The Heart kept from defponding in Times of Adverfity. 33 divine difpenfations, their mutual relations to each other, together with the general refpect and influence they all have unto the laft end; of all the conditions in the world, you would chufe that you are now in, had you liberty to make your own choice. Providence is like a curious piece of arras, made up of a thoufand threds, which fingle we know not what to make of, but put together, and ftitched up orderly, they reprefent a beautiful history to the eye. As God works all things according to the counfel of his own will, fo that the counfel of God hath ordained this as the best way to bring about thy falvation: Such a one hath a proud heart, fo many humbling providences I appoint for him; fuch a one an earthly heart, fo many impove rishing providences for him: Did you but fee this, I need lay no more to fupport the moft dejected heart.

Help 8 Farther, It would much conduce to the jettlement of your hearts, to confider, That by fretting and difcontent, you do yourselves more injury than all the afflictions you lie under could do; your own difcontent is that which arms your troubles with a fting; it is you that make your burden heavy, by ftruggling under it. Could you but lie quiet under the hand of God, your condition would be much easier and fweeter than it is; Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit medicum. This makes God lay on more ftrokes, as a father will upon a Stubborn child that receives not correction.

Befides, it unfits the foul to pray over its troubles, or take in the feafe of that good which God intends by them: Afflic tion is a pill, which being wrapt up in patience and quiet fubmiffion, may be easily fwallowed; but difcontent chews the pill, and fo imbitters the foul: God throws away fome comfort which he faw would hurt you, and you will throw away your peace after it; he hoots an arrow which flicks in your cloaths, and was never intended to hurt, but only to fright you from fin; and you will thruft it onward to the piercing of your very hearts, by defpondency and difcontent.

Help 9 Laftly, If all this will not do, but thy heart, like Rachel, ftill refufes to be comforted, or quieted, then confiderone thing more, which, if ferionfly pondered, will doubtlefs do the work; and that is this, Compare the condition thou art now in, and art fo much diffatisfied with, with that condition others are, and thyself deferveft to be in: Others are roaring in flames, howling under the fcourge of vengeance, and amongst them I deferve to be. O my foul! is this hell? Is my condition as bad as the damned? O what would thousands now in VOL. VII.

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hell give, to change conditions with me! It is a famous inftance which Dr Taylor gives us of the duke of Conde; I have read (faith he) that when the duke of Conde had entered voluntarily into the incommodities of a religious poverty, he was one day efpied and pitied by a lord of Italy, who out of tendernefs, wished him to be more careful and nutritive of his person. The good duke anfwered, Sir, be not troubled, ⚫ and think not that I am ill provided of conveniencies, for I fend an harbinger before me, who makes ready my lodgings, and takes care that I be royally entertained. The lord asked him, who was his harbinger? he aufwered, The knowledge of myself, and the confideration of what I deferve for my fins, which is eternal torments; and when with this knowledge I ⚫ arrive at my lodging, how unprovided foever I find it, me⚫ thinks it is ever better than I deferve.' Why doth the living man complain? And thus the heart may be kept from desponding, or repining under adverfity.

Seafon 3. The third feafon calling for more than ordinary diligence to keep the heart, is the time of Zion's troubles : • When the church, like the fhip in which Chrift and his dif ciples were, is oppreffed, and ready to perish, in the waves of perfecution; then good fouls are ready to fink, and be ship wrecked too, upon the billows of their own fears. I confefs • most men rather need the fpur, than the reins in this cafe, and yet fome fit down as over-weighed with the fense of the church's troubles. The lofs of the Ark coft old Eli his life the fad posture Jerufalem lay in, made good Nehemiah's countenance change in the midst of all the pleasures and ac ⚫commodations of the court, Neh. ii. 2. Ah! this goes clofe

But though God allow, yea, command the moft awakened apprehenfions of these calamities, and in "fuch a day calls to

mourning, weeping, and girding with fackcloth," Ifa. xxii. 12. and feverely threatens the infenfible, Amos vi. 1. yet it will not please him to fee you fit like pensive Elijah under the juniper-tree. 1 Kings xix. 4. "Ah Lord God! it is enough, "take away my life alfo." No, mourners in Zion you may, and ought to be; but felf-tormentors you must not be ; complain to God you may, but to complain of God, though but by an unfuitable carriage, and the language of your actions, you must not.'

Cafe 3.

The third cafe that comes next to be spoken to, is this; How public and tender bearts may be relieved, and fup* Great Exemp. p. 310.

ported, when they are even over-weighed with the burdenfome fenfe of Zion's troubles? I grant, it is hard for him that preferreth Zion to his chief joy, to keep his heart that it fink not below the due fenfe of its troubles; and yet this ought, and ⚫ may be done by the use of fuch heart-establishing directions as thefe.'

Direction 1. Settle this great truth in your hearts, that no trouble befals Zion, but by the permission of Zion's God; and he permits nothing out of which he will not bring much good at laft to his people.

10.

There is truly a principle of quietnefs in the permitting, as in the commanding will of God. See it in David, 2 Sam. xvi. “Let him alone, it may be God hath bidden him :” And in Christ, John xix. 11. "Thou couldeft have no power against me, except it were given thee from above;" it should much calm our spirits that it is the will of God to fuffer it; and had he not fuffered it, it could never have been as it is.

