But of affliction, and use no unlawful means to be delivered from it. Ufe no bafe nor unworthy compliances with the world, either by diffimulation, or flattery, or violence, or falfity, to extricate thyfelf; for that will either entangle thee worse, or at least add guilt to thy fufferings. And above all, avoid that accurfed temptation of ridding thyself from thy troubles, by putting an end to thy own life; for thereby thou doft at once two great evils; an evil of extreme folly and madness, to exchange a temporal inconvenience by running the hazard of an eternal mifery; for the very fame impatience, and perturbation, and anxiety of foul, that puts thee upon fuch an accurfed refolution, goes with thee into the other world with a great improvement of it, and makes thy foul, in its feparation, infinitely more vexed and tormented than it was before in the body; and an evil of rebellion against God, who hath fent thee thefe afflictions, and hath made it thy province, and thy task, and thy service, that he enjoins thee to bear with patience, and to his honour, till he deliver thee. Thou art juft like an hired fervant, who art fet on work by a most righteous Lord, and thy labour fet out to thee, and thy reward appointed in the end of thy day, and thou wilt run away before the day be ended, whereby thou doft not only lose thy wages, but art juftly obnoxious to be pursued and caft into prifon for thy difobedience and rebellion. Be contented; wait God's time with prayers and patience, and thou mayeft be fure to find his mercy in moderating thy afflictions, his power to fupport thee unter them, his goodness in his time, which is always the beft time to deliver thee from them, and his bounty to reward thee for thy patience and obedient bearing of them.

Twelfthly, Take this for a moft certain expedient to be prevented from many afflictions, and to be de livered from them: meddle as little with the world, and the honour, places, and advantages of them, as they canft; and extricate thyfelf from them as much, and

as foon as thou canft. Although the Divine Wisdom and Providence governs the world in a moft infallible and unerring method, yet in the external adminiftration of it, it seems to be full of confufion and uncertainty: when I have seen a lottery with a goodly fhow of fine plate, and a great many perfons parting with certain money for an uncertain lot, and though poffibly one or two may gain a fair prize, yet a hundred for one drawing nothing but blanks; and, when they have opened their papers, vexing and tormenting themselves with their lofs and difappointment; or, when I have feen at Christmas time, a few apples thrown among a room full of boys, and one fcrambling, and another catching, fome getting nothing but a fall, or bruife, or a broken fhin, or a broken limb, and another getting it may be two or three, and thofe that mifs falling upon him that hath gotten, fo the company fall together by the ears: or, when I have feen a match at foot-ball, one while one getting the ball, and then another kicking up his heels and getting it from him, and then another doing the like by him; these give me a kind of refemblance of the world, wherein, though by the help of civil government, there are certain rules put to the game, yet they are not always kept; and when they are, yet it is not without a mixture of irremediable deceit and violence, though it be of a finer fort.

you

If now my child fhould run among this company, and in the fcuffle fhould receive a knock, or a fall, or a bruife, or be tumbled in the dirt, and then fhould come running to me, and complain of his ufage, my anfwer would be to him, what made you there? What made in fuch boisterous and unruly company? If you mingle with fuch company, you must be contented to fhare in the prejudice, and to take your lot; it is the -play; if you diflike with your fuccefs, come no more among them. And, indeed, this is in a great measure the cafe of many of the true children of God; they fee fine gay things in the world, as wealth, and honour,

and

and place, and external advantages fcattered among the children of men, and gotten by fcrambling for them, and fometimes are apt to flatter themfelves into the pursuit of them, with a pretence that if they could come by their fhare of them, they would do more good with them than thofe do that get them; or, at leaft, they think it as lawful, and as fit for them to have them as others; and thereupon thrust themselves into the crowd, and fcramble for them, or are, at leaft, cozened into an affectation of them; and poffibly they are rolled and tumbled into the dirt in their undertakings; and, it may be, mifs of them when they have all done. But fuppofe they gain them, and then they think they may keep them, and yet keep their confcience, and integrity, and religion too; and many times in that endeavour they lofe fomewhat of their integri ty, and then God vifits them with fome lofs or reproach; or, in cafe they ftand to their integrity, and will not part with it, but will make a fcruple of things that others down with, then commonly they are expofed and pillaged, and lofe all that they have thus gotten; and the evil one, and evil men tell them Nay, fir, if you come into our ground, if you will hold the world, pray be contented to hold it upon our terms, and as we do, or elfe leave it; it is part of the game.' And then the man complains of his affliction, and his hard usage in the world, and that he fuffers for keeping a good confcience; and if he would have done as the rest of the world do, it had been better with him. But, fir, what made you in that company? What made you to be, tampering with great places and preferments? Do not you know, that if you will be dealing and trafficking with this kind of matters, you must take them upon thofe conditions the world doth ufually afford them? Do not you know that by meddling with them, you lift yourself in a manner under the world's command, and put yourself into that corporation? And

