VeE. 35.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 375
to be separated. Secondly, The word ' separate' also noteth it; to separate us from our own love to Christ is a harsh phrase. Thirdly, It is said, ver. 37, Sia tov ayarrijaavTO'; — 'Through him that loved us.' And again — ' The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,' ver. 34 ; which is most properly spoken of God's love to us. But this is not exclusive of our love to him, but comprehendeth it rather ; therefore it is a mutual love. The apostle speaketh of his love as the cause of ours ; for we love, because he loved us first ; the comfort is not so great that we love him, as that he loveth us ; and the stability of our love dependeth on his.
2. The evils enumerated here are seven kinds of external afHiction, under which all the rest are comprehended. (1) Tribulation; whereby is meant common affliction, which doth not amount to death ; anything which presseth or pincheth us, di.sgrace, fines, stripes, imprisonment, banishment, at large. (2.) Distress ; when there is no shifting nor way of escape left us, but we are brought into such straits as we know not which way to turn, but are at our wits' ends, and know not how to escape, but must submit to the will of our enemies. (3.) Persecution; when not only cast out, but pursued from place to place ; as David by Saul : 1 Sam. xxvi. 20, ' For the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains ; ' and 2 Sam. xxir. 14, 'And David said unto God, I am in a great strait.' Id genus liominum non inquiro, inventos autem, puniri oportere — a law of Severus against the christians. (4.) Famine ; when, for fear of per- secution, they are forced to shun all cities, towns, villages, and places of resort, and to lurk in deserts and places uninhabited, where many times they suffer great extremity of hunger : Heb. xi. 38, ' They wan- dered in deserts and mountains, and dens and caves of the earth.' (5.) Nakedness ; when their clothes were worn and spent ; so it is said of those : Heb. xi. 37, ' They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat- sldns ; ' so the apostle Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 27, ' In hunger, cold, and nakedness ; ' 1 Cor. iv. 11, 'We hunger and thirst and are naked.' (6.) Peril ; by which he meaneth imminent dangers ; for even in their lurk- ing-places they had no safety. Paul reckoneth up his perils, 2 Cor. xi. 26, ' In perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; ' and of the christians of those times he saith — ' They stood in jeopardy every hour,' 1 Cor. xv. 20. (7.) The last is the sword, whereby he meaneth a violent death. And here the apostle stoppeth ; for all enemies can do no more than kill the body, nor can we suffer more by them ; a sword may separate body and soul, but it cannot separate us from the love of Christ ; and under sword are comprehended axes, gibbets, fires, halters, all sorts of violent deaths. From the whole observe —
Doct. 1. That it is the usual portion of a christian in the discharge of his duty to meet with many troubles.
Doct. 2. That none of these can dissolve the union between them and Christ.
Doct 1. That troubles are often the portion of God's people, the primitive christians here spoken of are a sufficient instance. First,
376 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XLV.
Their troubles were for their number raany : Ps. xxxiv. 19, ' Many are the troubles of the righteous.' Secondly, For their kinds divers. Christians, by the unthankful world, are exposed to sundry evils and molestations ; .sometimes they are assaulted by want and shame, by fear and force, by all present and possible evils. Thirdly, For their degree, very grievous ; not only vexatious, but destructive. There is a gradation ; they molest them, that is tribulation ; they follow them close, leave them no way of escape, that is distress ; if they remove, still they worry them, and follow them from place to place, then it is persecution ; that driveth to great necessities for food, then it is famine ; for raiment, then it is nakedness ; involveth them in sundry dangers, then it is peril ; yea, sometimes they have power to reach life itself, and then it is sword. Now, shall we think that this was proper to that age only, and that the first professors of Christianity were exposed to these sharp and grievous trials, that we might be totally excused from all kind of vexation and trouble ? No ; we must not indulge such tenderness and delicacy, but must look for our trials also. The bad will ever hate the good ; the world is still set upon wickedness, and worse rather than better by long continuance. Certainly the world is the same that ever it was ; but considering in whose hands the govern- ment of the world is, that raiseth wonder that he should permit it. Therefore let us see the reasons.