a time of absence so do Christ and his Church the Father and his prodigall sonne make not more merrie the Bridegroome and the Bride rejoyce not more then Christ and his Spouse do upon their renewed amitie and agreement 2. In times and occasions extraordinarie if she sees her Saviour in any mercie in any joyes of the spirit or in any deliverance or in the granting of her requests especially in such things as respects her soul and salvation she is moved her blood stirs within her and all the powers of her soul are quickned and revived if she hear him speak not onely in the sound of words Cant. 2.14 but the efficacie of his spirit she cannot sit still but riseth and cries it is the voice of my well-beloved Cant. 2.8 And if these two sences which let in and let out love were not exercised in seeing and hearing Christ she could not with any patience wait for him Cap 5.16 Let me see thy countenance and hear thy voice for it is sweet and comely But these stay her heart and therefore we from hence conclude what she is sick of A Physitian knows the disease and by the operation of his medicines he still is confirmed in his knowledge for if hot things do good then he knows the disease comes of cold causes so if we would know whether we be sick of love observe what allayes thy grief and what encreaseth it if nothing but the fruition of Christ himself will cure thee and secondly nothing but that which is next to fruition namely seeing and hearing of Christ will asswage thy distressed heart then know thou art sick of love Ob. But then it may be thou wilt reply and say this is poore comfort to tell me that I am sick I knew that before and my griefs plainly shew it Ans I answer that to know thy particular disease is more then to know in generall thou art sick and it is a skilfull Physitian that can discover the disease and if before or now thou knowest this thou may for ever rejoyce for wheras many are sick for the satisfaction of their lusts as Ammon for Tamar thou art sick for Christ and shalt undoubtedly be cured This disease shews not weaknesse but the excellencie of the temper of the soul and being so noble a disposition of an heavenly heart is not properly a disease but onely by way of resemblance as sick persons longing for somewhat so is the soul for Christ But as the fruition of the Bridegroome can cure the love sick Bride so Christ onely must do it the Preachers of the Word are but the friends of the Bridegroome and cannot do it but let me do a friendly office I will bring thee before him whom thou lovest and put a few words into thy mouth which thou must utter I will frame thee a short Petition which thou must thy self deliver O my Saviour my Joy my Crown The love sick soul breaths out some such ejaculations the top and height of all my hopes thou hast ravished my soul with thy divine perfections and raised my poore lowe spirit to an higher pitch then ever by the power of nature it could have attained unto I did affect such things as pleased my eye and eare and should have doted to this day upon sencible objects but now I see that all things under the Sun are meer vanities fading flowers and perishing delights thou hast revealed better things unto me and I see by a new light the things that concern my happines thou hast set before me the joyes of heaven and hast shewed me the excellency of that estate wherein the soul enjoyes communion with thee and now I do condemne all my former sinfull delights and being grown to yeers of understanding I admire how simple I was when I was a child but much more do I wonder at the foolish delights of my unregeneracie I find all things that then did possesse my mind to be in comparison of thee no better then childish toyes I now relinquish and renounce them but my heart is stirred with restlesse desires after thee and oh how am I pained till I come unto thee and how am I more unquiet in my thoughts then when I slept securely in my sins how is my spirit reaching after that which I cannot compasse nothing but thy self O my Saviour will satisfie and while I am absent in the bodie how shall I do to live without thee especially seeing I am in the midst of so many adversaries that daily grieve my soul sometimes I hear men blaspheming thy blessed name others are breaking out into odious and disgracefull speeches against thy truth and the wayes of Religion other fall upon thy people and offer them all the hardship and ill usage that wit and malice can devise and thy poore Church is as a ship upon the Sea in a storme as a traveller in the wildernesse in a mistie dark day as all creatures in Winter that are half dead for want of the heat of the Sunne thy turtle Dove is frighted by every ravening bird thy flock is exposed to the rage of each devouring woolfe and what with fears that do fall upon my trembling heart and the want of good that my spirit is set upon I am restlesse and know not what to do tell me O thou whom my soul loves how I can be patient and wait till thou come unto me though thou should be as a young Hart and a Roe upon the mountains Cant. 2.17 Christ by his Spirit will return some such answer O my Spouse my welbeloved how am I troubled for thee how do I grieve with thee how willingly would I ease thee of thy fears and griefs if I had not other works in hand that must not be hindred I would soon deliver thee out of thine enemies hands but that I purpose by thine afflictions to raise thee to greater honour and to bring them to greater shame I will in due time come and wipe away all thy tears and remove all thy fears and put thee in possession of glory And for the quieting of thy longing desires and setling of thy impatient heart remember it was honour enough unto thee that I espoused thee unto me that I entred into covenant with thee and am become thine and thou art mine I loved thee when thou wast naked deformed and in thy blood I found thee poore and have enriched thee a miserable captive and have ransomed thee I laid down my life for thee and let out my own blood to cure thee thou art dear unto me and precious in mine eye thou shalt be unto me as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and I will delight in thy love continually and that our joy may be full I will a while defer our marriage that thou may be made more beautifull and more pleasing to me I will remove every spot and wrinkle all thy sins and the fruits of them both from soul and bodie and
