him after his Victory and upon the sight of his Daughter was so deeply wounded with Sorrow that his Triumph was converted into Lamentations but the Grief was only in the Father for in that first surprise of such a terrible Sentence to be executed upon her she did not answer his Tears with Tears nor Lamentations with Lamentations but said unto him My Father if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth for as much as the Lord hath taken Vengeance for thee on thine Enemies Methinks the admirable Love and Generosity in a young Virgin to whom her Father's Honour and Exaltation was more dear than her Life upbraids us for our unwilling submission to those Providential Dispensations that are ungrateful to Flesh and Blood wherein the Glory of God is advanced If we were called to Martyrdom for his Truth and our Lives should bleed forth as Sacrifices on the Altar or our Bodies be consumed as Incense on the Censer it were an unjust and ungrateful complaint to express passionate reluctancy against his Providence If there were other consequences of our present Sufferings but the glorifying God we should be content That is the worthiest end which he proposeth to himself and will accomplish His Divine excellencies will be illústrated by the wickedness of Men that at present obscures the Glory of his Government his Wisdom Power Holiness Mercy and Justice will be acknowledged admired and magnified at last 2. His Wisdom will order all things even the most afflicting and dolorous for the good of his People This is a fearful Paradox to a carnal Mind that judgeth of Good and Evil as present things are pleasant or unpleasant to sense without regard to what is future 'T is like Sampson's Riddle to the Philistims Out of the Devourer came Meat and out of the Strong came sweetness But to the Mind that hath spiritual discerning and judgeth of Good and Evil as things are conducive or destructive to the happiness of the Soul it is a clear undoubted Truth We know saith the Apostle with the greatest assurance that all things work together for good to them that love God All things the most adverse to their present desires are so disposed and over-ruled by his Providence as if there were a secret intelligence and concert between them to promote the Happiness of the Saints thus in mixt Bodies the contrary qualities are reduced to such a just measure and temperament by the Wisdom of the Divine Maker that a sound and healthful constitution results from them We have a rare instance of this in the History of Joseph his envious Brethren were the Instruments of his Exaltation they sold him for a Slave into Egypt to frustrate his Prophetick Dreams and there by many admirable turns of Providence he was advanced to the highest Dignity and then was verified in him and his Brethren that his Sheaf arose and stood upright and their Sheaves stood round and did obeisance to his Sheaf God had reserved purposes of greater good for Joseph than if he had continued under his Fathers tender Eye and Care therefore 't is said in his History that they perfideously sold him but God sent him He that attentively reads the Journeys of the Israelites through the Wilderness to Canaan cannot but wonder at the Circuits and indirect motions in their tedious Travel for Forty Years and when near the Borders of the place so long and ardently desired they were often commanded to retreat in the same Line wherein they had advanced to it had they chose the shortest way and disobeyed the Divine Conducter they had never entred into the Land of Promise but following the Pillar that directed their March though they seem'd lost in their intricate wandrings yet they obtained the joyful possession of it This was a Type of the Saints passage through a troublesom World to the true rest above and that they are guided through many cross ways directly to the Kingdom of Heaven Who knows saith Solomon what is good for a Man in this Life all the days of his vain Life which he spendeth as a shadow That which is desir'd with importunity as tending to his Happiness often proves his Woe Some had not been so wicked and consequently so miserable if their Lusts had not been excited by Riches and Power others had not been secured from destructive Temptations but in a low and afflicted state 'T is therefore both our Duty and Interest not to pray absolutely for any temporal thing but when our Desires are most passionate to say with the humility and holiness the reverence and obedience of our Saviour Not my Will but thine be done We shall find our selves more happy by the Divine disposal of things than if we had obtained our dearest Wishes and most ardent Prayers And when we shall come to the top of the Holy Hill and look down on the various Circuits of Providence by which we ascended we shall then understand that Wisdom and Love conducted us safely to Felicity we shall approve and admire all the Divine methods in order to our blessed End Now the belief of this should compose us to a patient and cheerful resignation of our selves to God's Providence and Pleasure Who would not accept of the Counsel of a Friend that proceeds from Love though his Judgment were not so exact as to be relied on Much more should we thankfully receive the Appointments of God whose Knowledg and Affection are equally superlative in whom there is united the Wisdom of a Father's and the tenderness of a Mother's Love to his Children Briefly as Jonathan by tasting the Honey at the end of his Rod had his eyes enlightened so the end of the severest Chastisements will convince them that the Providence of God was more benign and propitious than they could imagine His ways are as far above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts as the Heavens are above the Earth This Point is applicable to us First by way of Reproof for our unsubmissive behaviour in Afflictions our uncompliance with the Divine Disposals Some are in a secret discontent at God's Afflicting Providence and this razeth the memory of former Mercies and takes away the relish of present Mercies as the sweet Showers of Heaven that fall into the Sea are turned into its brackish taste such neither enjoy God nor themselves What egregious folly and vile ingratitude is this All we have is from his most free favour and shall we peevishly slight his Benefits because our Desires are not gratified in every respect Others are moved with Anger and Vexation for the Evils that befal them as the Red-hot Iron under the blows of the Hammer casts abroad Fiery Sparks so their stubborn fierce Spirits when afflicted break forth in expressions of impatience and displeasure They count it a base abjectness of Mind a despicable Pusillanimity to humble themselves under God's Judgments and with
