will give for their Honour but forgive no Contempt or Injury and as the dividing living Twins destroys them so the Life and Sincerity of Obedience that consists in the union and intireness of its parts is destroyed by dividing our respects to some commands neglecting the rest And in Passive Obedience many will submit to lighter and shorter afflictions but if an Evil comes that nearly touches the heart or that remains long without redress they become impatient or so dejected as to neglect their Duty I shall therefore superadd to the former Arguments wherein the Necessity the Equity and the Policy of our Dutiful Resignation to God's Providence is clearly set forth some other Motives and Directions that may be useful and effectual for this end First Look frequently to Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our Faith The Divine Wisdom to reform the World assumed the Humane Nature and expressed in a Holy Conversation upon Earth a living Copy of his Precepts to direct us in the various parts of our Duty and because the exercise of Humility Self Denial and the rest of the Suffering Graces is so difficult to our frail and tender Nature he ascended the Cross and instructs us by Suffering to suffer with his Affections leaving us his Example as the best Lecture of our Duty His Sufferings concern us not only in point of Merit but Conformity We can never enjoy the benefit of his Passion without following his Patern His example is the Rule of the highest Perfection and we are under the greatest obligation to imitate and honour him who is our Sovereign and Saviour to whom we owe our Redemption from everlasting Misery and the Inheritance of Glory 'T is the Apostle's advice to the afflicted to consider him that endured such contradiction of Sinners against himself that ye be not wearied and faint in your minds This deduction is with greater force to make us humble and patient If we consider First the Infinite Dignity of his Person He was the Eternal and Onely Son of God and descended from the Throne of his Majesty divested himself of his Robes of insupportable Light that concealed and manifested his Glory to the Angels and was obedient to the Death of the Cross what are the highest and best of Men to him Were it not extreamly unbecoming and undutiful for a Subject to refuse Obedience to a just Law if the King that made the Law should voluntarily observe it and reserve no other advantage to himself but the honour of enacting it Our Saviour did not stand upon the dignity and liberty of his Person being equal with God and our King but intirely complied with the Law and shall we complain of its rigour Secondly The Greatness of his Sufferings They were incomparable as to their value so in their degrees He endured the equal extremities of Infamy and Torment that are so contrary to the inclinations of Mankind He was Crowned with a cruel Diadem of Thorns Scourged Spit upon Derided Crucified Insensible Nature as if capable of Understanding and Affection was disordered in its whole frame at his Death The Heavens sympathized in Eclipses of the Sun in the darkness of the Air at Mid-day as Midnight the Earth quak't with deep Tremblings and the Rocks were rent a sunder And the Sufferings of his Soul from the incensed Justice of God were inconceivably great What is the worst we suffer either immediately from God or instrumentally from Men to his bitter Passion Our Sufferings are but superficial shadows of Misery compared to his deep Sorrows Thirdly His Sufferings were most undeserved For he was the Holy One of God his Conception without the least taint of Sin his Life of strictest Purity and compleat Obedience to the Divine Law We may read the process of our Sins and understand their Guilt in his Passion He was made Sin for us a Sacrifice to atone the Divine Displeasure who knew no Sin As David when Guilty of Adultery and Murder was fired with disdain at the relation of an incompassionate Rich Man killing the single Lamb of his poor Neighbour and sparing his own numerous Flock and when the Prophet unveiled the Parable and surprised him with that piercing reproach Thou art the Man he presently by that Fiction in another was convinced of his own true guilt and was extreamly afflicted in the sense of it Thus we are apt to conceive indignation against the Murderers of our Saviour the Apostate Apostle the Malicious Priest the Unrighteous Judg the Bloody Soldiers But Conscience as a true Nathan may charge us to have been in that wicked Conspiracy against the Lord of Glory for our Sins Condemned and Crucified him And as our Sins were the impulsive cause of his Sufferings so our good is the effect of them He suffered the Death of the Cross that his Blood might be our Ransom his Ignominy the purchase of our Glory his Torments the merit of our Blessedness his Death the Seed of Immortal Life to us but we suffer the just punishment of our own Sins Fourthly His willing Obedience Divine Patience and invincible Constancy in Suffering for us In his distress the whole Army of Heaven were in readiness for his Protection and Rescue upon the least signification of his Will If I prayed to my Father he would send me twelve Legions of Angels Nay he had the Springs and Keys of the Divine Power in his hands and could by a Word have destroyed his Enemies