walk stubbornly againist us and he will also chastise us seven times more accordng to our sinnes Lev. 26.28 If lighter afflictions wil not serve the turn greater shall The Lord came to Ephraim first like a moth Hos 5.18 you know that a moth though it be a noxious and hurtfull creature yet if it bee looked unto betimes the harme is little which it doth and the breach or hole which it maketh may easily be darned up again Thus dealt the Lord at first with Ephraim hee did favorably and gently afflict them but this salve was not strong enough to take down their proud flesh yet would not Ephraim bee healed nor cured of her wound Therfore saies the Lord I will be unto Ephraim as a Lyon Hos 5.13 14 A Lyon we know rents teares where he comes so the Lord when gentle meanes will not serve the turne comes like a Lyon with tearing and devouring judgments God when he see good to exercise his power will make the proudest Pharoah the stoutest sinner to stoop and yeeld else he will not spare to follow them with one judgment upon the neck of another All these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtak◠thee till thou be destroied Deu. 28.45 Consider what is spoken by the Prophet Nahum 1.9 What do ye imagine against the Lord he will make an utter destruction affliction shall not rise up the second time The Lord tarrieth long before he comes to smite his enemies he forbeareth much but when his patience is abused then he oft times gives a deady blow The spirit of the Lord did a long time strive with man in the daies of Noah but when their sinnes began to bee multiplied against the patience and long suffering of the Lord When the Lord savv that the vvickednesse of man vvas great in the earth and that al the imaginatiō of the thoughts of his heart vvere onely evill continually Gens 6.5 Then the Lord could beare with them no longer then the Lord comes with his sweeping judgment destroying from the earth the man vvhom he had created from man to beast to the creeping thing and to the sowle of the heaven vers 7. The Lord suffered Sodom Gomorrah so long that the cry of their sins did ring up to heaven but at length the Lord was even with them and paied them home for all their wickednes destroying them with fire and brimston from heaven Many other such like examples might be brought to shew how the Lord comes out against sinners at last with sweeping and devouring judgements if they will not take warning by lesser ones The history of the Jevvs a people sometime as deare unto God as the apple of his eye and as neere unto him as the signet on his right hand doth plainly teach us how severely the Lord at last deales with stiffe obstinate and impenitent sinners The favors the benefits which God bestowed upon them the priviledges which they injoyed were above all the nations of the world yet for all this did they above all other people provoke the Lord to anger against them They mocked the messenger of God they despised his Word and misused his Prophets untill the vvrath of the Lord rose against them and there vvas no remedy 2. Chron. 16.26 They did not onely kill the Prophets and stone those that were sent unto them but they crucified the Lord of life Acts 3.15 Yea and preferred a murderer before him provoking the Lord so long as hee could endure them no more and therefore hee sends against them Titus the son of Vespatian the Roman Emperour who besiged and sacked the City of Jerusalem and made such havock of the people as is most lamentable to heare of It is reported that they were besiged so long as many thousands of them perished through the famine and many of them isuing forth in hope either to escape or to finde mercy with their enemies were most cruelly hanged upon crosses and gibbets set up before their walls 500. of them somtimes hanged in one day so long untill there was no more space left unto them for execution The number of dead carcases carried out of the Citie for want of buriall to be cast into the ditches if wee will credit histories was numberlesse for at one of their gates the keeper thereof took the the tale of one hundred and fifty thousand dead bodies Nay through the exttemity of famine they were driven to eate their old shooes the dung of their stables and the fruit of their own loynes And after all this thousands of them murdered by the sword and many moe thousands carried into captivity to be a spectacle to all succeeding ages of Gods indignation and wrath against them And these things are recorded for our good that wee may not dare to stand it our against the Lord but speedily to amend upon the first warning and blow given us else the Lord will not give over but come with seven times more and greater judgemenes against us If wee belong unto the Lord hee will never leave afflicting till wee cease provoking him If wee be beloved of God hee will still follow us with correction till wee fall to unfained and sound humiliation repentance For we shall never be able to overcome the Lord and make him give over by our stubbornnesse and resisting his blow but by falling down and yeelding unto him The sturdy oke is rent and torne in pieces by the tempest when poore and weak reeds stand still by yeelding and bowing There is no standing out against the Lord no resisting by force of armes what is a silly sheep to grapple with a Lion The sooner wee yeeld and turn from our evill wayes the readier will the Lord be to repent him of that evill which otherwise hee will surely bring upon us Thou that by the Word of God and by loving and gentle correction canst not be perswaded to leave thy sinne must know that if thou belongest to God hee will never leave following of thee with one affliction upon the neck of another untill hee hath his will of thee What may wee then think of those that are little or nothing at all amended and bettered by any judgements that have befallen them assuredly if they be such as belong to the Lord hee is preparing of sharper Physick for them if they be none of his it may be hee will give them over to their own hearts lust and reserue them unto those eternall and unavoydable torments of the second death Vse 4 Fourthly is it so doth God correct his children for their great good let us then beware of doing them hurt by persecuting those whom the Lord doth smite lest we adde afflict on unto the afflicted and this wee do when wee shall either uncharitably censure or deride and scoffe at those that are afflicted or else in our mindes contemn and scorne them because it pleaseth the Lord in love for their great good to humble
of olde were much puzled about the divine Providence thinking it an unseemly thing to make God the author of an evill and therefore affirmed that there were two gods The one was the Father of mercies and author of all good that doth betyde man The other was an evill god the enemie of mankind the actor of such evills as do befall man But wee acknowledge onely one God the wise and just dispenser of good and evill for out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth both evill and good Lam. 3.38 Plato and other Heathens would say That God was the cause of all good things in Nature beleeving and acknowledging a Divine Providence in prosperity but when adversity came they were of another minde It is reported of Cato that hee stoutly held and defended a Divine Providence all the while that Pompey prospered and the citie flourished but when he did see Pompey to bee overthrown by Caesar in so just a cause when hee beheld the body of Pompey cast upon the shoare without any honor of buriall and himselfe exposed to danger by Caesars army hee then changed his opinion denying that there was any Divine Providence but that all things fell out by chance It were well with many Christians which know or at least should know more of Gods minde then Coto knew if they were not somtimes sicke of Cato his disease for they can trust God and acknowledgeâ— his Providence all the while they live at ease and in prosperitie but let the Lord change their estate and then they change their minde or an the least they begin to demurre about the truth of this doctrine Object But how can it be said That God ordereth and disposeth of all afflictions when there be many euils which wee bring upon our selves and may thank our selves for as appeareth in divers places of Scripture Hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Jerem. 2.17 Againe it is said Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe And ordinary experience tells us how many mischiefes many bring upon themselves through surfets ryot c. Answ Wee procure unto our selves by reason of our sins whatsoever evills do befall us Besides God by withdrawing or with-holding of his grace gives us over to our own lusts or Satanâ— tentaâ—ions and so makes us his instruments to worke our selves that mischiefe or to bring upon our own paies those evills hee intended should befall us Therefore it is undoubted truth that God hath his hand in our afflictions and it may bee confirmed by these reasons Reason 1 First in regard of the infinitenesse of his being filling both Heaven and Earth with his presence Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afarre off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Doe not I fill Heaven and Earth Jerem. 