Lord and a more strange fire from the Lord falls down upon them and devoured them Levit. 10.1 2 3. Fire in it self is a very furious and frightful Element but this being not the fire that burned in the bush and burnt it not Exod. 3.2 3. nor that which carried up Elijah into Heaven so far from hurting him as making of him happy and putting him out of the reach of Hurt for ever No but a fire from the Lord saith the Text who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 especially to bold Offenders that are as dried Stubble before him This offers one terrible Circumstance to our thoughts Moreover this Fire falls down not upon the good Man Aaron's House or Goods or Cattel any of which might have had dread enough therein but on his Children on his Sons his Sons that were God's Ministers nor upon one alone but two at once not in the Fields or in a private House where possibly it might have been concealed at least but little notice taken of it but in the Tabernacle and at God's Publick Worship and in their Ministration there and before the face of all the Congregation Here is an heap of Circumstances not one of which but carrieth horrour and astonishment with it but all together are utterly confounding Well but hereupon how doth the good but sad Father behave himself What Doth he fret and fume and vex his Soul to death again No no. Doth he rage and rave and flie in the face of God upon it 'T was further from him Jehoram's great but wicked Messenger in a time of Distress would say This evil is of the Lord why should we wait for the Lord any longer 2 Kings 6.33 He bids adieu to God and let him find some other Attendants if he please Job's naughty Wife would have prompted him to relieve himself by cursing God and dying together with his sons Job 2.9 But this pious Person was of another spirit sor saith the Text Aaron held his peace His silent Soul seal'd up his lips and the submission of his heart kept his mouth close shut He knew who did it and to undo God's Work so much as by a word or thought no Creature ought to make one attempt The least dislike abetted bids all in Humane reach unto it No when God hath done he will not begin but end together with him and be most humbly 〈…〉 to him He held his peace A 〈…〉 and well worth the writing after 3. 〈…〉 next and against this good old Man though under much Infirmity the Almighty dips his Pen in Gaul and Vinegar 1 Sam. 3.11 c. And truly they are sharp and bitter things that are written in the sacred Book against him and his Family with him 'T is not the pruning Branches or lopping off some greater Boughs but 't is the digging up by the very Roots that is insisted on And for his full assurance he must be certified once and again thereof Chap. 2 3. First by a nameless Prophet and then by his Darling-pupil Samuel The former tells him from the mouth of God that The days come that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father's house and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever Chap. 2.31 32. with much more terrible Tydings besides this And the latter That God would perform against Eli all things which he had spoken concerning his house and that he would judge it for ever Chap. 3.13 c. with other Threats like those Well now how doth this aged Father entertain the doleful News Doth he dispatch the Messenger that brought such unwelcome Tydings Or so much as wish unto him Micaiah's Doom from wicked Ahab To be clapt in goal and be fed with bread and water of affliction Doth he curse his harder Fates whereby he was chained unto such unavoidable Misery and like the Desperate * Qui manu sanguine suo repleta in aeâ—a 〈◊〉 dixit Vicisti Galilaee Theed Hist 4.25 Julian go off the Earth with bidding a Defiance to the God of Heaven As much unlike those Tempers as Heaven is unto Hell 'T is taken by him without the least Complaint and without so much as any Token of Regret If you feel his Pulse there 's nothing of a Feavour on him The very Attendants of Impatience are driven into Exile by him Hear his own words It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Verse 18. As who should say All are his own and he may therewithal and ought to do what is best pleasing to himself Who are we entire Dependants on him to call him to account about his matters God past a Sentence that seem'd hard indeed but this good Man approves it Here was Contentment unto admiration Perhaps you 'll say But Judgment was not executed yet onely threatned Right else 't would have been too late to have enquired how he took the Tydings when he was not But the double Assurance that a Besom of Destruction was ready to sweep him and by no means to be prevented by him was enough to speak as Men to strike a terrour of Distraction on him But yet when others who are meer Mortals might have proved like a