and the winds blow the mountain stands firm for all this But if there be an earthquake that will shake it Enemies may traduce thee and oppresse thee and calamities like a storm may fall upon thy head and these may be born but if thy spirit be impatient and unquiet that 's an earthquake in thy soul and will do thee more hurt then the malice of thy worst adversarie There is no comfortable living in this world without patience for the least trouble puts us out of frame but the grace of patience doth recover us and if it can prevail keeps the mind quiet Aquinas makes it the root of all graces but his explication must be taken in Non causando or conservando sed removendo prohibens It is the let removing cause For trouble comes and would hinder us in our love and joy and hope and confidence in God patience bears all and quiets the soul and in so doing removes the evill of the trouble that it becomes no impediment to our graces It was a prettie conceit of the Poet Aqui. 1◠secundae q. 56. art 2. that made everie vertue without patience to be as a widow for as she wants half of her strength and wisdom and counsell so thy faith and love and hope are but weak and patience guards them Therefore in Hebr. 6.12 Faith and patience are coupled together and Rom. 15. Hope and patience and comfort are united We are said to run the race that is set before us with patience Heb. 12.1 It seems a kind of contradiction to run with patience for running is active and patience is passive and therefore one is distinct from the other if not opposite but he that runs and wants patience will never get to the end of the race For in the race of Gods Commandments men have soule play one comes and rails on him for his zeal for running so fast when he thinks himself too slow another gives him a blowe and strikes him down and up he gets and runs again And whereas everie man will make roome and give way to him that is in a race he that runs to heavenward many will stand in his way and stop him in all which he had need of patience And we may put it among the cardinall graces which are so called à Cardine for as Janua sine cardine as a doore without hinges cannot be beneficiall to shut out the cold or any thing else that will offend him so is a man without patience every thing will offend him what is a wise man a zealous man without patience he will beare nothing suffer nothing and then he will do no great good I have often marvelled why so little is written on this subject we are beholding to Augustine and Tertullian for two short Tractates of patience others both ancient and modern speak of it for the most part as other theames that come in their way we have need to preach it and practise it there is a daily use of it 2 Patience is a silent temper of spirit in opposition to impatience which is either secretly murmuring and repining or else openly clamorous sometimes causing wrangling disputes not onely with men but God himself as we see in Jonah cap. 4.1.4 sometimes unjust complaints in a higher degree as we see in the Israelites who did chide with Moses when they wanted water or any thing else Numb 20.3.4 Would God we had died when our brethren died They died in their sin for they lusted and while the meat was between their teeth the wrath of God was kindled against them and he smote the people with a great plague Num. 11.33 a fearfull death was inflicted and yet they are so farre from being restrained thereby that they break out again into intemperate language that heaven and earth rings again and they fill the eares of God and man with their clamours when they were in Egypt they groaned when they were come out they wished themselves there again when they want necessaries they murmure and cannot wait They had the miraculous manifestation of Gods power and goodnesse in the daily supply of their wants and yet they will not trust him but in the perversenesse of their impatient spirit wish that either they had stayed in Egypt or died with their brethren I would the like did not appear in our Land at this day many are readie to say would God we had not looked after a Reformation that we had never thought of any alteration then we had not known these troubles and dangers and this great expence of money It may be these will do as they did with Moses and Aaron Exod. 5.21.23 lay the blame on them whom God used as instruments of their good and say You have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants And if you will know the cause of these distempers one among the rest is they like not that way nor those Ordinances which others pray for and wait for It is with them as with the people that were to come out of Babylon Though libertie to return was granted by Cyrus yet many stayed behind of whom there is mention made in 1. Chron. 4.23 these were potters and those that dwelt amongst plants and hedges there they dwelt with the king for his work They dwelt with the King of Babylon their employment was meane they made pots they were potters their habitation was answerable they dwelt under hedges they were poore spirited men the base brood of their degenerated forefathers for they made brick in Egypt and would have been contented with that bondage and drudgerie so these would rather make pots in Babylon and dwell under hedges then go after their freedome in Sion They are branded in the words before for though the latter end of verse 22. be translated these are ancient things yet Junius renders it these are res obsoletae things worn out and forgotten and indeed they deserve to be forgotten But let us remember them as these worthie Jews did whose spirit God had touched to go on to build the Temple at Jerusalem they pray for them in Psal 126.4 Turn our captivitie as the streams in the South It was penned upon this Occasion and that prayer on purpose made in behalfe of these Jews that stayed behind in Babylon They take them to be their captives being but obliged unto them by a nationall bond So let us pray for those of our Nation that are loath to come out of Babylon But let us not wonder at the stirs and divisions in our Land the same causes have produced the like effects in former ages nor let the backwardnesse of those that keep off discourage you the worthie Instruments of God from going on to build the Temple and reform the Kingdom but let your forwardnesse bring them on by the example of those noble Jews alreadie mentioned If the grace of patience did prevail and we were willing to wait upon God these distempers would
and we afford that to him which we do not to a son If therefore a sonne a deare sonne were sick Damus agrotanti servo quod non damus filio sano if Joseph or Benjamin were sick what could Jacob deny them therefore much more God And this was a comfort to David in his trouble Psal 40 17. I am poore and needie yet the Lord thinketh on me And he thinks as friends think of such as are dear to them Thoughts of peace and not of trouble to give his servants an end and their hope Jer. 29.11 But God thinks of evill men to observe and watch them and to poure more plagues and judgements on them for their obstinacie and rebellion to do to them as he did to Pharaoh and his host In all afflictions it hath been the extremitie of grief to the servants of God to be forgotten of God and in temptation they have sometimetimes thought they have been forgotten It was the greatest part of Jonah his sorrow that he apprehended himself cast out of Gods sight Jonah 2.4 so did the Church Isa 49.14 but her thoughts so judging of her estate are there gently reproved and refuted for God can no more forget his children afflicted then a woman can forget her sucking child ver 13.15 so that from hence we see what reason we have to be patient God thinks of thee either to deliver thee when the fit time is come or else to uphold thee while the burthen lies upon thee Medita ∣ tion 5 God intends thee no evill but good thine enemies like Josephs brethren entend no good but evill the good that God purposeth Faelix necâ—ssitas quae ad meltora compellit multi enim quiâ—u securitate prosperitate mundo vivunt instante