or assist us to endure them and to perform the Journey throughout notwithstanding all the Fateigues of it If Empedocles had the Courage Cic. Tuscul 1. whether true or false it matters not to leap into glowing Aetna Peregrinus to throw himself into the Flames Mucius Tertul. c. 5. ad Mort. Scaevola to thrust his erring hand into the Fire and the Patience to hold it till it should have been burnt off for the punishment of its Mistake If Anaxarchus could suffer the being pounded and bruised in a Mortar If Regulus had the Patience to endure the nailed Barrel and the Youths of Lacedemon the scourging at the Altar And this their Resolution was inspired this their Patience upheld by a Thirst after Glory and a Conceit that it was to be purchased at the rate of such Actings and Sufferings surely the hopes of the Glory of Heaven nay the assurance it s to be had upon the Terms of doing well and suffering ill unto the end will make as behave our selves as equally brave show us much Fortitude and Constancy and Patience to gain them If it was accounted worth the acquiring Tert. c. 5. ad Mart. 158. Rigal the Glass the Pebble of vain and false Glory at so dear a rate as the parting with Life or sustaining the Miseries of it amounted to certainly the going as far the paying down or suffering as much to gain the Jewel of true and solid Glory must needs countervail the Pains the Cost and Charges If the Husbandman after he hath with much Toyl prepared the Earth waiteth with much Patience for the early and later Rain to impregnate the Seed he hath committed to it and with farther Patience to receive the precious Fruit it will produce certainly we may with a Patience like theirs at least after all our labour and pains endured after we have sown in abundance of Tears patiently expect till the Harvest of Glory be ripe for our reaping i. e. as St. James from their Examples draws the reasonableness of this Duty and then forceth his Exhortation to it We ought to be patient Jam. 5. 7. till the coming of the Lord and establish our Hearts for his coming draweth nigh Who is there on a Journey who would not be content to travel o'er a little ill way if he pondered with himself that at the end of it and that not very remote or at some great distance there lay a place the transcendent Deliciousness of which would abundantly requite for the Illness of the Road and the inconsiderable Trouble the going over it would cause Where is the Man so fond of Ease who would not willingly endure the Calenture of a Fever all the Needles the most sharp-pointed stone can run into the tenderest and most sensible Parts all the lighted Torches the Gout can apply to his Joynts the extreamest Pain that any other the most sharp and cruel Diseases can cause for some few Minutes if he could make his Composition upon these Terms that those moments of Torment being expired he should ever after enjoy an easie established Health a firm and lasting Peace of good Habitude of Body secure from the Hostile Incursions of Diseases for the future Or where is the Person so addicted to the Pleasures of his Palat that would not take the bitterest Potion art can prepare could he be morally assured that his Taste never after should be disaffected with a disagreeable thing But such as are these Cases is that of our present Life with relation to a future and such are our Circumstances Act therefore as reasonably in this case we should as we do in others bear all the Inconveniences of the Road here in consideration that having passed them over we shall arrive at Heaven a place which flows with continual Pleasures which shall last one eternal Sabbath where we shall celebrate one high and endless Festival of Joy and quench our Thirst after happiness in Rivers of it which are always streaming from the Right Hand of God Bear all the Pains which disordered Bodies or jarring Humours may now cause upon a firm Perswasion that Deut. 29. 5. our Bodies hereafter shall be no more annoyed by Diseases nor incommoded by our sensual Appetites nor impaired any more by an Eternal Age than the Israelites Cloathes and Shoes waxed Dan. 3. 27. old for Forty Years together in the Wilderness or the Three Childrens Coats or Hair which were not so much as singed in Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace V. Tertul. c. 58. de Resurrect though heated many degrees beyond ordinary For all this Priviledge and Immunity from whatever does Inconvenience our Body is imported in the Promise of the Bliss made by Isaiah or in the Description Isa 49. 16. of it by St. John in those who Rev. 7. 16. are the Possessors of it They neither hunger nor thirst nor Heat nor Sun 21. 4. falls on them any more all tears are wiped from their Eyes neither seeing any more than feeling any misery which may occasion them we should therefore chearfully carry about in our Bodies those Marks which the World reckons when it imprints them there Brands of Disgrace in consideration and firm hope that they shall be one day changed into Stars or Rays of Glory nay that Dan. 12. 3 our whole Bodies shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament for evermore Mat. 13. 43 or as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father be like the glorious Body of our Lord that is now seated at the Phil. 3. 