whom I owe myself and whose will I pray daily may be done It was an adorable instance of this humility in David when to add to his present sad condition Shimei cursed him so bitterly and although he had power and opportuleft him to revenge it yet he forbad it for it may be the Lord hath bid Shimei curse And again 2. What am I that I must not be crossed or reproached or contemned or disappointed Alas a poor weak sinful man I cannot be made lower in the esteem of the world than I am in my own If the world reproach spoil me of what I have if I am poor or scorned it is but what I deserve and less than I deserve for my sins at the hand of God Though perchance I am slandered or falsly accused by them yet I know ill enough of my self to make me bear patiently even a false accusation and they cannot make me more low and vile in the esteem of others than I am in my own And thus Humility breaks and quenches the passions and keeps the mind serene and undisturbed under all external occurrencies But to descend to particulars more distinctly 2. Humility gives Contentation in any condition or station And the reason is because an humble mind is never above that station or condition of life that the Divine Providence orders but rather under or below it or at the most holds pace with it When the mind runs beyond the condition of a man it is like a spend-thrift that lives beyond his Estate and therefore becomes necessarily poor and never enjoys what it hath because it busies it self evermore in anxious pursuit of what it hath not And that mind that in relation to the things of the world runs beyond its station can never be contented nor quiet and though he attain this year what he anxiously pursued the last year yet still his mind will be running farther and still keep before his acquests as the fore-wheel of the Coach will still run before the hinder-wheel But an humble man is ever contented with what the Divine Providence and Honest Industry allotts him and enjoys it comfortably and thankfully and can sit down with a narrow fortune with this contenting contemplation That which I have is given by the Bountiful God of liberality not of debt if I had less it were more than I could deserve for I can with Jacob say out of the sense of my own unworthiness I am less than the least of all thy mercies blessed therefore be his name 3. Humility gives always Patience under all Adversity of what kind soever it be and this is always an effect and companion of true humility upon these ensuing Considerations 1. The greatest cause of Impatience is not so much from the pressure and force of any external cross or calamity as from the great disturbance and reluctance of the mind of him that suffers it and this it is that raiseth up the waves and billows within the cross or calamity it may be is rough and beyond the power of him that suffers it to extricate or control And on the other side when it meets with a mind as tumultuous and contumacious as the calamity or cross it raiseth a storm as when the wind and tide are contrary or like that state of Paul's voyage in the Adriatick Sea where two Seas met Act. 27. which oftentimes endangers the vessel He that violently and impetuously contends against a calamity is like one bound with a strong yoak or bond his strugling like a wild Bull in a net galls him more than the yoak it self otherwise would do and a proud and haughty spirit commonly miscalled courage contributes more to his own uneasiness than his cross doth But an humble lowly mind is naturally more able to bear his cross with more patience because it is evident that the softness humility and quietness and calmness of his mind breaks the force of the calamity and renders it more easie by submission to it 2. Again every true humble man looks upon the worst condition that he is under to be less than he deserves As long as a man lives in the world there is no condition so troublesom and painful and uneasie but it may be worse and an humble man always thinks that that condition or circumstance of his life which may be worse is not the worst that he deserves It may be I am poor but yet I am well esteemed I deserve both poverty and disesteem it may be I am poor and under a cloud also of ignominy and reproach yet I have my health of body and composedness and steadiness of mind and this is more than I deserve It may be I am with Job under a confluence and complication of calamities loss of Estate of Children and Relations censured by my very friends as an hypocrite and one under the displeasure of Almighty God my body macerated with diseases yet I have life and where there is life there is hope Wherefore doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3.39 the living man hath no cause to complain because although he suffer the loss of all other things yet his life is spared and given him for a prey The humble man is patient therefore under his sufferings of any kind because he carries with him the due sense of his own unworthiness and demerit and upon a judicious account looks upon his meanest lowest worst condition as better than he deserves at the hand of God 3. The humble man is patient under all conditions because he always bears a mind entirely subject and submitting to the will of the great Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth and whom he knows to be the Sovereign Lord of all his Creatures to be the great dispenser or permitter and rector of all the events in the world to be the most Wise Just and Gracious God and therefore he doth not only submit to his will as an act of Necessity which we cannot control or as an act of Duty in obedience to his Sovereign but as an act of Choice of Prudence and because the will of his Maker is wiser than his own and more eligible than his own and therefore he makes the will of his Maker his own choice and upon the account of true judgment concludes that whatsoever the most Powerful and Irresistible the most Wise and Prudent the most Just and Merciful Will of God appoints for him is not only fit for him to submit unto but also to choose and as well cheerfully and thankfully as patiently and quietly to follow and elect And therefore since he well knows that all the successes of his life are under the regiment government and providence of the most Glorious Sovereign Wise and Merciful God even those that seem in themselves most troublesom uneasie and grievous he patiently and cheerfully comports with the Divine Will in the tolleration of them and waits upon his All-sufficiency and Goodness in his due
pious and profane And although the gracious God is sometimes pleased for ends best known to himself strangely to preserve and rescue as it were some out of a common calamity yet it is that which I do not know how any man can promise himself though otherwise never so pious and just because I find not that any where under the Evangelical dispensation God Almighty hath promised to any person any such immunity and common experience shews us that good and bad are oftentimes involved in the effects and extremities of the same common calamity and indeed it would be little less than a Miracle and somewhat above the ordinary course of the Almighty's regiment of things to give particular exemption in such cases If a man receive any such blessing from God he is bound eminently to acknowledge it as a signal if not miraculous intervention of the divine mercy but it is not that which a man can reasonably expect because although upon great and momentous occasions Almighty God is pleased not only to give out Miracles but even to promise them also as in the justifying of the truth of the Gospel in the first publication thereof yet it is not equal for any particular person to suppose that for the preservation of a particular interest or concernment God Almighty should be as it were engaged to put forth a Miracle or little less than a Miracle and the Reasons hereof are 1. Because under the Evangelical dispensation the rewards of goodness piety and obedience are of another kind and of a greater moment namely Eternal happiness and not exemption from temporal calamities if Almighty God grant such an exemption it is of bounty and abundance not of promise It is true under the Old Covenant with the people of Israel their Promises were in a great measure of temporal benefits and the Administration of that Church as it was in a great measure typical so the Divine Administration over them was very usually miraculous both in their blessings preservations and exemptions And there was special reason for it for they were to be a monument to all Mankind and also to future Ages of a special and signal Divine Regiment and consequently the obedient might upon the account of the Divine Promise expect blessings and deliverances even in publick calamities that might befall the People in general But we have no warrant to carry over those promises of Temporal benefits and exemptions to the obedience under the Gospel which as it is founded upon another Covenant so is it furnished with better Promises 2. Because the best of men in this life have sins and failings enow to justifie the Justice of Almighty God in exposing them to temporal calamities and yet his mercy goodness and bounty is abundantly magnified in reserving a reward in Heaven far beyond the merit of their best obedience and dutifulness So that though they are exposed to temporal calamities Almighty God still remains not only a true and faithful but a liberal and bountiful Lord unto them in their everlasting rewards What are light afflictions and but for a moment in comparison to an eternal weight of glory And the latter is the reward of their Obedience under the Gospel whiles the former may be possibly the punishment or at least correction for their Sins And therefore although at the intercession of Abraham the Lord was pleased to grant a relaxation of the destruction of Sodom for the sake of ten Righteous it was an act of his bounty and so it was when he delivered Lot and his Family Yet he had not been unjust if he had swept them away in that common temporal calamity because possibly the sins of Lot himself might have been such as might have acquitted the justice of God in so doing for the highest temporal calamity is not disproportionate to any one Sin And although he were pleased in mercy to spare Lot and his two Daughters yet neither was he wholly exempted from that great calamity for his House Goods and the rest of his Family perished in that terrible Conflagration And upon this consideration we have just cause to blame two sorts of persons namely 1. The rash censure of some