of the body, as the Hebrew word for them imports, so he keepeth all his bones; and the desperate condition of wicked men is opposed to this, to illustrate ita, But evil shall slay the wicked.

Thus, in the close, they are forewarned what to expect at the world's hands, as they were divers times before in that same sermon: but it is a sweet testament, take it altogether, ye shall have tribulation in the world, but peace in me; and seeing he hath jointly bequeathed these two to his followers, were it not great folly to renounce such a bargain, and to let go that peace for fear of this trouble? The trouble is but in the world, but the peace is in him, who weighs down thousands of worlds.

So then they do exceedingly mistake and misreckon, that would reconcile Christ and the world, that would have the church of Christ, or at least, themselves for their own shares, enjoy both kinds of peace together; would willingly have peace in Christ, but are very loth to part with the world's peace; they would be christians, but they are very ill satisfied when they hear of any thing but ease and prosperity in that estate, and willingly forget the tenor of the gospel in this; and so when times of trouble and sufferings come, their minds are as new and uncouth to it, as if they had not been told of it before-hand. They like better St. Peter's carnal advice to Christ to avoid suffering, than his Apostles doctrine to Christians, teaching them, that as he suffered, so they likewise are called to suffering. Men are ready to think as Peter did, that Christ should favour himself more in his own body, his church, than to expose it to so much suffering; and most would be of Rome's mind in this, at least in affection, that the badge of the church should be pomp and prosperity, and not the cross; the true cross and afflictions are too heavy and painful.

But God's thoughts are not ours; those whom he calls to a kingdom, he calls to sufferings, as the way c Matt. xvi. 22.

a yer, 21. Þ John xvi.

to it. He would have the heirs of heaven know, they are not at home on earth, and that this is not their rest. He will not have them with the abused world fancy a happiness here, and seek a happy life in the region of death, as St. Augustin says.* The reproaches and wrongs that encounter them shall elevate their minds often to that land of peace and rest, where righteousness dwells," The hard taskmasters shall make them weary of Egypt, (which other wise possibly they would comply too well with) and. dispose them for deliverance, and make it welcome; which, it may be, they might but coldly desire, if they were better used.

He knows what he does, who secretly serves his good ends of mens evil, and, by the plowers that make long furrows on the back of his church, makes it a fruitful field to himself. Therefore, it is great folly and unadvisedness, to take up a prejudice against his way, and think it might be better as we would model it, and to complain of the order of things; whereas we should complain of disordered minds, but we had rather have all altered and changed for us, the very course of Providence, than seek the change of our own perverse hearts: whereas the right temper of a christian is, to run always cross to the corrupt stream of the world, and human iniquity, and to be willingly carried along with the stream of divine Providence, and not at all to stir a hand, no, nor a thought, to row against that mighty current ; and not only is he carried with it upon necessity, because there is no steering against it, but cheerfully and voluntarily; not because he must, but because he would.

And this is the other thing to which they are jointly called, as to suffering, so to calmness of mind, and patience in suffering, although their suffering be most unjust; yea, this is truly a part of that duty they are called to, a part of that integrity and inoffensiveness

a Beatam vitam quærere in regione mortis.
c Psa. cxxix. 3.

>

2 Pet. iii, 13.

A a 2

of life that may make their sufferings at mens hands always unjust. The entire duty here is innocence and patience, doing willingly no wrong to others, and yet cheerfully suffering it when done to themselves. If either of the two be wanting, their suffering do not credit their profession, but dishonours it. If they be patient under deserved suffering, their guiltiness darkens their patience; and if their sufferings be undeserved, yea, and the cause of them honourable, yet impatience under them stains both their sufferings and their cause, and seems in part to justify the very injustice that is used against them: but when innocence and patience meet together in suffering, there sufferings are in their perfect lustre. These are they that honour religion, and shame the enemies of it. It was the concurrence of these two that was the very triumph of the martyrs in times of persecution, that tormented their tormentors, and made them more than conquerors, even in sufferings.

