iPP.ENDIX. 219 tobe this flesh. Its corruptibility tells us, that both its pleasure and its painwill be but short. Long pain is usually tolerable ; and intolerable pain will conquer nature, and not be long. ,The grace of Christ is sufficient for us, and his strength is manifest in our weakness, when he will not take the thorn out of our flesh, thought as Christ and Paul did, we pray thrice, or oftener. And to be impatient with death is to repine that we were born mortal men ; and to fly from heaven and all true hopes, and all the felicity purchased ily Christ; and is this renouncing the world, and trusting Christ for life everlasting ? And why fear we that which endeth all our pains and fears? A true believer never suffer- eth so 'much, but his mercies are far more and greater than his sufferings. His soul is united to Christ : his hopes of heaven have a sure foundation: he is sealed up to glory : rest and joy are near at hand ; and former m6icies should not be. forgotten ; and should not such men patiently endure ? O what a shameful contra- diction is it, to choose heaven as our only portion, to believe in Christ for it, and to seek it as the business of all our lives, and yet to be loath to die, that w'e may obtain it, and to fly with fear from that which we 'so seek and hope for ! What a con- tradiction is it to call God our God and-Father, the God of Love, and to call Christ our gracious, glorified Redeemer, and to fly from his presence with distrustful fear! Almighty love may cor- rect us, troy kill us, but it cannot finally hurt truebelievers. So much of Moses' and 'Elias' discourse ofthe sufferings and death of Christ. 15. Sure it is- not true that the souls of the fathers, before Christ's coming, did not enter into heaven, but lay in some inferior limber. For Moses and Elias came from heaven ; their shining glory showed that, and their discourse with Christ, and the voice and glory that'tvent with them. And it is not to be thought that they were separated from the rest of the souls of the faithful, and, with Enoch, .were, in heaven by themselves alone,, and the rest elsewhere.. Though it is said that God's house hash many man- sions, and there are various degrees of glory, yet the blessed are all fellow-citizens of one society, and children in one family of God. And they that cazpe from east and west, shall sit down with Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God ; and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom, and the believing thief with Christ in paradise. 16. It seems that Moses and Elias appeared thus, to foreshow the resurrection of Christ, and of the faithful, and to make it easier to the three disciples to believe it. Why should they doubt whether Christ should rise, when they saw that Moses was risen before him ? And why should they doubt of the resurrection of the faithful, and the glory following, when they saw these glorified
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