and support the Spirit in the greatest Agony The first is God scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And the other that is joined with it is Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth The Rule is general First All his Sons are under the Discipline of the Rod and who would be so unhappy as to be exempted from that number for all the prosperity of the World Afflictions sanctified are the conspicuous Seal of their Adoption and Title to Heaven And who would forfeit the honour of that Adoption and lose the benefit annext to it the eternal Inheritance rather than patiently bear his Fatherly Chastisements Others that enjoy a perpetual Spring of Pleasure here are declared Bastards and not Sons they are indeed within the compass of his Universal Providence but not of that peculiar care that belongs to his Sacred and Select Progeny His Corrections are an Argument of his Authority as our Father and an assurance that we are his Children this should induce us not only with submiss temper of Soul but with thankfulness to receive the sharpest Correction from the hands of our Heavenly Father This was the reason of our Saviour's meek yielding himself to the violence and cruelty of his Enemies The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Secondly Chastisement is the effect of his Paternal Love He is the Father of our Spirits and that Divine Relation carries with it a special Love to the Spirits of Men and in that degree of Eminence as to secure and advance their happiness though to the destruction of the Flesh. The Soul is of incomparable more worth than the Body as the bright Oriental Pearl than the mean Shell that contains it this God most highly values for this he gave so great a Price and on it draws his Image If Temporal Prosperity were for our best advantage how willingly would God bestow it on us He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Which words among all that the Holy Ghost hath dictated to the Interpreters of God's Heart to his People are most expressive of his â—ove and Bounty and most for their comfort He that gives Grace and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ost real testimonies 〈…〉 certainly withholds no good thing from them I shall produce one convincing instance of this St. Paul who by an incomparable Priviledg was rapt up to the Coelestial Paradise and heard ineffable things yet was tormented by the Angel of Satan and his earnest repeated Prayer for deliverance not presently granted Did not God love that blessed Apostle whose internal Love to Christ almost equall'd the Seraphims those pure everlasting Flames and was expressed in the invariable tenour of his Life by such miraculous Actions and Sufferings for the propagating and defence of the Faith of Christ and the Glory of his Name If we love him because he first loved us as St. John testifies certainly he that returned such a superlative Affection to Christ received the greatest Love from him Now if Christ did love Paul why did he not upon his earnest repeated Prayer deliver him from his wounding Trouble whatsoever it was That Permission was a demonstration of the Love of Christ to him as it is acknowledged by himself Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of Revelation there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh and the Messenger of Satan to buffet me That the Afflictions of the Saints proceed from God's Love will be evident by considering I. His gracious Design in sending them II. His compassionate Providence over them and his assisting Power afforded to his People in their Troubles III. The happy issue out of them First His gracious Design in sending them God doth not afflict willingly but if need be not for his own pleasure but for our profit that we may be partakers of his Holiness The expression is high and emphatical his Holiness the brightest Glory of his Nature the divinest Gift of his Love The two principal parts of Holiness are ceasing from doing Evil and learning to do well And Afflictions are ordained and sent as profitable for both these effects 1. For the prevention or cure of Sin which is an evil incomparably worse in its nature and terrible consequents in this and the next World than all meer afflicting temporal Evils Sin defiles and debaseth the Soul which is the proper excellency of Man and separates from God our supream Good Your Sins have separated between you and your God and have hid his face from you All Afflictions that can befall us here in our persons or concernments the most disgraceful Accidents the most reproachful contumelious Slanders the most loathsom contagious Diseases that cause our dearest Friends to withdraw from us yet cannot deprive us of Union with God by Faith and Love nor of the fruition of his propitious Presence Lazarus when covered with Ulcers was kissed with the Kisses of his Mouth But Sin hath this pernicious effect it separates from his gracious Presence here and if continued in