putteth his trust in him shall glory in these his victories But the mouth of all Jewes and Gentiles Turkes and Infidels Atheists and Idolaters that belch out blasphemies against him shal be stopped when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his elect Angels and sit in judgement upon quicke and dead u Hieron epist ad Heliod Tunc quod vocem inbae pavebit terra cum populis tu gaudebis Judicaturo Domino lugubrè mundus immugiet tribus ad tribum pectora ferient Potentissimi quoâ—dam reges nudo latere pulpitabunt exhibebitur cum prole sua vere tunc ignitus Jupiter adducetur cum suis stultus Plato discipulis Aristotelis argumenta non proderunt Tunc tu rusticanus pauper exultabis ridebis dices ecce crucifixus Deus meus ecce Judex qui obvolutus pannis in praesepio vagiit hic est ille operarii quaestuariae filius hic qui matris gestatus sinu hominem Deus fugit in Egyptum hic vestitus coccino hic sentibus coronatus cerne manus Judae e quas fixeras cerne latus Romane quod foderas Then at the sound of the last trumpe the earth shall tremble with the inhabitants but thou O Christian shalt rejoyce When thy Lord comes to judge the world shall roare hideously all the kindreds of the earth shall smite their breasts the most puissant Kings shall appeare without their guard panting for feare Jupiter himselfe the chiefe Idoll of all the heathen with all his off-spring shall be seene all in true fire foolish Plato shall be brought with his disciples Aristotles sophistry shall stand him in no stead Then thou poore and simple countrey swaine shalt leap for joy and say Behold my God who was crucified behold the Judge who sometimes wrapt in swadling clothes cryed in a manger this is the Carpenters sonne this is he who borne in his mothers armes being God fled from man into Aegypt this he who was clad in purple and crowned with thornes see O Jew the hands which thou nailedst view O Roman the side which thou diggedst with thy speare behold O Jew the head which thou prickedst with thornes now compassed with radiant beames behold the face thou defiledst with spittle shining brighter than the Sun behold the hands thou woundedst with Iron nailes holding a rod of Iron and bruising his enemies like a potters vessell behold O Roman the naked side which thou piercedst with a speare now guarded with a troupe of Angels with their polaxes behold the body thou strippedst starke naked cloathed with light as with a garment In a word behold him whom thou esteemedst the scorne of the earth made now the glory of the heavens in a triumphant march with millions of Saints and Angels riding on bright clouds as it were fiery chariots through the aire to execute speedie vengeance upon all his enemies and to take up all the elect with him into heaven x Apoc. 22.20 Etiam sic veni Domine Jesu Even so come Lord Jesu come quickly You have heard how sweet and heavenly the musicke is if you take the highest cliffe from Christ if you take the middle from David thus the notes follow They that seeke my soule to destroy it that is my bloud-thirsty enemies shall goe into the lowest parts of the earth that is either enter into their graves or hide themselves in caves of the earth they shall make him to run out like water that is cause Saul my capitall and mortall enemie to spill his owne bloud by falling upon his owne sword And they shall be a portion for foxes This clause of the prophecie was not fulfilled in Saul his person nor his sonnes for y 1 Sam. 31.12.13 their flesh was burnt and their bones buried under a tree at Jabesh but in his servants and souldiers which mortally wounded on the mounts of Gilboa and being not able to helpe themselves nor having any to burie them after they had breathed out their last gasp fell to the foxes share and therefore David purposely altereth the number saying not they shall cast him downe and he shall bee a portion for foxes but they shall be a portion for foxes as in the truth of the story afterwards they fell to the foxes commons Now after the death first of Saul and the discomfiture of his royall armie and the overthrow afterwards of the Philistims and destruction of all his enemies round about King David sitting safely and quietly in his throne full of joy and comfort breaketh forth into a Psalme of thanks-giving to God for his wonderfull victories and strange deliverances and all the loyall subjects of Judah and Israel beare a part with him in it whereat all those that before had falsely traduced his person or impugned his right to his crowne were put to silence and shame Thus have I set the tune in my text to the middle key also and as you heare the musicke is sweet if you will have the patience to heare it once more set to the lowest key you will all perceive that every note in it conforteth not onely with our voices but our thoughts and affections at this present I have shewed you how this prophecy in my text was fulfilled in Christ Davids Lord and secondly in David the Lords Christ may it please you out of your love to him to whose honour you have dedicated this feast to stretch out your patience to the length of the houre and I shall briefly exemplifie the same in our Israels David To resume then the words of this Scripture and by the parts of it to draw the lineaments of that narration which shall serve for my conclusion First I will relate unto you the attempt of the conspirators the Earle Gowrie and Alexander Ruthen his brother and their complices by the occasion of these