adversitate periculo ad Deum fugiunt cannot be hindred the evill they imagined cannot be effected Good men are assured that all their afflictions shall work their good evill men have no cause so to think and we must conceive they will work some new good and therefore it shall be better with them then if they were not in affliction For which purpose see Ier. 24.5 Like these good figs so will I acknowledge those that are carried away captive of Iudah whom I have sent into the land of the Chaldeans for their good If that affliction which was pulled upon them by their disobedience and rebellion in which they suffered not onely losse of their temporall estates but were deprived of Gods ordinances and wanted the speciall presence of God which was annexed to the Temple and wanted opportunitie to offer sacrifice to God and lived a long time among Idolaters if that affliction be for their good which is there affirmed to be then it is easie to conclude that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 So that the case stands with every good man as with one that is sick and if he have a Physitian upon whose skill and fidelitie he depends for what is needfull to be taken for his recoverie there needs no arguments to perswade him to be patient for he readily submits to his directions So God sends crosses which are his physick to purge out those lusts and corruptions which like ill humours abound in a peaceable and plentifull estate and we have reason to be patient because he is faithfull and carefull for our good and he doth more then any man can do he gives the physick himself he prepares the ingredients he stands by and sees the working that it lie not as dead drugges in the bodie but he orders that it work in a fit proportion neither too much nor too little it shall not be as Satan will nor yet as we will but as God will our enemies would lay too much upon us and we if it were in our power would have too little therefore God hath wisely ordered our afflictions which is best of all and therefore let us be patient But let no evill man that is not reconciled to God take this to himself for you read in the same Chapter of the same calamitie that it was sent for the hurt of the obstinate Jews Jer. 24.9 which are there compared to the evill figs. From both these grounds the Christian may speak confidently to his adversaries as once Socrates to Anytus and Melitus Plut de tranq ani Interficere me possunt nocere mihi non possunt They may kill me but cannot hurt me they may take away my head but not my crown my life but not my hope Medita ∣ tion 6 Another ground of patience is taken from the consideration of the time to come when thou art in any affliction be assured that it shall be better then now it is let thy future hopes work thy heart to patience It shall be better not onely at thy death and the day of judgement Rom. 15 4. which yet may be sufficient to revive thy heart but even in this life Iam. 5.8 for we have promise enough to assure that the rod of the wicked shall not alway rest on the lot of the righteous and that the darkest night shall have a faire morning And therefore in all our tribulations when friends come to visit us if the heart be in a right temper when they ask how we do we may answer Well for the present and it will be better hereafter and that is the word and motto of a patient man And it is a sentence worthy to be written in letters of gold which whosoever can speak it and assent to it is a happie man and shall never be hurt by any crosses that befall him We may upon this ground challenge the stoutest and strongest spirit as once Iehu did the rulers of Samaria to chuse the best of Ahabs sons and to bring out their chariots and horses and come out against him 2. King 10. so let the wisest and most learned man the bravest spirit be asked the question in his sicknesse or in his trouble when the world frowns upon him whether from any true ground or experience he is able to say that which every poore Christian that is furnished with patience can utter viz. that it is well for the present and shall be better hereafter No every one that hath not interest in God nor the power of grace in his heart doth or may know that it is ill for the present and will be worse hereafter And that this is a strong motive to patience consider it in a familiar instance suppose a poore man readie to be turned out of his cottage and left to the wide world imagine some Noble-man his friend undertake and presently begin to build him not onely a better house but a strong stately Castle and because it requires time to finish it if he should fret and be impatient he deserves to be reproved and cast off Just so it is with the Church there were never so great blessings preparing as when great
a longer time for the work but if nothing else hinder ordinarily the time of sorrow and affliction is but short sometimes called a day the evill day sometimes a peece of a day a night Ephes 6.13 for in the morning comes ioy Nay but a peece of a night as Isa 17.14 At eventyde trouble and before the morning he is not sometimes but a moment Isa 54.8 it is there said to be a little while a moment and a little season For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee and ve 7. it is called a small moment And if it be demanded how this can be true seeing the time of affliction is many times much longer I answer 1. In all the time there is much intermission and many calm and quiet times even during the calamitie partly by ease from the pain and grief that oppresseth and partly because of the joy and sweet communion with God so that though the crosse be not removed but lies many moneths and yeers as an Ague that holds a man very long yet compare the well dayes with the dayes on which he hath his fits and subduct all that time in which he sleeps and eats and is at quiet there remains but a little behind And so is the case with Gods people in affliction whereby it appears to be but a little time a moment And every one may in their own experience assent to this truth when the affliction is past for when we look back and see what good comes by it how lusts were purged or else prevented graces cherished and encreased blessings which were for a time taken away being restored again are thereby sweetned when we look back we can easily say the affliction was not too long and it was but want of patience that made us complain But if we consider eternitie in which we shall reap the fruit of our sufferings we may easily conclude it is not too long Shall God vouchsafe eternitie of perfect joy which shall not be mixed with the least sorrow and shall we think much to endure for his sake a little sorrow which is accompanied and sweetned with unspeakable joy God forbid And therefore if thou find thy impatient heart to murmure at afflictions or at delayes cry down all such thoughts and shame thy self for entertaining them And that we may see the peculiar comforts of Gods people the more clearly let us consider what can be said of evill men and it is true also of them that their sorrow shall neither be too much nor too long but it is in a different sence onely in regard of their desert for God will do them no wrong to lay more in measure or continuance then they have