218 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. for them, and'say, ' It is good for me that I was afflicted ?' The pain is past, and the benefit remaineth. And if all that is past was mercy to us, why should Are niuch fear that which is to cogie? Heaven will end all, and shame impatience forever. Our patience is much of our perseverance : what a deal of labor do those impatient men lose, that learn, and pray, and are some- what religious, and have not patience .at the last assault to bear the trial, but fail when they seemed to be near the crown ! Hold gut, then, poor desppndingsoul ! lift up the hands whicll hang down, and the feeble knees, and run with patience the race which is set before thee, looking to .Iesus, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. God will not deceive thy hopes. Sin bath brought pain and death on man ; but Christ bath sanctified it, and is the Lord of Life. Yet a little while and the heavenly possession shall turn thy sorrows into everlasting joy,and thy moans and groans into thanks and praise, and there shall be no more sicknbss, pain, or death. O foolish, unbelieving hearts ! that cry out of suffering, and fear deliverance ; that would fain be free from all affliction, and yet fly from the only state of freedom ; that are impatient under their calamity, and yet afraid ofpassing to the only rest ! 14. But it is neither pain alone, nor death alone, that will suf- ficiently try our strength, and exercise our faith and patience. It must be great pain (and often long) in order to a certain, expected death. These two conjunct were the case of Christ. The tor- ment of his agony, scourging, crucifying, piercing, and desertion, and the certainty of death that followed. Great pains, with hopes of recovery and ease maybe borne even by aworldly man ; because there is still the worldly hope of better ; and so there is no denial of all, while life itself is not denied. We must receive the sen- tence of death in ourselves, if we will find that we trust in God alone, and trust him as one that raiseth.the dead, thatis, for another and better life. . As long as a man bath any hope of life and ease, a man'`s faith is not tried to the uttermost, by actual forsaking all. And yet an easy death alone doth not fully try a man ; for they that know that all must die, may submit to this, who cannot bear long pains be- fore it. But great and lohg pains, and the sentence of death together, are the trial. And if God will so try me, why should I repine ? Flesh' will groan, but the mind may obediently submit. It is but flesh ; that flesh that bath tempted and imprisoned my soul. I have too much loved it, and am too loath tq leave it ; and is it not mercy fromGod to make me weary of it? God is engaged against idols; that is, all that is loved and pleased before him ; and if any thing, that is likest
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