hast thou done so And thus elsewhere he patiently submitteth himselfe to be afflicted at his good pleasure 2 Scm. 15.26 But if saith he he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him doe to me as seemeth good in his eies So good old Elie when he heard from Samuell what a fearefull worke God would doe to his house quietly he humbleth himselfs saying it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him best 1 Sam. 3.18 Thus likewise Job once have I spoken yea twise but I will proceed no further I will lay my hand upon my mouth and abhor my selfe repenting in dust and ashes Lo Hezechiah sweetly submits when he looketh up to God what shall I say For he hath said it to me and he hath done it Isa 38.13 It is the safest way when Gods hand is on our back to lay our hand on our mouthes and do as Aaron did at the fearefull death of his sons when he heares Moses to tell him that God would be sanctified in those that did draw neere unto him He held his peace Lev. 10.3 Thus those Saints in the 21. Acts. 14 Conclude their arguments with words of submission concerning Paules journey to Jerusalem the will of the Lord be done Now as all events whatsoever are by and according to the will of God so to this will of God must we sweetly submit in all crosse accidents whatsoever we either feele or feare This have the Saints in all ages done when they saw once the the mind of God they quietly yeil ded So Mauritius the Roman Emperour when after the butchering of his loving wife and tender children before his face at the command of the Tirant Phocas he was to act his owne part in that mournfull tragedy in his flesh at first like a grudging Israelite began to repine and draw back but after some passionate panges he humbly submits with these words just art thou O Lord and just are thy judgements And this is patience indeed when we are content without murmuring or repining to resigne our selves into Gods hands to be dealt withall even as it shall seeme good to him both for the time and measure of our affliction We must not only not sink under them but not shrink from them Stay in them till he that laid them on shall please to take them off 1 If we would seriously consider who this is that afflicts us Why it is the Lord who is infinite in glory power and Majesty who having created us of nothing may dispose also of us according to his pleasure for why should the clay murmur against the potter dust and ashes against the glorious King of heaven and earth Who measureth the earth with his span and poyseth it as in a ballance who upholdeth all things by his word and ruleth them at his good pleasure In him we live move and have our being so that if he sustaine us we continue but if he blow upon us we are presently gone and returne again unto our dust 2 As God is infinite in majesty and power so is he just in his judgements his wayes are past finding out Hath he corrected us sharply surely 't was no more then we deserved hath he taken away our dearest friends by death why he took away nothing but what he gave he never gave any thing absolutely and for ever but only to use for a time till he againe did call for it and therefore seeing the Lord hath taken nothing but his owne let us not say we have lost it but only restored it to the right owner 3 Let us beare patiently whatsover comes from God because he is goodnesse it selfe from whom there can come no evill It is he that ruleth the world and ordereth all things for the best taking care of every particular person neither doth nor hath any evill in him God is the fountaine from whence all goodnesle flowes if he be good to all he is abundantly good to his owne if he be so sweet to those that seeke him how beyond expression will he be to those that finde him Now who may better chastize us then he that created us who more right to correct and nurture us then he who feedeth and nurseth us We see the most savage beasts which will not indure the looke of a stranger will take stripes from their owner who feedeth and tendeth them and shall we more brutish then they snarle and repine when the Lord who not only giveth us food but also maketh it nourishment doth chastize us for our good The Lord is our King and Soveraigne unto whom we are to yeild absolute obedience and therefore if earthly Princes doe punish their subjects and judge them insolent if they repine and rebellious if they resist not enduring expostulation or to have their actions called to account nay though they be unjust How then shall we be acquitted when being corrected by God we impatiently murmure and by using unlawfull meanes to free our selves as much as in us lieth resist him in his most righteous judgements which are all disposed for our good if we submit our selves unto them Seeing by ruling us thus on earth he fitteth us to raigne with him in heaven Ah! Therefore let us not looke to the interiour causes by which our crosses are immediately imposed but unto the Lord our God who is the cheife and supreame cause of all our afflictions Let us not looke to instruments and aggravate our sorrowes by circumstances as looking upon our afflictions with an impotent impatience because our enemies are malicious proude and insolent in the carriage of the matter but to God which aymeth at nothing but our good Thus saith Christ to Pilate thou couldest have no power except it were given the from above Thus likewise doe we make our burdens in supportable