last long that love is never lasting which flames before it burns and very rarely is that friendship found with the durability of affection which is so suddainely kindled enduring love is ever built on vertue which no person can see in another at once and therefore by a soft ascension does degree it selfe in the soule If we should tell those our sometimes great friends that their hottest love was never but fained I believe they would not take it well but they must know that love was never sincere that will not hold out length with life and therefore if God have snapt our fingers from such false friends we have the greater cause to be thankfull There will a great deale of sweetnesse flowe from this sower better to be debarr'd of their society altogether then be any more greeved with their falsehood and unkindnesse And thus the malice of enemies and the false fained and sickle love of supposed friends shall all turne for our eternall advantage and therefore though we have poured out many teares over their living Sepulchers yet we may comfort our selves in their losse then injoy their love with a continuall feare of loosing or incurring their displeasure by a Captious exception many times for a meere over-sight or unwilling miscarriage and unpurposed enour though generally we did ever observe them with obsequious love Let us not then be so greevously troubled when we are any wayes wronged belyed railed upon spurned at or trampled upon by the feet of honoured insolency or dunghill Malice slighted contemned and utterly cast off by our bosome friends but in a meeke and patient behaviour let us sweetly seriously and feelingly in our own hearts say this is from God for my good or with Eli it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good There is a supreame providence wisedome and power which seeth and over-ruleth all their actions and ends that when they are most eager in pursuing their designes doth make them when they thinke least of it to serve him for the effecting of all his counsells and purposes and the furthering and advancing of those his maine ends even his owne glory and our greatest good both here and hereafter 2 not onely the Malice of man but the malice of Satan himselfe that sets them awork shall turn to our good He goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking what soule he may devoure 1 Pet. 5.8 He thrusteth fore at us and so worrieth us with unwearied temptations seeking nothing more then to dishonour God in our overthrow but this like a storme at sea drives us to our port even to the throne of grace by prayers and teares for help against hell 2 Chron. 20.13 When Satan hath fetcht us over to a sin by spells and Charmes of mercy he at length finding us bleeding and dying would make us beleeve there is no mercy for us when having made us sin against the Law he would make us sin against the Gospell also that so mercy her selfe might condemne us but after sin committed he steps in betweene us and God and begs out of our fathers hand therod to beat us for those sins we had never done but through his inticement Now say we we see the devills businesse added to his false-hood surely peace once made with our God we will never be thus cheated againe Ah! how wary shall we be ever after of Satans wiles surely the best of sin is shame and sorrow the forbidden tree will never yeild better fruit 3 Our fins worke our good while we carry this mortall body about us we doe and must carry sin within us Many unavoydable infirmities invincible necessities God in mercy and wisedome will have it to be thus 1 To subdue our pride and presumpion which else would advance it selfe against God 'T is said Deut. 7.22 That God did not drive out the Canaanites from among his people all at once least the wilde beasts should grow in upon them And saith David Psal 59.11 Lord slay not all the enemies of thy Church at once least thy people forget it So God that could at first have taken away all the corruption of our nature and the lusts of our hearts would not least the wilde beasts of pride and security growing in upon us we forget mercy Thus the Lord would not take away the thorne in the flesh of the Apostle Peul those buffettings of Satan but tells him his grace is sufficient for him 2 Cor. 12.8 Alas had we not these infirmities in us how soon like our first parents would we thinke our selves to be Gods Looke upon the Aposile Peter how consident of his owne strength how forward was he in his profession he would be first and singular if all should deny him yet would not he no he would dye first but God let loose but a small temptation the words of a poore filly maid shall so affright him with the seare of death that he will presently deny his Lord and Master nay forsweare him too but this fall did him much good Oâ— How warily did he walke ever after how cautious of his words And when Christ did ask him whether he loved him more then these he had done boasting now onely he pleades the sincerity of his heart Lord thou knowest all things and knowest that I love thee Job 21.17 Thus did Jobs impatiency bring him to the more humility to the more abasing of himselfe Yea to abhorring of himselfe in dust and ashes Job 42.6 So David after his falls he was the more Circumspect over himselfe the more eager against his sins and the more earnest with God by praver against them 2 As these infirmities serve us as to subdue pride and security so to a waken us from our spirituall sluggishnesse to carefull and constant prayer yea to watchfulnesse unto prayer with all perseverance Our infirmities are as it were