Condition if God should not use such a Medicinal course with him as that of Afflictions is made him say He should suspect and be afraid of such an Indulgence of the Lord as not a real kindness and which obliged St. Austin to caution us against congratulating a who Man prospers in his wicked ways whom God vouchsafes not to check by some severe Animadversion because instead of favouring such an one the Lord is incensed to such a degree against him that he will not let him suffer that is he will not correct him with the Scourge of Adversity This put St. Bernard upon praying S. Bern. hom 42. in Cant. That God would take some severe and sharp Method with him here for his Cure now and Safety hereafter Cut me slash me sear and burn me O my God here was a Petition in his Devotions that I may not be torn and racked thro' with Whips and Scorpions or broil amidst scorching and unquenchable Flames of Brimstone hereafter To this purpose the good Emperor Mauritius upon a Monk's carrying a naked Sword thro' the Streets of his chief City of Constantinople and predicting thereupon his sudden and lamentable end That he should perish by the Sword which had left on his Spirits an Impression as deep as if it were a Prophesie which came by Inspiration or a Message sent immediately from Heaven directed forthwith Supplications to be made by the Church on his behalf That God would be pleased to require from him the Punishment of his Sins in this World and not defer the Execution of it to another The Authors who relate this Passage Cedron Niceph l. 8. c. 35 36 37 38. P. Diacon l. 17. Simocatta l. 8. c. 11. add further that the great Judge of Mankind Jesus Christ appearing to him in a Vision seated on the Throne of Judicature and demanding of him where he would chuse to receive the deserved Recompense of his Offences the Wages of his Iniquity whether in this present or the future state of Life he return'd for Answer immediately this Request O Lord Just Judge but yet affectionate Lover of Mankind inflict the Punishment I have incurred on me now lay on me what I have deserved here and respite not my Execution to hereafter Did we consider alike as he did that the Sufferings we are so ready to complain of were in prevention of more terrible ones were Medicinal not Penal Corrections for Amendment not Executions upon Condemnation we should not desire to have the Rod taken off from our Back for fear lest we should be barr'd of our Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven Were we conversant with such Meditations as these that God feedeth his own People which prayeth with the Psal 80. 5 6. Bread of Tears and gives them plenteousness of Tears to drink Diets them with the Bread of Wormwood and Water of Gall that Afflictions are the Signs by which he discriminates his Favourites from his ordinary Servants his beloved Children from the As Paternal Corrections and so as marks of Paternal Affection rest from the common general Mass of Mankind of which he is the common Parent that they are the Testimonies of his tender Paternal Affection to them and he sendeth them induced by Charity not moved in Anger as Tokens and Pledges of his Love For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth Heb. 12. 6. and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And had we when exercised by them sufficient reason to esteem them such to us the Proofs of our Adoption and our being highly favoured by our Heavenly Father certainly there would be no need of an Exhortation to press us to bear them with a quiet Spirit it being the natural Consequence of our Filial Relation or the Obligation arising thence to demean our selves so I am sure the Apostle to the Hebrews deduceth this as a matter of Duty from that Furthermore we have Heb. 12. 9. had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Nay the Reason on this side for a patient Subjection to the Father of Spirits when corrected by him is of much more Weight and Force than on the other side for paying Reverence to our Fathers according to the Flesh when we are so dealt with by them or the Argument concludes more strongly for the payment of this Duty to him than them For they as the Apostle urgeth it further for a few days chastneth us after their pleasure but he for our profit that we might be made partakers of his Holiness Certainly if the Law of Nature as dark as it was yet afforded Light enough to teach us in our Youth when we were not arrived at the due Exercise of Reason to love if as weak as it was it had power enough to constrain us to revere our Parents according to the Flesh though they corrected us and their Corrections many times proceeded from a froward and ill Humour from a Capricio and Whimsie taking them in the Crown tho the Infliction of them was not conducted by Prudence or moderated by Clemency nor desiged for our Temporal Good our Reformation the Law of Grace the Light of the Gospel must at least be as efficacious not to say more which I might justly if we do not wilfully oppose the one or obscure the other especially when our Age hath ripened our Judgment to discern Consequences to restrain or quell all Insurrections of boysterous Passions and keep us in quiet subjection to the Father of our Spirits when guided by his own Infinite Goodness and Wisdom he exerciseth his Paternal Authority in correcting us and doth this less than our Merits require and always having an Eye in it to our Advantage our Spiritual and Eternal Warfare yea farther than keeping us in quiet Subjection they would have Power enough to oblige us to be thankful to him that he should vouchsafe to be angry with us and reprove us and use the Discipline of his Rod when other gentler Methods for our Amendment had failed that he should condescend after in vain he had shew'd us Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept to instruct us with his Chastisements we should esteem it an Honour and an Happiness to be taught by him tho his teaching might be as rough as that of Gideons was to the wayward Elders of Succeth Judg. 8. 