Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A23688
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The art of contentment by the author of The whole duty of man, &c.
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Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing A1087; ESTC R227993
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88,824
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224
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us an eternal inheritance discharged of those temporal incumbrances himself has annexed to it This were sure as unjust a hope as it would be a vain one When David had that ensnaring proposal made him of being the Kings son in law 1 Sam. 18. 21. he set such a value upon the dignity that he despised the difficulty of the condition and sure we must have very low abject souls if when so infinitly a higher advancement is sincerely offer'd us we can suffer any apprehension of hardship to divert us In a word let us remember that of the Apostle if we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2. 12. And tho our afflictions be in themselves not joious but grievous yet when they are consider'd as the earnest of our future inheritance they put on another face and may rather enamour then fright us 9. A fourth advantage of afflictions is that they excite our compassions towards others there is nothing qualifies us so rightly to estimate the suffering of others as the having our selves felt them without this our apprehensions of them are as dull and confused as a blind mans of colors or a deaf man of sounds They that stretch themselves upon their couches that eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall that chaunt to the sound of the viol drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments will not much be grieved with the afflictions of Ioseph Am. 6. 4. Nay so necessary is our experience towards our commiseration that we see t was thought a requisite accomplishment of our high Priest that highest example of unboundnded compassion and therefore saith the Apostle It behooved him in all things to be made like his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people for in that he himself hath suffer'd being temted he is able also to succour them that are temted Heb. 2. 17 18. But if he whose mere sense of our miseries brought him down to us chose this expedient to advance his pity how necessary is it to our petrified bowels And since God has assign'd our mercies to our brethren as the standard by which he will proportion his to us t is more ours then their advantage to have them inlarged so that when by making us tast of their cup acquainting us with the bitter relish of their sufferings he prepares us to a Christian sympathy with them t is but a remoter way of obliging and qualifying us for a more ample portion of his mercy Nay besides the profit there is honor accrues to us by it compassion is one of the best properties of our nature and we unman our selves when we put it off nay more t is an attribute of the Divinity and the more we advance in it the closer approches we make to him And therefore we have all reason to bless him for that discipline by which he promotes us in so excellent so necessary a grace 10. A fifth benefit of afflictions is that it is an improvement of devotion sets us with more heartiness to our praiers Whilst prosperity flows in upon us we bath our selves in its streams but are very apt to forget its source so that God is fain to stop the current leave us dry and parched that our needs may make us do what our gratitude would not trace our blessings up to the original spring and both acknowledg and invoke him as the Author of all our good This effect of afflictions is observ'd by the prophet Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a praier when thy chastning was upon them Isa. 26. 16. And I believe I may appeal to every mans experience whether his praiers be not more frequent and more hearty too when he is under some distress Then how importunate are we in our petitions how profuse in our vowes and promises saying with Israel deliver us only we pray thee this day and they put away the strange Gods from among them and served the Lord. Jud. 10. 15. I confess t is no good indication of our temper that we need thus to be put in the press ere we will yield any thing yet since we are so disingenuous t is a mercy in God to adapt his methods to us to extort when we will not give and if he can have no free will offerings yet at least to exact his tribute Nor do's he design the effect of this should cease with the calamity that rais'd it but expects our compel'd addresses should bring us into the way of voluntary ones and happily ensnare us into piety And indeed herein are we worse then brutish if it do not We think it a barbarous rudeness to engage a man in our affaires and as soon as we have served our own turns never take farther notice of him Nay indeed the very beasts may lecture us in this piece of Morality many of them paying a signal gratitude where they have received benefits and shall we not come up at least to their pitch shall not the endearment of our deliverance bring our deliverer into some repute and consideration with us and make us desire to keep up an acquaintance and entercourse with him Yet if ingenuity work not with us let interest at least prevail and the remembrance how soon we may need him again admonish us not to make our selves strangers to him God complains of Israel wherefore say my people we are Lords we will come no more at thee Jer. 2. 31. A very insolent folly to renounce that dependance by which alone they subsisted and no less will it be in any of us if we stop our recourse to him because we have had advantage by it We have no assurance that the same occasion shall not recur but with what face can we then resume that entercourse which in the interval we despised So that if we have but any ordinary providence we shall still so celebrate past rescues as to continue in a capacity of begging more and then we cannot but also confess the benefit of those first calamities which inspirited our devotion and taught us to pray in earnest and will be ashamed that our thanks should be utter'd in a fainter accent then our petitions or our daily spiritual concerns should be more coldly sollicited then our temporal accidental ones 11. NOR is it only our devotion that is thus improved by our distresses but many other Graces our faith our hope our patience our Christian sufferance fortitude It is no triumph of faith to trust God for those good things which he gives us in hand this is rather to walk by sense then faith but to rely on him in the greatest destitution and against hope to believe in hope this is the faith of a true child of Abraham and will be imputed to us as it was to him for righteousness Rom. 4. 23. So