count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations 3. Observe in this time of your affliction what sins God sets before you as the ground and cause of your present straits and be excited by the smart of the rod to humble your souls and set upon the work of repentance and God will soon turn your adversity into prosperity and your straits into enlargement Job 36.8,9,10,11,16 If they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded he openeth also their ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity If they obey and serve him they shall spend their dayes in prosperity and their years in pleasure Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place where there is no straitness and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness SECT 7. Obj. 7. My Family is undone by this loss if I were a single person and none but my self were concerned in it I could bear it cheer fully but I have Wife and Children and if God should take me away I can leave them nothing and this troubles me Answ 1. It is the duty of Parents to provide for their Children 2 Cor. 12.14 Children ought not to lay up for their Parents but Parents for their Children and such persons as spend their Estates in Gaming Drinking or other riotous courses whereby they begger their Children are worse than Insiders 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel But if a man out of conscience towards God hath endeavoured to make provision for his Children and God doth frustrate his endeavours this is his affliction but not his sin 2. Though you can leave your Children little or nothing yet God may raise them up to great Estates and to â—…igh Preferments after you are dead and gone Job 14.21 His sont come to honour and he knoweth it not Psal 113.7,8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people Psal 112.1,2,3 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments his seed shall be mighty upon earth the generation of the upright shall be blessed health and riches shall be in his house 3. Though you can leave your Children little or nothing possibly it may be as well or better for them than if you had left them great Estates for their Estates might have been temptations to others to have made a prey of them and temptations to themselves to have lived in Idleness Luxury c. Children that are left with great Estates do as frequently miscarry as those that are left with less 4. If your Family should be undone by this loss yet seeing it is the Lords doing you must submit your selves to God You must leave all your Family concernments as well as personal to Gods disposal God threatned Eli with the ruine of his Family and tells him that his off-spring should crouch for a morsel of bread 1 Sam. 2.36 There were such heavy things denounced against his Family as were enough to make both the ears of every one that heard thereof to tingle 1 Sam. 3.11,12,13,14 Yet Eli bears all patiently because it was the Lords doing 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good As David comforted himself under his Family afflictions by virtue of Gods Covenant made with his own soul 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow The like consolation may every godly man draw from Gods Covenant when his Family is or he foreseeth it is like to be in an afflicted condition 5. Say not your Family is undone though you have lost all your Estate so that you can leave your Wives and Children nothing for though a godly man can leave his Children no visible Estate yet he leaveth them that which is far better than hundreds yea than thousands by the year For 1. He leaveth his Children in Covenant with God Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and thy seed after thee He leaveth them heirs of the Promises Acts 2.39 The promise is unto you and to your Children Now to be left an heir of the Promises to be left in Covenant with God is far better than to be leftworth millions of money for the blessings of the Covenant are better than all riches and they are also more certain and durable blessings 2. He leaveth them a stock of alms God will recompence upon the children the alms that have been given by their Parents Onesiphorus his house fared the better for his refreshing of Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he oft refreshed me And the Psalmist telleth us that the seed of a godly man fare the better for his acts of mercy Psal 37.26 He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed 3. He leaveth his Children a stock of Prayers All the Prayers that he hath put up for his Childrens welfare either civil or spiritual are kept in Gods remembrance and shall fall down upon their heads and hearts in due time 4. He leaveth them Gods blessing which is more worth than the whole world Prov. 20.7 The just man walketh in his integrity his Children are blessed after him The fruit of his holy walking shall fall upon his Children and Childrens Children even to a thousand generations Exod. 20.6 Shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments A godly man leaves his Children better than if he left them as great Estates as any men have in the world better than if he left them a Temporal Crown or an earthly Kingdom SECT 8. Obj. 8. I have formerly lived high and in good credit and esteem and have kept a plentiful and bountiful Table and now I am brought low and must fare hard and expect to be slighted and dis-regarded and I know not how to bear this had I alwayes lived in a poor mean way I could have born it better than to go from a high to a low condition Answ 1. It is God that hath brough you low 1 Sam. 2.7 The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and lifteth up Psal 75.7 God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Now no man must finde fault with any of Gods works Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it