but he freely gave himself for us and without resistance without complaint took up his Cross. Now our Saviour who had the fulness of the Spirit communicates to us the first Fruits of it Faith and Love Humility and Patience Peace and Joy to support us under Affliction Fifthly Consider the excellent reward of his Sufferings He was abased below Men and is advanced above all the Angelical Orders and is the Eternal Argument of their Praises Never were Sufferings so grievous never was Issue so glorious For the Joy that was set before him he endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Now our Blessed Saviour hath promised To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Unfainting Perseverance in our Duty shall be rewarded with the Glory of our Redeemer And is not the prospect and expectation of this sufficient to confirm our Minds and make us patiently bear the greatest Afflictions Secondly The Consideration of the Suffering Saints in all Ages is a powerful perswasive to Patience Thus the Apostle James directs Christians Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in thâ— Name of the Lord for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience And we have great encouragement from hence if we consider 1. That those who are of most precious account with God and highly favoured by him are usually exercised with
the best Men are not all Spirit but united to Flesh and when the Body is under strong pains the Soul suffers in its sufferings and while we are thus compounded the loss of those Comforts that support and sweeten the present Life must cause Grief 'T is easy to utter brave Expressions and lay down severe Precepts in contempt of Evils when they are at a distance but hard to sustain the Spirit under the actual feeling of them 't is one thing to discourse of a Battel and another to be engaged in the heat of it But supposing by a Philosophical Charm the Heart were so hardned as to be proof against the most piercing afflictions such a forced insensibility is not regular but proceeds from the extinction of Humanity and Piety and that will appear by considering Afflictions in a natural or moral respect First in a natural respect for so they are destructive or oppressive Evils and a pensive feeling of them is suitable to the Law of our Creation for the Humane Nature is framed with such Senses and Passions as according to God's intention should be affected suitably to the quality of their objects and if the Soul acts rationally 't is moved accordingly A Saint on Earth is not a Saint in Heaven raised above all Disasters and Troubles freed from all hurtful impressions from without and sorrowful impressions within but is liable to afflicting evils And it is becoming his Duty to have his passions pliable to his condition but without excess the Eyes must not be drown'd nor dry but tenderly affected Secondly Considered in a moral respect as they are sent from the high and just Providence of God it is absolutely necessary there should be an humble resentment of his Displeasure This is a consequent of the former for if our affections are seared up that we do not feel the stroke how shall we regard the hand that smites us If we are not sensible of Affliction we are secure in our Sins Natural Sorrow is introductive of Godly Sorrow There are two extreams to be avoided by the afflicted according to the direction of Solomon in the person of Wisdom and repeated by the Apostle My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Some are discouraged and over-born by Afflictions as insupportable others are stubborn and careless and never lay them to heart they never look upward to the original efficient Cause an Offended God nor inward to the impulsive deserving Cause their Sins but esteem them fortuitous Events that happen in this mutable state without a design to correct and reform Sinners or to proceed from a blind necessity things of course or meerly regard the second Causes and Instruments of their Troubles accordingly when they meet with Calamities all their care is by a perverse shift to seek for relief onely in Temporal Comforts without serious applying themselves to God whose end in sending Troubles is to reclaim us from Sin to Holiness from Earth to Heavens from the Creatures to himself This secret Atheism like a benumming Opium stupifies the Conscience and the insensibility of God's hand inflicting Evils is as different from Christian Patience and Constancy as a mortal Lethargy is from the quiet soft Sleep of Health Nothing kindles his Anger more than neglecting it 't is equally provoking with the despising of his Love It is a symptom of a wretched state of Soul if there proceed no sighs and groans no signs of grief from the sense of God's displeasure it is a sad evidence there is no Spiritual Life Indolence under the effects of God's Anger is like the stilness of the Dead Sea whose Calm is a Curse The Jews tho intitled the People of God are deeply charg'd for this prodigious Madness O Lord thou hast struck them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. We have whole Quarries of such obdurate Wretches amongst us this impenitent disregard of God's hand is a dreadful presage of future and more heavy Judgments Who ever hardned himself against the Lord and