The Christian Life Part 3 Volume 4, Part 3 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the Eternal Reward of Mortification, and Holiness.
THE Apostle having declar'd for our Encouragement, Rom. viii. 13. that if we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live; I shall now insist upon these two Propositions,
First, THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life, and Happiness prepared for good men.
Secondly, THAT this their Everlasting Happiness depends upon their mortifying their Lusts.
I. THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good Men: The Truth of which I shall Endeavour to prove by some plain and easy Arguments.
I. BECAUSE the Law of our Natures hath not a sufficient Sanction without it. That there is in us such a Law of Nature, by which Things and Actions are distinguished into good and evil; is every whit as evident, as that we have within us a Principle of Reason. For no Man using his Reason can ever think it indifferent in it self, whether we obey our Parents, or contemn them; whether we lye, or speak Truth; whether we be grateful, or disingenuous to our Benefactors: For between these Things there is such an essential Difference, that they can never be equal Competitors to a Rational Approbation. And accordingly among all Mankind we may observe, that there are some Vices, which have as much the universal Judgment of Reason against them, as any false Conclusion in the Mathematicks; and some Virtues, whose Goodness has been as universally acknowledged, as the Truth of any Principle in Philosophy. Wherefore since God hath created us with such a Faculty, as doth necessarily make such a Iudgment of Good and Evil; this Iudgment must be God's, as well as the Faculties which made it: And that which is God's Iudgment in us, must necessarily be a Law to us. God therefore having put such a Law into our Natures; we cannot but suppose, that he hath taken Care to enforce the Observation of it, by rewarding and punishing us, according as we obey, or violate it: For without the Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments, to induce Men to observe them, Laws are insignificant; and that Lawgiver doth but petition his Subjects to obey, that doth not promise such Rewards, nor denounce such Penalties, as are sufficient to oblige them to it. And no Reward can be sufficient to oblige us to obey, that doth not abundantly compensate any Loss, or Evil we may sustain by our Obedience; no Punishment sufficient to deter us from disobeying, that doth not far surmount all that Benefit, or Pleasure we can hope to reap from our Disobedience. Since therefore God hath implanted a Law in our Natures, we must either suppose, that he hath not sufficiently secured it by Rewards, and Punishments; which is to blaspheme his Wisdom, and Conduct: Or else we must acknowledge, that he hath established it with such Rewards, and Punishments, as do make it far more adviseable to obey, than to transgress it; which that he hath done in all Instances, can never be proved, without granting the Rewards, and Punishments of another World. For if there be no such thing as future Rewards and Punishments: it is a Folly for any Man to concern himself about any thing but his present Interest; and in reason we ought to judge things to be good or evil, only as they promote, or obstruct our temporal Happiness and Welfare. Now though it is certain, that in the general there is a natural Good accruing to us from all vertuous Actions, as on the contrary a natural Evil from all vicious ones; and it is ordinarily more conducive for our temporal Interests to obey, than to disobey the great Law of our Natures: Yet there are a world of Instances, wherein Vice may be more advantageous to us than Virtue, abstracting from the Rewards and Punishments of another World. It is ordinarily better for me to be an honest Man, than a Knave; it is more for my Reputation, yea, and usually for my Profit too; and it is more for the publick Good, in which my own is involved: But yet pro hic & nunc it may be better for me, with respect only to this World, to be a Knave, than an honest man. For whensoever I can but cheat so secretly and securely, as not to fall under the publick Lash, nor to impair my Reputation; and I can but gain more by the Cheat, than I shall lose in the Damage of the Publick; it will be doubtless more advantageous for me, as to my worldly Interest, to cheat than to be honest. And how often such fair Opportunities of Couzenage do occur, no Man can be insensible, that hath but the least Insight into the Affairs of the World. So that if God had not reserved Rewards and Punishments for us in another World, we should not have sufficient Motives universally to observe that great Law of Righteousness, which he hath given us: For whensoever we could cheat, or steal securely, it would be highly reasonable for us to do it; because thereby we might promote our own temporal Happiness, which would be the only End we should have to pursue. And the same may be said of all other Laws of Nature, which without the great Motives of a future Happiness and Misery, could no longer induce any reasonable Man to obey them, than it is for his temporal Interest to do so. For suppose I can secretly stab, or poison a Man, whom I hate or