Historian tells us of a clear Vein of Water that springs from Mongibel that great Furnace that always sends forth Smoak or Flames yet is so cool as if it distilled from a Snowy Mountain thus the Saints in the Fiery Trial have been often refreshed with Divine Comforts and such humble Submissions and gracious Thanksgivings have proceeded from their Lips as have been very comfortable to those about them Thirdly The Issue out of all is the most sensible declaration of God's Love to them The continuance is limited by his tender Love till they are prepared for Mercy The Prosperity of the Wicked is Wine in the beginning and Lees at the bottom but the worst and afflicted state of the Saints is first and will at length certainly end in Felicity In the Tragedy of Job the Devil was the Author Chaldeans and Sabaeans were the Actors but the end was from the Lord. We are instructed by the Apostle That although no Chastisement for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby It is an allusion to the Rewards in the Olympick Games when the persons that overcame in those Exercises were crowned with Wreaths of Olive Leaves the Emblem of Peace Thus Christians who with unfainting perseverance in their Duty suffer Affliction shall be rewarded with Holiness in conjunction with Peace This peaceable fruit of Righteousness is not the natural product of Affliction Grapes do not spring from Thorns nor Figs from Thistles neither can it be so properly ascribed to the afflicted person as to the powerful Vertue and special Grace of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies Afflictions and makes them profitable for effecting God's intention by them And when the afflicted person becomes more humble more holy more weaned from the World more resigned to the Will of God this Fruit unto Holiness will compensate all their Pains and Sorrows And in conjunction with Holiness there is a Divine Peace a Joyful calm and quietness of Conscience in the sense of God's favour his answers of Peace are usually a reward according to the operations of Grace His Comforts are dispensed as encouragements to Obedience Besides when the Sinful Corruptions are purged out which caused perpetual disturbance and our Affections and Actions are correspondent to the Divine Law there is that clearness and serenity of Mind that rest and ease in the Soul arising from its just and due subordination unto God which the disobedient in all their seeming prosperity never enjoy There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked These beginnings of happiness are obtained here but the perfection of it is in the next Life Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of Righteousness which God hath promised to them that love him The richness and value of the Crown of Life is so great that God the most wise and just esteemer of things gave the precious Blood of his Son to purchase it for us It is a Felicity so transcendent in its quality and stable in its duration that the Blessed God cannot give us a greater for what greater good is conceivable than himself and what more stable enjoyment of it than Eternity The hope of this makes a Christian Blessed in the midst of the greatest miseries Our light Afflictions that are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Fifthly The infinite Wisdom of God orders all things in the best manner for his own Glory and the final good of his People If he governed by absolute Empire none in Heaven or Earth might say to him What dost thou but there is an inseparable connection between his Wisdom and his Will he is the King Eternal and the only Wise God as the Apostle joins those Divine Titles In this the excellence of the Divine Liberty shines that 't is always regulated by Infinite Wisdom He works all things according to the Counsel of his Will this is spoken according to humane conceptions but must be understood in a sense becoming the Perfections of God for Counsel cannot properly be attributed to God whose Understanding is Infinite and in one view comprehends all things but as those things are most compleat that are the product of our deliberate reasonings and deep contrivance so his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment When ever we are dissatisfied or displeased with his Proceedings it is from the Error of our Minds and the Viciousness of our Affections we presume to correct his Providence as if it were defective in regulating the affairs of this lower World but he is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working In the Creation this regular and beautiful World was formed out of Darkness and Confusion And his Providence that is now misterious and vailed to us will bring into glorious Order and sweet Agreement those things in their final resolution that now seem so perplext to our Apprehensions 'T was a confounding reproach from God to Job Who is this that darkens Counsel by words without knowledg His passionate exclamations were such as if the Divine Wisdom had not disposed all the Afflicting circumstances in the series of his Sufferings and that Holy Man being convinced of his presumptuous Folly repeats the Charge against himself with tears of Confusion Who is he that hideth Counsel without Knowledg therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes More particularly First all things are so wisely ordered that God shall be glorified in the event and it is the noblest disposition of a Christian to prefer the advancement of his Glory before all the Comforts of this Life and Life it self Our Blessed Saviour in the Fore-thoughts of his Sufferings was in distress and