Now that we are called both to suffering, and to this manner of suffering, the Apostle puts out of question, by the supreme example of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the sum of our calling is, to follow him. Now in both these, in suffering, and in suffering innocently and patiently, the whole history of the gospel testifies how complete a pattern he is. And the Apostle gives us here a summary, yet a very clear account of it.

The words have in them these two things, 1. The perfection of this example. 2. Our obligation to follow it.

I. The example he sets off to the full, 1. In regard of the greatness of his sufferings. 2. Of his spotlessness and patience in suffering.

The first we have in that word he suffered, and af ter v. 24. we have his crucifying and his stripes expressly specified.

Now this is reason enough, and carries it beyond all other reason, why christians are called to a suf

a Rom. viii. 37.

If

fering life, seeing the Lord and Author of that calling suffered himself so much. The Captain or Leader of our salvation, as the Apostle speaks, was consecrated by suffering, that was the way by which he entered into the holy place, where he is now our everlasting High-Priest, making intercession for us. he be our Leader to salvation, must not we follow him in the way he leads, whatsoever it is? If it be (as we see it is) by the way of sufferings, we must either follow on in that way, or fall short of salvation; for there is no other Leader, nor other way but that which he opened: so that there is not only a congruity in it, that his followers be conformed to him in suffering, but a necessity, if they will follow him on, till they attain to glory. And the consideration of both these cannot but argue a christian into a resolution for this via regia, this royal way of suffering that leads to glory, through which their King and Lord himself went to his glory. It could hardly be believed at first that this was his way, and we can as hardly yet believe that it must be ours, O fools and slow of heart to believe; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?

L

Would you be at glory, and will you not follow your Leader in the only way to it? Must another way be cut out for you by yourself? O absurd! Shall the sercant (says he,) be greater than his master? Are not you fairly dealt with, if you have a mind to Christ? You shall have full as much of the world's good-will as he had: if it hate you, he bids you remember, how it hated him:d

But though there were a way to do otherwise, would you not rather chuse (if the love of Christ possessed your hearts) to share with him in his lot, and would you not find delight in the very trouble of it? Is not this conformity to Jesus the great ambition of all his true-hearted followers? We carry aJohn xiii. 16,

a Heb. ij. 10.

Luke xxiv. 25, 26.
chap. xv. 18.

b

bout in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, says the great Aposle. Besides the unspeakable advantage to come, that goes linked with this, that if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. There is a glory, even in this present resemblance, that we are conformed to the image of the Son of God in sufferings. Why should we desire to leave him? Are you not one with him? Can you chuse but have the same common friends and enemies? Would you willingly, if it might be, could you find in you heart to be friends with that world that hated your Lord and Master?. Would you have nothing but kindness and case, where he had nothing but enmity and trouble? Or would you not rather, when you think right of it, refuse and disdain to be so unlike him? As that good Duke said, when they would have crowned him king of Jerusalem, No, said he, by no means, I will not wear a crown of gold where Jesus was crowned with thorns.

2. This spotlessness and patience in suffering are both of them set here before us; the one v. 22. the other v. 23.

с

Whosoever thou art that maketh a noise about the injustice of what 'hou sufferest, and thinkest to justify thy impatience by thine innocence, let me ask thee, Art thou more just and innocent than he that is here set before thee? Or art thou able to come near him in this point? Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth. This is to signify perfect holiness, according to that. Man is by some called a little world; he is indeed a world of wickedness, and that little part of him, the tongue, is a little world of iniquity. All Christ's words and actions, and all his thoughts, flowed from a pure spring that had not any thing defiled in it; and therefore no temptation either from men or Satan could seize on him. Other men may seem clear as long as they are unstirred, but move and trouble them and the mud arises; whereas he was nothing but holiness, a pure fountain, James jii. 2.

? 2 Cor. iv. 10.

b3 Tim, ii. 12.