of this Disease and to labour after a contrary temper Which temper recommended in three things First Patience under the troubles of this life This pressed with two or three weighty considerations Secondly Weariness of the Imperfections of life Thirdly Eager desires of Eternal rest How to turn David's Rhetorick into Divinity AND here I will grant that there is an averseness in the humane nature from Afflictions and a desire of release from them which is purely natural which is not properly sinful as I conceive no more than eating or drinking or sleeping is But it easily becomes sinful many waies when it is not rightly ordered directed and bounded by our wills or when our wills do concur with the disorderliness and excess of it And so it is when the averseness of the nature becomes impatience in the will and desires in the appetite become turbulent passions in the higher powers of the Soul 2. If impatience of troubles and eager desires of rest from Adversity be a Distemper then much worse is it when unlawful and indirect means and courses are added thereunto David indeed was eager over eager of deliverance yet we do not find that he used unlawful waies to decline the rage of Saul and to save his life but he consulted with God and pray'd unto him and so stood upon his own defence The wings of a Dove are swift indeed but they are honest and innocent But what shall we say to them that take to themselves wings to escape and that the wings of a Hawk or a Vulture that deliver themselves by Injustice Rapine Murder and Deceit that break the Snare by breaking Vows and Oaths and Promises that care not if they swim through a Sea of Blood so they may but get safe to Land that to redeem their bodies will not stick to sacrifice their souls David's indeed was a great distemper but this is a desperate and Devilish madness But that which I do principally infer and most of all press from the consideration of David's distemper is that you would diligently endeavour to beware of the like The infirmities of Saints are not recorded for our imitation no nor to afford us a way of excusing our selves but indeed for our caution and they will render us the more inexcusable if we beware not that whereof we are so warned Now that you may be safe and sound from this distemper labour to get a contrary temper Three things therefore I exhort you to in opposition to this distemper to wit Patience under troubles of this life Impatience of the imperfections of this life and eager desires of eternal rest 1. Labour to be patient and during of the troubles of this life and moderate your desires of deliverance and rest from Adversities Think not much nor think not long concerning any tryal as if some strange thing or some unequal thing befell you Labour to be mortified as much as may be to the sense of all bodily Afflictions and moderated in the expectations of temporal deliverance in as much as the former is not properly your misery nor can the latter of it self be your happiness What an unseemly thing is it to hear Christians venting all their passions spending all their complaints upon their outward state Oppressions Injuries Persecutions and spending all their Prayers upon their fleshly interest as if it were by that that they must live and be happy Oh that the voice of this weeping might be heard no more amongst us Was it not a childish thing in the Israelites to weep and whine after a little flesh Do but read the story in Numb 11. 4 5 6. and you will take it rather to be the puling of Children than the complaint of men and especially the men of Israel Wherein was the cry of the men of Israel after Corn and other sensual accommodations better than the howling of Dogs to which it seems to be compared Hos 7. 14. Concerning this impatience of trouble and eagerness after relief and ease and rest I need not say as our Saviour saies Matth. 5. Do not even the Publicans the same but do not even the Beasts the same do not they groan under their burden do not they long to be delivered from their pains and pressures and restraints And shall the longing of souls be no higher nor purer than those of a meer animal appetite Shall the Prayers of the Sons of God be of no higher a strain than the Children of the Raven which are said to cry unto God for meat Job 38. ult Set aside the elegancy of them and all your groanings under Affliction and lusting after deliverance are common to the beasts that perish as well as you And this may well be the first Motive to the duty which I exhort you to 2. Consider that if you be thus weary of Affliction and eager after rest you do secretly find fault with a chief piece of God's dispensations in the World and frustrate the ends which God hath in bringing tribulation upon the righteous The exercise of Graces such as Patience Self-denial Faithfulness Courage Constancy is the great end of God in all his afflictive Providences upon his people and if we be so soon weary of them and so importunately bent upon deliverance from them how can this great design of Heaven be fulfilled For can the Plaister work a Cure except it may be suffered to lie on 3. Consider