ZZse. Now I must show you the use of this doctrine.
Firsl. Certainly it is useful for the afflicted in auy sort, whatever their troubles and afflictions be.
1. For common evils : —
[1] Are you pained with sickness, and roll to and fro in your bed, like a door on th^ hinges, for the weariness of your flesh .'' In heaven you shall have everlasting ease, for that is a state of rest, lieb. iv. 9. We are apprehensive of present pain, but not of the greatness of the ease, peace, and glory that shall succeed ; though the pains bo acute, the sickness lingering, and hangeth long upon you, yet present time is quickly past ; but eternity shall have no end.
[2.] Must you die, and the guest be turned out of the old house ? ' You have a building with God, eternal in the heavens,' 2 Cor. v. 1, You do but leave a shed to live in a palace, and forsake an unquiet world for a place of everlasting repose.
2. It is especially to be applied to those that suifer for righteousness' sake. Shall we shrink at sufferings for Christ, when we shall be in glory with him for evermore ? How short is the sufl'ering ? how long the reward ? For a greater good, we should endure a lesser evil. A traveller endureth all the difficulties of the way, for the sake of the place where he is going unto ; so should we. What is the evil threatened ? Are you cast out by man as unworthy to live in any civil society ? You shall be received by the Lord into an everlasting abode with hira : 1 Thes. v. 17, 'And so shall we be ever with the Lord.' Have you lost the love of all men, for your sincerity and faithfulness ? You shall everlastingly enjoy the love of God, Kom. viii. 39. Are you reproached, calumniated in the world? Then you shall be justified by Christ, and your faith found to honour, praise, and glory, 2 Pet. i. 7. Are you cast into prison ? you shall shortly be in your Father's house, where there are many mansions, John xiv. 2. Are you reduced to sordid jjoverty ? You may read in the scripture of the ' riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints,' Eph. i. 18. In short, are you tempted, opposed, persecuted ? Consider, much of your journey is past
VeR. 18.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 147
away ; joii are nearer eternity than you were when you first believed, Rom. xiii. 11. They that both tempt and persecute cannot give so mucli to you, or take so much from you, as is worthy to be compared with your great hopes. Immortal happiness is most desirable, and end- less misery most terrible ; therefore be you faithful to the death, and you shall have the crown of life, Rev. ii. 10. Is life itself likely to be forced out by the violence of man ? The sword is but the key to open Ireaven's door for you ; surely this hope will make the greatest sufier- ings to become light, turn pain into pleasure, yea, and death itself into life.
Secondly. It is useful for all, if only for the afflicted. None is exempted, and you must hear for the time to come ; but every good christian should be of this temper and spirit, and wholly fetch his solaces from the world to come, else he is not possessed with a true spirit of Christianity, which warneth us all to prepare for sufferings, and calletli for self-denial. Besides, this is a great means to mortify worldly affections, which are the great impediment of the heavenly life. When we once learn to despise the afflictions of the world, our affections to the delights thereof die by consent ; both are rooted in the same disposition and frame of heart ; such a dead and mortified temper, as hath learned to contemn earthly things ; and they are both fed and maintained by the same considerations, a looking to the end of things, which maketh us wise, Deut. xxxii. 29. If our hearts be often in heaven, it will lessen all worldly things in our eyes ; and it will make us not only patient and contented in suff'erings, but diligent in holy duties, fearful of sinning. For all those pleasures which tempt us to neglect duty, or to make bold with sin, are no more worthy to be com- pared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, than our sufierings are ; yea, tlie argument holdeth stronger against them ; if the greater sufferings should not deter us from our duty, certainly vain pleasures should not. They that cast ofi^the profession and practice of godliness out of indulgence to carnal delights or some worldly hope, are less to be pitied, because they involve themselves in a more heinous sin than they that shrink from it out of some great fear. For torment and death, which are the chiefest things we fear, are destructive of our nature ; therefore we have a natural shunning and abhorrence of them ; but those other things are such things as nature may easily, and witli- out greater inconveniency, want ; such as preferment, splendor of life, sottish pleasures. They are enticed by their mere lust, which is not so pressing as fear.