and such as requires awful attention We cannot expect satisfaction in this matter by such an extraordinary way as David had it but we may know it by First Our Covenant-Engagements Secondly Our Covenant-Impressions Thirdly Our Covenant-Conversations First By our Covenant-Engagements or Dedications of our selves to God sometimes called our joyning our selves to the Lord Zech. 2.11 our yielding our selves to him Rom. 6.19 our giving our selves to him 2 Cor. 8.5 The soul that freely and deliberately consents to take or chuse the Lord to be his God may warrantably conclude the Lord hath taken or chosen him for our choice of God is but the result of his choice of us Joh. 15.16 You have not chosen me but I have chosen you i. e. you could never have chosen me but in consequence to and by vertue of my first choice of you Well then let it be seriously considered whether you have duely consented to take the Lord for your God and Christ for your Redeemer This includes two things in it 1. Your relinquishing of all things inconsistent with him 2. Your acceptation of all that promotes the glory and enjoyment of him 1. Your relinquishing of all things that are inconsistent with an interest in him Except we let these go God cannot be our God nor Christ our Redeemer The things to be relinquished for Christ are in short both our sinful and our righteous self Sinful-self must be disclaimed and renounced for we cannot be the Servants of sin and the Servants of Christ too Rom. 6.14.18 and righteous self must be renounced also or we can have no part or interest in his Righteousness Rom. 10.3 These are two difficult points of self-denial to part with every beloved Lust and to give up our own Righteousness Thousands chufe rather to be damned for ever than to do either of these 2. Your acceptance and embracing of all things that promote his glory and further the enjoyment of him As all the painful ways of duty hearing praying meditating and all this with the intention of the inner man and offering up of the soul to God in these duties and the more painful ways of suffering for God and enduring all losses reproaches torments and death for him if his glory require it and you be thereunto called All this is included in your chusing God to be your God. And upon our understanding and free consent and sealing to these Articles we have right to call him our God. Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Now have you considered the terms of the Covenant weighed and balanced all the conveniencies and inconveniencies of Godliness and then determined for Christ and Holiness let the cost be what it will then you have chosen him aright for your God. Many think they have chosen God for their God that never understood or deliberated these terms But Non consentit qui non sentit He that neither knows nor ponders them is not capable of giving a due consent Secondly We may discern our Covenant-Interest in the Covenant-Impressions that are made upon our souls All Gods Covenant People have a double mark or impression made upon them viz. 1. Upon their Minds 2. Upon their Hearts 1. Upon their Minds in a more spiritual and efficacious knowledge of God Jer. 31.33 They shall all know me from the greatest of them even to the least of them This knowledge is said to be given not acquired by the meer strength of natural Abilities and humane Aids and given us in the face of Christ not by the foot-steps of the Creatures only as he speaks 2 Cor. 4.6 't is the choice teaching of the anointing 1 Ioh. 2.27 a knowledge springing from inward experience and spiritual sense as we know the sweetness of Honey by tasting better than by all the descriptions and reports that can be made of it 2. Upon their Hearts in that gracious tenderness and meltings of it for sin or the discoveries of Free Grace in the pardon of it So you read in Ezek. 36.26 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh It is as easie to melt the obdurate Rocks into sweet Syrup as it is to melt the natural heart into a penitential and tender melting for sin but now there is a principle or habit of tenderness implanted in the soul whereby it is disposed and inclined to relent and thaw ingenuously upon any just occasion Thirdly Our Covenant-Interest may be evidenced in and by our Covenant Conversations All the knowledge which is communicated to our Minds and all the tenderness given to our Hearts do respect and tend to this Ezek. 36.27 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Habits and Principles are for action and practice Grace in the heart is for Obedience and Holiness in the life It is true that as our Graces are imperfect so is our Obedience also Perfect