without Repentance will exclude from his Glorious Presence for ever Now Afflictions are Medicinal Applications for the cure of Sin the Disease and Death of the Soul and therefore infinitely worse than the sharpest Remedies The beginnings and progress of Conversion to God are usually by sanctified Afflictions Indeed considering our folly and perverse abuse of his Blessings they are the most congruous means for our Recovery The Light of God's Law doth not so powerfully convince us of the Evil of Sin till felt in the effects of it Thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts The Instructions of the Rod are more sensible than of the Word as the feeling of a tormenting Disease produceth another kind of understanding of it than the reading of its nature in Books of Physick and they make us more attentive to God's Call and leave a deeper impression upon us It is Elihu his observation If Sinners be bound in Fetters and held in Cords then he shews them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded Affliction clarifies their Sight makes Sin to be as heinous in the view of Conscience as in its own foul nature It follows He openeth also the Ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity Gentle Methods were lost upon them but by Judgments he effectually commands they relent and return to their Duty And after Conversion we need their Discipline to make us more circumspect and obedient The Psalmist declares It is good for me that I have been afflicted For before he was afflicted he went astray He was reduced from the errour of his ways by his Troubles And 't was
are vex'd at his Providence A Holy Soul will tremble at the Thoughts of it Methinks God speaks to the afflicted and disturbed Soul in the words of the Psalm Be still and know that I am God The actual consideration of his Supremacy will be powerful to lay the growing Storm of Passions Impatience ariseth from the ignorance of God and our selves Secondly The Righteousness of God in all his ways if duely considered will compose the Afflicted Spirit to quiet and humble submission He is never injurious to us when he deprives us of our sweetest and most precious comforts because we have incurred the forfeiture of all He is not cruel in laying the heaviest punishments upon us for we deserve them If we were free from actual Sins yet our depraved nature so repugnant to the pure Law of God involves us under an Obligation to Punishment If we had not been attained with the guilt of Original Sin yet the Sins committed in the course of our Lives make us deeply obnoxious to Divine Justice How much more the concurrent guilt of Original and Actual Sins The acts of Sin are transient and pass away but the guilt and stain of Sin and the Conscience of Sin remain and no less than Eternal Punishment is commensurate to the obliquity From hence there is the clearest Reason to justify God in all his Proceedings Righteousness establishes his Throne The Prophet saith Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains thy Judgments are a great Deep The special ends of God in severe dispensations are sometimes indiscernible but never unjust his Righteousness is obvious to every eye The actual consideration of this is powerful to silence the uproar of the Passions and to make us lie humbly at his Feet under the sorest Chastisements I will bear the Indignation of the Lord without murmuring saith the Afflicted Church because I have sinned against him As disobedience in our Inclinations and Actions is a tacit reflection upon the equity of his Law as if the restraints of it were unreasonable so Impatience and fretful Discontent is upon the equity of his Providence as if the afflicting dispensations of it were not due to us And the sense of our Sinfulness and God's Righteousness is an excellent preventive of it If thou art in great Afflictions and feelest any tumultuous Thoughts any rebellious Risings within thee Consider thou art a Sinner guilty of ten Thousand Provocations and darest thou appear before his inlightned and terrible Tribunal and challenge him for any unrighteous Proceedings Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the punishment of his Sins Surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done Iniquity I will do no more Besides all the Punishments of Men here are with Merciful allays not in just proportion to their Guilt The Church in its calamitous State described in the most doleful Lamentations of Jeremiah when the greatest number of the Jews perished by the Sword or Famine that attended the War their City and Temple were laid in Ruines and the unhappy People that escaped the fury of the Chaldeans were the Captives and Triumphs of their Enemies yet in that unparallell'd Affliction she acknowledges It is the Lord's Mercies that we are not utterly and totally consumed and lays her Mouth in the Dust a posture of the lowest abasement And Holy Ezra reflecting upon that dreadful Calamity acknowledgeth