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SERMON XIV.

The Chriftian Life a State of Suffering.

[From Bishop TAYLOR'S Sermons. ]

I PETER iv. 17, 18.

The time is come, that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shail the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous fcarcely be faved, where fhall the ungodly and the finner appear?

T

HE apoftle is speaking here of a ftate of fuffering; and forewarns the followers of Chrift, that they muft expect to have their fhare of the calamities of this world. But the wicked and difobedient are by no means exempted. And Chriftians have many things to fupport them under afflictions, of which the ungodly are utterly deftitute. S

VOL. IV.

Beloved,

Beloved, fays he, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though fome Strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, forafmuch as ye are partakers of Chrift's fufferings; that when his glory fhall be revealed, ye may be glad alfo with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Chrift, happy are ye. But let none of you fuffer as an evil doer. But if any man fuffer as a Chrif tian, let him not be afhamed, but let him glorify God in this behalf. "For the time "is come, that judgement must begin at the boufe of God: and if it first begin at us, "what shall the end be of them that obey

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not the gofpel of God? And if the righ"teous fcarcely be faved," (be fafe, or exempt, from troubles and afflictions), "where fhall the ungodly and the finner "appear?" Wherefore, as he concludes, let them that Juffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their fouls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful

Creator.

The time is come, that judgement must begin at the house of God

So

So long as the world lived by fenfe and the difcourfes of natural reafon only, which were abated with human infirmities, and not affifted by divine revelation; fo long, men took their accounts of good and evil, by their being profperous or unfortunate. And amongst the basest and most ignorant of men, that only was accounted honeft, which was profitable; and he only wife, that was rich; and thofe men beloved of God, who received from him all that might fatisfy their pride, their ambition, or their revenge.

But because God fent wife men into the world, and they were treated rudely by the world, and exercised with evil accidents, and this feemed fo great a difcouragement to virtue, that even these wife men were more troubled to reconcile virtue and mifery, than to reconcile their affections to the fuffering; God was therefore pleased to enlighten their reason with a little beam of faith, or elfe heightened their reafon by wifer principles than those of vulgar understandings, and taught them to look beyond the cloud, and behold thofe

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thofe glories which they could not attain to but by paffing through that cloud, and being wet with the dew of heaven, and the waters of affliction.

And according as the world grew more enlightened by faith, so it grew more dark with mourning and forrows. God fometimes fent a light of fire, and a pillar of a cloud, and the brightnefs of an angel, to guide his people through their portion of forrows, and to lead them through troubles to reft. But as the fun of righteoufness approached towards the chambers of the east, and sent the harbingers of light piercing through the curtains of the night; and leading on the day of faith and brightest revelation; fo God fent degrees of trouble upon wife and good men, that now, in the fame degree in which the world lives by faith and not by sense, in the fame degree they might be able to live in virtue, even while they lived in trouble: That is to fay, God first entertained their fervices, and allured and prompted on the infirmities of the infant world by temporal profperity; but by de

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grees changed his method, and as men grew ftronger in the knowledge of God and the expectations of heaven, so they grew weaker in their fortunes, more afflicted in their bodies, more abated in their expectations, more fubject to their enemies, and were to endure the contradiction of finners, and the fharpneffes of providence and the divine administration.

First, Adam was placed in a garden of health and pleasure; from which when he fell, he entered into the covenant of natural forrows, unto which he and his pofterity fucceeded until the days of Noah. But in all that period, they had the whole wealth of the earth before them; they needed not to fight for empires, or places for their cattle to graze in; they lived long, and felt no want, no flavery, no tyranny, no war; and the evils that happened were fingle, perfonal, and natural. And fo long, their profperity was just as was their virtue; because it was a natural inftrument towards all that which they knew of happiness.

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