inconsiderate persons that are too ready to censure all such as fall under a common calamity whether of Fire Sword or Pestilence as if so be they were therefore greater sinners than those that escape the errour reproved by our Saviour in the instance of the Galileans and those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell 2. The mistaken apprehension of men concerning themselves that upon an opinion of their own righteousness or desert think themselves exempted from the stroke of common calamities or are ready to accuse the Divine Justice if they are not delivered from them If they truly considered the just demerit of any sin and their own sins or failings they would both acknowledge the Justice and Goodness of God if he reserve an eternal reward of their obedience though he expose them to the worst of temporal evils 1. Concerning Personal Evils they are of several kinds 1. such as befall the Body 2. such as befall the Estate 3. such as befall the Name 4. such as befall a man's Friends or Relations Touching the first of these Evils namely that befall the Body they are of two kinds 1. Some that are not so Epidemical or universal upon all men such as are casualties or accidental hurts diseases springing from the particular complexion or temperament of persons such as are hereditary diseases diseases incident to certain ages infectious diseases arising from contagion putrefaction ill disposition of the Air or Waters 2. Some diseases are incident unto every man in the World If a man lives to a great old age his very age is a disease and the decay of natural heat and moisture doth in time bring the oldest man to his end but if he live not to the attainment of old age most certainly as he meets with death in the conclusion so he meets with some disease or other that makes way for his dissolution So that upon the whole account though this or that man may not meet with this or that particular disease casualty or distemper that it may be attaques another yet as sure as he is mortal so sure shall some disease distemper casualty or weakness meet with him that shall bring him to the dust of death That person therefore that is subject to the universal Edict and Law of death is and must be subject sooner or later to those diseases sicknesses casualties or weaknesses that must usher in his death and dissolution And although one man may escape a chronical disease another an acute disease one man may escape a Contagion another a Consumption one man may escape this disease or casualty another that yet most certain it is that every man shall infallibly meet with some disease distemper or casualty that shall be sufficient to dissolve his composition and put a period to
cleanseth the Soul and renders a man in God's acceptation as if he had not offended 5. The next preparative against affliction is to gain an humble Mind When affliction meets with a proud heart full of opinion of its own worth and goodness there ariseth more trouble and tumult and disorder and discomposure in the contest of such a heart against the affliction than possibly can arise from the affliction it self and the strugling of that distemper of pride with the affliction galls and intangles the mind more than the severest affliction and renders a man very unfit for it and unable to bear it The Prophet describes it her Sons at the head of every street were like a wild Bull in a net But on the other side an humble lowly mind is calm and patient and falls with ease upon an afflicted condition for the truth is the great evil of suffering is not so much in the thing a man suffers as in the mind and temper of spirit of the man that meets with it an humble mind is a mind rightly prepared with the greatest facility to receive the shock of any affliction for such a mind is already as low as affliction can ordinarily set it And certainly if any man consider aright he hath many important causes to keep his Mind always humble 1. In respect of Almighty God the great and glorious King of Heaven and Earth whom if a man contemplate he will put his mouth in the dust acknowledge himself to be but a poor worm and therefore unworthy to dispute the Divine dispensations providences or permissions 2. In respect of himself He that considers aright himself his sins and failings and corruptions will have cause enough to humble himself and reckon that he is justly obnoxious to the severest crosses and afflictions Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin 't is mercy enough that the affliction extends not yet so â—â—r as his life a living man to complain carnes a reprehension in it self of the complaint 6. Another most singular prâ—paration against affliction is a steady resolved Resignation of a man's self to the will and good pleasure of Almighty God and that upon grounds of the greatest reason imaginable For 1. it is a most sovereign will for his will must be done whether we will or not therefore it is the highest piece of folly imaginable to contest with him that will not cannot may not be controlled It is true we have commission to pray to him to deliver us from evil but when we have so done we must withal desire that his will may be done this pattern the Son of God hath given us Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done Willingly therefore submit