Fears The difference betwixt the godly and the wicked may be compared to that of two Persons at Sea in a most dangerous Storm where there is Hope of saving Life but nothing else But the one has a goodly Inheritance to live upon when he comes to Land and therefore cannot be much cast down whereas the other having lost his whole Stock and Substance is not only miserably damped with Grief for the Loss of that but also quite confounded with the Thoughts of his after Poverty and Misery Thirdly This Doctrine of the Certainty of another better Life serves greatly to comfort us under the Miseries and Calamities of this and therefore that we may have this Comfort let us both firmly fix the Belief of it in our Hearts and also frequently meditate thereon It is in vain for any to expect to pass thorow this World without Trouble and Affliction and there is no true support under any Affliction but the lively hope of that glory which is to be revealed with this one may bear the heaviest Cross chearfully and without it the lightest Affliction may overwhelm the spirit For this cause saith St. Paul we faint not for though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Cheer up thy Spirit whosoever thou art that liest under the pressure of any Affliction if thou repentest of thy Sins if thou lovest God and be resolved to walk so as to please him why shouldst thou be cast down Lift up thine Eyes unto yonder Regions above and consider what an Interest thou hast there what a blessed Inheritance is there reserved for you Is thy condition here uneasie and troublesom and art thou still tossed about remember when thou comest there thou shalt have all Rest and Peace Art thou hated by Men and persecuted with their Hands and Tongues let not that vex thee seeing thou art Beloved of God and hast Friends Above who will shortly receive thee unto their everlasting Habitations where are good things which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive them Take the spoiling of your Goods joyfully knowing that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Dost thou here suffer the want of all things bear it for a while patiently for when thou ascendest Heaven and enter'st into the presence of God thou shalt find fulness of joy and rivers of pleasures for evermore The bitterness of this Life shall be abundantly recompenced by the sweetness and happiness of the other There it is where we shall be comforted for all the days wherein we have been afflicted For there men shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes When Columbus set first out to Sea in order to discover a New World he suffered unspeakable Straits Hardships and Difficulties The very reading of them is astonishing yet he still bore out by the hope of discovering Land which was very faint and uncertain for he only conjectured that there might be such a thing Now if such a faint and uncertain hope of an Earthly Country could make one run upon so many Hazards and bear up under such Disasters what a support to our Minds and a Comfort to our Spirits should the hope of an Heavenly Country be a Country whose Riches and Glory and Felicity we poor Mortals cannot conceive much less express And which is no Dream or Conjecture but which is clearly demonstrated to us by the Word of God And from which nothing can obstruct us if we be but stedfast and immoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Death might have prevented Columbus's Discovery and robb'd him of that Satisfaction but Death cannot impede our passage unto Heaven for it is the very means of entring into it It is the very loosing of the Fetters and removing the Cloggs which detain us in this miserable Life and a setting us at Liberty to return to God whence we came and to take possession of that glorious Life which Christ hath purchased for us Fourthly and lastly Is there a Life after this and a blessed Life too Then certainly it becometh us to give all diligence to secure it for our selves 't is no less our Interest than our Duty It will not fall to our Lot by Chance and without we use true endeavours after it It is true Jesus Christ hath purchased this Life for us and payed the price of it without which no Man could ever have expected it But still it lies on us to qualifie our selves for it by the Performances of those Conditions on which it is granted and these are Faith and Holiness First We must have Faith for without this saith the Scripture it is impossible to please God And if it be impossible to please him without Faith it is impossible to expect Heaven without it for he will never admit one there who doth not please him He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him If you ask what Faith is It is to believe the Existence of God his Almighty Power his Infinite Wisdom his Incomprehensible Goodness and his most Wise and Watchful Providence It is to give a most hearty assent to the Truth of his Word to the Authority and Goodness of his Laws to the ineffable greatness of his Promises and to the Justice of his Threatnings It is to receive with Zeal and Affection the Lord Jesus Christ to own the miraculous Nature and Dignity of his Person and to acknowledge the Necessity Vertue and Usefulness of his Offices of Prophet Priest and King Finally it is to admit by a profound Humility the Incomprehensible Mystery of the Trinity and to depend upon the Influence and Operation of the Holy Spirit the third Person of the God-head Our Faith must comprehend all this And without this Faith no Man can be saved For unless a Man believe all that God has clearly proposed he not only does not honour God as he ought but he actually dishonours and affronts him Now the true evidence of this Faith is Holiness which is also the other Condition required of those that would be saved Faith without works saith St. Iames is dead And without holiness saith St. Paul no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. How fit and proper unsanctified Persons may be for settling and propagating Christ's Kingdom upon Earth I do not well know but this I know and am sure of that none shall share of his Heavenly Kingdom but they who are pure as he is pure