when we too much looke upon the treachery neglect or unkinde dealing of some friends of whom we have deserved well and therefore least of all suspected to have received from them such hard measure Alas if our thoughts mount no higher then those broken reeds we may sit down and die of discontent And therefore 't was sweetly said of a holy and experimentall Divine lately that unlesse we learne to suffer from the hands of Saints as well as from ungodly persons we must never looks to live a merry day So say I unlesse we can beare the fallings off the falsehood and treachery of a beloved friend we shall never come to possesse pure patience indeed And thus many times when ought befalleth us through our owne default negligence or want of providence we adde unto it the weight of many criminations and oftentimes false accusations against our selves as though it were not heavy enough in it selâ—e to presse us downe unlesse we added thereunto the loade of bitter invectives against our owne negligence and of sharpe censures for our owne faultinesse as being the cause which hath brought upon us those crosses and calamities
that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day 1 David came to Bahurim in his flight from Absalom we may seriously observe to what afflictions and streights the Saints of God may be brought they may be brought to flee for their lives this was Davids case and this is the lot and portion of all the faithfull to endure affliction in one kinde or other Abraham the Father of the faithfull had his peculiar afflictions his great fears and his unparalel'd tryals Gen. 20.11 22. Isaac had his continual griefe of minde in the marriage of one of his Sons and of his being deprived of the other for 20. yeares together Gen. 26.35.36.27 See what afflictions Jacob had persecuted by his own Brother and driven from his Fathers house into a strange Land there he suffered many an injury and indignity from his Unkle with sorrowes he sustained from and in his children Surely if we would seriously read the whole story of his life we shall finde his troubles come tumbling one on the others back Like the waves of the Sea commonly the ending of one was but the beginning of another Moses whom God so dearly loved and entertain'd into the necrest familiarity talking with him face to face was notwithstanding exercised with grievous afflictions not to speak of his hardships and streights which he sustained before he could understand it being in danger of death every hour for 3. months space To omit many things what an affliction had he in carrying such an untoward people 40. yeares together in the wildernesse and what wordly comfort had he to cheer him in suffering all these afflictions but the remembrance of the Land of promise the fruition whereof he long expected But at last he is cut off from this hope and heareth Gods definitive sentence passe upon him that he must ascend Mount Nebo and dye there Deut. 32.50 And thus Job though he were the justest man that lived upon the Earth by the Lords own testimony yet did he endure manifold and grievous afflictions as we may read in the History of his life the spoyling of his goods the slaughter of his servants the untimely death of ten children all at once the outward torment of botches and boyles and the inward terrors of an afflicted minde the scornes of the wicked the strange behaviour of his Wife the unkinde usage and hard censures of his friends that in these respects he was thought to be the fittest man to be propounded by the holy Ghost as a pattern of patience James 5.11 And thus did all the Apostles suffer afflictions yea and cruel deaths except St. John Here with a Catalogue St. Paul makes of his sufferings 2 Cor. 11.44 unto which outward vexation of body and inward cares and distractions of minde we may add his spiritual afflictions as the fight between the flesh and spirit and the buffitings of Satan which were incomparably greater then all the rest for whereas out of the strength of his faith and patience he rejoyced yea even boasted himselfe in his other afflictions by these he is much humbled and cast down in the fight of his corruptions and forced to crye out in perplexity of spirit oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Now the causes which doth move the Lord to lay upon his children those great afflictions is because of sin Sin then is the meritorious cause why the Lord punisheth a place or Person Judgments never come down from God till provocations first go up from man and this the Church plainly affiâ—meth Lam. 3.39 man suffereth for his sin and this the Lord tels Israel Jer. 30.14 15. I have stricken thee with the wound of an enemy and with a sharp chastisement for the multitude of thine iniquities because thy Sons were increased why cryest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquities I have done those things unto thee Object But doth God alwayes correct for sin are there not other ends which move the Lord to lay crosses upon his own children Ans It s very true God doth by afflictions as well make tryall of his graces in us as chastize us for our sins and that besides our transgressions there are in Gods secret counsels other causes of our crosses and calamities but seeing the Lord hath in his word denounced these miseries and afflictions against us as punishments and chastisements for our iniquities and doth not reveale unto us when he tryeth us