working is not to be expected from imperfect Creatures God's own Covenanted People do often grieve him and provoke him to bring them under the Rod of Affliction but those their Infirmities break not the Bond of the Covenant Psal. 89.30 31 32. Care and Watchfulness ordinarily goes before them Conflicts and Resistance accompanies them and Shame Grief and renewed Care usually follows them 2 Cor. 7.11 By these things which deserve a more copious discourse than my present design can allow we may be helped to clear our interest in the Covenant of Grace and that being done it should be out of the power of all the Afflictions in the World to sink your Spirits Let me therefore in the last place add VSE IV. A word of Consolation to your dejected and drooping hearts upon this sad and mournful occasion Why are you so troubled and why do Thoughts arise in your Hearts Methinks there hath been so much of Support and Comfort already discovered to you in this blessed Covenant that could your Faith but once fix upon it and realize and apply it I might lay down my Pen at this period and say the Work is done there needs no more but knowing how obstinate deep sorrows are and how difficult a Task the comforting of an afflicted mind is I will for a close superadd a few Considerations more to all that hath been urged and argued before Consideration I. Consider how small and trivial the Comforts whose loss you bewail are in comparison with Jesus Christ who is still your own under the Bond of a sure Covenant A Son an only and a promising Son is a great thing when he stands in comparison with other Creature-comforts but surely he will seem a small thing and next to nothing when set by or compared with Jesus Christ. Behold the Father Son and Spirit Pardon and eternal salvation are this day presented
desire or as some translate all my delight or pleasure i. e. here I find all repaired with an infinite overplus that I have lost in the Creature Here is life in death fulness in wants security in danâ—gers peace in troubles It is alâ— my salvation for it leaves nothing in hazard that is essential to my happiness and all my desire for iâ— repairs whatever I have lost or can lose it is so full and compleat a Covenant that it leaves nothing to be desired out of it O it is a full Fountain Here I repose my weary soul with full satisfaction and feed my hungry desires with sweetest delights so that my very soul is at rest and ease in the bosome of this blessed Covenant Thus you have the parts and sence of the Text. The Notes from it are three Observation I. That Gods Covenant People may be exercised with many sharp Afflictions in their Persons and Families Even David's House was the House of Mourning Although my house be not so with God though he make it not to grow All sorts of outward Afflictions are incident to all sorts of men All things saith Solomon come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not The Providences seem one and the same though the subjects on whom theâ— fall be vastly different Estate and Children Health and Libeâ—ty will still be like themselvâ—â— vanishing Comforts whoever the Owners of them No maâ—â— spiritual Estate can be known bâ— the view of his temporal Estatâ—â— A godly Family cannot be a misâ—rable but it may be a mournful Fâ—mily Religion secures us froâ— the Wrath but it doth not securâ— us from the Rod of God. Thâ— Lord hath chosen another way oâ— expressing his love to his peoplâ— than by temporal and externaâ— things therefore all things come alike to all The Covenant excludeâ— the Curse but includes the Crosâ—â— If his children forsake my Law c then will I visit their iniquity with the rod and their sin with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will not utterly take away Nor indeed would it be the priviledge of Gods Covenanted People to be exempt from the Rod a mark of Bastardy can be no mans felicity Heb. 12.8 to go without the chastising discipline of the Rod were to go without â—he needful instructions and blessed fruits that accompany and result from the Rod Psal. 94.12 Let us not therefore say as those â—rreligious persons did in Mal. 3.14 It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and walked mournfully before him Surely none serve him in vain but those that serve him vainly Godliness cannot secure you from Affliction but it can and will secure you from Hell and sanctifie your Afflictions to help you to Heaven But I stay not here Observation II. A declining Family is a sore stroke from the hand of God and so to be acknowledged wherever it falls It was a growing sorrow to David that his House did not grow and he eyed the hand of God in it He made