that there is really more valour and true greatness of mind in enduring hardships patiently and constantly than in all these fightings and contendings for God which pass with many men for such a noble zeal To dare to live in an unpleasant and bitter time is much more magnanimous than to wish to die and to endure the anguishes of life with an humble patience and submissive spirit is more Divine than to endeavour to escape them This passive valour was the mighty courage of the Son of God whereby he overcame all that was against him How easie was it for him to have revenged himself upon all his enemies by Legions of Angels or Fire from Heaven How easily could he have frown'd them all into their first nothing But he gave his back to the smiter and his cheeks to them that pull'd off the hair he was dumb as a Sheep before the Shearers whereby he gave us an Example of the most admirable longanimity and magnanimity too and by enduring the Cross did perfectly vanquish all that Crucified him We do mightily admire the valiant Acts of David's Worthies when we read how one slew eight hundred at one time another resisted the whole Army of the Philistines and slew many of them another defended a piece of Ground from a whole Troop of Philistines and slew them another slew a Lion and two Lion-like men another went down to an Egyptian Champion only with a Staff and first spoil'd the Egyptian of his Spear and then slew him with it I will not disparage this valour of theirs but I will affirm that David in his flight from Absalom manifested a more excellent courage than when he slew the great Philistine and that the valour of these his Worthies in it self considered is no more to be compared to the admirable Patience Self-denial and submission of the Redeemer of the World or to that of Moses who was but one of his servants than the passions of a Beast aâ—e to be compared unto the ingenuous resolution of a rational soul For such a kind of animal courage fierceness and killing faculty many of the Beasts of the Earth have as much Adino Eleazar Shanimah or Benaiah the son of Jehojadah so much commended in the 2 Sam. 23. True valour consists not in the greatness of bones but in the greatness of mind not in strength of sinews but in strength of Grace not in the fierceness and sightingness but in the meekness and patience of disposition That 's not the true generousness of spirit which cannot brook injuries but indeed that which can That 's not the true valiant mind which is resolved what ever comes of it to have its own will but that which most freely resigns it self to the Will of God Quo minus quid sibi arrogat homo eò evadit nobilior divinior 2. Instead of being weary of the Persecutions of life be ye weary of the imperfections of life Let the body of death rather than the troubles of God be the cause of your weariness and complaint O wretched man c. It is valour to endure patiently the Afflictions of the body but to mourn under the infirm and imperfect condition of the soul whilst it is embodied is also devout and pious yea to be content to spend an Eternity in such an imperfect state and such an unsuitable body as this were an argument of a mind over sluggish and forgetful of its own bliss And yet I cannot say but that there is something of Religion in the souls patient induring of its imperfect condition in the body because the Will of God is so 3. Convert the animal appetites into Divine longings instead of eagerness of rest from Adversity be as eager as may be of Eternal Rest of a state of perfection and glory Let not the Beast be above the Man the sensual appetite be stronger than the spiritual let not David's thirsting after the waters of Bethlehem 2 Sam. 23. nor the Bond-servant panting after the shadow Job 7. 2. condemn your lazy souls that have a more desirable object set before them It is good to be a Horse-Leech here suck in what you can of Eternal Life and after all yet cry Give give In a word then to turn David's Rhetorick into Divinity Instead of Oh that I had wings like a Dove cry ye Oh that I had the Heart of Dove chastly adhering to God innocently behaving it self towards men and patiently enduring injuries Instead of Oh that he would give me wings like a Dove that I might flye away pray ye Oh that one would give me the wings of Faith and Hope that I might soar aloft in a disdain of Worldly Evils The wings of the Ostrich that lifteth up her self on high and scorneth the Horse and his Rider Instead of the wings of a Dove to flye away and be at rest wish rather Oh that one would give me the wings of an Eagle that I might flye away towards Heaven FINIS
