them at last if they prove incorrigible but the Father of Spirits hath Potestatem vitae necis the Power of Life and Death over all his Children He bringeth to the Gates of Hell VVisd 16.13 and he bringeth back again And this further obligeth us to a patient bearing of his Will in our own Sickness our own darkest Walks in the Valley of the Shadow of Death and also in the last departure of our dearest Friends and Relatives because God is the Father of Spirits and takes no more from us than what he first gave us And hereby we do but attain to some degrees of Abraham's Faith and Patience who was not more joyful at the Birth and Growth of his only Son than ready to give him again to God in his best Age. 4. He hath the Power of the second as well as of the first Death Luke 12.15 or as our blessed Saviour expresseth it when he hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell Men after they have killed the Body have no more that they can do and our Christian Faith and Hope will bear us up under all the Threatnings and Strokes of their Cruelty and enable us to say with Comfort what the poor Lepers spake in dispair If they kill us we shall but die but who knows the Power of thine Anger 2 Kings 7.4 saith David who knows what degrees of Torment the Wrath of an incensed God can kindle after Death Temporal Judgments are to the wicked but the beginning of Sorrows or in St. Gregory Nazianzen's Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Smoak of the Lord 's Anger in Hell are the Flames and the unquenchable Fire of it Take the Ashes of the Furnace Exod. 9.8 saith God to Moses and cast them into the Air and they shall be Sores and Plagues upon them such are all temporal Punishments saith the excellent Bishop Brownrig they are but the Ashes of the Furnace of Hell Fire not to be compared to those everlasting Torments A patient bearing of those Afflictions with which God chastens his Children and Servants in this Life is one good way to escape that Wrath which he reserves for his Enemies in the next Thus have I shewed you briefly what good reason we have to be subject to the Father of Spirits rather than to the Fathers of our Flesh our natural or civil Parents in regard of the greater Absoluteness and Latitude of his Dominion 4. There is one thing more which advanceth God's Scepter and awes us into a lower Submission and that is the duration and continuance of his Dominion This seems to be implied in our Apostle's present Argument in the very next Verse to my Text They verily that is the Fathers of our Flesh for a few days chastned us Their's if a severe is but a short-liv'd Empire But God who shews Mercy to thousands punisheth also to the third and fourth Generation yea His Kingdom as the Psalmist speaks is an everlasting Kingdom Psal 145.13 and his Dominion endureth throughout all Generations I might say much more of God's Soveraignty and right of Rule over us a right to give Laws and to inflict Punishments to exact Obedience and enforce Subjection But I shall proceed to shew you in The Second Sermon SEcondly That as is his Majesty such is his Mercy as he hath a more compleat and absolute Right of Dominion over us so he hath an infinitely more tender Love and Kindness for us than the Fathers of our Flesh have This is implied in their proper Characters and distinctions Fathers of our Flesh and Father of Spirits This bespeaks place by his very Name and Title which bears Signatures of Goodness altogether as illustrious as those of Power which you have seen displayed Where Flesh in Scripture is not used to describe Sin either original or actual it for the most part denotes Weakness if not the Corruption the Frailty of our Nature And Spirit is a word of a quite contrary Import and carries in the notion of it high degrees of Purity Knowledg Power and Goodness But 2. The Preheminence of God's Paternal Affection and the Advantage of his Discipline is more plainly represented in the last word of my Text Live and in the Explication of it by those following words They indeed for a few days chastned us after their Pleasure but he for our Profit If they design their Childrens Good they may either through want of Knowledg or excess of Passion mistake the measures of their Discipline but there are none of these Imperfections in the Father of Spirits His Anger which is the Product of Love is also the Subject of Wisdom and managed by both for a singular Benefit He that is the Father of Spirits knows their frame and their Frailties what Medicines they need and what they will bear and as his Wisdom prescribes and directs his Love administers and makes Application 1. He knows what Medicines they need what will prejudice their Health and what will purge their Distempers