ever we did with the love of Christ What if some men fancy to themselves a liberty first to mock us and after to nail us to the Cross What though they stick not amidst our many Agonies to give us gall and vinegar to drink to load us with cruel contempts and virulent speeches and scandalous reproaches What if our Enemies walk with haughty looks triumphant spirits and threatning eyes whilst we are full of tears sighs and sorrows What if false witnesses arise and lay to our charge things that we never knew rewarding us evil for good and hatred for our good will What though we are put to pains in our profession to troubles for a good conscience and to many hardships in the world Yet O let us labour for contentment because otherwise we can no way be made conformable unto Christ our Saviour Neither is it any matter if proud and merciless men mingle their scornfull smiles with our Tears It is no matter if Davids Abjects make mouths and wag their heads upon us If the great Favourites of the world curse us so long as God pities us in all our troubles who will not stay too long lest we put forth our hand unto wickedness Neither suffer the rod of the wicked to remain alwayes on the lot of the righteous Psal 125.3 Jobs misery did not lessen his innocency neither are the servants of the most high God troubled though they are judged here so as they may not be condemed with the world they triumph in their sufferings they dance in their dust yea they account their ashes their beauty and the waters of Marah to be their wine and refreshing Affliction is part of Cods husbandry and tends no less to the amendment of our souls then manuring doth to the advantage of the earth And may we still humble our selves as well in submission to as the acknowledgement of his divine and afflicting hand And Oh that we could hide and abhor our selves in dust and ashes before his presence who only can pity and repair us But miserable and unhappy are those who after so much sharp eye-salve see not their need of a Physician for after the long applications of such rough medicines which the world affords not to own their distempers were indeed a contempt to the wisest and gentlest Physician whose Judgements are mercifull and whose severities only the fruits of his loving kindness that he chuseth rather to punish us then to destroy and forsake us A Christian is here in his Nonage and no way fit to have all he hath a title to yet why should he murmure seeing so much is alotted him as will give him passage to heaven if Poverty be good he shall have it if disgrace be good he shall meet with it if Crosses be good he shall have them if misery be good it shall follow him yet all tending towards his good If he be in want he hath contentment if under suffering he hath patience all things are his as well what he wants as what he hath It is the desire indeed of many men to be in Canaan as soon as they are out of Aegypt but God will lead us through the wilderness of Temptations and Afflictions untill we come to Heaven As the Spring follows the winter so will glory follow our Affliction which is hid with Christ and though now clouded with the malice of wicked men and our own infirmities we shall at last appear glorious in the eyes of God and his Angels if in a Christian meekness we submit to his Will The which should serve to comfort us whilest we remain in this unfortunate region this land of blackness wherein the Inhabitants sit in the shadow of death and a thick darkness for a time obscures the glorious Sun-shine of all our comforts and such calamities accompany some as that between fear of death and torments of life Vivere noluerit mori nescierit To live he would not to die he cannot And surely he cannot be of flesh who is unsensible of what wrings so many true Tears from our eyes and so many Icie sighs of grief and sorrow from our heart The necessity also thereof should invite us to patience all the Saints of God having passed and profited thereby and seeing by those Afflictions which are no less profitable then grievous and troublesome we are humbled purged and instructed and there is no life so holy nor place so secret wherein they may be avoided Oh grudge not then to sow in Tears since thou shalt reap in joy By flight thou canst not overcome but by patience thou wilt be stronger then all thy enemies It is no great matter for a man to be devout and fervent when he feeleth no heaviness but by Chastisements he is tryed how much he hath profited in Gods School whereas our Reward will be the greater so our vertues will more openly appear to the world and by the sharpness of our Tryal our good deeds will be the more esteemed Adversity discovereth how much vertue each one hath It maketh us not frail but shews us what we are And God takes away the bladders of this world that we may learn to swim without them Such as he most loves he useth to rebuke and chasten Rev. 3.19 Our comfort is that all our Troubles are determined by the wise Counsel and providence of God for our good yea as blessings to us and shal increase our Crown of Glory The deeper our die is in Affliction the better shall we wear our scarlet Robes in Heaven Lazarus was not bad enough for Christ to cure whilest he was sick who intended to revive him from death to make the glory of the Miracle the greater Neither are we fit Objects for our Saviour to delight in while we are sick with the vanities of