23.23 24. Whither shall we goe from his spirit or whither shall wee flee from his presence Psal 139.7 If wee be in hell there shall the Lords hand take us yea though wee more hid in the bottome of the sea the Lord can thence command the serpent to bite us Amos 9.2 3. So that the Lord is every where The Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is not able to containe him 1. King 8.27 Hee is above us beneath us he is before us and behind us he is without us and within us hee is not only all eye to observe all for his eyes behold all nations Psal 66.7 But he is also all hand to order and dispose of all particulars If any thing were out of Gods reach or did fall out beyond his presence and privity then were not the Lord infinite and then were he not God But the Lord being every where and filling every place must needs have the ordering and disposing of all things which are done in Heaven or in the earth for as it pleaseth the Lord so all things come to passe Reason 2 that the Lords hand should bee in every affliction which befalls us because Hee worketh all things after the counsell of his will Ephe. 1.11 Man may devise and plot what he please hee may take others into confederacie with him but the Lord laughes them to scorne Psal 37.13 Their counsell shall bee brought to nought their decree shall not stand Esay 8.10 But the counsell of the Lord shall stand and the thoughts of his heart throughout all ages Psal 33.11 So Esay 46.10 My counsell shall stand and I will do whatsoever I will If the Lord hath a will to any thing that thing must needs follow for his willing of it is the doing of it I have purposed it and I will do it Esay 46.11 Therefore they blasphem the omnipotencie and power of God who say That Gods will attendeth and follows mans and worketh in many things as our will inclineth which is to set the cart before the horse to make the supreme governesse come after the handmaid Object But doth it not please the Lord to afford so much libertie to his creature that some thing may bee done as wee will and best liketh us Answ The Scripture doth no where tell us that God doth at any time suspend his omnipotencie and purpose so farre as to put the staffe at any time out of his owne hand that man may will any thing against or without the will of God Wee may not say wee will go to the next towne But if God will Jam. 4.15 The heart of man purposeth a way but the Lord directeth his steps Prov. 16.9 Howsoever the wicked may bandy themselves against the Lord his anointed they can do no more nor other but whatsoever his hand and counsell hath appointed to bee done Act. 4.28 Reason 3 Thrdly because all the creatures both of Heaven and Earth and under the Earth are ready prest as so many servants and souldiers to be sent forth and commanded at the will of God their Soveraigne Lord and chieftaine If the Lord will lead any of his hosts against Pharoah and his people for the rescue and deliverance of Israel his chosen they shall march in battell aray and they shall follow in ten severall troups and at the heeles of one another The least the meanest and the vilest of these hosts though of Lice or Grashoppers under the conduct of the Lord shall be able to make head against this great Monarch Pharoah and bring down the spirit and stomack of this proud King who a little before asked Who is the Lord that I should heare his voice and let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exodus 5.2 All which considered namely That the Lord is every where fulfilling all places and that all things are effected as hee will and that all creatures are at his bay wee may safely conclude That no affliction can befall us but that which the Lord appointeth unto us as 1. Thes
A CORDIALL FOR THE AFFLICTED Touching The Necessitie and Utilitie of Afflictions Proving unto us The happinesse of those that thankfully receive them AND The misery of all that want them or profit not by them By A. HARSNET B. D. and Minister of Gods Word at Cranham in Essex The Second Edition enlarged with direction touching Spirituall Afflictions LONDON Printed by Ric. Hodgkinsonne for Ph. Stephnes and Chr. Meridith at the Golden Lion in Pauls Churchyard 1638. TO THE HONOrable Lady the Lady JOHAN BARRINGTON The Wife of that Noble and renowned Sr. FRANCIS BARRINGTON late of Barrington Hall and to the Right Worshipfull The Lady MARY EDEN the Wife of Sr. THOMAS EDEN late of Ballingdon Hall Much honored Ladies IT is too true a saying that Greatnes and Goodnesse seldom go together for not many mighty not many noble are called Yet blessed be God for his mercies to you-wards wee finde both of these in both of you For your Greatnesse next under God yee are beholding unto your Parents out of whose loynes you came For your Goodnesse yee are in in some measure beholding unto Affliction by which The Lord hath done you good so as I make no question but that ye may both of you say with David It is good for mee that I have beene afflicted Hereupon worthy Ladies I have adventured to put forth this small Treatise touching the Necessitie and utility of Affliction under your Ladiships names and Patronage joyning you both together because God hath already conjoyned you so neere in affinity by the marriage of your Pious and Religious children beseeching your Ladyships to accept of these my poore labors being such as tend to the furtherance and increase of your comfort in present or future trials For allbeit yee bee good proficients in the School of Affliction Yet peradventure yee may have forgotten some good lessons which Affliction hath formerly taught you or else have not attained as yet to that good wherein it may hereafter instruct you To help you in either or both of these be pleased I heartily beseech your Ladiships seriously to peruse what is here tendered unto you and then I doubt not but by Gods blessing yee shall be able to make that good use of Affliction that yee shall not only blesse God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who as hee hath afflicted so hath hee comforted you in all your tribulations but yee shall also be able to comfort others which are in Affliction by the cōfort wherewith yee your selves have been comforted of God Which fruit that yee may reape I shall sow my Prayers before throne of Grace and for ever rest your Ladyships to be commanded in the Lord AD. HARSNET Cranham TO THE CHRIstian Reader Increase of Faith Hope and Patience SVch is our blindnesse and ignorance that wee are too ready to judg amisse of our selves as may appeare by two extreames into which the most runne The one is self-conceitednesse or flattering our selves in and about our spirituall estate perswading our selves that wee are in the estate of Grace and that wee have the love and favor of God when as it is neither so nor so For the redressing of which mischiefe I have heretofore undertaken the discoverie of true and sound grace from false counterfeit that so we may no longer be deluded by an overweening of our selves and too high an opinion of our goodnesse as if we were that which wee are not or were not that which wee are The other extream is a diffidence and distrust of Gods love and our own happines through the sense and smart of some troubles and afflictions wherewith it pleaseth the Lord in mercy and wisdom to exercise and trie us Whence it commeth to passe that too many of Gods deere ones are ready to cēsure themselves as out-casts or at the best as a people but meanly beloved or regarded of God in that they are so sorely afflicted For the healing of which error that there may be no mistaking that we neither charge the Lord with any want of love to us ward or hard dealing with us in afflicting of us nor surcharge our selves with unnecssary needles feares and cares nor yet causelesly increase our griefe by adding of more sorrow to our affliction I have now undertaken this Treatise Wherein my desire and ayme is to minister some comfort to such as are in affliction that so they may not cast off their hope of hapines in Heaven because they are exercised with judgments upon earth but rather beleeve that the Lord it now refining and pollishing them that so they may bee the fitter for that glory which is prepared for thē I know it is a hard thing to obey in suffering yet because it is that which maketh for our good we should with the more willingnes and cheerfulnes undergo whatsoever afflictiōs it shal please the Lord to exercise us with If our afflictions brought God out of love with us or us more in love with that which God hates and is hurtfull unto us or if our afflictions were sent unto us as curses wee had great cause to mourn in them but seeing they make so much for our good being sanctified unto us and the word of truth telleth us that wee are blessed in thē have wee not great cause to bee thankfull to God for them the Lord sees how ready we are to plunge our selves into perils if we be but a while exempted from afflictions therefore that wee may not be too bold with sin the Lord wil have us to fall into affliction least being let alone wee fall into condemnation For where God is most silent in threatning and most patient in sparing there is he most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge And seeing we are willing to receive being sick or diseased any medicine from the hand of him that can truely say probatum est good experience hath been made of the worth working of it let my counsel good reader be acceptable unto thee give me leave to tell thee how much good thou maist gain by afflictiō if through thine unbelief and impatience thou doest not put it from thee I assure thee by good experience that howsoever afflictiō be untoothsome and unpleasing to the flesh it is most soveraign and profitable unto the soul as in the Treatise following I have made plaine unto thee Now if the stile and phrase dislike any because it is so plain and homelike let him know that I prepared this provision for poore and hungry souls unto whom course mean things are welcome and bitter things are sweet not for queasie and full stomacks which despise an hony-combe He that is falne into a pit wil refuse no hand that may help him out of it He that hath a wound in his body will be glad of any plaister that may heal or ease him Accept then of these my poore labors which I desire may be as a hand to help thee out of affliction