relish to his palate whilst he had an animal body as they afforded to other mens although he was so infinitely pure and spiritual as that it was his meat and drink to be doing the Will of God The power of Grace doth not enable any man not to taste a sweetness or bitterness in things that are really sweet or bitter It does not fall under the power of my reason or will whether or no I will relish or sensate the sweetness of my morsel I cannot help that although I can keep my self from eating it so then it cannot fall under the power of grace But although Grace do not destroy the sensation of the senses yet it regulates and moderates all the senses as to their actings Hence Job is said to have made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and David to have kept his mouth as with a bridle Psal 39. 1. And as it governs the senses as to their actings so it also bestowes a more excellent ability upon the soul to delight it self in things sensual in a supersensual way and manner Besides the pleasure of the senses which is animal and common to all men yea indeed and beasts also the gracious soul doth relish something Divine something of God his Love his communications in all delectable objects which confers upon them a transcendent substantial sweetness And thus he may be said to taste God in every morsel to smell the Divinity in every Flower and to converse with him by a kind of secret feeling in all that he touches tastes or handles in the World CHAP. VI. God is All to the godly man in his Trust and Confidence The creature-confidence of carnal men is Blasphemy Good men are afraid of distrust How great reckoning they have alwaies made of their Faith The only fear of carnal men is the violation of self interest God is All in the fears of good men They fear him only though they are not afraid of him God is All to the godly man in his grief and sorrow explained 3. GOD is All to the godly man in his Trust and Confidence The degenerate and unregenerate soul as it is sunk into the creature so it sticks there it sticks by love and delight and sticks fast by confidence It were endless to give you but the Scripture instances of Self-confidence and Creature-dependance In Creature-confidence there is much Atheism or rather indeed blasphemy For to ascribe that firmness faithfulness sufficiency which God alone is to any thing besides him must needs be blasphemous and idolatrous And thus do wicked men blaspheme whilst they lay the stress of their souls upon the Arm of flesh upon Chariots and Horse men upon friends and Allies upon carnal interests or worldly riches And thus we know they do Psal 20. 7. Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses Prov. 18. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong City and as a high Wall in his own conceit But godly men have God alone for their refuge and confidence according to that of the wise King Prov. 18. 10. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous run into it and are safe I know they may be and often are surprized with fears and doubts but yet even then they will not let go their hold of God Psal 56. 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee It is as much the part of a godly soul to relye and rest upon God as to love him and pray unto him he is afraid of distrust unbelief and casting away his confidence as well as of Drunkenness or Debauchery I cannot but take notice what great reckoning the Saints have made of their Faith as if the very life of their souls had been bound up in it How expresly and pathetically does the Apostle charge us concerning this Ephes 6. 16. Above all taking the Shield of Faith and again Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering and again Vers 35. Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Job when he had lost all yet resolves not to part with his Faith whatever became of him Job 13. 15. Though he slay me yet I will trust in him And doubtless an ingenuous and steady reliance upon the grace and strength and help of God alone is an excellent argument of a sound and gracious soul Good men know how to make use of second causes and they see commonly as far into all creature-probabilities as any other men but it is the vertue and strength of God that they rest upon in all means and instruments 4. God is All to the godly soul in his fears The ungodly are full of worldly fears slavish fears scarce ever free from fears about one thing or other yea though there be nothing visible to make them afraid But as their interest is bound up in self and this present World so their great and only fear is concerning the violation of this self-interest He that hath plac'd his happiness in the enjoyment of any created good hath made a miserable choice for he is in danger of being utterly ruin'd every hour all created good being subject to so many spoilers that a man can never be secure in his possession And therefore no wonder that his heart is haunted one while with the fears of death another while with the fears of losses loss of Friends or Children loss of Goods or Reputation fears of wants fears of disgrace and many things more which his slavish heart is aw'd with continually But God is All in the fears of good men He is their fear and their dread as the phrase is Isa 8. 