perturbation of Mind like the darkening of the Sky before a great Shower Now is my Soul troubled what shall I say Father save me from this Hour But the short conflict of Nature was presently at an end he willingly yielded up himself to be a Sacrifice to the Divine Honour and said Father glorify thy Name Moses and Paul whose admirable Zeal had only a Parallel between themselves in the same degree of Holy heat desired the Salvation of the Jews before their own if God might be more glorified by it This is the first Petition in Order and Dignity in that compleat form of Prayer composed by our Saviour as the Rule of all our desires Thy Name be Hallowed and Glorified in us and by us The admirable History of Jephtha's only Daughter is applicable to this purpose she joifully came forth to meet her Father returning Victorious and Triumphant after his War with the Ammonites He had made a rash Vow to offer up in Sacrifice to God who ever should first meet
contrition for their Sins to implore his Clemency The voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to calve the timerous and weak creatures But when the Heavens roar the Lions Thunder back again Thus strong and stubborn Sinners when they feel the effects of God's Anger are raging and furious in their Passions and Expressions The foolish Man perverteth his way his most grievous sufferings are the fruits of his Sins and his Heart fretteth against the Lord as the inflicter of them This is a high indignity to God and an injury to themselves For a vile Creature a base guilty Wretch to murmur and storm against God's righteous Judgments argues a Prodigious Forgetfulness both of its dependance and obnoxiousness to the Divine Tribunal It is said of the adherents of Antichrist that they were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over the Plagues and they repented not to give him Glory Infinite Insolence Such obstinate Souls the Prince of Darkness possesses as his peculiar Dominion they have more need of Conversion than Consolation Besides by impatience and vexatious fretting they exasperate their pains turn the Rod into a Serpent Vipers into Dragons and God's mighty hand is more heavy by their resistance Bold Expostulations irritate his Anger rather than incline his Mercy the wilful Man never wants Woe With the froward saith the Psalmist thou wilt shew thy self froward or as it is rendred in the Margent wrestle The strongest Sinner is not a Match for the Almighty if his Anger excite his Power how easily how suddenly are they destroyed without remedy Stubborn impatience under the inflictions of God's righteous Providence is the nearest Step to final ruine Others are so dejected and broken with Afflictions that their continuance in the World is but a Living Death every thing entertains their Grief and the best means afforded for their reviving and comfort are ineffectual Sorrow flows into Despair they lament and languish as if their case were hopeless and remediless The Fountain of this black Stream is a superlative esteem and affection to inferiour things and what is reserved for the Blessed Creator If a temporal Loss be the most afflicting Evil 't is a sign that God was not valued and loved as the chiefest Good The difficulty of receiving Consolation shews the necessity of their being afflicted the Language of such resolved Sorrow is They have taken away my Gods and what have I more The sole objects of their felicity are removed and they refuse to be comforted as if no less Sacrifice were due to the remembrance of their loss but Life it self What a disparagement is this of the Divine Excellencies Are the consolations of God small to us Is not his Love able to compensate the loss of a frail mutable mortal Creature Cannot he please and satisfy us without the fruition of one Earthly Comfort This dejection of Spirit is equally undutiful as uncomfortable our Griefs are sometimes as vain and as guilty as our Joys there is a tincture of Disobedience in our Tears for we are commanded to mourn as if we mourned not for the fashion of the World passeth away and we at once break his Law and our own Peace Our Disobedience in this is aggravated as being contrary not only to the Authority and Sanctity of the Law-giver but to his Loving-Kindness and Compassion Ah the miserable blindness of Humane Minds and the more miserable because voluntary Who is more deservedly unhappy than one that sits upon the bank of a River and yet is Tormented and Dies with Thirst the clear fresh Stream passeth before him allures and invites him but he will not stoop to drink this is the case of those who neglect and refuse the Spiritual Consolations in the Gospel that are compared to the flowing Rivers of Living Water for their cooling refreshing quality They meritoriously and actively bring trouble to their Souls their Passions are the Instruments of their Misery He that is his own Executioner has no excuse of Dying he is justly because wilfully miserable Consider also what a reproach is cast upon Christianity that so many vertuous Heathens in great Afflictions were in some measure supported by the Precepts of Humane Wisdom and that Christians to whom there is revealed from Heaven that an Eternal state of Glory and Joy shall be the reward of their patient Sufferings remain utterly disconsolate I will single out one example Stilpon the Philosopher when his City was destroywith his Wife and Children and he escap't alone from the Fire being asked whether he had lost any thing replied All my Treasures are with me Justice Vertue Temperance Prudence and this inviolable Principle not to esteem any