injured, now takes her time to be even with them, and flies upon them when they are in a strait, and then fhe will be heard, though in their profperity fhe could not. And this return of the remembrance of former fins, is the very gall of affliction; and that principally upon these two reafons: 1. It is that which weakens and impairs the strength that fhould bear them; for, for the most part all internal afflictions, they concern the body, or the outward man, whether it be poverty or reproach, or fickness, or pain; and if for all this the mind be but free, fhe will be able to bear them pretty well, will fuggeft reasons for patience, hopes for deliverance, and twenty allays, at least, to mitigate the prefent fufferings: but when that mind, and reason, and judgment, that should support, is likewife wounded, and vexed, and tormented with the fenfe of past fins, and the storms that are within be as violent and turbu lent as thofe without, there is nothing to bear up against the afflictions; the foul itself, that should fupport the outward man, wants fupport for itfelf. 2. In all external troubles, as it is the duty, fo it is the na ture of man to fly to God, and that application poffibly gains relief from it; but howfoever it bears upon the man with a convenient strength against them: the very liberty of recourfe to God gains a dependance, a hope, a confidence, which fupports in a very great measure, under the greatest troubles: but this return of fins paft upon the confcience and memory, if it doth not wholly deprive, yet it doth wonderfully interrupt, discourage, and divert the foul from this most admirable expedient. When a man shall have fuch thoughts as thefe: I am under a very great affliction either in f my estate, friends, name, body, and I know no way to extricate myself but one, and that is by application to the Almighty and merciful God; and if I could but do fo, I were fafe; but alas! the memory of my former fins, my breach of covenant with him, my frequent relapfes into fin, my ingratitude to him, they fall in upon me, and I dare not, I know not how, 'I have

I have not the face, the confidence to come unto, ' him; and fo I must lie and fink under as well my guilt, as my affliction.' And although this is a very falfe way of argumentation, and fuch as is moft difpleafing to God, and derogatory to his high preroga tive of mercy, as well in forgiving as in delivering, who hath given to the most heinous finner, and under the greatest afflictions, a commiffion to afk his mercy, both to pardon and to deliver, and that with a promife of mercy; yet it is most certain, that, what by our own weakness, and what by the devil's fubtilty, the remembrance of our past fins doth moft ordinarily make our addreffes to God under our afflictions very difficult. Little therefore do people confider in the time of their profperity, what a stock of venom and malignity they lay up against an evil day, by a diffolute and finful life. Affliction without this most accurfed contribution, were much more tolerable. If thou meaneft therefore to make thy affliction eafy, keep thy confcience clear before it comes: thou haft then the strength of thy own foul to fupport thee, and the liberty of access to the most mighty and gracious God to deliver thee, when thou canft, in the fincerity of thy heart, with Hezekiah, appeal unto God, Remember now, O Lord, I befeech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and ' have done that which is good in thy fight .' I fay with reverence, keep God thy friend in thy profperity, and thou mayeft with confidence refort to him, and rely upon him in adversity.

2. But alas! when we have used all the care and industry, and watchfulness we can, who can fay he hath made his ways clean before God? Our prope rity, and the temptations that await us from without, and the corruptions that are within us, give us often falls that we know of, and many more that we know not of: if therefore the neceflity of our condition fubject us to afflictions, and the prevalence of our corruptions sub. ject us to temptations, what hope can I have to have a

comfortable affliction, when I cannot hope to have an innocent converfation? Yet there is another expedient to eafe and lighten afflictions. If thou canst not be innocent, yet be fincere and upright-hearted. An honeft and plain heart, that holds no confederacy with any known fin, keeps a quiet confcicnce even under affliction itself. If thou haft not a perfect life, yet be careful in thy profperity thou keep a perfect heart.