16 with Thorns and Briars and considering this to break out with Job in a Rapture What is man Or what Job 17. 17 18. are we that thou shouldst magnifie us and set thy heart upon us And that thou shoulst visit us every Morning and try us every Moment Or pronounce with the greatest Satisfaction concerning our selves What was Eliphaz his Judgment of a man under God's Chastisement Behold how happy are Job 3. 17. we whom God correcteth Were our Thoughts employed in making this Reflection on our Afflictions and Sufferings that
come down now from the Cross and we will believe him He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him Thus reviled he reviled not again When he 1 Pet. 2. 23. suffered this he threatned not but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously And yet he did not barely receive and endure these contumelious Indignities with an undisturbed Evenness he returned their Insolence and Scorn and the Malice which provoked them to do them with the greatest Token of Affection the most fervent Charity of his Prayer Father forgive them for they know not what they do Which Act certainly not to be moved with Injuries and to recompense them thus was a greater Miracle than any he wrought Amidst the sharp Pains of the Cross which entred into his Soul as the Iron did into his Body the Nails into his Flesh his Mind was as serene and calm as if he had been altogether impassible and insensible of them He made no Complaints of the Iniquity and Cruelty of his Enemies nor of his Fathers Severity in permitting them to use him so For his Expostulation with his Father about this was with all Sedateness Filial Reverence and Submission to his Pleasure My God my God why Mat. 17. Mark 15. hast thou forsaken me All that he besides added amidst his Sufferings was I thirst which too Joh. 19. 20. was mentioned without repining the commending the Care of his disconsolate Mother to his beloved Disciple and V. 26 27. him to her innocent Affections his comforting the penitent Thief This day Luk. 23. 46 shalt thou be with me in Paradice his declaring the great Work he came into the World to do his Fathers Will which was our Redemption to be compleated It is finished his resigning Joh. 19. 30 his Spirit into his Fathers hands from whom he received it when he had prepared and fashioned a Body for him with all humble Obeysance Father Luk. 23 46 into thy hands I commend my Spirit with which form of Surrendry bowing down his Head he gave up Joh. 19. 31. the Ghost Thus he comforted his Disciples by his Example in bearing his Cross and bearing it in this wise to incline them to take it up and confirmed them in the resolution of Martyrdom as well as exhorted them to it And as he thus manifested his Patience in enduring in his Life Poverty and all the Inconveniences and the Hardships with the Contempt which are the Attendants of that low Condition and at his Death all Pains and the more cruel Insults of malicious envenomed Foes so in the days of his Flesh he expressed Joh. 19. 31 another sort of Patience expecting with much long-suffering the Repentance of his People the Jews being extremely desirous to gather them under the Shadow of his Wings as a Hen gathereth her Chickens in order to save them from his Fathers Wrath and their deserved Destruction and this even after and notwithstanding they had killed the Prophets and ston'd the Messengers that were sent unto them to foretel and prepare them for this Advent of his designed to heal them Likewise after he was taken up Acts 2. Acts 4. from among them who had Crucify'd him the Lord of Life and murthered him their Prince and Saviour and received up into Heaven and exalted by his Father to the Right Hand of his Power and Majesty he gave a signal Proof of this in waiting Forty Years for their Repentance and Conversion before he sent the Roman Armies to take Vengeance of them for his own innocent Blood and that of his Saints poured out like Water round about Jerusalem and for the rest of their enormous Impieties And even now at this time in this state of Exaltation while he sets crown'd with Honour and Glory on the Right Hand of the Throne of his Father he in mercy still stretcheth out his healing Wings over them earnestly desiring they would accept of Covert under them coming to him by Faith and looking for Salvation in his Name and his alone in mercy he defers and prorogues the time of his returning back to his last and eternal Judgment out of a special Tenderness and Compassion to them as well as a general one to Mankind willing that none should perish but willing that all even the most obstinate and obdurate should through the Obedience of Faith and softned by Repentance come to everlasting Life But because it may be pleaded in Bar or pretended in excuse for not imitating the Example of our great Lord and Master that the Shine of his Virtues