the world untill we are mortified with Afflictions from above Surely had there been any better or more profitable way for the health of man then suffering Christ would have shewed it by Word or Example who plainly exhorteth all those that follow him to the bearing of his Cross Oh happy Burthen which we shall at last put off with Eternal comfort strike on then thy mercifull rod O God! which thou sendest not to procure our sports yet these thou prosperedst to thy servant Jacob but to work the dicovery of our wounds by the humble manifestation of our sins unto thee And Oh that we could but mak a wise improvement of our Crosses whereby to have recourse to vertue to God and our selves In all worldly mutations let us acknowledge and kiss the divine hand let us not fear to walk in that way which lead to a Kingdom If thou bear thy Cross unwillingly thou increasest thy load and makest for thy self a new burthen But if thou bear it willingly it will bear thee and lead thee to thy desired end to wit where there shall be an end of suffering which here there shall not and where there shall be an everlasting reward laid up for those that fight the good fight of faith If that Farmer who gave Ataxerexes a dish of cold water was rewarded with a golden Goblet how much more likely are they to receive a Crown who have denied themselves taken up their Cross and followed their Master Be sure as the glory is his so shall the Reward be eternally thine Oh here here will be a certain Harbor and recess from all the temptations of the world and from all the clamours and reproaches of our enemies In this Ark shall we cut through all the waves of this troublesome life without detriment or putrefaction in this withdrawing Room though too seldom frequented shines that happy star which will lead us to the King of life Here by having recourse to the spring of life may we sweetly bath and refresh our wearied souls Near this white may we stand secure and having passed the rough and unpleasant Mountains of this world having sat down under its troubles and spent our breath with much gasping and weariness on this Hill may we feed our eyes with the beautifull Prospect and freshness of these eternally green and flowery Plains FINIS The meaning of the FRONTISPIECE SIck with a holy Love the Soul Divine Spurning at Earth Heaven onely seeks to clime Whilst Mary full of Sighs and Tears doth weep Large Streams to wash her blessed Saviours feet And scorning her fond Lovers leaves to sin Returns her Love-Tokens and follows him Behold one in a Wood whose life is spent In true Devotion and retirement Chast Joseph shuns his Mistriss's Lures to sin Nor will betray the Trust repos'd in him Beauty in one hand shews Enticements fair The other points at Darts Chains Swords Despair When treacherous Delilah had Sampson bound The House he forthwith level'd with the ground Laughing her friends to death Ah life mispent Murthered with that which seems our Merriment Next on a wretched Object cast thine eyes Who with deep sighs wring'd hands mournful cryes Bewailes Loves treacherous Engines All which prove The misery of him that 's tied to Love Those that reach Heaven onely being blest Though of the worlds Enjoyments dispossest
the benefit of Gods house of Correction was their School of Instruction The justest man then alive was fought against by his Terrors Job 6.4 He that walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart had his bones broken by the anger of the Almighty Isa 38.13 Yea the man after Gods own heart was so wasted with grief as that His moisture was turned into the drought of summer Psal 32.3 4. Nay his own son though without sin must bleed upon the Cross and those whom he hath chosen for himself be tryed in the Furnace of Affliction Isa 48.10 The Dung-hill of this world will annoy thee while thou dwellest in this house of clay The just have not only an Egypt of sin to encounter with but Israel even in Canaan is not in rest Nay our Saviour himself first tasted the bitter Gall of the unmercifull Cross before he eat of the Hony-comb It is thus that our Sorrows must be turned into Sweets The corn is not separated but by threshing nor men drawn nearer to heaven by worldly impediments so much as by tribulation Acriora Orexim excitant embammata Sharp Sauces beget good Appetites and the Thorns at last prove Roses in the same place where innocence hath sighed so much But oh how basely do we startle at every trouble How do we endeavour to dry up those Tears before they have sufficiently cleansed our filthiness whereas Afflictions should not be resisted but with great Pre-caution What part soever God hath appointed us we must be contented to act it faithfully If it be long it is usually light if grievous it cannot last Dies dolorem minuit time will wear it out we can never loose our selves in the pure and innocent Tracts of vertue Grave nihil est homini quod fert necessitas that which is necessary cannot be any way burthensom Besides It is Gods Prerogative and not thine to chuse thy condition whither to be sick or healthy a mourner or afflicted Is it his pleasure to to make thee the Drunkards Song or a Reproach to Abjects envy not those Shimeis which thus rail on thee considering whose doing it is bite not the stone but look unto him that throwes it keep close to thy Station and thou shalt find no small comfort at last patience will digest thy misery Sure all