tempestuous Sea we find with him the profoundest Calm Oh! what a Pattern for our Imitation 4. David is Fourth And how doth he acquit himself when the provoked Majesty of Heaven strikes even to death that Child he so much laboured to preserve in life While it was yet alive saith he I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me 2 Sam. 12.22 23. If you reflect upon the beginning of this Chapter and bring down your eyes unto these Verses read you will find this Judgment on his Child was but on link of that long Chain prepared for him by the Prophet Nathan from the mouth of God and when a single link of any Chain is touching of us it shews the rest are drawing after and that the whole will quickly reach us Besides this Punishment also had those Sins that were the Parents of it engraven in such Capital Letters upon its Forehead that though the Prophet brought him a Pardon sealed for his own Life the way of bringing him foul Transgressions into fresh remembrance could not but create as fresh both blushings startlings and convulsions in his Conscience for such great Miscarriages Moreover the Child we speak of was very dear unto him witness his deep Humiliation on behalf thereof in Fasting Prayer and lying on the Earth all night Verse 16 17. in spite of the Importunity of his Counsellors unto the contrary if possible to have gotten a Reprieve at least from Heaven for it And lastly his Servants were afraid to impart the Tydings of the Child's Death to him for
for prevailing represents his sad Condition as a most suitable Object of Divine Compassion Ver. 12 13. But I must return to the second particular Petition whereto I did observe my Text was added as an Enforcement of it David Ver. 8. begging pardon for his Sins which were the cause of all his Troubles and which particularly made wicked Men to open their mouths against him begging pardon as I was saying in these words Deliver me from all my transgressions and make me not the reproach of the foolish now that this humble Suit might speed the better readily yields and plainly enough makes this Confession That notwithstanding their Reproaches as well as all his other Troubles were most unjust from Men yet they came not without the justest reason from the Lord upon him And therefore he had not one Word to speak nor Thought to think against the same I was dumb saith he I opened not my mouth c. Thus stands the Text in relation to the Context But if we consider it in its self then it gives us 1. A sresh Account of David's Carriage under his great Distresses 2. The important Reason why he did so 1. The former here I was dumb I opened not my mouth where the latter Phrase ascendeth higher than that before it Both importing plainly that as he did not speak at all so he never so much as offer'd it neither Yea and the Hebrew Verb in the latter Clause being of the Future Tense doth intimate that he would not ever make any such attempt in time to come And this demonstrates the absolute silence and perfect satisfaction his Soul was brought unto under that heavy Providence whatever it was that lay upon him For as when the Waves don't swell the Winds are still so when the Mouth makes no complaint the Heart doth use to be at rest And 't is our Saviour's saying Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Matth. 12.34 2. The latter part is there Because thou Lord didst it As who should say Whatever influence second Causes may have had immediately upon my present Troubles and whatever Imputation I may justly lay on Persons or on Things for what I suffer I must not here abide but pass on further through them and beyond them to the first Cause of all Thou Lord didst it This was like holy Job who for all the mischief Satan the Chaldeans and Sabeans wickedly did him looks higher to the righteous Hand of God and humbly bows before him saying The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away and blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.21 We see Good Men are utterly unlike the sottish Cur which snarleth at the Stone that hits him until he dangers breaking of his Teeth in gnawing it without regard unto the Hand that threw it The Ungodly commonly are thus guilty and are reproved justly by the Prophet for it Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see Isai 26.11 But the Pious practise otherwise as we find and thence find also cause to stoop to God and possess their Souls in patience under all their Sufferings And that there is sufficient reason so to do we shall see anon when besides all other Arguments it will appear particularly what a prevailing influence the latter part of my Text hath on the former In order whereunto since there is just presumption that this great Example is obliging to all other Persons in like Circumstances let this Proposition seriously