till we come to Heaven And have an increase to make in this and every grace The greatest Charity must take it for Phrenzie if any man should say to this purpose Long hath been my Conflict and I have obtain'd some Conquest over the enemies of my Souls Rest I cannot expect nor will I therefore endeavour after more My work shall be to keep not enlarge my victory My will is melted into the will of God as much as I ever look to have it Inwardly I Fret as little outwardly I Murmur as little as I am ever like to do It were vain to pray the Holy Spirit to make my own Spirit less Tumultuous and confused than ' t is To hold it any higher than He does already from sinking Discouragements or distracting Cares In all that comes on me my Mind is as satisfied as ever it will be that 't is God's doing and that 't is Just and Good. My Will also is as obsequious yielding and submissive as it can be made The tenor and temper of my Soul is as like Heaven as it will ever be upon earth c. No gracious Heart can have such a Mouth As long as 't is it self and free from Lunacy it cannot Nay but it will speak clean contrarily C. 4. The Children of God do upon many and mighty Motives seek to attain all Rest in God that is attainable They think not less than All to be enough for their present state And they have Reasons enough for that their Thought Some of them and not the Least shall be proposed God's Servants consider the following particulars 1. There is a Necessity of Precept God commands that Degrees of Rest unattained be laboriously sought As well as that the Degrees attained be watchfully kept He requires not the Principle of any grace without the Practice nor Perseverance in any without Proficience As expresly we are bid to Grow as to stand in grace Now where the word of God's Command is there is Power In a gracious Soul there is such a powerful impression made as there is in a Subject's heart by his Kings commandment or in a Child 's by his Father's 2. There is a Necessity of means Of means unto our chief end yea our whole one Our Ultimate one which is God's Honour our Near one which is Our own Good our Intermediate one which is our Neighbour's Good. Rest in God is an undispensably requisite Means unto all three And our Degrees in them can be but according as our Degrees of Rest are For the Being and Life the Beauty and the Strength of all Duty unto God consisteth much in this Rest Is God my God do I Hallow his Name or do I Look like Christ's disciple Till I Lye down at his foot submit to his Will content me with his Pleasure Excepting against nothing that He does No but when a Soul doth this it acts not a Single grace but all graces together It acts them not meanly neither but illustriously and amiably With huge strength and demonstrations strongest of Truth and Goodness As for our own Good it stands in Receiving from God what thro' Christ he Gives Waiting for what he Promises Giving back what he requires from our hands And how requisite is a Quiet spirit to all these The Vessel into which a Liquor is poured must not stir and jog up and down but be held still Are we Vessels of mercy Are we to receive the waters of Life the streams of grace If so the spirit of grace must hold still our Spirits Keep them Quiet and unhurryed and submissive So if we are to Live by Hope and wait for the glory to be revealed how needful is Rest Assoon may you see with shut eyes as Hope with vexing and restless hearts Rest and Submission be the inlets of Hope as Hope is the inlet of Consolation and Joy. The Worship we are to give unto God hath this to be said of it It hath a Soul and Body a Kernel and Shell a Substance and Shadow An heart that is like either to the Dead Sea or to the Adriatick raging Sea may give God the carcass the Shell and the Shadow of worship The Soul the Kernel the Substance none can give but the resigning resting heart That which Resigns it self unto God's good will and Rests confident there will be nothing but what ought to be in his works As for our Usefulness to the Conversion of sinners or Edification of Converts let Reason and Experience speak Will the mire cast out of a troubled muddied Soul conduce unto these ends or to the quite contrary Words signify little without an efficacy-giving Example But a Restless man's whole Conversation is one continued slander of Religion And a Disswasive from it In short the Philosopher says right Whatever moves must move upon somewhat Unmoveable Ships move on the Sea 't is true but the Sea moves on that which moves not Coach-wheels move up and down but so doth not the Axle-tree to which they are fastned Man's heart