the Part we are to act upon the Theater of the World we ought to apply our selves to the fittest means of representing that part alotted to us not to take upon us to murmur and repine at it especially considering that it is his pleasure we should do so to whom we owe our selves and whose Will we dayly pray may be done 2. We ought to be Content in and chearfully submit to the will and pleasure of God considered as an Allwise Being As God Almighty is to be acknowledged the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth the great dispencer and Ruler of all events in the world so likewise is he a most Just and Allwise Being And therefore we ought not only to submit to his Will as 't is an act of necessity which we cannot controul or as an act of obedience to our Sovereign but as an act of choice and of prudence because our Maker is infinitely wiser than our selves and perfectly to be folfowed and obey'd For what is chosen be the Wisdom of God must be infinitely better then what we chuse 't is certainly much more prudently done to commit our selves to God for Councel Guidance and Direction than to be left to the headiness and blindness of our own councels and to eat the bitter fruit of our own rashness and folly For we may especially in some late horrid Instances easily observe what small occurrencies quite shatter and disorder and overturn the most Politick Subtile Secret and Well-laid designs in the world And notwithstanding the long deliberation forecast the huge prospect and foresight of difficulties the great reserves and preparations against all imaginable obstacles in a word notwithstanding all the advantages of Power Secrecy Combination of Parties c. one poor unthought of Accident craks in sunder and disjoynts the whole Elaborate project Destroyes and Ruines the Great Design God Almighty thereby telling us that the Actions of men and their successes are in the power of the Divine Will and teaching us not to trust to our own wisdom in contriving and cutting out our own Fortunes but to cast our care opon him who knows better then we what is fittest for us Now unless we could imagine our selves wiser then God it will alwaies be our Duty to resolve our poor narrow improvident wills into the will of the Most Wise God who will not suffer any hurt or evil to befall us unless it be for some greater good upon another account For tho some particular dispensations of Providence may seem unto us to be difficult and obscure His Judgments being unsearchable and his waies past finding out yet we may be most sure there is an Excellent Contrivance in all of them and there are Special Reasons and Ends whereby the Wisdom of such Dispensations may be Justified As to quicken our Rellish of and our Thankfulness for those mercies we enjoy to Teach us resignation to his Divine Will to Enlarge our Experience to prevent the surfeits of Prosperity and awaken as it were with Thunder our Drowzy Souls that have long slept too securely in Sin c. Nay we may consider Afflictions as oft times the occasions of great temporal advantages And we must not look upon them as they sit heavy upon us but as they serve some of Gods ends and the Purposes of Universal Providence Thus once a noble Heathen after he had experienced the great Advantage his Banishment gave him as to his Temporal preferment cryed out Periissem ni periissem Thus if a man could have opened one of the Pages of the Divine Councel and there read the Event of Josephs being sold to the Merchants of Midian he might with great reason have dryed up the young-man's tears And we may from an Infinite number of instances safely conclude that God esteems it one of his peculiar Glories to bring Good out of Evil. So that whatever 't is God appoints for us 't is not onely fit for us to submit to but to choose and chearfully and thankfully as well as patiently and quietly to follow and embrace And however troublesome uneasy and grievous the Dispensations of Providence are to us we ought patiently to acquiesce in them and wait upon God's All-sufficiency and Goodness either to remove them in his good time or to support us under them 3. We ought to submit to the will and pleasure of Almighty God in the afflicting us upon account of his Infinite Goodness and this in point of common gratitude For if Afflictions be certainly sent as a real favour and kindness If according to the Royal Prophet God does indeed love those whom he chastizes Then they ought to be received with gratitude and acknowledgement not murmuring and repining For the return of thanks the least and meanest requital is indispensibly due to kindness received And you will scarce meet with a man so much a stranger to the common Rules of Civility as not gratefully to resent and acknowledge a favour done him or so void of humanity as to be angry or vext with any person for being too much his Friend Affliction therefore sent out of Love ought to be received with thankfulness Now 't is undoubtedly true that Affliction cometh from God's Love For its end is to amend and better the man and we may undeniably conclude that God loves him whom he does good to whom he labours and endeavours to save and make happy with his own Eternity Afflictions says a famed Moralist are like a Friends Reproof or a Fathers Correction trouble the man into Amendment pinch the Soul into greater Purity They make us more humble watchful and careful draw us of from too much resting on the world make us bethink us of our Duty and return to God by Repentance and