to that will which whether thou wilt or no thou must thou shalt endure for his will is the most sovereign will the will of the absolute Monarch of Heaven and Earth 2. As it is the most sovereign will so it is the most wise will what he wills he wills not simply prâ—â—â—mperio but his will is founded upon and directed by a most infinite wisdom and since thou canst not upon any tollerable account judge thy will wiser than his it becomes thee to resolve thy poor narrow inconsiderate will into the will of the most wise God 3. As it is a most wise will so the will of God is most certainly the most benificent and best will what reason hast thou to suspect the benificence of his will whose will alone gave thee thy being that he might communicate his goodness to that being of thine which he freely gave thee It is true it may be thou dost not see the reason the end the use of his Dispensations yet be content with an implicit submission to resign thy self up to his disposal and rest assured it shall be best for thee though thou yet canst not understand what it means If he hath given thee an Heart to resign up this will unto his be confident he will never mislead thee nor give thee cause to repent of trusting him It was a noble pitch of a Heathen's mind namely Epictetus Enchirid. cap. 78. In quovis incepto haeâ— optanda sunt Due me ô Jupiter tâ— fatum eo quo sum à vobis destinatus sequar enim alacriter quod si noluero improbus ero sequar nihilominus Which may be thus better Englished In every Enterprize this ought to be our Prayer Guide me O God and thou Divine Providence according to thine own appointment I will with chearfulness follow which if I shall decline to do I shall be an undutiful man and yet shall nevertheless follow thy appointment whether I will or not But Christians have learned a Reason of a nobler descent namely That all things shall work together for good to those that love God and certainly there can be no greater evidence of thy love to him than to make the Will of God the guide rule and measure of thine own 7. I shall conclude with that great Preparative which is indeed the completion of all that is before said and in a few words includes all Labour to get thy Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord when this is once attained thou art set above the love of the World and the fear of afflictions because thou hast the assurance of a greater Treasure than this World can give or take away a Kingdom that cannot be shaken a hope and most assured expectation that is above the region of afflictions and that renders the greatest and forest afflictions as they are namely light and momentany And yet because thou art notwithstanding this glorious expectation yet in this lower region and subject to passions and perturbations and fears the merciful God hath engaged his promise to support thee here under them to better and improve thee by them to carry thee through them by his all-sufficient grace and mercy The strokes thou receivest are either managed and directed or at least governed and ordered by him that is thy Father and that in very love and faithfulness doth correct thee that hath a heart of compassion and love to thee even when he seems in his Providences to frown upon thee that while thou art under them will make them work together for thy good and that will never take from thee those everlasting mercies which are thy portion that hath all thy afflictions crosses troubles whatever they are or may be under the infallible conduct of his own wisdom and power And that as on the one side he will never suffer thee to be afflicted beyond what he gives thee grace to bear and improve so on the other hand he will so manage order and govern thy light afflictions which are here but for a moment that in the end they shall be a means to bring thee a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of Glory If therefore thou wouldst be soundly armed against afflictions and prepared with ease and comfort to bear them this one thing necessary is sufficient to render thee such and to fit thee also with all those advantageous helps before mentioned which will necessarily follow upon this attainment 2. Secondly I come to the second general namely How Afflictions incumbent upon us are to be received entertained and improved and this will be in a great measure supplied by what hath been before said touching our preparation of heart before they come for a mind so prepared and habituated will be sufficiently qualified to receive and entertain them as becomes a good man and a good Christian Nevertheless some things I shall subjoyn in order to the bearing and improving of afflictions while they are incumbent upon us and they are these 1. It becomes a man under afflictions in the first place to have a very diligent frequent attentive and right consideration concerning Almighty God that he is a God of infinite wisdom power justice mercy and goodness That he hates not any thing that he hath made but hath a great love and benificence to all his Creatures that he designs their good and benefit even in those dispensations that seem most sharp and severe that if he had not a good will to his Creatures he would never have done so much for them as he hath done that whiles he exerciseth discipline to the children of men