good and pleasant that Bretâ—ren dwell together in unity it persumes all as the precious â—yntâ—â—â—â—â—â— c. But many that are called Christians are not indeed of this Brotherhood and therefore no wonder they know not what this love means but are either of restless unquiet Spirits biting and devouring one another as the Apostle speaks or at the best only civilly smooth and peaceable in their carriage but rather scorners than partakers of this spiritual love and fraternity are strangers to Christ not brought into acquaintance and union with him and therefore void of the life of Grace and the fruits of it whereof this is a chief one Oh! how few amongst multitudes that throng in as we do here together are indeed partakers of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God or ambitious of that high and happy estate As for you that know these things and have a portion in them that have your communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ I beseech you adorn your holy profession and testifie you selves the Disciples and the Brethren of Jesus Christ by this mutual love seek to understand better what it is and to know it more practically Consider that sourse of love that love that the Father hath shewed us in this that we should be called the Sons of God and so be Brethren and thence draw more of this sweet stream of love God is love says the Apostle therefore sure where there is most of God there is most of this Divine Grace this holy love Look upon and study much that infinite love of God and his Son Jesus Christ towards us he gave his only begotten Son the Son gave himself he sweeten'd his bitter cup with his tranâ—â—endent love and this he hath recommended to us that even as he loved us so should we love one another we know we cannot reach this highest pattern that 's not meant but the more we look on it the higher we shall reach in this love and shall learn some measure of such love on Earth as is in Heaven and that which so begins here shall be perfected there Be pitiful be courteous The Roots of Plants are hid under Ground so that themselves are not seen but they appear in their Branches and Flowers and Fruits which argue there is a Root and Life in them thus the Graces of the Spirit planted in the Soul though themselves invisible yet discover their Being and Life in the Tract of a Christian's Life their Words and Actions and the frame of their carriage thus Faith shews that it lives as the Apostle St. Iames teacheth at large and thus Love a Grace of so active a nature that it is still working and yet never weary your labour of love says the Apostle it labours but delight makes the hardest labour sweet and easie and so proper is action to it that all action is null without it 1 Cor. 13. yea it knits Faith and Action together is the link that unites them Faith worketh but 't is by it as the Apostle teaches us by Love so then where this Root is these Fruits will spring from it and discover it Pity and Courtesie They are of a larger extent in their full Sphere than the precedcing for from a general love due to all they act towards all to men or humanity in the general And this not from a bare natural tenderness which softer complexions may have nor from a prudent moral consideration of their own possible falling under the like or greater calamities but out of obedience to God who requires this mercifulness in all his Children and cannot own them for his unless in this they resemble him And it is indeed an evidence of a truly Christian mind to have much of this pity to the miseries of all being rightly principled and acting after a Pious and Christian manner towards the Sick and Poor of what condition soever yea most pitying the spiritual misery of ungodly men their hardness of heart and unbelief and earnestly wishing their conversion not repining at the long-suffering of God as if thou would'st have the Bridge out because thou art over as St. Augustine speaks but longing rather to see that long-suffering and goodness of God lead them to repentance being griev'd to see men ruining themselves and diligently working their own destruction going in any way of wickedness as Solomon speaks of one particularly as an Ox to the Shambles or a Fool to the correction of the Stocks Certainly the ungodly Man is an object of the highest pity But there is a special debt of this pity to those that we love as Brethren in our Lord Jesus these are most closely linkt by a peculiar fraternal love Their sufferings and calamities will move the Bowels that have Christian affection within them Nor is it an empty helpless pity but carries with it the real communication of our help to our utmost power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only Bowels that are moved themselves with pity but that move their hand to succour for by this word the natural affection of Parents and the tenderer of them the Mother are express'd who do not idly behold and beâ—oan their Children being sick or distress'd but provides all possible help their bowels are not only stirr'd but dilated and enlarged towards them And if our feeling bowels and helping hand are due to all and particularly to the Godly and we ought to pay this due in outward distresses how much more in their Soul-afflictions the rather because these are most heavy in themselves and least understood and therefâ—re least regarded yea sometimes more by natural Friends possibly by their bitter scoffes and taunts or by their flighting or at best by their misapplying of proper helps and remedies which as unfit Medicines do rather exasperate the Disease