and when he correcteth us Therefore leaving Gods secrets unto himselfe we are not to look unto his hidden counsels but to his revealed will and according thereunto we are alwayes to make this use of our afflictions that when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord and justly corrected and punished for our sins and thus the Saints in all ages have done still have they insisted on their sins which have primarily been the cause of their sorrowes So David complained Psal 38.3 there is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there rest in my bones by reason of my sins And thus the Prophet Isaiah chap. 64.5 cryeth out in his prayer for the people behold thou art angry for we have sinned Yea Job himselfe who was chiefly afflicted for the try all of his graces though he desires to defend his innocency against his three friends to maintain the integrity of his heart from their false aspertions yet having to deal with God he acknowledgeth and sayes I have finned what shall I do unto thee oh thou preserver of men and why doest thou not parden and take away mine iniquity Job 7.20 Again 't is good to make a holy use of every affliction Is there an insufficiency and impotency in creatures that they cannot help us or infidelity and treachery whereby they will not afford unto us that help which we expect from them we may very well conclude we rested too much on those earthen propts and when contempt and scorn waite upon our heeles pride and loftinesse was our Gentleman Usher before and so of the rest God is one that will do nothing wherein his word shall not justifie his deed what befalls us from him must needes be just though we conceive not our desert because he smothers our offences his justice is in no way detected and surely if we would seriously take notice of it we may oft times read our fin in our punishment for God usually retaliates and dealeth with men according to the manner and way of their wickednesse the sin and suffering oft meet in some remarkable circumstance Now as afflictions are punishments for sins past so are they preventions against sin in time to come Phisitâ—ans when they purge their Patients aime most at the cause of the disease for when that is taken away the effects will follow thus doth God with his own dearest children he purges them so
sore and brings them so low that they are almost pined with want before a spring of better blood can be procured If we have ventured on noysome meates and hurtfull poysons If we will feed on grosse sins and drink in the very pudle of iniquity what shall our Father do with us but give us such Phisick as will thorowly work If David will lie and commit adultery and fall to murder Innocents what can God do lesse for David unlesse he would have him lost but lash him soundly make the rod cling to his skin yea to his conscience make his very bones to ake and shake too and when he will be walking so neer Hells mouth 't is just for God to take him by the heeles and make him believe he will throw him in vvhat if he be crost of his vvill and crie it s better he should crie here then in Hell and receive his payment here then his judgment there and truly many times the whip prevents the halter and thus if we will venture after David in those dangerous pathes we shall be sure to passe under the red as he did if we be Gods children as he was Oh how should David's practise and case affright us alas how did he gather mud when he did but stand still a while and how would his corruptions again have grown to some head had not Absalom been raised up to breath him to disperse them If David were so foggie after so many breathings a man of so good a diet how resty should we be if never walkt how grounded on our lees with Moab if never turned forth from Vessell to Vessell It stands the Lord therefore upon if he will provide for his harvest and our good to take some paines with us least otherwise he faile of his vintage while we want dressing Now God is gratiously pleased to give us a reason for what he doth I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy drosse and take away all thy time Isai 1.25 and again by this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Isai 27.9 So likewise Dan. 11.35 Zach. 13.9.1 Pet. 1.6 7. Job 33.16 17. Hos 2.6 7. And this was it that made St. Augustine to comfort himselfe in the middest of his tribulation for saith he it is but my purge to free me from the drosse of sin We seldome know strong diseases cured with gentle meanes for 't is a rule in Phisick the medicine must exceed the maladie and therefore we can take nothing that commonly workes so kindly as afflictions when we are in prosperity how apt are we to fall into a dropsie pride makes us to magnifie our selves and to have a great opinion of our own worth and being joyned with the applause of others we are so pust up we hardly see our selves but when our purge workes to purpose we grow as little in our own conceite as in the opinion of others what are all earthly endowments severed from grace alas they are but the deceiving shaddow of a lying complexion there is nothing that will last nothing but will change and when we come to look in the glass of the Law those outward helps will flee and faile us and we shall be left in our own foulnesse and deformity Hear what Job says when throughly humbled I abhor my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Job 42.6 Again afflictions