and the Type Our blessed Saviour hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel And the New Testament makes over to us our right and title to that blessed inheritance which our Lord hath purchased for us We had forfeited Gods favour and needed an Atonement The Law of Moses prescribed certain Sacrifices indeed for expiation and the procurement of the favour of God but it is very certain that those Sacrifices could not make the commers thereunto perfect Heb. 10.1 But then it pleased God to send his only Son to die for our sins and now he hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19 21. and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The Kingdom of Heaven is now opened to all Believers and none are now excluded from the hopes of that blessed state who do not shut themselves out by their unbelief and impenitence and contempt of the Laws of Christ For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 17. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved This is the comfortable Doctrine of the holy Scripture and hence it is that we have now great consolation For there can be nothing so much for our comfort as the assurance which we have of Gods favour which is better for us than life it self But then to put us out of all doubt for ever this truth is confirmed to us as well as taught by the holy Scriptures For our blessed Saviour wrought many Miracles to confirm to us the Doctrine which he taught and by that means hath given us the utmost assurance that this comfortable Doctrine is a divine truth To this purpose he cured the sick dispossessed the daemoniacks raised the dead restored the blind commanded the Sea and the Wind and rose from the dead the third day Many and various and supernatural are the works he did and which are written in the Gospels And many more he did which are not written Joh. 20.31 But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name God hath set his Seal to the divine truths which the Gospel does contain And hath effectually taken from us all cause of doubt and suspicion IV. The holy Scriptures tend very much to our comfort under our troubles as they do contain many precious Promises which tend this way God hath been pleased in these Writings to make many promises for the comfort of the afflicted and oppressed of them that fear him and trust in him and suffer for his names sake And nothing of what God hath said shall fall to the ground If we continue to trust in God and to do good we shall find great comfort from the holy Scriptures in our greatest sorrows Psal 31.19 O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the Sons of men Happy is that man that puts himself under the Divine Protection Psal 32.10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked But he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about No man does so much consult his own safety as He does that does intirely trust in God and commit himself and his affairs unto him Psal 125.1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be moved but abideth for ever I deny not but such a man may fall into straits and difficulties but then he is not forsaken but can have a recourse to him that is at hand and able to save him Psal 14.2 3 4 5. When my Spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my Soul I cried unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the Land of the Living The good man may be bereft of his worldly comforts and supports but then when he is most of all so God is present with him Nay we are then more peculiarly the care of God when we are abandoned by the Creature The afflicted man is particularly the charge of Heaven and does immediately belong to the divine care and Providence The devout Psalmist makes his affliction his argument to move God to have regard to him Psa 142.6 Attend unto my cry for I am brought very low Again Psal 70.5 But I am poor and needy and then he goes on Make hast unto me O God The Prayers of the afflicted righteous find a ready way to God they pierce the Heavens and are sure to obtain a blessing The righteous cry Psal 37.18 18. and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit There is great comfort in the holy Scripture for every man that is sincerely good and does desire to be better And whatever his sorrow and affliction be he is not left comfortless If he be burdened with his sins harassed out by the cares and toiles of a vexatious world and very uneasie under the load which lies upon him yet is not this distressed and miserable Sinner left without hope and comfort Our Lord speaks to such as these are saying Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls For my yoak is easie and my burden is light How comfortable a Scripture is this to the dejected Sinner That hath in vain sought his happiness from the things of this life that hath toiled a great while to no purpose and is now under fears of Gods wrath breaking in upon him as a just punshment of a trifling and a vicious life These are most powerful words and if men would consider them duly would appear to have a mighty force upon the minds of men Can any thing be more welcom than rest to them that labour and are heavy laden Is any rest to be compared to the rest which is given to our Souls can any thing be more desirable for them that have served cruel Lords than that they should now submit to one that is meek and lowly in heart Can any thing be more inviting after a great bondage and slavery than a yoak that
