For saith he our light affliction c. In which Reason or Argument we may observe 1. The Nature of the Saints Troubles they are Afflictions 2. The Qualities of them they are light and but for a moment 3. The Tendency of them or their subserviency to their eternal good through God's blessing on them they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 1. For the Nature of the Saints Troubles they are Afflictions and our Afflictions All the Saints Troubles in this Life are Afflictions and but Afflictions they are not properly Punishments inflicted on them to make Satisfaction for Sin They are not Destructions no they are but Afflictions The original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a pressing from the effect of them on the Saints for they are sent to press out their hidden Corruptions that were in the Heart undiscovered to make manifest that which lay hid before Affliction is as God's Wine-press also to press out the sweet Wine of Grace that it may appear in Act and Exercise It is also God's Fullers-press to press out the inward spots and defilements of their Souls Afflictions are not to the Saints Executions of Vengeance not Destructions as they are to others Destruction upon Destruction that is one Trouble and Distress upon another so they are to the Wicked 2. They are our Affliction too this may note first the commonness of them to all men 1 Cor. 10. 13. No Temptation befals us but what is common to Men to all Men and mostly to all Saints it is their Lot their Portion yea it is God's Gift to them Phil. 1. 29. Secondly It may note the Propriety the Saints have in their Afflictions and Benefit they have by them These Afflictions are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours things present the present Afflictions are ours that is they are sanctified and made profitable to us they are our Friends Friends to our Souls not our Foes they are our Helps not our Harms they are ours in common also they are the Churches Troubles others sympathize with us and they count our Afflictions theirs And if this be so what reason have we to faint and sink under our Troubles seeing they are but Afflictions not Destructions and seeing they are ours also for our good and advantage appointed and ordered to us by the loving Hand of our only-wise God and gracious Father and seeing all the People of God have a share in them by way of sympathy and we have a share in their Prayers for us therefore we faint not 2. The second Branch of this Argument is the Quality of those Afflictions expressed here by two words 1. They are light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leve the same word in Mat. 11. 30. My burden is light that is it is tolerable sufferable such as may be endured and suffered Christ's Government is not intolerable neither are the Afflictions of his People Object But how can that be that the Troubles of God's People are light Were David's Troubles light from whom we often hear such sad and bitter Complaints And were Job's Troubles light Job 6. 3 4. And were the Primitive Christians Troubles light See the 7th and 8th Verses of this Chapter and elsewhere the Apostle complains that they were pressed above measure and despaired even of Life Answ The meaning plainly is comparative Afflictions are light not simply considered in themselves but by way of comparison as thus 1. They are light in comparison of what our Sins have deserved Sin deserves Eternal Death everlasting Flames in Hell everlasting Destruction easeless endless remediless Torments The Wages of Sin is Death eternal Damnation 2 Thess 1. 8 9. Now in comparison of Hell and Damnation all our Afflictions are but light but as Flea-bitings to those eternal Torments Oh what is the Wrath of Man to the Wrath of a GOD What is the Displeasure of a Father to the Revenge of an Enemy Oh what is Sickness Poverty a Prison Losses c. to Hell-fire 2. They are light in comparison of the cruel bitter dreadful Sufferings of Jesus Christ the Son of God He upon whom the Spirit of Might did rest was even sunk by them if we do but duly consider Christ's Sufferings his bloody bitter Agony in the Garden when his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even to death he was sore amazed when all the Sins of the Elect were laid on him made to meet on him Isa 53. 6. all the Wrath of Men and Devils on him yea and which was heaviest of all his Father's Wrath was on him it pleased the Father to bruise him and to put him to grief Isa 53. 10. All this would have sunk Ten thousand Worlds this made our dearest Lord sweat great drops of Blood c. Oh the inconceivable love of our Blessed Jesus O the cursed nature of Sin But what are all our Afflictions all our Sufferings in comparison of Christ's He was afflicted he was oppressed infinitely more than ever any man was or can be 3. Light too in comparison of what the Wicked shall suffer hereafter see Psal 11. 6. 2 Thess 1. 9. Revel 21. 