dread, or from whose Death I may reap any considerable Advantage: What should restrain me from such a barbarous Fact? If you say, the Law of Nature; pray what Reward doth the Law of Nature propose sufficient to compensate the Dissatisfaction of my Revenge, or the Danger I run in suffering my Enemy to live? Or what Punishment doth the Law of Nature denounce, that is sufficient to balance the Advantage of a thousand or ten thousand Pounds a year, that may accrue to me by his Death? If you say, the Law of Nature proposeth to me the Reward of a quiet and satisfied Mind, if I forbear; and denounces the Punishment of a guilty and amazed Conscience, if I commit the Murder: I easily answer, that this Peace, or Horror, which is consequent to the Forbearance, or Commission of Murder, arises from the Hope, and Dread of future Rewards and Punishments; which being taken away, to murder or not murder will be indifferent, as to any Peace or Horror that will follow upon it: And this being removed, what Consideration will there be left sufficient to restrain me from the bloody Fact, when I have an Opportunity to act it securely, and am furiously spurred on to it by my own Revenge and Covetousness? So that if there be no Rewards and Punishments in another Life, to enforce the Commands of the Law of Nature; it is apparent, that no such Rewards or Punishments are annexed to it in this Life, as are universally sufficient to oblige Men to observe it. And is it likely, that the All-wise Governour of the World would ever impose a Law under an insufficient Sanction? That he would ever give out his Commands to his Creatures, and then leave it indifferent to them whether they will obey him, or no? As he must needs have done, if in all circumstances it be not far better for us to obey him, than to disobey him. And if our Nature is so framed, as not to be effectually persuaded to Obedience, without the Motives of everlasting Rewards and Punishments, it is at least highly credible, that there are such: Because it would be unworthy of God, so to frame the Nature of one of his noblest Creatures, as to render it incapable of being governed by him without Falshood and Deceit.
II. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for Good Men in the other World, is highly probable from those Desires and Expectations of it, which do so generally and naturally arise in pure and vertuous Minds. We rarely, if ever, read of any vertuous Man of whatsoever Nation, or Religion, or Sect of Philosophers, whose Mind hath not been wing'd with earnest Hopes and Desires of future Happiness; and I know none that have ever denied, or despaired of it, but only such as have … … and vitiated the Principles of their own Nature. Such were the Sadducees and Epicureans, Sects that had drowned all that was humane in them in Sensuality and Voluptuousness, and are branded upon Record for their shameful Indulgence to their own brutish Genius: And such are no Standards of Humane Nature, but ought rather to be looked upon as Monsters of Men; and therefore as we do not think it natural to Men, to be born with six Fingers upon one Hand, though there have been many such monstrous and unnatural Births; so neither ought we to judge either of what is natural or unnatural to Men, by those humane Brutes, who by their perpetual wallowing in the Pleasures of the Body have monstrously disfigured their own Natures, and dissolved all that Reason, by which they are constituted Men, into a mere sensual Sagacity of catering for the Appetites of the Flesh. If we would know therefore what is humane and natural to us, we must take our Measures from those who are least depraved, and are most conformable to the Laws of a Rational Nature; who have preserved the natural Subordination of their Faculties, and reduced their Passions and Appetites under the Empire of their Reason: And these are the Men whom we call vertuous, and who because they live in the Exercise of those noble Virtues which are proper to us Men, are to be looked upon as the Standards of Humane Nature: by whom alone we can judge of what is natural and unnatural to us. Now Virtue, and the Desires and Hopes of Immortality are so near allyed, that like Hippocrates's Twins, they live and die together. For though while Men live a brutish and sensual Life, their future Hopes are usually drowned in their present Enjoyments; yet when once they recover out of this unnatural State, and begin to live vertuously like reasonable Beings, immediately they feel great Desires and Expectations of a future Happiness, springing up in their Minds, and arising higher and higher, proportionably as their Progress is in Virtue and true Goodness. Which is a plain Evidence, that these Hopes and Desires are natural to us; and that they are interwoven by the great Creator in the Frame and Constitution of our Souls. Now how can it consist with the Goodness of God, to implant such Desires and Hopes in our Natures, and then to withhold from them the only Object that can suit and satisfie them? As if it were a Recreation to him, to sit above in the Heavens, and behold the Work of his Hands spending it self in weary Strugglings towards him, and gasping all the while it continues in Being, after an Happiness it shall never enjoy? As for other Beings, we see they have no