deserved But he hath no regard to proportion their calamities to their strength and abilitie nor doth he intend their good but the glory of his justice and therefore to them there are not the same grounds of patience and if you should visit one if he were known to be hated of God you could hardly bid him be patient and speak good sence For what good could ye oppose against the evill he endures for he neither in a good cause nor in a good manner doth suffer what is befallen him nor can he look for comfort nor expect an end nor can ye speak to him as men use to do to friends when they are sick and bid him be of good cheare and that there is hope that he shall shortly come out of trouble and though it be sharp yet it is like it will be short none of these are true if spoken to an evill man For the sorrows of this world are but as the leaves in comparison of the trees that will fall upon him hereafter and the great aggravation of his trouble is that God is his enemie and will shew him no favour It is a cutting speech and fâ—r worse then their captivity Jer. 16.13 to some of the Jews that went into captivitie God shewed much favour but others had none at all Let me go into the darkest dungeon nay into hell it self if God promise to shew me favour rather then be sent to the easiest prison or fall into the hands of the mildest keeper without his favour Joseph found favour in prison so did Daniel in the Lyons den and the three young men in the fierie fornace and it was easie to perswade them all to be patient for God did not onely honour them but assist them in a speciall manner that they received much good by their afflictions and came out with much honour and God himself was gloriously made known to many by the manifestation of his mercie to them But evill men find no favour at all if they be afflicted it is in anger if the judgement be removed it is not in mercie and favour to them and in what condition soever they are in they have no ground of contentment and patience But while I am discoursing of patience lest by being too long I put you out of patience therefore I will now turn my self to application Vse 1 For instruction let me inform and advise you to take notice of your want you need patience and it may be your wisdom to endeavour the supply of your want else you cannot wait upon God in the way of his judgements He that hath fewest troubles and the mildest nature yet hath need of patience we are soon weary of the lightest burdens and soon moved with the least injuries and being once out of tune we are hardly reduced to a quiet temper And though good natures are not so soon moved nor doth their anger so soon turn to ranker and malice against an adversarie yet nature having no supernaturall goodnesse in it patience must be a work of grace or else we shall not bear much It hath been questioned by some Aqui. 22. q. 136. whether a man can have patience sive auxilio gratiae but Christians that are instructed out of the Scriptures have learned that it is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 That we may see this more fully that patience which is naturall ariseth from the constitution and well tempered humours in the bodie Differences between naturall patience and the grace of patience whereby the heat not abounding over much a man is not proan to choller and passion but hath a command over himself and useth his reason in ordering of himself under his crosses and having a stout and hardie spirit bears what he cannot decline But the grace of patience is from God as well as faith and requires the power of God to frame the heart to bear adversitie and naturall meeknesse is not sufficient to enable him to suffer in a fit manner yet all naturall abilities may afford matter of thanksgiving and that in a two fold respect 1. Though they breed not nor beget grace yet where a good disposition is the soul is a plain smooth board whereon a Painter may more easily draw
with in this kind but you shall find the want of things desired cause fainting of the spirits Prov. 13.12 It must not be understood 1. Of naturall men 2. Not of good men under humiliation 3. Not of such as have not strong affections The deferring of the hope makes the heart sick In every sicknesse and pain the heart is not sick for it comes to the heart but a little before death and then it is more dangerous for then men faint and go away and this being worse then the other it is more grievous to bear it But when we speak of heavenly things you must not apply it to naturall men for they have but weak desires that way nor must we understand it of men under the burthen of their sins in the time of humiliation for a wounded spirit who can bear but if you speak of men that have strong desires to some good and have some pressures by reason of some evill or if you understand it of religious men having passed through the work of humiliation it is more easie to bear evill then to wait till the promised good be injoyed but yet you must suppose affections to abound in them or else their desires are not so strong And the Apostle in that text you have need of patience Hebr. 10.36 that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise seems plainly to determine the point in hand that it is more to wait till we receive the promise Vers 34 for when he spake of spoyling of goods and those afflictions he said nothing but when he comes to this then he tels them they had need of patience no doubt the other did require patience but this more then ordinarie 2. Evils that fall upon us or are coming towards us we flee from them there is fuga mali and after good things we make haste there is prosecutio boni now from the manner of flying from evill and following after good we may determine the question if a man flee from a Bear or any dangerous beast he makes haste till he be gotten a good distance from him and then he goes softly In pursuit of good things we grow more eager and earnest for at first we do not fully understand and perceive the excellencie of them till we are well acquainted with the wayes of God we know not the sweetnesse and worth of his love Therefore distinguish of the time at first evils coming on us with their full power do much affect us and require all the patience we have but afterwards some troubles become more easie as the prison to him that suffers in a good cause becomes as his own house and doth not so much perplexe Good things upon more full knowledge are more earnestly longed for and the desires encrease and therefore such as are bent upon heaven and the assurance of Gods love and pardon of sins by Christ they are compared to hungrie and thirstie persons which must have somewhat to satisfie them and that presently or else they die therefore as at first some evils do much try our patience so good things at last do more put us to it and it is harder to wait 3. Heaven hath more force by an attractive power to draw our desires then Hell hath operation by way of terrour for faith and love and other habits of grace are effectuall in their kind and have objects to elicite their power as well as any naturall affections Heaven upon a heavenly mind hath such an influence that it draws up desires more strongly then the Sun the moisture of the earth and when