sinful yet there is the greatest reason to justify him and accuse our selves much more when our Punishment is far below our Deserts Humility is the Mother of Meekness they are Graces of the same Complexion and Features Our Saviour in the order of the Beatitudes first declared Blessed are the poor in Spirit that have a low conceit of themselves as nothing in Spirituals and worse than nothing in Sin as empty of all that is Holy and Good and compounded of all Evil And Blessed are those that mourn in a sence of their Sins And then Blessed are the Meek And these are very congruously joyned for Meekness is a Disposition inseparable from the other He that duly considers himself to be a wretched Creature a worthless Rebel and is humbly and sorrowfully affected for his unworthiness his Passions will be subdued and as melted Metal receives any form so he patiently suffers what God inflicts A broken Heart is an acceptable Sacrifice to God and implies a tender sense of Sin as the Offence and Dishonour of the holy and gracious God in allusion to a broken Bone that has an exquisite sense of any hurt And it may be extended to signify a Heart that is compliant and submissive to God's Will in allusion to a Horse that is broken and easily managed by the Reins of the Rider Contrition for Sin is always joyned with Resignation to the chastizing Providence of God Besides Godly Sorrow will lessen natural Sorrow Sin first deserves our Grief and the sharpest accents of our Lamentation should be placed upon it and the more sensible we are of it the lighter will Affliction be to us As the opening a Vein stops by Revulsion a flux of Blood in another part so the turning the Stream of Sorrow from Affliction to Sin is a powerful means to make it cease There is Health in the bitterness of Physick and Joy in the depth of this Sadness Briefly Repentance inclines the Heart of God and opens his tender compassions to the Afflicted We have an admirable example of this in the case of afflicted Ephraim upon his Penitential complaint the expression of his Grief and shame for his Sin God graciously answers Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have Mercy on him saith the Lord. When the relenting Sinner is covered with Tears the great Comforter descends and brings healing to the troubled Waters this advice is more necessary for the Afflicted because usually the stroaks of Providence are properly a Reproof and Correction for Sin the application of a Corrosive implies that some corrupt matter is to be discharged God is provoked by their neglects and though Love cannot hate it may be angry and without renewing their Repentance and recovering his Favour their Afflictions are very uncomfortable 'T is extreamly sad to feel the sting of a guilty Conscience within and the displeasure of God without The Burthen is heavy and oppressing that is laid upon a wounded Back It is therefore our best Wisdom and Duty to search our Hearts and try our Ways that we may discover what is the procuring cause of our Troubles and turn unfeignedly to the Lord. This will endear Afflicted Souls to God and incline him to afford gracious supports to them It is true sometimes our Sufferings are designed for Trial especially when they are for Righteousness sake Counterfeit Coin though with a fair Stamp and Inscription is discovered by the Fire thus meer titular Christians specious Hypocrites are made known by Persecutions but true substantial Gold endures the Fire without loss and the more 't is tryed the more 't is refined Thus the true Christian whom neither the gain of the World nor the loss of Life can remove from the stedfast owning of the Holy Truth has a clear manifestation of his Sincerity And it is a peculiar favour and honour when God calls forth his Servants to the hardest Trials for his Names sake 't is the noblest way of Service a special Conformity to the Son of God more glorious than the resembling his power in doing Miracles In this the Saints here have a capacity of serving God above the Angels for the obedience of the Angels is always joined with their Happiness but the obedience of the Saints here is often attended with Adversity and is more valuable to them upon that account As a Soldier of Courage and Generosity when he is chosen from the rest of the Army for some bold Exploit values the choice of the General as a signal mark of the esteem of his Valour and Fidelity To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer for Christ's sake This is just matter of Joy Innocence with the faithful companion of it a good Conscience makes our Sufferings from the rage and violence of Men to be comfortable There may be a Feast within the House when a Storm of Hail rattles upon the Tiles But it is sometimes so ordered by Divine Providence that the Evils we suffer are of a mixt nature partly Chastisements and partly Trials This was the case of the Believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle directs his Counsel their Persecution was from the unrighteous Pagans for