it into Consideration and do us right upon our potent Enemies able to extinguish all sparks of Revenge and to check and stifle all desires after it or even prevent the rising of any such Thoughts as may meditate upon making such an Attempt Will not this well ponder'd be enough to make the warmest or those who are the quickest to resent an Injury or the promptest to return it wait quietly God's good time for the doing his own Work i. e. The executing Vengeance upon those who do them wrong without taking it out of his hands by a precipitate carving out of Justice to themselves since their Adversaries if they will permit God to be the Judge between them will be sure to suffer from him infinitely more in degree and duration than they with all their heat and rage of Revenge could possibly inflict on them Common Experience teacheth us Tertul. de Pat. c. 10. 165. that Princes and Masters of Families are not well-pleased that their Subjects or Servants should be their own Justiciaries do themselves right upon their Fellow-Subjects or Servants so they falsly call their taking Revenge of them Nay they oft punish their forward Insolence in this while they are ready on the other hand to give them ample Satisfaction for Abuses or Wrongs done them if with respect to their Commands and Pleasure they put them up in silence and quietness without making or endeavouring a return and are content to refer the Estimate and Reparation of them to their Judgment and Sentence In like manner our Heavenly King and supreme Master takes it better and kinder at the hands of us his Subjects and Servants that we should so deport our selves in his great Kingdom and Family the World submit the Injuries we may receive from others to his Taxation and Compensation of them And depend we may upon the Security of his Word and Justice that if we decline the taking Vengeance our selves out of respect to him whose peculiar and unalienable Prerogative Vengeance is and devolve the Cognizance of them to his Judicature That the righteous Judge will decree us a Satisfaction for our Dammages far exceeding that we could take adjudge us Reparations not only above them but above what we can ask or think i. e. above all comparison since there is nothing that is pleasing but we have the confidence to ask and not any one thing simply possible but we have Faculties to conceive or imagine it Considering this O my Soul why shouldst thou be cast down Or why shouldst thou be so disquieted within me upon every imaginary Neglect supposed Affront misconstrued Word or ill-interpreted Carriage of thy Neighbour Why shouldst thou hereupon swell with Indignation against him and project as far as the Storm of thy Anger will permit thee to think or invent how thou mayst be upon even terms and quit Scores with him But why shouldst thou do this if the Injury and Mischief was real if there was the oppression of the Enemy in the case Will not the meditation that this unless repented of will fall upon his own head and that God will make thee the largest Retribution thou canst imagine or wish for if thou art not overcome of Evil calm thy boysterous Passions of Anger and Revenge and make thee bear even the greatest Outrages without studying a requital thy self or desiring any other than that which he will make thee Will not this Thought That the 1 Pet. 4. ungodly and the sinner who set themselves against thee shall appear in Judgment for this where they shall not be able to stand have power enough to prevail with thee to commend thy Soul while thou sufferest ill and doest well to the keeping of God as a faithful Creator Socrates upheld himself with Patience Teetnl de Anim. c. 4. upon this Consideration meerly that he suffered unjustly For when his Wife bewailed his Condemnation as illegal he replyed congratulating himself that it was so And what would you have had me justly Sentenced But may be this will be reckon'd but a small Advantage or scarce any at all that the Righteous Judge shall vindicate our oppressed Innocency and punish our injurious Adversary and yet this is of Consolation to us in many cases under filthy and reproachful Language or contumelious Usage that we can take a course with the Authors of these and that that Court of Justice will give us at least this amends that it will punish them and may be an Inducement to make us put them up quietly on the consideration of such a Satisfaction if there was no other traduced as the meditation of Revenge only deferred to another World And therefore I am to acquaint you S. 7. § 6. N. 2. He will amply reward us in the Second place that there are ample positive Advantages behind that besides the calling our Oppressors and Persecutors to an account and the severe punishing them he will make us ample Satisfaction and largely recompense us for our Sufferings He who condescends to make himself our Debtor will not be barely just and make a simple Restitution of what we laid down on his account or commended to his Trust