words They that seek my soule to destroy it Secondly the event by occasion of the words following shall goe to the lowest parts of the earth c. They that seeke my soule to destroy it Were there ever any such or are there any at this day Doth hee breathe that would goe about to stop the z Sen. de clem l. 1. c. 4. Ille est vinculum per quod respublica coheret ille est spiritus vitalis quem tot millia trahunt breath which so many thousands draw Doth the Sun give light to any that would go about to quench the light of Israel can the earth bear any such an ungratefull and gracelesse varlet whose conscience is burthened with so heavie and heinous a sin as Parricide in the highest degree laying violent hands upon the Father of his countrey whom for his clemencie and wisedome the world at this day cannot parallel Yes beloved this hath beene the lot of the best Princes that ever ware corruptible Crownes a Suet. in vita Tui Titus sirnamed Delitiae humani generis The darling of mankinde drew this lot and b
are touched to the quicke then we begin to be sensible of our own infirmities and compassionate of other mens calamities then we offer up prayers with strong cryes then like bowed and bruised reeds we fall flat downe to the ground then our hearts swell with griefe and our eyes are bigge with teares and if Gods hand lye very heavie and long upon us wee bid defiance to all worldly pleasures and comforts which faile us in our greatest extremity we grow weary of this life and in our desires run to meet death the halfe way and sigh and mourn and pine away till we be quite dissolved that we may be with Christ In regard of these and such like wholsome fruits which meeknesse and patience gather from the crosse I dare undertake to make good that seeming Paradox of Demetrius concerning evils Nihil eo infoelicius cui nihil infoelix contigit None is so miserable as hee who in this life never tasted any misery For besides that continuall pleasures glut his senses and his very happinesse cloyeth him hee wanteth many improvements of his wisedome many trials of his faith Apoc. 3.19 Prov. 3.12 Heb. 12.5 many exercises of his patience many incentives of his zeale many preservatives against sin and which weigheth all downe many arguments of Gods love towards him and care over him If the Schoolmasters eye bee alwaies upon his Schollar to observe him if hee still checke and correct him for his faults it is a signe he beareth a singular affection to him and hath a speciall care over him but if he let him loyter and play the trewant and abuse his fellowes and never call him to an account for it it is evident thereby that he intendeth to leave or hath already left the tuition of him In like manner whiles the Physician prescribes to his patient unpleasing diet and bitter potions and is ever trying some medicine or other upon him the friends of the sicke are in good hope but when the Physician leaves prescribing physicke and forbids his patient nothing that he hath a mind unto though hee grow still worse and worse then all that are about him take on grievously and shed teares in secret as knowing well that their friend is given over by the Doctor for desperate Which Saint Bernard seriously considering delivereth this strange yet most true Aphorisme Illi verè irascitur Deus cui non irascitur God is angry indeed with him Quem enim in presenti non emendat in futuro condemnat to whom hee showes it not by rebuking and chastening him for his sinne For whom hee mends not by chastening in this world hee certainly purposeth to condemne in the other This is a ruled case in Divinity Dives is a president for it If things stand thus in this world let no Christian flatter himselfe with a vaine hope of uninterrupted prosperity and unmixed joyes in this life Invicem cedunt dolor voluptas pleasures and sorrowes have their turns as sorrowes end in joyes so joyes in sorrowes There is a cup of trembling which cannot passe but first or last we must taste of it sith we must let us looke for it and when it comes to us chearfully off with it the rather because our Lord and Saviour hath begun in it deep unto us O yee Favourites and if I may so speake Minions of Fortune who are driven with a prosperous gale and beare a lofty saile swelling with the pride of a high minde strike saile in time looke soone for a bitter a Hieron ad Helod Licet in modum stagni fusum aequor arrideat licet vix summa jacentis elementi spiritu terga crispentur magnos hic campus montes haber tranquillitas ista tempestas est storme Though the smooth sea smile upon thee and seeme to bee no other than a standing poole though the top of the water by the wind bee not so much as cast into bubbles like the curles of thy haire trust not the deep the plaine thou seest hath many mountaines in it the present calme will prove in the end a tempest or else assure thy self thou sailest not in Christs ship for that was tossed in the sea and even covered with waves Matth. 