both it and your selves when you silence it in your Families Obs. 2. The Apostle having spoken of subjection to publick Authority addes this of subjection to private Domestick Authority 't is a thing much of concernment the right ordering of Families for all other Societies Civil and Religious are made up of these Villages and Cities and Churches and Commonwealths and Kingdomes are but a Collection of Families and therefore such as these are for the most part such must the whole Societies predominantly be one particular House is but a very small part of a Kingdom yet the wickedness and lewdness of that House be it but of the meanest in it of Servants one or more though it seem but a small thing yet goes in to make up that heap of sin that provokes the wrath of God and drawes on publick Calamity And this particularly when it declines into disorder proves a publick evil when Servants grow generally corrupt and disobedient and unfaithful though they be the lowest part yet the whole Body of a Commonwealth cannot but feel very much the evil of it as a Man does when his Legs and feet grow diseas'd and begin to fail him We have here 1. Their Duty 2. The due extent of it 3. The right Principle of it Be subject 1. Keep your Order and Station under your Masters and that with fear and inward reverence of mind and respect to them that is the very Life of all Obedience Then their Obedience hath in it diligent doing and patient suffering Both these are in that word be subject do faithfully to your utmost that which is concredited to you and obey all their just Commands for Action indeed goes no further but suffer patiently even their unjust Rigours and severities And this being the harder part of the two and yet a part that the Servants of those times bore many of them being more hardly and slavishly us'd than any with us especially those that were Christian Servants under unchristian Masters therefore the Apostle insists most on this and this is the extent of the Obedience here requir'd that it be to all kind of Masters not to the good only but the evil not only to obey but to suffer and suffer patiently and not only deserv'd but even wrongful and unjust punishment Now because this particular concerns Servants Let them reflect upon their own carriage and examine it by this Rule and truly the greatest part of them will be found very unconform to it being either closely fraudulent and deceitful or grosly stubborn and disobedient abusing the lenity and mildness of their Masters or murmuring at their just severity so far are they from the patient endurance of the least undue word of reproof much less of sharper punishment either truly or in their opinion undeserv'd And truly if any that profess Religion dispence themselves in this thy mistake the matter very much for it tyes them more whether Children or Servants to be most submissive and obedient even to the worst kind of Parents and Masters alwayes in the Lord not obeying any unjust Command though they may and ought to suffer patiently as it is here their unjust reproofes or punishments But on the other side this does not justify nor at all excuse the unmerciful Austerities and unbridled Passion of Masters 't is still a perversness and crookedness in them as the word is here and must have its own Name and shall have its proper reward from the Soveraign Master and Lord of all the World 2. There is here also the due extent of this Duty Namely to the Froward 'T is a more deformed thing to have a distorted crooked mind or a froward spirit than any crookedness of the Body How can he that hath Servants under him expect their Obedience when he cannot command his own Passion but is a slave to it And unless much Conscience of Duty possess Servants more than is readily to be found with them it cannot but work a Master into much disaffection and disesteem with them when he is of a turbulent Spirit a troubler of his own House embittering his affairs and Commands with rigidness and Passions and taking things readily by that side that may offend and trouble him thinking his Servant slights his call when he may as well think he heard him not and upon every light occasion real or imagin'd flying out into reproachful speeches or proud threats contrary to the Apostle St. Pauls rule which he sets over against the Duty of Servants Eph. 6. Forbearing threatning knowing that your Master also is in Heaven and that there is no respect of Persons with him think therefore when you shall appear before the Judgment Seat of God that your carriage shall be examin'd and judg'd as theirs and think that we regard those differences much of Masters and Servants but they are nothing with God they evanish Consider who made thee to differ might he not have made your Stations just contrary with a turn of his hand and made thee the Servant and thy Servant the Master But we willingly forget those things that should compose our minds to humility and meekness and blow them up with such fancies as please and feed our natural vanity and make us some body in our own account However that Christian Servant that falls into the hands of a froward Master will not be beaten out of his Station and Duty of Obedience by all the hard and wrongful usage he meets withal but will take that as an opportunity of exercising the more Obedience and Patience and will be the more cheerfully Patient because of his Innocency as the Apostle here exhorts Men do indeed look sometimes upon this as a just plea for impatience that they suffer unjustly which yet is very ill Logick for as he said would any Man that frets because he suffers unjusty wish to deserve it that he might