As that it is a gracious use of afflictions to supply the want of them by mortification, you shall see the life of Jesus in afflictions. A great deal of patience in a body tormented with sickness, a great deal of heavenly mind- edness, when he is ready to go out of the world ; a great deal of comfort in the midst of disgrace in a stout Christian ; when the condition is one, and the strength another above it to master it, here is manifestation of power. Are the conditions so, that the manifestation of the life and quick- ening power of Jesus is most of all in such times when we stand most in need of it, times of sufieriug, times of sickness, hour of death ?
Beason 3. Thirdly, Another main reason that the life of Jesus is more manifested then is, because Christ reserveth his comforts for the fittest tivies. Then is the fittest time for Christ to close with the soul, for then the soul stands most in need of grace. He is an head, and therefore wise, because an head. As all wisdom resteth in the head to guide the body, so all wis- dom in Christ to guide his church. And he knoweth the fittest opportu- nity for the measure of grace and comfort. There is no comfort com- parable to the comfort God's children find in the greatest abasement ; for then they empty themselves, and therefore are most fit to be filled with the Spirit. Then God delighteth to have communion with them at all times. God draws them into the wilderness, and then speaks to their hearts, as the prophet saith, Hosea ii. 14 : ' God will let the world know that he hath hidden manna for his children, which they know not, nor feel not.' And so God hath his hid manna, which he sufi'ers them to taste more especially * Sentence left uufiniahed — G,
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 11. 435
when they be distressed in the outward man, and then is the Hfc of Jesus most manifested to them.
Use And therefore, beloved, I beseech you, fear not any thing in the world that may befall us ; fear nothing that may befall us in our own quar- rel. Shall we fear our advancement in a better kind ? What we lose in nature, we gain in grace ; what we lose in outward comforts, we gain in spiritual. It is made up in a better kind, and shall we be discouraged for any thing that befalls us in this world ? Shall not we give Christ liberty to take what he will, so he make it up in a better kind ? Shall not we suffer him to take our credit, our liberty, our life, so he make it up in the life of Jesus ? What damage is it if we be delivered to little deaths, to partial deaths, that is, to vexation, to resti-aint of liberty, to fall into disgrace with the w'orld, if we gain as much in spiritual life ? That is well parted withal, and lost in this world, that is made up in spiritual things ; for the spiritual things are eternal. They make us good, they commend us to God, they be proportionable to Us, they add a worth and value in themselves to us : whatsoever, therefore, we part with for God's cause, if we find access and increase of inward grace, and peace, and comfort, are Ave losers by it ? Doth not God make sweet recompeuce to his children, according to that gene- ral rule, ' All things work together for the best to them that love God ' ? Rom. viii. 29. Let us remember this, and lay it up jigaiust times of trial. And when we are sick, shall we fear sickness? Oh, « we had the Spirit of faith then, Lord, now I am delivering up to death, aisd cease to live ; Oh, as the life of nature decays, let me iind the life of Jesus ; let me find some drop of that life which Jesus lived. For the life of Jesus makes us like Christ in some measure ; that is, full of grace, full of peace ; full of glory ; the life of Jesus in heaven is glorious, a gracious life. Now when drops of it are dropped into a man in times of sickness or persecution, it will make a man forget all troubles whatsoever ; as it is a saying in the Canticles,
* Thy love,' saith the spouse, ' is better than wine,' Cant. i. 2. Now what is wine ? It will make a man forget his trouble. And so the love of Jesus, which is a principle of the life of Jesus, a distillation of the love of Jesus, is better than wine. It will make a man forget his disgrace, forget his a^ictions, forget all, because it is a beam of such a sun, a drop of such an ocean. It is a supernatural, a commanding life, a life of a higher nature, above all things below, an independent life, which will be sufficient in heaven when we have neither meat, nor drink, nor conversation, nor converse with men ; and if we have a little of this derived* to us in any troubles, it will carry us through all. Therefore labour to think of these things. You see what need we have to be one with Jesus, who is the spring and Lord of life, that hath received life, to convey it to us, as the ' second Adam.' Therefore we had need of sacraments, to confirm and strengthen our union with this head, from whom we have spiritual life. Therefore come with joy, and comfort, and courage to the sacrament ; the end whereof is to increase union and communion with the fountain of life, Jesus ; who gave his body to be broken, and his blood to be shed, that he might give life to us, that he might by satisfaction in his death give us life of sentence, that we might be acquitted at the bar of God's justice.