and therefore accordingly orders them pro jucundis aptissima quaeque See the Art of Contentment p. 123 130. profitable instead of pleasant things sometimes wholsom Wormwood instead of luscious Honey The same Wisdom and Goodness which denies us those things we like because they are hurtful for us doth upon the very same reason give us those distastful things which he sees profitable A wise Physician doth not only diet but if occasion be purge his Patient also And surely there is not such a Purifier such a Cleanser of the Soul as are Afflictions if we do not like disorderly Patients frustrate their Efficacy by the irregular Managery of our selves under them God afflicts no further than the Necessities of his Patients require and what is short of this is though under the shew of Compassion a real Cruelty He doth not punish willingly Lam. 3.33 1 Pet. 1.6 nor grieve the Children of Men. Now for a season if need be you are in heaviness through manifold Temptations If our Affliction be sharp and painful certainly God seeth that we have need of it otherwise he would handle us more gently The Husbandman plows not but to sow and he plows and harrows no longer than till the Clods are broken and God suffers wicked Men whom the Psalmist compares to Plowers or any other Harassers of our Ease and Content no longer to make Furrows upon the Backs or rather upon the Hearts of his Servants than till they are softned and broken and become a fit soil for his Graces to grow in For 2. He that knows our frame understands our Frailties too not only what we need but what we can bear and remembers not only that our Bodies are Dust but that our Souls also partake of the Infirmities of their Companions or rather of the Discomposures of their Instruments and therefore resolves that he will not contend for ever neither be always wrath Isa 57.16 lest the Spirit should fail before him
The Duty and Benefit of SUBMISSION to the Will of GOD in AFFLICTIONS Discovered in Two SERMONS Upon a special Occasion At Stapleford in LEICESTER-SHIRE By JOHN CAVE Rector of COLDORTON in the same County And Chaplain to the LORD-BISHOP of DURHAM Iis qui erudiuntur Tolerantia succurrit objâ—ctis molestiis generose resistens atque efficiens ne animus concidat sed pugnet propulset Doloris ictus Simpl. in Epicteâ—um Quà m pulchâ—um spectaculum Deo cùm Christianus cum dolore congreditur cùm adversùm Minas Supplicia Tormenta componitur Minut. Fel. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXII TO The Right Honourable and Truly Noble THE LORD and LADY SHERARD OF STAPLEFORD Right Honourable THese two plain Sermons were composed and suited to serve a great and sad Occasion of your Honours reached at your Desires heard with your good liking and most effectually commended by your diligent Observation and Christian Practice of their Doctrine and therefore in these Respects were justly your own without the formality of a Dedication and truly I designed them so intirely for the Service of your Honourable Family that their Preachingh had been their only Publication and they had continued Yours still in the strictest Sence of Propriety if an intimation of your Honour's Desires which to me carry the force of a Command had not only allowed but obliged me to make them more common and seeing the Cross is not only the Badg but the Burthen of our Christianity and you have so many Fellow-Sufferers in the World I have reason to hope that others may find the same Support and Comfort by these seasonable Discourses which through God's Blessing they have happily afforded you And there being so many afflicting Circumstances as it is generally known in your Case your Patience and Submission will want no Advantage of Example but be able to speak more perswasively and make more Converts than these weak Sermons of mine or the Oratory of more powerful Preachers Indeed when Death comes so near us and makes so deep a Wound in Nature we need an extrordinary Assistance of Grace the Benefit of Precept and Example both all the Helps which Philosophy and Religion can furnish lest we be wearied and faint in our Minds St. Hierom writes of one Paulina a Lady of a steady and well-governed Temper in other Trials who yet could not bear her Childrens Death without an immoderate and unseemly Resentment but some allowance may be fairly made to the Tenderness of her Sex when we see Men who have naturally a greater Constancy and Courage wise Men religious Men ready to fall by the same Stroke Synesius the Bishop of Cyrene was so affected with the Death of his Children Epist 16. that in one of his Epistles he complains that the Remembrance of it like a lingring Consumption wasted him daily that all the Pleasure of his Life died with them