ture Wickedness of Men, and of thofe endlefs Torments to be inflicted on thofe for whom he fhed his deareft Blood, and valued not his Life to fave. Is it Nothing, to apply to our bleffed Lord thofe Lamentations of the Prophet, is it Nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold and fee, if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord bath afflicted me in the Day of bis fierce Anger. For thefe Things I weep; mine Eye, mine Eye runneth down with Water, becaufe the Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me; my Children are defolate, becaufe the Enemy hath prevailed. (Lament. i. 12--16.) Forafmuch then as Chrift bath suffered for us in the Flesh, arm yourselves likewife with the Same Mind, and commit the keeping of your Souls to God in well-doing. Wherefore indeed Should the living Man complain, a Man for the Punishment of his Sins? If we fuffer, it is no more than we deserve. And yet 3---If we fuffer with Patience, for God and in his Caufe, our fhort and light Afflictions will VOL. II. N work 2 work out for us a far exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory. 1 And this furely is Encouragement enough, that will abundantly indemnify us, whatever we shall endure for the fake of Righteoufnefs. There is no Man, fays our bleffed Lord, who bath left Houfe, cr Brethren, or Sifters, or Father, or Mother, or Wife, or Children, or Lands for my fake and the Gofpel's, but he fhall receive now in this Time an hundredfold, in that Peace of God which paffeth all Understanding, and in the World to come eternal Life. (MARK. X. 29, 30.) Thus was MoJes encouraged, and therefore did he chufe to fuffer Affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a Seafon. This likewife it was, that fortified the first Christians against all the Malice of Men ingenious in Cruelties. They believed themfelves well-paid, if through many Tribulations they might enter at last into the Kingdom of God. And furely they judged wifely. For what is more evidently right than to take the greateft greatest Care of the longest Duration, and be content to endure a fhort Affliction, that we may enjoy an endless and unspeakable Felicity? So let us reckon therefore, that the Sufferings of the present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us. Let them that fuffer according to the Will of God commit their Souls to him in 2 44 well-doing as into the Hands of a faithful Creator. As Jefus died on the Crofs for our Sins; fo let us crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lufts; whilft we look not at the Things which are feen, but the Things which are not feen: For the Things which are Teen, all the Pleasures and all the Evils of the prefent Life are temporal only, and of fhort Duration; but the Things which are not feen, the Joys and Sorrows after Death, are eternal. May God give us juft Apprehenfions of thofe everlasting Sorrows, and enable us by his Grace to feek after the Happiness of Heaven by a patient Continuance in welldoing for the fake of his bleffed Son Jefus Chrift our Lord. SERMON VI JOHN XX. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. HERE is no Point of Faith more im THER portant to Christianity, and of which it more concerned the Apostles to produce a fubftantial Proof, than the Refurrection of our bleffed Saviour. To this as to the fu preme and decifive Evidence, that he was a Teacher sent from God, our Lord himself appeals. As oft as the Jews called upon him to fhew them a Sign from Heaven, they are referred to the Sign of the Prophet Jonas, and to the Refurrection of his Body after they had |