It is very rarely that we make any great attainments unless we meet with Crosses Secondly They are very useful to the weaning of good men from this world and all worldly things They teach them to make a right judgment and estimate of things And this is a fruit of great wisdom and a step to the greatest perfection He that prospers knows but one part of the world he looks upon it on one side and does not know it throughly We do not know it perfectly till we come to suffer Till then we see the fair and glozing and false side of the world He that sees no more than this runs a great hazard The Shepherd in the Fable was tempted out of the hopes of gain to turn a Merchant He did so and lost his adventure upon a rough and tempestuous Sea But then he gained this wisdom by his loss not to trust to the Sea when it was calm The world does us the greatest mischief when it smiles and never does us a greater hurt than when it speaks us fair It is a great proficiency to be able to contemn the smiles and Courtship of the world Thirdly They are of great use to make us more earnest contenders for heaven They bring the good man nearer to God and to his happiness By these sufferings the good man is prepared for the enjoyment of God The contempt he meets with here makes him aspire after a future glory His poverty and pain and confinement put him upon breathing after the plenty and the joys and enlargement of a future state what he loses here he gains above And we are very happy when we do whatever the occasion be endeavour earnestly after an incorruptible Crown Fourthly They give us an experiment of our selves We know not what we are till we are tried It is easie to be valiant when we are in no danger Our courage is then proved when we are surrounded with danger It is the Storm that shews the skill and courage of the Sea-man We are reproached we shall now know whether or no we can pray and forgive them that speak evil of us without a cause We are injured now we shall know whether or not we can forgive an enemy We lose our goods we shall now see whether our faith and patience be genuine or not We are affronted this is the time to take a proof of our meekness If these things had not hapned the graces of good men had not been known to others nor to themselves But by this means good men have the comfort of this experience and others an advantage also It is much better to bear our evils well than to meet with none at all Jam. 1.2 3. Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience Rom. 4.3 4. We glory in tribulation also says St. Paul knowing that tribulation worketh patience wherein ye greatly rejoyce says St. 1 Pet. 1.6 Peter though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried in fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ Though we had these graces before we might yet have been without the comfort and our Brother without the advantage and God without the glory had we not been tried Fifthly Good men that have suffered much and in a good cause and with an undanted courage shall have a greater reward in an other life There are degrees of glory in the other state and these holy men shall be placed in the higher Stations of glory Rom. 8.17 If we suffer with him we shall be glorified together If we bear an heavy Cross we shall receive a glorious Crown I consider IV. That good men are supported under their sorrows and troubles here And if God enable them to endure well may he lay upon them what he pleaseth For the good man is well dealt with when he is enabled here and hath a sure Reward hereafter I do intend to discourse of the supports which the pious man will meet with in another place CHAP. II. HAving cleared the good Providence of God and shewed that the sufferings of good men are very consistent with his particular care and government I shall Secondly Shew you the great reasonableness of the Laws of Christ by which we are oblige to suffer for righteousness sake no only reproach and the loss of oâ—â— worldly goods but even life it self Our Saviours Precept is plain 〈◊〉 this matter Luk. 14.26 with Mat. 10.37 If any man come to mâ— says Christ and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yeâ— and his own life also he cannot be 〈◊〉 Disciple The meaning of theâ—â— words is plainly this that we caâ— not be the true Disciples of Chriâ—â— if we do not prefer his command before Father and Mother â— and our very life it self To hatâ— these things is to love them less thaâ— we do our Saviour as appearâ—â— from a parallel place Luk. 9.23 It is but fâ—â— we should choose to dye rathâ—â— than deny our Saviour and renounce our Religion And we aâ—â— frequently commanded by ouâ— Lord to deny our selves Mar. 8.34 to take up his Cross to follow him And we are assured that he that loseth his life for his sake shall find it Oâ— the other hand we are excluded from the hopes of mercy in another life if we do now deny our Saviour before men If we suffer Mat. 10.39 Ver. 33. 2 Tim. 2.12 we shall also reign with him If we deny him he will also deny us It is our interest as much as it is our duty to part with life it self in the confession of the truth Mat. 10.28 Fear not them says our Saviour which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell And in another place he tells us Joh. 12.25 He that loveth his life shall lose it And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal Now certain it is that our Lord is no hard Master and that all his Laws are very righteous and good Our Blessed Saviour promiseth us rest if we will become his followers and assures us Mat. 11.29 30. that his yoke is easie and his burden light He that undertakes the Laws of Christ and sincerely sets himself to obey them will never have any cause to complain of his Master or his Work They that find fault with the Laws of Christ are those that do not understand them aright or never did seriously apply themselves to the practice of them That we should choose to die rather than break his Laws and renounce his Religion is indeed one of the hardest Laws of Christ But