our Name our Goods our Health our Lives restore our good Name make up our Losses cure our Diseases raise up our Lives but will prove our bountiful Benefactor and as he is immensely rich make us a superabundant Remuneration for them He will make us a thousand-fold Retribution for Houses and Lands Brethren or Kindred parted with for his Names sake or if we take the being spoiled of these though on another account patiently and submissively out of respect to the Will of God whose pleasure it is it should be so and Obedience to his Command enjoyning us this Demeanour he will restore us a hundred-fold either more than the Principal by way of Use or else a hundred-fold more in worth and value than the Principal and that in this Life in giving us the Blessings of inward Peace and Comfort and Joy and a hundred times more than a hundred-fold in another Life by giving us the possession of an eternal Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven His Son the same with himself hath entred into this Engagement Every one who hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother Mat. 19. 21 or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive a hundred-fold and inherit everlasting Life which is much more than a hundred-fold Retribution or the hundred-fold Retribution is infinitely multiplied beyond it self by being made everlasting The Tribulations of this World if with patience we pass through them shall bring us at last to the Kingdom of God under whom we shall be invested Acts 14. in the chief Dignities of that place The Vale of Tears to a Religion of ever-flowing Joys and the Vale of the Shadow of Death to the everlasting Hills The being tried and enduring the Trial yea the enduring that but a small time
his Impatience which could not bear God's Acceptance of Abel's Sacrifice before his own Esau's Loss of his Birth-right and in that of the Priviledge of being Priest to the most High God came from the Impatience of an incensed Appetite not otherwise to be pacified than with a Mess of his Younger Brothers Pottage though this Satisfaction was not to be procured on easier and cheaper Terms than the parting with the Blessing The general and ordinary Sin which provoked God to destroy the Israelites in the Wilderness with divers Plagues and sundry kinds of Death was their murmuring against him and his Conduct of them by the hands of Moses and Aaron at every Stage and almost every step of their Journey And what was this but the Expression of their Impatience Their Infidelity and Distrust in particular while distressed for want of Water at Rephidim they did not only Exod. 17. 1 2 3. mutiny against these Leaders for having brought them out of the Land of Egypt to kill them their Children and Cattle with Drought but withall questioned his Providence Is the 47. Lord among us or not was the effect of their Impatience Their making a Calf at Horeb must Exod. 32. be attributed to the same Cause which would not suffer them to attend Moses his coming down from the Mount with directions from God concerning his Worship and the manner of it A Defection from God now which is generally committed when Men are pressed on every side and are brought to a kind of despairing of Relief what is it but a want of Patience and of holding the Confidence of our Hope fast unto the end And hath not the using of unlawful means to bring us out of Dangers and Troubles when they beset us the same Original the not patiently waiting upon the Lord to make good his Promises and give us deliverance out of them all in his due season And as Impatience was and is the S. 4. § 3. Arg. 2. Patience the Principle of all Vertue Fountain and Source of Evil or rather Evil it self is but the Impatience of Good so is Patience on the other side of all Vertue and every good Action is but the instance of our Patience and Obedience He who is ready to suffer Of Obedience patiently or does submit to God's Disposal of him and all his Concerns the Inflictions and Chastisements laid on him by the Divine Hand will never dispute his Commands but stands prepared to comport with every signification of his Will while on the other side he that repines at his Condition frets and chafes himself at what befalls him contrary to his Mind will always think the Yoak of Christ too heavy and cumbersom for him to wear his Cross too troublesom for him to take up and carry his Discipline too rigid to be observed An Instance or two will make the Dependance of other Vertues upon this of Patience or the requisiteness of this towards the Exercise of them plain That Charity which consists in forgiving Of Charity in forgiving Offences cannot be without it for it 's very unlikely we should forgive Offences yea though repeated Seventy and Seven times o'er to the Person who thus incessantly injures us nay I may say it is impossible unless we first inure our selves to bear them patiently for if we are provoked by them to Anger that unless immediately allay'd is apt to swell into