from the Kingdom It would fill a volume to set down the manifold afflictions which are recorded of GODS children I will therefore speak but of one or two moe which I cannot omit because their examples will tend much to our satisfaction if we will compare our tryals and afflictions with theirs and consider how farre theirs have exceeded ours One would think that if any upon earth should scape scot free as they say and be without afflictions the Virgin Mary the mother of our Lord might she being a woman so freely beloved of God Luke 1.28 and so neere unto Christ But if God would have the mother to be exercised because a sinner yet mee thinks her sonne being the onely begotten of the Father without sinne and one in whom the Father was well pleased Mat. 3.17 should go untouched No no it might not be both these drunk deep of afflictions as I shall make it evident unto you First concerning Mary let us consider what old Simeon said unto her Luk. 2.35 A sword shall pierce through thy Soul Shee under-went not onely out-ward and bodily afflictions but also in-ward and spirituall tryalls even such as pierced her very Soul A sorrowfull spirit drieth up the bones saith Solomon Pro. 17.22 And Prov. 18.14 the spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear it It was not then any pinching poverty nor the rough handling of the Romane exactors who forced her being bigge with child to take a painefull journey to Bethlehem nor the poore entertainment which she and her tender babe found in the Inne nor Herods blood-thirsty rage which made her with her tender little one to flie into Egrpt where being a stranger no doubt she indured adversity her bellie full nor the fear of Archelaus after her return nor her long deferred hopes all the while that Christ lived a private life though Hope deferred bee the fainting of the heart Prov. 13.12 nor yet the malice or hatred of those bloody people the high Priests the Scribes and Pharisees who not only opposed her son but blasphemed his person and doctrine no nor the paines and torments of his bitter passion of which she was an eye witnesse and spectator none of all these were the sword that pierced her Soul though these were great burthens for a poore woman to bear and the last more grievous then all the rest How did Jacob take on when hee beheld but the bloody coat of his sonne Joseph Jacob rent his cloths and put on sack-cloth about his loynes and sorrowed for his son a long season Gen. 37.34 How did David lament the death of his trayterous son Absolom though hee heard but the report of his slaughter 2. Kings 18.33 O Absolom my son O my son Absolom would God I had died for thee O Absolom my sonne my sonne And reade wee not that Agar went aside at her childs fainting her mothers heart not enduring to behold the death of an Ismael Gen. 21.16 How then thinke we was Mary affected at the sight of so many and so great miseries which befell her son And yet all these as I take it were but the beginnings and occasions of greater internall heart-breakings and spirituall agonies with which her soul conflicted For what perplexed thoughts may we think did assault her soul nay what did not when she saw every thing directly to thwart and crosse her preconceived hopes grounded upon the warrant and truth of Divine Oracles Might not Mary have thus complained What is this he that should be the Saviour and Redeemer of Israel the horn of Salvation unto them to be thus maligned and crucified And yet while he lived there was some hope though no likelyhood that God might work miraculously for his advancement and by means unknown make good his promises but now that he is done to death that shamefull and accursed death of the crosse what hope is left I thought that he should have restored the Kingdom again to Israel But alas how can that bee he being now dead and laid in his grave Surely Mary had sunk under this burthen her faith her patience had failed her had she not with Abraham the father of the faithfull above hope beleeved under hope not regarding the outward miserable condition of her sonne but fastning the eye of her faith upon the Lord true of his Word and just of his promise yet for all her faith and patience behold and see if any sorrow were like unto Mary her sorrow The mourning of a mother for her sonne her only sonne the sonne of her hopes her hearts delight nay that son in whom shee expected that all the kindreds and nations of the world should be blessed and yet now dying dying a most ignominious shamefull accursed death now perishing without hope of recovery Loe here was the sword that pierced her soul thorow and thorow wherupon the Fathers dispute the case whether Mary were not a Martyr and they conclude that she was more then a martyr because in martyrs the more fervent their love is to Christ the more it lesseneth the paines of their sufferings but Maries love the more intense and the greater it was towards her son the more it augmented her sorrows But let us leave the mother and last of all take a view of her sonne his sufferings Who though he were the prince of our salvation yet was he consecrated by afflictions Heb. 2.10 Was he not in this world reputed as an abject amongst men lived he not in penurie in povertie Mat. 8.20 The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven nests but he had not whereon to rest his head How was he reviled and rayled upon by those foul-mouth'dJewes who called him a Wine-bibber a Pot-companion a friend of Publicans and sinners a Conjurer one that wrought by the helpe of Belzebub was he not buffeted spit on whipped crowned with thornes last of all despitefully crucifyed Besides all these hee did inwardly sustaine farre more heavy crosses then that which was laid upon his shoulders though the weight of that made him to faint with wearinesse for he was all his life time assaulted by Satan and towards his end brought into such an agony as it wrung even drops of blood from his forehead before his death his soul was heavy unto the death through those feares and terrors which had seazed upon him conflicting with the wrath of God and undergoing the curse with greatest extremity all which made him as one rejected and given over of the Lord in a most heavy and dolefull manner to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matt. 27.46 If then Job an upright and just man one that feared God and eschewed evill If David a man after Gods own heart one that walked before the Lord in truth and righteousnes and uprightnesse of heart with God 1. King 3.6 If Mary the mother of our Lord a woman so freely beloved of God And to conclude if
is the portion of Gods dear children hast thou not read that wee are every day to take up our crosse Why hast thou not then prepared thy soul for tentation Art thou now free from affliction now barrell up against an hard time the winter of adversity for the day of affliction is a time of living upon the old store spending or using not getting of spirituall strength Strength to bear affliction must be provided before affliction come Is it not childish folly or rather desperate securitie for any man that hath his enemie ready to assault and wound him to have his weapons to seek Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that yee may be able to withstand in the evill day Eph. 6.13 This evill day is the time of temptation and affliction which that wee may be the better able to encounter wee must bee well appointed and furnished with Christian fortitude and courage that so affliction although it may at the first daunt us yet it may neither vanquish nor foil us To this purpose first of all I advise thee to be oft and serious in this meditation Whose thou art and whose all thou hast is Art thou not the worke of Gods hands hath he not formed and fashioned thee and may not hee alter and change thee at his pleasure So the things of this life health wealth honor libertie and the like doe they not hold all in chiefe is not the earth the Lords and the fulnesse thereof Is it not lawfull for the Lord to do with his own as seemeth good in his eyes Do not wee hold these outward things with condition of the crosse and with a limitation of Gods correction Secondly know as afterward you shall hear that Gods love is immutable though our outward estate and condition be changeable Gods love never changeth he is the same God and his love as entire and great when wee are in affliction as when wee are out of it He may and doth as you have heard for speciall ends change our estate yet for his own glory sake and our comfort hee continues still the same A loving father to all that love and fear him before affliction a tender and loving father in affliction and so for ever after for whom once he loves unto the end hee loves These things setled in our hearts by the help and assistance of the Lord wee shall be armed to encounter affliction strengthned with all might through his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulnesse Col. 1.11 Which words do teach us that the power and strength by which wee stand upright in time of trouble and bear with patience any affliction is not of our selves but from the Lord It is God that doth stablish our hearts with his grace hee it is that worketh faith in us and a feeling perswasion of his unchangeable love and a voluntary and cheerfull resignation of our selves and all wee have to be ordered and disposed of by God as seemeth good in his eyes Whereupon saith Saint Paul I can be abased and I can abound every where in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry and to abound and to have want I am able to doe all things through the helpe of Christ which strengtheneth mee Phillippians 4.12 13. Wee say fore-warned fore-armed Bee warned therefore betimes to prepare for thy triall that when it comes thou mayst be the better armed against it Evils the more suddenly they come upon us the more grievous they prove unto us and we are the lesse able to grapple with them and encounter them Whereas preparation doth as it were pull out the sting or beat out the teeth of affliction that either it bites us not at all or else doth not so deadly wound and hurt us When Agabus had told St. Paul what welcome and entertainment hee should find at Jerusalem how they would manacle him and deliver him over into the hands of the Gentiles Acts 21.11 Some of his friends besought him that hee would not go up to Jerusalem unto whom he answered What do yee weeping and breaking mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus vers 13. Saint Paul being thus prepared for his triall could chearefully and joyfully undergoe it Hee is like to look his enemy in the face and not like a dastard to turn his back upon him and betake himselfe to his leggs that armes himselfe and prepares for the encounter The life of a Christian is a continuall warrefare and wee are souldiers Thou therefore suffer affliction as a good souldier 2. Tim. 2.2 A good souldier in garrison or in the field is