things Especially when we remember that in that estate we shall be perfect men That our weakness and our folly shall be taken away and all that which hinders and indisposes us in this lower World shall be taken out of the way Our Understandings shall then be clear and we shall no more be troubled with the fumes and mists that now are before our eyes We shall judge no longer by false Rules and Measures we shall not be blinded by prejudice and prepossession by passion and by secular respects We that now know as Children do shall then know clearly and as we are known And then our Wills that are now crooked and perverse and in great measure unresigned which is the source of our trouble in this life shall be rectified and swallowed up into the Divine Will Our Passions shall no longer disturb and blind us but we shall be perfected and completed throughly refined and purified and perfectly relish the Joys of a future state which as much surpass all the good things of this World as the Heavens surpass this lump of Earth we tread on After all this it must be remembred that that state shall abide for Ever We shall there for Ever be with the Lord. Our Kingdom shall have no end nor shall our Crown fade away We shall not know what the infirmities of Age and what the fears of Death mean There will be an eternal Day without a succeeding Night a Shine without fear of Clouds or Tempest a perpetual Triumph without mixture and Allay This gives an unspeakable weight to that Crown of glory and it will not now sit uneasily upon our heads we not being burdened with the anxious thoughts of death and a future reckoning 2. I consider the clearness of the Revelation of this Eternal life For this is a Consideration of great moment in the case that lies before us For had not the revelation been clear the thing it self could not have wrought very powerfully upon us The heathen world wanted this discovery to animate them to worthy actions And for the Jews we read nothing in the five Books of Moses of Eternal life I do not deny but that devout and holy men amongst them had about them an expectation of a future Bliss Nay more I make no doubt they had also among them some shadows and obsecure Images of this Blessed State But then as this was not on Gods part any express Promise so it is certain that they had but very obscure notices of this happiness But thanks be to God the case is better with us Our Lord hath abolished death 2 Tim. 1.10 and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel We have it now clearly and openly revealed and have by the Religion of Jesus Christ received the utmost assurance of it It is not now obscured under Types and Veils under the wealth and plenty of a Land that flowed with Milk and Honey but it is now revealed clearly and our Lord hath given us the utmost assurance that we could desire in the case He hath not only taught us this Doctrine but confirmed it to us by many Miracles and particularly by his own Resurrection from the dead and after that he himself ascended into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples What shall we say now Can we forbear to use the Apostles words 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope or to the hope of life as one Greek Copy hath it by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you We are now begotten to the hope of life and immortality The Blessed Tidings thereof was brought us from heaven by the Son of God and he confirmed what he said by Miracles that were unquestionable and to give us the greatest assurance he did himself rise out of the Grave and ascended thither visibly What is there wanting now to confirm our faith if we do but credit the very History of the Gospel That tells us the many wonders that Christ did even besides what are written and that these are written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing Joh. 20.31 we might have life or as one Greek Copy hath it eternal life through his name 3. I consider how fit this hope of Eternal life is to work upon us and to render us patient and constant under the sufferings which meet us in our way to Heaven Surely the Apostle judged so when he said Rejoyce 1 Pet. 4.13 inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy It will have a mighty force upon us if we be not much wanting 2 Cor. 4.16 For which cause we faint not while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal There is enough in the thing it self to support us And if it do it not it is because we do not believe it or do not keep our eye fixt upon it For we find that the hope of other things incomparably less hath a mighty force and influence upon us Out of the faint hope of Riches we endure labours and Watchings we patiently dig into the bowels of the earth and adventure our lives upon the uncertain Seas we deny sleep to our eyes and slumber to our eye-lids We are content to endure repulses and disappointments that we may get preferment and enjoy our pleasure afterward We keep something in our eye that supports us under our pain and labour of life And in yet these things we have not that assurance of success nor yet if we had can we have any certainty that we shall long enjoy what we so vehemently pusue Besides all the mean while we do but grasp at a shadow and court a trifle Let us then be perswaded to keep our eyes fixt upon our Reward and we shall find our selves much at ease under the labours and sufferings of this life Let us raise up our wearied hearts and eyes to that state of Rest and Bliss into which our Lord is entred to prepare a place for us If we think of the good Land we are going to possess we shall support our selves under the labours of a barren Wilderness And if our hearts be but throughly set on Heaven we shall not greatly complain of the roughness of the way to it The hopes of a Child to be born into the world reconciles the otherwise fearful Mother to the pains of her Travail What will not then the hope of Eternal glory be able to do We are here but forming a new for a more blessed state of things We hope to be brought forth ere