BAITER'S FAREWELL SERMON. 505 and therefore sense shall help to mortify it., The frowns of the world shall be an antidote against its flatteries. It killed' by pleasing, and therefore it may help our cure by displeasing us. Loving it is men's undoing; and hurtitg us is the way to keep us from over- loving it. These wholesome sorrows do greatly disable our most dangerous temptations, and preserve us from the pernicious poison of prosperity. They rouse us up when we are lazy and ready to sit down ; they awake us when we are ready to fall asleep ; they drive us to God when we are ready to forget him, and dote upon a deceiver; they teach us part of the meaning of the gospel ; with- out them we know not well what " a Savior," a "promise," a "pardon,". "grace," and many other gospel terms, do signify. They teach us to pray, and teach us to hear and read with under- standing; they tell us the value of all our mercies, and teach us the use of all the means of grace. They are needful to fix our flashy, light, inconstant minds, which are apt to be gazing upon every bait, and to be touching or tasting the forbidden fruit; and to be taken with those things which we had lately cast behind our backs, till medicinal sorrow doth awake our reason, and make us see the folly of our dreams. Yea, if sorrow check us not, and make us wise, we are ready to lay by our grace and wit, and to follow any goblin in the dark, and, like men bewitched, to be de- ceived bywe know not what, and to go on as a bird to the fowler's snare, as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks ; Prov. vii. 22, 23. 4. Moreover ; precedent sorrows will raise the price offollowing joys. They will make us more desirous of the day of our deliver- ance, and will make it the welcomer to us when it comes. Heav- en will be seasonable after a life of so much trouble ; and they that come out of great tribulation, will joyfully sing the praises of their Redeemer; Rev. vii. 14. 5. And God will have the members conformed to their Head : (Luke xiv. 28, 33.) this was Christ's method, and it must be ours; (Rom. viii. 17, 18.) we must take up the cross, and follow him, if ever wé will have the crown ; and we must suffer with him if we will be glorified with him; (2 Tim. ii. 12.) Though the will of God be the reason which alone should satisfy his creatures, yet these reasons show you the equity and goodness of his ways. Use 1. If sorrow before joy be God's ordinary method of deal- ing with his most beloved servants, learn hence to understand the importance of your sorrows. You say as Baruch, " Woe is me now.; for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted inmy sighing, and I find no rest ; " Jer. xlv. 3. You are ingenious in re- counting and aggravating your afflictions. But are you as ingeni- ous in expounding them aright? do you not judge of them rather VOL. II. 64
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