every day armed at all seasons ready for the assault which may suddenly come the enemie being at hand Affliction is our common enemie which as it hath foyled many for want of preparation so hath it been vanquished of many of the Lords worthies being evermore armed against it For thy sake are wee killed all the day long wee are counted as sheep for the slaughter Neverthelesse in all these things we are more then Conquerors What bee killed and yet be a conqueror This may seem a paradox a thing contrary to common reason but it is a divine truth Would you know how Gods children do conquer trials and afflictions it is thus First when troubles and afflictions cannot vanquish or overcome them cannot spoyle them of their patience and inward peace cannot batter down their comfort but that they still rejoyce in tribulation Rom. 15.3 A Christian is then beaten when his heart and minde is beaten A man is then overcome when his heart failes when his patience joy and peace is vanquished and put to flight But if these hold it out howsoever tribulation persecution may vanquish yea destroy the outward man yet the heart and minde being not overcome wee are conquerers though outwardly conquered Object Haply you will reply and say That even the best of Gods children through the extremity of their afflictions do oft times utter many rash and inconsiderate words and shew much impatience under their crosse how then may these be said to be conquerers Answ True it is that the flesh being pinched and pained may kick and winch but yet the heart is untouched neither doth the childe of God allow of any impatient carriage or passage but is ready to take himselfe in the manner and to reprove himselfe for it As Job said I will lay mine hand upon my mouth once have I spoken but I will answere no more yea twice but I will proceed no farther Job 40.4 5. Now the minde in Gods account is the man And so long as the heart is not vanquished though through the sence and smart of the affliction the outward man and flesh may storme the Lord will crowne such for conquerers 2. Againe we are said to be conquerers when still we hold our own ground and
right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 And which is the summe of all wee shall have everlasting communion with the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and with all the quyre of heaven all those blessed Saints and Angels singing and praising the name of the Lord for evermore Vse 8 Eightly and lastly Is it so that Gods dearest children go not without affliction then woe to those whom God afflicts not Which live at ease and in fulnesse Wallowing in their sports and pleasures And are not in trouble like other men neither plagued like other men Psal 73.5 These carry a black brand being marked for wicked ones Loe these are the wicked they alwayes prosper and increase in riches vers 12. The houses of the wicked saith Job are peaceable without feare and the rod of God is upon them Job 21.9 Which shewes that they are but as Oxen fatted against the day of slaughter For if judgement begin at the house of God what shall the end be of them which obey not the Gospel of God 1. Pet. 4.17 If Gods dear children if his faithfull servants who are zealous for the Lord whose soules do mourn in secret for their own sinnes and the abominations of the time and place where they live Who labor to walk before the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart who desire and indeavor to do the will of God in all things and to yeeld a cheerfull obedience unto his Commandments bee so often so many wayes so sharply many times corrected and afflicted what will become of profane foul-mouth'd blasphemers of scoffers and scorners of piety and godlinesse of proud and voluptuous persons of covetous earth-wormes of gluttons drunkards fornicators unclean persons such as take no other thought but to fulfill the lusts of the flesh certainly if the Scripture be true and God bee just these shall one day have the full viols of Gods heavie wrath and eternal vengeance powred out upon them If Gods own deare children must drink of that bitter cup of his displeasure Surely all the wicked of the earth shall wring out and drink the dregges thereof Psal 75.8 Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth how much more the wicked and the sinner Pro. 11.31 If it be true that God chastiseth every sonne whom he received What will become of those whose bones are full of the marrow of sinne who sing to the viol who drink wine in bowls unto whom wickednesse is as sugar in their mouthes and wantonnesse like oyle doth make them look with a merry countenance whose life is spun with such an even thred both warpe and woofe as scarce a knot to bee seen No breach in their estate No crosses no losses but all things go as they would have them surely these are in a pittiful in a fearfull condition For howsoever they put farre away the evill day and approach to the seat of iniquitie Amos 6.3 Howsoever they may vaunt it and flatter themselves as Babel doth Revel 18.7 saying I shall see no mourning yet when they say peace and safety that is think themselves to be most secure and farthest off from evil then shall come upon them sudden destruction as the travail upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape 1. Thessal 5.3 For God useth slow but sure punishment it is long in comming but when he strikes the wicked hee will pay them home for all their wickednesse and hee will make good the slownesse of his revenge by the greatnesse of their punishment when it lighteth upon them The higher the Lord lifteth up his hand to strike the longer it is ere it fals but when it fals it fals more heavily The longer it is that Gods justice is boiling upon the fire of his wrath the more scalding hot it shall be powred upon the pates of the wicked For though the Lord be slow to anger yet is he great in power and will not surely cleare the wicked Nahum 1.3 They have not vengeance presently executed but the Lord reserveth wrath for them as in the verse before If the Lord be pleased to continue his heavie hand and that a long time upon his deare children how heavie how long and continuall shall those tortures and torments be which are prepared for stubborn rebellious and impenitent sinners If humble meek-hearted dutifull and obedient children lie many times in lingring and languishing afflions how smarting I intolerable shall those judgements be which one day the wicked and ungodly shall endure If the Lord seems many times not to regard the teares nor cries of his children that they seem as it were to welter in their sorrowes how are impenitent stiffe-necked and hard-hearted sinners like to speed when they shall cry and roar againe Surely he will laugh at their destruction and mock them when feare and trouble comes upon them Prov. 1.26 Then shall that wrath which they have treasured up unto themselves come upon them to the uttermost Woe be unto thee whosoever thou art that fearest not the Lord. Woe bee to those that revell and Jove it as if they feared neither God nor Devill as if they regarded neither Heaven nor Hell The Lord is tempering of some bitter potion for them which one day they shall drink down to their eternall woe If God humble his dear ones under his hand he will trample his enemies underneath his feet If the Israelites must be baptized in the red sea the Egyptians shall bee overwhelmed and drowned in it If Lot must lose all his goods and substance in Sodome the Sodomites shall lose both goods and lives too If Gods finger lie heavie upon his children here on earth with the weight of his loines hee will presse downe the wicked into Hell hereafter Object But doe wee not see the wicked flourish and prosper in their wayes and enterprises Answ Yes for I have seen the wicked strong and spreading himselfe like a green bay-tree but his glory lasted not long hee passed away and loe hee was gone Psal 37.35 36. Object But are not the wicked honored and advanced Answer Yes but though his excellencie mount up unto the Heaven and his head reach up unto the cloudes yet shall hee perish for ever like his dung and they which have seen him shall say Where is hee Job 20.6.7 Object But are not the wicked mighty and of great riches Answ Yes yet neither their silver nor their gold shall bee able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath Zep. 1.18 Object But they are allied unto great personages and have great ones in league and confederacie with them Answ It may bee so yet though hand joyne in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished Pro. 11.21 Object But they have deepe reaches unfathomed plots and projects they combine themselves together and consult how to escape from the power of evill Answ And what of this though they take counsell together yet it shall be brought to nought though they pronounce
