2. To prepare for them.
3. When they come, bear them with more patience.
1. Look for them. The first day that we begin to be Christians we must reckon of the cross. Christ hath drawn up the form of our in- denture, to which every one must yield and consent before he can call him Master : Mat. xvi. 24, ' If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' In Luke it is, ' take up his cross daily,' Luke ix. 23. Though there be fair days as well as foul in Christianity, yet we must every day be ready. As por- ters stand in the street waiting for a burden for them to carry if they be hired to it, so must a Christian every day be prepared to take up his burden if God shall call him to it ; yea, ' daily' noteth not only continual readiness, but the frequency of our conflicts ; as if every day there were some exercise of our faith and patience. If God keep us to the cross all the days of our lives, we must be content. Once more, taking up the cross daily showeth that private and personal calamities are a part of the cross as well as the afflictions of the gospel. Afflic- tions from God as well as afflictions for God ; such as sickness, death of friends, loss of estate, by an ordinary providence ; though not en- during persecution for the name of Christ, yet enduring affliction at the will of Christ. Ordinary crosses do not exclude the comforts of Christianity. These occasion experience of God and trial of grace, and are a part of God's discipline for the mortifying of sin, happy opportunities to discover more of God to us ; yea, there is more reason of submission to God in these, because God taketh us into his own hands. A man that stormeth when a bucket of water is cast upon him is patient when wet to the skin with the rain that conieth from heaven. Well, then, we must be daily ready for all these things ; if we take up the profession of stricter Christianity with other thoughts, we should soon see our mistake. It is a vain thing to flatter ourselves with the hopes of a total exemption ; many think they may be good Christians, and yet live a life of ease and peace, free from troubles and afflictions. This is all one 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 pro- mise himself nothing but fair weather and a calm sea without waves and storms ; so irrational is it for a Christian to promise himself a life of ease and rest here upon earth.
2. Be prepared for them, otherwise our looking for them is in vain ; and to this end would Christ have us reckon upon the cross, that we may be forewarned. He that buildeth a house doth not take care that the rain should not descend upon it, or the storm should not beat upon it, or the wind blow upon it ; there is no fencing against these things, they cannot be prevented by any care of ours ; but that the house may be able to endure all this without prejudice. And he that buildeth a ship doth not make this his work, that it should never meet with waves and billows, that is impossible ; but that it may be tight and stanch, and able to endure all weathers. A man that taketh care for his body doth not cark for this, that he meet with no change of weather, hot
128 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXXI.
and cold, but how his body may bear all this. Thus should Christians do ; not so much take care how to shift and avoid afflictions, but how to bear them with an even and quiet mind. See Chrysostom, Horn. 35, in 1 Cor. As we cannot hinder the rain from falling upon the house, nor the waves from beating upon the ship, uor change of weather and seasons from affecting the body, so it is not in our power to hinder the falling out of afflictions and tribulations ; all that lieth upon us is to make provision for such an hour that we be not over- whelmed by it, We need get a stock of spiritual comforts, that all may be peace within when trouble without ; and as afflictions abound, so may comforts. We had need get a sound back, be much morti- fied, and weaned from the vanities of the world : Heb. xii. 13, ' And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed.' If we have any weak part in our souls, there the assault will be most strong and fierce. A gar- rison that looketh to be besieged taketh care to fortify the weak places ; so should a Christian mortify every corrupt inclination, those that are most pleasing. We need much resolution. A Christian had need be a resolved man, well shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph. vi. 15, or else in a hard way he will soon founder and halt. That eroifiaala, that preparation, is a resolved mind, to go through thick and thin, and to follow Christ in all conditions : Acts xxi. 13, eroifMos e'x&>, ' I am ready not only to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus/ A well-shielded established mind in the comfort and hope of the gospel ; unless we be thus prepared and armed with a mortified heart, and a thorough persuasion of the truth and worth of gospel privileges, and thereupon a resolution to encounter all diffi- culties and hardships, we shall not long be faithful to Christ ; but after we have launched out into the deep with him we shall be ready to run ashore again. Now most Christians are not mortified, and so they trip up their own heels. Most Christians are not resolved, and so take to religion as a walk for recreation, not a journey, so as to be prepared for all weathers.