A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

Here we cry, Lord deliver us from Evil! and then our Cries are heard to the full. Grace weakeneth Sin, but Glory abolisheth it, and the old Adam is left in the Grave never to rise more.

Here we cry, Lord deliver us from Evil! and then our Cries are heard to the full. Grace weakneth Sin, but Glory abolisheth it, and the old Adam is left in the Grave never to rise more.

2. The next Evil is the Evil of Affliction. Whatever is painful and burdensome to Nature, is a Fruit of the Fall, a Brand and Mark of our Rebellion against God; therefore Affliction must be done away as well as Sin, if we be completely happy. As in Hell there is Evil, and only Evil, a Cup of Wrath unmixed, without the least Temperament of Mercy; so in Heaven there is Happiness, and only Happiness; Sorrow is done away as well as Sin. It is said, Rev. 21.4. God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes, and there shall be no more Death, neither Sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more Pain. The Afflictions of the Soul are gone, there are no more Doubts of God's Love, nor Sense of his Displeasure; here though we are pardoned, and the Wound be cured, yet the Scars remain. Absalom could not see the King's Face when he was restored. In wise Dispensation God sometimes hideth his Face from us here upon Earth. We need to be dieted, and to taste the Vinegar and the Gall sometimes, as well as the Honey and Sweetness, that we may the better relish our Christian Comforts. The World is a middle Place, standing between Hell and Heaven, and therefore hath something of both: the Saints have their ⟨p. 118⟩Mixture of Pleasure and Sorrow; Job 2.10. Shall we receive Good at the Hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive Evil? But there is Fullness of Joy, and Pleasures for evermore;