8.24 yet not drowned Jactatur nunquam mergitur ista ratis How should the ship be drowned or cast away upon the rockes wherein Christ is the Pilot the Scripture the Card his Crosse the maine Mast his promises Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 I will be with you to the end of the world and Hell gates shall not prevaile against it the Anchors his holy Spirit the Wind This maketh the Church bold not onely to checke and represse the insolency of her enemies Micah 7.8 saying Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy though I fall I shall rise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me but also glory in the Lord Psal 129.1 and insult over them saying Many a time have they afflicted mee from my youth up Rom. 8.37 but they have not prevailed against me Nay In all things we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us David often harpeth upon this sweet string Psal 118.18 The Lord hath chastened mee sore but hee hath not given me over unto death Psal 37.24 the righteous falleth yet shall not be utterly cast downe What an excellent harmony doth St. Paul make of seeming discords 2 Cor. 4 8 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wee are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not altogether without meanes persecuted but not forsaken cast downe but not destroyed that is to set the Prophets ditty to the Apostles tune Wee are continually bruised yet not broken Hee shall not breake I fore-see what you may object That many of Gods servants and Christs souldiers have had their flesh torn with whips their joynts hewen asunder their bones broken on the racke and sometimes ground to powder with the teeth of wilde beasts nay their whole body burnt to ashes and these ashes cast into the river Fox in Martyrol Crispine Hâ—â—tor Wald Aeneas Sâ—â—â— de gilt Concil Basil how say we then the bruised reed is never broken nor the smoaking flaxe quenched For this blow we have a foure-fold ward 1. We are to understand that Gods promises of delivering his Saints are principally and simply to be taken of their eternall deliverance but of temporall secondarily and conditionally as it standeth with his glory and their greater good 2. We are to note that many of the promises above mentioned concern the entire body of the Church not every particular member The bruised reed may be broken in some part yet not through the whole Tyrants may waste and destroy the Church partially but not totally for the reasons intimated by Tertullian and S. Leo Tertulan apolog Sanguis Martyrum semen Evangelii Leo serm Grana quae singula cadunt multiplicata nascuntut because the bloud
unto our spirits that wee are the sonnes of God Pretious metals are digged out of the bowels of the earth and pearles are found in the bottome of the sea and truely seldome shall we fall upon this treasure of spirituall joy and pearle of the Gospell but in the depth of godly sorrow and bottome and lowest point of our humiliation before God 1. The first taste wee have of the hidden Manna of the Spirit is in the beginning of our conversion and nonage of our spirituall life when after unutterable remorse sorrow and feare arising from the apprehension of the corruption and guilt of our naturall estate and a dreadfull expectation of wrath laid up for us against the day of wrath and everlasting weeping howling and gnashing of teeth with the damned in hell wee on the suddaine see a glympse of Gods countenance shining on us and by faith though yet weake hope for a perfect reconciliation to him 2. A second taste wee have when wee sensibly perceive the Spirit of grace working upon our heart thawing it as it were and melting it into godly sorrow and after enflaming it with an everlasting love of him who by his infinite torments and unconceivable sorrowes hath purchased unto us eternall joyes 3. A third taste wee have of it when after a long fight with our naturall corruptions wee meet with the Divels Lievtenant the sinne that reigneth in us which the Scripture calleth the plague of the heart that vice to which either the temper of our body or our age or condition of life enclineth us unto our bosome abomination to which for a long time wee have enthralled our selves and having perfectly discovered it by employing the whole armour of God against it in the end wee get the victory of it 4. A fourth taste wee have after some heavie crosse or long sicknesse when God delivereth us above hope and sanctifieth our affliction unto us and by his Spirit calleth to our remembrance all his goodnesse to us from our childhood and anointeth our eyes with eye-salve that wee may see the manifold fruits of the crosse and finde in our selves with David that it was good for us thus to bee afflicted 5. A fift taste wee have at some extafie in our life or a trance at our death when wee are rapt up as it were into the third heaven with St. Paul and see those things that eye never saw and heare words that cannot be uttered Thus have I opened unto you five springs of the waters of comfort in which after you have stript your selves of wordly cares and earthly delights you may bathe your soules in the bottome whereof you may see the white stone which Christ promiseth to him that overcommeth saying To him that overcommeth I will give to eate of the hidden Manna To whom c. THE WHITE STONE THE XXVII SERMON APOC. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IT was the manner of the Thracians to reckon up all the happy dayes of their life and marke them in a booke or table with a white stone whereunto the Poet alluding saith a Pers satyr Hunc Macrine diem numera meliore lapillo May it please God by his Spirit to imprint those mysteries in your hearts which are engraven upon this stone I doubt not but this day in which I am to describe unto you the nature of it will prove so happy that it shall deserve to bee scored up with the like stone For this white stone is a certaine token and pledge of present remission of sinnes and future admission into Christs kingdome Whereof through divine assistance by your wonted patience I will speake at large after I have refreshed the characters in your memory of my former observations upon this Scripture which setteth before all that overcome in the threefold christian warre 1 Forraine against Sathan Recapitulat 2 Civill against the world 3 Servile against fleshly lusts three boones or speciall gifts 1 Hidden Manna a type of spirituall consolation 2 A white stone the embleme of justification 3 A new name the imprese of glorification There is 1 Sweetnesse in the hidden Manna 2 Comfort in the white stone 3 Glory in the new name The sweetnesse of the hidden Manna wee tasted 1 In the mysticall meaning of the Word 2 In the secret power of the Sacrament 3 In the unutterable comfort of the Spirit And now I am to deliver unto you in the next place the white stone In the handling whereof I will levell at those three scientificall questions mentioned by b Aristot analyt post l. 2. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notand quod sit referti ad an sit ubi de accidente quaeritur quia accidentis esse est messe Aristotle in his bookes of demonstration Divis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An sit aut quod sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propter quod sit First whether there be any such white stone Secondly what it is Thirdly to what end it is given and what use wee are to make of it for our instruction correction or comfort First of the An sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be any such stone or no. There hath beene for many ages a great question De lapide Philosophico of the Philosophers stone to which they ascribe a rare vertue to turne baser metals into gold but there is no question at all among the sincere professours of the Gospell De lapide theologico of the divine stone in my text which yet is far more worth and of greater vertue than that For that if we have any faith in Alchymy after much labour and infinite cost will turne base metall into gold but this will undoubtedly turne penitent teares into pearle and drops of blood shed for the testimony of the Gospell into rubies and hematites to beset our crowne of glory With this stone as a speciall love-token Christ assureth his dearest spouse that c Rom. 8.28 all things shall turn to her good and worke together for her endlesse happinesse Hee that hath this white stone shall by the eye of faith see it suddenly turne all temporall losses into spirituall advantages all crosses into blessings all afflictions into comforts What though some heretickes or profane persons have no beliefe of this white stone no more than they have of that d Mat. 13.46 pearle of great price which the Merchant sold all that hee had to buy What though some have beene abused by counterfeit stones like to this shall wee not therefore regard this or seeke after it This were all one as if an expert Gold-smith should refuse to look after pure gold because some ignorant Merchant hath beene cheated with sophisticated alchymie stuffe for gold or if a skilfull Jeweller should offer nothing for an orient Diamond because an unskilfull Lapidary hath beene corisened with a Cornish or Bristow stone in stead of it The
doe your eyes melt into penitent teares then are you quickned by the Spirit of grace then have you sense and life in you then have your eyes been annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit then stand ye recti in curiâ But on the contrary Are ye tickled with the remembrance of your former follies can ye thinke of them without remorse can ye speake of them without shame can ye glory in them and your heart not smite you then in vaine doe ye flatter your selves with the name of Professours ye falsly arrogate to your selves the title of Sonnes of God ye know not what regeneration or the new creature meaneth the sunne of righteousnesse never shone upon you but ye are still frozen in the dregges of your sinnes Wherefore examine your owne hearts and consciences take a view of your whole life past runne over in your mindes the vanity of your childhood the lusts of your youth the audacious attempts of your riper yeeres and the covetousnesse frowardnesse worldlinesse and distrustfulnesse of your old age call your selves to an account for your unlawfull gaming and sporting your immoderate drinking your Lords day breaking your lascivious dancing your chambering and wantonnesse and if the remembrance of these your former sinnes be loathsome unto you if the sent of them in the nostrils of your soule be like a stinking fume exhaled from the finke of originall corruption then have your senses been purged then have you smelt the savour of life But on the contrary if the cogitation of these things be delightfull unto you if the traversing these thoughts in your mind blow the coales of your former lusts if the Sodome of your unregenerate estate seem to you as a Paradise of pleasure then certainly yee were never redeemed from the corruption of the world yee never felt the pangs and throes of a new birth your understanding was never enlightened nor your will reformed Hee that can take delight to play at the hole of the Cockatrice or behold the shining colour of the Snake was never stung by them but the truly regenerate Christian who hath bin grievously stung by the fiery Serpent the Divell and by fixing his eyes upon the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus hath