desires are strongly set and are in their motion it is a painfull thing to have them stayed A traveller that minds home and is drawing homeward in his journey and is detained against his will counts it an uncomfortable condition and wisheth often that he were in his house Psal 42.1 2. and so did David My soul panteth after thee O God when shall I come and appear before God The hatred of Saul was a great calamitie but the desire of Gods presence in the Sanctuarie and having the Kingdom did work more upon him The fear of hell troubles not neer so much as the want of heaven 4. For the bearing of evill there are more grounds of patience then for the enduring of the want of good desired for the evill that is upon us Si injuriam de posueris ultor est si damnum restitutor est si dolorem medious si mortem resuscitator est Tertul. may be made up in somewhat else as good if a man be sick or impoverished or imprisoned for Religion there is sufficient cause to rest contented and bear it patiently both because he honours God and therein he is to rejoyce and also he may have somewhat that may be as good as health or libertie or wealth and he may be in better state but when the soul desires heaven or the assurance of it and desires the sence of Gods love in Christ if he attain not to it there is nothing can be had equall or near as good and offer what you will in stead of it it is despised If Jacob desiring Rachel cannot be satisfied with Leah much lesse can the heart be satisfied till it have the graces it desires and all the good things that are contained in the promises and at last the glorious presence of God in heaven And it is no sence to say to a man be patient though God love thee not and although thy sins be not forgiven yet thou may do well enough this would be odious even to every man because reason and naturall conscience will tell him that the want of these will make him miserable All that could be said is that though he have not these blessings as yet he may in time obtain them if he wait on God in the use of his ordinances And from the forenamed particulars the heart that is set on heavenly things is ready to breake out and say I am not able to wait and be patient till I receive the promise my heart is ready to breake and many times I thinke it belongs not unto me what shall I do Ans For answer Let us first qualifie the matter The Church sicke of Love asswage the griefe and then if we can heale the wound To asswage the paine of this impatient heart that cannot waite till it receive the promise consider this Impatience is not sinfull nor dangerous but it ariseth from the most heavenly temper of the soule strongly bent to have as soone as may be a large portion of the favour of God in Christ and it is the ardencie of love that makes the soule restlesse and if there were not much love there could not be these desires All Impatience comes either from necessitie as a hungry man cannot stay any time but must have meate presently if you tell him you will a weeke or some few dayes hence
mouth for thou didst it In all Evils whether they come mediately or immediately from God a good heart saith to him thou didst it Faith beleeves the doctrine of Gods speciall providence which extends to the least matters much more to the calamities of the Church And then comes in Patience to do her worke and saith I will not open my mouth against it Faith goes before and Patience comes after and they strengthen one another If Faith be wanting in her Office Patience cannot make a man hold his peace Isa 8.21 It is no wonder to heare blinded Athests and prophane Persons cursing their King and their God when evill comes upon them and they know not whence it ariseth Jsa 47.11 That it may not be so with us Reason and argue the point a little further Either God is the author of thine affliction or some else If any other Then it is either with the knowledge of God or without it either with his Will or against it To say that any Creature can bring Evill on the servants of God without his knowledge or against his Will Is to affirme God to be ignorant or impotent both which are blasphemies And if it be with his knowledge and his Will Then that is granted that we contend for It cannot stand with the Wisedom and Love of God to have his Church punished otherwise then he himselfe appoints So that when this is premised God doth whatsoever is done unto thee rage and raile and be impatient if thou canst if thou darest say rather with David thou didst it and therefore I held my tongue Medita ∣ tion 2 Consider That blessings are delayed and Crosses are sent for this end among the rest to try thy Patience To shew how well thou canst suffer With what firmenesse and stayednesse thou canst hold on When calamities like a storme of Haile fall upon thy head Job was brought upon the stage to see how well he could act his part and proove himselfe a man of integritie and also confute the Devill who had told God that he would not hold out if he were throughly tryed with sharpe afflictions And in these plundering dayes wherein very many have great cause of complaint but none for their Impatience It may be usefull some what more largely to insist First upon Jobs Losses Secondly his Carriage in them Thirdly to consider how farre he may be commended for his Patience or blamed for his Impatience First Touching his Losses we finde them to be in his Goods then in his Children and next in his owne Person The Devill had full power over him and dealt malitiously and cunningly like an Enemy that besiegeth a Citie and takes the outworks then approacheth nearer he deales at a further distance then comes to handie blows and grapples with him The first losse that Iob sustained was his five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses which all were at once taken away by the Sabeans Job 1.15 a great losse indeed yet lesse then the rest in some respect for after a great evill a lesse affects not so much therefore the devill proceeds by degrees yet this was very great like the first blowe that strikes a man down and astonisheth him But the second seems greater for fire from heaven consumes his seven thousand sheep Such a great number of innocent and profitable creatures to be burnt by fire from heaven is more then the former and Iob might think that God himself did fight against him The first was common among the Lacedemonians and heretofore in England for borderers and now for plunderers to come and in a night to bereave a man of his cattell and if Iob think the first losse by the Sabeans to be but such the second is by fire from heaven and is of another nature The third is by the Chaldeans who came in three bands and took away his three thousand camels which was the last part of his substance and was like the last blowe of a wicked murtherer who finding life in a groaning man strikes again and dispatcheth him quite And every one of these three evils have their severall aggravations The first was great because it was the first it was strange to him that had lived in plentie and was encreased in goods and had power to defend himself for he was the greatest man in the East but this man unacquainted with crosses is robbed and spoiled by the Sabeans And no doubt it did much trouble him the