therefore they that do understand and can be sensible of that kind of wound ought so much the more to be tender and pitiful towards it and to deal mercifully and gently with it It may be very weak things sometimes trouble a weak Christian but there is in the Spirit of the Godly a humble condescention learn'd from Christ who broke not the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flax The least difficulties and scruples in a tender conscience should not be roughly encounter'd they are as a knot in a silken thread and require a gentle and wary hand to loose them Now this tenderness of bowels and inclinement to pity all especially Christians and them especially in their peculiar pressures is not a weakness as some kind of Spirits take it to be this even naturally is a generous pity in greatest Spirits Christian pity is not womanish yea 't is more than manly 't is divine there is of it natural most in the best and most ingenuous natures but where 't is spiritual 't is a prime lineament of the image of God and the more absolute and disengag'd it is in regard of those towards whom it acts the more like
but true willingness of heart so this willingness should not arise from any other but pure affection to the work not for filthy gain but purely from the inward bent of the mind As it should not be a compulsive or violent motion by necessity from without so it should not be an artificial motion by weights hung on within avarice love of gain the former were a wheel driven or drawn going by force the latter little better as a Clock made go by art by paces hung to it But a natural motion as that of the heavens in their course a willing obedience to the Spirit of God within moving a Man in every part of this holy work that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his mind carried to it as the thing he delights in loves to be exercised in it There may be in a faithful Pastor very great reluctances in ingaging and adhereing to the work upon a sense of the excellency of it and his unfitness and the deep apprehension of those high interests the glory of God and the Salvation of Souls and yet he enter into it and continues in it with this readiness of mind too that is with most single and earnest desires of doing all he can for God and the flock of God only grieved that there is in him so little suitableness of heart so little holiness and acquaintance with God for enabling him to it but might he find that he were satisfied and in attendance upon that goes on and waits and is doing according to his little skill and strength and cannot leave it is constrained indeed but all the constraint is that of love to Iesus and for his sake to the Souls he hath bought and all the gain sought is to gain Souls to Christ which is far different from the constraint and that gain here discharged yea is indeed that very willingness and readiness of mind which is opposed to that other constraint this without this within that other gain is base filthy gain this noble and divine Inf. 1. Far be it from us that necessity and constraint be the thing that moves us in so holy a work The Lord whom we serve sees into the heart and if he find not that primely moving accounts all our diligence nothing And let not base earth be within the cause of our willingness but a mind toucht with Heaven It is true the tentations of earth with us in matter oâ— â—gain are not great but yet the heart may cleave to them as much as if they were much greater and if it do cleave to them they shall ruin us as well a poor stipend and glebe if the affection be upon them as a great Denary or Bisâ—oprick if a Man fall into it he may drown in a small brook being under water as well as in the great Ocean Oh! the little time that remains let us joyn our desires and endeavours in this work bend our strength to him that we may have joy in that day of reckoning And indeed there is nothing moves us aright nor shall we ever find comfort in this service unless it be from a cheerful inward readiness of mind and that from the love of Christ thus said he to his Apostle lovest thou me then feed my Sheep and feed my Lambs love to Christ begets love to his peoples Souls that are so precious to him and a care of feeding them he devolves the working of love towards him upon his flock for their good puts them in his room to receive the benefit of our services which cannot reach him in himself he can receive no other profit from it It is love much love gives much unwearied care and much skill in this charge How sweet is it to him that loves to bestow himself to spend and be spent upon his service whom he loves Iacob in the same kind of service endured all and found it light by reason of love the cold of the nights and the heat of the days seven years for his Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because he loved her Love is the great endowment of a Shepherd of Christs flock He says not to Peter art thou wise or learned or eloquent but lovest thou me then feed my Sheep The third evil is ambition and that is either in the the affecting of undue authority or the overstraining and tyrannical abuse of due authority or to seek these dignities that suit not with this charge which is not Dominium but Ministerium Therefore discharg'd Luke 22. There is a ministerial authority to be used in discipline and more sharpness with some than others but still lowlinâ—ss and moderation predominant and not domineâ—ring with rigour rather being examples to them in all holiness and especially in humility and meekness wherein our Lord Jesus particularly propounds his own example But being ensamples Such a pattern as they may stamp and print their Spirits and carriage by and be followers of you as you are of Christ and without this there is little or no fruitful teaching Well says one either teach not or teach by living so the Apostle exhorteth Timothy to be an example in word but withal in conversation that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best printed copy But this pares off will some think all encouragements of learning No advantage no respect nor authority Oh! no it removes poor worthless encouragements out of the way to make place for one great one that is sufficient which all the other together are not that is Verse 4. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away THou shalt loose nothing by all that restraint from base gain and vain glory and Worldly power No matter let them go for a Crown that weighs them all down that shall abide for ever Oh! how far excellent A Crown of Glory pure unmixt glory without any ingrediency of pride or sinful vanity or any danger of it And a Crown that fadeth not of such a flower as withers not not a temporary garland of fading flowers such as all here are Wo to the Crown of pride Isa. 28. 1. Though it is made of flowers growing in a fat valley yet their glorious beauty is a fading flower but this fresh and in perfect lustre to all eternity May they not well trample on base gain and vain applause that have this Crown to look to They that will be content with those let them be doing but they have their reward and it s done and gone when faithful followers are to receive theirs Joys of royal pomp marriages and feasts how soon do they vanish as a dream that of Ahazverash that lasted about half a year but then ended and how many since that gone and forgot But this day begins a triumph and a feast that shall never either be ended or be wearied of still fresh new delights all things here the choicest pleasures cloy but satisfie not Those
that there is a 〈◊〉 need of this honouring that consists in not dâ—spiâ—â—g and in covering of â—railties as is even imply'd in this that the Woman is not called simply weak but the weaker and the Husband that is generally by Natures advantage or should be the stronger yet is weak too for both are Vessels of Earth and therefore frail both polluted with sin and therefore subject to a multitude of sinful sollies and frailties but as that particular frailty of nature pleads for Women that honour so the other reason added is not from particular disadvantage but from their common priviledge and advantage of grace as Christian that the Christian Husband and Wife are equally Co-heirs of the same grace of life As being Heirs together of the grace of life This is that which most strongly binds on all these duties on the hearts of Husbands and Wives And most strongly indeed binds their hearts together and makes them one 〈◊〉 each be reconciled unto God in Christ and so heirs of life and one with God then are they truly one in God each with other and that 's the surest and sweetest union that can be Natural love hath risen very high in some Husbands and Wives but the highest of it fallâ— far very short of that which holds in God hearts concentring in him are most and excellently one that love which is cemented by youth and beauty when these moulder and decay as soon they do it â—ades too that is somewhat purer and so more lasting 〈◊〉 holds in a natural or moral harmony of Minds yet these likewise may alter and change by some great accident but the most refin'd and spiritual and most â—â—disâ—olubleâ— is that which is knit with the highest and 〈◊〉 Spirit And the ignorance or disregard of this 〈◊〉 great cause of so much bitterness or so little true 〈◊〉 in the life of most married Persons because 〈…〉 meet not as one in him Heirs together Loath will they be to despise one another that are both bought with the precious blood of one Redeemer and loath to grieve one another being in him brought into peace with God they will entertain true peace betwixt themselves and not suffer any thing to disturb it They have hopes to meet one day where is nothing but perfect Concord and Peace they will live as heirs of that life here and make their present estate as like to Heaven as they can and so a pledge and evidence of their title to that Inheritance of peace that is there laid up for them and they will not fail to put one another often in Mind of thâ—se hopes and that Inheritance and to advance and further both each other towards it where this is not 't is to little purpose to speak of other rules where neither party aspires to this heiâ—ship live otherways as they will there is one common Inheritance abiding them one Inheritance of everlasting flames and as they do increase the sin and guiltiness of one another by their irreligâ—ous Conversation so that which some of them do wickedly here upon no great cause they shall have full cause there to curse the time of their coming together and that shall be a peice of their exercise for ever but happy those persons in any Society of Marriage or Friendship that converse so together as those that shall live eternally together in glory This indeed is the Sum of all duties Life A sweet word but sweetest of all in this sense that Life above indeed only worthy the name and this we have here in comparison let it not be called life but continual dying an incessant journey towards the Grave if you reckon years but a short moment to him that attains the fullest old age but reckon miserieâ— and sorrows 't is long to him that dyes young Oh! that that only