bin cured dares not come nigh the Serpents hole much lesse gaze upon his azure head and forked tongue 2. If the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne be a speciall meanes to restraine Gods children from it certainly the recounting of their former wayes and the survey of the whole course of their life cannot but be a profitable exercise for them It was the practice of Solomon who beheld all the workes of his hands and the delights of his life and passeth this censure upon them o Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is but vanity and vexation of spirit It was the practice of David p Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee It was the practice of Saint Austine who a little before his death caused the q Possid in vit August Penitentiall Psalmes to be written about his bed which hee looking upon out of a bitter remembrance of his sinnes continually wept giving not over long before he gave up the ghost Mee thinkes I heare you say we have buried those sinnes in oblivion long agoe and we hope God hath done so put not these stinking weeds to our noses but gather us a posie of the sweet flowers of Paradise the promises of God in Christ Jesus in which there is a savour of life and we will smell unto it I had rather do so but the other are more proper and fitter for many of you for those whose senses are overcome with over-sweet oyntments can by no better meanes recover their smell than by strong and unpleasant savours and therefore in the country of Arabia where almost all trees are savoury and frankincense and myrrhe are common fire wood r Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 17. E Syriâ revehunt Stycacem acri odore ejus in focis abigente suorum fastidium Styrax as Pliny writeth is sold at a deare rate though it bee a wood of an unpleasant smell because experience proveth it to bee a present meanes to recover their smell who before had lost it Beloved brethren we all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne have our senses stuffed and debilitated if not overcome and the best remedy against this malady will be the smelling to Styrax the unsavoury and unpleasing smell of our former corruptions Let the covetous man recall to mind his care in getting his anxiety in keeping his sorrow in losing that which nature hath put under his feet how to increase his heapes he hath not onely taken from others but robbed his owne belly and backe Let the Glutton thinke of the loathsomnesse of his sinne which subjecteth him to divers diseases and maketh him a burthen to himselfe the Drunkard his drowning of his reason distempering of his body and exposing himselfe to the laughter and scorne of all men the Adulterer the corruption of his owne body the transgressing the covenant of God the wronging and provoking his neighbour the staine of his owne reputation the rottennesse of his bones and besides all this the heavie wrath of God for his sinnes and feare of hell fire due to him for them I know no man willingly remembreth that whereof he is ashamed and therefore no exercise of Christianity more tedious and irksome than this because it withdraweth the mind from pleasant and delightfull objects to behold her own deformity yet none more necessary none more profitable And though it begins in sorrow yet it ends in joy for even this is an exceeding delight to the soule to find a change in her selfe and an alteration in her affections it is pleasant unto her that shee now distasteth the forbidden fruit and shee rejoyceth that shee can be heartily sorry for her sinnes And God as ſ Cypr. de card op Cyprian saith sweetly wipeth away these teares from the soule Ut magis ploret gaudeat fletibus that shee may weep the more and take pleasure in her weeping For after we have pricked our hearts with the sting of conscience for our grievous sinnes after they bleed with compunction after we have powred out our soules with sighes and groanes into the bosome of our Redeemer his heart will melt within him and his repentings will roll together hee will bind up our wounds and shew his wounds to his Father then shall we see the frownes of an angry Judge turned into the smiles of a loving Father the crimson colour of our sins into the whitenesse of wooll our mourning weed into a wedding garment our sighes and sobs into exultation of spirit and the fearfull cloud which before overcast our minds into a cleare skie into peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the true taste and beginning of the joyes of heaven To which the Lord
may be in our apprehension absolutely to yeeld without further disputing to him who hath more than thirty legions of Angels at his command and all the creatures in heaven and earth besides There is no contesting with soveraignty no resisting omnipotency no striving with our Maker The fish that is caught with the hooke the more he jerkes and flings the faster hold the hooke taketh on him the harder a man kickes against the pricks the deeper they enter into his heeles An earthen pitcher the more forcibly it is dashed against an iron pot the sooner it flies in pieces in like manner the more we contend against God and his judgements the more we hurt wound and in the end destroy our selves Wherefore let us not like dogges bite the stone never looking upon him that flingeth it but mark him who aimes at us and hitteth us and lay our hands on our mouth with a Psal 39.9 David saying I held my peace because thou Lord hast done it