be patient Now to hear them they seem to speak so when they exclaim that the thing which vexeth them most is that they have not deserv'd any such thing as is inflicted on them truly desert of punishment may make a Man more silent upon it but innocency right considered makes him more Patient guiltiness stops a Mans mouth indeed in suffering But sure it doth not quiet his mind on the contrary it is that which mainly disturbs and grieves him 't is the sting of suffering as sin is said to be of Death and therefore when that is not the pain of the sufferings cannot but be much abated by it Yea the Apostle here declares that to suffer undeservedly and withal patiently is glorious to a Man and acceptable to God It is commendable indeed to be truly patient even in deserved sufferings but the deserving them tarnishes the lustre of that Patience and makes it look more constrain'd-like which is the Apostles meaning preferring it much before spotless suffering and that is indeed the true glory of it that it pleaseth God so that it is render'd in
may say the World ends to him Thus Solomon reasons that a Mans happiness cannot be upon this Earth because it must be some durable abiding thing that must make him happy abiding to wit in his Enjoyment Now though the Earth abide yet because Man abides not on the Earth to possess it but one Age drives out another one Generation passeth and another cometh velu◠unda impellitur undâ therefore his Rest and his Happiness cannot be here All possessions here are defiled and stained with many other defects and failings still somewhat wanting some damp on them or crack in them fair houses but sad cares flying about the Guilded and Cieled Roofs Stately and soft Beds a full Table but a sickly body and queasy stomack The fairest face some Mole or Wart in it All Possessions stained with sin either in acquiring or in using rhem therefore called Mammon of Vnrighteousness St. Luk. 16.9 Iniquity so involved in the notion of Riches that it can very hardly be separated from them St. Hierom. sayes verum mihi videtur illud dives aut iniquus est aut iniqui Haeres Foul hands pollute all they touch 't is our sin that defiles what we possess 't is Sin that burdens the whole Creation and presses Groans out of the very frame of the World Rom. 8.22 For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now This our Leprosie defiles our Houses the very walls and floors our meat and drink and all we touch polluted alone and polluted in society our meetings and Conversations together being for the greatest part nothing but a Commerce and Interchange of sin and vanity We breath up and down in an infected Air and are very receptive of the Infection by our own corruption within us We readily turn the things we possess here to Occasions and Instruments of sin and there is no Liberty nor delight in their use without abusing them how few are they that can carry as they say a full Cup even that can have digestion strong enough for the right use of Great Places and Estates that can bear Preferment without Pride and Riches without Covetousness and Ease without Wantonness Then as those Earthly Inheritances are stained with sin in their use so what Grief and strife and Contentions about Obtaining or Retaining them Doth not matter of Possession this same Meum and tuum divide many times the affections of those who are knit together in Nature or other strait tyes and prove the very Apple of strife betwixt nearest Friends If we trace great Estates to their first Original how few will there be found that owe not their Beginning either to Fraud or Rapine or Oppression and the greatest Empires and Kingdomes in the World have had their foundations laid in blood Are not those defiled Inheritances That withereth not A borrowed speech alludeing to the decaying of plants and flowers that bud and flourish at a certain time of the year and then fade and wither and in Winter are as if they were dead And this is the 3d. disadvantage of Possessions and all things worldly that they abide not in one Estate but are in a more Uncertain and Irregular Inconstancy then either the flowers and plants of the Field or the Moon from which they are called sublunary like Nebuchadnezzar's Image degenerating by degrees and in the end into a mixture of Iron and clay The Excellency then of this Inheritance is that it is free from all those evils falls not under the stroak of time comes not within the compass of its Syth that hath so large a Compass and cuts down all other things There is nothing in it weighing it towards Corruption 'T is Immortal Everlasting for 't is the fruition of the Immortal Everlasting God by Immortal souls and the Body rejoyned with it shall likewise be Immortal having put on Incorruption as the Apostle speaks That fadeth not away No spot of sin nor sorrow there all pollution wiped away and all tears with it no Envy nor strife not as here among men one supplanting another one pleading and Fighting against another dividing this point of Earth with fire and sword No this Inheritance is not the less by division by being parted amongst so many Brethen every one hath it all each his Crown and all agreeing in casting them down before his Throne from whom they have received them and in the harmony of his Praises This Inheritance is often called a Kingdome and a Crown of Glory This word may allude to those Garlands of the Antients and this is its property that the Flowers in it are all Amaranthes as a certain plant is named and so it s called 1 Pet. 5.4 a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away No change at all there no Winter and Summer not like the