a decree yet shall it not stand Esay 9.10 There is no wisedome neither understanding nor counsell against the Lord Pro. 21.30 Thus wee see how the stayes and props of the wicked are but like reeds or Aegyptian staves which cannot helpe them Neither Heaven nor Earth can save or priviledge those whom the Lord will punish Then there is little cause why wee should grieve at the prosperitie or impunity of godlesse persons they are sorer plagued then the world takes notice of though no apparant judgement be seen upon them For doth not the Lord give them up to a reprobate mind even to fill and glut themselves with sinne and can there bee a greater punishment an heavier judgement then this not to be restrained from evill courses Desperate is the case of that patient whom the Physician gives over to his own appetite to eate and drinke what liketh him best When a father begins to cast off the care of his sonne suffering him to take his swinge sink or swim hee will not look after him doth it not appeare that he intendeth to disinherit such a childe Even so as the water where it is stillest is deepest and most dangerous to drown when God is most silent in threatning and patient in sparing there is hee most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge For the fewer judgements are powred upon the wicked in this life the more are reserved for them in the life to come Therefore fret not thy selfe because of the wicked men neither bee envious for the evill doers for they shall soon be cut down like the grasse and shall wither as the green hearbe Psalm 37.1 2. Peruse the whole Psalme and it will teach thee that how prosperously soever the wicked do live for a time yet their happinesse is but transitory because they are not in the favor of God for in the end they shall be destroyed as his enemies Againe in that the Lord saith not they which I love shall be rebuked and chastened but whom I love I rebuke I chasten wee may in the next place observe this doctrine that All our trialls and afflictions come from the Lord. Of what nature and condition soever the affliction bee wherewith wee are exercised it is Physick of the Lords preparing hee hath his hand in it and therefore by a kind of proprietie afflictions be termed his judgements Wee have waited for thee O Lord in the way of thy judgements Esay 26.8 And in the next vers Thy judgements are in the earth c. That which Naomi spake to the people of Bethlehem makes much for the proof of the point in hand Call me not Naomi but call me Mara for the Almighty hath given me much bitternesse I went out full and the Lord hath caused mee to return empty why call ye me Naomi seeing the Lord bath humbled mee and the Almighty hath brought me unto adversitie Ruth 1.20 21. All her crosses and losses of what nature soever they were all her sorrows and bitternesse shee fathers upon the Lord. As personall so nationall evills come from the Lord as appeareth 2. Cron. 15.6 Nation was destroyed of Nation and citie of citie For the Lord did trouble them with all adversitie To the same purpose speaketh the Prophet Isaiah Who gave Jacob for a spoile and Israel to the robbers Did not the Lord because wee have sinned against him Isa 42.24 Whatsoever the outward means or instruments bee Gods hand hath a principall strok in all those afflictions which befall either the church in general or any particular member thereof whether it bee pestilence or sword or famine or captivity It is not the heedlesnesse and wilfulnesse of people which will adventure into places infected or upon goods that are contagious which beginneth or continueth the plague amongst us It is not alone the malice and cruelty of the enemie which bringeth the sword or causeth any to fall by it It is not unseasonable winter or summer which causeth and bringeth the famine amongst us these are but secondary causes the prime and supream cause is that all disposing wisedome and providence of God which causeth and ordereth both the one and the other Such as hee hath appointed to death shall go unto death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for captivitie to the captivitie Jerem. 15.2 So likewise for particular judgments whether in our body or estate all commeth from the Lord. Who hath made the dumb or the deafe or the blind have not I saith the Lord Exod. 4.11 From whom come consumptions burning agues other bodily diseases Doth not the Lord apoint them Lev. 26.16 Hence the Church professeth Hos 6.1 The Lord hath spoiled us and hee will heale us he hath wounded us he will bind us up If wee peruse that bedroul of curses Devt 28. It will appeare that neither povertie sicknesse nor any crosse or losse doth befall us but that which God doth send us Is there any evill in the citie and I have not done it Amos 3.6 I the Lord do all these things Esay 45.7 Here I might quickly lead you into a Labyrinth by propounding ambiguous and unnecessary questions how farre God hath his hand in every evill but such questions will breed strife rather than godly edifying 1. Tim. 1.4 Know therefore that something the Lord effects in and by himselfe without the helpe or assistance of inferior causes such are the workes of creation and some miracles Some things the Lord causeth to be effected by means as castigations and deliverances And some things the Lord suffers to be done by his permissive will yet so as if hee pleased he could easily prevent and hinder or alter the doing of them thus the Lord may be said to have a finger in every sinne not as it is a breach of his revealed will but that it may be an occasion of the manifestation of his power and justice in punishing and revenging of it These truths the heathen which either knew not God or else did not glorifie him as God were utterly ignorant of and therefore turned the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the image of a corruptible man and of birds and foure footed beasts and of creeping things Rom. 1.23 And hence it came to passe that they forged unto themselves so many Gods one of the sunne another of the moone one of the sea another of the windes c. By whose wisedome providence and power as they conceived the whole world with all occasions and occurences therein were ordered and swayed Whereas there is but one only true God Who by wisedome hath laid the foundation of the earth and hath stablished the heavens through understanding by his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew Prov. 3.19 20. See Jerem. 10.12.13 of him and by him and for him are all things Rom. 11.36 The Pelagians
heart and tongue of a Christian Vse 2 Againe this doctrine meets with another error too rife and ranck amongst us In the time of any great tempests especially if they bee such as cause any spoile or havock at sea or upon land by and by many mouths are opened and this they suppose to bee the work of some conjurer As if the Lord as Eliah ironically said to the Priests of Baal of their god were all this while asleep or sate still and did nothing If there bee any great winde blowing hard at sea The Lord sends that great winde into the sea and he raiseth every mighty tempest Jonah 1.4 If there be any winds or stormes upon rhe land the Lord raiseth them For the Lord hath his way in the whirlewind and in the storme Nah. 1.3 God alone is the Lord both of sea and land and by his over-ruling hand and power he ordereth and disposeth of all particulars whither in the seas or upon the earth For he commandeth and raiseth the stormie winde and it lifteth up the waves thereof Psal 107.25 They cry unto the Lord in their trouble and then he bringeth them out of their distresse But how doth he this It follows in the 29. vers He turneth the storme to calme so that the waves thereof are still for he ruleth the raging of the seas Psal 89.9 So that if there be storme or tempest it is evident God causeth and ceaseth all Object But is there not conjuring sometimes Answ Very like there is for men and devils do many times compact and joyn together for the doing of some mischiefe But are not men and devils under the rule and command of the Almighty It is true that the devill hath a large walke even the whole earth which he compasseth Job 2.2 Yet hath he his bounds and limits set him which he cannot exceed Although he be full of malice and spight and takes pleasure in doing evill and working of mischiefe and therefore hee is called the evill spirit Act. 19.16 Yet can he not hurt so much as one swine untill the Lord give him commission Mat. 8.31 Hee and his wicked instruments may vaunt it as Pilate did Have I not power c. but wee may say of them as Christ answered Pilate Thou couldest have no power against me except it were given thee from above John 19.11 Consider what Satan said to the Lord Iob. 2.5 Stretch now out thine hand and touch his bones and his flesh by which words it is evident that whatsoever power and libertie Satan had over Iob was no other then Gods hand Vse 3 Is it so that God hath his hand in all our afflictions let us then be patient in time of affliction because wee are then under Gods hand who intendeth not our hurt but our good in afflicting us Hee that hath any dangerous wound or sore upon him will patiently endure the surgeon to cut and search his wound unto the quick though strong eating plaisters or powders or any sharpe corrasives he applied he beares it out with a manlike courage because hee beleeveth that otherwise hee cannot be cured Though it be more then ordinary torment to be cut for the taking out of the stone yet a man will suffer himselfe to be bound hand and foot the searching instrument to bee put into his body that so he may prolong his life Shall these exquisite paines and grievous tortures which man doth oft put us unto be indured of us for the good and welfare of our bodies and shall wee not as willingly and patiently lie under the hand of God and beare that affliction which he layes upon us for the good of our souls Bee wee therefore patient first in respect of God and secondly in respect of any of those instrumentâ— to which God shall use in afflicting us We must be patient in all our afflictions first because they be messengers sent unto us from God our Father our pittifull Father Shall I not drinke of that cup which my Father hath given me John 18.11 We have had the Fathers of our bodies which corrected us and wee gave them reverence should wee not much rather bee in subjection unto the father of spirits that wee may live Heb. 12.9 Do wee not daily pray that the will of our father might be done then bee we patient in our afflictions because it is our fathers will by these to exercise us This was the ground of Davids patience Psalm 39.9 I was dumb and have not opened my mouth because thou diddest it It was dreadfull newes which Samuel told Eli How that the Lord would visit his house for ever for the iniquity of his sonnes and he staied them not now therefore the iniquitie of Elies house shall not bee purged with sacrifice nor offring for ever 1. Sam. 3.13 14. At the hearing whereof Eli answers verse 18. It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good Oh admirable patience and obedience well beseeming the antient judge and aged president of Shiloh who had sacrificed his heart to that God whose justice had refused to expiat his sinne by sacrifice Although Eli shewed himselfe to be an ill father unto his sonnes yet he proves a dutifull and obedient sonne to God being willing to kisse the rod he shall smart withall It is the Lord whom I have alwaies found most holy and just and gracious and he cannot but be himselfe let him doe what seemeth him good for whatsoever seemeth good to him must needs be good howsoever it seemeth to me Thus patiently did Eli expose himselfe to Gods afflicting hand and kneels to him that severely scourgeth him So good king Hezekiah Esay 38.15 What shall I say for he hath said it unto me and he hath done it Againe wee should be patient in our afflictions because they come from the hand of a pitifull father In bodily deseases wee are the more content to endure that paine which our Surgeon shall put us unto if we beleeve and know him to be a pittiful and tender hearted man How much more ought we to be patient under the hand of our heavenly Father for the Lord is very pittifull and mercifull or of tender mercy as the new translation hath it Jam. 5.11 The Prophet David having abundantly made experience of the Lords goodnesse tels us in very many places that the Lord is a pittifull God slow to anger and great in kindnesse and truth Psalm 86.15 And Psalm 131.4 The Lord is mercifull and full of compassion So full that howsoever for a moment he may hide away his face from us in a little wrath yet with everlasting mercy he will have compassion upon us Esay 54.8 Hence it is that speaking of his people it is said Esay 63.9 In all their affliction he was afflicted in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them Object Here some will bee ready to object If God be so pittifull and takes no pleasure in afflicting us how is it that