can in no good course move till it be joyned unto God and rest in Him who is unmovable 'T is by Rest in Him we are fitted for every Motion for Him * Then it is we can do what pleaseth Him when what He doth do does please us 3. There is a Necessity of Covenant There is no true Servant of God but what is a Covenant one Nor any Covenant one but what has Promised and Vowed sincere and entire Acquiescence in God's Will. Praying without limitation that his Will be done Yea and upon Earth as in Heaven Now do Covenants signifie any thing or nothing signed sealed Covenants Such is our Covenant with God in Baptism and at his Holy Table sign'd and seal'd Or dreams any man that he hath risen to a full performance of his Sacramental Engagement If not he must feel it's force on his Soul constraining to pursue more Rest in God. Or else be inclined to renounce his Baptism as indeed the most among us but too practically do 4. There is a Necessity of Interest God allows yea commands us to Love our selves wisely without any stint The sum of all his Commands is this Be happy Whatever is truly for my eternal Interest the same is my Duty Now if any thing be so Rest in God is so For why Satan can have no good angling in the waters of my Soul if they be not Troubled Temptations spoil men but Content with God's Will spoils and shames Temptations Yea and it doth by our Comforts as our Saviour by the Loaves and Fishes Matth. 14. It multiplies them miraculously and makes a very few of them enough for us and to spare A little with Content is not a little 'T is a great deal And a great deal and Content with it is very Heaven it self A great man hath said A Contented spirit on Earth is in some respects better than Heaven Boldly I will say 'T is the best of Heaven that we can have on
THE Christian Temper OR The Quiet State of Mind that God's Servants Labour for Set forth in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Ursula Collins By D. B. Ah my dear angry Lord Since thou dost Love yet Strike Cast down but Help afford Sure I will do the Like I will Complain and Praise Bewail but yet Approve And all my sour-sweet days I will Lament and Love. Herbert Tho' I am quite forgot Let me not Love thee if I Love thee not Idem LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside and Robert Gibbs at the Golden Ball in Chancery-Lane 1688. TO Mr. Joseph Collins SIR I Have complyed with your Desire and your Neighbours as far and as soon as I have been able You have the Sermon desired for substance Tho' not in every particular as it was delivered A difference I think ought to be between Preaching and Writing Or if not my Memory served me not to give it you otherwise You better know my Employments than to accuse me of slowness I wish I were as free from the blame of too much Haste with it Such as it is you will accept it I know at my hand 'T is followed with my Prayer that it may not be Useless to Your self and to others as Craving for it The Print of Sermons in the Heart and Life is that which must make them Useful or Harmless it self It s Argument is of the most seasonable for us all And more especially for You. So heavenly a Yoke-fellow cannot be quietly parted with without a need of Faith's being strengthned by some such word Your own feelings I presume do so certify you better than any Lines of mine can do O Sir industriously Imitate that Piety which you justly Praise And take into your Heart the Truths you Longed to have in your eye So shall it not repent you of asking nor me of granting them unto you I commend you to divine grace and tuition as Yours in much Love unfeigned D. Burgess To my Friends of troubled Spirits in the Countrey YOU are Many Altho' it be every one's word I am Alone and I am Like no body My Ministrations unto you by Speech are at an end That I served you no better when I was with you is a sorrow that I shall go in unto my Grave Notwithstanding all your good Opinions Thanks c. But I am not able by so frequent Letters as you desire to Gratifie you and Relieve my self My Hands are full my Eyes are weak and my actuative Graces be not proportionately Strong Proportionately to my Work in my present Place I mean. For this cause I would that this Sermon may pass for an Epistle unto each of you And that every one of you may read it as supposing it written peculiarly for himself As also the other small Scripts wherewith I have cared to have it joined Ministerial services are not effectual or the contrary according unto Ministers intentions But if they were you would fare as well as any in the use of mine For tho' I Love my present Congregation as my own