the coales which Satan bloweth to consume us now when feeling the fire we labour to keep it out and by the contrary blasts of Gods Spirit to quench the flame we enter the combat which nothing else but death can put an end unto When there is no fear of the enemie our weapons rust and we remain unexperienced and what then shall we do in the day of tryal 3 By our falls we are made more pitifully tender towards our brethen whensoever overcome by a temptation because we our selves have been overcome and we cannot tell how soon again Thus when news was brought to a learned and experienced Divine that a professor was soully fallen Alas faith he he fell to day and I may fall to morrow And this the Apostle Paul exâ—orteth Gal. 6.1 It a brother be overtaken yea which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe least thou also beâ—empted Now many times we doe not know how fraile we are till we fall neither know what is our weaknesse nor what our strength is we see neither how poore we our selves are nor how
sore and brings them so low that they are almost pined with want before a spring of better blood can be procured If we have ventured on noysome meates and hurtfull poysons If we will feed on grosse sins and drink in the very pudle of iniquity what shall our Father do with us but give us such Phisick as will thorowly work If David will lie and commit adultery and fall to murder Innocents what can God do lesse for David unlesse he would have him lost but lash him soundly make the rod cling to his skin yea to his conscience make his very bones to ake and shake too and when he will be walking so neer Hells mouth 't is just for God to take him by the heeles and make him believe he will throw him in vvhat if he be crost of his vvill and crie it s better he should crie here then in Hell and receive his payment here then his judgment there and truly many times the whip prevents the halter and thus if we will venture after David in those dangerous pathes we shall be sure to passe under the red as he did if we be Gods children as he was Oh how should David's practise and case affright us alas how did he gather mud when he did but stand still a while and how would his corruptions again have grown to some head had not Absalom been raised up to breath him to disperse them If David were so foggie after so many breathings a man of so good a diet how resty should we be if never walkt how grounded on our lees with Moab if never turned forth from Vessell to Vessell It stands the Lord therefore upon if he will provide for his harvest and our good to take some paines with us least otherwise he faile of his vintage while we want dressing Now God is gratiously pleased to give us a reason for what he doth I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy drosse and take away all thy time Isai 1.25 and again by this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Isai 27.9 So likewise Dan. 11.35 Zach. 13.9.1 Pet. 1.6 7. Job 33.16 17. Hos 2.6 7. And this was it that made St. Augustine to comfort himselfe in the middest of his tribulation for saith he it is but my purge to free me from the drosse of sin We seldome know strong diseases cured with gentle meanes for 't is a rule in Phisick the medicine must exceed the maladie and therefore we can take nothing that commonly workes so kindly as afflictions when we are in prosperity how apt are we to fall into a dropsie pride makes us to magnifie our selves and to have a great opinion of our own worth and being joyned with the applause of others we are so pust up we hardly see our selves but when our purge workes to purpose we grow as little in our own conceite as in the opinion of others what are all earthly endowments severed from grace alas they are but the deceiving shaddow of a lying complexion there is nothing that will last nothing but will change and when we come to look in the glass of the Law those outward helps will flee and faile us and we shall be left in our own foulnesse and deformity Hear what Job says when throughly humbled I abhor my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Job 42.6 Again afflictions purge out the love of the World now this Worldly love is such a dangerous disease that if we are not cured of it it would bring us at last to a desperate consumption in all grace and goodnesse and to everlasting death both of body and soul for faith in God and confidence in earthly things will not stand together we cannot serve God and mammon we cannot love the Lord and love the World and this the Apostle St. John saith 2 Epistle chap. 2.15 If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And therefore God in mercy weanes us from those breasts we have so long laine at he is faine to put bitternesse on it that we may loath it and yet such as it is we exceedingly affect it ah what would we do if it were sweet If we defire to dwell in earthen tottering ruinous habitations how loath would we be to leave them if they were strong Stately and permanent If we take content in our pilgrimage and make no hast unto our Heavenly Country when as our way is so foule and full of thornes our journey so painfull and dangerous and our entertainment among those worldly Cannibals so bad and barbarous what a Paradice would we esteem it and what little account would we make of our everlasting Mansions if we had a pleasant passage an easie journey and kind usage in this strange Country ah how full is this World of troubles wars contentions secret Traytors open enemies and false friends and yet we greeve when we think of leaving it how would we even surfeit