Obedience Thus so long as God Almighty is pleased to afflict us 't is plain we are under his Discipline under his care No man's Condition is desperate so long as the Physitian continues his Administration nor is any man wholly forsaken of God nor past his care so long as he is under Affliction for this is a Medicine that without our own default will certainly recover or better us If a Good man be not blest with Success and Prosperity yet even his Crosses and Disappointments are turn'd into Blessings as making him more humble and less esteeming this present world An Eminent Example of this we have in the person of our late Martyr'd Sovereign His Imprisonment was the happiest time of his life to him There it was that instead of a Prison he begun to find a passage into Liberty and true Freedome and those better thoughts which the croud of Business and the Intanglements of Interest had barr'd from his mind His meeting now with no such resistance but being quickned from his present misfortune wrought Resolutions in him worthy a Christian and a Martyr There did the Vanity of the world the Folly of humane greatness with all that is splendid on this side Immortality discover it self free
MORAL CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING The DUTY of CONTENTEDNESS UNDER Afflictions In a LETTER to the most Affectionate and Best of FATHERS Mr. JAMES SIMPSON By R. S. OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield 1685. MORAL CONSIDERATIONS Touching the Duty of CONTENTEDNESS under AFFLICTIONS Dear Sir A midst all my Afflictions nothing troubles me so much as that by the disappointment of my hopes in this place I am like to continue still incapable of paying some part of the Duty I owe You in a way suitable to my Education I mean of giving you some handsome Evidence of my Improvement in my Studies A thing I have alwaies infinitely desired having perhaps the greatest obligation to you that ever any son in the world had to a Father But in the Circumstances I am now in cut off from the advantages of the Foundation I must despair of doing any great matters in the way of a Scholar All my concern is what I shall want in intellectuals to make up in Morals and tho I may not be a great Clerk yet to approve my self in the whole course of my Life and Actions as I hope I have hitherto done a dutiful Son an honest Man and a good Christian Sir In your last you were pleas'd to order me to send you some Considerations of my own pening touching Contentedness under Afflictions I have very readily obey'd your Commands and such poor indegested Collections as I could make upon this Subject in the great trouble I am under I now send you wishing they may contribute something to your Satisfaction and Comfort Tho I am sensible in handling this Argument I shall fall far short of my wishes yet I have done as under all the obligations of Duty and Gratitude I am bound what I could to please and satisfy you being still desirous tho unable in some measure to be a Comfort to you and to Contribute somthing to the Content and Happiness of your Life I have chosen rather to deserve a check for my bad performance than for my neglect and had rather you should be sorry for my weakness then my disobedience Tho I must confess I can expect nothing but Candour and Kindness from you in reference to what is here offer'd you purely in obedience to your Commands look for no worse censure from the Tenderness of a Parent then they usually have that are making their first Essaies under a Writing-master whose first Copyes tho the Letters are awkwardly made and crooked are smiled upon not blam'd rather pitied than reproved Now as I hope you will favourably look upon this ruffled undressed piece and so lay it by so I must earnestly intreat you not to shew it to any curious eye not to expose your son's imperfections to any Critical or Censorious persons for you see 't is huddled up in a short time and wants all the Beauty and Ornaments of Method and Language My retiredness and solitude which I take a great delight in has given me time and leisure for the thoughts I here set down and my late misfortune abundantly supply'd me with Subject-matter for them So that most of the Considerations I here present you with are what every assault of grief every sad reflexion upon my late disappointment here in the Colledge put me upon whereby I endeavoured to settle and compose my mind to fit my self as well for the sincerity of Chamber and Chappel-Devotion a great part whereof you know consists in hearty Thanksgiving as for the Company and Society of my Friends and Acquaintance And I pray God these may prevail more at least as much upon you as they have upon me You desired a Letter of Advice and Comfort under your present pressure and Trouble or some Considerations touching the Duty of Contentedness under Afflictions I have here I say ventur'd upon somthing in order to your satisfaction I shall not dare not yet meddle with any thing of Divinity but design only to let you see how strong and forcibly perswasive bare Morality is in this Point And that I may not arrogate to my self more than I ought nor be justly condemn'd for a Plagiary I hold my self bound here ingeniously to acknowledge that much of what is here deliver'd has been borrowed from the Elaborate Works of the more Learn'd Heathen-Moralists Latine and Greek Authours who have writ upon this Subject so that a great part of my small pains in this business has been to Collect Translate and Methodize their Morality