natural Desire in vain; the good God having so ordered things, that there are Objects in Nature apportioned to all their natural Appetites: but if there be no State of Happiness reserved for good Men in the other World, we are by a natural Principle most strongly inclined to that which we can never attain to. As if God had purposely framed us with such Inclinations, that we might be perpetually tormented between those two Passions Desire and Despair, an earnest Propension after a future Happiness, and an utter Incapacity of ever enjoying it: as if Nature it self, whereby all other Beings are disposed to their Perfection, did serve only in Mankind to make them miserable, and which is more considerable, as if Virtue which is the Perfection of Nature, did only contribute to our Infelicity, by raising in us Desires and Expectations, which without a future Happiness must be for ever baffled and disappointed. For if there be no future Happiness, either we may know it, or we may not, if we may not know it, why should we think that, which reflects so much Dishonor upon God, viz. that he hath created in us Desires and Expectations, only to mock and tantalize them? But if we may know it, then do these Desires and Expectations seem to be created in us on purpose to torment us. For, for what other End can we desire to be eternally happy, who are only brought forth into the Light to be e'er long extinguished, and shut up in everlasting Darkness? The Consideration of which must needs be an exceeding Torture and Affliction to us.
III. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for good Men, is evident from the Iustice and Equity of the Divine Providence. That God is a most just and righteous Governour, is acknowledged by all that believe there is a God, and that he rules and governs the World: and if it be so, then his Iustice must first or last discover it self in distributing Rewards and Punishments to men, according as they obey, or violate the Laws of his Government. For what Iustice can he express in governing the World, if he rules at random; if he never makes any Difference between the Good and the Bad, but rewards and punishes his Subjects promiscuously, without any Distinction between the Loyal and Rebellious? And yet in the ordinary Course of Divine Providence in this world, we see little or no Distinction made between them; but as the Wise Man hath observed, Eccl. ix. 2. All things come alike to all, so that he cannot know God's Love or Hatred by any thing that is before us: nay, many times we see the wicked, as the Psalmist describes them, flourishing like a green Bay-tree, Psal. xxxvii. 35. whilst the righteous are sorely oppressed, and crushed under the triumphal Chariots of their barbarous Enemies. So that were there no other State of things, but what we see before us; it would be impossible for us, to give any tolerable Account of the just Retributions of the Divine Providence. For if when we have all acted our Parts upon this Stage of Time, we were to lye down together, and sleep for ever in the Dust; how many millions of Good Men are there that have thought nothing too dear for God, and have not only sacrificed their Lusts, but their Lives and Fortunes to his Service, who would have no other Recompence for so doing, but a miserable Life, and a woful Death, and an obscure and dishonourable Grave? And on the contrary, how many millions of millions of Wicked Men are there, whose whole Lives have been nothing but one continued Act of Rebellion against God, who have blasphemed his Honour, and affronted his Authority, and openly contemned all the Laws of his Government; and yet would undergoe no other Punishment for so doing, but only to live prosperously, to die quietly, and then to be gloriously enshrined in Monuments of Marble? And can we think this, and at the same time believe, that there is a righteous Providence which superintends the Affairs of the World? Certainly if not to govern this material World, and to put things into such a regular Course as may be suitable to their Natures, and the Operations for which they are designed, would argue some Defect of Wisdom in God; then doubtless not to compensate Virtue and Vice, and adjust things suitably to their Qualifications; but thus crosly to couple Prosperity with Vice, and Misery with Virtue, would argue him deficient both in Wisdom, and Goodness, and Iustice. And perhaps it would be no less expedient, with Epicurus to deny all Providence, than to ascribe to it such Defects; it being less unworthy of the Divine Nature to neglect the Universe altogether, than to administer humane Affairs with so much Injustice and Irregularity. So that either we must deny Providence, or (which is worse) deny the Iustice of it; or believe that there is a future State, wherein all things shall be adjusted, and good Men crowned with the Rewards of their Obedience, and the Wicked undergo the Punishment of their own Follies. For this we are sure of, that the Judge of all the World will do righteously; and that first or last he will distribute his Rewards and Punishments, according to the Merit and Demerit of his Subjects: and therefore because we see he doth not ordinarily do it in this World, we have great Reason to conclude, that he will do it effectually in the World to come.