poor comforts here but a Bless alwayes flourishing The grief of the Saints here is not so much the changes of outward things as of their inward Comforts suavis hora sed brevis mora Sweet presences of God they sometimes have but they are short and often interrupted but there no Cloud shall come betwixt them and their Sun they shall behold Him in his full brightness for ever and as no Change in their beholding so no weariness nor abatement of their Delight in beholding They sing a new Song alwayes the same and yet alwayes New The sweetest of our Musick one day of it will weary them that are most delighted with it what we have here cloyes but satisfies not the Joyes above never cloy and yet alwayes satisfie We should here Consider the last property of this Inheritance namely the Certainty of it Reserv'd in Heaven for you But that is connected with the following verse and so will be fitly joyned with it Now for some Use of all this If these things were believed they would perswade for themselves we needed not add any intreaties to move you to seek after this inheritance Have we not experience enough of the vanity and misery of things Corruptible and are not a great part of our dayes already spent amongst them is it not time to consider whether we be provided of any thing surer and better then what we have here if we have any Inheritance to go home to after our wandering or can say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens If those things gain our assent while we hear them yet it dies so None almost retire themselves after to follow forth those thoughts and to make a work indeed of them but busy their heads rather another way building Castles in the air and spinning out their thoughts in vain Contrivances Happy are they whose hearts the spirit of God sets and fixes upon this Inheritance they may joyn in with the Apostle And say as here Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
to receive that life from him Now these stones come unto their foundation which imports the moving of the soul to Christ being moved by his spirit and that the will acts and willingly for it cannot act otherwise But as being acted and drawn by the father Ioh. 6. No man can come to me Except the father draw him And the outward means of drawing is by the word 't is the sound of that harp that brings the stones of this spiritual building together and then being united to Christ they are built up That is as S. Paul expresses it Eph. 2.21 They grow up unto a holy temple in the Lord. In times of peace the Church may dilate more and build as it were into bredth But in trouble it arises more in hight is built upwards as in cities where men are straitned they build usually higher than in the country Notwithstanding of the Churches afflictions yet still the building is going forward 't is built as Daniel speaks of Ierusalem in troubleous times And 't is this which the Apostle intends as suiting with his forgoing Exhortation this may be read exhortatively too but taking it rather as asserting their condition 't is for this end that they may remember to be like it and grow up For this end he expresly calls them living stones an adjunct not usual for stones but here inseperable And therefore though the Apostle changes the similitude from Infants to stones yet he will not let go this quality of living as making chiefly for his purpose To teach us the necessity of growth in Believers they are therefore much compar'd to things that grow to Trees planted in fruitful growing places as by the River of waters to Cedars in Lebanon where they are tallest To the morning light to Infants on the brest and here where the word seems to refuse it to stones yet it must and well doth admit this unwonted Epithete they are called living and growing stones If then you would have the comfortable perswasion of that union with Christ see whether you find your souls establish'd upon Jesus Christ finding him as your strong foundation not resting on your selves nor on any other thing either within you or without you but supported by him alone drawing life from him by vertue of that union as from a living foundation so as to say with the Apostle I live by faith in the son of God who both loved me and given himself for me As these stones are built on Christ by faith so they are cemented one to another by love and therefore where that is not 't is but a delusion to think themselves parts of this building As it is knit to him 't is knit together in it self through him and if dead stones in a building support and strengthen mutually one another how much more ought living stones in an acttive lively way to do so the stones of this building keep their place the lower rise not up to be in the place of the higher as the Apostle speaks of the parts of the body so the stones of this building in humility and love keep their station and grow up in it edifying in love Eph. 4.16 The Apostle importing that the want of this much prejudges edification These stones because living therefore they grow in the life of grace and spiritualness being a Spirittual building so that if we find not this but our hearts are still carnal and glued to the earth minding earthly things wiser in those than in Spirituals this evidences strongly against us that we are not of this building How few of us have that spiritualness that becomes the Temples of the holy Ghost or the stones of it base lusts and those still lodging and ruling within us and so hearts as Cages of unclean Birds and filthy spirits Consider this as our happiness and the unsolidness of other comforts and priviledges if some have called those stones happy