Soul I do unfeignedly Love your selves as them More I cannot and less I do not I do my self suspect it and by others I believe it will be determined that that affection of mine hath out-run my Judgment in treating you thus in this corner But I have bid my self follow his ironical counsel who lately said to me Go on with thy useful Indiscretions Bishop Hall's words are a wind that I think to have blown me good Divine goodness saith he Loves the Strength and passes over the Infirmities of good Affections It pardons the Errors of our Fervency rather than the Indifferencies of our Lukewarmness If by any innocent means I may be Useful unto others be the Praise of being Discreet Indeed I have commended in this Sermon three Books which may make needless this Sermon it self And any Additament I mean Mr. Burroughs of Content Mr. Richard Alleine of Heart-work and Dr. Bates of Resignation Works that praise their great Authors enrich their serious Readers shame and condemn their Neglecters But I so well know the Gust and Appetite and Digestion of your Spirits that I shall set before you the following Memorandums And not retract my request of your conning my plain Sermon Against the Invasions of your Unquietness against it's Abode in you and it's Prevalence over you remember ye M. 1. He must turn his Eye inward that would judge right of any thing outward Self-ignorance is the great hindrance of Self-denial The want of Self-denial is the great cause of all Contending with God and Distracting our selves Could I but deny my Self my own Wisdom and my own Will I should never know a Restless hour more To do this my way is to be looking often into my self To sit and consider What am I I was first Nothing Then Dust Then a Body Then a Body and Soul and that Holy and Happy Then a Body and Soul Corrupted and Cursed Then Sanctified thro' my Redeemer's Blood and by his Spirit Imperfectly Sanctified Of my self I never was am or can be but Nothing or Worse Evil the worst I do deserve Good the least I cannot deserve c. Now am I such a Thing Can I deserve nothing Why then I will quietly bear any thing For I see I am a thing that wrong cannot be done to by God. The truth is till we conclude God cannot wrong us we shall surmise in every trouble of ours that He doth wrong us And till we well Understand our selves we shall never believe but that we are things to which God owes somewhat And must do us a great deal of wrong if He make not good payment too M. 2. He that would be carryed without falling must bridle his Horse before he Mounts In all our ways we are carried by our Thoughts They are the Horses whereon we travel As they go Orderly or Disorderly so we ride prosperously in Grace and Peace or fall shamefully from both But so it is with them that restrain'd and bridled by the Word of God they go orderly and well If they are let to have their heads and have not the governing bridle put on them they are sure to go as ill No Sin or Grace no Sorrow or Comfort stirs but in and by these Thoughts Now if before we ascended to make judgment of any Event befalling us we took the course aforesaid we should lose a thousand Plagues by the year in our Spirits and find as many Comforts by it Sinful and sorrowful Ways can never be left till like Thoughts be left Isa 55.7 Ungoverned topping Thoughts undo Mankind 1 King. 18.28 Why halt you 'twixt two domineering Thoughts so the Hebrew Unless my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unruly high and head-strong Thoughts be cast down by Gods Word as 2 Cor. 10.5 I shall consume my self with vexing at his work in the World. Thoughts do rend me when
Eternity for them Lord for the future I project to be wiser I do now let fall all Contest with Thee about future Events in this World. I put a Blank in thy hand write Lord thy Pleasure Write the Kind and Quality of the things that shall befal me Write the Measure and Quantity of them Write the Term and Continuance of them too Order my Lot while I sojourn on Earth even how Thou pleasest Thy Will shall be my Will. If ever I contradict the former I shall the latter too Thou canst not do what ought to Offend me or what ought not to Please me Nor can I any way do my self hurt but by unjust surmising that what Thou dost is not good I command my self having Peace with Thee above to maintain Quietness for ever within And not admit any thing from without to make a tumult in the Region of my Heart No but to behave my self as may shew that I do account Thee a sufficient Shield from evil and Store of good And this by walking on the waves if Thou callest without sinking By entring the Fiery