21. right hand of Majesty in the highest Heavens whose Face on Earth when but transfigured on the Mount shone like that Luminary in its Meridian Vigour The Martyrs and Confessors had this consideration of the happiness of another Life the Joys of Heaven they set God before their Eyes as their great Reward look'd up with an Eye of Faith to Jesus who stood ready to Crown them with the Glory that he himself had and this made them rather enjoy than suffer those Torments which were preparatory to infinite and eternal Pleasures and Honours count their Prisons fair Pallaces and esteem their Chains as Bracelets and Ornaments as Ignatius did This made them embrace the Cross the Gibbet the Scaffold with as much Chearfulness as dear and cordial Friends do one another after a long Absence looking upon them as so many several Ascents towards Thrones and those in their native Country from whence they came as Stairs by which they were to go up to the Gates of the Heavenly Palace and have admission there this made them hasten to their Execution with as much speed as ever Conquerors in any Games to receive the Prize they had won because they look'd upon it as that which put them into an immediate Capacity of obtaining a Crown of Glory Thus St. Cyprian with such a quickness closed his own Eyes in order to receive the Fatal Stroke as seem'd to chide the Executioners slow delay So Moses and
Prosperity not born with Moderation and the difficulty of bearing it so will help toward the patient enduring Adversity danger of Prosperity if it be not born with Moderation and the great Difficulty and almost Impossibility of so bearing it will wonderfully contribute towards the supporting our selves under Adversity with Patience It 's a Glorious and Heroick Act of Virtue to combat the Temptations of a happy Estate as St. Augustine hath very well observed and it 's a rare and a well nigh singular Happiness not to be overcome by them It s hard to flow in Pleasures and Delights and not to have our Minds softned by them or melted into Luxury to have Honours heap'd upon us and not to have our Brains turn'd round with them to abound in Wealth and not Idolize it this is as hard as to sail in a Cock-boat with a Sheet aluff and not be over-set It s scarce possible to be at ease and not to grow fowl in our Minds with Vice as well as in our Bodies by an abundance of Humours which will gather there Idleness and fullness of Bread ingendred in Sodom Ezech. 16. 49. Pride and that other Sin which is called by her Name This is as little possible as it is for Wine to stand in the same Vessel that was filled from the Press without being rack'd off and not to have Lees or not to taste of the Cask if it was never transvasated Moab saith God Jer. 48. 11. by the Prophet denouncing her Transportation into Captivity hath been at ease from his youth up and he hath setled upon his Lees and hath not been emptied from Vessel to Vessel neither hath he gone into Captivity Therefore his taste remained in him and his scent is not changed Petrarch writing to Azo an unfortunate but brave Prince of Parma both for his Consolation and Instruction after he had contested the Opinion of Aristotle That its harder to bear sad and lamentable Accidents than to abstain from Delights and Pleasures And that of Seneca to Lucilius That it 's a greater thing to wade through Difficulties than to moderate ones self in Success and Prosperity alledges for an Argument against them the Paucity of those who have put the Bridle on their Passions and govern'd themselves with Evenness when they have been afflicted I have seen many said he who have born Losses Poverty Banishment Imprisonment Torments Death and Diseases worse than Death with Constancy but I never yet saw any who in Wealth and Honour and Power kept the same equal Mind Prosperity usually makes us in the first place unmindful of God and the ungrateful Rebels against him Jeshurun Deut. 32. 13 14 15. Israel fed with honey out of the rock butter of Kine and milk of Sheep the fat of Lambs and Rams of the best and largest breed of Bashan the fat of the kidneys of Wheat and the pure blood of the Grape waxed fat and kik'd against God forsook him who made him and lightly regarded the rock of his Salvation A part of the same People viz. Judah Jer. 5. 27 28. when they were became great and waxen rich when they were fat and shined pass'd over the great Offices of Justice judg'd not the Cause of the Fatherless nor the right of the Widow Nebuchadnezzar in his heighth forgat himself and the hand of that Almighty Power which exalted him Is not this great Babylon that I have Dan. 4. 31. built for the house of my Kingdom by the might of my Power and for the honour of my Majesty Nor did he recover a sound Mind and a right sence of himself and things below till he had been try'd in Affliction till he had been turn'd a grazing with the Beasts of the Field It intoxicates and makes us drunk and when it hath thus bereft us of our Reason we degenerate into Fools and with the Confidence of Fools say Our Hill is so strong that it shall never be moved at any time when by and by its overturned or swallowed up by an Earthquake Hannibal wisely observed Liv. Dic. 3 l. 30. in the Carthaginian Senate That Men seldom had good Fortune and a good Understanding together And his Observation was no doubt grounded upon this Reason That Mens Understandings are almost naturally however generally corrupted with Success The wise Man from his manifold Experience Prov. 1. 