Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A31073
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Of contentment, patience and resignation to the will of God several sermons / by Isaac Barrow.
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Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing B946; ESTC R29010
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110,176
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282
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scarce any thing more but empty shews of respect and hollow acclamations of praise whence the Psalmist might well say Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree a lye a lye for that their state cheateth us appearing so specious yet being really so inconvenient and troublesome Such is the state of the greatest men such as hath made wise Princes weary of themselves ready to acknowledge that if men knew the weight of a Crown none would take it up apt to think with Pope Adrian who made this Epitaph for himself Here lieth Adrian the Sixth who thought nothing in his life to have befallen him more unhappy than that he ruled Such in fine their state as upon due consideration we should were it offered to our choice never embrace such indeed as in sober judgment we cannot prefer before the most narrow and inferiour fortune How then can we reasonably be displeased with our condition when we may even pity Emperours and Kings when in reality we are as well perhaps are much better than they 7. Farther it may induce and engage us to be content to consider what commonly hath been the lot of good men in the world we shall if we survey the histories of all times find the best men to have sustained most grievous crosses and troubles fcarce is there in holy Scripture recorded any person eminent and illustrious for goodness who hath not tasted deeply of wants and distresses Abraham the Father of the faithfull and especial friend of God was called out of his countrey and from his kindred to wander in a strange land andlodge in tents without any fixed habitation Jacob spent a great part of his life in slavish toil and in his old age was in reflexion upon his life moved to say that the days of his pilgrimage had been few and evil Joseph was maligned and persecuted by his brethren sold away for a slave slandered for a most heinous crime thrust into a grievous prison where his feet were hurt with fetters and his soul came into iron Moses was forced to fly away for his life to become a vagabond in a foreign place to feed sheep for his livelihood to spend afterward the best of his life in contesting with an obstinately perverse Prince and in leading a mistrustfull refractary mutinous people for forty years time through a vast and wild desart Job what a stupendious heap of mischiefs did together fall and lie heavy upon him Thou writest bitter things against me he might well say David How often was he plunged in saddest extremity and reduced to the hardest shifts being hunted like a partridge in the wilderness by an envious Master forced to counterfeit madness for his security among barbarous infidels dispossessed of his kingdom and persecuted by his own most favoured son deserted by his servants reproached and scorned by his subjects Elias was driven long to sculk for his life and to shift for his livelihood in the wilderness Jeremy was treated as an impostour and a traitour and cast into a miry dungeon finding matter from his sufferings for his dolesull lamentations and having thence occasion to exclaim I am the man that have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath c. Which of the Prophets were not persecuted and misused as St. Stephen asked The Apostles were pinched with all kinds of want harassed with all sorts of toil exposed to all manner of hazards persecuted with all variety of contumelies and pains that can be imagined Above all our Lord himself beyond expression was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief surpassing all men in suffering as he did excell them in dignity and in vertue extreme poverty having not so much as where to lay his head was his portion to undergo continual labour and travel without any mixture of carnal ease or pleasure was his state in return for the highest good will and choicest benefits to receive most cruel hatred and grievous injuries to be loaded with the bitterest reproaches the foulest slanders the forest pains which most spitefull malice could invent or fiercest rage inflict this was his lot Am I poor so may one say was he to extremity am I slighted of the world so was he notoriously Am I disappointed and crossed in my designs so was he continually all his most painfull endeavours having small effect Am I deserted or betrayed of friends so was he by those who were most intimate and most obliged to him Am I reviled slandered misused Was not he so beyond all comparison most outrageously Have all these and many more of whom the world was not worthy undergone all sorts of inconvenience being destitute afflicted tormented And shall we then disdain or be sorry to be found in such company Having such a cloud of Martyrs let us run with patience the race that is set before us Is it not an honour should it not be a comfort to us that we do in condition resemble them If God hath thus dealt with those who of all men have been dearest to him shall we take it ill at his hands that he in any manner dealeth so with us Can we pretend can we hope can we even wish to be used better than God's first-born and our Lord himself hath been If we do are we not monstrously fond and arrogant especially considering that it is not onely an ordinary fortune but the peculiar character of God's chosen and children to be often crossed checked and corrected Even Pagans have observed it and avowed there is great reason for it God saith Seneca hath a fatherly mind toward good men and strongly loveth them therefore after the manner of severe parents he educateth them hardly c. The Apostle doth in express terms assure us thereof for whom saith he the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastning God dealeth with you as with sons but if ye be without chastisement whereof all that is all good men and genuine sons of God are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons Would we be illegitimated or expunged from the number of God's true children would we be devested of his special regard and good-will if not Why do we not gladly embrace and willingly sustain adversity which is by himself declared so peculiar a badge of his children so constant a mark of his favour If all good men do as the Apostle asserteth partake thereof shall we by displeasure at it shew that we desire to be assuredly none of that party that we affect to be discarded from that holy and happy society Verily verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce It is peculiarly the lot of Christians as such in conformity to their afflicted Saviour they are herein predestinated to be conformable to