prospered Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he The most refractory Sinner he can compel to acknowledg with bitter lamentations his Wickedness and weakness how unable he is to contend with his Judge But supposing a respite from Punishment here there is an Hell prepared for stubborn Sinners where is Weeping and Wailing for ever Whom the Rods do not awaken the Scorpions shall Secondly I shall now proceed to explicate what is included in the resignment of our selves to God in times of Affliction This will be made evident by considering the leading powers and faculties which Grace sanctifies and works in according to their natural subordination The Understanding approves the severest dispensations of Providence to be good that is for reasons though sometimes unsearchable yet always righteous and for gracious ends to the Saints When Hezekiah heard the heavy Prophecy that all his Treasures should be carried to Babylon and his Royal Progeny should become Slaves there he said to Isaiah Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken His sanctified Mind acknowledged it to be a just Correction of his vain Pride and quietly submitted to it And as there is a satisfaction of Mind in the rectitude so in the graciousness of his Proceedings The misapprehension and mis-belief of God's design in afflicting causeth Impatience and Murmuring but when the Mind is convinced that he afflicts us for our Benefit that Bodily Diseases are Medicinal Advantages the remedies of the Soul that the losses of Earthly Comforts prepare us for Divine Enjoyments that the way which is sowed with Thorns and watered with Tears leads to Heaven the Heart is compliant with the sharpest methods of Providence But these things will be more fully opened under the several heads of Arguments to enforce the Duty This Resignment principally consists in the consent and subjection of the Will to the Orders of Heaven The Will is an imperious Faculty naturally impatient of opposition to its Desires and we pay the highest honour to God in the lowest submission of our Wills to his Appointments 'T is true the Will cannot make a direct choice of Evil nor love Afflictions but the Holy Spirit by a powerful Operation so disposeth it as to renounce its own inclinations when discordant with the Will of God And the more humble ready and entire the Submission is the more difficult and harsh the denial of our natural desire is the more supernatural Grace shines and is acceptable It is the perfection of Holiness to do what God loves and to love what God does There is a rare example of this in David's carriage when under his greatest Affliction 't was in his flight from his Son Absalom who endeavoured to deprive him of
and support the Spirit in the greatest Agony The first is God scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And the other that is joined with it is Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth The Rule is general First All his Sons are under the Discipline of the Rod and who would be so unhappy as to be exempted from that number for all the prosperity of the World Afflictions sanctified are the conspicuous Seal of their Adoption and Title to Heaven And who would forfeit the honour of that Adoption and lose the benefit annext to it the eternal Inheritance rather than patiently bear his Fatherly Chastisements Others that enjoy a perpetual Spring of Pleasure here are declared Bastards and not Sons they are indeed within the compass of his Universal Providence but not of that peculiar care that belongs to his Sacred and Select Progeny His Corrections are an Argument of his Authority as our Father and an assurance that we are his Children this should induce us not only with submiss temper of Soul but with thankfulness to receive the sharpest Correction from the hands of our Heavenly Father This was the reason of our Saviour's meek yielding himself to the violence and cruelty of his Enemies The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Secondly Chastisement is the effect of his Paternal Love He is the Father of our Spirits and that Divine Relation carries with it a special Love to the Spirits of Men and in that degree of Eminence as to secure and advance their happiness though to the destruction of the Flesh. The Soul is of incomparable more worth than the Body as the bright Oriental Pearl than the mean Shell that contains it this God most highly values for this he gave so great a Price and on it draws his Image If Temporal Prosperity were for our best advantage how willingly would God bestow it on us He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Which words among all that the Holy Ghost hath dictated to the Interpreters of God's Heart to his People are most expressive of his â—ove and Bounty and most for their comfort He that gives Grace and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ost real testimonies 〈…〉 certainly withholds no good thing from them I shall produce one convincing instance of this St. Paul who by an incomparable Priviledg was rapt up to the Coelestial Paradise and heard ineffable things yet was tormented by the Angel of Satan and his earnest repeated Prayer for deliverance not presently granted Did not God love that blessed Apostle whose internal Love to Christ almost equall'd the Seraphims those pure everlasting