Furnace if Thou wilt have me without Desponding By trusting in Thee even when Thou appearest to slay me C. 2. There 's no Perfect Rest behither Abraham 's bosom It is a Truth denied by none tho' considered duly by few a state of Adoption is a state of Rest Upon thy first Repentance and Faith thou art made a Child of God John 1.12 Being his Child thou hast a Child's portion And to be sure the Children of his house are free Free from the condemning Wrath of God the Law-giver and Judge free from the Power of Satan the Jayler and Executioner free from all the Dominion of Sin that is a worse Enemy than Satan himself free from all things that totally exclude Rest I and have all things that do constitute and make the foresaid Rest Who doubts it they have some Knowledge of God some Use of his holy Name and his Peerless Excellencies Some Pleasure therein and some Content therewith And some Confidence too of the unmoveableness of their good estate These latter they have sometimes and in some measures and much more the former But yet tho' now we are the Children of God it doth not in this World perfectly appear No our very Life is Hid and so is our Rest in great part Infinite Wisdom sees good to make a difference of degrees between Grace and Glory And to make the state of Glory one of all Rest and the state of Grace one of but some Rest The state of Glory one of Rest absolutely and the state of Grace one of Rest but comparatively I say but comparatively In comparison of the Wilderness Canaan was a Rest but compared unto Heaven what was it True it flowed with Milk and Hony but it had also Thorns and Briars Compared to the state of Sin the state of Grace is Heaven upon Earth but compare it to Heaven above and then 't is dicere ausim but a Hell upon Earth Such an Hell that St. Austin's words are known to be true Some good men have need of Patience to Live as much as others have need of Patience to Die. There want not Reasons for God's so ordering things And our Divines have not been sparing in their accounts of them I forbear it here praying only that it be observ'd Disturbing Trouble shall as soon get up to Heaven as Undisturbed Rest come down to us in this World. Christ our Head had never any sinful Sorrow indeed but neither had He before his Exaltation any sorrowless Comfort here below We imperfectly sanctified creatures have neither any Sorrow that is altogether sinless or any Comfort that is altogether sorrowless One of the Thieves on the Cross did Blaspheme Mark 15.31 Our murmuring Flesh and Corruption tho' crucified doth break out And raises in every state unquiet and unruly Thoughts The World's Objects also deceive us with their Emptiness and vex us with their Falseness Satan likewise by Injections of his hath more than a few ways to Disturb us In a word there are four things whereto we are here liable which make perfect Peace here impossible I mean Bodily Diseases Mental Errors Divine Desertions and Satanical Temptations By means hereof the troublesom Thoughts in our minds are made as numberless as the wandring Atoms in the Air. And 't is an imperfect Patience wherein our souls are in our best days possessed A quiet and calm Spirit is in God's sight a Jewel for Excellency in our sight 't is a Jewel for Rarity Nor is it any where found but abundance of flaws are found in it Where is Wealth without Care Where is Pleasure without Weariness Where is Honour or Praise without Hazard Who has Friends without any Guile in them Who has Relations and no Crosses in them Who hath found out that Age that is without it's Infirmities I will ask but once more and pass on Who hath grace without adherent Corruption Hope without Fear and Comforts without Eclipses C. 3. There is more perfect Rest attainable than what is yet by any of us attained The best souls do often lose of that which they had But never do they gain all that they may have If any have so done they are black Swans rare Instances Generally all sober Christians will grant they Need more than they have Nor will they dare to say that their Diligence in time past could not have gain'd more Or that their holy Industry from this time will not gain more All sincere Converts do enter into Rest They pass Jordan they set their feet on Canaan Nor is it God's will that they should keep by the Rivers side He gives them Eyes and Feet Understanding and strength And commands them to use both for getting further up into the Pleasant Land. Every Believer upon his first Union unto Christ makes God name his strong tower He runs into it and he Rests in it But how Into the outer parts he runs and in but small part