YER. 143.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 17
perience of all ages verifieth this. When religion began first to fly abroad into all lands, the pagans first persecuted it, and then the pseudo- Christians ; the holiest and best people were maligned, and bound, and butchered, and racked, and stoned, but still they multiplied. It were easy to tire you with various instances in every age. Those that went home to God were those that came out of tribulations, and had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. vii. 14. There is always something set afoot to try God's servants, and in the latter times the roaring lion is not grown more gentle and tame, rather more fierce and severe : Rev. xii. 12, ' For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.' Dying beasts struggle most. As his kingdom beginneth to shake, so he will be most fierce and cruel for the support- ing of it.
2. As to particular persons : ' The whole creation groaneth,' Rom. viii. 22 ; and God's children bear a part in the concert ; they have their share in the world's miseries, and domestical crosses are common to them with other men in the world ; yea, their condition is worse than others : chaff and corn are threshed in the same floor, but the corn is grinded in the mill and baked in the oven. Jeremiah was in the dungeon when the city was besieged. The world hateth them more than others, and God loveth them more than others. The world hateth them because they are so good, and God correcteth them because they are no better. There is more care exercised about a vine than a bramble. God will not let them perish with the world. Great receipts call for great expenses first or last. God seeth it fitting, sometimes at first setting forth, as the old Germans were wont to dip their children in the Rhine to harden them, so to season them for their whole course ; they must bear the yoke from their youth or first acquaintance with God, Heb. x. 32. Sometimes God lets them alone while they are young and raw, and of little experience, as we are tender of trees newly planted, as Jacob drove as the little ones were able to bear: 1 Cor. x. 13, 'He will not suffer you to be tempted dbove what you are able. ' They are let alone till middle age, till they are of some standing in religion : Heb. xi. 24, ' Moses when he was come to years,' fieyas yevofievos. Sometimes let alone till their latter time, and their season of fighting cometh not till they are ready to go out of the world, that they may die fighting, and be crowned in the field. But first or last, the cross cometh, and there is a time to exercise our faith and patience before we inherit the promises. I will not enlarge in the common-place of afflictions, and tell you how necessary the cross is to subdue sin, which God will do in an acommo- date way to weaken pride, to reclaim us from our wanderings, to increase grace, to make us mindful of heavenly things ; these are dis- cussed in other verses : to make us retreat to our great privileges, to stir us up to prayer, &c. Tribulatio tarn nobis necessaria, quam ipsa vita, immo magis necessaria, multoque utilior quam totius mundi opes, et dignitates, saith Luther — we think wealth is necessary for us, dignity and esteem is necessary for us ; no, affliction is necessary for us : 1 Peter i. 6, ' If need be, you are in heaviness/ &c.
Use 1. Let us look for troubles and provide for them. We shall
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not always have a life of ease and peace ; the times will not always be friendly to religion : ' Then had the churches rest,' Acts ix. 31 ; hal- cyon days. The enmity of wicked men will not always lie asleep ; we would gather rust and grow dead, therefore look for them. If because you are Christians you promise yourselves a long lease of temporal happiness, free from troubles and afflictions, it is as if a soldier going to the wars should promise himself peace and continual truce with the enemy; or as if a mariner committing himself to the sea for a long voyage, should promise himself nothing but fair and calm weather, without waves and storms ; so irrational it is for a Christian to promise himself rest here upon earth. Well, then, let us learn beforehand how to be abased and how to abound, Phil. iv. 12. He that is in a journey to heaven must be provided for all weathers ; though it be sunshine when he first sets forth, a storm will overtake him before he cometh to his journey's end. It is good to be fore-armed ; afflictions will come, and we should prepare accordingly. We enter upon the profession of godliness upon these terms, to be willing to suffer afflictions if the Lord see fit ; and therefore we should arm ourselves with a mind to endure them, whether they come or no. God never intended that Isaac should be sacrificed, yet he will have Abraham lay the knife to his throat. Sorrows foreseen leave not so sad an impression upon the spirit. Tela promissa minus feriunt. The evil is more familiarised before it come : Job iii. 25, ' The evil that I feared is come upon me.' When our fears prophesy, we smart less ; it allayeth the offence ; we meet with nothing but what we thought of before : John xvi. 1, 'These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.'