a cause purely Religious but 't was permitted by the righteous God as a punishment for their Sins And here the Divine Wisdom and Goodness is admirable that the same Affliction is instrumental for the purifying of his Servants from Sin and the advancement of his glorious Gospel The first and most immediate effect of his Discipline is the humbling and sanctifying them to prepare them for his Love by which they are fortified to bear couragiously the worst Evils for his sake Direct 6. Apply the Mind to consider the Blessings we receive as well as the Evils we endure Whilst the intence Thoughts are fixt upon the Cross the Soul is rackt with inward Tortures but did we turn our Eyes upon our Enjoyments and the Comforts that are interwoven with our Troubles it would be a means not only to compose us to Patience but Thankfulness The Apostle directs us to trust in the Living God who giveth all things richly to enjoy In the poorest and lowest state of Life we have many Favours and effects of his rich Bounty and it is the ignorance of our deservings and of our enjoyments that causeth Discontent and Murmuring under our Troubles Particularly this Consideration will be effectual to repress the Discontent that is apt to kindle in our Breasts upon the sight of the different Dispensations of Providence that some are exempted from the current Adversities of the World and live in ease and pleasure whilst we are deprived of many outward Comforts Suppose a Sick person in extream Poverty were received by a rich and liberal Lord into his House and convenient Food and precious Medicines were provided for him without his desert or
l. 11. for their subtilty r. stability Page 120. l. 10. for now Joseph r. now that Joseph THE GREAT DUTY OF Resignation Matth. 26. 39. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt THE Words are our Saviour's Prayer at his private Passion in the Garden In Paradise was the first Scene of Man's Sin and in a Garden the first Scene of Christ's Sorrows He was now in the near view of his extream Sufferings the fatal hour approach'd when he was to die with all the concurrent circumstances of Shame and Cruelty His Nature was Humane and Holy and therefore apprehensive of Misery and the Wrath of God In this Exigency He fell on his Face a posture of humble Reverence and with earnestness prayed saying O my Father an expression of his stedfast Trust in the Love of God If it be possible not with respect to his Absolute Power for by that he could easily have preserved him but with respect to his Sovereign Pleasure and Eternal Decree Let this Cup pass from me that implies a compleat Deliverance from the rage of the Powers of Darkness and of the perverted World in conjunction with them He suffered innocent Nature to act as Nature for he submitted to our Infirmities but without our Imperfections Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt His Petition was qualified with an Act of Submission the desire of his Nature that recoil'd from such Sufferings was over-ruled by the resignation of Grace There was no repugnancy but a subordination between the Sensitive Will and the rational Will directed by his Mind that foresaw the blessed effects of his Sufferings the Glory of God with the Salvation of lost Mankind And that just horror with the strong aversion of his Nature from such a terrible Death renders his willingness more conspicuous and meritorious As Man the apprehension of it put him into an Agony but as Mediatour by a firm resolution and clear choice he submitted to it Now the example of our suffering Saviour lays an obligation on us to transcribe his Copy his Titles in Scripture declare both his Eminency and Exemplariness He is our Head and our Leader the Captain of our Salvation whom we are bound to follow in taking up our Cross His Sufferings were designed not only for our Redemption but for our Instruction and Imitation What he commands as God he perform'd as Man that we might voluntarily yield up our selves to the Holiness and Equity of his Law Thus from the patern of our Saviour's Deportment the point of Doctrine is this The entire resignation of our Wills to the disposing Will of God is the indispensible Duty of Christians under the sharpest Afflictions In the explication and proof of this Point I shall I. Consider what is consistent with this Resignation II. What is implied in it III. The Reasons to convince us of this Duty of resigning of our selves and all our Interests to God and then apply it I will first Consider what is consistent with this voluntary Resignation That will appear in the following particulars First an earnest deprecation of an impending Judgment is reconcilable with our Submission to the pleasure of God declared by the Event Our Saviour with humility and importunity desired the removing of the Cup of Bitterness We must distinguish between God's Law and his Decree and Counsel The Law is the Rule of our Duty and requires an intire exact subjection in all our Faculties even in our internal Desires in the