CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

¹And 1. God the Father who appointed such an order for Christ hath also decreed the like for us; Heaven and eternal glory cannot be had without much working and suffering, Rom. 8.17. If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him. Hence are those commands and expressions, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, Mat. 7. Be in an agony: The violent take the Kingdom of heaven, That the righteous is scarcely saved, Be not weary in well-doing, because we shall have a recompense, if we faint not, Gal. 6.9, That implieth such labour and discouragements in the way to heaven, that it is very hard not to faint, not to be weary, to give over all; As the people of Israel in the wilderness murmured and wished themselves in Egypt again, because they found it so difficult to get into Canaan; Hence Heaven is called a rest, Heb. 4.9. There remains a rest, What doth that imply but here in this world we are toiling and troubled and never have any rest, but in heaven there is rest, that also denoteth how sweet and excellent a place heaven is, and how much we while in this world should desire it and pray for it: Whereas our desire to be in this world is as if a man should be willing to lie in a bed full of thorns pricking and ga•ling of him; Thus hath God appointed a Fight before the Crown, labour before our wages, tempests and storms before the haven, wearisomeness before a rest.

¹And 1. God the Father who appointed such an order for Christ hath also decreed the like for us; Heaven and eternal glory cannot be had without much working and suffering, Rom. 8.17. If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him. Hence are those commands and expressions, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, Mat. 7. Be in an agony: The violent take the Kingdom of heaven, That the righteous is scarcely saved, Be not weary in well-doing, because we shall have a recompence, if we faint not,