Fourthly and Lastly, THAT there is a State of future Happiness prepared for good Men, is evident from the Revelation of his Will, which God hath made to us by Iesus Christ. And this, I confess, is the most concluding Argument of all: as for the former Arguments, they render the Case so highly probable, that this at least must be acknowledged, that we have far more Reason to believe and expect a future Happiness, than we have to doubt or despair of it: but as for this last, it puts all out of Question, and leaves us no Pretence of Reason why we should doubt or suspect it. For eternal Happiness, and Salvation is the great Blessing which our Saviour hath promised us, to encourage us to Perseverance in Well-doing; and in that everlasting Gospel which he preached to the World, he hath in the name of God proposed to us a Heaven of endless Joys and Felicities, and brought life and immortality to light. So that if he were commissioned from God to make this great Proposal to Mankind, we have as much Security of a future Happiness, as we can have of the Truth of God; which is the Foundation of all the Certainty we have, whether in Philosophy or Divinity. Now that he was commissioned from God to promise what he did to us is apparent, because God himself by sundry Voices from Heaven declared him to be his Embassador to the World; and proclaimed him his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased, and whom he had substituted the Supream Minister of his Grace and Goodness to Mankind: and what he declared in Words, he also demonstrated in Deeds. For when Christ was baptized, God sent down his holy Spirit upon him in a bright shining Flame, which spreading it self round his Head encircled his Brows, like a Crown of Sunbeams, and remained upon him: which glorious Appearance answering to that visible Glory, by which God appeared from between the Cherubim, declared him to be the Temple of God, in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, and in which he meant to take his Residence for ever. And accordingly after this visible Shechinah, or Glory disappeared, we find most palpable and apparent Signs of the Presence of God in him; for by this it was that he cured the Sick, and calmed the Seas, and raised the dead, and wrought all those wondrous Works by which he proved his Mission from above. For so we are told, that the went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, for God was with him; Acts. x. 38. and after all the Miracles that he did in his Life, by this Power and Presence of God that was in him, being barbarously murdered, he rose from the dead by the same Power, and ascended triumphantly to Heaven. Of the Truth of all which we have as clear and credible Testimony, as ever was given to any Matters of Fact; the Report of them being handed down to us from those who were Eye and Ear-Witnesses; who in the defence of what they testified exposed themselves to infinite Hazards, and at last confirmed their Testimony with their dearest Blood; which is the greatest Security, that any Witness can possibly give of his Honesty. For what should move them to testifie these things, had they not known them to be true? It was apparently their temporal Interest to have concealed them; and their Religion, in which their eternal Interest was involved, prohibited them all wilful Lying under the Penalty of an endless Damnation: and would any Men in their wits have maintained a known Imposture, when they were assured beforehand, that all they should gain by it was to die for it here, and to be damned for it hereafter? And if their Testimony be true, as we have all manner of Reason to believe it is, then what they testifie doth plainly denote the Blessed Iesus to be the Holy One of God; from whom, as from his most holy Habitation, God would hereafter communicate all his Blessings to Mankind. And if so, then we are sure of eternal Life, upon condition of our patient continuance in well-doing: for whatsoever he hath promised us, he must have promised us from God; who dwelt in the sacred Temple of his Body, and from thence pronounced the Oracles of his Grace and Goodness, and manifested himself perpetually by sundry miraculous Effects.
