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112

SERMON CCXV.

The true remedy against the troubles of life.

SERM.
CCXV.

JOHN xiv. 1.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God; believe alfo in me.

IN

N which words our bleffed SAVIOUR does, upon a particular occafion, prescribe an univerfal reThe first medy against trouble. And the particular occafion fermon on of this confolatory difcourfe, which our SAVIOUR this text. here makes to his difciples, was this; he had often told them of his fufferings; but the conceit which they had entertained of his temporal reign, would not fuffer them to admit any thought of fuch a thing, as the fufferings or death of the Meffias; and therefore it is faid that these things did not fink into them, and that they understood them not; men being generally very flow to understand what they do not like, and have no mind to. At laft our SAVIOUR tells them plainly, that how backward foever they were to believe it, the time of his fufferings and death was now approaching, and that he should shortly be " betray"ed into the hands of men," and be crucified and "flain." At this his difciples were ftruck with great fear, and exceedingly troubled, but in contemplation of his fufferings, and of their own invaluable lofs. To comfort them upon this occafion, our SAVIOUR directs his difciples to that courfe, which was not only proper in their prefent cafe, but is an uni

CCXV.

verfal antidote and remedy against all trouble what- SER M. foever, and will not only ferve to mitigate our trouble, and fupport our fpirits under the fear and apprehenfion of future evils, but under prefent afflictions and fufferings; and to quiet and comfort our minds under the faddeft condition, and foreft calamities that can befal us. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in Gop, believe alfo in me."

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He does not only forbid them to be troubled, and counfel them against it; fuch advice is easily given, but not so easily to be followed: but he prefcribes the proper remedy againft trouble, which is, truft and confidence in GOD the great creator and wife governor of the world; and likewife in himself, the bleffed Son of GOD, and SAVIOUR of mankind. "Ye be"lieve in GoD, believe alfo in me."

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The words are variously tranflated; by fome in-" dicatively, "ye do believe in God, and ye do be"lieve in me," therefore be not troubled;" by others imperatively, "believe in GoD, and believe likewise in me;" and then you can have no caufe of trouble. Or elfe the first claufe may be rendred indicatively, and the latter imperatively; and fo our tranflation renders the words, "Ye do believe in GoD, "believe alfo in me;" as "you believe in GoD" the creator and governor of the world, fo "believe "alfo in me" the Son of GOD, and the SAVIOUR of the world. But which way foever the words be rendered, the fenfe comes all to one; that faith in God, and in our bleffed SAVIOUR, are here prefcribed as the proper and most powerful remedies against trouble. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe "in GOD believe alfo in me."

In the handling of thefe words I fhall do these two things.

VOL. XI.

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First,

SERM. First, I fhall confider what fort of trouble is here CCXV. forbidden, or with what reasonable limitations this

general prohibition of our SAVIOUR is to be understood, "let not your heart be troubled."

Secondly, I fhall endeavour to fhew what virtue and force there is in the remedy here prescribed by our SAVIOUR, to mitigate and allay our trouble, and to support and quiet our minds under it.

Firft, we will confider what sort of trouble is here forbidden, and with what due and reasonable limitations we are to understand this general prohibition of our SAVIOUR to his difciples, "let not your hearts "be troubled." And this we shall beft find out by confidering the various objects of trouble, together with the several caufes or grounds of them. And thefe may all be ranged under these three heads; evils past, prefent, or to come. For the ground of all trouble is fome evil, either really and in itself so, or what is apprehended by us under that notion: and the feveral kinds of trouble, are either the reflection upon evils past, or the fenfe of an evil that is prefent, or the fear and apprehenfion of fome future evil which threatens us and hangs over us.

1. For the first, the trouble caused by reflection upon evils past, this must either be the evil of affliction or fin. The former of these, when it is past, is feldom any cause of trouble, the remembrance of past fufferings, and the evils which we get over, being rather delightful than grievous; fo that it is only the evil of fin, the reflection whereof is troublefom. And this is that which we call guilt, which is an inward vexation, and discontent, and grief of mind, arifing from the consciousness that we have done amifs, and a fearful apprehenfion of fome vengeance and punishment that will follow it; and there is no trouble that

is comparable to this, when the conscience of a finner SER M. is thoroughly awakened.

Now upon this account our hearts ought to be troubled, and we can hardly exceed in it, provided our trouble do not drive us to defpair, but to repentance but there can be no fufpicion that this comes within the compafs of our SAVIOUR'S prohibition.

II. As for the troubles caused by the sense of the prefent evils, either of lofs or fuffering, though this do properly enough fall within the compafs of our SAVIOUR'S prohibition, "let not your heart be "troubled," yet it admits of feveral limitations; therefore in order to the fixing of it's due and proper bounds, I fhall briefly fhew, what trouble for present evils and afflictions which are upon us, is not forbidden, and what is.

1. We are not here forbidden to have a just and due fenfe of any evil or calamity that is upon us; because this is natural, and we cannot help it: for there is a real difference of things in themselves; fome things are in their nature good and convenient for us, and agreeable and delightful to our senses; and other things are in themfelves evil, that is, naturally dif pleafing and grievous; and we must not only be ftoicks, but even stocks and ftones, if we have not a juft fenfe and refentment of this difference. Our bleffed SAVIOUR had fo; and as he was afflicted more than any man, and fuffer'd more than any of the fons of men, fo was he likewife very fenfible of his fuffer ings, and had a natural dread and horror of them; infomuch that he himself tells us, that "his foul was "exceeding forrowful, even to death," upon the apprehenfion of what he was to undergo; which made him pray so earneftly, and to repeat that petition fo often, "Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pafs "from

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SERM." from me." Nay, the very anguish of his mind, caufed by the dread and horror of his fufferings, was fo great as to force his blood through the pores of his body, fo that "he fweat as it were thick drops "of blood falling upon the ground."

And this is not to be wondered at, because our bleffed SAVIOUR, as he had the greatest endowments of human nature in their greatest perfection, so he had a perfect fenfe of the evils, and pains, and fufferings of it. And all philofophy that will not acknowledge loss, and pain, and suffering to be evils and troublefom and terrible, is either obftinate fullennefs or grofs hypocrify.

2. Nor doth this prohibition of our SAVIOUR exclude natural affection. This is a plant which GoD himself hath planted in human nature, and that for very excellent ends and purposes; and having made us men, and endowed us with fuch paffions, he does not expect that we fhould put off our nature, and transform ourselves into another fort of creatures than what we were when we came out of his own hands. To "be without natural affection," and to have no afflictive fenfe of the lofs of nearest relations, is condemned in fcripture, as a mark of the greatest degeneracy and depravation of human nature. And therefore we cannot imagine that our SAVIOUR did intend to forbid fuch a moderate and well regulated degree of trouble upon these occafions, as is the proper and genuine iffue of thofe natural affections, which GoD himfelf hath implanted in us.

3. When our SAVIOUR forbids us to be troubled, he doth not forbid us to have a just sense of GOD'S judgments, or of his hand, in procuring or permitting the evils which befal us; much lefs of our own fins, which are the meritorious caufe of them: nay,

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