purge out the love of the World now this Worldly love is such a dangerous disease that if we are not cured of it it would bring us at last to a desperate consumption in all grace and goodnesse and to everlasting death both of body and soul for faith in God and confidence in earthly things will not stand together we cannot serve God and mammon we cannot love the Lord and love the World and this the Apostle St. John saith 2 Epistle chap. 2.15 If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And therefore God in mercy weanes us from those breasts we have so long laine at he is faine to put bitternesse on it that we may loath it and yet such as it is we exceedingly affect it ah what would we do if it were sweet If we defire to dwell in earthen tottering ruinous habitations how loath would we be to leave them if they were strong Stately and permanent If we take content in our pilgrimage and make no hast unto our Heavenly Country when as our way is so foule and full of thornes our journey so painfull and dangerous and our entertainment among those worldly Cannibals so bad and barbarous what a Paradice would we esteem it and what little account would we make of our everlasting Mansions if we had a pleasant passage an easie journey and kind usage in this strange Country ah how full is this World of troubles wars contentions secret Traytors open enemies and false friends and yet we greeve when we think of leaving it how would we even surfeit of sorrow if injoying perfect peace sweet concord and faithfull friendship we should be forced to foregoe it most graciously therefore doth our good God deale with us when seeing us so besotted with this pernicious love he cause the World to deal roughly with us and even to thrust us away from her and when we hardly will let goe our hold God will make our riches to take unto them as it were the wings of an Eagle and flee away our credit shall be crakt and our honour laid in the dust yea our neerest and dearest friends shall deceive us as a brook and many times God is fain to make all helps and hopes to faile us and we to be left destitute and desolate stark naked and bestript of all then this will make us if any thing to deny all other things by faith to catch hold on God hovering and covering our selves under his wing only Now as God doth this in much love and mercy to beat us for and from our fins and to weane us from the World so doth he it in measure and moderation and this he professeth Jer. 46.28 Feare not oh Jacob my Servant for I am with thee I will make a full end of all Nations whither I have driven thee but I will not make a full end of thee but correct thee in measure yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished 1 For the measure of our afflictions and there moderation we may plainly see both in respect of their quantity which is but small and in their time which is but short for either they are light or they are long and if they be great in quantity they are but momentany in their continuance or if they be tedious in time they are easie in weight It is but a little Cup in comparison of what the Lord Jesus drank for us so that our afflictions and griefes are but shaddowes and resemblances rather then substanciall evils Hear
upon us no more then is necssary Phisitians will not minister a strong potion where a lenitive is enough nor put one dram too much in his prescription much less will the Lord nay we our selves if one medicine do not cure us we seek another Thus dealeth God when afflictions are growne ordinary and usuall they move the lesse because they be familiar therefore God is pleased to alter and change his medicines that they might work the more kindely He proportions out the measure of afflictions according to the scantest measure of our necessity for the magnifying of his owne glory by our sanctification in this life and our salvation in the life to come Alas the Lord doth not take any delight in our smart or maketh any hast to inflict his chastisements but with patience and long-suffering he expecteth our repentance that he may have mercy upon us and doth not take his rod of correction into his hand till he be pressed with the weight of our sins He doth not punish us willingly as one that taketh delight in our smart and torment but performeth it as an action which is rather fit for us to suffer than for him to do Let us conclude therefore That if we have great or tedious afflictions lying upon us either we have great faults or great stomacks we many times deale with God as children do with their parents while they are under the rod promise amendement but no sooner released but presently we are as bad as ever And therefore though God may ease us to try us sometimes yet when he lengthens our afflictions he will take our word no more but will make a through work and till he see us throughly humbled and amended and know that our conversion and repentance be constant and without danger of fleeting he will not burn the rod. But as the Gold-Smith lets his Gold melt in the Furnace till it be throughly purified and purged from its drosse which when he perceives it according to his minde will by no meanes suffer it to stay there any longer because it would but wast and loose of his weight So doth the Lord suffer us to remaine in the Furnace of affliction till we be purged from our drosse of sin by renewing our faith and repentance but no sooner are we according