is not lost after a little forbearance we shall come out from these vapours of Calumnie as the Sun out of a Cloud at noon-day The Afflictions of man I confess are more moving then of any other creature for he only is a stranger here All things else are at home but Ardua florifera Crux The painfull Cross shall at last be crowned with Palms and Flowers A joyfull heart will at last prove the fruit of his innocence though grief and sorrow be the Bud and Prim-rose thereof our Mansion is in heaven where our Saviour is gone to prepare a place for us The Martyrs were wont to mitigate their pain with the thought of home and immortality every punishment as Tiburtius faith being poor where a good conscience keeps us company When we shall be freed from this dark Lant-horn of flesh and frailty and when we shall be raised from death we shall not grieve so much because the joyes of this life were not real as we shall rejoyce because they were none at all That lump of misery holy Job whose spirit was nothing but patience as his body was nought but Sores retained alwayes his Affections in an equal Resignation Came I naked into of the world so shall I go out Job 1.21 There is as much valour to be shewed in a Bed as in an Army But alas though we cannot avoid Evils how are we afraid to bear them Indeed we interpret out Afflictions amiss and therefore are cast down we take every whipping to be an effect of Anger when it is a sign of Love God makes us sick in our body to cure some disease in our Soul Can we attain to Tabor before we pass by Calvary Shall we not first tast Gall with our Saviour before we receive the sweet benefits of his blessed Resurrection Ah! is there any such precious thing to be gotten in the world that we should forsake Jesus in the wilderness of Temptation and please our selves in the vain and transitory hopes of our own unbridled Fancies How do we know whither in desiring to be delivered from Affliction we do not ask of God to take away a gift which is necessary to our salvation seeing that Malady or Affliction which makes us distate worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to tast the joyes of Heaven The brave and happy men of this world enjoy their wishes but their Ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite Providence gives Tempests to his Elect that he may work a miraculous Calm by his Almighty Power And though the waters seem to reserve their choler to vent it only upon the Ship which carries just persons yet is it alwayes accompanied with that happy and comfortable voice It is I be not afraid God takes off his own people from the ilness of their wayes By hedging them up with Thorns Hos 2.6 But it is to bring them into a Bed of Roses and by the wormwood of this world to shew the sweetness of himself He is pleased to draw the Instruments of his Power out of the Objects of our Infirmities where he comes the Tempest ceaseth and they know Jesus very ill who with his Disciples in the Storms of Affliction take him for an Illusion and cry out for fear of his presence which should make them most rejoyce Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God and it is a great offence to break that glass which representeth us to our selves by a friendly correction Why should I be afraid to shew my heart stark naked to him whose Arrowes no sooner pierce but heal who tells us Afflictions and Scourges in this life are like to be our portion And shall we think to speed better then our Master who at last intends us a Crown will turn our water into wine and according to Sampsons Ridle Out of the Eater shall come meat and out of the strong sweetness David had forty years Reign for seven years Banishment and Joseph though thirteen years under a Cloud through false imprisonment reigned fourscore years a King in Aegypt And surely Gods ends are no other then to wean us from the world to draw us nearer to himself to humble and to prove us that he may do us good at the later end Deut. 8.16 Oh Happy Afflictions to keep the heart pliable and tender towards our God! yea thrice happy is he who can say with the Prophet Remembring mine Affliction and my misery the wormwood and the Gall my soul hath them still in Remembrance and is humbled in me Lam. 3.19 20. And hence is it that the Apostle
impatient neither may we think that vertue depends wholly on Prosperity and a god fortune Indeed to those who know not their Saviour nor meditate how far he hath got the victory and taken away the sting of suffering yea of death it self as their life cannot be pleasant so their sufferings can no way be comfortable they are the most unwelcom Messengers that ever knockt at their doores and not only make a Belshazar to tremble but a Saul to fall prostrate on the Earth 1 Sam. 28.28 Yea such black clouds of sorrow many times overtake us as that with Jacob we often rend our cloths and will needs with grief go down into our Graves But our only wise Physician well knows that to find out either our Distempers or our Cures and to discern al the sad omens of our Afflictions and all the prodigious causes of our troubles and miseries we must search deeper then the skin and superficies of our maladies the poisons of malignity of our Nature being not only deeply diffused but reaching to the very heart and hidden in the most retired Cells of our Souls Alas We have but one life and we see a thousand instruments of death ready to take