Rancour and that if not cured or suppressed to break out into Revenge Nor can that other sort of Charity Of Charity in dispensing Alms. which supplies the wants of the needy be any more without it For he who cannot bear the least blasting of his Estate when God blows upon it the smallest Diminution when it is the Divine Pleasure to impair it will hardly have the generous Courage to put his hand to the heap of Wealth he hath amass'd together and take such Sums thence which will serve towards the liberal and plentiful relief of the Indigent He who hath not the Heart to bear launcing by a Chyrurgion when it is for his Health will never venture to run a Sword through his own Bowels and so boldly dare to die We cannot chastise our Bodies with Of Mortification Watchings and Fastings and yet there are Offices that by our Christian Religion ought many times to be practised in order to the keeping under our Bodies and subduing the Flesh to the Spirit nor be instant in Prayer casting our selves thereat upon our Knees or our Faces to the Ground which yet the Son of God out of a profound Reverence of his Father's awful Greatness did in his Supplications in the Garden recommending by that Example of his to us the haughty Sons of Adam the humblest Gesture in the performance of that Duty unless we have the Patience to endure Hunger want of Sleep hard lying or the like for by the use of these we must be prepared to go through all the Rigours and Austerities of a severe Discipline in which every Combatant who would get the Mastery of his Lusts and strive lawfully so as to gain the Crown of Life ought more or less to exercise himself I 'll add farther It 's unlikely we should Of Confession confess Jesus Christ before Men which yet we are bound to do when upon that account we shall in all likelyhood run the danger of Imprisonment Torture Banishment or that we should lay down our Lives for his Names sake which yet in Preparation and Resolution of Mind we ought daily to do if we cannot endure the Melancholy of a Recess a Confinement the being restrained or barred from Company the Aches of a slight Wound the Pains of a Disease that is neither acute nor mortal 3. No Evils are so great or can S. 4. § 3. Arg. 3. n. 1. No Calamity so heavy but may be born with Patience our Condition be rendred so calamitous by them but that the one and other may be born with Patience and so the feesibleness of the Duty is a Perswasive to the performance of it As no Happiness is absolutely perfect here below for either those goods in which we place them do not spring up at the same time and flourish together or they are not all enjoy'd by one Person V. Boeth de Consolat l. 2. Pro. 4. This Man who flows in Riches being of a mean Blood that Nobly descended but having his Birth obscured by Poverty A Third dieth rich and of a noble Extraction too but wanting an Heir to convey his Estate and Honours to A Fourth having Children to leave them to but whose Crimes blot their Escutcheons and are the Disgraces of their Fathers House as well as their Grief so there is no Extreme of compleat Misery Poverty may have that Health annex'd to it which rich Men want or that leisure which Men in Place and therefore in Business have not and the Man whose Rise is ignoble may be illustrious by his
these with the Psalmist as Divine Chastisements When thou Psal 39. 10 with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Thou hast chastned or corrected me but hast not given me over unto death For these Corrections are to be interpreted of Diseases And considering with the Apostle that God's Chastisements are the most Authentick Instruments and Attestations Prov. 13. 11 12. we can produce of being his genuine Sons and that to be destitute of them Hebr. 12. which all Sons have would be an undeniable Token and incontestable Proof of our being Bastards And 7. 8. considering yet further with the Wise Man and the same Apostle that they are the fullest and clearest Evidences to make out our being his darling Favourite ones For whom the Lord loveth 46. he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth The Collection we shall make from such Considerations will be That if we are Sons we cannot fail of the incorruptible Inheritance which our Father hath laid up for us in Heaven and if we are his beloved Sons we shall taste deep of his Bounty we cannot miss of an ample Portion of that Inheritance And by vertue of such a Deduction we shall be enabled to bear our Diseases which proceed originally from God and are not the Fruits of our own Dissoluteness and Debauchery with Patience at least If it doth not operate thus upon us but we are restless and clamorous for being thus treated we must be more mad than they would be who should complain of the trouble of carrying their Deeds they have to shew for proving their Title to a fair Patrimony and to be rid of this Inconvenience would throw them away The nearer Prospect that Diseases especially those of Age give us of