blessed liâ—e were more known and then it would be more desir'd Grace This the tenor of this Heirship Free Grace this Life a free Gift Rom. 6. ult No life so spotless either in marriage or virginity as to lay claim to this life upon other terms if we consider but a little what it is and what we are this will be quickly out of question with us and we will be most gladly content to hold it thus by deed or gift and admire and extol that Grace that bestows it That your Prayers be not hindred He supposes in Christians the necessary and frequent use of this takes it for granted that the Heir of Life cannot live without prayer this is the proper breathing and language of these Heirs none of them dumb they can all speak these Heirs if they be alone they pray alone if Heirs together and living together they pray together Can the Husband and Wife have that love and wisdom and meekness that may make their life happy and that blessing that may make their Affairs successful while they neglect God the only giver of these and all good things You think these needless motives but you cannot think how it would sweeten your Converse if it were used 'T is prayer that sanctifies and seasons and blesses all and not enough that they pray when with the Family but even Husband and Wife together by themselves and with their Children that they especially the Mother as being most with them in their Child-hood when they begin to be capable may draw them apart and offer them to God often praying with them and instructing them in their youth for they are pliable while young as glass when hot but after sooner break than bend But above all Prayer is necessary as they are Heirs of Heaven often sending up their desires thither You that are not much in prayer look as if you look'd for no more than what you have here if you had an Inheritance and Treasure above would not your heart delight to be there Thus the Heart of a Christian is in the constant frame of it but after a special manner Prayer raises the Soul above the World and sets it in Heaven 't is its near access unto God and dealing with him especially about those Affairs that concern that Inheritance Now in this lies a great part of the comfort a Christian can have here and the Apostle knew this that he would gain any thing at their hands that he press'd by this Argument that otherwise they would be hinder'd in their prayers He knew that they who are acquainted with prayer find such unspeakable sweetness in it that they will rather do any thing than be prejudic'd in that Now the breach of conjugal Love the jarrs and contentions of Husband and Wife do out of doubt so leaven and imbitter their Spirits that they are exceeding unfit for Prayer which is the sweet Harmony of the Soul in God's ears and when the Soul is so far out of tune as those distempers make it he cannot but perceive it whose ear is the most exact of all for he made and tun'd the Ear and is the
the strength of his God Psal. 18. Men's resolutions fall to nothing and as a Prisoner that offers to escape and does not is bound faster thus usually it is with Men in their self purposes of forsaking sin they leave out Christ in the work and so remain in their Captivity yea it grows upon them and while we press them to free themselves and shew not Christ to them we put them upon an impossiblity but a look to him makes it feisable and easie Faith in him and that love to him which faith begets breaks through and surmounts all it s the powerful love of Christ that kills the love of sin and kindles the love of holiness in the Soul makes it a willing sharer in his death and so a happy partaker of his life for that always follows and must of necessity as here is added He that hath suffered in the flâ—sh hath ceased from sin is crucified and dead to it but he looses nothing yea it is his great gain the loss of that deadly life of the flesh for a new spiritual life a life indeed living unto God that is the end why he so dies that he may thus live That he no longer should live c. and yet live far better live to the will of God He that is one with Christ by believing he is one throughout in Death and Life as Christ rose so he that is dead to sin with him through the power of his Death rises to that new life with him through the power of his Resurrection And those two are our Sanctification which whosoever do partake of Christ and are found in him do certainly draw from him Thus are they joyned Rom. 6. 11. Likewise reekon you your selves dead indeed to sin but alive to God and both through Christ Iesus our Lord. All they that do really come to Jesus Christ as they come to him as their Saviour to be cloathed with him and made righteous by him they come likewise to him as their Sanctifier to be made new and holy by him to die and live with him to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes through the hardest sufferings and Death it self and this spiritual suffering and dying with him is the universal way of all his followers They are all Martyrs thus in the cruciâ—ying of sinful flesh and so dying for him and with him and they may well go cheerfully through though it bear the unpleasant name of Death yet as the other Death is which makes it so little terrible yea often appears so much desirable to them so is this the way to a far more excellent and happy life so that they may pass through it gladly both for the company and end of it it s with Christ they go into his death as unto life in his life Though a Believer might be free upon these terms he would not no sure could he be content with that easie life of sin