us If the Lord should dispute with us wee could not answer him one thing of a thousand When hee visiteth what shall I answer him said Iob 31.14 Whereupon David saith Psalm 130.3 If thou Lord shouldest marke iniquities O Lord who shall stand The least sinne wee commit makes us liable to the vengeance of eternall torments How grear a measure of punishment do wee then deserve for our many for our grievous sinnes our sinnes being like unto the sand by the sea shore which is innumerable What ever our afflictions are or may be they come short of our sinnes they fall short of that which wee have deserved and that which the Lord may justly without any wrong to us lay upon us Amongst many other one maine cause why we are so troubled and vexed with affliction is because we are so little galled with our sinnes a true sense of these would make our afflictions to be more easie and us lesse sensible of them then many times we are Do we not see it by experience that when the stone and the gout or some other bodily malady meet together the paine of the stone being the more grievous alaies if not takes away the sense pain of the gout even so would it be here when sinne and affliction are both upon us at once the consideration of our sinnes deserving farre greater punishment then we beare should so grieve us that the punishment it selfe should not move us much lesse stirre us up to impatience Is there not then great cause that we should willingly and patiently bear Gods chastisements as the Church resolved Mica 7.9 I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him And confesse with the good theef in the Gospell We indeed are justly here for we receive the due reward of our deeds Luke 23.41 And thus did that Emperor Mauritius who beholding his wife and children murthered before his face cried out just art thou o Lord and just are thy judgements And thus David confessed I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou hast afflicted me justly Ps 119.75 Secondly compare thine afflictions with the sufferings of many of the Lords Worthies and thou hast great cause to be patient Looke but into the 11. Chap. to the Heb. ver 35 36 37. and tell mee if thine afflictions be answerable or sutable to their fiery trials Looke into the sufferings of Christ Consider him that indured such speaking against of sinners lest you should be wearied and faint in your mindes ye have not yet resisted unto blood Heb. 12.3 4. If the Lord deal so sharply with many of his deare children and with thee so mildly so gently wonder at Gods clemency and lenity lay thy hand upon thy mouth and bee patient Thirdly consider how short thine affliction will bee in comparison of that eternall torment the Lord might lay upon thee our afflictions are but light and moment any as Paul calls them 2. Cor. 4.17 The Lord himselfe saith Esay 54.8 For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee for a little season but with everlasting love have I had compassion on thee Who would not bee content with a course of physick for a few daies though the physick be untoothsome and very bitter in hope of health for ever after What if thou hast indured months of sorrow and painfull nights have beene appointed unto thee as they were to Job 7.3 What are they in comparison of those eternall torments the Lord might throw thee into in which there will be no ease out of which there shall be no release A great cause of impatience and storming at afflictions is the ignorance of our selves and of the desert of our sinnes which if we knew aright we would confesse with Ezra let our miseries and troubles be what they will that the Lord hath punished us lesse then our iniquities have deserved Ezra 9.13 I will beare the wrath of the Lord saith the Church Mic. 7.9 I will not repine at his dealing with me I wil not open my mouth by way of complaint or murmuring but from what doth this holy resolution and patience proceed It followeth in the same verse because I have sinned against him I have carried my selfe proudly stoutly and rebelliously against him I have provoked the eyes of his glory I have many waies many times broken his holy lawes I have deserved farre more farre greater judgements then he hath laid upon me it is his mercy that I am not confounded that I am of this side hell Fourthly and lastly the consideration of the blessed end that God for the most part makes of the afflictions of his servants will further our patience After they have endured any great fight in affliction he doth usually bestow some speciall favor or other upon them yea proportionable to the measure of the affliction hath the recompence and the blessing been such as have had the bitterest crosses have received the sweetest comforts Ye have heard of the patience of Job and what end the Lord made Jam. 5.11 What this end was is recorded Iob. 42. where it is said that the Lord turned a way the captivitie of Iob and gave him twice as much as he had before So the Lord blessed the last daies of Iob more then the first Iob 42.12 This hope of future mercy kept David from fainting in his affliction Psal 71.20 21. Thou hast shewed we great troubles and adversities but thou wilt return and revive me and wilt come againe and take me from the depth of the earth Thou wilt increase mine honnor and receive and comfort me if not with temporall assuredly with spirituall comfort here for they bring forth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse unto them that are thereby exercised Heb. 12.11 They are occasions as hath been formerly proved of purging our corruption and bringing of us neerer God and into more conformity with Christ and should not this comfort us Besides they make way for glory and endlesse comfort They that sow in teares shall reape in ioy Psalm 126.5 Afflictions cause unto us a farre more excellent and eternall weight of glory 2. Cor. 4.17 Art thou in any affliction thou art but under a short cloud it will quickly blow over and thou shalt have a faire season a most comfortable and glorious sun-shine when all teares shall be wiped away from thine eyes Rev. 7.17 After two dayes hee will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and wee shall live in his sight Hos 6.2 Art thou in affliction be patient the third day is comming wherein the Lord will deliver thee There must be a time for thee to sow thy prayers in and a time for thee to water them with the teares of true repentance and then presently comes the joyfull harvest in due season thou shalt reape if thou thou bee patient if thou faint not Gal. 6.10 What made Steven in his martyrdome to bee so patient and chearefull but
forth the daughter but as a tradesman bringeth forth his wares and shewes them to others what they are or rather as the Sun in the spring bringeth forth hearbs and fruits by its working influence For first of all faith perswades the heart that the cause of all evill that befalls us lieth in our owne bosomes our sins as you have heard are the ground of all and therefore if wee will be angry with any body it should be with our sinnes Secondly faith perswades us as you shall heare anon that God in afflicting of us loves us and deales with us as a father with that child in whom he delights Nay a father may somtime bee transported with passion and correct his childe above measure laying on that in his heat which in his cool blood he doth heartily wish were off againe Whereas our heavenly Father is so wise as he puts not in one dramme of any ingredient more then shall serve the turne and need requireth A third and last helpe unto patience is Heavenly-mindednesse or the setting our affection on things that are above and not on things which are on the earth Col. 3.2 For he that immoderately and inordinately loves the world and earthly things will bee impatient at the losse of them How waspish and impatient was Ionah for the withering of his Gourd even so much that hee durst tell the Lord to his face that he did well to be angry unto the death Ion. 4.9 Our blinde judgements making a false report unto our affections of these outward things wee come to set them at too high a rate and so grow impatient at the losse of them Whereas if wee did esteem them as the wise man reports them to be and as they are in truth that is nothing Pro. 23.5 wee would be lesse moved with the losse of them There is a kind of venom in worldly things to puffe up and swell the heart of a man By thy wisdome and by thine occupying hast thou increased thy riches and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches Ezek. 28.5 Now when trouble and affliction comes to encounter with a proud heart every veine swells and the heart rebells and breaks out into impatience and they can not beare it