and at last breaks out into this impatient Wailing Let me live no longer or else forget that they are dead Yea how doth the Heart of King David a Saint and a Souldier melt into a more than a Womanish Softness and bewray its Weakness and Instability in a Torrent of Tears and impotent unmanly Plaints at the Death of one Absolom Absolom a Traitor and a Rebel to his King and Father yet because a Son still must be lamented in the highest Strain of Passion My good Lord and Lady you bewail a Son who had nothing of Absolom in him but his Beauty who had all the Grace and sweetness of Courtesy of a most obliging Mind Speech and Deportment without any of the Guilt or Blemish of Flattery Affectation or Design who wanted no Accomplishment beseeming his Noble Birth and Quality but excelled in Piety to his God and Reverence to his Parents and a towardly Compliance with the other Instructors and Governours of his Youth whereby he soon became the Delight and Ornament of a learned and vertuous Society Exeter Colledg Oâ—on dear to them as a Child and honoured by them as a Patron and therefore wept over as both with a mixt Affection but not so fond as rational And indeed his obliging Qualifications procured him such a general Interest and Esteem that every one who knew him seemed to mourn all along for him as if the Loss had been only his without any Partner to share his Grief But I design not in this In Mr. Laxton's Sermon preached on the day of his Interment so much a Character of his Worth which hath been drawn already in better Colours and with more graceful Strokes than my poor Stock or Skill can supply as a just Commendation of your Honours singular Piety and Patience your deep sence of the Displeasure and yet your meek and humble Submission to the Will of the Father of Spirits in taking from you a Son of so much Delight and Hope and that in the Prime and the Blosom of his Years when he seemed to be all Life and Vigor a very severe and searching Trial. Yet I who had the unhappy Honour to be admitted into the darkest Scene of your Sorrow and to see your Vertue surprized with a most dreadful Assault soon perceived it happily succoured with such forces of Reason and Religion as assured an equal Conflict if not a Victory And I know you have often blessed God who by a wonderful Supply of his Grace hath maintained your Patience and Fortitude and with the Temptation given a way to escape and secure your Innocence And I shall earnestly pray that the God of all Consolation would be pleased still to suggest to you such Religious Considerations as may establish and encrease your present Comfort and lead you through all the obscure Passages of this Veil of Tears into the brightest Glories of Everlasting Light and Joy that the Belief of your dear Son 's happy Translation and the well-grounded Expectation of your own may mortify all your earthly Affections make you every day less concerned for what you enjoy or suffer in this World and that the Felicities of Eternity may render the good or evil things of Time very indifferent to you To these my Prayers I shall upon all Occasions add my best Endeavours to serve your Honours in promoting your highest your heavenly Interest and Benefit as becomes my Office and Obligations there being no one more truly sensible of your Honour 's Great Favours than is My Noble Lord and Lady Your Honours most Faithful Affectionate and Obedient Servant JOHN CAVE Of Submission to the Will of God HEB. xii ix We have had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them Reverence shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live OUR Blessed Saviour who was himself a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief bequeathed a Legacy of Sufferings unto the Heirs of his Glory and it is through manifold Tribulations that we are
to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So that we are not only born to Trouble by the common condition of our Nature which like the Earth that the Lord hath cursed brings forth nothing but Briers and Thorns but also born again to it in the State of our Christianity and trained up in the School of Crosses and Afflictions under the Discipline of our heavenly Master But he that hath called us to suffer with and for himself hath also given us the surest Supports and the strongest Consolations in the most needful time of our Distress by setting before us a Joy unspeakable and over-balancing our light Afflictions with a more exceeding weight of Glory exhorting us to Patience by his Precepts and perswading us to it by his Promises but more especially instructing us therein by his own most exemplary Submission and Resignation of Mind to the Will of his Father And his great Apostle having in the