The Ancient Moralists do usually teach and enforce the Duty of Patience and Contentedness under Afflictions 1. By shewing the necessity of subduing and regulating the Passions those great disturbers of the quiet serenity of the Soul and consequently of acquiring a constant peace and tranquility of mind and of living comfortably and contentedly under all conditions and circumstances of life For if the irregularity of Passion be the grand cause of Discontent and if which is certain the removal of the Cause be at all times the removal of the Effect too then the Inference is plain and clear That a due Government Regulation of our Passions as it takes away all struggling disturbance and discomposure of Spirit so it leaves us in a quiet possession of our own Souls in internal peace and tranquility of mind 2. They enforce this Duty by laying down the necessity of Obedience and Submission to Almighty God in all the several dispensations of his Providence as to the Creatour and Governour of the World For all the Heathen Moralists allowing the Existence of a God a Natural Principle and known to all men they concluded him to be Infinitely Wise Good and Powerful And from every one of these Attributes they deduc'd a necessity of submission to and acquiescence in his pleasure as to the disposal of all things in the world viz. In respect of his Omnipotence we ought to submit to his Will out of plain and absolute Duty and necessity In reference to his Infinite Wisdom we ought to do in point of Prudence In reference to his Infinite Goodness we ought to do it in point of Gratitude 1. 'T is the Absolute and Necessay Duty of every Rational Creature to Subdue and Regulate the Passions those great disturbers of the peace and quiet of the soul and consequently to be Patient and Content in all Conditions and Circumstances of life For 't is undeniably true that if the due Order and Government of Passion removes all trouble and tumult and disquietness of mind from a man then it leaves him in the enjoyment of all peace tranquilty and serenity imaginable i. e. gives him Patience and Content For what is Quietness and Tranquillity of mind under Crosses and Sufferings but Patience What is Peace and Serenity of Soul under the loss of Friends Estate Credit c. but Contentedness I shall therefore proceed to let you see distinctly 1. That the Irregularity of our Passions does really create allthese troubles and disquiets under Crosses and
from that false Varnish that had formerly wrought too much upon humane Infirmity This raised in him a just undervaluing and loathing of the bewitching but deceiving Charms of this world And this made him acknowledge Gods great Goodness to him in that restraint Thus 't is an Everlasting truth that All things work together for the best to them that love and fear God Thus Afflictions you see come for the good and amendment even of good men are always sent for our instruction or prevention of Sin and 't is our fault and weakness if they have not the blessed effect Now since there are few or no persons who have been observant of Gods dealing towards them but are able to say from their own Experience ' T is good for them that they have been afflicted We have reason to be thankful for them at least to receive them with Submission Patience and Content Especially considering that God owes us nothing is under no obligation no law of conferring benefits upon us but all that we have we have of free gift and bounty And Morality tells us that if we receive an Alms from another it is very reasonable that we should be content with what the other pleases to give without prescribing to his Liberality The best of men are Sinners and therefore deserve far worse at the hands of God than the worst Afflictions that do or can befall any man in this life If we therefore be not so happy as we desire it is well we are not so miserable as we deserve if things go not so well as we could wish they had done it s well they are not so ill as they might justly have been And the worst we here suffer being less then we deserve and the least we enjoy more than we can in Justice expect We ought in reason to be content and thankful for the least Mercy And to be patient and humble under the greatest Evil. There have been Examples of great Afflictions that have befallen better men then we are And when our Condition is at the worst 't is much better than we deserve or what many others better then we enjoy The Evils then we suffer being much short of our Demerit the Good we enjoy much beyond what we Deserve what absolute and indispensible Necessity lies upon us to be Content with our Condition though Afflicted or Poor For though we want something that others have yet we have somewhat by the Bounty of God that many as good if not better want We should learn Contentment by considering others wants and our own Enjoyments And not learn discontent from others Enjoyments and our own Wants Men would questionless be patient under Sufferings of any kind if they carried with them a due sense of their unworthiness and upon a judicious account look'd upon their meanest lowest worst Condition as better than they deserv'd at the hands of God The best of Mankind may easily find that all that which was truly Good thro the whole Course of his life is a pitiful slender Scantlet and would be infinitely out-weigh'd by his Sins Omissions and Defects And the due Comparison and Prospect of this would quickly give him a seasonable lecture of humility and patience And there 's no man