from them. "Then took he unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished: for he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spit upon, and they shall scourge him and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again." (John xii. 16; Luke xviii. 31-34.) And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. Had they known all that would follow, and clearly foreseen his resurrection and his glory, they would then have been troubled the less for his death, but when they saw him die, and foresaw him not revive, and rise, and reign, then did their hearts begin to fail them, and they said, "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel." (Luke xxiv. 21.) Even as we use to lament immoderately, when we lay the bodies of our friends in the grave, because we see not whither the soul is gone, nor in what triumph and joy it is received unto Christ; which if we saw it would moderate our griefs. And even so we over pity ourselves and our friends in our temporal sufferings, because we see not whither they tend and what will follow them. We see Job on the dunghill, but look not so far as his restoration, "Behold we count them happy which endure: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." (Jam. v. 11.) There is no judging by the present, but either by staying [for] the end, or believing God's predictions of it. Use. It is allowable in Christ's disciples to grieve (in faith and moderately) for any departure of his from them; they that have had the comfort of communion with him in a life of faith and grace, must needs lament any loss of that communion; it is sad with such a soul, when Christ seemeth strange, or when they pray and seek, and seem not to be heard! It is sad with a believer when he must say, 'I had once access to the Father by the Son; I had helps in prayer, and I had the lively operations of the Spirit of grace, and some of the joy of the Holy Ghost, but now, alas, it is not so.' And they that have had experience of the fruit and comfort of his word, and ordinances, and discipline, and the communion of saints, may be allowed to lament the loss of this, if he take it from them. It was no unseemly thing in David, when he was driven from the tabernacle of God, to make that lamentation, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? O my God, my soul is cast down within me," &c. (Psalm xlii. and xliii.) And, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God; yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest," &c. "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Psalm lxxxiv. 2-4.) It signifieth ill when men can easily let Christ go, or lose his word, or helps, and ordinances. When sin provoketh him to hide his face, and withdraw his mercies, if we can senselessly let them go, it is a contempt which provoketh him much more. If we are indifferent what he giveth us, it is just with him to be indifferent too, and to set as little by our helps and happiness, as we set by them ourselves. But we little know the misery which such contempt prepareth for: "Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate; a land not inhabited." (Jer. vi. 8.) "Yea, wo also unto them when I depart from them." (Hos. ix. 12.) When God goeth, all goeth; grace and peace, help and hope, and all that is good and comfortable is gone, when God is gone. Wonder not, therefore, if holy souls cry after God, and fear the loss of his grace and ordinances; and if they lament the loss of that, which dead-hearted sensualists are weary of, (Luke viii. 47,) and would drive away; it will be the damning sentence, (Matt. xxv. 41,) "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Matt. vii. 23.) And, therefore, all that is but like it, is terrible to them that have any regard of God, or their salvation. (Luke xiii. 27.) Doct. 3. The sorrows of Christ's disciples are but short. It is but now that they have sorrow: and how quickly will this now be gone! Reas. 1. Life itself is but short, and, therefore, the sorrows of this life are but short. Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble; he cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. (Job xiv. 1, 2.) Though our days are evil, they are but few. (Gen. xlvii. 9.) As our time maketh haste, and posteth away, so also our sorrows, which will attain their period together with our lives. As the pleasure of sin, so the sufferings of the godly, are but for a season. (Heb. xi. 26.) "Now, for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." (1 Pet. i. 6.) The pleasures and the pains of so short a life, are but like a pleasant or a frightful dream; how quickly shall we awake, and all is vanished. If we lived as long as they did before the flood, then worldly interest, prosperity, and adversity, would be of greater signification to us, and yet they should seem nothing in comparison of eternity: for where now are all the fleshly pains or pleasures of Adam or Methuselah? Much more are they inconsiderable in so short a life as one of ours. Happy is the man whose sorrows are of no longer continuance than this short and transitory life! Reas. 2. God's displeasure with his servants is but short, and, therefore, his corrections are but short. (Psalm xxx. 5.). "His anger endureth but for a moment, but in his favour is life." (Isa. liv. 7, 8.) "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." (Isa. xxvi. 20.) "Come, my people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." Thus even in judgment doth he remember mercy, and consumeth us not, because his compassions fail not. (Lam. iii.) "He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever; for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." (Psalm ciii. 9, 14.) His short corrections are purposely fitted to prepare us for endless consolations. Reas. 3. Our trial also must be but short, and, therefore, so must be our sorrows. Though God will not have us receive the crown, without the preparation of a conflict and a conquest, yet will he not have our fight and race too long, lest it ́ overmatch our strength, and his grace, and we should be overcome. Though our faith and we must be tried in the fire, yet God will see that the furnace be not over hot, and that we stay no longer, but till our dross be separated from us. (1 Pet. i. 6, 7, 9.). God putteth us not into the fire to consume us, but to refine us, (Psalm cxix, 67, 75,) that when we come out we may say, (Psalm cxxix. 