of sorrow if injoying perfect peace sweet concord and faithfull friendship we should be forced to foregoe it most graciously therefore doth our good God deale with us when seeing us so besotted with this pernicious love he cause the World to deal roughly with us and even to thrust us away from her and when we hardly will let goe our hold God will make our riches to take unto them as it were the wings of an Eagle and flee away our credit shall be crakt and our honour laid in the dust yea our neerest and dearest friends shall deceive us as a brook and many times God is fain to make all helps and hopes to faile us and we to be left destitute and desolate stark naked and bestript of all then this will make us if any thing to deny all other things by faith to catch hold on God hovering and covering our selves under his wing only Now as God doth this in much love and mercy to beat us for and from our fins and to weane us from the World so doth he it in measure and moderation and this he professeth Jer. 46.28 Feare not oh Jacob my Servant for I am with thee I will make a full end of all Nations whither I have driven thee but I will not make a full end of thee but correct thee in measure yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished 1 For the measure of our afflictions and there moderation we may plainly see both in respect of their quantity which is but small and in their time which is but short for either they are light or they are long and if they be great in quantity they are but momentany in their continuance or if they be tedious in time they are easie in weight It is but a little Cup in comparison of what the Lord Jesus drank for us so that our afflictions and griefes are but shaddowes and resemblances rather then substanciall evils Hear
expectations And then we fix this sure anchor upon Gods never decaying truth now hope lookes for comfort in him alone when all things appeares false and deceivable And now when God shall answer hopes expectation in help and deliverance then doth this experience cause hope not to be ashamed Ah! the sweet refreshments and comforts of hope She supports us and makes us merry in all estates and conditions 'T is the best companion that ever bore a distressed soule company It will never leave us till it hath brought us to heaven gates When afflictions like the lead in the net would finke us downe and that sin and sorrowes labour to drowne us hope like the Corke upholds us and sustaines us So that according to the Proverbe Were it not for hope the heart would breake And this the Apostle faith 1 Cor. 15. If in this life only we have hope we are of all men most miserable And thus hope makes us to doe to suffer and to die Oh! therefore let not those deliverances which are delaied be the fainting of our hearts but let hope beare then up cheerfully in a constant expectation of that mercy which in due time shall be made good unto us Let us take what he gives and wait for what he promiseth as well knowing that he cannot slack as the world accounts slacknesse but will surely keep his owne time though not ours 10 Afflictions manifest the truth of our love Alas Many in the time of prosperity love God for his left-handed blessings as Satan objected to Job And if God deny them but a fond desire they are ready to overlooke all the mercyes they enjoy and fling them as it were in the face of God But now to love God when he takes away all To read love in an angry looke This is love in deed Love is that lovely motive which makes our obedience full T is that virtue which comprehends all other virtues for if we do and suffer out of love we are at the highest pitch possible attainable Love saith the Apostle fullfills the Law nor can any virtue hold out so long faith and hope bring us to Heaven Gates but love enters with us and abides for ever Here what the Mayden Martyr said at the Stake Farewell Faith and welcome Love See what a sweet interpretation love puts on all Gods dealings when the flesh objects and sayes like Jobs wife What blesse God and dye serve him and be thus rewarded but love answers What and shall we not receive evill at the hand of God as well as good do they not both proceed from the same fountaine yea from that Ocean of Love from whence Christ came Againe in streights and wantâ— flesh will object Can the servants and the dogs be served and shall a Child of God want necessaries want bread but saith Love The Love of God as God and the Love of a Father in Christ do much differ as God he is good to all makes his Sun to shine and his Raine to fall on the just and unjust as a Father he is especially good to his Children to whom if he gives not much in this world yet gives he so much as he seeth best for them with a comfortable use thereof this however to be his Child is more then if he gave us all the World to enjoy When we are at any time scorned reproached reviled scandalized Love goes away silently with this heavy burden reasoning with her selfe behold the love of my God! do they fling borrowed dirt in my face what a mercy is it that God doth not discover to them the filth of my heart my secret sinnes how would they blaze them And so for losses of friends husband children goods Love lookes upon nothing as lost but restor'd or laid up thinking alwayes upon what she doth enjoy that in her greatest wants she enjoyes innumerable blessings from God whereas our sins have deserved that all should be taken from us and his judgements and punishments inflicted as a fit wages for all our sinfull services Love makes us rest sweetly contented with what we have and