instead of the Divine Life of Christ no he will do thus and not accept of deliverance that he may obtain as the Apostle speaks of the Martyrs a better resurrection Think on it again you to whom your sins are dear still and this life sweet you are yet far from Christ and his life The Apostle with intent to press this more home expresses more at large the nature of the oppoâ—te estates and lives that he speaks of so sets before his Christian Brethren 1. The Dignity of that new life 2. By a particular reflex upon the former life presses the change The former life he calls a living to the lusts of Men this new spiritual life to the will of God The lusts of Men. Such as are common to the corrupt Nature of Man such as every Man may find in himself and perceive in others The Apostle in the third verse more particularly for further clearness specifies these kind of Men that were most notorious in these lusts and those kind of lusts that are most notorious in Men. Writing to the dispersed Jews he calls sinful lusts the will of the Gentiles as having least controul of contrary light in them and yet the Jews walked in the same though they had the Law as a light and rule for the avoiding of them and implies that these lusts were unbeseeming even their former condition as Jews but much more unsuitable to them as now Christians Some of the grossest of these Lusts he names meaning all the rest all the ways of sin and representing their vileness the more lively not as some take it when they hear of such hainous sins that lessen the evil of more civil nature by the Comparison as if freedom from these were a blameless condition and a change of it needless No the Holy Ghost means it just contrary That we may judge of all sin and of our sinful nature by our estimate of these sins that are most disâ—â—rnable and abominable all sin though not equal in degree yet is of one nature and originally springing from one root arising from the same unholy nature of Man and contrary to the same holy nature and will of God So then 1. These that walk in these high ways of impiety and yet will have the name of Christians they are the shame of Christians and the profest enemies of Jesus Christ and of all others most hateful to him that seem to have taken on his name for no other end but to shame and disgrace it but he shall vindicate himself and the blot shall rest upon these impudent persons that dare hold up their faces in the Church of God as parts of it and are indeed nothing but the dishonour of it spots and blots that dare own to Worship God as his people and remain unclean riotous and prophane persons How suits thy sitting here before the Lord and thy sitting with vile ungodly Company on the Alâ—-Bench How agrees the Word sounds it well there goes a drunken Christian unclean basely covetous earthly minded Christian and the naming of these is not besides the text but the very words of it for the Apostle warrants us to take it under the name of Idolatry and in that name he reckons it to be mortified by a Christian. Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncâ—eâ—nness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetoâ—sness which is Idolatry 2. But yet men that are some way exempted from the blot of these foul impieties may still remain slaves to sin alive to it and dead to God living to the Lusts of Men and not to the Will of God pleasing others and themselves displeasing him And the smoothest best bred and most moralized Natural is in this base thraldom And the more miserable that he dreams of liberty in the midst of his chains thinks himself gay by looking on those that wallow in gross prophaneness takes measure of himself by the most crooked lives of ungodly men about him and so thinks himself very streight but lays not the streight
united by that purest and strongest tie as you are one in your head in your life derived from him in your hopes of glory with him seek to be more one in heart in fervent love one to another in him Consider the combinements and concurrences of the wicked against him and his little flock and let this provoke you to more united affections Shall the Scales of Leviathan as one alludes stick so close together and shall not the Members of Christ be more one and undivided you that can resent it stir up your selves to bewail the present divisions and fears of more suit earnestly for that one Spirit to act and work more powerfully in the hearts of his people 2dly The eminent degree of this love 1. It s eminency amongst Graces above all 2. The high measure of it required fervent love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a high bent or strain of it that which acts strongly and carries far 1. 'T is eminent that which indeed among Christians preserves all and knits all together therefore called Col. 3. the bond of perfection all bound up by it How can they pray together advance the name of their God keep in and stir up all Grace in one another unless they be united in love how can they have access to God or fellowship with him who is love as St. Iohn speaks if instead of this sweet temper there be rancours and bitterness amongst them so then uncharity and divisions amongst Christians doth not only hinder their civil good but their spiritual much more and that not only lucro cessante as they speak interrupting the ways of mutual profiting but damno emergente it doth really damage them and brings them to losses preys upon their Graces as hot withering winds on Herbs and Plants where the Heart entertains either bitter malice or but uncharitable prejudices there will be a