it not to groâ— as he speaks in the Text. He feâ— as many Deaths as he had deâ— Children It is God that builâ— and destroys Families he enlaâ—â—geth and straighteneth them â—â—gain A Family may decline twâ— ways viz. either 1. By the Death or 2. By the Degeneracy of iâ— Off-spring 1. By their Death when Goâ— lops off the hopeful springinâ— Branches thereof especially thâ— last and only Prop of it in whom not only all the care and love buâ— all the hope and expectation of thâ— Parents is contracted and bounâ— up For Omnis in Aseanio stat chari curâ— parentis The hearts of tender Parents are usually bound up in the life of an onely Son. As a mans Wife is but himself divided so his Children â—re but himself multiplied and â—hen all love and delight hope â—nd expectation is reduced to one â—â—e affection is strong and that â—akes the affliction so too If it â—ere not an unparallel'd grief aâ—ong all earthly griefs and sorâ—ows the Spirit of God would neâ—er have chosen and singled it out â—om among all other sorrows to â—lustrate sorrow for sin by it yea â—orrows for that special sin of â—iercing Christ as he doth They â—all look upon him whom they have â—ierced and shall mourn for him as â—â—e that mourneth for an onely son How naked are those Walls and â—ow unfurnished is that House â—here the Children its best Orâ—aments are taken down and reâ—oved by Death It is natural to â—ll men to desire the continuance â—f their Names and Families in â—he Earth and therefore when God cuts off their expectations in â—hat kind they look upon themâ—elves as dry Trees or as the wiâ—hering Stalks in the Fields when â—he Flowers are fallen off and blown â—way from them 2. Or which is yet much woâ—â— a Family may decline by the 〈◊〉 generacy of its Off-spring Whâ— the Piety Probity and Vertâ—â— of Ancestors descend not wiâ—â— their Lands to their Posteritâ— here the true Line of Honouâ— cut off and the glory of a Famâ—â—ly dies though its Children livâ—â— the Family is ruin'd though theâ— be a numerous Off-spring Suâ—â—ly it were better mourn for 〈◊〉 dead Children than for one suâ—â— living Child How many such wretched Fâ—â—milies can England shew this daâ— how hath Atheism and Debaucâ—â—ry ruin'd and subverted maâ—â— great and once famous Familieâ— O it were better the Arms of thoâ—â— Families had been reversed aâ—â— their Lands alienated yea bettâ—â— had it been a Succession had faâ—â—â—ed and that their Names had beeâ— blotted out than that Satan shoulâ— rule by Prophaness in the placâ— where God was once so seriousâ—â— and sweetly worshipped Whensoever therefore God shall â—ther of these ways subvert a Faâ—ily it becomes them that are â—oncerned in the Stroke not only 〈◊〉 own and acknowledge the â—and of God in it but to search â—â—eir Hearts and Houses to find â—ut the sins which have so provoâ—ed him yet not so as to fall â—â—to an unbecoming despondency â—f Spirit but withal to relieve â—â—emselves as David here doth â—â—om the Covenant of God Yet â—ath he made with me an everlasting â—ovenant Which brings us to the â—hird and principal point I shall insist on Observation III. That the everlasting well order'd â—nd sure Covenant of Grace affords â—verlasting well order'd and sure Relief to all that are within the bond â—f it how many or how great soever â—heir personal or domestick tryals and â—ffictions are This point will be cleared tâ— your Understandings and preâ—â—pared for your use by clearinâ— and opening three Propositionâ— which orderly take up the sum anâ— substance of it viz. Proposition I. That the minds of men yea thâ— best men are weak and feeble thing under the heavy pressures of affliction and will reel and sink under them except they be strongly relieved anâ—
within the blessed bond of it This shall be the Covenant that I wiâ—â— make with the house of Israel I wiâ—â— forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more Beholâ— here a gracious full and irrevoâ—cable Pardon I will forgive oâ— be propitiously merciful as thaâ— word imports pointing plainly tâ— Christ our Propitiation our sinâ— are forgiven us for his Names sake And a Pardon as full as it is free iniquity and sin smaller and greaâ—ter are here forgiven for Goâ— in the remission of his peoples sins having respect to the propitiatinâ— Bloud of Christ he pardons all as well as some that Bloud deserâ—ving and purchasing the most fulâ— and compleat Pardons for his Peoâ—ple 1. Joh. 1.7 The bloud of Christ cleanseth us from all sin And this Covenant-pardon is a firm as it is free and full So ruâ— the expressions in the Grant I wiâ— remember their sin no more or in the Apostles words Heb. 8.