other things a Man is sure of it Sow Righteousness and ye shall sow to your selves none shall come betwixt you and the blessed Fruits which is produced by that sowing Wherefore it is here added and reap in mercy Because the Verb here is the Imperative Mood some will have this a Command for a farther Progress in doing that good we have explained to be contained under the first Head But this cannot be admitted for besides the Tautology we must put a strain'd and unusual sense upon Reaping Wherefore certainly in this Phrase is set forth the gracious Reward wherewith God will bless Sowing in Righteousness Reaping follows Sowing and is the natural effect thereof so who Sows in Righteousness shall Reap in Mercy tho' what they thus Reap be neither the necessary natural effect of what they sow nor yet the just desert thereof if they merited what they Reap it should not be called Mercy But it is so called that they may not think what is given them to be their due If Men would consider themselves and their actions impartially and lay aside all proud thoughts they would adjudge their merits to ' be small and that little belonged to them on that account However all who ply Sowing in Righteousness sincerely may look for Mercy as the Husband-man doth for a Crop after he hath sown nay they may assure themselves of it which he cannot do they may claim it as their Privilege by virtue of the Divine Promise which can never fail With respect to which Promise and the undoubted certainty thereof the Prophet bids them here Reap Mercy Reap is Imperative to denote the certainty of the thing as if there were no more requisite than to put forth the hand and take it in which sense the Imperative is usually taken in Scripture as Ezek. xviii 32. They have not the promise nor are they capable of Mercy who sow not in Righteousness Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doth evil Rom. ii 9. As therefore Sowing must go before Reaping so Sowing in Righteousness must be previous to the Reaping in Mercy this is necessary not that we may merit but that we may be fit objects of Mercy And as naturally the Crop exceeds the measure of the Grain which was Sown so the Gifts and Expressions of God's Mercy towards righteous Persons shall infinitely exceed the Works done by them Wherefore a Iewish Doctor hath not ill express'd it Sow c. Do that which is good in mine eyes and the good Reward which ye shall receive of me shall be far greater than your good Works as he that soweth a Bushel hopes to reap two or more and therefore in the Command for sowing he useth the word Iustice but in the promise of Reaping the word Chesed Mercy or Benignity which is more than Iustice or what in strict Iustice can be required The Mercy which they who Sow in Righteousness shall Reap is like God himself the Author thereof infinite and so cannot be express'd We cannot particularize all the ways whereby God will shew his Mercy to such Persons It is written Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. ii 9. As long before the Harvest the Husbandman is refreshed with the sight and savour of his Field so God comforteth and refresheth the Souls of the righteous even in this World and hereafter he Crowns them with unspeakable Glory and blesseth them with eternal Life The Light of God's Countenance even in this Life where its beams are often intercepted do yet afford more Joy than in the time of Harvest when Corn and Wine and Oil abound with Men And what will it do in the other World where it shines fully and clearly and without interruption and where there is nothing to obstruct the Power and Efficacy thereof Lord What Joy is there in the very prospect of this Harvest How happy and blessed are they who are sure of it What a kindness is it that we have liberty to throw in our poor stock into such a profitable Bank and a Privilege to Sow where we may Reap so much With what Face can any refuse the Occasion or what Excuse is sufficient Have Men by their many Inventions found out any higher Felicity than what God and his Superabundant Mercy can confer or is there a nearer way or more proper to this than that which the Prophet directs to the Sowing in Righteousness Is it better to labour for Temporal than Eternal things for that Meat which perisheth than that which endureth to Life everlasting Will ye plough Wickedness and reap Iniquity and eat the Fruit of Lyes that is will ye die rather than live This were a mad and shameful Choice and yet one of them we must make for there is no middle Course left us It is certain the Wages of Sin are Death and that there is no way to Everlasting Life but to have our Fruit unto Holiness Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man soweth that shall he also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. vi 7. The Prophet having told them what they would reap returns to exhort them to the Use of those means which are requisite in order to it and to the Performance of those Duties to which reaping in Mercy is promised which People have need to be put in mind of for ordinarily they are very slack and negligent Many would be at reaping but few set themselves to the Work and Labour that must go before it they would be putting in the sickle in Harvest-time though they have not sown nor made any Preparation for it But those who sow not shall not reap and that our sowing may be successful we are bid first break up our fallow ground for Interpreters make the Prophets Speech Elliptick and will have First or After that or some such Word to be understood If the Ground be not prepared sowing is to no Purpose the Seed was lost that fell on stony ground among thorns and in the high-way The good and precious Seed to be sown is the Word of God our Hearts are the Ground which must receive it and they cannot receive it till they be made honest and good as our Saviour speaks Luke viii 15. and in order to this they must be prepared Pains must be taken on them Break up your fallow Ground If the Husband-man did not till his Ground cast Furrows in it and root out the Weeds thereof he needed not sow and would in vain expect a Crop So our Hearts by their natural Constitution are like fallow ground which was never laboured which is indisposed for receiving Seed from the Sower and of it self brings forth only Thorns and Briars The natural Product of