not repining for wanting something but rejoycing that the Lord affordeth us any thing Ah! saith Love if I am not so happy as others for what I do enjoy yet in this I am happy for the evils I might have had and have escaped surely if we have a little and cannot be contented we have even too much And this is the nature of Love the more the world magligneth and persecuteth us the more our love is weaned from the world and the lesse we love the world the more is our affections inflamed towards God Ah! we shall in our outward crosses feel the inward comforts of Gods Spirit so pleasant and delightfull that they are sufficient to sweeten a world of miseries and this made David to sing Psal 116.1 Oh how I love the Lord And surely many of the Saints of God do never love him so solidly as when they have beene soundly whipt And as by afflictions we come to love God more so are we made to compassinate and pitty our brethren we can never give comforts rightly till we have gotten experience of what we say there cannot be any place in our hearts for compassion of others griefs till passion and suffering of the same evills have been there before no Phifitian is more able to cure a nother man than he who hath first cured himselfe of the same disease because unto his art is injoyned experience whereby it is made perfect and therefore when we go to comfort others we can from our own knowledge say I have been thus afflicted and thus and thus did I receive consolation and was strengthened in patience to bear my crosses here God did support me with his might when being feeble in my self I was ready to faint and fall thus was I refreshed with spirituall consolations and the inward feelings of Gods love and mercy thus did he powerfully deliver me when in respect of all outward meanes my case was desperate And thus doth David take upon him to comfort others upon his own experience Psal 34. O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him I was brought low and he helped me I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my feares And this as a Caveat by the by when ever you are afflicted either in body spirit goods or good name do not vent your griefs to them that have never been afflicted for as they cannot give you any experimental comfort so your griefs cannot make any great impression in their hearts they can be no more affected with your complaints than if you discoursed of the causes symptomes and malignity of that disease they never felt they may sigh and say its very sad but it cannot long sink into their mindes it s commonly but tedious discourse at the best some can speak it by wofull experience that the
lay amy claim to God that cannot finde parents kindred friends in him alone And thus when we have sweetly been brought to do the will of God we shall silently and contentedly suffer it passive obedience springs from active when we truly know it is Gods will we indure it with a quiet patience considering that what ever befalls us comes from his good pleasure and therefore those that have not inured themselves to the yoak of obedience will never indure the yoak of suffering 1 Another thing we may observe in Davids flight he was persecuted by his owne Son to whom he had been but too kind a Father and truly those children seldom proove happy to us that have too much of our heart Absalom had deserved death in causing his owne brother to be slain David pardons the fact in him is verified the Proverb Save a Malefactor from the Gallowes and he will hang thee if he can If Absalom had had his desert before David might have freed himselfe from much trouble and sorrow hang'd he must be if none will do it his pride shall and besides hang on record for the most disloyallest traytor and rebell and the most disobedientest Son that ever the Sun beheld Thus we see that if parents can be content that their children shall crosse God God will be content that their children shall be crosses to them if David will not correct him God will Againe if Rulers will give life when God calls for death they shall help themselves to sorrow and their friends to shame God hath here a time to pay David and punish Absalom thus you see in Elies indulgence to his ungodly sons rebuke them he did but restraine them he did not they shall be executed by the Sword of an enemy though not of justice and himselfe shall die a fearfull death 1. Sam. 4.18 And truly it 's worth our observation that when we make too much of the Creature God makes nothing of them And thus many times we nourish such Vipers as in the end eats out our bowels many a one doth by us as Joab served Abner 2. Sam. 3.27 Take us aside to speake with us quietly and then stab us Alas the true hearted lie most open to credulity and therefore 't is very easie to beguile their harmlesse intentions And indeed no enemy so bad as a bosome friend and no enmity burnes so furiously as that which ariseth from the quenched coales of love And this is it that makes us take more grievous the injury of a friend far greater than the malicious hatred of an enemy for open hostility calls us to our guards but we have had no fence against a trusted treachery Of all enemies 't is a misery to have one very powerfull or very malicious if they cannot wound us upon proofes they will upon likelyhood And of all enemies he will be the worst that hath done us an irreparable injury for when he sees he can make us no satisfaction he will proceed to hatred and then to malice and then hee 'l seek our ruine And he is the worst enemy that turnes traytor and turn traytor he cannot unlesse he hath been a friend