502 BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. Doct. 6. The joy of Christians in the return or re-appearing of their Lord is such as no man shall take from them. Of these, by God's assistance, I shall speak in order, and there- fore be but short on each. Doct. I. Sorrow goeth before joy with Christ'sdisciples. The evening and the morning make 'their day. Theymust sow in tears before they reap in joy. They must have trouble in the world, and peace in Christ. God will first dwell in the contrite heart, to prepare it to dwell with ,rim in glory. The pains of travail must go before the joy of the beloved birth. Quest. What kind of sorrow is it that goeth before our joy? nsw. 1. There is. a sorrow positively sinful, which Both, but should not, go before our joy. Though this be not meant direct- ly in the text, yet it is too constant a- foregoer of our comforts. It is not the joys of innocency that are our portion, but the joys of restoration ; and the pains of ourdiseasè gobefore the ease and com- fort of our recovery. We have our worldly sorrows, and our pas- sionate and peevish sorrows, like Jonah's for the withering of his gourd. According to the, degree of our remaining corruption, we have our sorrows, which mustbe sorrowed for again. Sometimes we are troubled at the prpvidences of God, and sometimes at'the dealings of men ; at the words or doings of enemies, of friends, of all about us. We are grieved if we have not what we would have; and when we have it, it becomes our greater grief: nothing well pleaseth us, till we so devote ourselves to please our God, as to be pleased in the pleasing of him. 2. And we have our sorrows, which are sinful through our weakness and imperfection, when, through the languishing feeble- ness of our souls; we are overmuch troubled at that which we may lawfully sorrow for with moderation; when impatience cáuseth us to make a greater matter df our afflictions thap we ought. If God dobut try us with, wants or crosses ; ifwe lose our friends, or if they prove unkind ; we double the weight of the cross by` our im- patience. This cometh from the, remnantsof unmortified selfish- ness, carnality, and oyerloving earthly things. Were they, less loved, they would be less sorrowed for. If we had seen their vanity, and mortification had made them nothing to us, we should then part with them as with vanity and nothing. It is seldom that God or men afflict us, but we therefore afflict ourselves much more. As the destruction of the wicked, so the troubles of the godly is chiefly of themselves. 3. There is a mere natural sufferingor sorrow, which is neither morally good or bad. As to be wearywith our labor ; to be pain- ed with our diseases ; to be sensible of : hunger and thirst, of cold
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