Ecclef. x. 1.

1.

SERM. affect, doth hinder us from fatisfaction in all other things: XXXIX, One dead fly caufeth all our ointment to flink; the poffeffion of a kingdom will not keep us from being heavy and 1 Kings xxi. difpleafed, as Ahab was, if we cannot acquire a fmall vineyard near us; on that one thing our head runs continually, our heart is wholly fet, we can think on, we can tafte nothing else; the want of that, notwithstanding all our affluence, doth pinch us; our dainties thence do prove infipid, our splendours appear dim, every thing but that is a toy unto us fo capriciously and unaccountably prone are we to discontent.

3. Is our condition, let me ask again, so extremely bad, that it cannot be much worfe? Are we funk to the bottom of all calamity? No furely; God's providence will not suffer, the state of things here can never admit that to be; here are fuccours always ready against extremities; our own wit and induftry, the help of relations or friends, the natural pity and charity of our neighbours, will preferve us from them; especially perfons in any measure innocent can never come near them: there will therefore never fail fome good matter of content in what remains; a few good things, well improved, may greatly folace us. But, however, let us imagine our cafe to be the worst that can be; that a confluence of all temporal mischiefs and wants hath arrived, that we are utterly bereaved of all the comforts this world afforded; that we are ftripped of all our wealth, quite funk in our reputation, deserted of every friend, deprived of our health and our liberty; that all Job, who the loffes, all the difgraces, all the pains which poor Job ( fuftained, or far more and greater than those, have toge68) 62ther seized on us; yet we cannot have sufficient reason to be discontent; for that nevertheless we have goods left to dur, &c. us in our hands, or within our reach, far furpaffing all Chryf. ad thofe goods we have loft, much outweighing the evils we Olymp. 2. do undergo: when the world hath done its worst, we remain masters of things incomparably better than it, and all it containeth; the poffeffion whereof may, and, if we be wife, will abundantly fatisfy us. We are men ftill, and have our reafon left behind, which alone, in worth, ex

ἐπίνωσεν αὐτ

θήκην ἅπας

Say xatα

τοξευόμενα δι' αὐτῷ,

ceedeth all the treasures of the world; in well ufing which, SERM. and thereby ordering all things for the beft, we become XXXIX. more worthy, and more happy than the moft fortunate fool on earth; we may therein find more true fatisfaction, than any wealth or any glory here can minifter: we may have a good confcience left, (the sense of having lived well heretofore, or at least a serious refolution to live well hereafter,) and that is a continual feast, yielding a far more Prov.xv.15. folid and favoury pleasure, than the most ample revenue can afford: we may have hope in God, (the author and donor of all good things,) and thereby far greater afsurance of our convenient fubfiftence and welfare, than all prefent poffeffions can beftow; we have referved a free access to the throne of grace, and thereby a fure means (grounded on God's infallible word and promise) of obtaining whatever is good for us; we have a firm right to innumerable spiritual bleffings and privileges, each of them justly valuable beyond whole worlds of pelf; we can, in a word, (we can if we pleafe,) enjoy God's favour, which immensely tranfcendeth all other enjoyments, which vaftly more than countervaileth the abfence of all other things: of this, by applying ourselves to the love and fervice of God, we are infallibly capable; of this no worldly force or fortune can defpoil us; we having this, our condition cannot be poor, contemptible, or pitiful; it is indeed thereby most rich, glorious, and happy: for how can he be poor, that hath the Lord of all things always ready to fupply him; who hath God, as the Pfalmift is wont to Pfal. Ixxii. fpeak, to be his portion for ever? how can he be despicable, exix. 57. that hath the honour to have the Sovereign Majefty of the cxlii. 5. world for his especial friend? how can he be miferable who enjoyeth the fountain of all happiness, who hath the light of God's countenance to cheer him, who hath the confolations of God's Holy Spirit to refresh and revive him? what can he want, who, befide his present interest in all the needful effects of God's bountiful love, is an heir of heaven and everlasting bliss? Seeing therefore it is in our power to be religious; feeing we may, if we will, (God's grace concurring, which preventeth us to feek,

26. xvi. 5.

39.

9.

П

LXX.

5.

Ezra viii.

22.

Ὁ κακώσων.

28.

SERM. which never is withheld from those who seek it,) be good XXXIX. Chriftians; feeing nothing can hinder us from fearing Rom. viii. God, or can feparate us from his love, neither can any thing render our condition bad or unhappy, really dif Pfal. xxxiv. treffed or needy: O fear the Lord, faith the Pfalmift, for there is no want to them that fear him: the young lions (or the rich, as the LXX. render it) do lack and suffer hunger; , but they that feek the Lord fhall not want any good thing; Ecclef. viii. and, Whoo keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing, faith the Wife Man; and, The hand of our God is upon all them that feek him, faith the Prophet; and, Who 1 Pet. iii. 13. is he that shall harm you, (or do ill to you, or make you worse,) if ye be followers of that which is good? faith St. Rom. viii. Peter; and, We know, faith St. Paul, that to them who love God, all things cooperate for good; and, Godliness, 1 Tim. vi. 6. faith he again, with contentedness is great gain; that is, fuppofing we have the goods which piety miniftereth, although we have nothing more, we are, if we can be content, very well to pafs; it is abundantly fufficient for us. Why then, I pray, are we difcontent; what do we groan or grieve for? what is it that we do want? is it the ufe of reason, is it virtue, is it God's favour? then indeed we have good caufe to be displeased; for the want of thofe things is indeed lamentable: but if we do want them, it is only ourselves that we should complain of; for we may have them if we will, and who can help it if we will not? Who, if we fhall wilfully deprive ourselves of them, will be concerned to mind our complaints? But is it only a lump of trash, or a puff of honour, or a flash of pleasure, that we do need? Is it that we cannot fo delicately glut our bellies, or fo finely clothe our backs, or fo thoroughly foothe our fancies, as we could wish, that we fo pitifully moan? Is it being reftrained in some respects from the fwinge of our humour, is it that we are not fo much regarded, or are flighted by fome perfons, is it that we are croffed in fome defign, that fo difcompofeth and difcourageth us? then are we fottishly fond and childish in our conceits and our affections: for proper it is to children, whenas they want no folid or substantial