even breaking through the dark shrowd of his Flesh is so strong and bright as they dazle our weak Eyes and we cannot look upon them with a stedfastness fit for the copying them that they are too sublime and excellent to be transcribed by Men subject to and encompass'd with Frailties and Infirmities nay made up of them as much as of Flesh and Blood though he dwelt among us to set us a Pattern as much as to instruct us and suffered to leave us an Example as well as to lay down a Price for our Redemption And although St. Peter thought not his Wife too weak to imitate it in some measure when seeing her carried to suffer Death he encouraged her to it by reminding her of his Example I shall therefore in the third place propound the Example of one who had no Advantage of a Nature superiour to ours to support him under a burthen and weight of Afflictions almost immense and insupportable and aid him in his Passage o'er a dangerous or direct him in his steerage through a boysterous Sea of Troubles You have heard of the Person and his Deportment as St. James tells them to whom he immediately sent his Epistle and you mediately it being wrote for your and all succeeding Believers Instruction as well as theirs Ye have heard of the patience of Job This Person is conceived by some to S 5. § 3. The Example of Job have been brought by God himself upon the Stage a Stage of Misery and Calamities that his patient Behaviour V. S. Chrys T. 5. or 27. p. 168. T. 6. or 10. p. 107. ed. Savil. on it might stand an Example for all Posterity to imitate in any the like occasion shew'd publickly to the World as the ablest and skilfullest Master of Defence in that kind and with design to instruct Mankind how if they should be put upon entring the Lists with Adversity they should combat it how appointed they should come and how they should manage this Defensive Weapon of Patience It is Tertullian's Conceit that God set Tertul. de Pat. c. 14. p. 167. ed. Rigal him up raised or erected him to remain an illustrious Trophy of Conquest over the Devil whom he repulsed in all the Assaults he made on him foil'd and vanquish'd in all his Attempts tho' he had been sufficiently batter'd and bruised by the rude Shocks of Afflictions he
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
they are the Instruments subscribed as it were by God's own hand certifying his having elected and predestinated us to Glory as that passage of our Lord to Ananias concerning Paul strongly implies when having acquainted him in a Vision that he was a chosen Vessel of his he presently subjoyns For I will shew Acts 19. 15 16. him how great things he must suffer for my Names sake the force of the Reason couch'd in it lying thus either that the Divine Determination was first fixt upon obliging him to suffer before it was on glorifying him or his suffering for his Name was a Demonstrative Proof of his being Elected by him to Glory That they are the Testimonials Signed and Sealed by the holy Spirit of our present Adoption and the Bonds he delivers to us in assurance of our future Glorification according as this place of the Apostle imports The Spirit witnesseth with our Rom. 8. Spirit that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ If we also suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him together That they are the evident Tokens God affords us to assure us of our Salvation So St. Paul calls them and would have the Philippians esteem them because it Phil. 28. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was given them in the behalf of his Name not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake That they are the Marks which the good Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls sets upon the Sheep of his Flock those which belong to his Fold whereof those Sufferings which are unto Blood resemble those Letters in Red-Oaker the rest though never so black and gloomy yet while they are on this side Martyrdom those in Tarr with which for Cognizance and distinction-sake from others great Sheep-masters are wont to brand their own Sheep So St. Paul esteemed his when he said I bear about me the marks of the Lord Gal. 6. 17. Jesus For by those marks he meant no other than the Scars of the old Wounds he received when he was battered and bruised with Stones than the Prints of the Irons and Chains he had wore in his several Imprisonments than the Furrows those Scourges he had felt for preaching in his Name had made and left behind them in his Flesh there would be no necessity of pressing us to carry about those Authentick Testimonials to have those Assurances of our Sonship and Inheritance to shew to wear these honourable Badges of our great Master or the same Livery he did on Earth meer Patience in sustaining them would be too mean and poor a Virtue we should exult and leap for joy in having received such satisfactory Testimonies of our being favoured of God such undeniable and incontestable Proofs and Characters of being his Children Our Saviour enjoyned this Deportment to his Disciples when they should be persecuted for his Cause and Men upon that account should revile them and separate them from their Company should reproach and cast out their Names as Evil for his sake Rejoyce Luke 6. 22 23. and leap for joy in that day for great is your Reward in Heaven And his Apostle St. James encourageth us by his Exhortation to the same My 1 Jam. 3. Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations And by the Reason he subjoyns the Beatitude of such a state provided it be antecedently supported with Patience for otherwise they are no distinctive Cognizance nay they serve only to procure our present Misery and to charge us with misery hereafter Blessed is 4 12. that man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him So doth St. Peter Forasmuch as by suffering for Christ we have not only a fellowship in his Sufferings suffer with him but are honoured to suffer what he did and while we do so the same Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon us which did on him whom God glorified amidst his Sufferings by the Darkness which overspread the Heavens and the Convulsions that shook the Earth by opening the Graves and renting the Veil of the Temple Proofs which convinced the Centurion he was the Son of God And besides all this when his Glory shall be revealed we shall appear in the same Glory and our Joy then shall be full the confident hope of all which to come to us in Reversion is enough to highten and encrease our present Joy Therefore rejoyce inasmuch as ye are 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be also glad with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you The Apostles filled with such Considerations as these acted according to those Rules they gave for the behaviour of all other Christians After being beaten by an Order of the Council for preaching Jesus they departed from their Presence rejoycing that they were counted Acts 5. 4. worthy to suffer for his names sake This was their constant Frame of Spirit while their outward appearance was quite contrary as Sorrowful but always rejoycing St. Paul did not only rejoyce upon 2 Cor. 6. 10 the prospect of the Reward in the hope of the glory of God but gloried which is a Proceeding farther in Tribulations because by a train of consequences Rom. 5. 23 24 25 they wrought an assurance that the love of God was shed abroad in his Heart by the Holy Ghost He entertained and recreated his Mind with these He took pleasure in Infirmities 2 Cor. 12 10. in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake The Jews converted to Christianity had learnt these Instructions so well and followed their Example so close that they took joyfully the spoiling of Heb. 10. 34 their Goods And St. Paul prayed that his Colossians might reach this degree of Perfection as to joyn Joy with their Patience that they might be strengthened with all might according Col. 1. 11. to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness And those in the succeeding Ages of the Church came near this Point who could thankfully adore God in their Tribulations for none can give Thanks for that which is grievous as such and affords no occasion for Pleasure or rejoycing on any account and they who did so made it appear by such Considerations as the forementioned that they were Signs and Proofs of God's Favour and Affection So St. Chrysostome protested he would S. Chrysost ep 11. ad Clymp never cease ascribing Glory to God for all Events and Incidents and in that Protestation particularly respected his Deprivation and Banishment Philagrius practised this rendring Thanks to God for his Sickness and the Benefit he received by it though the first was involuntary
being done we are to receive the Meeds we ran for as the Port where landed we are upon the Shoar of eternal Happiness as a generous Patron freeing us out of a state of Slavery and the Prison where we are detained and raising us to a glorious condition of Liberty as a kind Friend by whose means we are conducted to those Mansions of Bliss which have been long since provided for us in our Fathers House as removing out of a Cottage of Loom and Clay exposed to the Injuries of all sorts of Weathers into a Building not made with Hands i. e. to say not as these earthly Tabernacles into a Palace whose Foundations Walls and Gates are all of precious Stones in the highest Heavens as a retiring from the Hardships and Dangers of this present Warfare wherin we are engaged in continual Contests with Flesh and Blood within and Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses without by whom we are so oft and so shamefully foil'd to a place of perfect Peace and Security free from the least annoyance of such Incursions or such Assailants or any fears of them where having obtained our great Captains Dismission and Licence to retire we shall expect till he make his return to Earth after which his business being done there and we having Bodies prepared for us to put on we shall attend on him when he makes his second glorious Ascent into Heaven and be a part of that days Pomp and Celebrity as the putting off Rags of Corruption in order to be arrayed in Robes of State as that which manageth an advantageous Exchange for us and by means of which for Misery and Calamity we gain Happiness for Tears and Grief Joys for painful Labour and Toil Rest for carking Cares Delights and Pleasures for Ignominy Glory for Obscurity Splendor for a Dungeon a Palace in short for nothing can be more said or thought and that is comprehensive of all which can be said or thought Heaven for Earth God and the Society of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect for the World its Vanities and profligate Company If they who when they stood upon the Threshold of this World ready to leave it had no View or but an obscure and uncertain one of another confining upon