who humbleth and exalteth saith the wise Son of Syrach And Solomon whose Words have yet greater Weight saith whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker and he that is glad at Calamities shall not be unpunished So the Prophet Habakkuk saith That he was humbled at these Disasters of Midian and Cushan that he himself might rest in the day of trouble Who wisely and seriously consider the Instability of humane Affairs will neither be lifted up with their own Prosperity nor will they insult over their Neighbours Misery For what is the ones Case to Day may be the others to Morrow Who at present braves it out with Pride and Scorn may within a little time come to be contemptible Quem dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem Res Deus nostras celeri citatas turbine versat Secondly We see here that the Church and People of God are often visited with the Rod of Afflictions The Text declareth it and if any Persons doubt it let them read the History of the Church and they shall be fully convinc'd As for the Iewish Church 't was first sadly oppress'd in Egypt and thereafter for the space of forty Years 't was exercised in a barren Wilderness with divers kinds of Afflictions After they came to Canaan during the time of the Judges they were often brought low They had Peace a part of David's and all Solomon's Life but afterwards it was continually interrupted till they were carried Captive to Babylon When they were brought back and restored to their own Land they were not settled without hot Debates and Contests with their Neighbours and after their Settlement they had severe Wars and were kept in continual Exercise with divers sore Troubles until Christ as appears from Iosephus and the History of the Maccabees And as for the Christian Church Trouble sprang up with it and continually attended it for the space of Three Hundred Years it suffered Ten severe General Persecutions besides many sad particular Conflicts And tho' after that the Emperours and Rulers turned Christian there was no general Persecution for the Name of Christ and the Sake of the Gospel yet there was no particular Church or People without the Rod of Correction They have been visited either with Foreign Wars or Intestine Divisions with Pestilence or Famine or some other Calamity No Nation or People can boast of an Immunity from such Disasters but for the space of One Hundred Years As Man in his private Capacity so States and Societies are born to Trouble Nor is an Exemption from the same among the Privileges of the People of God The Roman Church makes Temporal Felicity one of the Notes of the true Church But her Infallibility appears as little here as in other things For as it is no where promised in Scripture so no Church can de facto shew it She her self would fail if she were put to prove her self the true Church by this for where was her Temporal Felicity when Rome it self was sacked and the Pope shut up in Prison Calamities and Afflictions do indeed indicate that they who suffer them are Sinners But they do not prove them to be Reprobates and Cast-aways for the People of God may expect them as well as others nay they may look for them more than others because God is more jealous of them and his glory is more concerned to Punish Sin in them Thirdly We may observe here that even when God is most provoked to lay on his afflicting Hand and to Punish he doth not forbear to shew Kindness And that in the extreamest Misery there is still ground to Hope in God for a Deliverance None ever provoked God more than the People of Israel and Iudah in the days to which this Prophecy referrs nor did any Peoples case look more desperate than theirs when carried Captive by the King of Assyria And yet you see here that the Prophet in regard to them then saith when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me As God casts down with one Hand he lifts up with another Soepe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem Thus when he cast the Israelites out of their own Land he made them to find favour with the People among whom they were dispersed God wisely tempereth his Punishments so that while they vindicate his Holiness and Justice they also serve to manifest his Mercy and Good-will God hath no pleasure in Wickedness and therefore when he seeth it he punisheth it But all his hatred being against the Crime and not the Person therefore he saveth and comforteth them and maketh their very Afflictions tend to their Good unless they have made themselves altogether incorrigible and have hardned their Hearts against all his Methods and then indeed he gives them up to Destruction When he sees it necessary to withdraw external and worldly Comforts he doubles inward and spiritual Consolations So the Prophet Isaiah having denounced Judgments against Israel he addeth And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left The felicity of the Soul is to be preferred to the welfare of the Body and Spiritual Consolations to Worldly Advantages Now because ordinarily People are insensible of the former and indisposed to receive them while the latter abound with them Therefore he takes away this that they may seek the other and be capable of them so that we really gain by our losses and our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thus it is said Hos. ii 14. Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her and I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt These words shew that God comforteth his People in their Afflictions and therefore afflicteth them that he may make them sensible of his Kindness and have occasion to speak comfortably to them As also that in due time he will deliver them and make them to rejoice for the days wherein they have been afflicted It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. There is always ground to hope and never reason to despair be our condition never so low perplex'd and troubled For he is