second was terrible for it was by fire a mercilesse creature The third is very grievous both because it fell upon him alreadie wounded and sore with other blows and also because it left him nothing at all and now Iob is made as poore as may be he hath just nothing But his troubles are not near an end for all his children are suddenly struck dead in the house where they were feasting And still comes a greater affliction children part of our selves are dearer then our substance and goods and they are all taken away possibly not well prepared for death The messenger tels David all the Kings sons are not slain but here the sons daughters of Iob are killed it may be they had blasphemed God in their hearts But now Job cannot offer any more burnt offerings for them for neither hath he wherewith to sacrifice nor are any of his children alive for whose sake he did offer in former times His servants who might have rescued goods are dead his sons and daughters who might have raised their decayed father at least might have pitied and comforted him they are likewise dead and Job is left alone mourning more pitifully then Rachel having greater cause then she and needs not refuse comfort for none goes about to give it him And let us see how it fares with Job in his own person for if that be well he will be the better able to bear his crosses But you shall find his bodie full of botches and byles in stead of health and comelinesse he is filled with loathsome diseases that none can tell how to come near him and wanting help from others he is fain to scrape himself It seems his wife did not afford him any aid nor did he find so much relief as Lazarus for the dogs lickt his sores but they did not Jobs His friends come to mourn with him but they in stead of mitigating his grief encrease it For they come and wonder and sit silent and say nothing to him for the space of seven dayes together They that could say so much against him Iob 2.13 might at their coming have uttered some words of comfort to him but by their silence they do not onely give way to his thoughts to work upon the object of his own griefs but they confirm him in the apprehension of his own calamitie And that which is usually said of sorrows that Ingentes stupent leves loquuntur is made good by the thoughts of Job himself but by
that the King of Judah being taken captive he left more then Job and therefore his sorrow was greater I answer again that Job in those times must needs be supposed to be as a King for he was the greatest man of the East but in the captivitie the King had some to pitie him some to attend him he had not such temptations in his soul not such sores on his bodie there was some societie somewhat to asswage his grief and he pulled that sorrow upon himself by rebelling against the King of Babylon he was foretold and might have been armed nay by subjection he might have procured a quiet condition So that we may conclude Jobs sorrow to be the greatest of any mans that ever lived And then it is no wonder Christ the Son of God his sorrow must alwayes be excepted if it work very much upon him and if you compare the carriage of another man with Iobs unlesse you find his affliction to be as great you speak not to the purpose And when you read that Jonah was angrie to the death and Ieremiah to curse the day of his birth these not having neer the like cause you cannot but wonder Ier. 20.14 15 16 17 18. that Iob uttered no more passion then he did 2 And secondly every expression of our grief is not impatience unlesse it be more then the affliction amounts unto To speak much of small crosses is not fit but Iob had more then he could utter and nothing but sorrow could have made him so pathetically and eloquently to utter and set out his own case to say that God made him a mark for his arrow was true and was not impatiencie unlesse he should charge God of injustice if he had murmured against God as the Jews in the wildernesse this had been blame worthy 3 But thirdly we cannot clear Iob altogether of being impatient for humane frailtie breaks out and he having somewhat more boldly pleaded and expostulated with God Job 40.4 doth in the conclusion humble himself before him And it is no wonder if patience in Iob be foyled sometimes by the opposite corruption Faith in David and Abraham was sometimes mastered by unbelief and so was patience in Iob but grace in the Saints will at length prevail and be conquerour And it is apparent that Iob did set his heart to bear his sorrows and his frailties God did wink at And to draw towards a Conclusion of this second Meditation Consider That in this Instance of Job all objections that can be framed against the point in hand may be answered As some will object If my sorrowes were not so very great I could beare them But mine are extraordinary and who can be able to undergoe such a burthen as I am under Againe others object against that particular trouble which is upon them If it were immediately from God I could take it patiently But I am wronged with unreasonable men It were better to fall into the hands of God then to be at the will of malicious men Another comes in with a Complaint that it is in his body and particularly instanceth in long and tedious sicknesses of this or that kind And because he wants health he cannot but droop and bee dejected And a fourth makes his Moane that it is in his soul and he hath often prayed unto God and his desires which are good and religious are not satisfied And how then can he rest contented And if way were given to all Complaints there would be no end But in a word to answer all Job had not one but all these upon him at once He was afflicted in his soule in his body in his goods in his Children in his Wife in his friends He was tryed by God by men by Sathan and the greater the Crosse is the greater honour hath thy Patience For Faith most shines in beleeving things that seeme incredible And Hope in expecting things improbable so Patience in bearing Crosses that appeare intolerable And if thou feare thou canst not be able to beare then consider that if thy heart be willing God will take notice of that which is good in thee and not charge thee with thy failings For you shall find Job not challenged for Impatience but contrarily hee is crowned and chronicled and many times mentioned in Scripture for an example of Patience both in the old and new Testament You heare of Job and God boasts as it were of Job and it is evident that what we do or suffer for God he will make a faire and favourable construction of it and not upbraid us with our faylings Medita ∣ tion 3 A third Meditation mooving unto Patience is taken from the common state which every one is in And there is not a Child of Adam but is borne to sorrow and calamitie And if all have their Crosses why should any repine and murmure Iob 5.7 Man is borne to trouble as the sparkes to fly upward As thou art a man thou must be content to beare what is common to man As thou art a sinfull man thou hast brought troubles on thy self and thou hast cause to beare the wrath of the Lord for thou hast sinned against him Micha 7. As thou art a good man thou hast peculiar troubles and thou must shew thy goodnesse in bearing thy crosses so that in what relation soever