23. hath predicted that Destruction will be the inevitable Consequence of Prosperity when it happens to be the lot of Men who have not the Dexterity to make right use of it and few there are that have it The Prosperity of Fools shall slay them It smiles in our Faces and gives us Promises and Assurances of her Constancy and then treacherously deserts us and takes our Enemies part blows fair for us and immediately chops about to a quite contrary point lulls us asleep in a state of Security as Dalilah did Samson on her Lap and then as she after she had awakened him delivered him up into the hands of his cruel Enemies the Philistines so this when she hath enervated us rendred us so feeble that we cannot stand against the lightest Fillip gives us over to some of the rudest Shocks of Adversity For Men dandled in the Arms of good Fortune and constantly nourish'd with its Milk from their Infancy as they are therefore the nearer to some great Alteration and if wise ought to apprehend themselves to be in that danger so are they the most unable to away with the smallest change of Dyet or to bear the least degree of Calamity Had Felicity but this Inconvenience alone that it lets a Person see but one half part of the World and that the falsest viz. Flatterers and hides from his Knowledge the most valuable or rather that which can never be valued enough a true Friend for Troubles and well-nigh only those open our Eyes and afford us a true Light to discern between a meer Pretender to that Title and one that is really such and the Sincerity of Friendship and it's Fineness like that of Metals in Fire is best tryed in the Furnace of Adversity yet this were enough to make us afraid of it as the occasion of of marvellous Mischiefs This is such an excellent part of Knowledge that Philosophy appearing to Boetius endeavoured to hold up his Boeth de Consolà t l. 2. pro. 8. Spirit ready to sink under the weight of his Misfortunes with this Consideration At what rate said she to him expostulating and arguing the case would you have purchas'd this piece of Knowledge when you stood whole and entire which you have gain'd by being broken and ruin'd Cease therefore your Grief and silence your Complaints for your Losses who by means of them have found the richest Treasure that of knowing your Friends Had Job found his such he would not have deplored his Calamity at the rate he did but this was the aggravation of it that his Friends were deceitful as Brooks caused by
must strive we must fight before we can be capable of being Crown'd go through much Tribulation before we can enter into Joy As they who were arrayed in White Robes the Habit Rev. 14. 4. and Emblem of Festivity and Triumph did This is the Order and but a reasonable one and such as is observed in all humane Institutions that the Performance of the Exercise should precede the dispensing of the Reward And after the observance of this he hath bound himself by his Word by his Solemn Promise by his Oath to make us that Recompence mentioned which in great Condescension to us and for our encouragement to suffer for so great an one he hath put his making us a Retribution though we can never deserve it by our Sufferings so altogether improportionable to it upon natural Equity as it were It is a righteous 2 Thess 1. 6 7. thing with God saith the Apostle writing to the Thessalonians to recompense to you who are troubled Rest He seems to make it the same Degree of Righteousness to deal so with him as to deal so with them as to recompense Tribulation to those who troubled them I have fought a good fight 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. saith the same Apostle meaning according to the acceptance of the Appointer not the strict Laws of the Combat I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not unto me only but unto all those that love his appearing Indeed was the Acquest of that Kingdom that Sovereignty that Crown and the obtaining that Rest free from all Disquiet and Turmoil to which all Crowns here are absolute Strangers and so much the greater Strangers as they are greater in the Compass to be made without suffering any Labour or Pains or running any Danger without one drop of Sweat or Blood the easiness of gaining them was enough to sink them so low in our Esteem as to make them despicable and so consequently to deprive us of them when from being lessened and slighted in our Thoughts they would come to be judged not worth contending for or indeed looking after For it is the Fate of all things which are easily procurable to be undervalued let their intrinsick Worth be what it will or as great as can be while on the other hand that which is vile in it self and of no Benefit but what fond and false Opinion supposeth if it be far fetch'd and dear bought with Travel and Hazard is usually priz'd at a great and excessive rate If then we are ambitious of Reigning aspire after Kingdoms and Crowns and Scepters which may be had without Injustice to any though not without Violence to our selves are desirous of Happiness or pant after a place of Rest and would have these Passions satisfied by an agreeable Gratification we must