their Punishment was beneath their desert as their Deliverance was above their expectation And for all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and great trespasses seeing thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and given us such a deliverance as this Our Deserts are less than the least of God's Mercies and our Offences greater than the greatest of his Judgments This should make us not onely patiently submit but humbly accept the punishment of our iniquity as far less than what is deserved If the Sentence of Death against a Malefactor be exchanged for Banishment or Banishment be remitted for a short Confinement is there not incomparable more cause to be thankful for what is pardoned than to complain for what is suffered What Ingratitude is it to be impatient and murmuring for these light Afflictions that are but for a moment when we deserve an eternal and insupportable weight of Misery in Hell It is infinitely more becoming us and safe to argue against our irregular Passions than to tax his Righteous Dispensations Thirdly His Power is Immense and uncontrollable and it is a vain attempt to contend with him as if the Eternal Order of his Decrees could be altered or broken The Contest between God and the Sinner is whose Will shall stand It is his glorious work to depress the Proud and subdue the stubborn refractory Spirits The Punishment of the first Pride in the Angels is an Eternal and terrible example of his powerful Justice and how intolerable a Crime it is that Heaven could not bear but presently opened and the Guilty fell into the bottomless Pit Now Pride is a seminal Evil and lies at the root of Stubborness and impatience under Judgments Proud Dust is apt to fly in God's Face upon every motion of the Afflicting Passions And by the resistance of Self-Will he is provoked to more Severity Wo be to him that strives with his Maker This is to be like a restive Horse or Mule without Understanding that flings and foams when the Burthen is laid upon him but gets nothing but Blows without the removal of the Burthen It is our Duty and Interest to observe the Blessed Apostles direction Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt you There is a passive humbling by his irresistible Providence and an active voluntary humbling which implies a subjection to his Law and a submission to his Providence This is infinitely pleasing to him 't is the right disposition that prepares us for Mercy and is the certain way of Exaltation for then God obtains his End The humble Prostrating our selves at his Feet to receive his Correction causes his Bowels to relent and stops his Hand the seeming humiliation of Ahab procured a respite of those fearful Judgments denounced against his House It is said of the generosity of the Lion that he spares his prostrate Adversary In short our Salvation depends upon our humble demeanour under afflictive Dispensations We have had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Unsubmission induces a deadly guilt upon the Rebellious Fourthly His Paternal Love in sending Afflictions is a sufficient Argument to win our compliance with his Will The blessed Apostle applying Lenitives to the Afflicted propounds two Divine Truths that if seriously thought of and stedfastly believed are powerful to mitigate the acerbity of all Sufferings
possibility of retribution Would he be so foolish and insolent as to complain of unkind and unworthy usage because some others in the Family have a more plentiful Table and richer Habit allowed them On the contrary let us look down to those who are below us How many are poor and miserable in the want of all things needful for the support of Life How many are under tormenting pains or in desperate sadness and have no taste and comfort in their abundance How many are fallen into deep Misery and that aggravated by the afflicting Memory of former Happiness How many are surrounded by their cruel Enemies and see no refuge no sanctuary for their escape but a necessity of perishing And can we pretend a better title to the Mercies of God than our fellow-Worms Our Original is from nothing and our Works are sinful that we are not so desolately miserable as others when equally Guilty is from the rich goodness of God and should make us thankful Add further Let the most afflicted Saint in the World compare his Condition with that of the most prosperous wicked Persons and the comparison will be effectual to endear God to him and quiet his Passions under Sufferings The good things of this World in their abundance variety and excellence cannot make a Sinner truely happy the Miseries of this Life in all kinds and degrees cannot make a good Man utterly miserable nay they are inestimably more happy in their Sufferings than the Wicked in their Prosperity Manna rains from Heaven while they are in the Wilderness supports and comforts are from the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts and their present Afflictions