FROM the Consideration of our Future Happiness, many useful Inferences may be raised: and First, from hence we may perceive, what an unreasonable thing it is for us Christians, immoderatly to doat upon the World. I confess,, if our chief, or only Interest were involved in this World, and we had no Hopes beyond the Grave; there were then some Excuse to be made for immoderate Sollicitude about the trifling Concerns of this present Life: but when it is so apparent, that we are born to higher Hopes, and are here but Candidates, and Probationers for an everlasting Preferment in the highest Heavens; methinks the Sense of it should make us blush at our own Follies, to think how busie we are in pursuing the fading Vanities of this World, whilst the great Interest of our Eternity is wholly neglected and forgotten. Blessed God! Who would imagin, that in a World peopled with immortal Spirits that must live for ever in unconceivable Happiness or Misery, the greatest Number of us should be such utter Strangers to the Thoughts, and Concerns of another World? That we who are so industrious in our temporal Affairs, as not to slip any Opportunity of Gain; but are so ready to court every occasion, that tends to advance these our momentary Pleasures, Profits and Honours; should be regardless of those Celestial Joys, which if we fall short of, we are undone for ever; and which if we arrive to, we shall be as happy as all the Beatitudes of an immortal Heaven can make us! O inconsiderate Beings that we are! Where is the Reason that constitutes us Men, that we should chuse thus crosly to the Nature of Things, when there is so vast a Disproportion between the Objects of our Choice, between Heaven and Earth, between Moments and Eternity, between the hungry and withering Joys of this World, and the eternally ravishing Pleasures of the World to come? Methinks if we had any Dram of Reason left in us, the Consideration that we are born to an immortal Crown, which nothing but our own Folly can disseise us of, were enough to inspire us with a noble Disdain of all these bewitching Vanities about us; and to make us look upon them as Things beneath us, Toys and Trifles, not worthy our scrambling for, When we consider, that there is an Heaven of endless Ioys prepared for us, which if we will we may make as sure of, as we can of our own Beings; methinks so vast an Hope should raise our groveling Thoughts so high above this World, that when we look down upon it, it should disappear, or look like a thin blew Landskip next to nothing; and all the Hurries and Scramblings of silly Mortals for little Parcels of Earth, should seem as trifling and inconsiderable to us, as the Toils and Labours of a little World of Ants about a Molehil. For how is it possible almost, that such little Impertinencies should take up our Thoughts, who have an Eternity of Weal, and Woe before us? And when we have all that an everlasting Heaven means, to busie our Thoughts, and employ our Cares about, how can we engage with so much Zeal and Vigour in the petty Affairs of this World? Foolish and unwise that we are! Thus to neglect our most important Interests for every impertinent Trifle, to sell our Souls for a little money, and give immortal Hallelujahs for a Song! And when we are born to such infinite Hopes, to chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate, and leave Crowns and Scepters to live among the Savage Herds of the Wilderness.
