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under our Master: strengthened, I mean, as St. Paul speaks, with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in lightm. And so we shall, if the same spirit of faith be in us that was in them. For it tells us how Jesus went this way to heaven; and that if we overcome, we shall shine with him in his glory, and sit down with him in his throne, and inherit all things.

There need no more be said to encourage even those Christians who have been most delicately bred, or that are of the tenderer sex, to wade through the greatest difficulties. Let them but look up unto Jesus, and he will inflame them with such ardent love, that they will be glad to follow him to his cross, if they must go that way to come where he is. This moved Dorotheus and divers other courtiers, (who, as Eusebius" reports, were ẞaσiλikoì naîdes, of the emperor's bedchamber, and in such high favour, that they were no less beloved than if they had been the emperor's own children,) to prefer the reproaches and pains of piety, and the new-devised deaths they were to suffer for its sake, before all the glory and delights wherein they lived. And St. Peter, we are told by Clemens Alexandrinus", seeing his own wife led to death, rejoiced at the grace to which she was called, thinking now she was upon her return home. And cheerfully exhorting her to proceed to the execution, he called her by her name, saying only these few words, Μεμνήσθω τοῦ Κυρίου· ‘Remember the Lord.' That was sufficient, he knew, to make her constant and courageous: it being a faithful saying, (an undoubted principle of Christianity, on which we may ever safely build,) For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him P. And it was no less steadfastly believed, that they who suffered with him should also reign with him in a greater glory than others; as we heard before from St. Paul, who saith, their afflictions would work for them a most ponderous crown of glory. Nay, they gave the like encouragement to all those who did any

m Col. i. 11, 12. n Lib. viii. Eccles. Histor. c. 6. [p. 382.] • Lib. vii. Stromat. p. 756. [p. 869. ed. Potter.]

P 2 Tim. ii. II, 12.

eminent service to our blessed Lord. They that laboured hard, for instance, in the word and doctrine, St. Paul saith, were worthy of double honour, or reward in this world. Which few receiving, (but quite contrary, they were least esteemed, as he himself found by experience, who took the most pains,) there was the greater reason to hope to find it in another life; when the chief Shepherd appearing, they were sure to receive an excellent crown of glory. To every saint our Lord promises a crown of glory: (as those crowns were wont to be called that they used in times of greatest joy :) the word åμaρávτivov added to it (which is never used in any other place of Scripture, and is that whereby some of the crowns given to persons of desert in other nations are called) denotes, I think, something extraordinary in the glory of those good shepherds, who fed the flock of God according to the directions the apostle had been giving them.

The martyrs, we are sure, expected it; who building on this foundation, that they who suffer with him shall reign with him, gave God thanks when they received the sentence of death; and went to the execution singing, and expired with hymns in their mouths, and exhorted others, in the midst of their torments, to the like cheerful constancy. Of all which I could produce instances out of the ecclesiastical story; but I shall only set down that of Liberatus and his monks who, defending the Christian faith against the heresy of Arius, when they were condemned to be thrown bound into a ship full of faggots, and there to be burnt in the midst of the sea, sang aloud this hymn: Glory be to God in the highest. Behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation in which we suffer punishment for the faith of our Gods.'

And why should not this faith much more easily comfort us against the death of our dearest friends, when we can reasonably hope they depart from us to go into the eternal happiness of a better world? Their gain is so great which they have made by the exchange, that we ought not so heavily, as we are wont, to take our own loss. This Photius represents

q 1 Tim. v. 17.

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Persec. [lib. v. tom. viii. p. 698 D. Max. Bibl. Vet. Patr.]

66

very handsomely to his brother Tarasius; after he had said a great many other things, to stop the tears that he shed immoderately for a daughter who was dead. Suppose," saith he, "thy daughter should appear to thee, and, taking thee by the hand, should kiss it with a cheerful and smiling countenance, saying, My father, why dost thou afflict thyself in this manner? why dost thou bemoan me, as if I was gone to an evil condition? My lot is fallen unto me in Paradise; a place most sweet to behold, and far sweeter to enjoy: μew dè tiotews ȧпáσns n neîра, but the experiment exceeds all belief.' Into this the crooked serpent cannot wind himself, as he did into that of our forefathers; nor so much as whisper any of his deceitful temptations. There is none among us but whose mind is impregnable, and cannot be overcome by any artifice; nor can we desire to be gratified with any greater good. For we are all of us wise with the divine and heavenly wisdom; and our whole life is a continued magnificent festival, in the enjoyment of infinite and unspeakable goods. Splendidly clothed, we see God in a splendid manner, (as far as man can see him;) and ravished with his inexplicable, inconceivable beauty, we rejoice alway, and are never weary. Which abundant pleasure is the very perfection of love; and the power of enjoying accompanying love begets that ineffable joy and exultation of spirit. So that now, while I converse with thee, a most mighty love to those things draws me away, and suffers me not to expound the least part of them. Thou and my dear mother shall one day come thither, and then confess I have said but very little of such great goods; but accuse thyself very much for bewailing me, who happily enjoy them. Therefore, my dearest father, let me go away with joy, and do not detain me any longer, lest thou suffer a greater loss, and for that be more bitterly afflicted.