foregoing Chapter reckoned up in order several eminent Patterns of Faith and Patience in the beginning of this points as from those many Witnesses or Martyrs to this one glorious and triumphant Sufferer Christ Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith animating us by the Example of his victorious Patience to a passive Fortitude and Courage in our sharpest fight of Afflictions to an unwearied Perseverance in the roughest ways of Vertue Let us run with Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith Vers 1 2. who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame Look unto him not only to admire but to imitate the Resolution and Invincibility of his Spirit that you may not sink under the Cross which he endured nor be over-whelmed with the Shame which he despised for to this very end and purpose you are to consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against himself Vers 3. lest you be wearied and faint in your Minds Nay consider how much less you suffer then he did his Soul was exceeding sorrowful unto Death To Death which draws an everlasting Vail over all the Glories and Delights of this World but Joy and Comfort may again break through your closest Mourning He shed his precious Blood for you you only shed Tears for your selves tho you labour under many Sorrows and have more Sins to strive against yet you have not resisted unto Blood yet you live still Vers 4. and may out-live all your Afflictions unless you make them mortal by your own peevishness which in themselves or rather in the hand of your best Physician are only medicinal and healthful And he hath told you as much if you have not forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children Vers 4. and assureth you of his fatherly Love and Tenderness when he makes you smart most under his correcting Hand My Son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Be not stubborn against him nor insensible of his Displeasure for it is the chastning of the Lord who hath power and right to punish but yet be not too much dejected for he speaks you and deals with you not as Enemies nor Servants but as Children and plainly discovers his fatherly Tenderness even in these Exercises of his Lordly Dominion as it follows in the 6th 7th and 8th Verses of this Chapter For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastning God dealeth with you as with Sons for what Son is he whom the Father chastneth not but if ye be without Chastisement whereof all are Partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons This Consideration if any methinks should ease our Hearts in Trouble and keep us from fainting under God's Rebukes viz. that his Chastisements are the Effects and Arguments of his Love and Good-will towards us at least-wise if we endure them as becometh Children with a dutiful Regret for the Sins the Faults that procured them and an humble Subjection to the Hand that inflicts them And that it is our Interest as well as our Christian Duty so to do our Apostle further demonstrates by a very argumentative Comparison in the words of my Text We have had Fathers of our Flesh and we gave them Reverence shall we not much rather be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live We have had Fathers of our Flesh that is of our Body which consists for the most part of Flesh or Fathers of this Life which we now live in the Flesh a Life exercised with fleshly Instruments and maintained with fleshly Supplies these Fathers corrected and punished us as they saw occasion sometimes with-holding their Favours otherwhiles taking away our Toys and Vanities the Entertainments of our childish Affections sometimes threatning and otherwhiles laying on the Rod and we gave them Reverence we did not only take all patiently at present but stood in awe of them for the future honouring their Authority and fearing their Displeasure How much rather shall we be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits that is the Father of our Souls God's immediate Off-spring or of our Spiritual Life and all that appertains more directly thereunto Shall we not much rather be in Subjection to this heavenly Father who is infinitely more excellent in himself in his Wisdom Power and Goodness who is the Author of our more noble part the Soul and upholds us in a better Being than that which we derive from our natural Parents and designs us a fruit and benefit of his Correction beyond the Confines of this World a happy Immortality after a troublesome dying Life which is implied in the last word of my Text Live Shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live In the Words thus explained and paraphrased we have 1st A Duty implied or supposed the Submission of Children