this could support themselves with Patience under its prolusory Agonies and Skirmishes and fortifie themselves with Courage against its down-right Attack and Blow by the help of such Meditations as these That dying was but going out of a weather-beaten House a travelling to another place as Plato a Dismission from their attendance here as the Emperor Antoninus the same Phrase almost by which the Aged Simeon expresseth it when he calls it a Departure but a going the way which all must tread as Horace but a putting off the tatter'd Garments of Flesh and Blood as Maximus but a Sleeping but a Change as Arian and others thought then certainly those who through the Opticks of Divine Revelations have the full prospect of another Life after this and by the Evidences of Faith and the Testimony of the Holy Spirit with theirs are assured of being Possessors of it will not only be upheld by Patience but receive abundant Consolation against the otherwise affrightful approach of Death from this Consideration That it is but a Passage or Introduction into Immortality This too as it will sustain and comfort 2. Against the kinds of Death or the circumstances of it which may make the appearance frightful us against the Pangs or Terrors of Death it self so it will do it against the various Circumstances and Appertenances of it such I call the Manner Kind Time Place of our Death which if there be nothing formidable or nothing but what 's tolerable in Death it self can introduce no such material and substantial difference as to render Death in this or that place at this or another time this or that way of dying contrary to the common nature of Death terrible and insupportable As therefore it matters not upon the Square whether we die in Childhood Youth Manhood or Old Age sooner or later any more than it doth in what Season of the year whether in Spring Summer Autumn or Winter and if there be any odds they seem to have the advantage who die having seen least of the Worlds Villany or felt least of the Calamities of Humane Life whether we die at home or abroad since every place under the Sky is a wise and brave Man's Country he being a Citizen and Denison of the World or none on this side Heaven is and every part of the Earth is equally distant from that whether in the possession of our Honours in our own Country or in Banishment in another since this may send us into places more benign and hospitable than our own Soil was where we may be more esteemed for our Vertue see more Order Gravity and Conduct and greater Examples of Prudence Fidelity and Constancy than among our own People whether we die at Sea or Land whether we feed Fish or Worms whether we die a natural or a violent Death whether our Prison Doors fly open of themselves or they are broken open by Force whether we die on our Beds by a Fever or by Fire at a Stake by a Squinnancy there or by a Halter on a Gibbit by a lingring Consumption there or by the sudden stroak of a Sword or Ax on the Scaffold by the Torture of the Stone or Gout or the Iliack Passion there or by being broken on the Wheel whether we die that which is called a glorious Death by the hands of our Enemy in the Field or that which is reckon'd an ignominious one by the hand of a Publick Executioner provided the Cause be not Criminal for its this alone can make any Death scandalous as it is only the goodness of a Cause can make any honourable Virtue can ennoble every Death give Glory to the Scandal of the Cross and Piety can make the Person who is hanged drawn and quartered an illustrious fulgent Martyr And neither the Tree nor Block nor any kind of Death can disgrace Honesty or shame Religion Nor last of all whether after Death our Bodies receive a decent Interment or they are exposed to the Beasts of the Field or their Quarters given to the Fowls of the Air i. e. whether they rot under Ground or above as Theodorus the â—ic Tuscul l. 3. Cyrenaean told the Tyrant who threatned him with the Cross or Gibbet That it was all one to him how he died provided we have not merited this last Treatment as Malefactors but 't is the ungrateful Return which is made us for doing our Duty For then they who have not a Grave have Heaven indeed Valer. l. 3. c. 3. for a Canopy to cover them or lie under its vaulted Roof their Quarters fixt on Poles are the Trophies and Monuments which Malice her self erected to their Virtue while she oppressed it the memory of
Leader Being I say thus reminded by the Holy Spirit of abstracting our Affections from the Earth and things which perish both with and without using gathering Rust if hoarded which in time will eat them and breeding if laid up Moths which will consume them of communicating and distributing of our Goods which is yet less than retaining no Propriety in what we have than selling our Lands and Houses and laying the Price down at the Apostles or their Successors Feet to be disposed of by them it shall then come to pass that the Casualties of Losses or Diminutions in our Estate shall not disturb us which upon many accounts we stand bound to part with Then being reminded by this Spirit if we have two Mat. 5. 40. Cloaks of giving one to him who lacketh of parting with our Cloak to him who by Violence and Oppression would take away our Coat rather than contend in endless Suits of Law or before Foreign Judges for recovering of it or Damages it shall come to pass that the Depredations and Robberies which the Lawless and Masterless may commit on our Goods shall not have the force to disturb us Then being reminded by him of our Luke 9. 