[2.] It will not only cut off impertinencies, but a far greater mis- chief, and that is, inconsistencies with our great end : Gen. xxxix. 9, * How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Men do not only forget their end and happiness, but run quite from it, by doing actions directly contrary ; vanities are impertinent to our great end, but direct sins are inconsistent. Would men dishonour God, and dis- obey his laws, and grieve his Spirit, if they did remember seriously that their misery and happiness did depend upon God's pleasure or displeasure ? Surely then they would avoid God's wrath and dis- pleasure, and sin which is the cause of it, as the greatest misery and evil that can befall them, and seek after his favour as their great hap- piness.
3. It would solace and comfort us under the difficulties of obedience, the hardships and inconveniences of our pilgrimage, and that mean and afflicted state of life wherein perhaps God will employ us and exer- cise us for his .i^lory.
[1.] It would sweeten the difficulties of obedience, for the end doth sweeten the means. It is troublesome to the flesh to limit and confine (mr desires and actions w^ithin the compass of a strict rule, but it sat- isfieth a resolved heart to remember that either we must please the flesh or please the Lord. If now it be troublesome to us, hereafter it will be comibrtable. Wicked men have comfort now when they want it not, and need it not, but in their greatest extremity they want it. Look, as in winter-time there are great land floods, when the rain and season of the year aftbrdeth water enough, and no land needs them ; but in summer, when there is the greatest drought, then they appear not. Wicked men have comfort enough in the creature, and too much for them ; their hearts are merry now, and they are glutted with the delights of sense, and they are still seeking new comforts; but in the time of extremity, when they most need comfort, these comforts are spent, and leave them under anguish and torment. But- on the other side, a child of God, that abridgeth himself of the contentments of the flesh, and roweth against the current and stream of carnal nature, and exposeth himself to great losses and inconveniences for Christ's sake, he had need of some solace to mitigate his sorrows and sweeten pre- sent difficulties. Now, what greater encouragement can there be than . to think how God will welcome us with a Well done, and Well suffered, good and faithful servant ? Mat. xxv. 21, 23. What comfort
VeR. 9.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS Y. 39
and joy and peace will it be unto lis when we come to die ! Then we shall see the labour is not lost, the sufferinijs for righteousness' sake were not in vain ; the time we have spent in holy converse with God will be then sweet to us in the last review ; but the time spent in sin and vanity and idleness and fleshly designs will be very grievous and tormenting. And though it be difficult to live in an exact course of self-denying obedience, yet when we shall have the approbation of God and conscience, the fore-thought of which is a mighty solace to us now, carnalists will then wish, Oh that I had pleased Gocl as I have pleased men and my own sinful heart ! Oh, would to God I had lived better, served God and denied myself a little while, that I might have enjoyed myself and my God for ever !
[2.] It may be God seeth fit to exercise us with a mean or an afflicted estate ; either he will keep us low and bare, or else weak and sickly, or in disrepute and obscurity, rejected by the world, as Jesus Christ was rejected of men, or censured and traduced by men. And we have no means to help ourselves, and vindicate our innocency. Oh ! but if we may be accepted of the Lord at length, we have no reason to complain. Man's day is nothing to God's day : 1 Cor. iv. 3. ' But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,' &:c. God will count me faithful, and reward my innocent and sincere, though imperfect, endeavours. God will be glorified by his servants, sometimes in a high, sometimes in a low and afiiicted condition. Look, as in a choir or concert of voices he is commended that sings well, whether he sings the bass, or the mean, or the treble, that is nothing, so he singeth his part well, but he is despised and disallowed that sings amiss, what- ever voice he useth ; so doth God approve, accept, and reward his people that serve and glorify him in any state, whether it be high or low, rich or poor, eminent or obscure. God puts us sometimes in one condition, sometimes in another ; but those that carry themselves ill in their estate are rejected by him, and punished. It is not riches or poverty, wealth or health, that God looketh after, but those that carry themselves well in either ; which is a gi-eat solace to a gracious heart, and helpeth us to an indifierency for all temporal things, so we may be approved by God at last ; as the apostle, Phil. i. 20, ' So Christ be magnified in my body, whether by life or death.' As a resolved tra- veller taketh his way as he findeth it, fair or foul, so it will lead him to his journey's end.