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embrace their Sufferings, As Reliques confecrated by the touch of Chrift.

They confider further, that it is never but for moft Wife and Good ends that God who hateth nothing that he hath made, and that doth not willingly grieve the Children of Men, much lefs his Own Children, fends upon them any Scourge or Calamity.

And thofe Ends are many and various but all working for Good.

Sometimes for the Punishment, fometimes for the Prevention of Sin; For certainly there is not the beft Man living, but upon a ftrict and impartial Search of himself may find Fuel for Affliction, Guilt enough to deferve it, fomewhat amiss that requires Amendment, fome Corruptions growing into Exorbitancy, fome Errors that stand in need of Phyfick to cleanse them, some Disorders ready to break out that want a Medicine to prevent them.

This therefore being one chief Reason of God's Vifitations, is not Affliction to good Men rather Beneficial than Hurtful? Can they refuse to take, not patiently only, but gladly and willingly, that Cup, which, tho' bitter, yet is temper'd and prepar'd for 'em by fo wife and fo loving a Phyfician? Have they not Reason to be thankful, that God rather choofeth to afflict them than forfake them? As long as God Almighty afflicts

them,

them, 'tis plain they are under his Difcipline, his Care, and no Man's Condition can be defperate, fo long as this Allwife Phyfician continues his Adminiftration; and reaches Him forth this Medicine, that without his own fault will moft certainly cure and recover Him. Evils as they come not without Desert, for God is Juft; fo they pass not away without Profit, for God is Good.

Sometimes in particular they are fent to wean a Man from the Love of the World, and to carry up the Thoughts, and Hopes, and Defires to that better Country, whereunto We are appointed. If all things went always well, even with good Men in this Life, they would be building Tabernacles, and crying out, It is good for us to be here; and fet up their Reft and Hopes on this Side Jordan, as the Reubenites did in the Country of Bafhan, when they found it Rich and Fruitful. God Almighty therefore in Mercy makes this World unpleafing to good Men by Affliction, that they may fet the lefs Value upon it, and fix their Hopes and Defires and Endeavours where only true Joys are to be found, even that City which is above; and learn to despise every thing that is lower than Heaven, and fhorter than Eternity.

But laftly, Sometimes for the Tryal of his Saints God is pleas'd to Exercise them

with

with Afflictions, that he may bring them to greater Glory, As Gold in the Furnace has be try'd them, fays the Wife Man, and receiv'd them as a burnt offering, and in the time of their Vifitation they fhall fbine, and run to and fro like parks among the ftubble, They fhall Fudge the Nations and have Dominion over the People, and their Lord fhall Reign for Ever. Wisdom 3. 6. 7. It was the faying of a Wife Heathen that a Good Man bravely combating with, and getting the better of Afflictions was, Dignum Deo Spectaculum, a Sight Worthy of God; and there is fomewhat like this even in the Book of God himfelf, where he feems to be extreamly pleas'd with Job's Integrity, and Glory's as it were in him, and points him out to Satan with Honour and Applause, even when he gave him up a fecond time to try all his Affaults upon him: Haft thou confider'd my fervant Job, that there is none like him in the Earth? a Perfect and an Upright Man; and ftill he holdeth faft his Integrity, altho thou movedft me against him to deftroy him without Caufe. Job 2. 3.

God, when he fees a ftrong Faith, and an Heroick Virtue is pleas'd to make it Exert and fhew itself, to polish and make it fhine by Exercife and Ufe, as he did in those most Heroical Saints of Old, whom Afflictions have made Glorious. Glorious

indeed in the great Reward and more exceeding weight of Glory, that fucceeded their Painful and Laborious Warfare; but more Glorious, for having been thus made like the great Captain of their Salvation, who, as the Apostle tells us, was made perfect thro Sufferings. And This way did he choofe both to Found and Propagate his Church, and enlarge the bounds of his Spiritual Dominion, firft by himself not Deftroying but Dying, then by a Noble Army indeed, but it was fuch a One as confifted only of Martyrs; and as other Conquerors boast of flaying their Thoufands and Ten Thousands, the Church of Chrift on the contrary was Victorious and Triumph'd and over spread the World by having her Thousands and Ten Thoufands flain.

From all which we may perceive, that if Affliction is the lot of the Righteous, yet that if all Circumftances are confider'd it is No Evil that happens to the Fuft. For if Affliction be rightly improv'd by Us to the ends for which God Almighty fends it; By it God receives the Honour of his Sovereignty, his Juftice, his Goodness, his Wif dom, his Truth; and Man receives the Benefit of Prevention from Sin, Deliverance out of it, Improvement of his Graces, Perfecting of his Soul, and Advancement of his Glory, thro' the Mercy of God and his Bleffing

Bleffing upon this bitter Cup, the Cup of Affliction.

To conclude therefore, fince Afflictions, One time or other, are likely to fall to the share of all Men living, fince the best Men can't pretend to any Priviledge or Exemption from em; Let us wifely provide against 'em, that if we are not deliver'd from 'em, yet whenever they come they may not have the power to hurt Us. This can no otherwise be done, than by taking up and conftantly adhering to Holy Fob's Refolution, Chap. 27. v. 5, 6. 'Till I dye I will not remove my Integrity from me; my Righteousneß I hold faft, and will not let it goe; my Heart Jhall not reproach me as long as I live. For, as David fays, He that doth these things shall never fall. This will either fecure us from Afflictions, or fupport us under them, will either carry us thro' this Vale of Misery free from the Calamitys incident to our Nature, or the juft Punishment of Sin; or elfe, if it shall please God for the Tryal of our Faith, or the Exercise of our Virtue, or the preventing of Sin, or the withdrawing of our Affections from the World, or the encrease of our Future Glory, or any other Wise and Just reason, to vifit us with Afflictions, will teach us to make that Use and Advantage of them, that they prove no real Evils

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