it is evident they are under his care that oftentimes there is a greater severity of the Divine displeasure in his leaving mankind to themselves than in exercising them with afflictions and that he equally discovers the love and care of a Father in his corrections as well as in his more pleasing administrations 2. And farther that afflictions rise not out of the dust but are sent and managed by the wise disposition and regiment of Almighty God it is his Providence that sends them that measures out their kind weight continuance and that they are always as commissionated by him so under the conduct of his power wisdom and goodness and never exceed the line and limits of his power wisdom and goodness if he bids them go they go if he bids them return they return if he commands the most tumultuous and tempestuous storms of afflictions peace be still there will be a calm as mankind is never out of the reach of his power to afflict and correct so it is never out of the reach of his power to relieve and recover 3. That as no man hath an exemption from afflictions so it is most evident that even the best of men are visited with them and it is but need they should for where one man is the worse by afflictions a thousand are the worse for want of them and as many the better by them and the wise and gracious God that knows our frame better than we our selves doth for the most part in very faithfulness afflict us The egresses of the Divine Counsels have ever in them a complication of excellent ends even in afflictions themselves they are acts of Justice oftentimes to punish and of Mercy to prevent distempers and to heal them and this is that lot which our Blessed Lord bequeathed unto his own People In the world ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.33 so that a good man may have as great cause to suspect his own integrity in the absence of them as in the suffering under them 4. That all the Divine dispensations of comforts or crosses are so far beneficial or hurtful as they are received and used comforts if they make us thankful sober faithful they become blessings if they make us proud insolent secure forgetful they become judgments afflictions if they are received with humility patience repentance and returning to God they are blessings if they are received with murmuring impatience imcorrigibleness they become judgments and a forerunner of greater severity 5. The consequences of all these Considerations do evidently lead us unto these Dutics when-ever we are under the pressure of Affliction 1. To receive it with all Humility as reached out unto us from the hand or permission at least of Almighty God There were a sort of Philosophers that thought it a virtue to put on a resolved contempt of all crosses and afflictions not to be moved at all with them but to bear them with a stout apathy this is not that temper that becomes a Christian it is all one as if a Child should resolve to receive the correction of his Father with a stubborn resolution not to care for them or to be affected with them such a stubbornness under affliction renders it unuseful to its end and commonly provokes the great Lord and Father of Spirits totally to reject such a mind or to master it with sharper and severer and multiplied afflictions till it yield and till that uncircumcised Heart be humbled and accept of the punishment of its iniquity Levit. 26.41 2. To receive it with Patience and subjection of mind and without either contesting with Almighty God charging his Providence with errour or injustice or swelling and storming against the affliction or the Divine dispensation that sends it This hath two singular benesits first it renders the affliction it self more easie and tollerable secondly it is one of the readiest ways to shorten or abate it For as yielding and humble submission to the hand of God so patience and submission of will to the Divine dispensation are two of the great ends and business of affliction which when attained by it it hath performed a great part of its errand for which it was sent 3. To return unto God that afflicteth or permitteth it Affliction misseth its end and use when it drives a man from his God either to evil or unlawful means or to shift and hide himself or keep at a distance from him and as it loseth its end so it is contrary to its natural effect at least where it meets with a nature of any understanding or ingenuity In their affliction they will seek me early God Almighty sends afflictions like messengers to call home wandring Souls and if a man will shist away get farther off and estrange himself more from him that strikes him he will either send more importunate messengers afflictions of a greater magnitude to call and fetch him as want and famine did the young Prodigal in the Gospel or which is far worse let him go without farther seeking him Whereas the man that by affliction as it were at the first call comes home to God or gets nearer to him for the most part prevents severer monitors and renders his suffering more short or at least more easie by drawing near to God the fountain of peace and deliverance And if the affliction befalls such a man that hath not estranged himself from Almighty God nor departed from him in any greater offences or backslidings yet affliction is not without its end