13. Not that they are properly afraid of God for they discover nothing in him but what is most amiable and grateful to them and therefore converse with him as with love it self serve him as accounting it their happiness and interest to do so and obey his Commands as those which are most equitable and suitable and most perfective of their natures with all gladness and chearfulness but they are afraid of sin so as wicked men are afraid of sickness and death viz. as that which is hurtful to them and destructive of their happiness Sin is all their fear by reason of the opposition it bears to the pure nature of God and so it may be said that God is All in their fear Thus Moses seems to have been more solicitous for the honour of God than for the preservation of the whole Congregation and more afraid of the sin of the Egyptians than of the death of the Israelites Numb 14. 13 14 15 16. whereunto many more Instances might be added Lastly To name no more of the Affections God is All things to the godly soul in his grief Concerning the sorrow of the wicked one I may say partly the same as I said even now concerning their fears it is a worldly sorrow derived from and terminated in the Creature But the sorrow of
applause without any higher principle may prepare and prompt men to endure Persecution And it need no more be wondred at that the meer animal and selfish life should expose it self to much smart and many severities than that a generous Cock should fight to crow and expose himself to death it self to get the victory over his Antagonist It is well known how much the superstitious Papists will deny and debase and degrade and torment themselves what Penances and Pilgrimages and poverty they will undergo and all this out of a slavish fear of God and a design to keep their lusts alive They will half kill their own bodies rather than crucifie their lusts or mortifie the body of sin These things they do not for the mortification of lusts but indeed these things they do rather than they will mortifie them for these things with them supply the place of Mortification But I fear we have many Self-sufferers in the World that will not own themselves to be of that Society I believe it is a malicious reproach that is by some cast upon the generality of Protestant sufferers at this day in the World viz. that they suffer for humour and self-conceit out of obstinacy and a spirit of contradiction for applause and a greater corroboration of their party But yet it may reasonably be feared that there are too many that do so It seems not at all strange to me that a man should study Self-advancement by a pretended Self-denial that he should seem to lose his life on purpose that he may find it I mean that he should pretend to crucifie the meer animal and selfish life on purpose to enjoy it the more securely and hug it the more dearly that a man should take joyfully the spoiling of his Goods rather than violate his fleshly interest or expose his lusts to spoil Men do sometimes most of all maintain and pamper this dying life of theirs when they seem to starve it and drive on the same design with Judas even when their Persecutions seem to be the same with Pauls Men may as verily feel themselves and as passionately please themselves in the seeming constancy courage and patience of their sufferings as in the pretended zeal and devotion of their actions and as truly seek and set up themselves and a Self-supremacy in their own souls by the one as by the other But God is All to the truly godly soul in his Persecutions This I might explain as to the Cause of them the End of them and the Manner of sustaining them As to the efficient cause of them he does not fret and storm and rage at men whether open Enemies or false Friends whether Informers Accusers Law-givers Executioners but he looks higher and sees and owns the hand of God in all things that befal him by the ministry of men David knew that Shimei could not have cursed him if God had not opened his mouth 2 Sam. 16. 10. And our Saviour presently replies unto Pilate when he bragged of his power Joh. 19. 11. Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above As to the material cause or matter of his Persecutions God is all in that too For he suffers for righteousness sake Mat. 5. 10. and for well doing 1 Pet. 3. 17. not for toyes and trifles petty perswasions and private opinions or matters of meer indifferency His soul is employed about more substantial and important matters he will not so much as go to Law about such things much less expose himself to the rigour of a penal Law for them he will not so much as be in a heat about them much less will he burn for them And therefore it is not out of pride humour or sullenness as the Persecutors do slanderously report but out of conscience towards God that he endures grief 1 Pet. 2. 