And the greater their tryalls are the more do they fret and fume as a running water the greater the flood and stream is the more doth it foame and roare where there be any arches to withstand it And now that wee may be willing to take the more paines to be furnished with patience I will lay down a few priviledges which wee shall partake of through patience every one of them a strong motive to stirre us up to labour for patience First by the helpe of patience wee shall be the better able to manage those gifts and graces which God shall endow us withall Patience keeps the mind in such a stayed and setled temper that wee shall be able to manage and direct our selves in all our straights and advise and counsell others in their doubts and difficulties By our patience wee possesse our soules Luk. 21.19 Wee enjoy and command our selves for impatience puts a man out and makes to be beside himselfe By faith wee possesse Christ by love wee possesse our neighbor yea our enemie and by patience wee possesse our selves He hath but a weak hold of Christ or of his neighbor that hath no hold or command of himselfe An impatient person is as one out of the way or as a bone dislocated and out of joynt What stabilitie can be where Patience sits not at the stern to direct and govern A ship that rides at sea well ballanced is steddy and so proves comfortable unto the Passengers that bee abord her whereas an unballanced vessell reels like a drunken man and tumbles too and fro with every little gale and blast of wind and so make those weary if not sick that be in her How sick must that soul needs be whom troubles and afflictions the waves and billows of this world a raging and tempestuous sea through the want of patience the stearsman do tumble up and down and are disquiet Where patience is there is quietnesse because patience brings a Christians minde unto his estate when his estate and condition cannot suite with his minde Secondly Patience will conforme thee unto Christ and make thee a compleat Christian Let patience have her perfect worke that ye may be perfect and entire lacking nothing Jam. 1.4 That soul which wants no patience wants nothing for patience is able to supply all wants and make up all defects A patient and contented mind is rich and hee that is rich cannot want unlesse he will Thirdly patience will make thee to be a profitable entertainer of Gods Word it will make thee fruitfull in Christianitie the honest and good heart brings forth fruit with patience Luk. 8.15 So many evills there bee to encounter goodnesse so many oppositions and reproaches to nip if not blasâ— good beginnings so many troubles to attend Pietie and godlinesse so many principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesse in high places to stop our course and to interrupt us in our holy profession that without patience little or no fruit will appeare in our lives and conversations Fourthly patience wil make thy life comfortable whatsoever thy afflictions be Thou art armed with mettall of proof no dart of Satan no malice of the world can wound thy soul if patience have got the keeping of it Outward calamities and afflictions may make a great noise about thine eares as hailstones falling thick upon the tyles over thy head keep a great ratling but cannot come neere to hurt thee So afflictions may rattle about thine eares but patience shelters thee from receiving any hurt by them Let thy afflictions be never so mischievous and noxious in themselves they shall not prove so to thee If patience possesse thy soul so many afflictions as befall thee will fall out to be so many arguments of Gods love so many consolations unto thee especially if they be such as wee undergoe for Christ For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation aboundeth through Christ 2. Cor. 1.5 Misery it selfe shall not be able to make thee miserable for patience is a most soveraigne antidote and preservative against the venom of any affliction which can betide thee Vse 4 Fourthly is it so that all our afflictions come from God then here is a ground of comfort and matter of rejoycing in affliction not that we have ministred matter and occasion unto the Lord to chastise us but in that having sinned against the Lord hee will take the rod into his hand and have the ordering of that affliction which befalls us For nothing as hath been said can bee in which our heavenly Father hath not a chiefe stroke before it can be brought to passe The consideration whereof as it should settle and quiet us so should it minister much comfort unto us
because our safety and security lieth in it As God loveth a cheerfull doer so hee loveth a cheerfull sufferer A childe that is willing to kisse the rod wherewith it was beaten gives great content unto the parent which corrected it and makes halfe amends for the fault it hath committed Christ will have every one of his to take up his Crosse daily Luk. 9.23 the taking up of our crosse implyeth willingnesse and cheerfulnesse in the bearing of it Many a childe of God is content to beare his crosse when the Lord hath laied it upon his shoulders as the Prophet Jeremiah speakeath Woe is me for my destruction and my grievous plague But I thought yet it is my sorrow and I will beare it Jerem. 10.19 Hee dares not mutter or repine at the Lords doing but here was no rejoycing in tribulation Whereas James tells us that wee must count it exceeding joy when wee fall into divers afflictions Jam. 1.2 When the Lord commeth as it were in open hostilitie against us mustering his forces towards us when one affliction comes upon the neck of another when wee fall into divers afflictions even then we have cause of rejoycing For our afflictions comming from the hand of our loving Father cannot be hurtfull but profitable unto us Hee chasteneth us for our profit that wee might he partakers of his holinesse Hebr 12.10 Indeed if our afflictions brought God out of love with us or us more in love with sinne which God hates and is hurtfull unto us if our afflictions were sent unto us as curses wee had cause to mourn in them But when the Word of truth so often pronounceth us blessed in them as Psalme 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastisest O Lord. Have wee not then great cause of rejoycing in them especially seeing our Heavenly Father hath the ordering and disposing of all our afflictions both in respect of their kinde and nature and also in respect of their measure either of quantity or continuance First in regard of their kind If you would know why this affliction befalls thee rather then another it is because the Lord the only wise and soveraign Physitian knows how to strike thee in the right veine hee knowes thy heart and the nature of thy corruption and therefore applieth such medecines unto thee as will bee most available for thy cure Which thing Job teacheth us Behold hee will break down and it cannot be built he shutteth a man up and hee cannot be loosed Behold hee withholdeth the waters and they drie up but when he sendeth them out they destroy the earth with him is strength and wisedom Job 12.14 15 16. Yea hee is mighty in strength and wisedom Job 36.5 Which he could not be said to be if any other course were better for us then that which he taketh with us The Lord is perfect wisedom and therefore will not cannot but go the best the safest and wisest way to worke for the good of his children Some peradventure may think that some other kind of affliction might have been better for them then the present some other they thinke would have done them more good then this can do But they speak they know not what And I may say unto them as Christ to his Disciples Luk. 9.55 Yee know not of what spirit yee are The choosing of the rod belongeth unto him that is to give the correction not to him that taketh it Indeed the Lord did once put David to his choice 2. Sam. 24.12 I offer unto thee three things chuse thee which of them I shall do unto thee But this was an extraordinary favor shewed unto David first to make triall of his Faith whether he had rather fall into the hand of the Lord then into the hand of man and secondly to let him know that the Lord would correct him in mercy in that hee gave him libertie to make choise of the punishment The Lord knew that either of those rods would bee sufficient to scourge David withall And none knows so well as the Lord how to meet with our corruptions or what afflictions are meet for us If thou canst not profit by that affliction which the Lord appointeth unto thee thou wilt profit by none To say some other kind were better for thee were to controll the judgement of the wise God as if hee knew not better then our selves to order and dispose of us Is it fit the patient should prescribe his Physitian what course to take with him wilt thou teach him what he shall administer unto thee this were to dishonor the Physitian therefore thou submittest to his judgement and takest what hee prescribeth thee resting upon his skill And wilt thou dare so highly to dishonor God as to question his wisedome and knowledge as if some other affliction were better for thee then this which hee is pleased to administer unto thee No no say as Ely did 1. Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Secondly the Lord hath the disposing of our afflictions for quantitie for hee doth order all things in their measure number and weight but especially the afflictions of his children Jerem. 30.11 I will not utterly destroy thee but correct thee in judgement or in measure as the new translation hath it God therefore metes out unto his children not according to their merit but in mercy according to their strength looking more what they are able to undergoe then what they do deserve to be laid upon them Hee correcteth in judgement that is wisely proportioning our affliction to our strength and not in anger least he bring us to nothing Jere. 10.24 Feare not therefore O Jacob my servant saith the Lord for I am with thee I will not utterly destroy thee but correct thee by judgement and not utterly cut thee off Jerem. 46.28 Comfort thy selfe therefore in this that God is faithfull who will not suffer thee to be tempted above that thou art able to beare but will with the tentation make a way to escape that thou maist be able to beare it as was formerly spoken Thirdly and lastly the Lord disposeth of all our afflictions in respect of their time and continuance which he hath promised shall be but short For the rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous Psal 105.3 Hee indureth but a while in his anger Weeping may abide at the evening but joy commeth in the morning Psal 30.5 Who is a God like unto thee saith Micah that taketh away iniquitie and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him Mic. 7.18 Therefore wait patiently upon the Lord for issue out of thine affliction which in due time thou shalt bee sure of For the Lord deals not with his children as the Devill doth with his servants bringing them into the briars and there leave them to scratch and rent and teare themselves but the