first motions of the Will the least velleity or rising of the Heart against the Divine Command is irregular and culpable for not only the acts of Sin are forbidden in every Command respectively but all the incitations of Concupiscence before the deliberate judgment of the Mind or the actual consent of the Will But the Decree of God is not the Rule of our Duty and Secret till manifested by the event of things This being premised the Reasons are evident why we may pray against an Affliction that threatens us without violating our Duty First Because Afflictions are Evils which the Will naturally declines and are not desirable things in themselves They are not beneficial and productive of our good by any proper efficacy and operation but by the over-ruling Providence of God and the gracious assistance of his Spirit When Aaron's Rod was put into the Sanctuary and became green and flourishing with Blossoms and Almonds 't was not from any inherent vertue of its own but from the special influence of the Divine Power for the other Rods remained dead and dry thus the happy effects of the Afflicting Rod are from Divine Grace Secondly There are proper Temptations that attend the afflicted State Many are encompass'd in a sad Circle their Sins procure Afflictions and their Afflictions occasion many Sins Indeed Tribulation that is sanctified by a happy gradation worketh Patience and Patience Experience of the Divine Mercy and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed But when it meets with a stubborn Spirit there are fearful descents of Sin Tribulation excites Impatience and Impatience causeth Perplexity and that Despair and Despair Confusion The Devil lays his trains in every condition and sometimes by immoderate Sorrow sometimes by inordinate Joy doth mischief to the Soul And as more perish by Surfeits than Abstinence yet the Diseases that are caused by emptiness are more dangerous and incurable than those that proceed from fulness So more are ruined by Prosperity than Adversity But the guilty Passions that ferment and rage in Adversity are more pernicious and more hardly temper'd and subdued than the Luxurious Appetites that are fomented and drawn forth by Prosperity We are directed by our Saviour to pray that we may not be led into Temptation and to be delivered from all Evil. Secondly a mournful sense of Afflictions sent from God is consistent with a dutiful resignation of our selves to his Will 'T was the vain boast of the Philosophers that their Instructions would fortify Men with such magnanimous Principles and generous Spirits as with an equal calm tranquillity of Mind to encounter all the fierce and sorrowful Accidents to which they might be exposed here They speak high against Fortune and Fate and resolve stubbornly that no misery whether Poverty or Disgrace Torments or Death should extort from them a confession that it was Misery 'T was one of their Axioms That a Wise Man is not subject to the vicissitudes and instability of things here below That he suffers no conflict of contrary Passions in his Breast that he is always above in the Serene where no Tempests can disturb no Eclipse can darken his Mind But these proud pretensions were empty of reality Indeed such a perfect exemption from all afflicting Passions is neither possible nor regular in our present state not possible for
the best Men are not all Spirit but united to Flesh and when the Body is under strong pains the Soul suffers in its sufferings and while we are thus compounded the loss of those Comforts that support and sweeten the present Life must cause Grief 'T is easy to utter brave Expressions and lay down severe Precepts in contempt of Evils when they are at a distance but hard to sustain the Spirit under the actual feeling of them 't is one thing to discourse of a Battel and another to be engaged in the heat of it But supposing by a Philosophical Charm the Heart were so hardned as to be proof against the most piercing afflictions such a forced insensibility is not regular but proceeds from the extinction of Humanity and Piety and that will appear by considering Afflictions in a natural or moral respect First in a natural respect for so they are destructive or oppressive Evils and a pensive feeling of them is suitable to the Law of our Creation for the Humane Nature is framed with such Senses and Passions as according to God's intention should be affected suitably to the quality of their objects and if the Soul acts rationally 't is moved accordingly A Saint on Earth is not a Saint in Heaven raised above all Disasters and Troubles freed from all hurtful impressions from without and sorrowful impressions within but is liable to afflicting evils And it is becoming his Duty to have his passions pliable to his condition but without excess the Eyes must not be drown'd nor dry but tenderly affected Secondly Considered in a moral respect as they are sent from the high and just Providence of God it is absolutely necessary there should be an humble resentment of his