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not remember them again That is not so remember as to impute them oâ— condemn my pardoned ones for them for the pardoned persons come no more into condemnation Ioh. 5.24 their sins are cast into the depths of the Sea Mica 7.19 Sooner shall the East and the West the two opposite points of Heaven meet than the pardoned soul and its sins meet again in condemnation Psal. 103.12 Now the case standing thus with all Gods Covenant-people all their sins being graciously fully and irrevocably forgiven them how convincingly and sweetly doth this conclusion follow that the Covenant is a compleat Remedy to all afflicted Believers As nothing can befal us before Christ and Pardon be ours which is sufficient to raise us so nothing can befal us afterwards which should deject and sink us This is the first benefit afflicted Believers receive from the Covenant and this alone is enough to heal all our sorrows Argument II. As the Covenant of Grace dâ—â— arms all the Afflictions of Belâ—â—vers of the only sting by whiâ—â— they wound them so it alâ—â— the very nature and property 〈◊〉 their Afflictions and turns theâ—â— from a Curse into a Blessing 〈◊〉 them and in so doing it becomâ— more than a Remedy even a choiâ—â— Benefit and Advantage to them All Afflictions in their own nâ—â—ture are a part of the Curse theâ—â— are the consequents and punisâ—â—ments of sin they work naturallâ— against our good but when onâ— they are taken into the Covenanâ— their nature and property is alteâ—â—ed As Waters in their subterrâ—â—nean passages meeting some verâ—tuous Mineral in their course aâ—â— thereby impregnated and endowâ—ed with a rare healing property 〈◊〉 the Body so Afflictions passing through the Covenant receive from it an healing Vertue to our souls They are in themselves soure and harsh as wild Hedge-Fruits but being ingrafted into this stock they yield the pleasant Fruits of Righteousness If his children break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their iniquity with the rod and their sins with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take away nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Here you may see all the Rods of Affliction put into the Covenant as Aaron's Rod was into the Ark. And hence two things necessarily follow 1. That such Afflictions can do the Children of God no hurt They may affright but cannot hurt them We may meet them with fear but shall part from them with joy An unsanctified Rod never did any man good and a sanctified Rod never did any man hurt He may afflict our Bodies with sickness deny or cut off our comfort in Children impoverish our Estates let loose persecutors â—pon us but in all this he really doth us no hurt as he speaks in Iâ—â— 25.6 no more hurt than a skilâ— Chirurgeon doth in saving his Pâ—â—tients life by cutting off a morâ—â—fied gangren'd Member no moâ—â— hurt than Frosts and Snow do tâ— Earth in killing the rank Weeâ— that exhausted the sap and strengâ—â— of it and preparing and melloâ—ing it to produce a fruitful crop â— Corn. By these he recals oâ— minds from vanity weans oâ— fond and ensnaring affections froâ— the World discovers and mortifiâ—â— those lusts which gentler method and essays could not do and â— this for our hurt I confess Gods thoughts anâ— ours often differ upon this caseâ— We measure the good and evil oâ— Providences by their respect tâ— the ease and pleasure of our fleshâ— but God sees this is the way to casâ— our Spirits into a dead formality and in removing them he dotâ— but deprive us of the occasions and instruments of spiritual mischiefâ— and miseries in which certainly he doth us no hurt 2. But that is not all Afâ—â—ictions once put into the Covenant must promote the good of â—he Saints they are beneficial as well as harmless things We know â—saith the Apostle that all things work together for good to them that â—ove God. This Promise is the Compass which sets the course and directs the motion of all the Afâ—â—ictions of the People of God â—nd no Ship at Sea obeys the Rudder so exactly as the troubles of the Righteous do the direction of this Promise Possibly we cannot discern this at present but rather preâ—udge the works of God and say all these things are against us but hereafter we shall see and with â—oy acknowledge them to be the happy instruments of our salvation How often hath Affliction sent â—he People of God to their knees with such Language as this O my God how vain and sensual hath this heart of mine been under prosperity How did the love of the Creature like a sluce cut in the bank of a River draw away the stream of my affectâ—ons from thee I had gotten soft a Pillow of