II FROM hence we may learn, how vigorous and industrious we ought to be in discharging the Duties of our Religion. For how can we think any Pains too much, when an everlasting Heaven is the Reward of our Labour? What a poor thing is it, that we should grudge to spend a few Moments here in the severest Exercises of Holiness and Vertue; when within this little little while, in consideration of our short Pains, we shall have nothing else to do throughout a long and blessed Eternity, but to enjoy a Heaven of pure Pleasures, and hath our Faculties for ever in fresh Delights; to converse with the Fountain of all Love and Goodness, and warble eternally Praises to him; and in the Vision of his Beauty and Goodness to live in everlasting Raptures of Ioy and Love? O my Soul! What though thou toilest and labourest now to climb the everlasting Hills! Yet be of good Heart, for it will not be long before thou art at the top, where thou wilt find such pleasant Gales, and glorious Prospects as will make thee infinite Amends for all: yea, though the Toil thou undergoest were abundantly more than it is; though instead of the Labour of mortifying thy Lusts, and living soberly, righteously and godly, thy Task were to row in the Gallies, or dig in the Mines for a thousand years together; yet methinks the Consideration that Heaven will be at last thy Reward, should be enough to sweeten, and endear it. O would we but often represent to our Minds the glorious Things of another World, what holy Fervours would such charming Thoughts kindle within us? And with how much Spirit and Vigour would they carry us through the weary Stages of our Duty? what Lust is there so dear to us, that we should not willingly sacrifice to the Hopes of Immortality? What Duty so difficult, that we should not chearfully undergo, while the Crown of Glory is in our Eye? Surely did we but look more frequently to the recompence of Reward, we should be all Life and Spirit and Wing; our sluggish Souls would be inspired with an Angelical Vigour, and Activity; and we should run with Alacrity, as well as Patience, the race that is set before us: but alas! We look upon our Reward as a Thing a great way off; and 'tis, I confess, reserved for us within that invisible World whereinto our dull Sense is not able to penetrate; which is the Reason that we are not so vigorously affected with it. Wherefore to make Amends for this Disadvantage, let us often revive the Considerations of Eternity upon our Minds, and inculcate the Reality and Certainty of our future Weal or Woe, together with the great Weight and Importance of them: let us thus reason with our selves; O my Soul! If it be so certain as it is, that there are such unspeakable Ioys reserved for good Men, and such intolerable Miseries for the wicked; why should not these things be to me, as if they were already present? Why should I not be as much afraid to sin, as if the gates of Hell stood open before me, and I saw the astonishing miseries of those damned Ghosts that are weltring in the flames of it? and why should I not as chearfully comply with my Duty, as if I had now a full prospect of the Regions of Happiness, and I saw the great Iesus at the right Hand of God, with Diadems of Glory in his Hand, to crown those pure and blessed Spirits who have been his faithful Servants to the death? And doubtless would we but inure our Minds a little to such Thoughts as these, they would wonderfully actuate all the Powers of our Souls, and be continually inspiring us with new Vigour in the ways of Holiness and Virtue: for what Difficulties are there that can daunt our good Resolutions, while they are animated with this Persuasion, that if we have our fruit unto holiness, our end shall be everlasting life? Rom. vi. xxii.
III. FROM hence we may perceive, how upright and sincere we ought to be in all our Professions and Actions. For if there be such an Happiness reserved for us in Heaven, then doubtless, if we intend to partake of it, we must be sincerely good; because he that is the Donour of this glorious Reward, is a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins, and is a curious Observer of our secret▪ Thoughts and most retired Actions; and consequently will reward us, not according to what we seem to be, but to what we really are. We may possibly cheat Men into a fair Opinion of us, by disguising our selves in a form of Godliness, and facing our Conversation with specious Pretences of Piety: but that God, with whom we have to do, sees through all the Dawbings, and Fucus's of Hypocrisie; and can easily discern a rotten Core, through the most beautiful Rind, that can be distended over it. So that we can never hope to obtain His Blessing, as Iacob did his blind Father's, by a counterfeit Voice, or exteriour Disguise of Religion: for all the fair Vizards of Hypocrisie are so far from hiding our Blemishes from God, that they lay them more open to his all-seeing Eye, and make them appear more monstrous and deformed. Wherefore, unless we are really good, we were better not to