Displeasure This is a consequent of the former for if our affections are seared up that we do not feel the stroke how shall we regard the hand that smites us If we are not sensible of Affliction we are secure in our Sins Natural Sorrow is introductive of Godly Sorrow There are two extreams to be avoided by the afflicted according to the direction of Solomon in the person of Wisdom and repeated by the Apostle My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Some are discouraged and over-born by Afflictions as insupportable others are stubborn and careless and never lay them to heart they never look upward to the original efficient Cause an Offended God nor inward to the impulsive deserving Cause their Sins but esteem them fortuitous Events that happen in this mutable state without a design to correct and reform Sinners or to proceed from a blind necessity things of course or meerly regard the second Causes and Instruments of their Troubles accordingly when they meet with Calamities all their care is by a perverse shift to seek for relief onely in Temporal Comforts without serious applying themselves to God whose end in sending Troubles is to reclaim us from Sin to Holiness from Earth to Heavens from the Creatures to himself This secret Atheism like a benumming Opium stupifies the Conscience and the insensibility of God's hand inflicting Evils is as different from Christian Patience and Constancy as a mortal Lethargy is from the quiet soft Sleep of Health Nothing kindles his Anger more than neglecting it 't is equally provoking with the despising of his Love It is a symptom of a wretched state of Soul if there proceed no sighs and groans no signs of grief from the sense of God's displeasure it is a sad evidence there is no Spiritual Life Indolence under the effects of God's Anger is like the stilness of the Dead Sea whose Calm is a Curse The Jews tho intitled the People of God are deeply charg'd for this prodigious Madness O Lord thou hast struck them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. We have whole Quarries of such obdurate Wretches amongst us this impenitent disregard of God's hand is a dreadful presage of future and more heavy Judgments Who ever hardned himself against the Lord and prospered Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he The most refractory Sinner he can compel to acknowledg with bitter lamentations his Wickedness and weakness how unable he is to contend with his Judge But supposing a respite from Punishment here there is an Hell prepared for stubborn Sinners where is Weeping and Wailing for ever Whom the Rods do not awaken the Scorpions shall Secondly I shall now proceed to explicate what is included in the resignment of our selves to God in times of Affliction This will be made evident by considering the leading powers and faculties which Grace sanctifies and works in according to their natural subordination The Understanding approves the severest dispensations of Providence to be good that is for reasons though sometimes unsearchable yet always righteous and for gracious ends to the Saints When Hezekiah heard the heavy Prophecy that all his Treasures should be carried to Babylon and his Royal Progeny should become Slaves there he said to Isaiah Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken His sanctified Mind acknowledged it to be a just Correction of his vain Pride and quietly submitted to it And as there is a satisfaction of Mind in the rectitude so in the graciousness of his Proceedings The misapprehension and mis-belief of God's design in afflicting causeth Impatience and Murmuring but when the Mind is convinced that he afflicts us for our Benefit that Bodily Diseases are Medicinal Advantages the remedies of the Soul that the losses of Earthly Comforts prepare us for Divine Enjoyments that the way which is sowed with Thorns and watered with Tears leads to Heaven the Heart is compliant with the sharpest methods of Providence But these things will be more fully opened under the several heads of Arguments to enforce the Duty This Resignment principally consists in the consent and subjection of the Will to the Orders of Heaven The Will is an imperious Faculty naturally impatient of opposition to its Desires and we pay the highest honour to God in the lowest submission of our Wills to his Appointments 'T is true the Will cannot make a direct choice of Evil nor love Afflictions but the Holy Spirit by a powerful Operation so disposeth it as to renounce its own inclinations when discordant with the Will of God And the more humble ready and entire the Submission is the more difficult and harsh the denial of our natural desire is the more supernatural Grace shines and is acceptable It is the perfection of Holiness to do what God loves and to love what God does There is a rare example of this in David's carriage when under his greatest Affliction 't was in his flight from his Son Absalom who endeavoured to deprive him of