20.

goods, to wail for worthlefs toys and trinkets; it is for SERM. children, when they have not their will in petty and imper- XXXIX. tinent matters, to cry and lament; children are much affected with every word, or little fhew that croffeth them: if we were (as St. Paul chargeth us to be) perfect men, if 1 Cor. xiv. we had manly judgments, and manly affections toward things, we should not so regard or value any of these temporal and tranfitory things, either good or evil, as by the want of one fort, or by the presence of the other, to be much disturbed; we fhould, with St. Paul, ftyle any present evil, tò éλαṣgòv Ts λiews, a lightness of affliction; we 2 Cor. iv. fhould with him reckon, that the fufferings of this present Rom. viii. time are not worthy to be compared with the glories which 18. fhall be revealed to us; we fhould, with St. Peter, greatly 1 Pet. i. 6. rejoice, though for a feafon we are in heaviness, through manifold trials, or afflictions: we should efteem any condition here very tolerable, yea very good.

4. In truth, (if we will not mince the matter, and can bear a truth founding like a paradox,) usually our condition is then better, when it seemeth worse; then we have most cause to be glad, when we are aptest to grieve; then we should be thankful, when we do complain: that it appeareth otherwise to us, it is because in our taxations of things we do ordinarily judge (or rather not judge, but fancy, not hearing or regarding any dictate of reason) like beafts; prizing things merely according to present sense or fhew, not examining their intrinfic natures, or looking forward into their proper fruits and confequences.

Adverfity (or a state, wherein we are not furnished with all accommodations grateful to sense or fancy; or wherein fomewhat doth cleave to us offenfive to thofe inferior powers of foul) is the thing which we chiefly loathe and abominate; whereas, in true judgment, nothing commonly is more neceffary, more wholesome, more useful and beneficial to us; nothing is more needful, or conducible to the health of our foul, and to our real happiness, than it it is the fchool of wisdom, wherein our minds. are disciplined and improved in the knowledge of the beft things, whence it is termed waida, that is, inftructive B b

VOL. II.

17.

71.

1 Cor. xi. 32.

Κυρία

SERM. chaftifementh: fo David found it; It is, faid he, good for XXXIX. me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy flatutes; Pfal. cxix. and our Lord himself, μader å' av eτads, He learned obedience from what he fuffered. It is the Academy wherein virtue is acquired and exercifedi; fo God meant it to his K people: The Lord thy God, faith Mofes, led thee this forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, and Heb. v. 8. prove thee. So the Wife Man faith, that by the fadness of Deut.viii. 2. the countenance the heart is made better; and, that stripes Ecclef. vii. do cleanse the inward parts of the belly. And, It yieldeth, Prov. xx. faith the Apoftle, the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.

παιδικό

μεθα.

3.

80.

Heb. xii. 11.

James i. 3.

It is the furnace of the foul, wherein it is tried, cleanfed, Rom. v. 3. and refined from the drofs of vain conceits, of perverfe Job xxiii. humours, of vicious diftempers: When, faith Job, he hath (Pfal. Ixvi. tried me, I fhall come forth as gold; and, Gold, faith the Wife Man, is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the Sap iii. 5. furnace of adverfity k.

10.

10.)

Ecclef ii. 5.

(Ifa. i. 25. xlviii. 10.

Dan. xi.

35.)

16.xxix.19.

34. cvii. 4,

It is the method whereby God reclaimeth sturdy finners Mal. iii. 23. to goodness, engageth them to feek and ferve himself: fo of the Ifraelites the Prophet faith, Lord, in trouble have Ifa. xxvi. they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chaftenHof. v. 15. ing was upon them; fo Manaffes, when he was in afflicPf. lxxviii. tion he befought the Lord his God, and humbled himself &c. lxxxiv. greatly before the God of his fathers; fo Nebuchadnezzar, after being driven from his kingdom, his understanding xxii. 12. returned unto him, and he bleffed the Moft High, and praised and honoured him that liveth for ever; fo David Pfal. cxix. himself, Before, faid he, I was afflicted I went aftray, but now have I kept thy word.

16.

2 Chron.

Dan. iii. 34.

67.

Ꮒ

It is that whereby God doth prepare men, and doth

multoque in rebus acerbis,

Acrius advertunt animos ad relligionem.

Lucret. iii. p. 64.

Καὶ γὰρ τὸν τύφον περισπᾷ, ἢ τὴν ῥᾳθυμίαν ἐκκόπτει πᾶσαν ἡ θλίψις, ἢ πρὸς ὑπομονὴν ἀλείφει κακαλύπτει τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πραγμάτων τὴν εὐτέλειαν, κ πολλὴν sirayer rhy Q1200oplav, &c. Chryf. in 2 Cor. Orat. 26.

i Miraris tu, fi Deus, ille bonorum amantiffimus qui illos quam optimos effe atque excellentiffimos vult, fortunam illis cum qua exerceantur affignat? Sen, de Prov. 2.

Hence uguès (trial) is the usual word fignifying it. 1 Pet. i. 6, &c.