thing as my proper Good that can be ravish't from me his Mind was erect and stedfast under the Ruins of his Country And others upon lower and less generous considerations have born up in their Sufferings How do such Examples upbraid us that their Twilight excells our Noon-day Brightness If common Cordials raised such couragious Spirits in them shall not the Waters of Life the Divine strong Comforts of the Gospel fortify us to bear all Sufferings with a valiant Resignation to the good Will of God Can the Spirit of a Man by rational Principles sustain his Infirmities and cannot the Spirit of God the great Comforter support us under all Troubles What a blot is this to Religion Those who will not be comforted will not be Christians by the same Holy Spirit who is stiled the Comforter we are the one and the other If the precious Promises of the Gospel do not alleviate our Sorrows 't is not from Infirmity but from Infidelity 'T is an incredible Miracle that a person can be in reality a Christian and not capable of Consolation as if Eternal Life were not purchased by Christ for his People or the present Sufferings were comparable to the future Glory or the possession of it were to be obtained after a years of hard trial But if it were delayed so long that sensible duration should not sink our Spirits for the Misery that passeth with Time is not of moment with respect to the Blessedness that is establish'd for Ever Secondly Let us be excited to transcribe this Divine Lesson so full of excellency and difficulty in our Hearts and Lives 'T is easy in Speculation to consent to the reasonableness of this Duty but how hard to practise it and to bear not too sensibly such Evils as are incurable here A deliberate universal constant subjection to God's Will though contrary to our Carnal desires and interests how rarely is it to be found among those who in Title and Profession are his Servants In Active Obedience some will readily perform some particular Commands but withdraw subjection from the rest they seem to make Conscience of the Duties of Piety but neglect Righteousness or else are just in their Dealings and careless of Devotion Some are liberal but irreconcilable they
his experimental observation I know in faithfulness from the constancy of Love thou hast afflicted me Nothing so cools our Zeal to Eternal things as the Love of the World Vital heat declines and languishes as the Peaverish heat is inflamed and till we feel the vexations we are allured by the vanities of the World therefore God is pleased by such bitter means to make us more Holy and Heavenly Sometimes he removes with Jealousy those objects to which our hearts are so intirely engaged that the enjoyment of them intercepts the ascending of our Affections to himself Besides he will not suffer us to perish in Prosperity We are chastened of the Lord for our amendment that we may not be condemned with the unreformed World And is not this an infallible testimony of his Love David said Let the Righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness let him reprove me and it shall be an excellent oil If he valued the Reprehensions that were not contumelious and injurious not to upbraid but reform him as a favour and dear obligation how much more should we the corrections of our Heavenly Father And it will be a greater incitement to an humble and grateful acceptance of this Discipline if we consider what a severe neglect it is when God suffers the Wicked to lead a Voluptuous Life without disturbance They are encircled with Riches and Honours softned with Pleasures charmed with inticing objects and thus become hardned in Sin they are Riotous and Luxurious and give the Reins to their corrupt unruly Appetites without controll the Slaves of Sense led onely by Principles of Pleasure and hereby are inexcusable and made ripe for Perdition and reserved for final Vengeance Others though not guilty of scandalous enormities yet are by continual Prosperity setled upon their Lees careless and secure neglect the great Salvation and say in their hearts It is good to be here and their Damnation is as certain though not so visible as of those who commit gross and open Wickedness Sad Preterition In the midst of Pleasures they are truly miserable They have just reason to be abandoned to Sorrow being forsaken of the Love of God The Bramble is not cut when the Vine is pruned till it bleeds in order to its fruitfulness this letting them alone to take their fill of Pleasures is a heavy presage of final ruine When the Patient is desperate the Physitian lays no restraint upon the Diseased Appetite but permits him to take what he craves Besides the Intention of God is by Affliction to exercise and illustrate their Graces The most excellent Christian Vertues would be comparatively of little use without hard Trials Unfeigned Faith in the Truth and Power of God to accomplish his Promises Sincere Love to him humble Self-denial Persevering Patience then appear in their radiancy and vigour What a blessed advantage is it by the loss of Temporal Comforts to encrease in the Graces of the Spirit they are the truest Riches the fullest Joy and the highest honour of a Christian. St. Peter declares the trial of our Faith is much more precious than of Gold that perisheth 't is refined and resplendent by the fire of Affliction and will be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Christ. It is the advice of St. James Count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations Knowing this that the trial of your Faith worketh Patience Though Afflictions simply considered may be very grievous