thou art there is cause of patience And here let us reason the case why art thou discontented and troubled above the rest why may not all men as well as thou complain It is as if a great companie of travellers should in their journey meet with foule way and weather and all being wet and wearie one among the rest should complain and cry and keep a stirre that his clothes were spoiled and he is wet through as if he had wrong that God had not speciall care of him above the rest It is true that if this man had more weightie and urgent businesse then others and was hindred more then ordinarie or sustained more losse then others or were singled out alone from others as Iob was then there might be more said to move pitie to such a one but no reason for his impatience for God is the soveraign Lord of all and may dispose of every one as he will and none can justly find fault Unlesse man did suffer more then he deserves which he never doth for his sin might have procured more sorrow then he endures and if God will spare others what is that to thee But if he be spared in one kind he is exercised in another and this is one fruit of impatience to think our own crosses heavier and other mens lighter then they are Medita ∣ tion 4 4 Consider God takes care for his children and then especially when they are in trouble Pitie and bowels of mercie are in God and in an extraordinarie measure above that which is in the most mercifull man Now any necessitie in a servant moves our compassion
a picture and a harsh crabbed nature is as a board full of knots and rugged whereon the Artificer cannot so well shew his workmanship and though the power of God will shew it self wheresoever he intends to make a vessel of mercie yet it is with more ado and will cost a man the more sorrow 2. Good dispositions sanctified become more usefull and better instruments then ordinarie in that they are more pleasing and amiable to others and so do win more respect to Religion and become more gracefull and gain more credit to the Gospel whereas froward and hastie and passionate persons are distastfull to others and many times they are shunned even for their passions men being too apt to look upon the blemishes of others rather then their graces 2. That patience which is naturall will bear some evils but not all that God laies upon him it may be he can converse quietly and calmly with friends with wife and children and in case he be provoked he can bear a great deal and if any difference be he will desire and embrace reconciliation but disgrace and injuries for Religion he cannot endure and greater troubles he will decline by yeelding to evill men in evill and unlawfull things and his good nature will not suffer him to contend no not for the faith but that patience which is supernaturall resolves to bear not one but all crosses and abides firm and constant in his Religion unto the death and chiefly desires to be armed to undergo those trials that fall upon him for Religion Naturall Patience is not voluntary but forced in such things as come from God as Sicknesse and Losses he therefore suffers because there is no helpe but a Religious man doth imbrace and willingly undergo his burthen and saith in a secret dispute Jer. 10.19 Woe is me for my hurt my wound is greivous but I said it is my greife and I must beare it Plaga quae mihi debetur as some translate it It is greivous but I must beare it He concludes out of former reasonings that he must beare it God layes a necessitie upon him and he layes a necessitie upon himself his heart goes along with God and he saith not onely I must bear it but I will beare it Mich. 7.9 and both cleares God and condemnes himself saying I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him A Naturall man is not voluntary unlesse it be first Multa in laboribus doloribus sustinent bomines propter ca quae vitiosè diligunt August de patien in sinfull courses and then his inordinate lusts put him upon sorrowes and disgraces and troubles which he willingly undergoes many men have suffered so much trouble for their lusts which had it beene for Religion they had been Martyrs Naturall Patience is sometimes voluntary in reference to some Temporall good which a man lookes after As being wounded in the legge when it Gangrenes he may patiently endure the cutting of it off to save his life And being sicke a Naturall man may take bitter Pills to recover his health and the earnest desire he hath to live may make him Patient But Religion teacheth us willingly to undergoe Calamities and to take up our Crosses upon better grounds and for more excellent ends then the gaining of a Temporall good To omitt the grounds which have been handled before I will a little insist First In the great Evill which he shuns by suffering afflictions he apprehends Gods displeasure the terrours of an accusing Conscience and the torments of Hell If he to shunne afflictions should yeeld to do any Evill or should betray the Truth therefore to make himself the more willing he sets before his eyes the fearefull case of Judas betraying his Master and of Francis Spira that to hold his Preferments sinned against the knowne Truth in his recantation and never had good day all his life and to shun these great Evils he willingly suffers lesse he thinkes a Prison is not so bad as Hell the threatnings of men nothing to the frownes of an angry God the losse of all his dignities on earth not to be compared to the losse of heaven and being put to it that he must suffer the losse of one he willingly chuseth to part with the lesse Ferre minora volo ne graviora feram So that if ye consider what he shuns and what he hopes to gain it is no wonder if he be not onely patient Nemo nisi pro eo quod delectat sponre suscipit quoâ—i cruciat Biel. ex Augustino but joyfull in tribulation This made Martyrs to run to the stake and embrace the flames and would not accept deliverance and if men did well consider they would neither condemne them that are in trouble nor say as Peter to Christ Pitie thy self and yeeld rather then run such a hazard 4. The patience of a naturall man never brings true comfort to his soul he never tastes of those joyes which God affords to them that suffer in a good cause Paul and Silas are as merrie in prison as ever they were and John in Patmos knows more ravishing joy then those that lived in the Emperours Palace but such as suffer either for their offences unlesse their patience did spring from a true root it is impossible the fruit should be good Faith and patience are coupled together Hebr. 6.12 and therefore comfort and patience are joyned together Rom. 15.4 That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And then follows the God of patience and consolation which concludes the point in hand that no man not the mildest man hath by nature the grace of patience God is the author of it as well as any other grace and therefore that every one should endeavour after it in the use of the same means by which he looks for every grace Vse 2 The second Use is a reproof to all impatient persons And here we that reprove others have need first to reprove our selves It was a modest expression of Tertullian who being to write of this subject intimates that he was ashamed to speak Ne dicta factis erubescant lest his actions should contradict his speeches and he be ashamed of his sayings Let us all be humbled for our intemperate language our unseemly gestures our unfit carriage we fall short of that quiet silent temper of soul before mentioned our spirits are full of bitternesse our mouths are full of complaints what a shame is it to sea Christian like Hercules furens or like Solomons fool And if men do not break out so inordinately yet it is too common to hear some with David crying out Oh my sun Absolon 2 Sam. 18.33 would God I had died for theâ— Oâ— Absolon my sonne Or with Jonah Oh my gourd Iona 4.8 I am not able to endure this heat seeing my gourd it taken away take away my life also Oh these daughters in law saith Rebecca Gen. 26.35