certain decay of spiritualness in the whole Soul 2. Again for the degree of this love required it is not a cold indifferency a negative love as I may call it or not willing of evil nor a lukewarm wishing of good but fervent and active love for if fervent it will be active a fire will not be smother'd it will find way to extend it self 3. The Fruits of this Love follow 1. Covering of evil in this verse 2. Doing of good verse 9. c. Covers This from Solomon and here as it s represented to be thus done as a main act of love so love is commended by it as a most useful and laudible act of it covers sins and a multitude of sins Solomon saith as the Opposition clears the Sense hatred stirs strife aggravates and makes the worst of all but love covers a multitude of sins delights not in undue disclosing of Brethrens failings doth not eye them rigidly nor expose them willingly to the eyes of others Now this commends charity in regard of its continual usefullness and necessity this way considering human frailty and that in many things as St. Iames speaks we all offend so that this is still needful on all hands what do they think that are still picking at every appearing infirmity of their Brethren know they not that the frailties that cleave to the Saints of God while they are here doth stand in need of and call for this mutual office of love to cover and pass by who is there that stands not in need of this if none why are there any that deny it to others there can be no society nor entertaining of Christian converse without it giving as we speak the allowance reckoning to meet with defects and weaknesses on all hands covering the failings one of another seeing its needful from each to another Again as the necessity of this commends it and the love whence it flows so there is that laudible ingenuity in it that should draw us to the liking of it 't is the bent of the basest and worthlessest Spirits to be busie in the search and discovery of others failings passing by all that is commendable and imitable as base Flies readily sitting on any little sore they can find rather than upon the sound parts but the more Excellent Mind of a real Christian loves not unnecessarily to touch no nor to look upon them rather turns away never uncover their Brothers sore but to cure it and no more than of necessity must be for that end would willingly have them hid that neither they nor others might see them This bars not the judicial trial of scandalous offences nor the delation of them and bringing them under due censure the forbearing of this is not charity but both iniquity and cruelty and this cleaves too much to many of us they that cannot pass the least touch of a wrong done to themselves can digest twenty high injuries done to God by prophane persons about them and resent it not and such may be assured they are yet destitute of love to God and of Christian love to their Brethren which springs from it The uncovering of sin necessary to the curing of it is not only no breach of charity but is indeed a main point of charity and the neglect of it the highest kind of cruelty But further then that goes certainly this rule teaches the veiling of our Brethrens infirmities from the eyes of others and even from our own that we look not on them with rigour no nor without compassion First Love is witty in finding out the fairest constructions of things doubtful and this is a great point Take me the best action that can be named pride and malice shall find a way to disgrace it and put a hard visage on 't Again what is not undeniably evil love will turn all the ways of viewing it till it find the best and most favourable 2. Where the thing is so a sin that this way of covering it can have no place yet then will love consider what may lessen it most whether a surprize or strength of tentation or ignorance as our Saviour Father forgive them for they know not what they do or natural complexion or at least will still take in humane frailty to turn all the bitterness of passion into sweet compassion 3. All private reproofs and where conscience requires publick delation and censure even these will be sweetned in that compassion that slows from love if such a sore as must not be let lie covered up least it prove deadly so that it must be uncovered to be lanc't and cut that it may be cur'd this to be done as loving the Soul of the Brother Where the rule of consciences urges it not then thou must bury it and be so far from delighting to divulge such things that as far as without partaking in it thou mayest thou must veil it from all eyes and try the way of private admonition and if the party appear to be humble and willing to be reclaimed then forget it cast it quite out of thy thoughts that as much as may
on us when they fall first upon our thoughts This way indeed of an imagined suffering the conquest before hand may be but imaginary and fail in the trial therefore be still humble and dependent on the strength of Christ and seek to be prefurnisht with much distrust of thy self and much trust in him with much denial of thy self and love to him And thus the preparing and training of the heart may prove useful and make it more dexterous when brought to conflicting in all both before hand and in time of the trial make thy Lord Jesus all thy strength That is our only way in all to be conquerours to be more than conquâ—rors through him that loved us Think it not strngae for it is not sure your thoughts to the experience and verdict of all times and to the warnings that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and our Saviour himself