yet if we advisedly weigh and rightly compare things even when our sorrowful Passions are moved our Judgments will esteem them matter of Joy not onely in expectation of Future Happiness but as Divine Grace is thereby drawn forth in the most noble Operations In short the ultimate design of God in afflicting his People is thereby to bring them to Heaven Affliction mortifies the Lusts of the Flesh purifies the Spirit and makes us fit for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light By persevering Patience in Sufferings they are approved of God and obtain a Right and Title to the Kingdom of Glory For according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace Heaven shall be conferred as a reward to those that overcome If there be no Enemy there will be no Fight and if no Fight no Victory if no Victory no Triumph only those who Conquer are Crowned The beloved Disciple with his Brother though allied to our Saviour by Consanguinity who expected by special favour to be glorified without a preparatory Trial yet he tells them without drinking of his Cup they could not have a share in his Kingdom and this should reconcile our Spirits to all our Troubles for the Apostle declares who was a competent Judg having been throughly acquainted with Griefs and had a Prospect into the Glorious Kingdom Ireckon that the Sufferings of this present Life are not worthy to be compared to the Glory that shall be revealed in us 2. God's Love is discovered in his compassionate Providence over them and assisting Power afforded to them in their Afflictions He speaks to the afflicted and disconsolate My Son despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him To sweeten by that tender expression the rigour of his Discipline to signify his dear sympathy with their Anguish and Sufferings Heavenly Consolation God himself bears a share in their Sorrows is afflicted in their Afflictions And the effect of this Love is that he always tempers and moderates their Trials to their Strength or increases their Strength in proportion to the Trial His Corrections are deliberate Dispensations that proceed from Judgment not from Fury which the Prophet earnestly deprecates His Rods are bound up with Mercy his Faithfulness joins with his Affection in moderating their Sufferings It is one Clause of the Covenant of Grace made with Christ typified by David If his Children break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their transgression with a Rod to amend not to destroy them but my loving Kindness I will not take away from them nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail The Apostle assures Believers That God is faithful who will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able but will with the Temptation make a way to escape that they may be able to bear it Our Redeemer in his Agony was relieved by Heavenly Succour the presence of an Angel with a message of Comfort St. Paul found it verified by his own Experience That as the Sufferings of Christ abounded in him so his Consolations abounded by Christ and the Divine Power was accomplished illustriously appeared in supporting his weakness How many have enjoyed Comforts of a more precious nature and more abundant in want of Supplies from the World than in the possession of them When there is a total Eclipse below the blessed Comforter descends with Light and fills the Soul with Joy in Believing The
Perfections that God I say cannot make us happy in his Love because our lower animal Faculties our Senses have not in our Communion with him what is pleasing to their carnal Appetites The Spouse in the Canticles is represented as a Lilly among Thorns incompassed and opprest with injurious Enemies yet she breaks forth in triumphant Joy I am my Beloved's and he is mine by an irrevocable donation she gave her Heart to Christ and reciprocally he gave himself to her she despised all inferiour things and rested in his Love as her sole Felicity In short none are concerned to lose the weak light of a Candle at Noon-day when the Sun pours forth a deluge of Light to illustrate all things and the Soul that enjoys the propitious Presence of God is satisfied therewith when lower Comforts fail Direct 3. Let us moderate our Valuations and Affections to things below This is a Consequence of the former for if the Heart be full of God it will not admit any inferior Object to rival him in his Throne If we consider the vast distance between the Perfections of the Creator and the faint Reflections of them in the Creature our Respects and Love should be accordingly Reason Authority Example Experience convince us that all things below are empty Vanities it is restless folly to seek for Happiness here and to borrow the Language of the Angel to seek the living among the dead If our Felicity be from the Light and Warmth of Creatures how easily is it quenched and we are in irrecoverable Darkness When there is exorbitant Love and dissolute Joy in the possessing there will be extreme and desperate Sorrow in losing One irregular Passion feeds and maintains another The Heart is disposed to contrary Extremities and passes from the Fire to the Frost The unequal Spirit swells or sinks according to the outward Condition It is the wise advice of the Apostle that we rejoice as if we rejoiced not and then we shall weep as if we wept not Afflictions are intolerable or light according to our apprehension of them an indifferency of temper to the things of this World disposeth to Self-denial universally as God is pleased to try us This was the holy and happy temper of David Surely I behaved and