19. He knows no interest but that of his soul which consists in his most exact conformity to truth and holiness and it is to this interest and the propagation of it that he is well content to sacrifice whatever else may be reckoned dear or grateful to him As to the End of his sufferings God is All unto the godly soul here too There are many base and low and selfish ends which a man may propound to himself in suffering for a good cause which it were too long to insist upon All which the truly Divine soul abhors He is not so prodigal of his blood as to shed one drop of it to purchase a name written in Red Letters he will not expose his Goods to spoil in order to a more ample restitution he will not fall on purpose to rebound the higher nor have his person confined that so his name may spread and his credit be enlarged But he is well content to be reproached that so God may be honoured and to be starved that truth may be maintained he is content to wither in his estate that so he may flourish in gâ—ace to perish in the outward man that he may be renewed in the inward to die for the people if so he may preserve them from perishing The glory of God and the Salvation of souls or if you will in plainer terms the exercise of grace the defence of truth the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in his own soul and the propagation of it in the souls of others are the grand designs of the godly soul when he takes up any cross Lastly God is All to the godly soul in the manner of his suffering Persecutions His way of sustaining them is with a pure peaceable humble self-denying patient constant chearful and charitable mind a mind prepared to wish good and do good to his very enemies and Persecutors Mat. 5. 44. In which excellent temper he feels not he pleases not he enjoies not himself or any self-excellency but glorifies God who gives such power unto men and admires Divine grace in that Heroical and most Christ-like passive frame which he finds derived into his soul I shall wave the farther prosecution of this particular because I foresee it will fall fitly also under another Head CHAP. IX God is all to the godly man in his Enjoyments What are the Enjoyments of Mind of Body of Estate The unregenerate mind enjoyes all these in a sensual or selfish manner But the godly man tastes a Divine sweetness in every thing that he enjoies though there be different degrees of refinement in Souls that are refined God is All to the godly Soul in his Endowments The unregenerate mind gross in admiring his own and other mens excellencies The godly soul entitles God to all that is good in himself or others God is the All of a good man's life and yet he is not satisfied with what he enjoies of him here but perpetually thirsts for more The Doctrine to be understood with three cautions that are briefly laid down 5. GOD is All to the godly man in his Enjoyments The enjoyments
unlimited it is doth alwaies proceed according to the Eternal Rules of goodness and righteousness And this will heal your spirits of all fretfulness and reconcile your minds not only to those Laws and Institutions of his which seem to be most Arbitrary but also to those Providences which seem to be most severe or unequal By a like mistake we are apt to ascribe Passion to God and to represent him to our selves as if he were all in a rage and very angry when he afflicts us Which Notion destroies all that chearful acquiescence under his hand and that quiet and friendly conversing with his Providence which we ought to maintain and so an imaginary wrath in God begets a real rage in our peevish and inpotent minds When as indeed the nature of God is as free from Anger Hatred Revenge and all the passions of our minds as it is from Hands or Eyes or Feet or any of the Members of our Bodies God is good and doth good saies our Psalmist Psal 119. 68. God is Love saies the beloved Apostle again and again 1 Joh. 4. 8 16. And there is nothing more certain than that God would never afflict his Creature if some greater good were not in view He envies not his People any of their Ease Peace Health Liberty or other Enjoyments but he loves them with a strong and Holy and Wise Affection and therefore will Afflict them in these things whether they will or no that he may bestow upon them some more substantial good Labour to converse with God in all his Providences as with Wisdom Goodness Righteousness and Love it self and then you will not be weary of his Discipline or peevishly affected towards any of his Dispensations We are apt to cry out Oh if we were but sure of the Love of God towards us in all our Afflictions we could be then content and patient Why go you and possess your souls in patience and get your Wills reconciled to the Providences of God Love him and delight in him and believe in him though he Afflict you never so sore and then be assured that God loves you for the Love and good Will of God is not his giving the Creature but it is the communication of himself and his Divine Perfections to your Souls CHAP. III. A Second Cause assigned viz. A misunderstanding of our true interest This Explained Where the true interest of Souls is Stated and the Cure prescribed in reference to this Cause of the Distemper A third Cause assigned viz. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. Where the nature of Good and Evil is Explained and Direction given how to discern them by way of Cure 2. ANother Cause of this distemper is A misunderstanding of our true interest Alas how are we sunk into this body How studious are we and fond of the accommodations and conveniencies of this animal life What fears and jealousies cares and contrivances what watchings and prayings and strivings and all for the peace and welfare of the flesh Certainly we judge our main interest to lie in the preserving pleasuring accommodating of the body and not of the soul which wicked apprehension as it destroies all true Religion so particularly it breeds the distemper that I am speaking of We are strangely fond of this Life as miserable as it is and of this body as unsuitable as it is and therefore are we so much offended with all things that are grievous and hurtful to the same yea we are apt to fret against God himself if he do not please and pamper them as much as we It is a woful degeneracy that hath befallen the soul of man which makes him mis-judge and mistake his main interest the like mistake is not to be found in the whole World sure I will not say with the Prophet Pass ye over the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and see if there be such a thing but indeed pass ye through the whole Creation and visit all the particular beings that are therein and you shall not find such a thing such a degeneracy as this is you shall not find any Creature that thus forgets it self or thus mistakes its main intetest although the same be no interest in comparison of the concernment of an immortal soul Be astonished O ye Heavens at this monstrous absurdity The Fig-tree in Jonathan's Parable would not leave its sweetness to go to be promoted over the Trees but this noble plant of the Lord 's planting the rational soul hath forsaken its interest and forgotten its proper sweetness and renounced its own pleasure and felicity to go serve its own servant and study the interest of flesh and blood To the service whereof it is so entirely devoted that God himself must be quarrelled with if he use not this Dalilah kindly if he offer to put it to any pain Be advised I beseech you therefore to get a right understanding of your grand interest and where it lies in order to the healing of this distemper Value your selves by your souls and not by your bodies by your spiritual and not by your corporal state Is that man happy whose body and bodily concernments are all in a peaceful and flourishing state when in the mean time his soul is defiled depraved deformed impoverished and become more vile than the Dung upon the earth and more wretched than the Beasts that perish How then can that man be judged miserable whose nobler part is beautiful healthful rich and prosperous although his corporal and temporal estate be squalid sordid contemptible and much afflicted Our Saviour hath fully resolved this Question in the persons of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16. Live like souls as much as may be abstracted from the body provide take care for view and visit your souls value your selves happy or unhappy according as it fares with your souls and then you will find it more natural and easie for you to bear up patiently and chearfully under all the Storms that light upon your outward man 3. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. This is somewhat akin to the former Our souls are so sadly sunk into matter and so fondly inamoured of our bodies that we are ready to judge of all things to be good or bad according as they accommodate or incommodate them and so we come many times to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5. 20. This is certainly a proper and immediate cause of our flying from groaning under and hastening out of Afflictions and Persecutions because we judge them hurtful and evil to us And why evil Forsooth because they gall our backs offend our senses pinch and oppress our flesh And is this indeed a right rule whereby to judge of the goodness or evilness of things Nay but if you would indeed possess your souls in patience in the midst of bodily pressures then exercise your spiritual senses to discern aright between Good and Evil as the Apostle's phrase is Heb.
5. ult But how shall we thus discern by what rule shall we judge them Good is the rule whereby to judge of Evil Rectum est Index obliqui and then for created good the nature of God the supreme good is the rule whereby to judge of that Perfectum in suo genere est mensur a reliquorum So then judge of all things by their relation that they bear to the nature of God and the tendency that they have to make us partakers of it And if we thus judge sincerely we shall not be so much offended at those Providences that are forming us into a resemblance of Christ Jesus nor be so hasty to run out of that Furnace that is refining us to be Vessels of Honour fit for our Masters use If David had at this time judged as discreetly and discerned as clearly as afterwards he did he would rather have wisht for the strength of an Ox to endure than the wings of a Dove to escape these pressures for in the up shot of all when he had viewed and compared all together and well recollected himself he professed openly that he accounted it good for him that he met with such usage in the World Psal 119. 67 71 75. God is the supreme good that is good for us that brings us nigh and makes us like unto him and that is not only Prosperity though indeed that ought to do it and I hope often doth it but even Adversity also Heb. 12. 