hath given us from his own mouth and example shewed in his own person But the other point goes higher rejoyce though we think not the sufferings strange yet may we not well think that rule somewhat strange to rejoyce in them No it will be found as reasonable as the other being duly considered And upon the same ground 't wil bear both in as much as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. If the Children of God consider not their trials in their natural bitterness but in the sweet love from whence they spring and the sweet fruits that spring from them that we are our Lords gold and he tries us in the furnace to purifie us as in the former verse this may beget not only patience but gladness even in the sufferings But add we this and truly it compleats the reason of this way in our saddest sufferings that in them we are partakers of the sufferings of Christ. So then 1. Consider this twofold connexed participance of the Sufferings of Christ and of the after Glory 2. The present joy even in sufferings springing from that participance I need not tell you that this Communion in sufferings is not in point of expiation or satisfaction to Divine Justice which was the peculiar end of the sufferings of Christ personal not of the common sufferings of Christ mystical he bare our sin on his own body on the Tree and in bearing them took them away we bear his sufferings as his body united to him by his Spirit Those sufferings that were his personal burden we partake the sweet fruits of they are accounted ours and we acquitted by them but the endurance of them was his high and incommunicable task in which none at all were with him our Communion in these as fully compleated by himself in his natural body is the ground of our comfort and joy in these sufferings that are compleated in his mystical body the Church This is indeed our joy that we have so light a burden so sweet an exchange the weight of sin quite taken off our backs and only all bound on his cross and our crosses badges of our conformity laid on our shoulders and the great weight of them likewise held up by his hand that they overpress us not These fires of our trial may be corrective and purgative of the remaining power of sin and they are so intended but Jesus Christ alone in the sufferings of his own Cross was the burnt offering the propitiation for our sins Now although he hath perfectly satisfied for us and saved us by his sufferings yet this conformity with him in way of suffering is most reasonable As our holiness doth not stand in point of law nor come in at all in the matter of justifying us yet we are called and appointed to holiness in Christ as suiting us with him our glorious head and we do really receive it from him that we may be like him so these our sufferings bear a very congruous likeness with him though no way as accession to his in expiation yet as a part of his and therefore the Apostle says even in this respect that we are predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son were it fit that we should not follow where our Captain led and went first but that he should lead through ragged thorny ways and we pass about to get away through flow'ry meadows as his natural body shared with his head in his sufferings so ought his mystical with him as its head The buffetings and spitings on his face and thorny crown on his head a pierced side nailed hands and feet and if we be parts of him think we that a body finding nothing but ease and bathing in delights were agreeable to a head so tormented I remember what that pious Duke said at Ierusalem when they offer'd to crown him King there No Crown of Gold where Christ Iesus was Crowned with thorns This is the way we must follow or else resolve to leave him the way of the Cross is the royal way to the Câ—own He said it and remembred them of it again that they might take the deep impression of it remember what I said unto you the Servant is not greater than the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also And particularly in point of reproaches if they called the Master â—eelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold a bitter scost an evil name reproaches for Christ why doth this â—ret thee it s a part of thy Lords entertainment while he was here thou art even in this a partaker of his sufferings and in this way is he bringing thee foreward to the partaking of his Glory That is the other thing when his Glory shall be revealed Now he is hid little of his Glory seen it was hid while he was on earth and now 't is hid up in Heaven where he is aâ—d for his body here his Church no pompous dress nor outward splendour and the particular parts of it the Saints poor despised creatures the very refuse of Men in outward respects and common esteem so he himself is not seen and his followers the more they are seen and lookt on by the Worlds eye the more meanness appears true that as in the days of humiliation some rays were breaking forth through the vail of his flesh and cloud of his low despiseable condition thus is it with his followers sometimes a glance of his Image strikes the very eye of the World and forces some acknowledgment and a kind of reverence in the ungodly But commonly Christ and his followers are covered with all the disgraces and ignominies the World can put on them But there is a day wherein he will appear and 't is at hand and then he shall be glorious even in his despised Saints and admired in them that believe how much more in the matchless brightness of his own glorious person In the mean time he is hid and they hid in him our life