to his purpose purified but he pulleth us out and will not suffer us to wast and consume our selves with sorrow and heavinesse and therefore let us patiently indure the triall seeing God who putteth us into the Furnace knoweth the best time when to take us out And by this we may conclude that our afflictions are limitted both in regard of their weight and measure God hath said to our sorrowes as to the proud waves of the Sea hither shall you come and no farther all the Angels in Heaven shall not be able to abate them nor all the men on earth or devils in hell to add one scruple to them And whiles God unto his children measureth judgement according to their strength he rendreth judgement to the wicked according to the measure of their sinnes 5 Another consideration is that our afflictions are not the punishments of a Righteous Judg but the chastisements of a Gracious Father And this the Apostle perswades Heb. 12.6 7 8. My Son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth c. God indeed is displeased not with the person for his hatred to the sin but with the sin for the love of the person he is not angry in justice because we have sinned so much as in mercy that we may sin no more and therefore we may sometimes lie under anger but never under wrath it was the Lord Jesus Christ that suffered the wrath of God and satisfied divine justice he bore the punishments which were due unto sins and discharged our debt by offering up himselfe unto his Father as a sufficient sacrifice and paying a price of infinite value and merit for our redemption 6 God hath preordained those to be like Christ in his sufferings who shall be like him in glory we must be content to drink with Christ in his bitter Cup before we shall be exalted to sit with him in his Kingdome and this the Apostle Peter affirmeth 1 Pet. 2.21 for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps If we will feast with Christ in Heaven we must be content to fast with him on earth If there we would keep an everlasting Sabbath with him in his Kingdome we must labour and travell whilst those working dayes last That was a sweet speech of Bernard thou oh Lord Jesus saith he art to me both an example and reward of suffering and both do strongly provoke and vehemently inflame me thou teachest my hands to fight by the example of thy fortitude and after victory thou Crownest my head with the presence of thy Majesty Oh! if thou beest so good to those that seeke and run after thee what wilt thou be to those who finde and possesse thee If the Prince of our salvation was consecrated by afflictions why should we expect a priviledge above him It is not suitable and fit that an afflicted head should have a pampered body and members It becometh not the servant to live in idlenesse and pleasure when as the master wearieth himselfe with paines and labours how can we be called his disciples if we are not content to walke in his steps for as the Apostle saith Phil. 3.10 11. If we will know him and the virtue of his resurrection we must first have fellowship with him in his afflictions and be made conformable unto his death if by any means we may attaine unto the resurrection of the dead Ah! if we would often meditate of those afflictions the Lord Jesus Christ did suffer and that to bring us to heaven we would not pore upon our own so much as we doe would we but thinke when we suffer poverty and are pinched with worldly wants what the Lord of heaven and earth sustained he was destitute of earthly comforts and had not a house to lay his head When we are injuriously traduced and injustly slandered and abused let us call to minde the Lambe of God who was without spot or blemish most innocent and full of all goodnesse even he was called a wine-Bibber a friend to publicans and sinners an imposter and one that did all his miracles by the helpe of the devill When we are ill requited by those of whom we have better deserved forsaken by our friends in the time of our need and betraied by those who stand obliged unto us by many benefits and to whom we have committed the very secrets of our soules Oh let us thinke our deare Lord was worse used before us for those he came to save sought his destruction his disciples forsake him and flee away
last long that love is never lasting which flames before it burns and very rarely is that friendship found with the durability of affection which is so suddainely kindled enduring love is ever built on vertue which no person can see in another at once and therefore by a soft ascension does degree it selfe in the soule If we should tell those our sometimes great friends that their hottest love was never but fained I believe they would not take it well but they must know that love was never sincere that will not hold out length with life and therefore if God have snapt our fingers from such false friends we have the greater cause to be thankfull There will a great deale of sweetnesse flowe from this sower better to be debarr'd of their society altogether then be any more greeved with their falsehood and unkindnesse And thus the malice of enemies and the false fained and sickle love of supposed friends shall all turne for our eternall advantage and therefore though we have poured out many teares over their living Sepulchers yet we may comfort our selves in their losse then injoy their love with a continuall feare of loosing or incurring their displeasure by a Captious