6

therefore

;

therefore if you are minded to hold thefe temporal * advantages, you must obferve the orders of your 'commander, and fo hazard your confcience and peace 'with God. And if you will not obferve the orders ' of your commander, you must be contented to be fubject to the difcipline, and frowns, and fcorns, and rejections of the world; for you cannot ferve God ' and Mammon.' Therefore if thou wouldst prevent or avoid very many afflictions, mingle as little as is poffible with the concerns of the world, especially in great places; and if, through inadvertency or impor tunity, thou art drawn into the fcuffle and entanglements of the world, get out as foon as thou canst fafely, and fairly, and honeftly: for it is a thoufand to one but firft or laft thou shalt otherwife hazard thy confcience, or receive fome scratches and worldly prejudices, which are, in truth, rather the iffues of thy folly and inconfiderate adventure, than true affliction.

But for meddling with places of magiftracy, honour, or public employment, I would not have it thought that it is my intention that good men, lawfully called, and duly qualified, fhould morofely or frowardly wholly reject their due call unto them. The world cannot be kept in order without magiftracy: and good men, if otherwife fitted for it, and duly called unto it, are likely to administer it beft for the public good of mankind: and it were an unreasonable thing for them to expect the benefits of magiftracy and government from others, when under fuch circumftances they wilfully decline the communication of the like advantage to others: and therefore the wifeft kingdoms, ftates and politicians have imposed a neceflity upon men of honefty and abilities to take upon them public employments: Arif tot. 2, Politicorum, although he condemns ambition after magiftracy, [that men fhould be encouraged or permitted to ftand or folicit for places] Nemo enim magratum petet, nifi bonoris fit affectator, atque pleraque erum quæ homines injuftè faciunt, per ambitionem &

avaritiam

avaritiam committuntur: yet tells us, Oportet enim & volentem & non volentem ad magiftratum affumere, fi dignus fit eo magiftratu 2. That therefore which I

mean is, 1. That men that love their own peace and tranquillity fhould not feek great employments. 2. That if they are offered, they do, as far as confifts with modesty and duty to their fuperiors and country, decline and avoid them. 3. That if upon fuch an account they are perfuaded to undertake them, yet they be fure that before they undertake them, they have fufficient abilities to perform them. 4. If by the command of the fovereign power they are required to undergo them, and are able and fit for the employment, they do not either frowardly or ungratefully refufe them: for, 1. Herein they are but paffive; it is an act of their fubmiffion and duty, not of their choice. 2. Being thus called to it, if they meet with any rubs in their way, they have no reafon to blame themselves fo long as they obferve their duty in the exercise thereof: the prince that enjoined them to this province, is to be their fupport in it. 5. Readily and cheerfully to entertain a difmiffion from it, when it pleaseth the prince to call them from it, or when by reason of disabling occurrences they may fairly attain fuch difmiffion.

III. And thus I have done with fome of those principal confiderations touching our deportment under Afflictions; now concerning the frame and temper of a foul under our deliverance from them.

1. Accept of thy deliverance with all thankfulness to God, and humility in thyfelf. Attribute it wholly to his goodness and mercy; think not that thou art delivered because of thy worth or defert; for any one fin that ever thou committeft would detain thee everlaftingly under the fevereft affliction: think not thy affliction hath expiated thy demerit, and that thou oweft

1 For no man solicits a post or office but who aspires to honours; and most acts of injustice are committed through motives of ambition and avarice.

2 It is the duty of every one to take upon him places of public employment, whether it be agreeable to him or not, if he be worthy of

them.

VOL. I.

2 F

thy