that were taken for the building of Temples or altars beyond those in common houses how true is it here happy indeed the stones that God chuses to be living stones in this Spiritual Temple though they be hammer'd and hewed to be polish'd for it by afflictions and the inward work of mortification and repentance 't is worth the enduring all to be fitted for this building happy they beyond all the rest of men though they be set in never so great honours as prime parts of politick buildings states and Kingdomes in the Courts of Kings yea or Kings themselves For all other buildings and all the parts of them shall be demolish'd and come to nothing from the foundation to the cope stone all your houses both cottages and palaces the elements shall melt away and the earth with all the works in it shall be consum'd as our Apostle hath it but this Spiritual building shall grow up to Heaven and being come to perfection shall abide for ever in perfection of beauty and glory in it shall be found no unclean thing nor unclean person But only they that are written in the Lambs book of Life An holy priesthood As the worship and Ceremonies of the Jewish Church were all shadowes of Jesus Christ and have their accomplishment in him not only after a singular manner in his owne Person but in a deriv'd way in his mystical body his Church The Priesthood of the Law represented him as the great high priest that offered up himself for our sins and that is altogether incommunicable neither is there any peculiar Office of Priesthood for offering Sacrifice in the Christian Church but his alone who is head of it but this Dignity that is here mention'd of a Spiritual Priesthood offering Spiritual Sacrifice is common to all those that are in Christ as they are living stones built on him into a Spiritual Temple so they are Priests of that same Temple made by him Reve. 1.6 As he was after a transcendent manner Temple and Priest and Sacrifice so in their kind are Christians all these three through him and by his Spirit that is in them their Offerings through him are made acceptable We have here 1. The Office 2. The service of that Office 3. The success of that Service The death of Jesus Christ as being every way powerful for reconcilement and union did not only break the partition wall of guiltiness that stood betwixt God and Man but the wall of ceremonies that stood betwixt the Jews and Gentiles made all that believe one with God and made of both one as the Apostle speaks united them one to another the way of salvation made known not to one Nation only but to all people that whereas the knowledge of God was confin'd to one little corner ' it s now diffus'd through the Nations and whereas the dignity of their Priesthood stayed in a few Persons all they that believe are now thus dignified to be Priests unto God the father and this was signified by the rending the vail of the Temple at his
life from Christ First there 's his own dignity express'd then his dignifying us who is himself the first begotten among the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Revel 1.5 and then as followes Verse 6 hath made us Kings and Priests unto God the Father A Royal Priesthood That the Dignity of Believers is express'd by these two together by Priesthood and Royalty teaches us the Worth and Excellency of that Holy Function taken properly and so by analogy the dignity of the Ministry of the Gospel which God hath plac'd in his Church in stead of the Priesthood of the Law for therefore doth this Title of Spiritual Priesthood fitly signify a great Priviledge and Honour that Christians are promoted to and is joyn'd with that of Kings because the proper Office of Priesthood was so Honourable Before it was establish'd in one Family the chief the first born of each Family had right to this as a special Honour and amongst the Heathens in some places their Princes and greatest Men yea their Kings were their Priests and universally the performing of their Holy things was an imployment of great Honour and esteem amongst them Though humane ambition hath strain'd this consideration too high to the favouring and founding of a Monarchical Prelacy in the Christian World yet that abuse of it ought not to prejudge us of this due and just consequence from it that the holy Functions of Gods House have very much Honour and Dignity in them And the Apostle we see 2 Cor. 3. preferr's the Ministry of the Gospel to the Priesthood of the Law so then they mistake much that think it a disparagement to Men that have some advantage of Birth or Wit more than ordinary to bestow them thus and judge the meanest Persons and things good enough for this high calling sure this conceit cannot have place but in an unholy Irreligious mind that hath either none or very mean thoughts of God If they that are called to this Holy Service would themselves consider this aright it would not puff them up but humble them comparing their own worthlesness with this great work and wonder at Gods dispensation that should have honour'd them so Eph. 3.8 So the more a Man rightly extols this his Calling the more he humbles himself under the weight of it and would make them very careful to walk more like it in eminency of holiness for in that consists the true dignity of it There is no doubt that this Kingly Priesthood is the common Dignity of all Believers this honour have all the Saints they are Kings have victory and Dominion given them over the powers of darkness and the lusts of their own hearts that held them captive and domineer'd over them before Base slavish lusts not born to command yet are the hard taskmasters of unrenewed minds and there