fight the good fight of Afflictions and sustain endure the Fight as becometh good Soldiers with Patience because the obtaining of those and thereby our everlasting Content depends upon this We are to carry our Consideration S. 7. § 4. We are to consider them not only as sent from Divine Justice but by his Clemency to reform us and prevent the inflicting more terrible ones yet higher than looking upon them as the necessary Attendants and Consequences of Humane Life of our Christian Calling and as Terms that we submitted unto when we entred upon it and view them under another Light regarding them what they oft-times are as the Result and Indications of Divine Favour rather than the Effects and Tokens of his Displeasure that they are sent to assist us to come to a right knowledge of our selves for the vigorous Confirmation of our Virtues which would languish and decay were they not raised and quickned by such Contests for the Approbation of them by himself after such a Trial and the Recommendation of them as Examples to the imitation of others A Heathen Philosopher saw the necessity of some such Perswasion as this towards the patient supporting of Evil Accidents when he adviseth Men in those cases to make these or the like Reflections and cautions us when we see good Men haled to Prison or shipt for Transportation their Powers small and their Fortunes scanty or perhaps to have neither of those at all or perhaps fastned to a sick and painful Bed altogether against imagining that their ill circumstances proceed from God's Anger or are the Marks of it because as he with great Sobriety of Reason and perhaps with a better of Religion than many Christians argues That Goodness V. Sen. c. 2. de Provid Arian l. 3. c. 24. p. 343 ad Cant. in the Deity which restrains him from hating the worst will not allow him to abhor and detest the best of Men or how can his Providence leave the most considerable neglected or unregarded when his Care condescends to watch over the least and meanest of his most numerous Family We are to look upon Afflictions as sent by him rather to reform us and make us better for the time to come than to punish us for what 's passed and done amiss or if sent to punish us with a Retrospect to Crimes committed yet as sent in part only for that end and purpose being sent part likewise in loving kindness to prevent his being necessitated to commissionate more heavy and dreadful Punishments if we should go on in sin For the Sufferings of this Life are intended as Warnings to make us break off the course of our Sins and to turn unto him as the only way we can take to escape eternal Torments Blessed is Psal 94. 12 the man saith the Psalmist whom thou chastnest and teachest him out of thy Law that thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity that he may not perish with the World We are to believe he makes use of Adversity and Troubles and bodily Diseases and Pains as Chyrurgions do of their Incision Knives their Saws their Lances their Causticks not as delighted with the Cruelty of mangling lopping wounding searing burning but because they find a necessity of taking those Methods for the saving of their Patients Life So that what seems Cruelty to his Person proceeds from a tender regard to the Preservation of it For while a corrupted or gangreened Bas T. 4. Hom. 7. Limb is thus handled it 's in pity to the rest of the Body which by this means is saved from the Contagion and spreading Infection of that part and consequently from perishing thereby Or as Physicians prescribe a Dose of Aloes Rhubarb Scammony Gentian or some such disagreeable Drugs to be taken in Pills or Potions not that they love to chagrine their Patients but kindly design to recover them out of a disorderly habit of Body to a right state of Health by those Salutary although disaffecting Receipts The Reflection of Tertullian on the dangerousness of his
it into Consideration and do us right upon our potent Enemies able to extinguish all sparks of Revenge and to check and stifle all desires after it or even prevent the rising of any such Thoughts as may meditate upon making such an Attempt Will not this well ponder'd be enough to make the warmest or those who are the quickest to resent an Injury or the promptest to return it wait quietly God's good time for the doing his own Work i. e. The executing Vengeance upon those who do them wrong without taking it out of his hands by a precipitate carving out of Justice to themselves since their Adversaries if they will permit God to be the Judge between them will be sure to suffer from him infinitely more in degree and duration than they with all their heat and rage of Revenge could possibly inflict on them Common Experience teacheth us Tertul. de Pat. c. 10. 