to their particular Parents 2dly A Duty expressed the Subjection of all Mankind but especially of Christians to the Vniversal Father 3dly The Preference of this Duty to the former 1. In respect of the Excellency and Superiority of Fatherhood 2. In regard of the End and Benefit of his Discipline 1st We are taught the Duty of Children's Submission to their immediate and proper Parents viz. That they ought to own and honour their Authority in their Corrections as well as in their Commands or Instructions We had Fathers of our Flesh who corrected us and we gave them Reverence that is we did well so to do 2dly By an Argument at least à pari from an Equality of Comparison we are taught that we ought to fear and honour our Common Father to be in Subjection to him because he is a Father too 3dly By an Argument in another respect à dispari from the less to the greater we are taught that we ought to be more subject to him 1. In regard of the Excellency and Superiority
a most fragrant strong Perfume in the Night and the other also of no less contrary Complexion to its fellows as if it rejoyced at what they mourn for the Sun 's setting is never seen to blow and shew its Flowers before the Evening I am sure the true Christian's Graces are most illustrious and conspicuous in the dark yea his Light ariseth out of Darkness and when the Sun of his outward Comforts is eclipsed or set his inward Worth and Glory breaks forth as the Noon-day And suitable to our purpose Lib. de Providentia prospera in plebem ac vilia ingenia deveniunt at Calamitates Terroresque mortalium sub jugum mittere proprium magni viri est Ibid Sen. Ep. 13. is what the Wisdom of that sage Heathen Seneca observed Magnum exemplum nisi mala fortuna non invenit that none have been so eminently and exemplarily virtuous as those that have been signally unfortunate and he instanceth in Socrates and declares that the Trial of his Constancy and Equanimity by a violent suffering of Death made him a truly great Man Circuta magnum Socratem fecit Affliction indeed is no certain sign of God's Favour and paternal Love but the willing Susception and the chearful bearing of the Cross is the express Condition and the peculiar Character of our Christianity of our spiritual Sonship or new Birth unto Righteousness And therefore before those Errours and Corruptions which we properly call Popery had invaded the Church the Figure of the Cross was assumed for the Badg of their Profession and the Ensign of their Spiritual Warfare the Pledg of their constant adherence to a crucified Saviour as it is used by us at this day in the Office of Baptism Hence it is that many good Men have petitioned for Crosses as thinking them the necessary Attestations of their Sonship and means of Assimilation unto their Elder Brother But we are under a stronger Obligation still to be in Subjection to our Father which is in Heaven because 4. He is not only the Father of our Flesh for in and by him we live move and have our natural Being and from his Blessing we derive all the Comforts of it but he is the Father of our Spirits too and that by a more immediate Generation Upon which account he hath 1. A more absolute Dominion over us And 2. An infinitely more perfect Love and Kindness for us than our natural Parents have Which brings me to my thrid and last Point viz. III. That we ought to be more subject unto him than to them How much rather shall we be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live How much rather shall we be in Subjection to him 1. In regard of the Excellency of his Nature and the Absoluteness of his Dominion 2. In regard of the Excellency of his Nature which is purely spiritual nothing of Flesh or Frailty in him who is not only a Spirit but the Father of Spirits of Angels and the Souls of Men the most noble and refined Beings and therefore must needs have an infinite Fulness if I may so express it and Perfection of Spirit in himself infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Mercy and therefore the highest degrees of Reverence of Love and Fear are due to his Supremacy of Nature and as a consequent of this to his right of Soveraignty and rule over us Job 25.2 Mal. 1.6 Dominion and Fear are with thee Fear as the result and tribute of Dominion If I be a Master where is my Fear Shall we not pay that Homage to the Father of the whole Creation to the Soveraign Master of all the World which the Subjects of Families and Kingdoms upon Earth yield willingly to their respective Lords Nay shall not the degrees of our Obedience and Submission bear some Proportion to the Pre-eminency of the Divine Power and Authority When the Question is put Whom we should rather obey or be in Subjection to the Fathers of our