained me to pass through many Tribulations before I can enter into it and withal the vast inequality the unaccountable disproportion between the lightness and momentariness of these present Sufferings and the solidity and perpetuity of that Glory they shall work out such as will not admit any imaginable comparison And then give me such a frame of Spirit as I may not only bear my lot with Patience but exult in it count it all Joy that I fall into such Trials and Afflictions O my God satisfie my Soul fully of the intimate inseparable Connexion there is between suffering and obtaining that endless Beatitude which thou hast promised for a reward of my Obedience and Service And then aid me being so perswaded by thy Holy Spirit to pray with the deepest sincerity with the most intense earnestness my Soul is capable of that thou wouldst be pleased to cut and wound to burn and sear me here so that I may by this means be preserved sound unto the day of the Lord and may at that terrible time escape the being cut asunder with the Sword of thy Vengeance having my portion among Hypocrites or being tormented in unquenchable Flames with those who are cursed from thy Presence For my encouragement to endure all this here and enduring to rejoyce that I am counted worthy to suffer to run with chearfulness as well as Patience the Race that is set before me however incumbred it may be with sharp thorns however beset it may be with occasions of troubles and affliction grant me thy Grace to have my Heart always fixt in meditating on the great Example of the Captain of my Salvation that I may continually have my Spirit elevated into a devout Contemplation of him 〈◊〉 constantly looking up by Faith to the Author and Finishâ—â— of my Faith the ever-blessed Jesus who for the Joy thâ—â— was set before him endured and despised the pains anâ— shame of the Cross and for having done so is now sâ—â— down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God and thâ—â— I may likewise look round about upon that bright Clouâ— of Witnesses encompassing me the Armies of Martyrs anâ— Confessors who with invincible Courage and unwearâ—â—â— Constancy bore far heavier loads of Affliction than any 〈◊〉 have hitherto undergone endured the most violent anâ— scorching Heats of Persecution and pass'd through Firâ— and Water to approve their Fidelity to thee Then shall it be that animated by his powerful Example who was Life and came to give it to as many aâ— should believe on and follow him provoked by a noble Emulation of his Followers quickned by a lively Hope of entring into those Joys which our Master is gone before to prepare and take possession of on my behalf and of being partakers of the Riches of that Glory of which they have received the Earnest I shall be enabled with Patience having continued to do and suffer thy Will to finish my course with joy and thro' this means shall obtain that Honour and Glory and Immortality I seek for receive that Crown of Life thou hast promised to give to those who by enduring unto the end and being faithful unto Death should overcome the world all its Menaces as well as Flatteries its Torments as well as its Pleasures Even so be it O gracious Lord to thy Servant who prayeth and putteth his Trust in thee that he shall be heard for thy own great Names sake which is merciful and gracious and for the Merits and Intercession of thy beloved Son in whom thou art well-pleased while in contemplation of that Goodness that thou art and upon the assurance of thy own Promises made to me in that Son of thy Bosom I presume to believe that thou canst not deny me what I ask in his Holy Name and Words saying Our Father c. FINIS