(1.) It notes a daily expectation of it ; the first day that we begin to be christians, we must reckon on the cross : Mat. xvi. 24, ' If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' These words are the christian's indenture, and every one must seal to this before he can call Christ master. As porters stand in a street waiting for a burden for them to carry, so must a christian be ready and prepared to meet with any hardship which God may lay out for him in his christian course ; or as the Israelites ate the first pass- over 'with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand,' Exod. xii. 11, as ready for a journey, so should a christian be ready to go forth at God's call : Acts xxi. 13, iroifiax;, e^&), ' I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.' Evils familiarised are less burdensome; by renewing our daily resolution the evil is the less when it cometh.
(2.) The frequency of our conflicts, as if every day there were some exercise for our faith and patience. We are not to prescribe to God how long or how much affliction he shall exercise us with. No; though it were all the days of our lives, we must be content ; it is but a moment to eternity. We must take up our cross as often as it lieth in
6 SERMONS UPON MARK X, 17-27. [SeR. YIIL
our way, and we cannot baulk it without sin : Gen. xlvii. 9, ' Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.' Man is born to trouble. The world is a valley of tears, not the mount of the Lord, where is fulness of joy, If there were no cross, we should not be in tune and consort with the rest of the world, for here all the creatures are a-o^roaninfi:.
(3.) The word ' daily' showeth that private and personal calamities are a part of the cross, as well as the afflictions of the gospel, and for the profession of the name of Christ. Afflictions are either for God or from God. Sickness and death of friends and loss of estate by an immediate providence are a part of our cross. Tiiere is an enduring persecution for the name of Christ, and an enduring affliction at the will of Christ. Ordinary crosses do not exclude the comforts of Chris- tianity ; these occasion experience of God and trial of grace, and are a l)art of God's discipline for the mortifying of sin, and are happy oppor- tunities to discover more of God and of grace to us. Yea, there is more reason for submission 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 he is wet with the rain that cometh from heaven.
II. The reasons why those that follow Christ should prepare their shoulders for the cross.
1. That we may be conformed to our head. He had a bitter cup tempered for him by his Father's hand: John xviii. 11, 'The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? ' and we must pledge, liim. Jesus Christ was 'a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,' Isa. liii. 3, and there would be a strange disproportion between head and members if we should altogether live in delicacy, ease, and plea- .sures. The bitter cup goeth by course and round, first to Christ, then 10 his apostles, and it goeth from hand to hand ever since. The jipostle speaks of vareprj^aTa tcov dXt^ecou x^Larov, Col. i. 24, 'that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.' There is Christ personal and Christ mystical. Christ personal, as he is complete in himself, so his sufferings are complete ; but the sufferings of Christ mystical are not perfect until every member have their own alloted share and por- 1 ion. Indeed our sufferings are but the drops upon the brim of the cup ; he drank up the dregs. The great wave of affliction did first beat upon him, and being thereby broken, some small sprinklings of it do light upon us ; we bear the hinder part of the cross of Christ. It is but reason that those that will partake with Christ in his kingdom should be partakers with him in his sorrows, and that the soldiers should follow ' the captain of their salvation,' Heb. ii. 10, and fare as he fared : John xv. 20, ' Kemember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than the Lord ; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.' We cannot in reason expect better entertainment than he found in the world. If you had an high esteem of Christ, and a low esteem of yourselves, you would easily consent to submit to the will of God herein. It is an unseemly daintiness to be nice and tender of carrying the cross after Jesus Christ, as if we were better than he. Many christians will seem to express much devotion to a crucifix, or those chips of wood which importers cry up for pieces