Creature-comfort under my head and I easily felâ— asleep and dreamed of nothinâ— but rest and pleasure in a statâ— of absence from thee but now thy Rod hath awakened me and reduced me to a right senâ—â— of my condition I was neglâ—gent or dead-hearted in thâ— course of my duty but now â— can pray more fervently feelingly and frequently than before O it was good for me that I havâ— been afflicted O saith God how well was this Rod bestow'd which hath done my poor Chilâ— so much good Now I havâ— more of his heart and more oâ— his time and company than ever Now I hear the voice and see the gracious workings of the Spirit of my Child after me again as in the days of his first love The sum of all this you may see in the ingenuous meltings of Ephraim under a sanctified Rod Ier. 31. 19,20 and the sounding of the â—owels of mercy over him ' Ephraim mourns at Gods feet and God falls upon Ephraim's neck I have been as a Beast saith Ephraim Thou art a dear son a pleasant child saith God. My bowels are troubled and pained for sin saith Ephraim And my bowels are troubled for thee and my compassions rolled
thy hands Every Creature feeds according to its nature the same Plant affords food to several sorts of Creatures the Bee feeds upon the Flower the Sheep upon the Branch the Bird upon the Seed and the Swine upon the Root One cannot live upon what the other doth So it is here A Christian can feed upon the Promises and make a sweet meal upon the Covenant which the carnal mind cannot relish The life that I now live I live by the faith of the son of God saith the Apople This is that mysterious and excellent life of Faith and the Test of true Christianity to relieve our selves by our hopes of things to come against present Evils to balance the sorrows and losses of this life with the promises and expectations of the next Thus did the renowned Believers of the first Age whenever they felt a faint pang or qualm upon their hearts under their tryals and sorrows from the World they would presently run to their Cordial the Promises and a sip of Faith from that Bottle would refresh and invigorate their souls with new life and powers We faint not whilst we look not at the things which are seen for they are temporal but at the things which are not seen for they are eternal And truly so must we also when our hearts are faint within us in days of affliction or our Spirits will fail and we shall go away in a faint fit of despondency Corolary II. Learn hence the soveraign efficacy of the word and what a choice priviledge it is to have these lively Oracles of God in our hands in a day of distress and trouble 'T is no ordinary Mercy to be born in a Land of Bibles and Ministers to have these choice Supports and Reliefs at hand in all our fainting hours This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me It was no small Mercy gained by the Reformation that it put the Oracles of God into our hands It opened a Shop of Cordials for the support of our â—ouls For this among other great and excellent uses the Scriptures were written That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope In other parts of the World it is a sealed Book bless God it is not so to you All Creature-comforts have a double defect they are neither suitable nor durable but the word is so Compare the Arguments that have been urged from the Covenant with such as these It 's in vain to trouble our selves about what we cannot help we are not alone in trouble others have their losses and afflictions as well as we Alas what dry and ineffectual comforts are these they penetrate not the heart as pardon of sin peace with God and sanctification of troubles to our salvation do And no less is the Mercy of an able New Testament Ministry to open apply and inculcate the consolations of the Scriptures to be esteemed It is no common favour to the afflicted soul to have with or near him an INTERPRETER one among a thousand to shew unto him his uprightness O England prize and improve these Mercies and provoke not thy God to bereave thee of them I can find no such settlement made of the Gospel and Ministry upon any place or People but that God may remove both upon their abuse of them and if he do sad will the case of such a People be especially when a day of distress and trouble shall be upon them 'T is sad to be in a storm at Sea without a Compass or Pilot to direct and advise the distressed Passengers Much so is the case of the afflicted when deprived of the Word and Ministry Let it therefore be your care to hide the Word in your hearts and get the Teachings of the Spirit that whatever changes of Providence be upon the World you may have the light and comfort of the