be considered by us viz. Propos A Godly Person is to be still and silent and by no means impatient under the heaviest Hand of God upon him Now this Proposition being plain and very intelligible in all the Terms thereof we have only need of 1. A further Confirmation of it 2. A fair Solution of some Objections 3. and lastly Some Guidance for the better Application of the whole unto our selves for good Whereof in order And 1st 1. Proof by Examples and Arguments To make full Proof I shall produce two kinds of Evidences viz. Plain Examples and Powerfal Arguments and with a good stock of both from the Holy Scriptures I begin with Plain Examples I. Examples They shall be Seven or Eight and every one well deserving special Observation I will take them in that order the Scriptures set them And so begin with 1. Moses That the most wise and gracious Providence saw meet to exercise this most eminent Saint with various Tryals and some that had much sharpness in them the Book of God bears ample testimony nor is it silent about that even and quiet Temper wherein his Soul was preserved under them The danger of his Life from the hands of Pharaoh at his first appearance in one of his Brethrens cause against an Egyptian made him to fly the Country for his fafety But he * Heb. 11.27 endured it saith the Text and left no Murmuring nor Complaints behind him no nor carried he any with him that we can sind Exod. 2.15 His Brethren likewise often dealt so unkindly by him and their Insolencies towards him not withstanding his most constant and tender concernment for them were so insufferable that the righteous God doth espouse the quarrel and is provoked to destroy them root and branch for the same Yea and he promised Moses to make of him a Nation mightier and greater than they were if he would consent thereto But he good Man Exod. 32.10 11. bears all with patience from Them Num. 11.17 19. and is most instant with God for saving of them Deut. 9.18 c. and so requites them good for evil Why tho' * Numb 26.59 Aaron and Miriam that came out of the same Womb with him affronted and reviled him unjustly we are sure because God was offended with them highly for the same yet he takes it quietly and begs and procures God's pardon to them for it Numb 12.9 13. Nay when the Wise of his Bosom taunts him to his face and at the same time the Face of God was frowning on him also yet is he the same Man still Exod. 4.24 25. Should not we think that these were none of them slight Afflictions tho' some more sharp than others Would they not easily warp us to impatience under them But as it is written That he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth Numb 12.3 doubtless 't was meant that he was not only so towards Men but towards God also However you shall yet hear greater things than these 2. Aaron 'T is true he had great Frailties in him and like Afflictions on him but still he hath this excellent Character given him The saint of the Lord Psal 106.16 Now this Saint hath a bloody Breach made by an angry God upon his Family and not for any personal Crime of his neither nay the Method was not usual but extraordinary and full of terrour His Sons make a daring but it proved a dear Adventure They offered strange fire before the
children so the Lord doth them that fear him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust Parents are wont to be most tender to their weak and sickly Ones others can make a better shift And shall not he that puts these Bowels into them towards theirs have them much more within himself to His What tho' a Mother Should forget her sucking babe Esa 49.15 and such a Worse-thing-than-a-Brute is found sometimes in Humane shape God will not cannot do so We read that suffering Saints are said to Glory in tribulations And Glorying is no sign of Grieving and Repining How should impatient Lamentations be able then to keep their Ground When light afflictions and for a moment work a far more exceeding and external weight of glory This is the 1st Argument And the 2d will prove like unto it Arg. 2. Distresses should not raise great Storms and Tempests in the pious Soul because our First and second Birth do both dispose us to them As we are Men and Christians they are the Lot appointed for us And ought we not and therefore to be quiet under them How great 's the Folly to be so disturbed at what is not to be avoided Man now is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward as we heard at first was spoken by Holy Job And all Men know neither Art nor Force can make the Flames descend but they are always mounting upward That is the Nature of them Wherefore to be Impatient under Trouble is to be quarreling with the Almighty Majesty by whom a Humane Body and a Rational Soul is bestowed on us And so there is Ingratitude and Rebellion link'd