"If thy daughter, I say, could after this or the like sort speak to thee, wouldst thou not be ashamed to continue thy lamentations? and choose rather with joy to let her go away rejoicing? Consider then, if upon a child's saying such things, we should presently grow better, and be of good comfort; shall we, when our common Creator and Lord cries, He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live; and, God hath prepared for them that love him such things as eye hath not

seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man, be nothing better for such joyful tidings, but, like infidels, go on still to increase our sad lamentationst?"

We cannot answer this question any other way but by silence; or rather, cheerful thanksgivings to God, who hath given us such everlasting consolation, and good hope through his grace, as may well enable us to say in every other troublesome condition, Why art thou thus cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, and rejoice in his holy name, who, thanks be to his goodness, giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us shake hands with grief, sadness, and sorrow; and leave them to those who have no hope of eternal life. Let us make our boast in the Lord, and say, that he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Come, my soul, what is it that afflicts thee? Will not the thoughts of the joys of heaven give thee ease, nay perfectly cure thee? Will not a sight of Jesus, sitting on the throne of his glory, revive thee? It is but a moment or two, and we shall be with him where he is. Let us have patience for a few days more of banishment from our heavenly country. Hold out, my soul, for a short pilgrimage, and we shall arrive at our promised inheritance. Shall we bemoan ourselves thus miserably, for whom our God hath made such gracious provision? Shall we be weary, who want but a few steps and we are at our eternal rest? Behold, behold thy Saviour: yonder he is: I see him shining in his celestial glory. He looks upon me, methinks, and saith, Be of good cheer, for I am preparing a place for thee.

Do we not forget, O my soul, that Jesus is so highly advanced, when we suffer ourselves to be thus cast down and sadly dejected? Do we not reproach his memory, and in effect say too grossly, He is dead, he is not risen; who can choose but mourn and be sorrowful? For shame let us stay our tears till the testimonics we have heard can be disproved, till it appear that Jesus is still in his grave, and these are six false witnesses which stand up for him. But in the mean time let us rejoice that they never yet could be confuted, but have borne down all the opposition of the world and the devil for

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more than sixteen hundred years, to the eternal honour of

Jesus.

O sweet name! why do we dishonour it with sour faces and sad countenances, and a melancholic life? If he live, sure he will be as good as his word, that we shall live also. Let us never forget those words of grace, Because I live, ye shall live also; and let us never remember them but with new delight. Let it delight us to repeat them a thousand times in a day. As long as we live, let us comfort ourselves with this; Our Lord hath said, Because I live, ye shall live also. Doth it not fill a merchant's heart with joy to hear that his ship is arrived at a safe port, though many leagues from his own house? Doth not the countryman look brisk when his seedtime is good, though he must wait many weeks before he reap his desired harvest? Let not us then be the only lumpish insensible things, who hear the joyful news that Jesus is alive, and safely arrived at our Father's house, where there are many mansions. Let us not be so stupid as to be discontented, who have his word for it that we shall live with him: but let us rejoice, and say as the Psalmist doth, (we have more reason for it,) In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word. In him have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man, or any thing else, can do unto me". Jesus hath said I shall live: I will depend on his word; and expect, after all my tossings up and down in this troublesome world, to land shortly in the Paradise of God.

Paradise! O that comfortable word! that sweetest of all words! What should we not have given to hear of any hopes of it, if God had not promised it? And shall we now make light account of it? God forbid. We will not sigh at the thoughts of death itself, seeing it is but the gate of Paradise: we will look upon it with a smile, and say it is welcome: we will tell it that it is a long-looked-for friend, and bid it do its office, and make way for our entrance into the place that Jesus hath prepared for us. What though we have not much acquaintance with that world? what though it be a place where we never were, and from whence no friend that is gone thither hath returned to tell us what it is? Jesus knew it very well, (that is enough,) else he would not have endured so much for " Psalm lvi. 10, 11.

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