we may feel the blessed influence of it more effectually let us consider that divine Providence extends to the whole Creation 'T is infinite and over-ruling all things God is pleased to represent it in Scripture according to the narrowness of our Capacity As Elisha contracted himself to the stature of the Shunamites Child applying his Mouth to his Mouth and his Hands to his Hands Thus 't is said He rides upon the Heavens to signify his absolute power in ordering all the motions of the most high vast and glorious part of the visible Universe He telleth the number of the Stars he calleth them all by their Names The Stars are the brightest and most active parts of the vast Region above us and are called the Host of Heaven with respect to their Number and Order God is their General and tho they seem innumerable to our Senses yet the multitude is exactly known to him and yields ready and entire Obedience to his Pleasure From whence the Psalmist infers Great is the Lord and of great Power his Understanding is infinite There is nothing in the lower World exempted from the Empire and Activity of God's Providence He is unmoveable and moves all invisible yet appears in all The most casual things are not without his Guidance A Man drew a Bow at a venture without express Aim but God directed the Arrow through the Joints of Ahab's Armour that penetrated to the Springs of Life The minutest and least considerable things are ordered by him A Sparrow does not fly or fall without his Disposal 'T is not an Hyperbolical Expression of our Saviour but an absolute Truth That all the Hairs of our Head are numbred and not one falls to the Ground without his Licence The voluntary and most indetermin'd causes of things are under his Conduct The Hearts of Men even of Kings that are most absolute and unconfin'd are in the Hand of the Lord he turns them according to his Pleasure as the streams of Water are by several Trenches conveyed to refresh a Garden by the Skilful Husbandman Sin that is the most disorderly thing in the World is not only within the compass of his Permission but is limited and disposed by his Providence And such is his Goodness that he would not permit it if his Power could not over-rule that Evil for a Good that preponderates the Evil. And all afflictive Evils by his own Declaration are the effects of his just and powerful Providence Is there any evil in the City and I have not done it His Providence is comprehensive and complete no unforeseen Accidents in the freest and most contingent things no unvoluntary obstruction in the most necessary things can break the intireness or discompose the order of his Providence The Lord is in Heaven he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and in Earth in the Sea and all the deep places How exactly and easily does he manage and over-rule all things The whole World is his House and all the successive Generations of Men his Family some are his Sons and by voluntary subjection others his Slaves and by just constraint fulfil his Pleasure 'T was the saying of a Wise King instructed by Experience that the Art of Government was like the laborious Travel of a Weaver that requires the attention of the Mind and the activity of the Body the Eyes Hands and Feet are all in exercise And how often is the contexture of Human Counsels though woven with great care yet unexpectedly broke So many cross Accidents interpose so many emergencies beyond all prevention start up that frustrate the Designs and Hopes of the most Potent Rulers of this World But God disposes all things with more facility than one of us can move a grain of Sand the Government of the World has a less proportion to his Infinite Wisdom and uncontrollable Power than a grain of Sand hath to the strength of a Man His Counsel shall always stand all second Causes depend upon him in their Beings their agency and influences Nothing is executed in this visible Kingdom below but by express Order from his invisible Court and all Occurrences are made use of for the accomplishing the designs of his Electing Mercy in the glorification of his Saints Now all that is comfortable and reviving is contained in this Principle If his Providence reaches to the Birds of the Air and the Lillies of the Field much more to the Saints in whom he hath a propriety and such is his condescending Love and inconceivable benignity that he stiles himself by the most endearing relation their God They are the prime part of his vigilant care 'T is St. Austin's affectionate ejaculation O Omnipotent Goodness that so particularly regardest every one of us as if the sole objects of thy tender care and all of us as single persons The Sun applies its quickening influences for the production and growth of a single Plant as particularly as if there were no other things in the World to receive them yet at the same time it passes from Sign to Sign in the Heavens changes the Scenes of the Elements produces new Seasons and its active and prolifick heat forms and transforms whatsoever is changed in Nature This is a fit resemblance of the universal