this Inheritance and the consideration that they are taking us by the hand to put us into possession of it The nearer view they afford of our Journeys end and the consideration that they are bringing us to it as fast as they can and of our likelyhood to gain our Liberty while they are making wide and large Chinks in our Prisons or unlocking the Doors or undermining the Walls of them will very much conduce to this or else we must be extreamly stupid and egregious Fools For what Heir if he was not so distemper'd would be peevish and disquieted for being within a very little of having his Estate in his hands What Traveller that were not so after being sufficiently wearied and tired and his Spirits almost spent with the length of the Journey would repine for being nigh the end of it Or what Prisoner not being so would murmur that he had a fair opportunity of getting his Discharge or making his escape Afflicted with Infirmities and Pains this consideration is enough to make us bear them patiently that the recompence of such a Demeanour will be Our Bodies shall renew their strength like Eagles and we in them like Eagles shall mount up to meet the Lord 's coming in the Clouds and that as they shall renew their Vigour so they shall have a perpetual Exemption from all Labour and Fatigue be capable of rendring God a Homage day and night and be no more weary of that constant Service than Spirits are and perform it with as much Agility and Expedition as winged Seraphims fly upon the execution of his Commands that they shall be no more troubled with gross feculent Humours which by their excess and quantity are the matter and procreative causes of Diseases and Aches but shall be refined to a degree of Purity and Spirituality like that of Ethereal Substances Are we afflicted with Hunger and Thirst which when they are extream are of all our sensual Appetites the most violent and irresistible the consideration that we are approaching towards that condition and state of Life wherein we shall not hunger or thirst any more after that which perisheth and our hunger and thirst shall be after eternal good that the one shall be satiated with those Delicacies with which the Table at which all the Saints of God who have gone before us we shall sit down in the Kingdom of Heaven is furnished the other quench'd in those Rivers of Pleasure which are ever flowing at the Right Hand of God the most pleasant that Infinite Goodness which is always streaming out in Emanations of it self can make them for the Taste this thought if it will give us no ease will keep our Appetites from being enraged and inflamed higher by Impatience If under the loss of our sight we are not to be comforted with the Philosophical Hierom. Ep. 32. ad Abigal Speculations that we shall not behold those many offensive Objects we are every day at most constrained to do in the World Violence and Oppression that our Understandings will receive thereby brighter Illuminations and the Eye of our Soul see the clearer for which cause some Philosophers particularly Democritus is said to have blinded himself our Memories more enlarged and strengthened shall receive more and return better than before Nor under that of our hearing that our Ears are thereby shut against Impertinency Clamour Obscenity Blasphemy whatsoever might grate serious chaste or pious Ears Nor under Dumbness that our Tongues are bound up from uttering Vanity and Falshood they cannot be employed to the Dishonour of God or the Injury of our Neighbour certainly a sublimer Consideration fetch'd from Sacred Scripture that the recompence of bearing such natural Inconveniences contentedly and with all humble Deference to him who thought fit to annex them to the tenure of our being here shall be that our Eyes are opened now to behold the wondrous things of God's Law a Priviledge peculiar to God's Saints whereas Gnats and Flies Pismires and other Infects enjoy Light in common with us and shall be opened to behold the glorious Light of God's Countenance our Ears to be entertain'd with the Musick of the Angelical Choire our Tongues loosed to joyn in concert with them in singing the Divine Praises will impower us to submit and acquiesce 2. The same Contemplation will S. 7. § 6. N. 3. mem 2. Our own Death with Patience and Courage serve to make us bear with Patience that Evil which of all others is generally look'd upon as the most terrible and grievous because it deprives us of the Enjoyments we taste a sweetness in and of Life of which we are so ridiculously fond that for the most part we had rather be miserable than be without it while we have no Notion or a very wrong one of the Souls Immortality and no Faith of the Resurrection of the Body or if we believe both we do not attend to that Belief the Sentence of Death I mean when God denounceth it and to meet with Courage the Execution of it For setting the future Rewards before our Eyes we should look upon Death then as no other than the Goal at which the Race