quieted my self as a Child that is weaned of his Mother my Soul is even as a weaned Child indifferent to manage a Scepter or a Sheep-hook according to God's Pleasure If we can deny our selves we shall humbly yield to God If we can sincerely say Not our Wills we shall readily repeat our Saviour's Submission But thy Will be done Direct 4. A prudent forecast of possible Evils as future to us arms us with Patience to sustain them Since Man was expelled from the terrestrial Paradise and is below the celestial he is liable to innumerable afflicting Accidents His condition here is like an open Sea so voluble and inconstant so violent and furious Sometimes the Ships are raised upon the top of the Waves as if they sailed in the Air and sometimes plunged into the Waters and ready to be swallowed up Such frequent changes happen in our passage to Eternity and it is mercifully ordered so by the Divine Wisdom that we may so use the World as not to abuse it and our selves by over-waluing and affecting it It is a contemplation of Theodoret that the Sun and Moon the most glorious Luminaries of Heaven and so beneficial to the Earth would be honoured as Deities if they always appeared with the same invariable tenour of Light And therefore God wisely disposed of their Motions that at the revolution of certain Periods they should suffer an Eclipse that the ignorant World might be convinced they were but parts of Nature appointed for the Service of Man and are not worthy of divine Honour Thus we see that often the brightest and fullest Prosperity is eclipsed to convince us by the miserable changes in this World that the best estate of Man is altogether Vanity and that these things are utterly insufficient to make us happy and are not worthy of the chief Regard and Affection of our immortal Souls To set our Hearts on them is to build on the Sand and to expose our selves to ruinous Falls by every Storm A sudden blast overthrows the Fabrick of Fancy our conceited Happiness in the enjoyment of perishing things Our greatest Comforts may occasion our greatest Afflictions The Glory of a Family may occasion the Grief of it Now the consideration of the mutable nature of things here below keeps the Heart loose from them fortifies us with proper Thoughts to bear Evils that happen and prevents Disappointments that is an aggravating circumstance of our Troubles and a great vexation to the Mind The Israelites when transported from the Land of Canaan to Babylon felt the rigors of their Captivity the more sensibly in that they were confident in their term and state in that Land as their permanent Inheritance to be expelled from so rich a Country wherein they promised themselves Rest was a high degree of their Misery There is indeed a prevision of Evils that may befal us that has Torment that anticipates and exasperates Misery Fear that gives the Signal of approaching Evils often brings more terrour than caution and like a timerous Centinel by a false Allarm astonishes rather than prepares the Mind to encounter with Danger Our Saviour strictly forbids such perplexing apprehensions of future Evils as most unbecoming Christians who are under the perpetual Providence of their heavenly Father Take no thought for the Morrow the Morrow shall take thought for the things of it self But on the contrary to be secure in our Prosperity as if we should always enjoy a favourable course of things as if our most flourishing Comforts did not spring from an earthly Original and might be suddenly blasted or easily cut down is to lay our selves open to surprizing Disorders and Perplexities when Evils befal us 'T is the wise Counsel of St. Peter to Believers Think it not strange concerning the fiery Trial which is to try you as if some strange thing happened to you For unexpected Adversity falls upon the Soul in its full weight and suddenly overthrows it Uncomfortable Accidents strike to the Heart when 't is not arm'd to receive the Blow Whereas the remembrance of our frail and fickle State makes us less troubled in afflictive changes because prepared for what may happen to us Direct 5. Serious and mournful Reflections upon our Guilt and what we deserve from divine Justice is both a Motive and a Means to suppress Impatience and Indignation and to allay inordinate grief in our Sufferings We are directed by the wise Preacher In the Day of Adversity consider It is a proper season to review Conscience to search and try our ways to take a sad and serious examination of our Lives If God should exact the rigid score of our Debts and make us as miserable as we are
unmitigable Sorrows Did his compassionate Eye regard all that were afflicted and are we now out of his sight Then such was his indulgent Humility that altho he could have performed the Cure by a Word yet he readily offered to attend a sick Servant I will come and heal him and now he is raised from his humble state on Earth to the Throne of Heaven does he disdain to extend his merciful Hand for our Relief No his Heart and Love is the same in Heaven as upon the Earth 'T is true he is exempted from all passionate Frailties all afflicting Affections that are inconsistent with the Felicity and Glory of his Kingdom But he still retains the same solid Love the same God-like Compassion the same ready Will to support and deliver his People in Misery Nay if the change of his state could have made any in him it could be no other than what is recorded to the immortal Honour of Vespatian by one that had experience of his royal Bounty That the raising him to the Imperial Throne made no alteration in his Breast but that his Power was