165. that Princes and Masters of Families are not well-pleased that their Subjects or Servants should be their own Justiciaries do themselves right upon their Fellow-Subjects or Servants so they falsly call their taking Revenge of them Nay they oft punish their forward Insolence in this while they are ready on the other hand to give them ample Satisfaction for Abuses or Wrongs done them if with respect to their Commands and Pleasure they put them up in silence and quietness without making or endeavouring a return and are content to refer the Estimate and Reparation of them to their Judgment and Sentence In like manner our Heavenly King and supreme Master takes it better and kinder at the hands of us his Subjects and Servants that we should so deport our selves in his great Kingdom and Family the World submit the Injuries we may receive from others to his Taxation and Compensation of them And depend we may upon the Security of his Word and Justice that if we decline the taking Vengeance our selves out of respect to him whose peculiar and unalienable Prerogative Vengeance is and devolve the Cognizance of them to his Judicature That the righteous Judge will decree us a Satisfaction for our Dammages far exceeding that we could take adjudge us Reparations not only above them but above what we can ask or think i. e. above all comparison since there is nothing that is pleasing but we have the confidence to ask and not any one thing simply possible but we have Faculties to conceive or imagine it Considering this O my Soul why shouldst thou be cast down Or why shouldst thou be so disquieted within me upon every imaginary Neglect supposed Affront misconstrued Word or ill-interpreted Carriage of thy Neighbour Why shouldst thou hereupon swell with Indignation against him and project as far as the Storm of thy Anger will permit thee to think or invent how thou mayst be upon even terms and quit Scores with him But why shouldst thou do this if the Injury and Mischief was real if there was the oppression of the Enemy in the case Will not the meditation that this unless repented of will fall upon his own head and that God will make thee the largest Retribution thou canst imagine or wish for if thou art not overcome of Evil calm thy boysterous Passions of Anger and Revenge and make thee bear even the greatest Outrages without studying a requital thy self or desiring any other than that which he will make thee Will not this Thought That the 1 Pet. 4. ungodly and the sinner who set themselves against thee shall appear in Judgment for this where they shall not be able to stand have power enough to prevail with thee to commend thy Soul while thou sufferest ill and doest well to the keeping of God as a faithful Creator Socrates upheld himself with Patience Teetnl de Anim. c. 4. upon this Consideration meerly that he suffered unjustly For when his Wife bewailed his Condemnation as illegal he replyed congratulating himself that it was so And what would you have had me justly Sentenced But may be this will be reckon'd but a small Advantage or scarce any at all that the Righteous Judge shall vindicate our oppressed Innocency and punish our injurious Adversary and yet this is of Consolation to us in many cases under filthy and reproachful Language or contumelious Usage that we can take a course with the Authors of these and that that Court of Justice will give us at least this amends that it will punish them and may be an Inducement to make us put them up quietly on the consideration of such a Satisfaction if there was no other traduced as the meditation of Revenge only deferred to another World And therefore I am to acquaint you S. 7. § 6. N. 2. He will amply reward us in the Second place that there are ample positive Advantages behind that besides the calling our Oppressors and Persecutors to an account and the severe punishing them he will make us ample Satisfaction and largely recompense us for our Sufferings He who condescends to make himself our Debtor will not be barely just and make a simple Restitution of what we laid down on his account or commended to his Trust our Name our Goods our Health our Lives restore our good Name make up our Losses cure our Diseases raise up our Lives but will prove our bountiful Benefactor and as he is immensely rich make us a superabundant Remuneration for them He will make us a thousand-fold Retribution for Houses and Lands Brethren or Kindred parted with for his Names sake or if we take the being spoiled of these though on another account patiently and submissively out of respect to the Will of God whose pleasure it is it should be so and Obedience to his Command enjoyning us this Demeanour he will restore us a hundred-fold either more than the Principal by way of Use or else a hundred-fold more in worth and value than the Principal and that in this Life in giving us the Blessings of inward Peace and Comfort and Joy and a hundred times more than a hundred-fold in another Life by giving us the possession of an eternal Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven His Son the same with himself hath entred into this Engagement Every one who hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother Mat. 19. 21 or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive a hundred-fold and inherit everlasting Life which is much more than a hundred-fold Retribution or the hundred-fold Retribution is infinitely multiplied beyond it self by being made everlasting The Tribulations of this World if with patience we pass through them shall bring us at last to the Kingdom of God under whom we shall be invested Acts 14. in the chief Dignities of that place The Vale of Tears to a Religion of ever-flowing Joys and the Vale of the Shadow of Death to the everlasting Hills The being tried and enduring the Trial yea the enduring that but a small time