23 24. Masters Admonition to take up his Cross and follow after him for which we have his Encouragement That if we lose our Lives for his sake we shall save them to rejoyce and be exceeding Mat. 5. 11. 21. glad when men shall persecute revile and say all manner of evil of us falsely for the name of Christ More Patience under the edge of the Sword or Ax or under the Lash and Scourge of the most cutting Tongue will seem a Duty so easie as not to need any farther recommendation or pressing Then being re-minded or instructed by him that those Diseases by which we are not given over to Death are sent for our Chastisement and Correction and those by which we are which tend to our Dissolution shall bring us to be with Christ we shall not fret or vex our selves under Remedies whose end is to make us better or Methods to make us happy Then being reminded by him of the Faith into which we were once solemnly Baptized and daily make a Profession of that Christ having died rose again and became the first Fruits of them who sleep who in due time and 1 Cor. 15. 20 22. order shall be awakened and quickned by him and such who fall asleep in him 1 Thess 4. 14. he shall bring along with him when he returns to judge the world We should not be overwhelmed in a Deluge of excessive Sorrow for our departed Friends as if we were utterly bereft of all hopes of seeing them more But on the other side raise and comfort our selves up we should with the Belief and Hope that they having upon leave granted withdrawn themselves from this Warfare for a Season shall make their appearance to together with us under the Standard of the Lord of Life and Glory at the General Rendezvouse of the Quick and Dead and that in the mean time while we are deprived of them and we our selves absent from the Lord we may by holy Offices have Communion with God and enjoy him in whom and for whom they were only dear to us or ought to have been so Beg of him we should farther to send this Spirit to be our immediate Comforter by shining in upon our Souls with such direct Rays of chearful light as through all the gloomy sadness of our outward condition we may discern our belonging to the Election of Grace and our affliction to be a mark that we are of that little Flock read the Deeds of our Adoption that made us the Sons of God and the Charter which gives us as Sons a Title to an Inheritance reserved for us in the Heavens by infusing into our Hearts such Peace such Joy and Exultation which are the Fruits that blessed Spirit produceth where he dwells upon an insurance from his concurrent Testimony with ours that our sins are pardoned our persons accepted and justified and that God for having forsaken us for a small moment will gather us in great mercies Isa 54. 7. 8. for having hid his face from us for so short a while will with everlasting kindness look upon us that neither Life nor Death neither the Calamities of the one nor Terrors of the other nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers not the Wiles nor rage of Devils not things present nor things to come not those we feel nor those we fear not heights nor depths neither Precipices nor Dungeons nor any Creature whatever shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That Love which he being attoned and reconciled to be our Friend by the meritorious Death of Christ hath for us nor defeat his kind Intentions nor deprive us of the beneficial effects of that Love viz. our Salvation To this Frame and Temper of Spirit if the Holy Spirit the Comforter shall by any of the forementioned Methods or his own Operation and Influx upon us vouchsafe to raise us transported we shall be with the ravishing Delights of Heaven before we shall be caught up thither be inebriated with its Pleasures before we sit down with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and the rest of the honourable Guests of that place to taste them there have the Kingdom of Heaven within us before we are advanced to one of those Mansions in that above us and we shall be prepared to say in all truth as St. Bernard did We had rather be in Serm. 19. in Psal 90. tribulation in the fiery Furnace having this Comforter with us than reign and be glorified in Heaven without him And Confident we may be if we do beseech him to give us this Spirit the Comforter with that Faith Ardor and Importunity as we ought that he who promised to give him to those who asked asked Believing fervently and incessantly will in pursuance of his immutable Promise bestow him upon us if not in such high degrees and measures as I have mentioned yet in such a one at least as may support us with such a sufficient stock of Comfort as may carry us through our present Walk this Vale of Tears till we come to the Mount of God as may enable us to bear our Cross with chearfulness till it be taken off our Shoulders and erected into a Trophy of Glory In this Confidence therefore that not one Title of his Promises shall pass away while all things else besides his Truth as immovable and unchangeable as they appear to be shall do so without a due Completion let us as many as are afflicted apply our selves to him for the execution of it while we are in trouble pour out our Heart before him in some such Prayer as this A Prayer for Patience O God just and righteous in all thy dealings with the Sons and Daughters of Men but