is no true subduing them but by the power and spirit of Christ thay may be quiet for a while in a Natural Man but they are but then asleep as soon as they awake again they return to hurry and drive him with their wonted violence Now this is the benefit of receiving the Kingdom of Christ into a Mans heart that it makes him a King himself all the Subjects of Christ are Kings not only in regard of that pure Crown of Glory they hope for and shall certainly attain but in the present they have a Kingdom that is the pledge of that other overcoming the World and Satan and themselves by the power of Faith Mens bona regnum possidet 't is true but there is no mind truly good but that wherein Christ dwells There is not any kind of Spirit in the World Noble like that Spirit that is in a Christian the very Spirit of Jesus Christ that great King the spirit of glory as our Apostle calls it infr c. 4. This is a sure way to enoble the basest and poorest amongst us this Royalty takes away all attendors nothing of all that is past to be laid to our charge or to dishonour us They are not shut out from God as before But being in Christ are brought neer unto him and have free access to the Throne of his grace Heb. 10. They resemble in their Spiritual estate the legal Priesthood very clearly 1. In their Consecration 2. In their service and 3. In their Laws of living 1. They were wash'd therefore this express'd Revel 1.5 He hath washt us in his Blood and then followes made us Kings and Priests There were no coming near unto God in his holy Services as his Priests unless we were cleans'd from the guiltiness and pollution of our sins This that pure and purging Blood doth and it alone no other Laver can do it no water but that fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness No blood none of all that blood of Legal Sacrifices Heb. 9. but only the Blood of that spotless Lamb that takes away the sins of the World So with this we have that other Ceremoany of the Priests Consecration which was by Sacrifice as well as by washing for he at once offer'd up himself as our Sacrifice and let out his blood for our washing and with good reason is that prefix'd there Revel 1.5 He hath loved us and then it followes washed us in his blood that precious stream of his heart blood for our washing told clearly that it was a heart full of unspeakable Love that was the source of it 3. There is anointing Namely The graces of the Spirit confer'd upon Believers flowing unto them from Christ For 't is of his fulness that we all receive grace for grace and the Apostle St. Paul sayes 2 Cor. 1.21 that we are establish'd and anointed in Christ it was poured on him as our head and runs down from him unto us He Christ and we Christians as partakers of his anointing The consecrating Oyl of the Priests was made of the richest Oyntments and Spices to shew the preciousness of the graces of Gods Spirit that are bestow'd on those Spiritual Priests and as that holy Oyl was not for common use nor for any other Persons to be anointed withal save the Priests only so is the Spirit of grace a peculiar gift of Believers others might have costly oyntments amongst the Jewes but none of that same sort with the Consecration-Oyl Natural Men may have very great gifts of Judgment and Learning and eloquence and Moral Vertues but they have none of this precious Oyl Namely the spirit of Christ communicated to them No all their endowments are but common and profane that Holy Oyl signified particularly Eminency of light and knowledge in the Priests therefore in Christians there must be light they that are grosly ignorant of Spiritual things are sure not of this order this anointing is said to teach us all things 1. Iohn 2.27 That holy Oyl was of a most fragrant sweet smell by reason of its precious composition but much more sweet is the smell of that Spirit wherewith believers
a Natural Man so little understands that is the cause of all that Spiritual Light of Grace that a Believer does enjoy No right knowledge of God to Man once fallen from it but in his Son no comfort in beholding God but through him Nothing but just anger and wrath to be seen in Gods lookes but through him in whom he is well pleased The Gospel shews us the Light of the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 4.6 but 't is in the face of Iesus Christ therefore the Kingdom of light oppos'd to that of Darkness Col. 1. is called the Kingdom of his dear Son or the Son of his Love There is a Spirit of Light and Knowledge flowes from Jesus Christ into the Souls of Believers that acquaints them with the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God which cannot otherwise be known And this Spirit of Knowledge is withal a Spirit of Holiness for Purity and Holiness is likewise signified by this Light he remov'd that huge dark body of sin that was betwixt us and the Father and eclips'd him from us the light of his countenance sanctifieth by truth 't is a light that hath heat with it and hath influence upon the affections warmes them towards God and divine things this darkness here is indeed the shadow of death and so they that are without Christ till he visit them are said to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death So this Light is Life Ioh. 1.4 Doth enlighten and enliven begâ—ts new actions and motions in the Soul the right notion that he hath of things as they are work upon him and stir him accordingly discovers a man to himself and lets him see his own Natural filthiness and makes him loath himself and fly from himself run out of himself And the excellency he sees in God and his Son Jesus Christ by this new