comparatively he Rests Now God saith not Hitherto shalt thou come and no step further But contrarily He calls to come farther in into the Chambers of purer Peace and Rest Isa 26.20 I and to advance toward the fulness of Joy 1 John 1.4 Let it be observed The Rest in God we speak of is a Grace Grace is a Growing thing 'T is but a Seed of it that the Holy Ghost infuseth in our first Conversion But like the grain of Mustard Seed it grows He that Infuseth it doth Increase it He brings it unto it's just measure and Size in every Convert He Keeps it Growing until the very Harvest Nor is ever Grace at a full stand till it be ripened into Glory 'T is often told you and I hope you know the Holy Spirits work is to set us working All that He works for us and in us 〈◊〉 works by us Consequently we â—ay by no means imagine but that we have room to Mend
without you He can Find Servants or Make them or Work without them T. 5. That Rest and Peace which cost but little are worth as little Davids get theirs by Prayers and Pains with their Souls True Saints sow in Tears before they reap in great Joy. I would not be thought to intimate that all God's Children do mourn as long as loud and as much one as another I know they do not There is a vast difference that Soveraign Grace makes But I affirm this to be clear from the Holy Scripture A frame of holy Rest in the Soul is not to be expected without the constant and diligent care of the Soul. To wit for Attaining Keeping Increasing it And whatever the temper of the Soul appears 't is more than probable that it is not worth keeping if it cost not true pains in the getting God doth not sell us Peace for our Pains But He hates Pride and Idleness and gives not Peace without our Humility and Industry The Duties whereto I exhort are five most conducive to Rest D. 1. Give all Diligence to make your Calling and Election sure There is no Rest in Creatures They are False and Delude us Weak and Disappoint us But neither is there any Rest in God for you until you be truly Converted unto God. How oft have I told you Without holiness no man shall comfortingly see God here or hereafter Without the holiness of Spirit Covenant Qualities Conversation and Company that I have treated of elsewhere If you would have Rest go no shorter a way than this to find it D. 2. They say that neither Trees nor Grass will grow upon the ground under which Gold Mines be 'T is sure that Holy Rest is often kill'd by the Love of yellow Dust Love not the World nor the things of the World. Watch and Pray against the inordinate Love of this low World and its low things It often gets into the best hearts before they are aware And sooner than other Enemies to Soul-peace When it hath invaded the strongest Grace will have enough to do to drive it out And must look for small measures of quiet while 't is in Of all the famed Saints recorded in Scripture and renowned for assurance of God's Love what one do you read of tainted with Love of this World D. 3. Walk circumspectly and precisely In Duties Personal and Relative Omission or slight Performance of one deserves deprivation of the Holy Spirit And if the Comforter go away what becomes of your Rest The weakest Christian that lives up unto the grace he hath received is safer than the strongest that doth not so And will have more Rest at Noon than he D. 4. Let your Love of God Believe all things and Hope all things I mean in all severest dispensations Believe all that He doth to be very Equitable And hope to see the day that will shew how little cause has been given of your Dislike The Law saith the King can do no hurt tho' his Ministers may The Gospel is plain Heaven's King can't do hurt to his Children Altho' the World may All Unsatisfiedness with Events is caused by our having no thoughts of God or low and slight and hard ones Do but Know and Remember He is God. And one that then cannot act but like Himself It will be almost as Impossible as Unjust to be Discontented D. 5. Muse not ever upon your Afflictions disjunctly from your Mercies If you must multiply thoughts of them then joyn you as many thoughts of your Mercies with them Else while the best men muse a wild-fire will burn But be it reflected on by us Had we ever in our Lives one Affliction under which we had not a million of Mercies Or what man is he that hath not received a Sea of Mercies for every drop of Trouble from God's hand That has not had many a good Day or Week for every sorrowful Hour A very ill Spirit it therefore appears that is took up wholly in poring on the so few sorrows tho' Deserved and Needed and Blessed too it may be Passing unregarded