DISC. Iv. IN HIS SAINTS.- 40: s' actions of time, those past ages of complaint and infir- mity. We shall then, with pleasure and thankfulness, confess, that the captain of our salvation was much in the right to leadus through so many sufferings and sor- rows, and We were much in the wrong to complain of his conduct. Bear up your spirits then, ye poor afflicted, distressed souls, who are wrestling through difficult providences all in the dark, bear up but a little longer, " he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry r Heb. x. 37. he will set all his conduct in a fair light, and you shall say, " Blessed be the Lord, and all his government." Sixthly, That heaven should be so Well filled; out of such a hell of sin and misery, as this world is, shall be another delightful reflection, .full of wonder and glory. Take a short surveyof mankind, how `° all flesh'has cor- rupted its ways before God, and every imagination ofthe thought of man's heart is only evil, and that continually," Gen. vi. 5, .12. There is none righteous, no not. one, Isom. iii. 10. Look round about you, and see how ini- quity abounds, violence, oppression, pride, lust, sen- sualities of all kinds, how they reign among the chil- dren of men: Religion is lost, and God forgotten in the world ; and yet, out of this wretched world, Christ has provided inhabitants for heaven, where " nothing cán enter that defileth," Rev. xxi. 27. Look into your own hearts, ye sinners, see what a hell lies there, and ye converts of the grace of Christ, look into your hearts too, and see how many of the seeds of wickedness still lie hid there; how much corruption, and how little holi- ness ; look inward, and wonder, that Christ should ever fit you for heaven. by his converting and his sanctifying grace. Look round the world again, and survey the miseries of this earth ; as many calamities as there are creatures, and perhaps ten times more : Who is there on earthwith- out his sorrows? And, sometimes, a multitude of them meet in one single sufferer : See how toil, and weariness, and disappointment, poverty and sickness, pain, and anguish, and vexation are distributed through this world, that lies on the borders of hell; see all this, and Wonder at the grace,of Christ, that has taken a colony out of this miserable world, and made a heaven of it. 2 D 2
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