formerly now a traytor is much more dangerous than a professed enemy and a fugitive Souldier more pernicious in time of war than he that assaulteth with open violence Ambrose could say That an enemy may be shunned but a friend cannot if he meaneth to be treacherous we may easily take heed of him to whom we have not committed our councells but it is scarce possible to prevent his mischiefs to whom we have intrusted them And truly David never met with such enmity from all his professed enemies as he had from those which were once his familiar friends Heare what a pittifull complaint he makes Psal 55.12 13 14. If it had been an enemy I could have born it but it was thou mine equall my familiar friend in whom I delighted which did eat of my bread and went to the house of God in company with me this is he that hath lifted up his heel against me But let all Traytors lay to heart how frequent have been examples of Gods vengeance on such who ever saw a bloody Traytor come to a good end few or none ever escape the hand of God or the sword of the Magistrate or their owne balter how died Zimri Achithophel Absalom Zebah Judas their owne hands made passage for their soules into hellish torments as the divell once complained before their time 2 But are these all that David hath to encounter with these were dumb dogs that would have snapt at his heels nay at his head ere he had seen them no there is another fierce mastiffe which flies at him with open mouth Shimei will take advantage of this time to vent the old grudge and malice that lay lurking in his heart till a fit opportunity he was of the house of Saul that was enough to make him an enemy so that we may conclude that malicious wretches watch an advantage when they may do a mischief It is the common course of a cursed disposition to trample upon those which are already fallen This hath been the practice of Satans instruments in all ages to insult over misery and I would it were confin'd to them onely Job was bitterly spoken against in his greatest extremity by his owne friends and they no doubt Godly too and censured for an hipocrite and yet he gives it out for a maxime that to him that is in misery pitty should be showne and of all objects of sorrow a distressed King is the most pittifull because it presents most the frailty of humanity the sorrowes of a deposed King are like the distorquements of a departed conscience which none can know but he that hath lost a Crowne towards those that have been alwayes poore piety is not so passionate For they had no elevation to make their depression seeme the greater wonder Surely a tender heart would have pittied Bajazet and Valerian as they were men the one in his Cage the other when he lay prostrate as a footstool to his proud foe who would not have wept with King Edward the second when his princely teares were all the warme water his butchers would allow him to shave him with When the hedge was his cloth of state and his throne the ground and who would not have poured out unrestrained teares to have seene King David goe up Mount Olivet barefoot and weeping as he went to see all his Nobles and mighty men in mourning and to heare all the country cry with a loud voyce 2 Sam. 15 23.30 And yet this miscreant Shimei in stead of pitty proudly insults Ah! With what spirits are they indued that can greive the greived and adde sorrow to the over-burdened What to put more waight to an overcharged bâ—ame to lash with an iron rod that back which is already flaied with whipping Surely this property is not only inhumane but diabolicall To persecute
rod will not humble us we shall surely feel the smart God will first or last take us in hand and master our proudest hearts and stoutest stomacks and if fewer and lighter stripes will not serve the turn he will inflict more and harder till he hath brought us as he would have us And therefore 't is better to be taken downe in youth than to be broken in pieces by great crosses in age we shall be sure of a time of reckoning the best of us God will punish sinne where ever be find iâ— and in this world most severely to his owne they that have most of Gods heart do oftentimes feel his hand most heavy When the â—ins of Saints shall become a scandall to Religion no wonder if God will vindicate his honor and be severest against those that wear his livery yet inwardly side with Satan and their own lofts other offences God may punish this he must least the enemies of the truth triumph against him David had such a whip for this as never man had greater because he had by his fin caused the enemies of God to blaspheme his child must dye when he that had sung the purenesse of the God of Israel and proclaimed the noble acts he did of old and seem'd as one indeared to the Almighties love how would the Philistims rejoyce when he should thus become Apostate and with a milde licentiousnesse mix his lust with murder and ingratitude surely his sin and punishment God will have to stand upon record to the worlds end to be a warning to all that if God was so severe against one who lay so near his heart then let us with fear and trembling look to our wayes making streight steps to our feet least that which is lame be turned out of the way ever remembring that after the remission of a â—in the very chastisements of the Almighty may be deadly And this was it which made David so meek without murmuring seeing God as his justice required did justly execute his righteous judgements upon him for his sin and according to his revealed truth inflicted those afflictions which he had formerly threatned God is