1-3,) "It is good for us that we were afflicted," (Psalm exix. 71; Isaiah xlix. 13,) and then he will save the afflicted people. (Psalm xviii. 27.) Reas. 4. The power of those that afflict God's servants wrongfully, is but short; and therefore, the sorrows of such affliction can be but short; though it be foreign churches of whom I speak, I hope it is to such as take their case to be to them as their own while they are breathing out threatenings, they are ready to breathe out their guilty souls. If a man in a dropsy or consumption persecute us, we would not be over fearful of him, because we see he is a dying man. And so little is the distance between the death of one man and another, that we may well say, All men's lives are in a consumption, and may bear their indignation, as we would do the injuries of a dying man. How short is the day of the power of darkness. Christ calleth it but an hour; "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." (Luke xxii. 53.) How quickly was Herod eaten of worms, and many another cut off in the height of their prosperity, when they have been raging in the heat of persecution. Little thought Ahab that he had been so near his woful day, when he had given order that Micaiah should be fed with the bread and water of affliction, till he returned in peace. What persecutions have the death of a Licinius, a Julian, a queen Mary, &c., shortened? While they are raging they are dying; while they are condemning the just, they are going to be condemned by their most just avenger. How quickly will their corpse be laid in dust, and their condemned souls be put under the chains of darkness, till the judgment of the great and dreadful day? (2 Pet. xxiv.) He is not only an unbeliever, but irrational or inconsiderate, that cannot see their end, (Jude 6,) in the greatest of their glory. How easy is it to see these bubbles vanishing, and to foresee the sad and speedy period of all their cruelties and triumphs? "Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung. They which have seen him, shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him, shall see him no more, neither shall his place behold him." (Job xx. 4-9.) Though pride do compass them about as a chain, and violence cover them as a garment, and they are corrupt, and speak oppression, or calumny, wickedly, they speak loftily, or from on high. Though they set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth, yet surely they are set in slippery places. God doth cast them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors; as a dream* from one that awaketh, so, O Lord, in awaking, (or raising up, that is, saith the Chaldee paraphrase, in thy day of judging, or as all the other translations, in civitate tua, in thy kingdom or government,) thou shalt despise their image, that is, show them and all the world how despicable that image of greatness, and power, and felicity was which they were so proud of. If such a bubble † of vain-glory, such an image of felicity, such a dream of power and greatness be all that the church of God hath to be afraid of, it may well be said, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils." (Isa. ii. 22.) "For wherein is he to be accounted of." (Psalm cxlvi. 4.) His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish, And, "Behold the Lord God will help me, who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up." And, "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wood, but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation." (Isa. li. 7, 8.) The sorrows which so short-lived power can inflict, can be but short. You read of their victories and persecutions in the news-books one year, and quickly after of their death, (Isa. 1. 9.) (Isa. 1. 9.) And, Use, Hence, therefore, you may learn how injudicious they are, that think religion is disparaged by such short and small afflictions of believers, and how unexcusable they are who yield. unto temptation, and venture upon sin, and comply with the ungodly, and forsake the truth, through the fear of so short and momentary sorrows, when there is none of them but would endure the prick of a pin, or the scratch of a briar, or the biting of a flea to gain a kingdom, or the opening of a vein, or Or as Amyraldus Paraphras., "Cum olim evigilabunt, præsens eorum felicitas erit instar somnii, quod somno discusso dissipatum est: quin etiam antequam evigilent, in ipsa illa urbe in qua antea florebant vanam istam felicitatis pompam, in qua antea volitabant, reddes contemnendam, tanquam umbram aut imaginem evanescentem; in qua nihil solidi est." "Nubecula est çito evanescit," said Athanasius of Julian. When Julian's death was told at Antioch, they all cried out, "Maxime fatue ubi sunt vaticinia tua ? Vicit Deus et Christus ejus." Abbas Uspargens. page 91, |