seem to be so; for mere Pretences of Piety will be so far from procuring Salvation for us, that they will but enhanse and aggravate our Condemnation, and sink and plunge us deeper into Hell, instead of obtaining any Entrance for us into the Kingdom of Heaven. Since therefore there is such an immortal Reward prepared for us in the World to come, if we love our selves, or have any regard for our most important Interest, we cannot but be in good earnest for Heaven; and if we are so, we shall be sincere and upright in all our Actions, and the great Design of our Lives will be to approve our selves to God, and our own Consciences. If by giving Alms we hope to increase our Stock in that great Bank of Bliss above, we shall not care so much to blow a Trumpet when we do it, that so the World may take notice of, and praise our Bounty; but our rejoycing will be this, that we have approved our selves to God, from whom we expect the Reward of our Obedience. If we abstain from Sin with respect to the future Recompence, we shall do it in private, as well as in the View of the World; knowing that wherever we are, we are under God's Eye, who alone can make us happy, or miserable for ever. In a word, if we seriously mind the Glory that is set before us, we shall be as curious of our Thoughts, and secret Purposes, as if they were to be exposed upon an open Theatre; considering that they are all open and naked to that God with whom we have to do, and upon whom the Hope of our immortal Happiness depends. For to what purpose should we dissemble and play the Hypocrites, unless we could impose upon the Almighty, and make Him believe that we are good, when we are not, and so steal to Heaven in a Vizard?
Fourthly and Lastly, FROM hence 'tis visible, what great reason we have to be chearful under the Afflictions and Miseries of this World; considering what Glories and Felicities there are prepared for us in the World to come. Indeed all the Miseries of this World are more or less, as we have more or less reason to be supported under them; but when we consider, that our Time here is but a Moment, compared with our everlasting▪ Abode in the World to come, our present▪ Happiness and Misery will appear to be very inconsiderable. We are now upon our Iourney towards our heavenly Countrey, and it is no great matter how rough the Way is, provided that Heaven be our Journey's End: for though here we want many of those Accommodations which we may expect, and desire: yet this is but the common Fate of Travellers, and we must be contented to take things as we find them, and not look to have every thing just to our Mind. But all these Difficulties and Inconveniencies will shortly be over, and after a few days will be quite forgotten, and be to us as if they never had been: and when we are safely landed in our own Countrey, we shall look back from the Shore with Pleasure and Delight upon those boisterous Seas which we have escaped, and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us thither. Wherefore hold▪ O my Faith and Patience, a little longer, and your work will soon be at an end▪ and all my Sighs and Groans within a few moments will expire into everlasting Songs and Hallelujahs: foreign ▪ Now our days are dark and gloomy, but the bright glorious day is dawning, which Night shall never interrupt; for God himself is the eternal Sun, that enlightens us with the bright Rays of his own Glory. And what is a little cloudy Weather compared with an everlasting Sun-shine? Doubtless these light Afflictions which are but for a moment, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things, and while we are groaning under the Miseries of this Life, let us encourage our selves with this Consideration; that within a little little while all our Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes, and there shall be an everlasting Period put to all our Sorrows and Miseries; when we shall be removed from all the Troubles and Temptations of a wicked and ill-natur'd World, be past all Storms, and secured from all further danger of Shipwrack, and be safely landed in the Regions of Bliss and Immortality. And can we complain of the Foulness of a way, that leads into a Paradise of endless Delights; and not chearfully undergo these short though bitter Throws, which, like the Virgin-Mother's, will quickly end in Songs and everlasting Magnificats? Chear up therefore, O my crest-fallen Soul, for thy bitter Passion will soon be at an end; and though now thou art sailing in a tempestuous Sea, yet a few Leagues off lyes that blessed Port, where thou shalt be crowned as soon as thou art landed; and then the Remembrance of the Storms thou hast passed will contribute to the Triumphs of thy Coronation; and all the bad Entertainments thou meetest with in this life, will but make Earth more loathsome to thee while thou art here, and Heaven more welcome when thou comest there; and these thy light Afflictions which are but for a moment will work for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory. 2 Cor. iv. 17.