and special operations of Divine Providence what a strong security doth this give to a Christian in the midst of all Trouble in this corrupt and changeable World How will it clear the mind from those miserable perplexities and quiet those improvident precipitant Passions that so often afflict the afflicted Whatever Evils befal the Saints are with the Knowledg the Will and by the efficiency of God materially considered and is he defective in Wisdom Power or Goodness that what he does either might or ought to be better otherwise Indeed sometimes the special ends of his Afflicting Providence are in such deep obscurity that our Line is too short to fathom and the manner how good shall result from Evil is unknown but then we may conclude with evidence 't is for the best When Caesarius a Primitive Saint was arguing in himself how that Scripture could be true that the Earth was founded on the Waters how the more weighty Element should not sink and be overwhelmed by the other he stopt the course of his Thoughts by this reflection I forgat my self when I said to God how can this be and admires that which he could not comprehend For inferiour reasons we often pray that particular Evils that are near may be prevented but if they overtake us we may be satisfied that they are appointed by his supreme Reason and Everlasting Counsel As in a Consort of Musick the parts are not formed when they are sung but were composed before by the skill of the Musician and every part assign'd convenient to the Voices of the Persons Thus the various conditions and passages of our lives were so disposed by the Sovereign Wisdom of God from Eternity and as
his Kingdom and Life And the King said unto Zadock the Priest Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall find favour in his eyes he will bring me again and shew me both it and his Habitation but if he shall say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him do to me as seems good unto him O happy frame his Spirit was so equally ballanced That if God would suffer a Rebel that violated the most tender and strict relations of a Son and Subject to a Gracious Father and Sovereign the Murtherer of his Brother and a Parricide in his desires to usurp his Throne he humbly submitted to it The Duty of Resignation consists in the composure of the Affections to a just measure and temper when under the sharpest Discipline Of the Passions some are tender and melting others are fierce and stormy and if a ponderous oppressing Evil happen or the loss of that good that was very pleasing they sometimes join together as the Clouds at the same time dissolve in Showers and break forth in Thunder and Lightning Now when sanctified Reason hath a due Empire over them and the Soul possesseth it self in Patience it is a happy effect of Resignation to the Divine disposal Of this we have an eminent instance in the afflicted Saint forementioned When David was so wickedly reproached by Shimei and Abishai fired with Indignation would presently have taken exemplary revenge by stopping his Breath for ever Should this dead Dog Curse my Lord the King Let me go over I pray thee and take off his Head How cool and calm was David's Spirit he felt no aestuations nor tumults within exprest no outragious complaints but said Let him Curse because the Lord hath said to him Curse David There is a twofold excess of the Sorrowful Affections in Troubles I. In the degrees of them II. In the continuance First In the degrees of them when they exceed their causes Afflictive things that deeply wound us are usually represented by the reflection of Sorrow with all the heightning Circumstances the Loss as unvaluable the Evil as intollerable As objects are greater than their true proportion when seen through a Mist so do Evils apprehended through Grief and after such a false judgment the Passions take their violent course and the Spirit sinks under overwhelming heaviness The Soul is disabled from performing what belongs to it with respect to the general and particular Calling and cannot with freedom wait upon God but neglects its duty and felicity 'T was the complaint of the afflicted Poet Hei mihi quod miseros prudentia prima relinquit The first effect of misery is black confusion in the thoughts that the Mind doth not distinctly consider and apply such things as would be effectual to mitigate or remove it Besides as when the Stream overflows the Channel it runs foul and turbid so immoderate Sorrow often causeth secret Discontent and Anger at the Almighty disquieting and tormenting risings of heart against his Providence All things are disordered and turbulent in the little and marvelous Monarchy of the Soul And such seeds of incitation are in our corrupt Nature that in the extremity of Anguish the furious Passions swell into a Storm and break the restraints of Reason and Grace Job in a hot fit expostulates strangely with God Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress He was a Holy Man and a Prophet who in the Paroxism of his Passion