Scriptures to direct and chear your souls Sanctification is the writing of Gods Law in your hearts and what is written there is secure and safe The Word within you is more secure sweet and effectual than the Word without you Ierom saith of Nepotianus that by long and assiduous meditation of the Scriptures his Breast was at last become the Library of Christ. O that the Breast of every Christian were so too Corolary III. How sad and deplorably miserable is their condition who have no title to â—or comfort from the Covenant of God when a day of affliction and great â—istress is upon them Unrelieved Miseries are the â—ost intolerable Miseries To be over-weighed with troubles oâ— Earth and want support and comâ—fort from Heaven is a dismâ—â— state indeed yet this is the caâ—â— of multitudes in the World. If â— Believer be in trouble his God bears his burden for him yea he bears up him and his burden too but he that hath no Covenant iâ—â—terest in God must say as it is Jer. 10.19 This is my affliction anâ— I alone must bear it There are but two ways theâ— can take for relief either to diâ—vert their troubles by that whiâ—â— will inflame them or rest their burthened Spirits upon that which will fail them To run to the Tavern or Ale-house instead of the Closet is to quench the fire by pouring on Oyl and to run from one Creature which is smitten and withered to another which yet continues with us is to lean upon a broken Reed which not only deceives us but wounds and pierceth us What a miserable plight was Saul in and how doleful was his cry and complaint to â—amuel 1 Sam. 28.15 I am sore â—istressed for the Philistins make war â—gainst me and God is departed from â—e and answereth me no more Heaven and Earth forsook him at once Reader if this be thy case I advise thee to rest no longer in so miserable a condition Thy very distress seems by an happy necessiâ—y to put thee upon God and drive thee to him for refuge And â—â— seems to be the very aim and design of God in blasting all thy earthly comforts to necessitate thee to come to him which thou wouldst never be perswaded to do whilst thou hadst any Creature-prop to stay and rest upon And think not that thou shalt be rejected because thou art brought by a plain necessity to him come sincerely and thou shalt not be upbraided because a necessity threw thee upon him VSE II. Seeing then that the Covenaâ—â— of God is the great relief and suâ—â—port of all the afflicted people Iâ— the afflicted soul go to this blesseâ— Covenant study and apply it iâ— all distresses It is in it self a sâ— veraign Cordial able to revive â— gracious Spirit at the lowest ebbâ— but then it must be studied anâ— applied or it will never give fortâ—â— its consolations to our refreshmentâ— Extream sorrows are apt to deafenâ— our Ears to all voices of comfortâ— The loud cries of Affliction too often drown the sweet still voice of spiritual Consolation but either here
21.1 And thus Iob addressed to him in the day of his Affliction Iob 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me i. e. convince me what special sin it is for which I am thus afflicted This is so far from being our sin that it is both our duty and the excellency of our Spirits 't is a Child-like temper willing to know that we may be particularly humbled for that sin and for ever the more careful to shun it That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34.32 Thus far we are safe 2. We may plead by Prayer and put him in mind of his Mercies Relations and Promises in order to the change of his providential Dispensations towards us we may say to him under the smartest Rod as the Church did Doubtless thou art our Father Psal. 74.20 Have respect to the Covenant or as Iacob Gen. 32.9.12 Thou saidst I will surely do thee good 3. We may complain to God under our sufferings and spread them before him in all their circumstances and aggravations as Iob Heâ—an Asaph Hezekiah and David did He allows his Children to complain to him but not of him I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble Psal. 142.2 To whom should a Child make his complaint but to his Father So far we are safe 4. We may submissively pray for the removal of his hand from us and entreat that his anger may cease that he will turn again and heal us and our Families and not draw forth his anger for ever So did David Psal. 39.10 Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand Q. d. Ah Lord I am not able to endure another stroak All this while we are safe within the bounds of our Duty But then Query 2. Wherein lies our sin and danger in exceeding these bounds I answer Sol. When forgetting God's Soveraignty and the desert of