the so many Comforts on an Undeserving and Ill-deserving worm bestown I wave other Particulars Let such as need gather from Mr. Burroughs of Contentment and Dr. Bates of Resignation unto the Will of God. My Testimony of the gracious humble quiet Christian forementioned is unnecessary Except it be for provoking your Imitation Upon very satisfactory grounds I have thought her One of Gifts and Graces above the ordinary pitch And the same for the Consolations of God. Her Night-song was Now am I one day nearer my Father's house my heavenly home And her Morning one was harmonious to the same tune Her Memory is sweet unto many her helpful Converses are dearly missed by her Relations and Neighbours My Advice is that you all take the only way to do her Memory true Honour and your selves the greatest Kindness VVhich is to hear her tho' now Dead yet Speaking And by her Example shewn you now pressing you to conclude the Duties that I have Preach'd to be both Possible and Desirable She fore-saw her Death and pass'd thro' the darkest shadow of its Vale as undauntedly as you know O that before God take any others of you hence you may seek and find that Soul Rest which may a-like glorifie God comfort your selves and rejoyce the Congregation you leave behind Amen Restless Importunity makes thus publick the Verses of Psalm 116th sung before the Sermon And the Hymn sung after it Psalm 116. 1. THE God of Love hath all my Love All all I give Him all And well I may cause when I Pray All Help comes at my Call. 2. Because that his free Grace so pleas'd To grant this humble Pray'r When I shall cease to Him to Pray I 'le cease to breath in 's Air. 3. The sinking sorrows of pale Death My trembling Soul assail'd Fear of the Jaws of ravenous Hell Upon my heart prevail'd 4. Then which was all that I could do I did invoke God's Name My God said I Save my Lost Soul And swift Salvation came 5. Transcendent is the Grace of God That doth with Truth abound The Praises of his Mercies great Thro' Earth and Heaven sound 6. This Lord to simple helpless Souls Sufficient Help will give I seem'd as dead as Death it self And yet behold I Live. 7. Turn turn thee then my rescued Souls Unto thy calm and rest For why the God of Love to thee Hath his Choice Love exprest HYMN ARE Heav'n and Hell eternal things What! never to have end Must Heav'ns full Pleasures ne're abate Hell's stock of Plagues ne're spend O strengthen Lord our weakest Faith Of so great Hopes and Fears Make the Archangel's Trumpet be Still sounding in our Ears Vain World farewel our dead friends shew Our days to Live be few By Word and Works this day God puts Next World within our view Scorn O our Souls Time and this World Hold the next World in Eye
Earth to Rest always and Depend on the Lord of Earth and Heaven Living off from Creatures and from under their Power to Glad or Sadden us And knowing this unquestionable truth That sound Christians Possess all things Or if they don't they have given them the good of all they want as truly as the good of what they have The Honour that Rest in God doth crown a Soul with is the greatest that God can be imagined to give or a Creature receive It makes as like God as a Creature can be When you have all you would have in Him you are next Happy and Honourable to Him that has all in Himself that He would have 5. There is a Necessity of Nature The very Nature of a Regenerate man is against Vexation at what God does And is for the most entire resignation unto his Pleasure Unregenerate men's carnal mind is all Enmity and such as cannot be Subject to and Quiet in God's Will. But the New-born man's renewed mind is all Friendship and such as cannot but be Flexible to and be at Rest in it At least it cannot but wish and will and pray and strive to be so God calls Unquiet hearts Rebels And so do his Children call their own hearts when they be Unquiet Saints in Heaven can have no actual Discontent Saints on Earth can have no allowed Discontent The Nature of these is as truly against it as the Nature of those is Albeit their Power against its invasion be not so great Their good Apprehension of God and their good Affections toward Him be the same for Kind tho' not for Degree It remains that we Apply all May He who only teaches to Profit teach you this without which 't is impossible to Profit Rest is so suitable to natural Desires that I must suppose you always to desire it Our Days are so troublesom and stormy that methinks your present care for it should be above ordinary And that very Providence which occasioned this Sermon one would think should contribute much to your Persuadableness