528 BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. malice ; nor render us odious by false accusations; nor triumph over us with pride and false reproach. They that said of the church, as of Christ, "He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now if he will have him ; for he. hath said, I am the Son of God ; " (Matt. xxvii. 43.) they shall see that. God hath delivered his church, and he will-have it. Use 1. And will not a firm belief of all this rejoice the soul under all disappointments and sufferings on earth ? And doth not our dejectedness and want of joy declare the sinful weakness of our faith ? O, sirs, our sadness, our impatience, our small desire to be with Christ, the little comfort that we fetch from heaven do tell us, that Christianity, and a life of faith, is a harder work than most imagine ; and the art, and form, and words of holiness are much more common than a holy, heavenly mind and life. Christ speakéth many words of pity to his servants' under sorrows and sinking grief, which some mistake for words of approbation or command. " Why are ye afraid, Oye Of little faith ? " were words bothof compassion and reproof. I am sure the great unbelief that appeareth in much of our dejectedness and sorrow, deserveth more reproof than our sufferings deserve to be entertained with those sorrows. Use 2. I will, therefore, take my farewell of you, in advising, and charging you, as from God, that you be not deceived by a flattering world, nor dejected by a frowning world, but place your hopes on those joys which no man can take from you. If you cannot trust the love of God, and the grace and promises of our Savior, and the witness of the) Holy Spirit, you must despair; for there is no other trust. So many of you seem to have chosen this good part, the one thing necessary, which shall never be taken from you, that, in the midst of our sorrows, I must profess that I part with you with thankfulness and joy. And I will tell you for what .1 am so thank- ful, that you may know what I would have you be for the time to come. I. I thank the Lord, that chose for me so comfortable a station, evena people whom.he purposed to bless. H. I thank the Lord that I have not labored among you in vain, and that he opened the hearts of so great a number of yours, to receive his word with a teachable and willing mind. III. I thank the Lord that he hath made so many of you as helpful to your neighbors in your place as I have been in mine ; and that you have not been encharitable to the souls of others, but have, with great success, endeavored the good of all. IV. I rejoice that God hath kept you humble, that you have
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