Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A91726
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The benefit of afflictions. By Edward Reynell Esqu.
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Reynell, Edward, 1612-1663.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing R1217; Thomason E1914_2; ESTC R209996
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20,418
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46
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ever we did with the love of Christ What if some men fancy to themselves a liberty first to mock us and after to nail us to the Cross What though they stick not amidst our many Agonies to give us gall and vinegar to drink to load us with cruel contempts and virulent speeches and scandalous reproaches What if our Enemies walk with haughty looks triumphant spirits and threatning eyes whilst we are full of tears sighs and sorrows What if false witnesses arise and lay to our charge things that we never knew rewarding us evil for good and hatred for our good will What though we are put to pains in our profession to troubles for a good conscience and to many hardships in the world Yet O let us labour for contentment because otherwise we can no way be made conformable unto Christ our Saviour Neither is it any matter if proud and merciless men mingle their scornfull smiles with our Tears It is no matter if Davids Abjects make mouths and wag their heads upon us If the great Favourites of the world curse us so long as God pities us in all our troubles who will not stay too long lest we put forth our hand unto wickedness Neither suffer the rod of the wicked to remain alwayes on the lot of the righteous Psal 125.3 Jobs misery did not lessen his innocency neither are the servants of the most high God troubled though they are judged here so as they may not be condemed with the world they triumph in their sufferings they dance in their dust yea they account their ashes their beauty and the waters of Marah to be their wine and refreshing Affliction is part of Cods husbandry and tends no less to the amendment of our souls then manuring doth to the advantage of the earth And may we still humble our selves as well in submission to as the acknowledgement of his divine and afflicting hand And Oh that we could hide and abhor our selves in dust and ashes before his presence who only can pity and repair us But miserable and unhappy are those who after so much sharp eye-salve see not their need of a Physician for after the long applications of such rough medicines which the world affords not to own their distempers were indeed a contempt to the wisest and gentlest Physician whose Judgements are mercifull and whose severities only the fruits of his loving kindness that he chuseth rather to punish us then to destroy and forsake us A Christian is here in his Nonage and no way fit to have all he hath a title to yet why should he murmure seeing so much is alotted him as will give him passage to heaven if Poverty be good he shall have it if disgrace be good he shall meet with it if Crosses be good he shall have them if misery be good it shall follow him yet all tending towards his good If he be in want he hath contentment if under suffering he hath patience all things are his as well what he wants as what he hath It is the desire indeed of many men to be in Canaan as soon as they are out of Aegypt but God will lead us through the wilderness of Temptations and Afflictions untill we come to Heaven As the Spring follows the winter so will glory follow our Affliction which is hid with Christ and though now clouded with the malice of wicked men and our own infirmities we shall at last appear glorious in the eyes of God and his Angels if in a Christian meekness we submit to his Will The which should serve to comfort us whilest we remain in this unfortunate region this land of blackness wherein the Inhabitants sit in the shadow of death and a thick darkness for a time obscures the glorious Sun-shine of all our comforts and such calamities accompany some as that between fear of death and torments of life Vivere noluerit mori nescierit To live he would not to die he cannot And surely he cannot be of flesh who is unsensible of what wrings so many true Tears from our eyes and so many Icie sighs of grief and sorrow from our heart The necessity also thereof should invite us to patience all the Saints of God having passed and profited thereby and seeing by those Afflictions which are no less profitable then grievous and troublesome we are humbled purged and instructed and there is no life so holy nor place so secret wherein they may be avoided Oh grudge not then to sow in Tears since thou shalt reap in joy By flight thou canst not overcome but by patience thou wilt be stronger then all thy enemies It is no great matter for a man to be devout and fervent when he feeleth no heaviness but by Chastisements he is tryed how much he hath profited in Gods School whereas our Reward will be the greater so our vertues will more openly appear to the world and by the sharpness of our Tryal our good deeds will be the more esteemed Adversity discovereth how much vertue each one hath It maketh us not frail but shews us what we are And God takes away the bladders of this world that we may learn to swim without them Such as he most loves he useth to rebuke and chasten Rev. 3.19 Our comfort is that all our Troubles are determined by the wise Counsel and providence of God for our good yea as blessings to us and shal increase our Crown of Glory The deeper our die is in Affliction the better shall we wear our scarlet Robes in Heaven Lazarus was not bad enough for Christ to cure whilest he was sick who intended to revive him from death to make the glory of the Miracle the greater Neither are we fit Objects for our Saviour to delight in while we are sick with the vanities of the world untill we are mortified with Afflictions from above Surely had there been any better or more profitable way for the health of man then suffering Christ would have shewed it by Word or Example who plainly exhorteth all those that follow him to the bearing of his Cross Oh happy Burthen which we shall at last put off with Eternal comfort strike on then thy mercifull rod O God! which thou sendest not to procure our sports yet these thou prosperedst to thy servant Jacob but to work the dicovery of our wounds by the humble manifestation of our sins unto thee And Oh that we could but mak a wise improvement of our Crosses whereby to have recourse to vertue to God and our selves In all worldly mutations let us acknowledge and kiss the divine hand let us not fear to walk in that way which lead to a Kingdom If thou bear thy Cross unwillingly thou increasest thy load and makest for thy self a new burthen But if thou bear it willingly it will bear thee and lead thee to thy desired end to wit where there shall be an end of suffering which here there shall not and where there shall be an everlasting reward laid up for those that fight the good fight of faith If that Farmer who gave Ataxerexes a dish of cold water was rewarded with a golden Goblet how much more likely are they to receive a Crown who have denied themselves taken up their Cross and followed their Master Be sure as the glory is his so shall the Reward be eternally thine Oh here here will be a certain Harbor and recess from all the temptations of the world and from all the clamours and reproaches of our enemies In this Ark shall we cut through all the waves of this troublesome life without detriment or putrefaction in this withdrawing Room though too seldom frequented shines that happy star which will lead us to the King of life Here by having recourse to the spring of life may we sweetly bath and refresh our wearied souls Near this white may we stand secure and having passed the rough and unpleasant Mountains of this world having sat down under its troubles and spent our breath with much gasping and weariness on this Hill may we feed our eyes with the beautifull Prospect and freshness of these eternally green and flowery Plains FINIS The meaning of the FRONTISPIECE SIck with a holy Love the Soul Divine Spurning at Earth Heaven onely seeks to clime Whilst Mary full of Sighs and Tears doth weep Large Streams to wash her blessed Saviours feet And scorning her fond Lovers leaves to sin Returns her Love-Tokens and follows him Behold one in a Wood whose life is spent In true Devotion and retirement Chast Joseph shuns his Mistriss's Lures to sin Nor will betray the Trust repos'd in him Beauty in one hand shews Enticements fair The other points at Darts Chains Swords Despair When treacherous Delilah had Sampson bound The House he forthwith level'd with the ground Laughing her friends to death Ah life mispent Murthered with that which seems our Merriment Next on a wretched Object cast thine eyes Who with deep sighs wring'd hands mournful cryes Bewailes Loves treacherous Engines All which prove The misery of him that 's tied to Love Those that reach Heaven onely being blest Though of the worlds Enjoyments dispossest