Cap. 27.46 I am weariâ— of my life because of them Others in our dayes say these are pitifull times trading is decayed the treasure of the Kingdom is exhausted all things are out of frame In these and the like expressions where corruption appears I am now to speak to it by way of reproof The causes of Impatience are 1. The crosse lies in somewhat that is too dear unto us Foure causes of impatience and self-love may be the cause of this impatience Rachel mourns and will not be comforted for her children Jacob is impatient of Benjamins going out of his sight and the reason is he loved him more then was meet An when once we are lost in our affections to any thing the crosse proves heavie and we pull it upon our selves It is just with God to punish us in that thing we idolize And if we cannot moderate our affections we pull a double evill upon our selves 1. To be bereaved of that which is dear unto us 2. We shall not be able to bear the losse of it If we joy too much in any thing when we loose it we shall mourn too much and then in stead of pitie from friends we should have a reproof Impatience discovers men for you shall find that in some things they can bear it better then in others and if they be most tachie and peevish when crossed in matter of profit or pleasure or name and reputation a Heathen concluded that then they are covetous or ambitious or luxurious An impatient man is guiltie of a double fault one past in his irregular affections an other present in his ill carriage to God or man in the losse of that which is taken from him 2. Anothâ—r cause of Impatience is ignorance of God when we see God in a crosse we submit but if not we are perverse We see a great deal of difference in David towards Shimei and Nabal both of them give him ill language and Shimei was worse then the other yet he is more patient towards him then Nabal and the reason is he saw God more in his reproachfull termes then the other God hath bidden him curse saith he and therefore he will bear it If a man meet the King and know him not he will not give him due reverence And if we acknowledge not God in our crosses no wonder if we be impatient It is in this case as with the owners of the Asses colt if you say the Lord hath need of him they will let him go saith our Saviour so when we part with our estates if the Lord have need of them let them go Let us offer as Araunah did our barnes and all that is on the barn-floore our oxen or any thing we have but unlesse we know it is the Lord that requires them we shall hardly submit and scarce then unlesse nature be subdued by a higher and more powerfull principle 3. A third cause of impatience is the distemper of the constitution of the bodie for it comes from passion and that is from the passive principle in man where choller abounds there the soul works distemperedly for all actions taste and have a taâ—g of the humour that is predominant and though passions and passionate expressions are to be ascribed to the mind yet all actions elicited and acted by the bodie partake of the naturall temper It is inbred and setled and hardly overcome and so it is both a sin and a great affliction to them that are sensible of it Passions are the feet of the soul they are in the sensitive appetite and when they grow inordinate they are the diseases of the mind the depravers of reason the disturbers of the understanding whereby wise men speak nothing do nothing like themselves It is a weaknesse to have passions a greater weaknesse to be conquered by them Therefore when the people gave too much to the Apostles to take down that opinion Act. 14.15 they alledge they were men subiect to like passions as themselves intimating that it is a weaknesse and belowe a wise man to have passions in him And for conclusion consider that when we are commanded Luk. 21.19 to possesse our souls in patience it appears that by passion and impatience we are dispossessed of our souls of our understanding of our joy and comfort and peace for that time that passion bears sway A patient man doth quietly injoy himself his comforts his friends but if passion possesse thy impatient soul it will play the tyrant and turn thee out of all Mark 5.2 3. thou art like him that was possessed by an evill spirit and we find tâ—at he did tear himself so impatient persons wound and cut and vex themselves and it is said that none could bind him ver 3.4 rage will break out and will not be restrained I would kill a man in mine anger saith Lamech Gen. 42.28 I will go mourning to my grave if ought but good befall Benjamin by the way saith Jacob. When men give way and let the rains go their passions runne like wilde horses in which case men are burthensome to themselves and others he that was possessed of the evill spirit was among the tombes but these are among the living and molest and grieve most those that are nearest to them 4. A fourth cause of Impatience is the crosse comes suddenly and takes us unawares We break out before we consider of it passion surprizeth a man as a thief that robs him before he could make any resistance It were good we did think beforehand of the evils of the day of the crosse occurrents that may fall out in our callings and families and occasions Collect thy spirits and consider there may be and it is like there will be some untowardnesse in servants some undutifulnesse in children some unkindnesse in husband wife or friends arme thy self against all and be prepared Think with thy self God could have matched all good husbands and good wives together and could have given to all good parents good children and faithfull servants to the masters that fear him he could have put all sweet dispositions to have laid together and injoyed a happie neighbourhood but divine providence hath disposed otherwise to try our patience Having gone through the first part of the dutie of waiting upon God I now come to the second The Church her hope which is a cheerfull expectation of good If we were never so patient in bearing evill and yet did not keep up our desires and affections we failed in our waiting for there ought to be a certain and a cheerfull expectation of such future good things as God hath promised 1. It must be a future good we hope for not present which we do enjoy alreadie and it must be promised else we build without a foundation Presumption roves abroad at large but hope looks for a promise Objectum spei 1 Proximum 2 Principale There is a double object for our hope one is principall and