10. He chasteneth us for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness CHAP. IV. The Fourth and last Cause assigned viz. Selfishness Self-love briefly touch'd upon Self-will more largely described with an earnest advice to bend all our powers against this rebellious Giant THese Causes of this Distemper are to be found in the understanding The Fourth and last Cause that I shall name is in the Will and it is Selfishness By this I mean two things Self-love and Self-will By Self-love in this place I mean sensuality or a judging of things by sense which I have touched upon already and an over high valuation of this meer earthly life and the conveniencies thereof Why are we so weary of Sickness and so impatient under Persecution Will it not come to this at length because we are so afraid to die There can be no farther end of the greatest Afflictions in this World than the parting of soul and body Is not this the worst that can come It seems then that it is an immoderate love of this wretched life that is the root of all these bitter fears and passions Labour therefore to be Crucified to the love of this natural life There are many inconveniencies and miseries that do arise from this root which I cannot now name certainly this distemper which I am speaking of is a very great one For however you find David here labouring under it yet elsewhere we find him earnestly labouring to be rid of it Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me c. Psal 42. 5 12. 43. 5. He is troubled at his being troubled and cannot with patience think how impatient he had been Strike therefore at the root of this Distemper labour to get your over-fond love and over-high valuation of this earthly life mortified He will be able not only to endure but even to contemn all Adversity who hath once well learnt to contemn his own life He cannot be in the power of any who hath death in his own power saies Seneca which admits of a good sense and agreeable to our Christian Divinity though he did not mean it so The other branch of selfishness is Self-will And this also is a pestilent disturber of the mind and engages the soul in many quarrels against God The understanding indeed may be mistaken and the flesh may smart and the Devil may tempt but I think the proud petulant perverse Self-will is the Achan the grand troubler of the soul This is the Sea from whence arise all those Clouds and Storms that trouble the Earth and infest Heaven it self If this were thoroughly mortified I dare say all the skill of earth all the Magick of Hell all the passions and pangs of the body could not make a clamorous soul This was the cause of Jonah's heat and rage and desire of death viz. because he might not have his own will Yea and it seems that Job's will was not molded into the Will of God and that that was the cause of his impatience for his complaint is called a contending with the Almighty and that by Job himself Job 40. 2. I do earnestly advise you therefore to bend all your strength against this rebellious Giant and be daily begging more strength than yet you have If you can overcome your own Wills you need not fear being overcome by any Adversity He that can deny himself can do any thing The Will of God is holy pure and perfect and indeed it is not only the duty but the glory of man to comply with it freely and chearfully What can be more Divine than a will according to God's Will an Heart according to God's Heart It was the commendation of David you know yea it is the perfection of Angels I have often observed with great delight the excellent patience and composure of David's spirit in the time of his flight from Absalom which you will find recorded in 2 Sam. 15 and 16 Chap. and you may see that he possest his soul in so much patience by this means by eying the absolute goodness of the Will of God and resigning himself thereunto Chap. 15. 26. and Chap. 16. 10. The patience of our Lord and Saviour was much more admirable than his and he was a person whose will was swallowed up in the Will of God Luk. 22. 42. Not my will but thy Will be done The time and matter and manner and measure of all your afflictions are all ordered by a Will and Wisdom which is above that is infinitely pure and perfect O therefore labour to get your wills reconciled to this Divine Will and your hearts at all times overpowered and mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness thereof and so shall you find all wrath and doubtings all discontents and jealousies to die and wither away and you will possess your souls in peace and gladness in patience and serenity in the midst of all your Afflictions I know several other causes might be brought of this distemper but I conceive they are either such as are inferiour and less principal or such as may be reduced to some of these that I have assigned Therefore I pass on to the Improvement CHAP. V. The Improvement by way of Concession that there is an averseness in the humane nature from Afflictions which is purely natural How it becomes sinful Secondly It is a greater distemper when unlawful means are used for deliverance out of Adversity Thirdly An Exhortation to beware