immutable as his course hath been towards his children in times past so will he deal with us and our posterity in time to come he will ever proceed by the same rules of justice and mercy punishing like finnes with like judgements And therefore let us justifie Gods wifedome in all his proceedings of providence concerning our selves and others his justice in punishing as well as his love in correcting his grace in giving and his mercy in taking away and in all things from the heart blesse the name of the Lord. Blesse his name and exalt his free grace that our punishment is no more nor no worâ—e What if we have many crosses heavily lying upon us truly if we had our due desert we should have more and greater the terrors of conscience here and torments of hell hereafter what if death have deprived us for a time of our children deerest necrest relations alas our fins have deserved to be deprived of the presence of God and all his holy glorious Saints Angells that to all eternity what if we have loâ—t our honor riches reputation and estimation with the world perhaps they were our Gods no wonder they were daâ—ht to pieces and we made to drinke of their dust what if our friends have lest us and have forgotten all their promises and purposes of friendly intimacy and have taken away all their love and have in stead repaid us with scorne and disdain what then they could not take away our God nor our Christ nor his spirit nor our interest in the promises nor our hope of Heaven why what have we lost then truly matters of no great moment the presence of our God without any of these is perfect peace but all these without God is but a little more cheerfull hell And therefore none could justifie God in his way of proceeding better then David so he says nay sings it too Psal 103 he hath not dealt with us after our fins nor rewarded us after our iniquities and this he intimateth Psal 51.4 by that ingeminating confession of his against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evill in thy fight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou art judged 5 David comforting himselfe with hopes of being benefited by this affliction it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will requâ— good for his cursing this day And this should comfort us in our deepeft diftresse because Gods round reprehensions are ever gracious forerunners of his mercy Faith will teach us to say God hath chastised me according as he hath threatned therefore he will comfort me according as he hath promised now hath not God promised and assured us to uphold us in our afflictions and bring us through it and comfort us by it and gloriâ—ie us after it let us therefore with Abraham hope against hope and apprehend the certain accomplishment of these promises by faith whence fence and carnall reason see nothing but the contrary Ah! if we would seriously consider that as God is the supreame cause of all our afflictions so doth he govern and over-rule all secondary and inseriour causes and meanes by his most wise and powerfull providence that when they seeme most to oppose against him they do but effect that which he willeth and hath purposed to be done they serve to the furthering of his ends his glory and our salvation how opposite and contrary they are one to the other Now if God hath joyned his glory and our happinesse together it is â—it that we should refer our selves to his good pleasure that hath joyned his glory to our best good which is our salvation This was it which upheld the head of David the good which would follow he was sure that this wet seed-time would bring forth a plentifull harvest this he â—ings Psal 126.6 He that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubâ—lesse come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him And again Psal 126.5 They that sow in teares shall reap in joy And thus many times God in mercy puts us to a lesser trouble for our greater good Thus did the Lord with the Israelites when he brought them into the wildernesse where they indured much affliction he did humble them and prove them that he might do them good at their latter end Deut. 8.16 Now God doth not only advance by afflictions the spirituall and everlasting good of his own children but many times turneth them to their greater benefit in the things of this life as we may see in the example of Joseph he was sould as a slave that he might be a great Commander he lost his patrimony at home that he might receive a much more large inheritance in a strange Countrey and therefore he professeth that when his brethren
he fell foulest because he was most prosperous And therefore an afflicted estate is most safest yea and often most sweetest There is a fruite in the least crosse we should therefore looke more at the fruite then deliverance from the crosse the longer it continues the more we may get by it 1 If we consider the good which comes to us through the Malice of man we reâ—d of Jacob when he sent Joseph to Dothan to visit his brethren they cast him into a pit Reuben more pittifull then the rest relieves him but sells him to the Midianites they sell him againe to Potiphar his Mistresse accuseth him his Master condemneth him imprisons him the Baker after long forgetfullnesse commends him to Pharaob on the occasion of his dreame and thus is he exalted How many instruments were here not one looking to God or to one another Onely the Lord of Ezechiels wheeles turnes all about for the good of his children So David goes on in Battell against Israell with Achish King of Gath with whom for a while he sojourned in the time