by it In hope that some will make a good use of it and with desire that all of you may I shall set before you two things viz. The principal Truths this Doctrine calls to us to Consider and the special Duties it obligeth us to Practise Of these Truths I commend five T. 1. Good men are careful about the Temper of their Minds All men are so about the Temper of their Bodies As for their Minds most are very heedless And tamely bear any Temper that comes upon them Not having ill Tempers Lamented or gracious ones Laboured for by them But men of good hearts are not a little careful about their good plight and tempers Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence is a Text engraven deeply on their hearts And I would that Mr. Richard Alleines golden Sermons upon it were more in peoples hands T. 2. This World as bad as 't is is not so bad as some hasty folk make of it Such I mean as exclaim against it as a Place uncapable of any Rest And altogether unfit for Comfort or Joy. True we are here all of us defiled with rebelling Corruptions clothed with numberless Infirmities loaded with past Guilts assaulted with present Temptations We are by Satan buffeted by Men oppressed by God afflicted Be it confessed therefore without some solid support Vivere non est Vita our Life is scarcely worth the name of Life But yet all Rest is not reserved for next World. There is a Lord that in this World rebukes Temptations pardoneth Guilts heals Infirmities subdues Corruptions heightens Consolations above Sufferings And who in this World it self bids and makes his Children to Rest and Rejoyce in Him. Such a thing there is as an Heaven upon Earth And 't is long of our selves if we find it not T. 3. Serious Christianity doth little deserve the imputations of Sourness and Melancholy What is it but a Life studiously Quiet and Comfortable It 's Possessors chide themselves for nothing more than their foolish departures from their true Rest They proclaim it Comely to rejoyce Psalm 33.1 And profess that they do so with Joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Have they at times their Shipwracks of Rest in which neither Sun nor Star appears The World will not believe it but the Church knows it And will be content to bear the hard names sent from the scorners chair Yes they have But then it self Light and Rest and Joy are sown for them as they be not for sinners And their Sorrows be but like a travailing Woman's the fore-runners of Joy. Their bitterest Aloes be better therefore than sinners most sweetned Arsenick Sinners be still in little Quiet and be going to less Good men have always some and are going where they shall have all Sincere Religion is the only Element in which Rest or Peace can live T. 4. We never do well to be angry at what God does Grace carries us to expel and prevent anger and unquietness 'T is Corruption inclines us at any time to Plead for it Indeed we may reasonably and sinlesly Resent Afflictions Yea 't is our Duty to abhor stupidity and not thro' unsensibleness despise God's Chastening We may likewise humbly make our Moans to God and pour out our complaints unto our Brethren We also may and ought to use all innocent means to get from under afflictive evils Scripture and Nature vouch this But to Rage and Repine at God's work is to Blaspheme his Majesty And 't is certainly the Logick of the Devil that frames Arguments against God. Arguments I call them but they are but in colour and false appearance so Sin and Satan have a great hold of a man when ever he offers to bring such to justifie his blaming of God e. gr Obj. Can I be Troubled too much my Trouble is for sin Ans You must not for Sin it self be Troubled more than God requires And that is unto Humiliation not Desperation Distraction fits for Bedlam not for Heaven If your Trouble be for Sin your care should be to keep Sin out of your Trouble Obj. God has Departed from me Can I take on too much Ans Yes you may If He be gone from you go you and cry after Him. Not Run away from Him and Rage against Him. Obj. My Affliction is a none such and may not I then be allowed to Crudge a little Ans It may be 't is a none-such but in thy own Conceit But if otherwise God has not wronged thee Hell it self is not more than thy desert Fretting will make it worse Submission is thy only way unto Restauration Obj. But this Affliction makes me Unserviceable and therefore I cannot bear it Answ Unserviceable Vain Man I tell thee Serving God is doing his Will not your own His Will is now that you serve his glory by patient endurance of his Chastisement Whatever other service He has to do He can do it