8. Our Afflictions are light surely very light in comparison of these 4. Light also in comparison of the Glory that God's Suffering Saints shall afterwards enjoy This our Apostle affirms Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in vs. Not worthy to be compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Thus are our Afflictions said to be light 2. Another Quality of our Afflictions noted here is That our Afflictions are short also as they are light so they are short too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 momentany for a moment Object But how can this be Did not David complain that he was afflicted from his Youth and the Church in Affliction four hundred years at once How then are their Afflictions short Answ This for a moment or short time must be understood comparatively also Our Afflictions are short and for a moment in comparison of what the Damned must suffer for their Death is eternal their Destruction is everlasting everlasting Damnation in Hell the Fire never goeth out the Worm never dyeth But especially our Afflictions here are short as well as light in comparison of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the Saints shall possess hereafter Observe the Antithesis or opposition here in the Text which duly considered and Faith acted on it is enough to support a Christian under all his Troubles Mark it well For Afflictions here he shall have Glory hereafter for light Afflictions he shall have a weight of Glory for short Afflictions an eternal weight of Glory yea a far mâ—â—e exceeding and eternal weight of Glory in comparison of which Afflictions all our Afflictions may well be termed light and short Let us seriously consider how strangely and wonderfully the
I will confess you before my Father and the holy Angels This will be the joyful day indeed the day of our full Redemption the time of refreshing indeed the fore-thoughts of this day should support us under all our present Troubles 4. The Fourth Preparative is the Saints solemn Coronation and receiving into the Kingdom of their Father Now the Crown of Righteousness of Life of Glory which was promised them from the beginning of the World and purchased for them by the most precious Blood of Jesus and laid up in Heaven for them shall by the Lord the righteous Judge he given them at that day they have been faithful unto Death and therefore shall receive the Crown of Life The Lord Jesus will then say to all his Saints Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Every word is full of joy and comfort COME will Christ say Approach this exceeding Glory come is near as you will for the way to it is open for you I have made your passage plain by my blood Christ will not say then Come take up your Cross and follow â—â— but Come now and receive your Crown COME YE BLESSED In the world ye were accursed but now ye are blessed and shall be blessed for ever OF MY FATHER You are the objects of my Father's love he loveth you as he loveth me INHERIT You are the heirs of the promises the heirs of the kingdom the heirs of salvation No less than the Kingdom of Heaven You shall reign with me for ever and ever PREPARED Eternal Love hath laid the Foundation He prepares the Kingdom for us and then prepares us for the Kingdom FOR YOU for you all poor penitent Believers called Regenerate Souls for all you that received me by Faith and persevered therein to your death Thus much for the Preparatives to this far more excceeding and eternal weight of Glory II. Secondly I shall speak a little also of the Properties of this Glory but oh how short and shallow are my Apprehensions of this also Lord enlighten my Understanding and affect enlarge and quicken my Heart 1. This glorious state of Happiness is called The Purchased Possession Eph. 1. 14. It is the Friâ—â— of the Love and Blood of our dear Redeemer whom we shall in Heaven behold and enjoy We shall have our Redeemer alwaies before our Eyes and the liveliest sense and freshest Remembrance of that bleeding-dying-love still upon our Souls Oh how will it fill our Souls with perpetual Ravishments to think that in the Streams of this Blood we have swam through the violence of the World the snares of the Devil the seducements of the Flesh the curse of the Law the wrath of aâ— offended God the Accusations of a guilty Conscience and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbelieving Heart and are passed through all and are safely arrived at the Bosom of God O think and think again what weight of Woâ—â— and Wrath of Sin and Sorrow lay upon the Soul and Body of our most dear Lord to purchase foâ— us this exceeding weight of glory His Soul was oppressed exceedingly oppressed his Body broken his Blood shed to purchase this Glory We value things by the Price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased by the Life of our deareâ—â— Friend how would we esteem it Certainly thâ— bitter Death and Blood of our Lord will everlastingly sweeten our Heavenly Glory Oh that the Joy we shall then leave those Hearts of Stone and Rock behind us the Sin that here so close hâ— sets us and the sottish Unkindness that followeâ— us so long shall not be able to follow us into that Glory but we shall behold as it were the wounds of Love with Eyes and Hearts of Love for ever Now his Heart is open to us and ours shut to him but when his Heart is open and our hearts open too oh what