of his banishment The Princes of the Philistimes command him to go back and this they did only to disgrace him because they did distrust him But 't was for his good for had he gone on he had been guilty of the bloud of Israel especially of Saul who was slaine in that Battell whereas now he is free both from the blood of Israel and from the censure of the Philistimes they cannot blame him for going back because it 't was in obedience to their command Thus we see the Church in Qâ—eene Hester's time what was plotted for their ruine turned for their farther deliverance and Hamans malice to Mordecay shall be the first step to his preferment Many a Saint whose names doe now breath forth a fresh perfume in the Church of God would have lived and died obscurely had not the malice of others pounded them in the morter of afflictions The wicked saith one are as it were Gods Phisitions by the poyson of their malice they purge out the poyson of sin from out of the soules of his servants They are the Lords scullions and their office is to make cleane the vessels of honour They serve as an antidote to keep us from the contagious infection of sin and truely this may be one reason why the Lord thinketh it fitter to serve his owne providence of wicked men that he may bring good out of evill then not permit any evill at all Thus were all the ends of the King of Affiria and the outrages of his army directed by God to that maine end inchastifeing his people I hough as the Lordplainly affirmeth he never so much as thought so or ever aimed at this end Isa 10.7 And this many times the cruelty and oppression of proude insolency that can not looke but with disdaine conttempt make the Lord to pitty the distressed the sooner and to arise and set hiâ— own in safety from them that poffâ—ah at them Psal 12. Another out of malice to our persons and a desire to revenge misconceived wrongs and supposed injuries seekes our utter ruine indeavouring to make our names odioâ—s to countenance their owne cause thinking they have laid a sound foundation of their own glory upon the ruines of our reputation and estates But this oft turns to our greater advantage when God shall at length mâ—nifest our innâ—câ—ncy mauger all their ploâ—s and projects so that whosoever blowes out the candle of our reputation with too strong a breath doth but make a stink to blowe it in againe and it were well thought oâ— it is their malicious breath that makes so iâ—a savour not our snuffe O hers cannot love us because they cannot or they will not because they will not and so force themselves to an Antipathy looking upon all our actions with the greene spectacles of prejudice câ—nstraing or rather misconstruing all actions or intensions according to their owne opinion putâ—ing false glosses on all plaine texâ—s these are very ready to fide with a depraving multitude whereby they become accessary of injury if the injury be great they will proceed to hate those whom they have mâ—l gned hatred in time will turne to implacable malice so that their houses are too hot for our neighbourhood nay may be a whole Towne will in time â—steeme us as Nauseous to their quaesy stâ—macks and therefore we must out as the frith of the streeâ—s These are like tâ—e mâ—n of Ephesus who cried and made a loâ—de noise some for one thing and some for another but the most part knew not wherefore they were come together Acts. 19.32 So these cry out that such are people want not any fault though they cannot make manifest any one thus may times one barking dog sets all the curs in a Towne a bauling at nothing sometimes or at the moone But this likewise workes for the best to a more circumspect walking among so many Criticall enemies and truly we never walk so warily as when we have many enemies to watch us But if their cruelty will not indure our company any longer but that we must be constrained to secke a new habitation which many of Gods deare children are forced in those saddest times having lost their old but this may by the blessing of God turn to a great advantage Their malice doth but transplant us into a better soil where we may thrive more bear our fruit with more safty comfort without such fear of being nipt in the bud Oâ— else they drive us to a more narrow search and greater longings for that City above whose foundations are so stable and sure that no enemy can deprive us off where is no plundering or oppressions when all the malice of man or devill shall never be able to drive us thence Another sort there are which sometimes were very hot and eager in the pursuite of their love professing their love shall hold out when others tire their 's shall live and flow when all others are dead and dry like Peters boasting which will sight valliantly for a spurt and doe it may be more then is required but when they see their friends over powered by insolent authority then they 'le deny their acquaintance and neither owne them nor their cause This have been the case of many and therefore the lesse to be wondred at David complaines pittifully thou hast put my lovers and friends far from me and my acquaintance into darknesse and this may comfort us the more when we consider God hath a hand in their estrangement and therefore cannot chuse but be for good we shall ever after be more wise then rest and lean upon such slender props that at the best will bend if not breake and looke upon the choicest friends to be subject to mutability as mortality and to be wary of that love which is ripe so suddainly those rath-ripes as we may call them will soone rot all violent things in nature cannot