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

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; Psal. 16.11. Thou wilt show me the Path of Life; in thy Presence there is Fullness of Joy, at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore: there is no Mixture of Sorrow. Here we complain that the Candle of the Lord doth not shine with a like Brightness as in the Months that are past; there our Sun remaineth in an eternal High-noon, without Clouds and Overcasting, Nox null• secuta est, no Night follows. The Afflictions of the Body are done away. Heaven is a happy Air, where none are sick, there is no such thing there as Gouts and Aches, and the grinding Pains of the Stone. Here it is called a vile Body, Phil. 3.21. as it is the Instrument of Sin, and the Subject of Diseases. We have the Root of Diseases in the Soul, and that is Sin; and the Matter and Fuel of them in the Body, peccant Humours and Principles of Corruption. As Wood is eaten out with Worms that breed within it self; so there are in our Bodies Principles of Corruption, that do at length destroy them;