Light enflames his heart with their Love takes him up with estimation of the Lord Jesus and makes the World and all things in it that he esteemed before base and mean in his eyes Then from this Light arises Spiritual Joy and Comfort so Light signifies frequently as in that of the Psalmist the latter clause expounds the former Light is sowen for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart As this Kingdom of Gods dear Son that is this Kingdom of Light hath righteousness in it so it hath Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 'T is a false prejudice the World hath taken up against Religion that 't is a sowr Melancholly thing There is no truly Lightsome and Comfortable life but it All others have what they will they live in darkness and is not that truly sad and comforâ—less Would you think it a pleasant life though you had fine Cloathes and good Dieâ— but never see the Sun and were still kept in a Dungeon with them thus are they that live in Worldly Honour and Plenty but still without God they are in continual darkness with all their injoyments It is true the light of Believers is not here perfect and therefore their joy is not perfect neither sometimes over clouded but the comfort is this that it is an everlasting light it shall never go out in darkness as is said in Iob of the light of the Wicked â—nd it shall within a while be perfected There is a bright morning without a Cloud that shall arise The Saints have not only Light to lead them in their journey but much purer Light at home an Inheritance in Light Colos. 1. The Land where their Inheritance lyeth is full of Light and their Inheritance it self is light For the Vision of God for ever is that Inheritance that City hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof As we said that increated Light is the happiness of the Soul the beginnings of it are our begun happiness they are beams of it sent from above to lead us to the Fountain and fulness of it With thee sayes David is the Fountain of Life and in thy Light shall we see light There are two things spoken of this Light to commend it His Marvellous Light that it is after a peculiar manner Gods and then that is is Marvellous All light is from him the light of sense and that of reason therefore he is called the Father of Lights but this Light of Grace is after a peculiar manner his being a light above the reach of Nature infus'd into the Soul in a supernatural way The light of the Elect World where God specially and graciously recides Natural Men may know very much in natural things and it may be in supernatural things after a natural manner They may be full of School-Divinity and able to discourse of God and his Son Christ and the Mystery of Redemption c. and yet want this peculiar light by which Christ is known to Believers they may speak of him but 't is in the dark they see him not and therefore they love him not the light they have is as the light of some things that shine only in the night a cold Glow-worm-light that hath no heat with it at all Whereas a Soul that hath some of His Light Gods peculiar Light communicated to it sees Jesus Christ and loves and delights in Him and walks with Him A little of this light is worth a great deal yea more worth than all that other common speculative and discoursing knowledge that the greatest Doctors can attain unto 't is of a more excellent kind and original 't is from Heaven and ye know that one beam of the Sun is more worth than the light of ten thousand Torches together 't is a pure undecaying Heavenly light whereas the other is gross and earthly be it never so great and lasts but a while Let us not therefore think it Incredible that a poor unletter'd Christian may know more of God in the best kind of knowledge than any the wisest and Learnedest natural Man can do for the one knowes God only by Mans Light the other knowes him by his own light and that 's the only right knowledge as the Sun cannot be seen but by its own light so neither can God be savingly known but by his own revealing Now this Light being so peculiarly Gods no marvel if it be Marvellous the common light of the world is so though because of its commoness we think not so The Lord is Marvellous is Wisdom in Power in all his works of Creation and Providence But above all in the workings of his Grace This Light is unknown to the World and so Marvellous in the rareness of beholding it that there be but a few that partake of it And to them that see it is Marvellous because in it they see so many excellent things that they knew not before As if a Man were born and brought up till he came to years of understanding in a Dungeon where
an unpleasant way indeed if you look no further but a Kingdom at the end of it and the Kingdom of God will transfuse pleasure into the painfullest step in it all so Psal. 34.19 It seems a sad condition that falls to the share of Godly men in the World to be eminent in sorrowes and troubles Many are the afflictions of the Righteous but that which followes weighs it abundantly down in consolation that the Lord himselfe is engaged in their afflictions both for their deliverance out of them in due time and in the mean time their support and preservation under them The Lord delivers them out of them all And till he does that he keepeth all their bones c. Which was literally verified in the Natural body of Christ as St. Iohn observes and holds Spiritually true in his mystical body The Lord supports the Spirits of Believers in their troubles with such solid consolations as are the Pillars and strength of their Souls as the bones are of their Body as the Hebrew word for them