but upon a strict and impartial search of himself may find enough to deserve Affliction somewhat amiss that requires amendment some Evils growing into Exorbitancy in a word Corruptions enouth to grow into greater Enormities which the All-seeing God knows and in mercy and goodness prevents by the Corrosives and Catharticks of Affliction So great and constant is his love to us even in his punishing us How many dayly Sins and Offences do we continually stand guilty of How many contempts and abuses of Spiritual and Temporal Blessings have we to answer for And yet God does not punish these with an utter deprivation of them Nay Corruption and Vice is con-genial with our very Being In every year you will find the Iniquity incident to that Age And as we improve in Stature Age and Knowledge our Sins are rather varied and chang'd then forsaken And yet God does not as most justly he might cut us off in the midst of our Iniquities but spares and gives us time and opportunities for Repentance Now if he be thus patient towards us in our sinning against him when we oppose and provoke him 't is but reason that we should be patient in our sufferings from him when he endeavours to heal and reclaim us To Conclude Gods Love and Goodness still continues even in Affliction for he hath ordain'd after a few years or days thus spent after a few Afflictions undergone with Christian Courage and Fortitude An Eternal State of unchangeable and perfect happiness And Death the worst of temporal Evils will cure all these maladies and deliver up the soul into a state of endless comfort and felicity I Promis'd Sir in this short Discourse to confine my self within the Rules of mere Morality and I think I have been just to my Resolution As to the First Prosition about Regulation of Passions it is acknowledged to be a Moral Theme and that nothing almost can be writ upon that subject which will nor fall within the proper and peculiar Province of a Moralist As to the Second Proposition Touching Submission to God and Acquiescence in his pleasure at all times and in all things I will upon your desire give you the Names of those Heathen Moralists whose writetings do Authorize most of what I have here set down And how far bare Morality has gone in this point I shall in Conclusion of all represent to you in the words of a Heathen Poet. Juvenal Satyr 10. Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris Nam pro Jucundis aptissima c. Boyle's Seraphick Love pag. 31. Unto the Wiser God 's the Care permit Of what 's for us and our affairs most sit They will for Pleasant things the Best confer To whom man is than to himself more dear We by our blinder Passions led astray Do for a Wife perhaps or Children pray Which they may chance refuse us our of love Knowing what both the Wife and Boyes would prove I pray God Grant that these and the like Considerations which I hope will work the better because they come from your Son may be effectual to create holy resolutions in you Contentedly to bear what ever God pleases to lay on you And may Heaven bestow on you such an Entire and Perfect Resignation of your self to Providence such a chearful acquiescence in that state and condition of life God hath placed you in such truely Christian Patience under Afflictions that being in a Constant Readyness with satisfaction and thankfulness to receive whatever cometh from his Will and alwaies acknowledging his Wisdom Goodness and Justice in all his dealings towards you your life may be as comfortable and happy as t is capable of being in this world and most excellently disposed for a better in Glory I am with all imaginable Duty and Observance Dear Sir Your most entirely Affectionate and obedient Son Servant R. S. Qu. Coll. Oâ—on Dec. 20. 1682. A Prayer for Submission to the Divine Will BLessed Lord who knowest what is fit for us better then our selves and lovest us more truly then we do our selves into thy hands I resign my Soul and Body Will and Affections all I am and have in the World Deal with me and mine as shall seem expedient to thy godly Wisdom Leave me not in the hands of my own counsel my own hurtful devices and fancies as a sore punishment for my Sin but take me wholly to thy self dispose and order me after thy own good pleasure And make me not only sensible of thy love in all thy dealings with me but also thankful to Thee for the same through Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for Contentment ALmighty God who art kind even to the unthankful and to the evil I humble my self in the dust before thee bewailing earnestly the secret risings of my heart against Thee my vile misconstructions and hard thoughts of thy Providence Thou knowest the anguish of my Soul O Lord pardon O Lord forgive Suffer me not O my God to be lost in my own wild murmurings and repinings but draw me graciously to thy self Open mine Eyes that in all these Crosses of mine I may discern thy Love and enable me by thy grace to welcom them as so many special marks and tokens of thy favour 'T is of very faithfulness Thou hast caused me to be troubled O make me sensible of thy mercy Send out thy light and thy truth that I may see the wonderful blessings I enjoy and continually praise Thee for them Reconcile me daily more and more to my present Condition 'T is the Condition thou hast plac'd me in t is fit and proper for me thou who art infinitely wise hast alotted it and thou art ever gracious in thy alotments 't is the very best Condition I am capable of Lord make me thankful Amen FINIS