Flames and was expressed in the invariable tenour of his Life by such miraculous Actions and Sufferings for the propagating and defence of the Faith of Christ and the Glory of his Name If we love him because he first loved us as St. John testifies certainly he that returned such a superlative Affection to Christ received the greatest Love from him Now if Christ did love Paul why did he not upon his earnest repeated Prayer deliver him from his wounding Trouble whatsoever it was That Permission was a demonstration of the Love of Christ to him as it is acknowledged by himself Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of Revelation there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh and the Messenger of Satan to buffet me That the Afflictions of the Saints proceed from God's Love will be evident by considering I. His gracious Design in sending them II. His compassionate Providence over them and his assisting Power afforded to his People in their Troubles III. The happy issue out of them First His gracious Design in sending them God doth not afflict willingly but if need be not for his own pleasure but for our profit that we may be partakers of his Holiness The expression is high and emphatical his Holiness the brightest Glory of his Nature the divinest Gift of his Love The two principal parts of Holiness are ceasing from doing Evil and learning to do well And Afflictions are ordained and sent as profitable for both these effects 1. For the prevention or cure of Sin which is an evil incomparably worse in its nature and terrible consequents in this and the next World than all meer afflicting temporal Evils Sin defiles and debaseth the Soul which is the proper excellency of Man and separates from God our supream Good Your Sins have separated between you and your God and have hid his face from you All Afflictions that can befall us here in our persons or concernments the most disgraceful Accidents the most reproachful contumelious Slanders the most loathsom contagious Diseases that cause our dearest Friends to withdraw from us yet cannot deprive us of Union with God by Faith and Love nor of the fruition of his propitious Presence Lazarus when covered with Ulcers was kissed with the Kisses of his Mouth But Sin hath this pernicious effect it separates from his gracious Presence here and if continued in without Repentance will exclude from his Glorious Presence for ever Now Afflictions are Medicinal Applications for the cure of Sin the Disease and Death of the Soul and therefore infinitely worse than the sharpest Remedies The beginnings and progress of Conversion to God are usually by sanctified Afflictions Indeed considering our folly and perverse abuse of his Blessings they are the most congruous means for our Recovery The Light of God's Law doth not so powerfully convince us of the Evil of Sin till felt in the effects of it Thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts The Instructions of the Rod are more sensible than of the Word as the feeling of a tormenting Disease produceth another kind of understanding of it than the reading of its nature in Books of Physick and they make us more attentive to God's Call and leave a deeper impression upon us It is Elihu his observation If Sinners be bound in Fetters and held in Cords then he shews them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded Affliction clarifies their Sight makes Sin to be as heinous in the view of Conscience as in its own foul nature It follows He openeth also the Ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity Gentle Methods were lost upon them but by Judgments he effectually commands they relent and return to their Duty And after Conversion we need their Discipline to make us more circumspect and obedient The Psalmist declares It is good for me that I have been afflicted For before he was afflicted he went astray He was reduced from the errour of his ways by his Troubles And 't was
sinful yet there is the greatest reason to justify him and accuse our selves much more when our Punishment is far below our Deserts Humility is the Mother of Meekness they are Graces of the same Complexion and Features Our Saviour in the order of the Beatitudes first declared Blessed are the poor in Spirit that have a low conceit of themselves as nothing in Spirituals and worse than nothing in Sin as empty of all that is Holy and Good and compounded of all Evil And Blessed are those that mourn in a sence of their Sins And then Blessed are the Meek And these are very congruously joyned for Meekness is a Disposition inseparable from the other He that duly considers himself to be a wretched Creature a worthless Rebel and is humbly and sorrowfully affected for his unworthiness his Passions will be subdued and as melted Metal receives any form so he patiently suffers what God inflicts A broken Heart is an acceptable Sacrifice to God and implies a tender sense of Sin as the Offence and Dishonour of the holy and gracious God in allusion to a broken Bone that has an exquisite sense of any hurt And it may be extended to signify a Heart that is compliant and submissive to God's Will in allusion to a Horse that is broken and easily managed by the Reins of the Rider Contrition for Sin is always joyned with Resignation to the chastizing