imports so he keepeth all his bones and the desperate condition of wicked men is oppos'd to illustrate this Verse 21. But evil shall slay the Wicked Thus Ioh. 16.33 In the closure they are forewarned what to expect at the Worlds hands as they were divers times before in that same Sermon but it is a sweet Testament take it alltogether Ye shall have tribulation in the World but Peace in me and seeing he hath joyntly bequeathed these two to his followers were it not great folly to cast such a bargain And to let go that Peace for fear of this trouble the trouble is but in the World but the Peace is in him who weighs down thousands of Worlds So then they do exceedingly mistake and misreckon themselves that would agree Christ and the World that would have the Church of Christ or at least themselves for their own shares enjoy both kinds of peace together would willingly have Peace in Christ but are very loath to part with the Worlds Peace they would be Christians but they are very ill satisfied when they hear of any other but ease and Prosperity in that estate and willingly forget the tenor of the Gospel in this and so when times of trouble and sufferings come their minds are as new and uncouth to it as if they had not been told on 't before hand They like better of St. Peters carnal advice to Christ to avoid suffering Mat. 16. than of of his Apostles Doctrine to Christians teaching them that as he suffered so they likewise are called to suffering Men readily think as he did there that Christ should favour himself more in his own body his Church than to expose it to so much suffering and most would be of Rome's mind in this at least in affection that the badge of the Church should be Pomp and Prosperity and not the Cross the true cross of Afflictions and sufferings is too heavy and painful But Gods thoughts are not ours those he calls to a Kingdome he calls to sufferings as the way to it He will have the heirs of Heaven know they are not at home on earth and that this is not their rest he will not have them with the abus'd World fancy a happiness here and seek life as St. Augustin sayes beatam vitam quaerere in regione mortis The reproaches and wrongs that encounter them shall elevate their minds often to that Land of Peace and rest where righteousness dwells The hard Task-masters shall make them weary of Egypt which otherwise possibly they would comply too well with and dispose them for deliverance and make it welcome which it may be they might but coldly desire if they were better us'd He knowes what he does that secretly serves his good ends of Mens evil and by the Plowers that make long furrowes on the back of his Church makes it a fruitful Field to himself Therefore 't is great folly and unadvisedness to take up prejudice against his way and think it might be better as we would model it and to complain of the order of things whereas we should complain of disordered minds but we had rather have all alter'd and chang'd for us the very course of Providence than seek the change of our own perverse hearts but the right temper of a Christian is to run alwayes cross to the corrupt stream of the World and humane iniquity and to be willingly carried along with the stream of divine Providence and not at all to stir a hand no nor a thought to row against that mighty current and not only is he carryed with it upon necessity because there is no steering against it but chearfully and voluntarily not because he must but because he would And this is the other thing to which they are joyntly called as to suffering so to calmness of mind and patience in suffering although their suffering be most unjust yea this is truly a part of that Duty they are called to to that integrity and innofensiveness of Life that may maâ—e their sufferings at Mens hands alwayes unjust to the entire Duty here is Innocency and Patience doing willingly no wrong and yet cheerfully suffering it done to them if either of the two be wanting their suffering doth not credit their Profession but dishonours it if they be patient under deserved suffering their guiltiness darkens their Patience and if their suffering be undeserv'd yea and the cause of them honourable yet impatience under them staines both their sufferings and their cause and seems in part to justify the very injustice that is us'd against them But where innocency and Patience meet together in suffering there sufferings are in their perfect lustre These are they that honour Religion and shame the enemies of it It was the concurrence of these two that was the very triumph of the Martyrs in times of Persecution that tormented their Tormentors and made them more then Conquerors even in sufferings Now that we are called both to suffering and to this manner of suffering the Apostle puts out of question by the Supream example of our Lord Jesus Christ for the Sum of our Calling is to follow him Now in both these in suffering and in suffering Innocently and Patiently the whole History of the Gospel testifies how compleat a Pattern he is And the Apostle gives us here a Summary yet a very clear account of it The Words have in them these two things 1. The perfection of this Example 2. Our obligation to follow it I. The example he sets off to the full 1. In regard of the greatness of his sufferings 2. Of his spotlesness and Patience in suffering The first we have in that word he suffered and after Verse 24. We have his crucifying and his stripes expresly specified Now this is reason enough and carries it beyond all other reason why Christians are call'd to a suffering Life seeing the Lord and Author of that Calling suffer'd himself so much The