are a Seed of Eternal Joy qualify and prepare them for the Joy of Heaven Our Saviour from whose Judgment we receive the true Weights and Measures of things to regulate our Esteem and Affections declares his Disciples when under the sharpest Persecutions of the Tongues or Hands of their Enemies under Disgrace Calumnies Tortures and Death even then he declares them Blessed for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them Heaven is such a transcendent Blessedness that the lively hope of it as the reward and end of our Afflictions makes us Blessed here And the most prosperous Sinners are by the same infallible Rule miserable here for the irresistible irremediable Misery that is ordain'd and prepar'd for them in Hell They would deceive themselves with the Paintings of Happiness with an aiery imaginary happiness whilst the Senses are filled the Soul is empty but they shall not long enjoy the ease of their ignorance and security the World can do no more to make them happy than if one should compound and temper a draught and give it to the Poor and Miserable that induces Sleep and pleasant Dreams for a few hours but when they awake they are still poor and miserable Our Saviour pronounceth a Woe to the rich and full to those that laugh now for they shall weep and mourn their false deceitful felicity will end in real Misery It is S. Austin's Question Who would not prefer Grief with a sober Mind before the Jollity of a Phrenzy Who would be a merry Mad Man for he is only happy in his Fancy and fancies himself so only because he is Distracted and according to the Rules of true Wisdom the worst estate of a Saint when lamenting and languishing under Troubles is more eligible than the best estate of a Sinner when triumphing in Prosperity Direct 7. Lastly Frequent and fervent Prayer to the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation is a blessed means to support the Spirit and make it humble and obedient to the Afflicting Providence of God 'T is Divine Counsel Is any Afflicted let him Pray 'T is Prayer opens the Heart and carnal Grief breaths out Prayer opens Heaven and Divine Joy flows into the Soul the King of Glory keeps no State there is always easie access to his Throne and his Ears are always open to his humble Suppliants His most gracious Nature inclines him to sustain us in our dejections We have a powerful Plea from his Compassions to encourage our Prayers in great Troubles He will regard the Prayer of the destitute and not despise their Prayer The most glorious Attribute of the Spirit the Comforter is most useful and beneficial to afflicted Suppliants Affliction is the Season and Prayer the Sphere of his Activity That our Prayers may prevail these following Rules must be observed 1. They must be addressed with an humble trust on the Mercies of God that incline him to relieve and sustain the afflicted Thus St. James directs the Afflicted to ask in Faith nothing wavering We read in Scripture of his Bowels the light of his Countenance his melting Eye the soft serene compassionate Expresses of his most gracious Nature towards his suffering People He doth not esteem himself more honoured with the glorious Titles of our Creator and King than with the amiable endearing Name of our Father and with a confidence becoming that relation we are directed by his Divine Son to make our requests to him 'T is recorded of Augustus the Emperour that when one presented a Petition to him in a timerous and shy manner that generous Prince whose Humanity was equal to his Dignity was moved with displeasure as if it had been a tacit reproach that he was of an untractable fierce Nature Thus 't is a disparagement of God's benignity and clemency when we pray to him in a diffident manner He is more pleased in doing of us good than we can be in receiving it Indeed if the Promises of God did not encourage our Hopes we should not presume so much of his affection as to lay the burden of our Cares and Sorrows on his Arms but Heaven is not fuller of Stars to enlighten the darkness of the Night than the Scripture is of precious Promises for the refreshing the disconsolate When the Church complained The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me What assurance does he give of his most tender and unchangeable Love to her Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands If he cannot forget himself he cannot forget his People 'T is his dear Title God that comforts those who are cast down Add to this the interest of the Saints in Jesus Christ who ever lives to make Intercession for them None is more tenderly inclined to Mercy than he that has suffered Misery And he felt our Sorrows that he might afford relief and succour to us Whilst our Saviour was upon the Earth and was followed by a multitude of diseased miserable Persons Vertue went out of him and healed them all And since his Ascent to Heaven has he withdrawn that universal Healing Vertue and left us under irremediable and