together Thus to requite him that brought them out of nothing by meer Bounty and by the same hath made them capable of injoying all things and the best of all His blessed self for ever if they will be ruled by him And for the second Birth it commonly hath the throws and pangs of a travelling Woman and often worser far General Experience makes a proof of this However in growing up unto Maturity there is no escaping of Adversity Through much tribulation saith St. Paul we must enter the kingdom of God We must 't is necessarily and unavoidably so Heaven is on high and it is hard to climb an Hill a steep and long one especially The Lungs will labour Feet will faulter and Bones will ake in doing it Were there no Difficulty in our way to Glory and we met no Troubles in our Travel thither we might indeed be called and accounted Christians but how we should be really so I mean Legitimate Children unto God is hard to manifest and may very well be doubted from the holy Apostle's words who saith Heb. 12.5 6 7 c. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom his father chastneth not But if ye are without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are you bastards and not sons Let now a distressed Christian seriously ponder this and let him not stagger through Vnbelief and 't is not possible for Discontent to keep its post any longer in his Heart Let him be strong in Faith and this will turn his Crosses into Crowns and make what 's bitter to the outward relish sweetly to the inward Man Now if ever the Apostle's words will be certainly verified with the upright tho' afflicted Person We faint not but tho' our outward man should perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 Earth's Darlings and who have their portion only in this life cannot avoid a world of Miseries and shall Heaven's Off-spring be disorder'd at abiding what both Grace and Nature hath prepared for them Especially since Truth it self hath plainly told them That their Affliction is but a certain Token of God's Affection Now surely there is no reason for Repining but occasion rather of Rejoycing Arg. 3. Impatience is so far from doing service to us in our Sufferings that it makes our Case a great deal worser than it was before and bringeth many and very evil Inconveniences with it Imagine that under a sore Distress we should make hoarse our throat with crys Impatientes non efficiunt ut a malis eruantur sed ut mala gravior a patiantur S. Aug. de Patient cap. 2. and drown our bed with tears and crack our brain with cares and break our heart with sighs and groans what would the Upshot be of all this pitiful Passion Would such a Course so void of Reason and Religion prove an effectual Relief unto us Would the loss of Livelihood be hereby repaired A bodily Sickness be recovered The Life of a deceased Friend again restored Or any Calamity whatever be removed or so much as eased Alas poor silly Creatures as we are what do we else by such a Procedure but plainly imitate the folly of the Fly when 't is intangled in the Spider's Web She makes a Noise and is greatly Fluttering and hampers herself thereby the faster in that Net and becomes a sooner Prey to him that spread it Methinks we are resembled fitly by the corded Beast whose head the Axe and heart the Butcher's Knife hath struck which the more it struggles silly Wretch the faster letteth out its lood and life therewith together Such is the natural Issue of Mens Impatience They look for peace and there is no good for a time of healing and behold trouble The Benefit which they promise proves a Dammage to them Undoubtedly a manifold Mischief flows from hence How can the Offices of Love and Service be discharged as they ought to be unto Relations by a Mind disordered and unhing'd by this Distemper Expect as soon a Man that hath a Palsie or is Bedrid should fetch you Food or make your Fire Beside it so affects the Body that sometimes Death itself is quickly call'd unto it always the Seeds thereof in lingring Sicknesses are deeply rooted in it And how untuned the Soul must necessarily be and bar'd its acting with spiritual life and vigour is very easily understood The griefs and cares and fears are apt to usher in Despair but certainly drive out Faith and Hope and Love To conclude he that is thus captivated cannot be capable to pay due Homage to his God How should he as becomes him fear his Threats obey his Precepts trust in his Promises and rejoyce before him with Thanksgiving I will say but this Impatience and Murmuring under the Hand of God is a great Affront unto his blessed Majesty and cannot be well taken by him Nay he hath often set the Marks of his Displeasure on it I will pass by that which * Exod. 16 7 8 c. Numb 14.27 c. Moses once and again hath recorded thereof remembring you only of the Apostle's