curst the day of his Birth Secondly There is an Excess in the continuance Deep Grief doth more arrest the Thoughts upon its object than the Affection of Joy doth The Mind is not so easily diverted from what afflicts as from what delights The main strain of the Soul is towards the mournful Object and in the midst of Comforts to support the fainting Spirts there still remains a sad remembrance of that which torments a swarm of stinging thoughts continually wound and inflame the Breast no Counsels prevail but the Soul is resolved in its grief and always restless with a bitter desire of what is irrecoverable Thus the Prophet describes the misery of Rachel weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not As some Venomous Creatures turn all that they eat into Poison so obstinate Sorrow takes occasion from every thing to encrease it self This consumes the strength and the Mourner lives only to feel his Misery and thinks Death too slow for him that was so precipitate for the person lamented Thus by the fixed contemplation of its Trouble the Soul is distracted from its heavenly Original and from pursuing its blessed End and indulgeth its Sorrow as if the loss of a Temporal Comfort were utterly undoing to it This obstinate grief is inconsistent with a resigned frame of Spirit Though in great Afflictions there will be a conflict of Nature and it is Wisdom to let Grief breath forth and have a passage yet Grace will asswage the Fury and limit the time by regarding the Will of God and by deriving from the Springs of Comfort above some inward refreshings when the Streams below totally fail I shall now propound the Arguments that will clearly convince us of this Duty of Resignation some of which are powerful to silence all rebellious Arguings and suppress all the transports of the Passions others to raise the drooping Spirits and incline the Heart to a calm yielding and compleat subjection to the Divine Will The first Argument ariseth from God's Original Supream Right in our Persons and all things we enjoy He is the Fountain of Being and produced us out the depth of our native nothing and made us little lower than the Angels He is the Author of all our Good the just and true Proprietor of all his Benefits From hence results his Sovereignty and Dominion over us which is declared in his Law and the dispensations of his Providence His Law is the Rule of our Lives and Actions his Governing Providence the Rule of our Sufferings and Passions There is indispensibly due a free and full Obedience to his Commands and an intire universal Resignation to the Orders of his Providence The enjoyment of all our Blessings is from his pure Goodness and rich Bounty which requires our humble and affectionate Thankfulness and his resumption of them should be entertained with a Holy and a Patient Submission He gives them freely and may recall them at his Pleasure In whatsoever instance his Will is declared we must with Humility and Meekness submit for he hath an equal Empire in disposing all things that are equally his own and we are bound by an equal Obedience to acknowledg his Dominion When Eli received the terrible message of the ruine of his Family the final excision of it from the dignity of the Priesthood he patiently submits It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good The meer desire of exemption from his over-ruling Will is a heinous Sin
and a stubborn uncompliance with it in the issues of things is direct Rebellion mixt with ingratitude obstructive to our present Peace and future Happiness If the Afflicted would for a while suspend their Tears and Sighs and with free Reason consider that what relation soever they had in their dearest Loss whether of a Father a Son of a Husband or Wife or any other amiable and passionate terms yet God hath a nearer right and juster claim in those Persons being his by the best Titles of Creation and Redemption it would silence murmurings and impatience and stop the scope of inordinate Sorrow Our Propriety in them was derived from his Favour and our Possession was depending on his Will for his Right in all his Creatures is unalienable This consideration was the foundation of Job's Patience when he was stript of all his outward Comforts how composed was he in his Mind how considerate in his words he reflects upon his Native Poverty Naked came I into the World and naked shall I return thither and Adores God's Dominion The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be his Name Add farther that which by immediate connection follows the consideration of the glorious Majesty of God and our natural meanness and unworthiness The distance and disproportion is so vast between him and us that we are not able to conceive the full and just Idea of his Excellent Greatness We are fain to assist our Minds in the Thoughts of God by sensible representations and to express our Conceptions by borrowed terms His Immensity by the Ocean his Eternity by the returning of a Circle into it self his Power by Thunder his