a weight of Joy will there then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first-sinful silly Woman that he appears unto How did Love struggle for expression Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his Feet having her Heart as near his Heart as her Hands were to his Feet What a meeting of Love then will there be between the new-glorified Saint and the glorious Redeemer But I am here at a loss my Apprehensions fail me and fall short only this I believe that it will be the singular Praise of our Glory that it was bought with the price of that Blood and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the Purchaser and the Price together with the Possession 2. Secondly This Glory also is most free it was dear to Christ but free to us Silver and Gold could not purchase this Glory nothing but the precious Blood of the Son of God but we have it freely for nothing without Mony and without Price It 's true this Glory is promised on Conditions but the Condition is but hearty Acceptance and to take him for our Lord who hath redeemed us especially when the Condition is also given as it is by God to all his Chosen Faith which is the main Condition is the gift of God O the everlasting admiration which must needs surprize the Saints to think of the freeness of their Glory O what did the Lord see in me to count me meet for such a state That I a poor diseased despised Wretch should be cloathed in the brightness of this Glory That I a silly worthless Worm should be advanced to this high Dignity That I who was but lately groaning weeping dying should now be so full of Joy as my Heart can hold Yea should be taken from the Grave where I was rotting and stinking and from the Dust and Darkness where I seemed forgotten and here sit before the Throne of God in Glory when the poor self-denying self-accusing humble Soul that thought himself unworthy the ground he trod on unworthy the air he breathed in unworthy to eat drink or live that this Soul shall find himself wrapt up into Heaven closed in the Arms of Christ crowned with Glory in a moment Dâ— but think with your selves what a transporting astonishing thing this will be surely our Unworthiness shall not hinder our Glory God hath chosen the Poor of this World rich in Faith to be Heirs of that Kingdom Grace is most free so is Glory As we pay nothing for our Pardon so nothing for our Glory What an astonishing thought will it be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our Deservings and our Receivings between the state we should have been in and the state we are in to look down upon Hell and see the vast difference between us and them to see the Inheritance which we were born to so different from that we are adopted to O what pangs of Love will it cause within us to think yonder in that dreadful place in those
Flesh and Fleshly Relations fail us our Outward-man perisheth daily our Bodily strength decays our Friends fail us our own Hearts fail us this should comfort us that our Lord is gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us and he is now preparing us for that place by his Spirit by his Word and Rod and when he hath prepared us he will come again and take us to himself that where he is we may be also And where is that but at his Father's right hand in Glory Col. 3. 3 4. 2. The second Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great and glorious Work of Christ in raising our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again to our Souls the wonderful Effect of Almighty Power and Love Read 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thess 4. 15. Death shall not dissolve the Union between Christ and us not turn away his Affections from us but in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the Stone and unseal our Graves and awake us out of our long sleep and call us forth to receive our own Souls again and oh what a joyful Meeting will that be and what unspeakable comfort will that produce The Devil had the power of Death till he was overcome by Death Heb. 2. 14 15. but he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore hath now the Keys of Death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. The Saints Resurrection to Glory is only the fruit of Christ's Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure Joh. 5. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth Joh. 6. 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day So Ver. 40. Joh. 14. 