our Iniquities we arrogantly censure his effecting or permitting Providences as if they had no conducency to his own glory or our good This is both sinful and dangerous for 1. This is a proud exalting of our own Reason and Understanding above the infinite Wisdom of God. God hath made our Reason a Judge and Arbitor in matters within its own Sphere and Province but when it comes to summon God to its Bar and article against Heaven it is an insufferable arrogancy and we do it at our own peril God will have all men know that he is an unaccountable being Iob 33.13 yea he will have us to know that the foolishness of God is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1.25 that is that those very works of God which mans proud Reason adventures to censure as not so wise a method as their own would be hath more wisdom in it than all the deep-laid designes of the greatest Polititians in the World. And it is strange that men should dare to attempt such a wickedness as this after God hath so severely punished it in the fallen Angels 2. It is no less than a spurning at the Soveraignty of God from whose pleasure we derive our Beings and all our Mercies Rev. 4.11 In these quarrellings of Providence and frets at divine appointments we invade his Throne and controul his soveraign Pleasure How monstrous were it to hear a Child quarrelling with his Father that he is not so and so figured or the Clay to chide the Potter for moulding it as it is 3. 'T is destructive to our own inward peace and tranquility of mind which is part of the punishment of this sin and a smart stripe a sore rebuke it is from the hand of God upon us Contention is uncomfortable though but with a Neighbour worse with a near Relation but a quarrel with God is destructive to all comfort in the World. Afflictions may disturb a good mans peace but a mutinous Spirit against God destroys and stabs it at the very heart What is the sin and torment of the Devils but their rage against the Lord and swelling against the methods of his Grace He seeketh rest but findeth none Mat. 12.33 The peace of our Spirits is a choice Mercy and might be maintain'd amidst all our Afflictions were but our interest in his Promises and the true level of his Providences cleared to us 4. 'T is irrational and highly unjust to give the cause and quarrel at the effects God hath righteously and inseparably linked penal with moral evils sin and sorrow by the Laws of Heaven are tackt and united together he that doth evil shall feel evil Gen. 4.7 We adventure upon sin and then fret at Affliction Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of a man perverts his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Is this becoming a reasonable Creature Doth not every man reap as he soweth Can the seed of sin bring forth a crop of peace and comfort Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3.39 Search your hearts and search your houses and you will quickly find that all your Afflictions in this World were they ten thousand times more and heavier than they are do not come near to the desert of one sin All sorrows losses afflictions on this side Hell are quite below the value of sin the meritorious and provoking cause of them all 5. 'T is foolish and vain to strive against God and contest perversely with him Can our discontents relieve us or our murmurs ease us Will they turn God out of his way No no He is in one mind and who can turn him aside Job 23.13 The Wheels of Providence go straight forward and turn not when they go Ezek. 1.17 We may bring them over us to crush us by standing thus in their way but cannot turn them out of their way Impatiens oegrotus crudelem facit medicum If ye still walk contrary to me then will I walk contrary to you and punish you yet seven times for your sins Lev. 26.13 14. or I will walk in the rashness of mine anger smiting you without moderation as men do in the height of their rage and fury This is all we shall get by fretting against God. Never expect relief under or release from the Yoak God hath laid on your necks till you be brought to accept the punishment of your iniquities Lev. 26.41 6. 'T is a sin full of odious ingratitude towards your God Which appears 1 in murmuring because it is so bad when we should be admiring that it is no worse Are there not millions in Hell that never sinned at higher rates than you have done Is this Affliction as bad as Hell Hath God pardoned you and saved you and yet doth he deserve to be thus requited by you 2 In murmuring that our condition is so bad when we may every day see others in a far worse case who are equal with us by nature and were equal with them in guilt and provocation If we