it away and to let out our innocent souls We have but a little breath and how quickly is it gone O God thy first breath breath'd a soul into me and shall thy breath so soon blow it out again through lodes of troubles I see thy hand upon me but I dare not ask thee why it comes or what it intends whether thou wilt bid me stay longer in this body or bid me meet thee this day in paradice only makeme willing at all times Jesus himself having made the way and gone before to pay my homage and drive on with comfort no way daunted with the storms of a wearisom life towards those joyes which will at last lead me into unspeakable liberty Let me still bless thee for that Affliction which thus speaks nothing but mercy Let me hear thy voice thus calling unto me I must correct thee but I will not hurt thee my hand shall lie gently upon thee with gracious respites will I visit thee If I send thee Crosses I will give thee patience if I visit thee with Afflictions I will give thee a willing submission and a readiness to kiss the Rod and the hand that holds it yea a constant dependance on that Arm which makes thee smart O God! Let me ever thus feel thy Rod rather then lose thy Affliction the plain sense of our suffering is that thou maist bring us to Repentance It is not to consume our pure gold but to refine us from that dross we have as men contracted It is but to open our eyes that we may the better return to him who seems sometimes to withdraw his comforts Though the Nurse be often withdrawn the better to win the Childs affection and the Sun of Righteousnesse not seen of us though bright behynd the clouds of Tryals and Temptations yet at last how doth our barrenness yield a plentifull Harvest And as the Sun-shine of Gods countenance doth ripen our Graces so doth cloudy weather advantage their growth in humility mourning and self-denial And it is no small mercy from God that in our journey to Canaan we pass through the wilderness of this worlds temptations and in the way to Zion we pass through the valley of Baca whilst we have Christ as a cloud and pillar to direct us God is not tied alwayes to bring is to heaven by one and the same road neither is it any matter if in stead of Jacobs Ladder ye are transported thither in Eliahs fiery Chaiot it being the goodness of God to give us patience courage and constancy which are our highest conformity to Christ our Saviour to attend his help though in the last and darkest watch of the night his relief coming in the best time As Stars appear brighest at Noon-day to those who with Joseph are in deep pits so divine Providence appears lightest to those who are necessitated to make a cordial of the poison of the worlds contempts and reproaches The Royal Title over our Saviours head was never more glorious and deserved then when he was hanging upon the Cross seeing on that as a King on his Throne he most conquered both over his and his Churches enemies Neither were his sufferings the least of his solemnities and glories his Father being never better pleased with him then when he cryed out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Neither is it any Argument that because God punisheth out faults he hates our persons whose Rod and staffe lifted up against us is not to drive us from him but as a Shepherds Crook to draw us nearer to him Psalm 23. Though those indeed that are strangers to the Cross of Christ and understand not the Afflictions of Christians to be as mysterious as their faith suppose they must needs be Murtherers on whose hands they see such Vipers hanging Acts 28.4 and no way considering that God many times loves most where he most rebukes and that they have often times most of his heart from whom he most hides his face as to temporal prosperity and on whom his hand lies heaviest as to visible chastisements Heb. 12.5 He takes the safest course with his Children that they may not be condemned with the world he makes the world to condemn them that they may not love the world he makes the world to hate them and that they may be crucified to the world he makes the world to be crucified to them And hence it is that they meet with crosses and abuses and wrongs in the world because God will not have them perish with the world In this way of Affliction it is that God doth chiefly manifest himself to our soul hereby the soul unites it self most to Christ whereas in times of Prosperity it scatters and looseth it self in the Creature there being an uniting power in Afflictions to make the soul gather it self to God The bitterest things in religion are sweet And as Gods children are strengthned and learn to stand by their falls so like tall Cedars the more they are blown the deeper they are rooted and after all outward storms and inward declinings this is the issue They take root downward and bring footh fruit upwards And since there is nothing of God which can please the world this should make us to quiet our hearts in the midst of its unwelcome and tempestuous storms to account it a greater favour from God when the Michals of the world scoff at us for when they are offended at us God is delighted with us yea happy are those who find themselves amended by those bitter potions which in bad times and by evil men a good God administers to us for our health and whereby he intends better to improve us to his service when coming out of this fiery Furnance we shall shine more bright then