19. As sure as Christ is risen we shall rise also because he lives we shall live also Besides this mortal life we now live we have a life that 's hid with Christ in God And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. Oh then beloved Fellow-christians Let us be stedfast unmovable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Let us never look at the Grave but let us look to the Resurrection beyond it Let us contentedly commit these Carcasses to the Dust that dark Prison shall not long contain them Let us lye down in Peace and take our Rest it will not be an everlasting Night nor endless Sleep no no there will come a most joyful and glorious Morning What if we go out of the Stirs and Troubles of this World and enter into those Chambers of Dust and the Doors be shut upon us and we hide our selves as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast as sure as we awake in the morning after we have slept out the night so sure shall we then awake And what if in the Grave we become loathsome Dust cast out of the sight of Men as not fit to be endured among the Living What if our Bones be digged up and scattered about the Pits brink and Worms consume our Flesh yet we know our Redeemer liveth and we shall see him with these Eyes And why should we be loth to lay down these Bodies of Flesh how comely or fair soever they are they have been but the Prisons of our Souls Clogs and Hinderances to our Souls in the Work of God and Way to Heaven What care labour grief and sorrow have they cost us How many a weary painful tedious Day and Night Grudge not O my Soul that God should disburthen thee of all this and free thee from thy Fetters and break open thy Prison door remember that when this Earthly House of thy Tabernacle is dissolved thou hast a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens O my Soul labour now to have thy part in the first Resurrection now labour to get into Christ and to live in him by Faith and Love now labour to know O my Soul the Power of his Death and Resurrection in thy dying to Sin and living to Righteousness now act thy Faith on Jesus and thy Love to him and let Jesus live in thee and manifest his Life in thy mortal Flesh and let thy Thoughts and Affections be set on things above let thy Conversation be in Heaven and let thy Heart be where thy Treasure is now live to him that dyed for thee and rose again and then fear not Death but be confident that as sure as Jesus dyed and rose again so sure shall all they that sleep in Jesus rise also and that altho' thy Body be sown in Dishonour it shall be raised in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 43. This is the Second Preparative 3. The Third Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great Assize and general Judgment when the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory with all the innumerable Host of glorious Angels about him and all the Sons and Daughters of Men that ever lived upon Earth shall stand before him Rom. 2. 16. 14. 10. to be judged by him and to receive their final Doom Rev. 20. 12 13. Matth. 25. 31. at which time there will be made an exact separation between the Sheep and the Goats between the precious and the vile and then the Saints shall be first acquitted and justified and then with Christ shall judge the World Those that have truly repented and sincerely believed in the Lord Jesus they that have chosen the Lord for their God and Chief Good and Portion placing all their Happiness in him and have unfeignedly accepted of the Lord Jesus for their only Lord and Saviour and have unfeignedly given themselves wholy up to his Government by his Word and Spirit and entred cordiasly into Covenant with him and became entirely his these shall sit on his Right hand these have often judged themselves iâ— Heart-breaking Confessions and therefore shall not be then judged to Condemnation by the Lord for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh hut after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect Shall the Law These are not under the Law but under Grace their Surely hath fulfilled and satisfied the Law for them the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of Sin and Death it is God that justifieth who shall condemn The Judge himself hath said That he that believeth is him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life he shall not come into condemnation Joh. 3. 16 17 36. but will say to all such You have confessed me before men and
I could converse more with God and have my Conversation more above Thus holy Souls pant and breath after God and Heavenly things 4. In esteeming prizing valuing those invisible eternal things above all earthly temporal things Psal 30. In God's favour is life Psal 63. 3. His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us This will put gladness into our hearts more than the encrease of corn and wine 5. In applying and appropriating these invisible eternal things to our own Souls My Lord and my God my Jesus The kingdom prepared for me the crown belongs to me 6. In frequent conversing with them by meditation contemplation consideration spreading and spending our most serious Thoughts and our most fixed and deepest Cogitations on them and never leave thinking and thinking pondering musing ruminating and dwelling on them until our Hearts be warmed and our Affections kindled our Desires enlarged and our Delights raised Psal 37. 5. Delight thy self in the Lord. Psal 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Alas we have so few and such short and inconstant and unfixed Thoughts of God and Christ of Heaven and Glory that our Hearts are not affected nor raised and enflamed 7. And lastly In a conversation suitable to those invisible eternal things Phil. 3. 