Providence of God Besides Godly Sorrow will lessen natural Sorrow Sin first deserves our Grief and the sharpest accents of our Lamentation should be placed upon it and the more sensible we are of it the lighter will Affliction be to us As the opening a Vein stops by Revulsion a flux of Blood in another part so the turning the Stream of Sorrow from Affliction to Sin is a powerful means to make it cease There is Health in the bitterness of Physick and Joy in the depth of this Sadness Briefly Repentance inclines the Heart of God and opens his tender compassions to the Afflicted We have an admirable example of this in the case of afflicted Ephraim upon his Penitential complaint the expression of his Grief and shame for his Sin God graciously answers Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have Mercy on him saith the Lord. When the relenting Sinner is covered with Tears the great Comforter descends and brings healing to the troubled Waters this advice is more necessary for the Afflicted because usually the stroaks of Providence are properly a Reproof and Correction for Sin the application of a Corrosive implies that some corrupt matter is to be discharged God is provoked by their neglects and though Love cannot hate it may be angry and without renewing their Repentance and recovering his Favour their Afflictions are very uncomfortable 'T is extreamly sad to feel the sting of a guilty Conscience within and the displeasure of God without The Burthen is heavy and oppressing that is laid upon a wounded Back It is therefore our best Wisdom and Duty to search our Hearts and try our Ways that we may discover what is the procuring cause of our Troubles and turn unfeignedly to the Lord. This will endear Afflicted Souls to God and incline him to afford gracious supports to them It is true sometimes our Sufferings are designed for Trial especially when they are for Righteousness sake Counterfeit Coin though with a fair Stamp and Inscription is discovered by the Fire thus meer titular Christians specious Hypocrites are made known by Persecutions but true substantial Gold endures the Fire without loss and the more 't is tryed the more 't is refined Thus the true Christian whom neither the gain of the World nor the loss of Life can remove from the stedfast owning of the Holy Truth has a clear manifestation of his Sincerity And it is a peculiar favour and honour when God calls forth his Servants to the hardest Trials for his Names sake 't is the noblest way of Service a special Conformity to the Son of God more glorious than the resembling his power in doing Miracles In this the Saints here have a capacity of serving God above the Angels for the obedience of the Angels is always joined with their Happiness but the obedience of the Saints here is often attended with Adversity and is more valuable to them upon that account As a Soldier of Courage and Generosity when he is chosen from the rest of the Army for some bold Exploit values the choice of the General as a signal mark of the esteem of his Valour and Fidelity To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer for Christ's sake This is just matter of Joy Innocence with the faithful companion of it a good Conscience makes our Sufferings from the rage and violence of Men to be comfortable There may be a Feast within the House when a Storm of Hail rattles upon the Tiles But it is sometimes so ordered by Divine Providence that the Evils we suffer are of a mixt nature partly Chastisements and partly Trials This was the case of the Believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle directs his Counsel their Persecution was from the unrighteous Pagans for a cause purely Religious but 't was permitted by the righteous God as a punishment for their Sins And here the Divine Wisdom and Goodness is admirable that the same Affliction is instrumental for the purifying of his Servants from Sin and the advancement of his glorious Gospel The first and most immediate effect of his Discipline is the humbling and sanctifying them to prepare them for his Love by which they are fortified to bear couragiously the worst Evils for his sake Direct 6. Apply the Mind to consider the Blessings we receive as well as the Evils we endure Whilst the intence Thoughts are fixt upon the Cross the Soul is rackt with inward Tortures but did we turn our Eyes upon our Enjoyments and the Comforts that are interwoven with our Troubles it would be a means not only to compose us to Patience but Thankfulness The Apostle directs us to trust in the Living God who giveth all things richly to enjoy In the poorest and lowest state of Life we have many Favours and effects of his rich Bounty and it is the ignorance of our deservings and of our enjoyments that causeth Discontent and Murmuring under our Troubles Particularly this Consideration will be effectual to repress the Discontent that is apt to kindle in our Breasts upon the sight of the different Dispensations of Providence that some are exempted from the current Adversities of the World and live in ease and pleasure whilst we are deprived of many outward Comforts Suppose a Sick person in extream Poverty were received by a rich and liberal Lord into his House and convenient Food and precious Medicines were provided for him without his desert or