Several duties which the mysterious nature of the gospel imposes on believers 3/3

    Again, bear with weaknesses in the practical part of religion.  Godliness, as well as the doctrine of our faith, is a mystery.  All the servants in a shop cannot work alike.  Some bungle at more than other—as their parts and experience are less.  All saints are not of a height.  Christ hath some children in his family that are led with strings, as well as others that go strongly without such help.  Some act more upon pure gospel principle—love, and a spirit of adoption; others have not yet worn off their legal fears and terrors.  Some are got higher up the hill of faith, and have clearer apprehensions of their spiritual state; others are nearer the bottom, who, as the sun newly risen above the horizon, are wrapped up with many clouds of perplexing fears and doubts.  In a word, some are got further out of their passions, have greater mastery over their corruptions, than other of their brethren.  Pity thy weak brother, and take him by the hand for his help; but despise him not, God can make even him stand, and suffer thee to fall. Christ doth not quench the smoking flax, why should we?  The weak Christian is welcome to his heavenly Father, as well as the strong; why should he not be so to his brethren?  But, alas! the proverb here is too true, ‘Better speak to the master than the man; the father, than the child.’  Those that can be so bold with God, dare not be free with their fellow-servants and brethren.

         Duty.  Is the gospel a mystery?  Then Chris­tian, long for heaven; there, and only there, shall this mystery be fully known.  The great things which were spoken concerning the gospel church made many saints and prophets before Christ’s time desire to see those happy times wherein such revelations should be made; how much more should we long for heaven, where this great mystery shall be fully opened, and every box of this cabinet unlocked, in which lie so many precious jewels to this day unseen by any saint on earth!  Then it will be said, ‘The mystery of God is finished,’ Rev. 10:7.  Here we learn our knowledge of it by little and little, like one that reads a book as it comes from the press, sheet by sheet; there we shall see it altogether.  Here we get a little light from this sermon, a little more from the next, and thus our stock increases by the addition of a few pence thrown in, some to‑day, and more to-morrow; but there we shall have all at once.  Here we learn with much pain and difficulty; there without travail and trouble. Glorified saints, though they cease not from work, yet rest from labour.  Here passion blinds our minds, that we mistake error for truth and truth for error; but then these clouds shall be scattered and gone.  Here the weakness of natural parts keeps many in the dark, and renders them incapable of apprehending some truths, which other of their brethren are led into; but there the strong shall not prevent the weak, the scholar shall know as much as his master, the people as their minister.  Here the squabbles and conten­tions among the godly do leave the weaker sort at great uncertainty what to think concerning many truths; but there they shall all agree—which comforted that holy man on his death-bed, that he was going thither where Luther and Calvin were reconciled.  Here we are disturbed in our inquiries after truth—one while the necessary occasions of this world divert us, another while the weakness and infirmities of our bodies hinder us; but in heaven our bodies will call for none of this tending, we shall need provide neither raiment for the back nor food for the belly.

           O happy death, that will ease us of all the aches of our bodies and conflicts in our souls!  Thou art the only physician to cure all the saints’ distempers in both.  When that blessed hour comes, then lift up your heads with joy, for it will lead you into that blissful place where you shall see Christ, not a great way off, with the eye of faith in the optic glass of an ordinance or promise, but, with a glorified eye, be­hold his very person, never more to lose the sight of him.  Thou shalt not taste his love in a little morsel of sacramental bread and sip of wine, but lay thy mouth to the fountain, and from his bosom drink thy full draught.  Thou shalt no more hear what a glorious place heaven is, as thou wert wont to have it set forth by the sorry rhetoric of a mortal man preaching to thee of that with which himself was but little ac­quainted; but shalt walk thyself in the streets of that glorious city, and bless thyself when thou art there, to think what poor low thoughts thou and thy minister also had thereof, when on earth thou didst meditate, and he did preach, on this subject.  One moment’s sight of that glory will inform thee more than all the comments and books written of it were ever able to do.  And dost thou not yet cry out, How long will it be, O Lord, most holy and true, before thou bringest me thither?  Is not every hour a day, day a month, month a year, yea age, till that time comes?  As Bernard, upon those words, ‘A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me,’ John 16:16, passionately breaks forth—pie Domine, modicum illud vocas, in quo te non videam?  O modicum, modicum longum—holy Lord, dost thou call that a little while in which I shall not see thee?  O this little is a long little while!