Prophet Jeremiah speaketh Thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a stone and have refused to return Jerem. 5.3 They were unwilling either to beare their correction or to be bettered by it But let it not be so with any that love the Lord or their own good let both these extremities be avoided of us and let us exercise the golden mean to be sensible of the hand of God and to be cheerfull and thankfull for our affliction seeing as hath been proved so much good commeth unto us by them Object If it be so that afflictions are so profitable then may wee yea ought wee to pray that God would afflict us for may not every one nay should not every one pray for that which may be profitable for himselfe and others Answ Those things which in themselves are evill howsoever by the wise Providence and mercifull disposition of God they may have a good issue and work together for the best to those that love God yet may wee not lawfully pray for such evills to light upon our selves or others upon presumption of Gods goodnesse to turn them to the best The disasters and miserable calamities which for many yeeres together have rent and torn the Church have stirred us up to seek and cry mightily unto â—he Lord and to be humbled with fasting before him may wee therefore pray that the rod of God may still lie upon the backs of his people that ruines and the breaches of Sion may not be repaired Surely no for wee are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem That peace may be within her walls and prosperitie within her pallaces Psal 122.6 7. Death in it selfe is an evill thing for it is the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 Yet by the infinite power and mercy of God who delights to bring good out of evill it is made the period of all our labors and an entrance into Gods own presence may we therefore being wearle of our lives desire death sooner then the Lord will Albeit afflictions when the Lord sendeth them unto us shall bring good unto his children yet ought wee not either to pray for them or wilfully to cast and plunge our selves into them Therefore Agar praies unto the Lord Give me not poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me Prov. 30.8 Wee are to pray for such a condition in which the Lord sees wee shall be best able to honor and glorifie him and procure most good to our selves and others Now whether this will be by prosperitie or adversitie wee must leave it to the wisedome of the Lord who knoweth better then our selves what is expedient and needfull for us Object But if it be so that afflictions are so profitable unto us whether being in them may wee pray for deliverance out of them or no Answ Wee are to pray for deliverance out of them if wee have received that good by them which God intended us otherwise wee are to be willing nay desirous that the Lord would not take off his plaister untill the sore be healed lest it ranckle and grow worse and so wee cause the Lord to apply some sharper medicine to lay upon us some greater affliction Therefore in thine affliction call upon the Lord and say Smite Lord correct me still untill thou hast done me good by thy rod let me have this affliction sanctified else let mee not be eased let it not be taken off me Are there not many delivered oft times out of sicknesse for whom it had been better in respect of their souls they had still continued upon their sicke bed The like may bee said of many other kinde of afflictions and that it had been better for some they had never come out of them Therefore when wee are in affliction let us not pray for freedome and deliverance but conditionally if it be the will of God to inlarge us and if he seeth that deliverance will be better for us Otherwise to desire the Lord to keep us still under and to give us patience and faith to beare his rod and to profit by it But if any shall unwillingly beare the Lords yoke using all means he can to cast it off and to pull his head out of the collar this shewes that such a person doth not desire that the Lord should do him good neither doth hee acknowledge the Lords wisedome and righteousnesse but seemeth to tell the Lord what hee thinkes were better for him And let him know that the Lord will either keep him in affliction longer then otherwise hee would or else that this affliction shall be but a fore-runner of some greater judgement Therefore let us not vexe or disquiet our selves in our afflictions and so make them more grievous unto us then the Lord would have them Lee us cast our selves upon the Lord and resolve to abide his pleasure and assure wee our selves that the longer wee are under his hand the more good he will do us and the better able we shall be to beare his hand You shall heare a new cart in the street which will squeak and make a noise if the least load that can be lie upon it whereas an old seasoned cart will go under a great weight and make no noise even so many a Christian not used to beare affliction will squeak and cry out upon every little trouble whereas hee that hath been seasoned long and exercised with afflictions undergoes many great and grievous ones cheerfully and contentedly Wert thou never in affliction untiil now then look up to the promises of God acquaint thy selfe with them and they will make thee cheerfull and thankfull for thy affliction It is my comfort in my trouble for thy promise hath quickened me Psal 119.50 Say as Sydrac Meshac and Abednego said our God whom wee serve is able to deliver us and hee will deliver us Hast thou been formerly afflicted and delivered let former deliverances confirm and strengthen thy faith in this present or future afflictions as it did Paul wee should not trust in our selves but in God Who delivered us from so great a death in whom we trust that yet hereafter hee will deliver us 2. Cor. 1.10 In the mean time resolve to tarry the Lords leisure consider not what now thou feelest but what good hereafter thou art like to find by thine afflictions Blesse God that hee will take this course with thee as Job said What is man that thou dost magnifie him and thou settest thine heart upon him And dost visit him every morning and triest him every moment We would take it as a great grace and honor if the King should every day send to know how we do but if hee should daily come in person to visit us how highly should wee think our selves honored It is thy case that art afflicted The King of Kings hath sent his servant nay comes with his servant to visite thee when he sendeth affliction unto thee Assure thy selfe he mindes thee nay sets his heart upon thee if he regarded not thy good and welfare hee would suffer thee to take thy swinge in sin but because he loveth thee he correcteth thee It is a truth the Lord hath spoken it As many as I love I rebuke and chasten bee zealous therefore and amend So be it FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fervent Zeal what it is Doct. 1. The best have afflictions Affliction findeth out sinnes Iob 36 8 9 Affliction purges out sinne Affliction is physick for the soul Affliction preventeth sinne Affliction teacheth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction trieth the truth of grace in us Affliction doth fit us for Gods service Affliction teacheth us to prize Gods benefits Affliction weaneth us from the world Affliction stirs us up to prayer 0. Affliction quickneth our devotion Affliction coÌ„formeth us unto Christ Vita crucis vita lucis Affliction prepareth us for glory Censure not the afflicted How are we said to be conquerers when conquered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Store thy self with comfort out of the word of God Break off thy sinnes by repentance Afflictions of the godly and wicked differ Seek to the Lord by prayer Comfort for the afflicted 1 Sam. 2.17 22. M. Culverwell of faith Desire to be with Christ Death how it may be desired Woe to those that are not afflicted Note Doct. 2. All our afflictions come from God God filleth both heaven and earth Againe it must needs be God worketh all things as he will All creatures are subject unto the Lord. Away with Fortune and luck 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God disposeth of all tempests Patient in afflictions 1 Helps to the patient bearing of affliction Our enemies are but the Lords rods to whip us Comfort for the afflicted God doth order our affliction Note Go to God for issue and deliverance Fero spero Note Vncheerfulnesse doth much hurt Doctr. 3. Perswasion of Gods love will helpe us to beare our affliction Because God will helpe our crosse God intends our good in afflicting us No misery can make Gods people miserable Nothing can separate us from God We learne from hence why we be so troubled with our affliction Note Be perswaded of Gods Love Tokens of Gods afflicting of us in love Note Doct. 4. The chiefe end of Gods afflicting us is the bettering of us By affliction wee come to know our selves Note By affliction wee come to judge aright of sinne Affliction makes us to feare God The feare of Gods is very profitable Wee do not make satisfaction by our afflictions Our stubbornnesse provoketh God to afflict us Amend by little else greater affliction will come Note Adde not affliction to the afflicted but pitty them Live by faith in affliction Be thankfull for affliction Note Dan. 3.17