(1.) Tlie first reason. That they Tnay not faint nor falter in his ser- vice, but go through it resolutely and bravely, in the face of all diffi- culties and oppositions} When God put Joshua upon that hard service of leading and governing his people Israel, he assures him of his love and of his presence : ' Fear not, be of good courage, I am with thee,' Joshua i. 6. And this makes him hold on and hold out in the service of the Lord bravely and resolutely, in the face of all discourage- ments : ' Choose you whom you will serve, whether your fathers' gods or the gods of the Amorites ; but as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord,' Joshua xxiv. 15. So when the Lord put Paul upon such service that occasioned bonds and afflictions to abide him in every city. Acts XX. 23, he gives him a taste of heaven beforehand, and lifts up the light of his countenance upon him, and this makes him resolute and bold in the work of the Lord. Now Paul will not consult with flesh and blood. Gal. i. 15-17; now it is not reproaches, nor stripes, nor prisons, nor whips, nor perils, nor deaths, that can make him look back, having put his hand to the Lord's plough. Oh ! the beamings forth of divine love upon his soul filled him with that courage and resolution that, with Shammah, one of David's worthies, he stands and defends the field, when others fall, and fly, and quit the field, 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17.
(2.) The second reason : God gives his people some tastes of his love, some sense of his favour, when he puts them upon hard and difficult services, because else he should not only act below himself, as he is a wise God, a faithful God, a powerful God, a Tnerciful God, a inghteous God, <&c., but also act below his poor weak creatures.^ For what hus- band will put his wife, what father will put his child, what master will put his servant, what captain will put his soldier, what prince will put his ambassadors, upon hard and difficult services, but they will smile upon them, and speak kindly to them, and make large promises to honour their persons, and kindly to accept, and nobly to reward their services, &c. Surely none. And will God ? Will God, who will not give his glory to those that have the most glorious beings, suffer his
• Apollonius, as Philostratus reports, being asked if he did not tremble at the sight of the tyrant, made this answer : God, which hath given him a terrible countenance, hath given also unto me an undaunted heart, &c.
' And to imagine that ever the great God will act below the wisdom of those that are foolishness in the very abstract, is the greatest madness and blasphemy in the world.
352 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
glory to be clouded and eclipsed by the prudent actings of weak worms ? Surely no. Isa. xlii. 8, and xlviii. 11.
(3.) The third reason : God lifts up the light of his countenance upon his people when he puts them upon hard and difficult services, that they may never repent of listing themselves in his sei^ice.^ Ah ! did not the Lord warm the hearts of his people with the glorious beams of his love, when he puts them upon hard work, they would be ready, when, they meet with oppositions and hazards, to throw up all, and to sit down lamenting and repenting that ever they were engaged in his ser- vice. They would be as peevish and froward as Jonah, and with him venture a drowning, to shift off God's service." Ah ! but now the Lord, by letting his goodness drop upon their hearts, and by putting an. earnest-penny into their hands, he causes them to go cheerfully on in his work, without sighing or repenting. The kisses and embraces of God do put such life, such spirit, such mettle into their souls, as makes them bid defiance to the greatest dangers, and as crowns them con- querors of the greatest difficulties. Ah ! says a soul that hath walked some turns in paradise. What is dross to gold ! what is darkness to light ! what is hell to heaven ! No more are all difficulties and oppo- sitions to me, who have found the sweetness of divine grace, and have had the happiness to lie in the bosom of God.
Diocletian, the worst and last persecutor in all the ten persecutions, observed, ' that the more he sought to blot out the name of Christ, the more it became legible ; and to block up the way of Christ, the more it became passable ; and whatever of Christ he thought to root out, it rooted the deeper, and rose the higher in the hearts and lives of the saints, among whom he had scattered the beams of his love and the rich pearls of his grace.'* Such souls as have once been in the arms of God, in the midst of all oppositions, they are as men made all of fire walking in stubble ; they consume and overcome all oppositions ; all difficulties are but as whetstones to their fortitude. The moon will run her course, though the dogs bark at it ; so will all those choice souls that have found warmth under Christ's wings run their Christian race in spite of all difficulties and dangers. The horse neighs at the trumpet, the leviathan laughs at the spear ; so does a saint, under the power of assurance, laugh at all hazards and dangers that he meets with in the Lord's service. The sense of God's love and goodness makes him to triumph over the greatest difficulties.
(4.) The fourth reason, and lastly : God gives his people some tastes of his love when he puts them upon hard and difficult services^ that the mouths of the wicked may be stopped. Should God lay heavy bur- dens upon his people's shoulders, and not put under his fingers to give some ease ; should God double their tale of brick, and yet deny them straw ; should God engage them against a potent enemy, and then desert them ; should God send them upon some weighty embassage, and not give proportionable encouragements to them, what would the
^ Solus amor nescit difficultates, lore knows no diflBeulties.
' Melancthon was such a man, whom Luther encourages thus : Why should we fear a conquered world, that have Christ the conqueror on our side? &c. [Correspondence during the Diet of Augsburg, 1530. Cf. Sibbes's Works, vol. i. p. 126.-0.]
'As they said once of the Grecians in the epigram, whom they thought invulnerable, We shoot at them, but they fall not down ; we wound them, and yet not kill them.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 353