exception many times for a meere over-sight or unwilling miscarriage and unpurposed enour though generally we did ever observe them with obsequious love Let us not then be so greevously troubled when we are any wayes wronged belyed railed upon spurned at or trampled upon by the feet of honoured insolency or dunghill Malice slighted contemned and utterly cast off by our bosome friends but in a meeke and patient behaviour let us sweetly seriously and feelingly in our own hearts say this is from God for my good or with Eli it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good There is a supreame providence wisedome and power which seeth and over-ruleth all their actions and ends that when they are most eager in pursuing their designes doth make them when they thinke least of it to serve him for the effecting of all his counsells and purposes and the furthering and advancing of those his maine ends even his owne glory and our greatest good both here and hereafter 2 not onely the Malice of man but the malice of Satan himselfe that sets them awork shall turn to our good He goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking what soule he may devoure 1 Pet. 5.8 He thrusteth fore at us and so worrieth us with unwearied temptations seeking nothing more then to dishonour God in our overthrow but this like a storme at sea drives us to our port even to the throne of grace by prayers and teares for help against hell 2 Chron. 20.13 When Satan hath fetcht us over to a sin by spells and Charmes of mercy he at length finding us bleeding and dying would make us beleeve there is no mercy for us when having made us sin against the Law he would make us sin against the Gospell also that so mercy her selfe might condemne us but after sin committed he steps in betweene us and God and begs out of our fathers hand therod to beat us for those sins we had never done but through his inticement Now say we we see the devills businesse added to his false-hood surely peace once made with our God we will never be thus cheated againe Ah! how wary shall we be ever after of Satans wiles surely the best of sin is shame and sorrow the forbidden tree will never yeild better fruit 3 Our fins worke our good while we carry this mortall body about us we doe and must carry sin within us Many unavoydable infirmities invincible necessities God in mercy and wisedome will have it to be thus 1 To subdue our pride and presumpion which else would advance it selfe against God 'T is said Deut. 7.22 That God did not drive out the Canaanites from among his people all at once least the wilde beasts should grow in upon them And saith David Psal 59.11 Lord slay not all the enemies of thy Church at once least thy people forget it So God that could at first have taken away all the corruption of our nature and the lusts of our hearts would not least the wilde beasts of pride and security growing in upon us we forget mercy Thus the Lord would not take away the thorne in the flesh of the Apostle Peul those buffettings of Satan but tells him his grace is sufficient for him 2 Cor. 12.8 Alas had we not these infirmities in us how soon like our first parents would we thinke our selves to be Gods Looke upon the Aposile Peter how consident of his owne strength how forward was he in his profession he would be first and singular if all should deny him yet would not he no he would dye first but God let loose but a small temptation the words of a poore filly maid shall so affright him with the seare of death that he will presently deny his Lord and Master nay forsweare him too but this fall did him much good Oâ— How warily did he walke ever after how cautious of his words And when Christ did ask him whether he loved him more then these he had done boasting now onely he pleades the sincerity of his heart Lord thou knowest all things and knowest that I love thee Job 21.17 Thus did Jobs impatiency bring him to the more humility to the more abasing of himselfe Yea to abhorring of himselfe in dust and ashes Job 42.6 So David after his falls he was the more Circumspect over himselfe the more eager against his sins and the more earnest with God by praver against them 2 As these infirmities serve us as to subdue pride and security so to a waken us from our spirituall sluggishnesse to carefull and constant prayer yea to watchfulnesse unto prayer with all perseverance Our infirmities are as it were the coales which Satan bloweth to consume us now when feeling the fire we labour to keep it out and by the contrary blasts of Gods Spirit to quench the flame we enter the combat which nothing else but death can put an end unto When there is no fear of the enemie our weapons rust and we remain unexperienced and what then shall we do in the day of tryal 3 By our falls we are made more pitifully tender towards our brethen whensoever overcome by a temptation because we our selves have been overcome and we cannot tell how soon again Thus when news was brought to a learned and experienced Divine that a professor was soully fallen Alas faith he he fell to day and I may fall to morrow And this the Apostle Paul exâ—orteth Gal. 6.1 It a brother be overtaken yea which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe least thou also beâ—empted Now many times we doe not know how fraile we are till we fall neither know what is our weaknesse nor what our strength is we see neither how poore we our selves are nor how