1, To a patient bearing of all the afflictions and troubles of the present time: troubles and afflictions are unwelcome Guests to the mind of Man, nature is averse to them, and if grace doth not afford something to sweeten them, they will be hard to bear: and there cannot be a greater cordial against these Faintings, then a due application of the consideration of that happy day wherein the glory of the Children of God shall be made manifest: this hope will put life into the Soul, Rom. 8. 24. For we live by hope: the thoughts of this day were those which did put courage into Christians in their greatest adversities, and made them valiant in suffering for God and Christ, yea to contemn and despise those sufferings, and speak of them as poor things, and scarce to be valued: see what Paul thinks of them, Rom. 8. 18. Not worthy to be compared with the Glory to be revealed, and 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment. How David contents himself in such a meditation, Psal. 17. ult. I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness. And Asaph, Psal, 73. 24. when a Child of God sits down and thinks with himself thus, I that now suffer for Christ, shall Reign with him ere long; I that now am judged and condemned by the World, shall shortly at Christs Bar be approved and acquitted; that for which now shame▪ and reproach is cast ⟨p. 107⟩upon me, shall then be my glory: what though I am now in heaviness, through manifold temptations, am despised, disgraced, trampled upon, and made a mock and laughter for a wicked World? when Christ shall appear, then I shall be honoured, approved, arrayed in state, and crowned with Glory; and they that now despise me shall see it; they that will not now believe, shall then know that my reward was with God: how can he ch•se but find his heart quieted, and the tumults thereof appeased with such thoughts as these? yea quietly to suffer all things for Christ, in these hopes of Glory?
1, To a patient bearing of all the afflictions and troubles of the present time: troubles and afflictions are unwelcome Ghuests to the mind of Man, nature is averse to them, and if grace doth not afford something to sweeten them, they will be hard to bear: and there cannot be a greater cordial against these Faintings, then a due application of the consideration of that happy day wherein the glory of the Children of God shall be made manifest: this hope will put life into the Soul, Rom. 8. 24. For we live by hope: the thoughts of this day were those which did put courage into Christians in their greatest adversities, and made them valiant in suffering for God and Christ, yea to contemn and despise those sufferings, and speak of them as poor things, and scarce to be valued: see what Paul thinks of them, Rom. 8. 18. Not worthy to be compared with the Glory to be revealed, and 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment. How David contents himself in such a meditation, Psal. 17. ult. I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness. And Asaph, Psal, 73. 24. when a Child of God sits down and thinks with himself thus, I that now suffer for Christ, shall Reign with him ere long; I that now am judged and condemned by the World, shall shortly at Christs Bar be approved and acquitted; that for which now shame▪ and reproach is cast ⟨p. 107⟩upon me, shall then be my glory: what though I am now in heaviness, through manifold temptations, am despised, disgraced, trampled upon, and made a mock and laughter for a wicked World? when Christ shall appear, then I shall be honoured, approved, arra•ed in state, and crowned with Glory; and they that now despise me shall see it; they that will not now believe, shall then know that my reward was with God: how can he ch•se but find his heart quieted, and the tumults thereof appeased with such thoughts as these? yea quietly to suffer all things for Christ, in these hopes of Glory?