The Persian Nobles as b Annot. in Tacit. Janus Gruterus reporteth accounted it an exceeding great grace to be scourged by their Prince and though it were painfull to them yet they seemed much to rejoyce at it thanking him that he would take paines with them and minister correction unto them himselfe and shall we not much more praise the divine Majesty that hee vouchsafeth himselfe to chasten us for our good The wounds of a friend are more welcome to us than the plaisters of an enemy and a sicke patient who will not endure a bitter potion offered him by a Physician yet oftentimes taketh it from the hands of his most endeared spouse or a beloved friend and shall not all Gods children sicke of too much prosperity willingly take the bitter yet most wholsome potion of affliction from the hand of the Father of spirits Saint Paul shall close up the doctrine When c 1 Cor. 11.32 we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world and Saint Peter the use d 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soules to him in well doing as unto a faithfull Creatour From the person I proceed to his actions rebuke and chasten not condemne and punish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verba virtutem non addunt soft words make smart blowes neverthelesse felt if the stroakes be as many and inflicted with equall force whether ye call it chastening or punishing all is one to the poore patient Indeed were there but a verball difference and not a reall between punishing and chastening this note would little better the musicke but if ye look more narrowly into the words ye shall find in them many and materiall differences In punishing ye shall observe a Judge in chastening a Father in punishment a satisfying of justice in chastisement a testifying of love in punishment a compensation of desert in chastisement a mitigation of favour in punishment a principall respect had to a former offence in chastisement to future amendment A Judge principally regardeth the wrong done to the law and therefore proportioneth his punishment to the quality of the offence but a father whom not love of law and justice but the law of love moveth and after a sort enforceth to do what he doth for his childes good is contented with such correction not as he deserveth for the fault he hath committed but that which he hopeth will serve for his amendment Pro magno peccato parum supplicii satis est patri In briefe this word Castigo I chasten how much soever at the first it affrighteth us yet it affordeth us this comfortable doctrine That God as a father inflicteth with griefe and compassion moderateth with mercy and directeth by providence all the stroakes that are laid upon his children 1. He inflicteth with griefe and compassion O f Hos 6.4 Ephraim what shall I doe unto thee O Judah how shall I entreat thee my bowels erne within mee and my repentings roll together and For the g Jer. 9.10 mountaines will I take up a weeping and wailing and for the habitations of the wildernesse a lamentation because they are burnt up so that none can passe through them neither can men heare the voice of the cattell both the fowle of the heavens and the beast are fled they are gone h Mic. 1.8 9. I will waile and howle I will goe stripped and naked I will make a wailing like the Dragons and mourning as the Owles for her wound is incurable 2. He mitigateth with mercy his childrens payment 1. In respect of time 1. Indefinitely 2. Definitely 2. In respect of the grievousnesse of their stroakes He mitigateth in respect of time indefinitely In a little i Esa 54 7 8. wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercy will I gather thee and The God of all k 1 Pet. 5.10 grace who hath called us into his eternall glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect establish strengthen settle you Sometimes he prescribeth the definite time as to l Gen. 41.1 Joseph for his imprisonment two yeers to the m Jer. 25.11 They shall serve the King of Babel seventy yeeres Jewes for their captivity seventy yeeres to n Dan. 4.25 Nebuchadnezzar for his humiliation seven yeers to the o Apoc. 2.10 Ye shall have tribulation ten dayes Angel of Smyrna ten dayes And as he mitigateth their sufferings in respect of the time so also in respect of the grievousnesse of their punishment The Lord hath p Psa 118.18 severely chastened mee saith David but he hath not given mee over unto death God he is q 1 Cor. 10.13 faithfull and will not suffer his children to be tempted above their strength 3. He directeth by his providence and fatherly wisedome all the crosses that are laid upon his children to speciall ends for their good namely to cure their dulnesse and stupidity abate their pride tame their wanton flesh exercise their patience enflame their devotion try their love weane their desires from this world and breed in them a longing for the joyes of heaven and fruits of Paradise Prosperity flattereth the soule but trouble and affliction play the parts of true friends they rightly enforme us of the insufficiency of all worldly comforts which leave us in our extremities and can stand us in no stead at our greatest need And therefore S. Bernard very well resembleth them to rotten stakes flags and bull-rushes which men catch at that are in perill of drowning hoping by them to scramble out of the water but alas it falleth out far otherwise these help them not at all nor beare them above water but are drawne downe under water with them This most