Majesty by the Sun in its Meridian splendours As the flying Fishes Shoals of which are met in sailing to the Indies can fly no longer than their Wings remain moist when those Membranes are dry they cannot move and are forc'd to dip themselves again in the Sea that by softening them they may renew their Flight Thus when we ascend in our Minds to God we form no Conceptions but what take their rise from sensible things which infinitely fall short of his Perfections Who can fully understand the transcendent Excellencies of his Nature Who can describe what is ineffable and most worthy to be ador'd with silent admiration and extasy of Mind He dwells in that Light which is inaccessible the Angels the most comprehensive Spirits vail their faces in the presence of his Glory He is his own Original but without Beginning alone but not solitary one ever Blessed God yet communicates his intire Deity to the Son and Spirit he is not divided in number nor confused in Unity He is not compell'd by Necessity nor chang'd by Liberty nor measur'd by Time If we ascend to the first Fountains of all Ages then his Infinite Understanding comprehended in one clear view the whole compass extent and duration of all things His powerful Word made the visible and invisible World and upholds them That which was spoken with Flattery of a Roman Emperour by Seneca who as much degenerated from the dignity of a Stoical Philosopher in licking Nero as in biting Alexander is absolutely true of the Sovereign Lord of the World His Providence is the Band that unites the parts of the Universal Common-Wealth the Vital Spirit and Vertue that sustains all Without his Eye and Hand his dispositive Wisdom and Power the whole frame would disband and fall into Confusion and Ruine He is seated upon the Throne of the Universe Thousand thousands of glorious Spirits minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him in the quality and humility of his Servants ready to execute his Commands He is the Judg of the Living and the Dead that disposeth of Heaven and Hell for Ever And what is Man a little Breathing Dust. He is infinitely above us and so strangely condescends in having a tender care of us that the Psalmist was swallowed up in Extasy and Amazement at the thoughts of it Lord What is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him Nay we are beneath his Anger as a Worm is not worthy of the indignation of an Angel Now the more we magnify God and exalt his Authority in our Judgments the more our Wills are prepared to yield to him His Excellency will make us afraid to oppose his Providence When the Son of God appeared to Saul in his Glory and commanded in Person he presently lets fall his Arms of Defiance and says Lord what wilt thou have me to do His Resignation was absolute nothing was so hard to do nothing so formidable to suffer but he was ready to accomplish and endure in obedience to Christ. The more we debase and vilify our selves the more easy it will be to bear what God inflicts Humility disposeth to Submission Our Passions are not excited at the breaking of an ordinary Glass but if a Vessel of Christal be broken it moves us the lower esteem we have of our selves the less we shall be transported for any breach that is made upon us We read in the History of Job many heavy Complaints uttered by him of his Sufferings all the sad Figures of passionate Eloquence made use of to represent them and the fruitless Essays of his Friends that did rather exasperate than appease his Spirit And it is very observable that when the Lord interposed himself to justify the ways of his Providence he did not charge upon him the guilt of his Sins that deserved the severest Judgments but appears in his Glory and reminds himof his original nothing Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast Understanding He opens to him some of the Excellencies of the Deity in the works of Creation and Providence and the present effect was Job adored with humble Reverence the Divine Majesty and acknowledged his own unworthiness Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth now mine eyes see thee I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes The thickest smoak by ascending dissipates and vanishes If the troubled Soul did ascend to Heaven and consider that even the worst Evils are either from the operation or permission of the Divine Providence the Cloudy disturbing Thoughts and Passions would be presently scattered David had a blessed experiment of this in his distress I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it Such an awful apprehension he had of God as transcendently superiour to him and unaccountable for his Proceedings When any impatient Thoughts arise we should presently chain them up for there is Folly and Fury in them What am I that my sullen Spirit should dispute against the Orders of Heaven that my Passions should resist the Will of of the highest Lord that my Desires should depose him from his Throne For thus by implication and consequence they do who