20. the Apostles and Primitive Christians had their Conversations in Heaven This alone is true real minding of and conversing with those Heavenly things when we live the life of God live like God like Jesus walk in the Spirit to be holy in all manner of conversation 2 Pet. 3. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. To be like Christ in Meekness and Humility Matth. 11. 28. and in Purity 1 John 3. 3. in contempt of the World and Vanities of it in Heavenly-mindedness And thus we ought to look unto and mind invisible and eternal things and this will bring true Joy and perfect Peace Isa 26. 3. Psal 112. 6 7. Moreover I conceive that the Apostle and Primitive Christians did look also unto the invisible eternal Evil things and spent some Thoughts upon them as The Terrour of the Lord Everlasting Destruction Eternal Death the Wrath to come c. These things they minded two ways 1. By way of Praise and Thanksgiving admiring the Love and Grace of God in Christ by which they were delivered from those invisible eternal Miseries which their Sins had deserved as we find often in their Praises 2. In their Diligence to escape those eternal Evils labouring for the assurance of their full deliverance from them constantly exhorting all men to give all Diligence that they might not fall short of their Everlasting Rest But principally I think they looked unto those invisible eternal Good things to secure their Title to them and Interest in them and so minding them as still to press forward towards the Mark of the Price of the high Calling and with the fore-thoughts and fore-sights of them did support their Spirits under their Troubles and sweeten their passage through this present evil World So much for the Doctrinal part The Application First For Information 1 Inference Hence appears the extream Folly and Madness of People by Nature who look at mind and aim only at visible temporal things but totally neglect Invisible eternal things God Christ Heaven is not in all scarce in any of their Thoughts Lovers of themselves of their own things of Profits and Pleasures more than of God Phil. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 4. that make themselves the Mark they aim at but the Glory and Honour of God the pleasing and enjoying him are strange things to them things they never minded never thought on God complains of this against the Jews Hos 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my Law but they counted them as strange things So may Jesus Christ justly complain of Men under the Gospel I have revealed the great and glorious Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven the Mysteries of Salvation the unsearchable Riches of the Grate and Love of God in the Gospel Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel the true and only way to Heaven and Eternal Life to Everlasting Happiness is clearly made known in the Gospel the only Means to get an Interest in the great God in Jesus Christ in the New Covenant how to get Pardon of Sin Peace with God how to be justified saved and glorified for ever All these things are fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel The invisible eternal things of the World to come which are the greatest Realities and Excellencies the choicest greatest and best things But woe and alas how little are those things minded It is Corn Wine and Oyl Who will shew us any good any visible temporal good Now is not this extream Folly and Madness for reasonable Creatures made for God made capable of enjoying God and all those invisible eternal good things for them thus to labour and pant after the Dust of the Earth to spend their Thoughts Minds and Strengths upon that which cannot satisfie which will not endure but thus to waste precious Time and Breath and Spirits for perishing fading things and neglect invisible eternal things the incorruptible Crown that fadeth not away the undefiled Inheritance the everlasting Kingdom eternal Life and Salvation not to look on those nor mind them nor labour for them Yet this is the common neglect of the World It is amazing Madness astonishing Folly Thus God expresseth Jer. 2. 11 12 13. Be astonished O ye heavens at this be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Prov. 1. 20 21 22. Yet such is the Madness of all by Nature and it is greatly to be lamented This shews also the blindness and darkness of Men by Nature that they cannot see the excellency of those invisible eternal things nor their own absolute necessity of them and concernment in them The God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them This glorious light shines upon them and shines into many of their Heads this Light they cannot resist but it shines not into their Hearts to transform and change them as it doth into the Hearts of God's Elect and it 's greatly to be lamented 2 Cor. 4. 4. 2. Inf. Secondly Hence appears the beguiling bewitching nature of the World that it should so strangely win and gain the Hearts and Affections of Men and Women and so easily prevail with them while God and Christ are offered to them and are not embraced Heaven gates are opened to them and they invited entreated perswaded by Promises by Threatnings commanded to come and enter but they will not they make light of it no