Flesh Psal 76.12 the Father of our Country or the Father of our Spirits who cuts off the Spirit of Princes St. Austin's Rule is a safe Direction Non debet minor Potestas irasci si major praelata sit and we must stand most in awe of him that hath the greatest Power and Right of Rule And that God hath so will easily appear 1. Because his Dominion is Original in and from himself all other is derivative dependent and subordinate Our Parents are his Children and our King his Subject Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis or in the Psalmist Phrase he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth 2. His Dominion is Absolute no mixed no limited Monarchy Though we have a saying that the King rules us and the Law guides him yet the Supream Lord is not under any controul or any conduct either but that of his own infinite Wisdom and Goodness he doth both in Heaven and Earth Psal 99.5 whatsoever pleaseth himself and ought to please his Subjects too But whether it pleaseth us or no God will assert his own Dominion The Lord will still be King be the People never so impatient It will therefore concern us as well in point of Prudence as of Duty never to rebel against that Power which we cannot subdue but with an humble dereliction of our own Wills to acquiesce in his or in the Psalmist's Phrase Psal 46.10 to be still and know that he is God and will maintain his Prerogative 3. His Dominion is universal and he reigns over all he is Lord of the whole Creation the great and little World and of each part of Man of the Soul and Spirit which is his Creature or rather his Child by a peculiar Participation of his Nature 1. He gives Laws to our Thoughts Desires and Affections which are exempt from Human Jurisdiction and can punish their secret Disorders For 2. Such is his Soveraignty over the Spirit of Man that he can break into the Soul's last Resort and strongest Hold where no other Enemy can enter and wound where the longest Sword of Tyrannical Persecutors cannot reach He can by an invisible Dart secret Arrow of his Indignation shoot into the very Heart and give a Wound in the Spirit which none can bear He can in an instant move that sence of Guilt which will attach and arrest the Conscience and make Desolation a there where our chief Support and Comforts dwell The most enraged and malicious Persecutors can only kill that which would otherwise die of it self But there is no Man hath Power over the Spirit saith Solomon Eccles 8.8 God alone is thus mighty in Strength and who hath hardned his Heart saith Job who hath stood out Job 9.4 and rebelled against him and prospered 3. He hath the Power of Life and Death which the Fathers of our Flesh have not The Father's Power consisteth most especially in these two Points in punishing and chastizing the Children for their smaller Faults and disinheriting
and the Souls which he hath made Ezra 9.13 but he punisheth us less than our Iniquities deserve 2 Cor. 10.13 and hath promised to lay no more upon us than we are able to bear and that we shall not be tempted above our Strength If he chasten sore he will not destroy if he cause Grief Lam. 3.32 yet will he have Compassion according to the multitude of his Mercies Psal 102.13 Many times turned he his Anger away and did not suffer his whole Indignation to arise for he remembred that they were but Flesh God will either enlarge our Grace or abate our Trouble so that it shall not overwhelm us Who can lift up a Complaint against so compassionate a Father Who can rebel so much as in a hard thought of the Rigor of his Discipline Especially if we consider that he is altogether as much a Father when he corrects as when he cherisheth us and that he designs the same Good in a variety of Conditions He gives Riches to some that they may honour him with their Substance and keeps them from others lest they should abuse them to Avarice or Riot To some he gives Children to be the Staff and Solace of their Pilgrimage and takes them from others lest they should take them from himself and draw down their Affections from things above Eceius 37.28 Some he continues in this World to declare the Works of the Lord and others he takes out of it to rest from their own Labours All things saith the wise Man are not profitable for all Men. And the Wisdom of the Divine Providence is seen as well in sending Winter as Summer Autumn as Spring foul Weather as fair Adversity as Prosperity Sickness as Health and Death as Life It was a high Speech of Seneca's after the manner of the Stoicks Bona rerum secundarum optabilia adversarum mirabilia That the good things of Prosperity are to be wished and the good things of Adversity are to be admired But to speak the words not only of Truth but Soberness