enlarged equal to his Will of doing Good Our Saviour in his exaltation at the right Hand of God has all Power equal to his infinite Love that is suitable to the permanent relation between him and the Saints He is their Head and they his Members And was there ever such a Miracle or rather Monster in Nature that the Head the most eminent part the Seat of all the Senses did not resent a Wound made in the Foot the lowest and most servile part of the Body Does it not presently express its real Complaints For the natural union of the parts communicates the sence of the pain suffered by any to the whole And such is the spiritual Union between the divine Head and his Members that from Heaven he rebuk'd the cruel Persecutor of the Saints in language expressing the connexion of Charity between himself and them Saul Why persecutest thou me He does not say why persecutest thou my Saints why my Servants but Why me Tho he is not capable of any sorrowful sence yet his Affections are quick and vigorous to his People If it were possible that his Joy wherewith he is infinitely blessed should be increas'd it would be in the effusions of his Goodness to afflicted Christians Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need How heavy soever the Calamities are let them not sink our Spirits into Despair but raise them to nearer approaches to the God of Consolation 2. The Prayers of the afflicted must be always with submissive deference to the Will and Wisdom of God as to the manner the degrees and time of his delivering them Afflictions are not peremptory and immutable Dispensations but conditional for holy and good Ends and we may humbly pray for their removal 'T is no resisting of Providence to address to the divine Majesty with frequent and fervent Requests that he would please to take his chastizing Hand off from us Upon David's humble Prayer the destroying Angel was commanded to cease in the midst of Judgment Mercy interposed It is enough But we are apt to be impatient in our Troubles and by hasty impetuous desires of Ease and Deliverance disturb our tranquility and offend God As those who are diseased with a Rheumatism being worse in the Night than the Day impatiently long for the rising Sun to dispel the oppressing Humors and cheer their Spirits So in our Afflictions we impatiently renew our Requests Lord How long Lord make haste not reposing our selves on his Wisdom and Goodness who will do what is best for us God is both our Father and Physician and when the corrupt Humours are purged away will give Cordials and Restoratives to his afflicted Children The Prophet tells us He that believes makes not haste he doth not by undue means seek to remedy his Evils nor passionately and unquietly sollicite the accomplishment of the Promises before the season appointed by the divine Decree for that is to desire that his Mercy should be displayed to the prejudice of his Immutability but humbly waits God's Pleasure 3. Let the main desires of the Afflicted be for Divine Grace which is never more necessary and useful than in Troubles that they may glorify God and obtain their eminent End the Salvation of their Souls by them We are often very ardent in our Prayers for trivial things neglecting the most necessary and important As if a Prisoner loaden with Irons should passionately intreat that his Chains should be gilded not loosed How many spend their zealous Affections in praying for temporal things wherein their Happiness does not consist One of the reasons why God heaps upon rebellious Sinners the good things of this Life is to instruct us how despicable they are in his account things to be thrown away as he seems to do And he often refuses the Petitions of his Servants concerning temporal things When Pelopidus interceded with Epaminondas the wise Governor of the Thebans for the freedom of a base Fellow that for some Crime was committed to Prison he denied his Request and presently released him upon the desire of a vile Harlot And gave this reason it was a favour not worthy the dignity of Pelopidas but suitable to the quality of such a Petitioner And sometimes we pray for things dangerous and hurtful to our Souls and 't is becoming the Providence and Love of our heavenly Father to deny our ill-counselled desires Let us therefore be more intent and importunate in our Petitions that our Afflictions may be sanctified then removed We have neither Understanding nor Strength how to order our selves how to bear and improve great Afflictions St. Paul declares I have learned in every Condition to be content By the Revelation of the Gospel and the Holy Spirits teaching that all his earthly troubles should end in the heavenly glory he was instructed in that Science of the Saints We are therefore directed If any Man want Wisdom that is how to manage himself patiently under Afflictions let him ask it of God who gives to all liberally and upbraids not If Afflictions are sore and sudden it is very hard to compose and support the Spirit The Passions are Servants of Sense rather than obedient to Reason and by their first violent Motions surprize the Mind and overcome it before it perceives the Assault he that is not a Master isa Slave to them Or suppose no angry Resistance no impetuous Passions in the afflicted Breast yet the Heart bleeds inwardly and faints away David had natural courage to encounter a Lion yet he was so disconsolate in his troubles that he was fain to argue against his Sadness Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me And having raised his drooping Spirits yet he relapsed to his first Faintness till by supplies from