This very confideration quieted Job, Eli, David, and Hezekiah; that the Lord did it, was enough to them, and why, fhould it not be so to us? If the Lord will have Zion plowed as a field, and her goodly ftones lie in the duft; if it be his pleasure that Antichrist shall rage yet longer, and wear out the faints of the Moft High; if it be his will that a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hofts shall be upon the valley of vifion, that the wicked shall devour the man that is more righteous than he, what are we that we should conteft with God? Fit it is that we should be refigned up to that will whence we proceeded, and that he that made us fhould difpofe of us as he pleafeth: he may do what feemeth him good without our confent: doth poor man stand pon equal ground, that he should capitulate with his Creator, or that God should render him an account of any of his matters ? It is every way as reasonable we be content, however God dispose of us, as that we be obedient to whatever he commands us. --But then, if we pursue this argument further by confidering that God's permiffions do all meet at laft in the real good of his people, this will much more quiet our fpirits. Do the enemies carry away the good figs, even the best among the people, into captivity? This looks like a fad providence, but yet God fends them thither for their good, Jer. xxiv. 5. Doth God take the Affyrian as a staff in his hand, to beat his people with Thofe blows are smart, and make them cry; but the end of his fo doing is, "That he may accomplish his whole work upon

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mount Zion," Ifa. x. 12. If God can bring much good out of the worst, and greateft evil of fin, much more out of temporal afflictions; and it is as evident that he will, as that he can do fo. For it is inconfiftent with the wifdom of a common agent to permit any thing, which he might prevent if he pleased, to cross his great defign and end; and can it be imagined that the most wife God fhould do fo?

Well then, as Luther told Melanthon, Definat Philippus effe rector mundi; fo fay I to you; Let infinite wifdom, power, and love, alone; for by thefe all creatures are swayed, and actions guided, in reference to the church: it is none of our work to rule the world, but to submit to him that dath; Non caeco impetu volvuntur rotary the motions of providence are all judicious, the wheels are full of eyes; it is enough that the affairs of Zion are in a good hand.

Direction 2. Ponder this heart-fupporting truth, in reference to Zion's trouble: That how many troubles foever are upon her, yet her King is in her,

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What! hath the Lord forfaken his churches? Hath he fold them into the enemy's hand? doth he not regard what evil befals them that our hearts fink at this rate? Is it not too fhameful an undervaluing of the great God, and too much magnifying of poor, impotent men, to fear and tremble at creatures, whilft God is in the midst of us? The church's enemies are many and mighty; let that be granted, yet that argument with which Caleb and Joshua ftrove to raise their own hearts, is of as much force now, as it was then: "The Lord is with us, "fear them not," Num. xiv. 9: The hiftorian tells us, that when Antigonus over-heard his foldiers reckoning how many their enemies were, and fo difcouraging one another; he fuddenly steps in among them with this queftion, And how many (faid he) do you reckon me for Difcouraged fouls, how many do you reckon the Lord for? Is he not an over-match for all his enemies? Is not one Almighty more than many mighties? Doth his prefence stand for nothing with us? "If God "be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. viii, 31. Wha think you, was the reafon of that great exploration Gideon made in Judges vi.? He queftions, ver. 12, 13. he defires a figo, ver 17. and after that another, ver. 36. and what was the end of all this, but that he might be fure the Lord was with him, and that he might but write this motto upon his en. figa ? "The fword of the Lord, and of Gideon." So then, if you can be well affured the Lord is with his people, you will get thereby above all your difcouragements; and that he is fo,

you need not, with him, defire a fign from heaven; lo, you have a figa before you, even their marvellous prefervation a midst all their enemies. If God be not with his people, how is it they are not swallowed up quick? Do their enemies want malice, power, or opportunity? No, but there is an invisible hand upon them. Well then, as it is, Exod. xxxiii. 14. let his prefence give us reft; and though the mountains be hurled into the fea, though heaven and earth mingle together, fear not, God is ia the midst of her, the fhall not be moved.

Direction 3. Ponder the great advantages attending the people of God in an afflicted condition. If a low and an afflicted flate in the world be really beft for the church, then your dejections are not only irrational, but ungrateful; indeed, if you eftimate the happiness of the church by its worldly ease, fplendor, and profperity, then fuch times will feem bad for it; but if you reckon its glory to consist in its humility, faith, patience, and heavenly-mindedness, no condition in the world as bounds with advantages for these, as an afflicted condition doth. It was not perfecutions and prifons, but worldlinefs and wan tonness, that was the poifon of the church: neither was it the earthly glory of its profeffors, but the blood of its martyrs, that was the feed of the church. The power of godliness did never thrive better than in affliction, and never ran lower than in times of greatest profperity: when "we are left a poor and an afflicted people, then we learn to trust in the name of the "Lord," Zeph. iii. 12. What fay ye, firs? Is it indeed for the faints advantage to be weaned from the love of, and delight in, enfnaring worldly vanities? To be quickened, and prick ed forward with more hafte to heaven, to have clearer discove ries of their own hearts, to be taught to pray more fervently, frequently, fpiritually; to look and long for the reft to come, more ardently? If thefe be for their advantage, experience teaches us, that no condition is ordinarily bleffed with fuch fruits as thefe, like an afflicted condition.

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And is it well done, then, to repine and droop, because your father confults more the advantage of your fouls, than the plea fing of your humours? Because he will bring you a nearer way to heaven than you are willing to go? Is this a due requital of his love, who is pleased fo much to concern himself in your wel fare? which is more than he will do for thousands in the world, upon whom he will not lay a rod, or spend an affliction for their good, Hof. iv. 17. Matth. xv. 14. But alas! we judge by fenfe, and reckon things good or evil, according to what we, for the prefent, can tafle and feel in them.