3. But yet if thy heart hath proved deceitful to thee, and thou haft fallen into any fin, yet there remains one expedient to stop and anticipate the malignity of it from mingling with thy affliction: before afflictions come, be fure thou break off thy fin by repentance. Every fin leaves a kind of poifon in the foul, and there it many times lies raked up till an evil day comes, and then it begins to work to fome purpofe: found and ferious repentance fetcheth out this core, this neft of malignity, cleanfeth this ulcer that fin hath gathered. And left the malignity of fin fhould remain in thy foul, when affliction overtakes thee, be careful, 1. That thy repentance be frequent and iterated; and to that end let thy examinations of thy heart and life be strict and daily. Poffibly thou mayeft find a fin, upon thy review, that thou didst not before elpy, that may deferve a fpecial repentance: but if thou doft not, yet thy fins of daily incurfion require a daily repentance. 2. That thy repentance, upon any known fin committed, be speedy, while thou art in thy profperity; let it not lie upon thee till to-morrow; who can tell whether fome bitter affliction may not overtake thee before thou haft repented; and then that fin will reach out its venom and malignity into thy affliction, and make it worfe. Therefore intercept that accurfed influence of fin, by a speedy repentance. Thy repentance will be the eafier, and thy affliction the lighter, thy heart the ftronger to bear it, thy accefs unto heaven for deliverance the readier When a man lies under a fin till affliction come, he hath two great fuits to dispatch in the court of Heaven: Firft, to gain his pardon. Secondly, to gain deliver

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ance from, or ftrength under affliction. Be careful therefore to get the former difpatched in thy profperity; thou haft the lefs to do under thy affliction. When guilt and affliction come upon a man together, they add to each other weight and difficulty of removal: but affliction meeting with a confcience cleanfed by faith and repentance, is always tolerable, and for the most part comfortable; it lofeth its nature, and becomes another thing: it is a prevention of fin, a corrective of corruptions, an exercife of grace, a conformity to Christ, an affurance of God's love, preparative for heaven, rather than an affliction.

4. Above all things, be very careful that thy afflic tion be not the just production of thy fin or folly: for in the one cafe thou fuffereft as an evil doer; in the other thou fuffereft as a fool; and in neither thou canst take any comfort. If thou fuffereft without thy fault, or for thy virtue, piety and goodness, thou needest not be troubled for the one, and thou mayeft most justly rejoice in the other: but to fuffer as an evil doer, or as a bufy-body in other men's matters, or for ill language or paffionate words, or difturbance of the civil power; thefe take away both the comfort and the glory of these sufferings. Nay, though the end intended in these extravagancies may poffibly be good, and though the punishment inflicted exceed the due proportion, and fo have fomewhat of injuice or extremity in the infliction; yet fuch a kind of fuffering brings little honour to God, little peace to a man's felf, and little advantage to others; but rather the contrary. A man that hath fins about him, hath ill companions, and fuch as abate the comfort even of an innocent fuffering; but when a man fuffers for a fin, or any unjuftifiable action, his fufferings lofe the name of afflictions, and become formally and in their own nature punishments: and in fuch a kind of fuffering, though fometimes the goodness and wisdom of God brings good out of it to the party that fuffers; yet in fuch, a man doth not only undergo temporal lofs, pain and inconvenience, but hath the inevitable profpect of his

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fault and offence in them, which makes the fuffering the more bitter and diftafteful.

5. Be careful to bring thyfelf to a right estimate of the world, and the good or evil of it. Our over-valuation of the world, is that which makes us exceed either in the comfort we take in the enjoyments, or in the perturbation that we fuffer in the loffes or croffes of it: and commonly according to the measure of our love unto, or valuation of the things of this life, fuch is the measure of our grief, or forrow, or defpondency, or anger, or vexation, that we entertain in our lofs or disappointment in them: for indeed all other paffions and perturbations of the mind, are but the handmaids of the paffions of love, or love acted in a different shape or method. If I fet too high a value upon my wealth, or my health, or my honour, or my relations, or my credit, then my lofs or disappointment of any of them will produce an excess of forrow, or vexation, or defpondency, or anger, or revenge. Therefore let it be thy bufinefs in the time of thy quiet and profperity, in the first place to fettle thy judgment aright, and confe. quently thy affections aright, in reference to externals. Confider first they are but externals: they have no ingredient at all in the man; a man may be a fool, or a vicious and wicked man, and yet enjoy these things in a great measure and a man may be a wife, a juft, a virtuous, a pious man, a man in the favour of God, and yet be without them. 2. They are in their own nature very uncertain things, they are fubject to a thoufand contingencies; nay, if they stand secured unto me with the greatest stability that may be, yet my body is fubject to many weakneffes and diftempers, and a disease in my body will render all these things infipid and vain to me. What good or content will all my wealth, my honour, my fine houses, my great retinue, my great power do me when I am in a burning fever, in a painful confumption, nay, under a fit of the head-ach, or ftone? For fo fmall a distemper will make me take no contentment or fatisfaction at all, in all or any of

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