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
sinful yet there is the greatest reason to justify him and accuse our selves much more when our Punishment is far below our Deserts Humility is the Mother of Meekness they are Graces of the same Complexion and Features Our Saviour in the order of the Beatitudes first declared Blessed are the poor in Spirit that have a low conceit of themselves as nothing in Spirituals and worse than nothing in Sin as empty of all that is Holy and Good and compounded of all Evil And Blessed are those that mourn in a sence of their Sins And then Blessed are the Meek And these are very congruously joyned for Meekness is a Disposition inseparable from the other He that duly considers himself to be a wretched Creature a worthless Rebel and is humbly and sorrowfully affected for his unworthiness his Passions will be subdued and as melted Metal receives any form so he patiently suffers what God inflicts A broken Heart is an acceptable Sacrifice to God and implies a tender sense of Sin as the Offence and Dishonour of the holy and gracious God in allusion to a broken Bone that has an exquisite sense of any hurt And it may be extended to signify a Heart that is compliant and submissive to God's Will in allusion to a Horse that is broken and easily managed by the Reins of the Rider Contrition for Sin is always joyned with Resignation to the chastizing Providence of God Besides Godly Sorrow will lessen natural Sorrow Sin first deserves our Grief and the sharpest accents of our Lamentation should be placed upon it and the more sensible we are of it the lighter will Affliction be to us As the opening a Vein stops by Revulsion a flux of Blood in another part so the turning the Stream of Sorrow from Affliction to Sin is a powerful means to make it cease There is Health in the bitterness of Physick and Joy in the depth of this Sadness Briefly Repentance inclines the Heart of God and opens his tender compassions to the Afflicted We have an admirable example of this in the case of afflicted Ephraim upon his Penitential complaint the expression of his Grief and shame for his Sin God graciously answers Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have Mercy on him saith the Lord. When the relenting Sinner is covered with Tears the great Comforter descends and brings healing to the troubled Waters this advice is more necessary for the Afflicted because usually the stroaks of Providence are properly a Reproof and Correction for Sin the application of a Corrosive implies that some corrupt matter is to be discharged God is provoked by their neglects and though Love cannot hate it may be angry and without renewing their Repentance and recovering his Favour their Afflictions are very uncomfortable 'T is extreamly sad to feel the sting of a guilty Conscience within and the displeasure of God without The Burthen is heavy and oppressing that is laid upon a wounded Back It is therefore our best Wisdom and Duty to search our Hearts and try our Ways that we may discover what is the procuring cause of our Troubles and turn unfeignedly to the Lord. This will endear Afflicted Souls to God and incline him to afford gracious supports to them It is true sometimes our Sufferings are designed for Trial especially when they are for Righteousness sake Counterfeit Coin though with a fair Stamp and Inscription is discovered by the Fire thus meer titular Christians specious Hypocrites are made known by Persecutions but true substantial Gold endures the Fire without loss and the more 't is tryed the more 't is refined Thus the true Christian whom neither the gain of the World nor the loss of Life can remove from the stedfast owning of the Holy Truth has a clear manifestation of his Sincerity And it is a peculiar favour and honour when God calls forth his Servants to the hardest Trials for his Names sake 't is the noblest way of Service a special Conformity to the Son of God more glorious than the resembling his power in doing Miracles In this the Saints here have a capacity of serving God above the Angels for the obedience of the Angels is always joined with their Happiness but the obedience of the Saints here is often attended with Adversity and is more valuable to them upon that account As a Soldier of Courage and Generosity when he is chosen from the rest of the Army for some bold Exploit values the choice of the General as a signal mark of the esteem of his Valour and Fidelity To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer for Christ's sake This is just matter of Joy Innocence with the faithful companion of it a good Conscience makes our Sufferings from the rage and violence of Men to be comfortable There may be a Feast within the House when a Storm of Hail rattles upon the Tiles But it is sometimes so ordered by Divine Providence that the Evils we suffer are of a mixt nature partly Chastisements and partly Trials This was the case of the Believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle directs his Counsel their Persecution was from the unrighteous Pagans for a cause purely Religious but 't was permitted by the righteous God as a punishment for their Sins And here the Divine Wisdom and Goodness is admirable that the same Affliction is instrumental for the purifying of his Servants from Sin and the advancement of his glorious Gospel The first and most immediate effect of his Discipline is the humbling and sanctifying them to prepare them for his Love by which they are fortified to bear couragiously the worst Evils for his sake Direct 6. Apply the Mind to consider the Blessings we receive as well as the Evils we endure Whilst the intence Thoughts are fixt upon the Cross the Soul is rackt with inward Tortures but did we turn our Eyes upon our Enjoyments and the Comforts that are interwoven with our Troubles it would be a means not only to compose us to Patience but Thankfulness The Apostle directs us to trust in the Living God who giveth all things richly to enjoy In the poorest and lowest state of Life we have many Favours and effects of his rich Bounty and it is the ignorance of our deservings and of our enjoyments that causeth Discontent and Murmuring under our Troubles Particularly this Consideration will be effectual to repress the Discontent that is apt to kindle in our Breasts upon the sight of the different Dispensations of Providence that some are exempted from the current Adversities of the World and live in ease and pleasure whilst we are deprived of many outward Comforts Suppose a Sick person in extream Poverty were received by a rich and liberal Lord into his House and convenient Food and precious Medicines were provided for him without his desert or