great and numerous are the Benefits of Adversity The Judicious Verulam magnifies and extols them in this Comparison Essays Prosperity is the Blessing of the Old Testament Adversity of the New which carrieth the greater Benediction and the clearer Revelation of God's Favour Solomon pronounces Sorrow more desirable than Laughter Eccles 7 3. because by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better Our blessed Lord and Master who began and lived and died in Sorrows seeing his own Sufferings to succeed so well and that for suffering Death he was crowned with Immortality resolved to take all his Disciples and Servants to the Fellowship of the same Sufferings that they might have a Participation of his Glory No Affliction saith our Apostle a little after my Text is for the present joyous but grievous nevertheless it produceth the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to those that are exercised therewith Those showers which wet the Husbandman multiply his Grain and a dripping Seeds time is usually followed with a more plentiful Harvest If the Servants of God sow in Tears and Blood those Tears and Blood will but water and manure their Graces and make them spring up and blow into a fuller and fairer Glory Thick Mists usher in a bright day and Clouds of Sorrows are usually the fore-runners of a more clear and constant Joy and Death it self is an inlet to immortal Life which would bring me to the Conclusion of my Text and Sermon the great and last end and benefit of all our Crosses or rather of our patient bearing of them everlasting Rest and Exemption from Trouble in the Life to come But it will not be amiss not only for the vindicating of God's Justice but also for the Exaltation of his Mercy to shew in several Instances what good Ends though subordinate to this great one he propounds to himself in his most severe Chastnings One good End is 1. To make us sensible of our Sins and thereby to lead us to Repentance In the warm Seasons of Health and Prosperity variety of delightful Objects call our Thoughts abroad and we heighten the Pleasure of our Enjoyments by the prospect of our Hopes and easily flatter our selves that when the Sun shines and the World smiles upon us God is well pleased with us too and that our Sins are little because his Mercies are so great but when stormy Clouds and Thunder are in the Air we keep within doors we retire into our selves and in the time of Adversity consider what and how great our Sins are which have overcast our Heaven darkned the Light of God's Countenance and made our Face foul with Weeping Job 10.16 as Job speaks The Goodness of God indeed should lead us to Repentance but such is the Disingenuity of our Natures that we too often despise his Goodness and force him either to leave us in our Sins or punish us for them which is the most merciful Cure that our Case will admit of If they be bound in Fetters Job 36.7 and holden in Cords of Affliction then he shews them their Work and their Transgressions as Elihu speaketh When God had taken away from Naomi her two Sons though by an ordinary and usual Death she concludes Ruth 1.13 and so should we in the like Case that her Sins had deserved it and that the hand of the Lord was gone out against her David's Afflictions had this good Effect upon him Psal 35.5 When thy Hand was heavy upon me c. I acknowledged my Sin unto thee and mine Iniquity have I not hid We are all too apt to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness only impudent and hardned Sinners despise his Judgments 2. As our Afflictions do in general admonish us of our Transgressions so as hath been already intimated they point us to those particular Sins which provoke God's Displeasure Joseph's Brethren easily acknowledged their Guilt because they saw their Sin written upon their Punishment Their close Imprisonment taught them what it was to cast their Brother into a desolate Pit And the Wise-man observes that the turning of the Egyptian Waters into Blood was a manifest Reproof of that cruel Commandment for the murdering of the Hebrew Infants Wisd 12.5 And surely as one speaks we might in most The Art of Contentment if not all our Sufferings see some such corresponding Circumstances as may lead us to the immediate provoking Cause of them God who does all things in number weight and measure does in his Punishments also observe a symmetry and proportion and adapts them not only to the Heinousness but even the very specifick kind of our Crimes which was observed by Quintus Curtius in the case of Bessus Quint. Curt. P. 203 204. who betrayed Darius Scelesti haud rarò supplicia luunt ejusdem generis cum illis quae patrârunt flagitiis Wicked Men are usually paid home in their own