necessary for us. If need be, saith the Apostle, ye are in heavi ness through manifold temptations: 1 Pet. i. 6: more necessary and more advantageous than prosperity; to nip our luxuriancies, to rouze our sloth, and awaken our security; to make us remember God and ourselves. And, shall afflictions be thus. necessary for us, and not patience to undergo them? while thou livest in this world, thou sailest upon a rough sea: the waves and the billows work high: and wilt thou expose thyself to these storms, like a forlorn vessel without helm, or tackling, or ballast, to be tossed up and down upon the back of every wave, ready to be swallowed up every moment, or dashed against every rock in thy way? Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady, will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.

(2) Consider, that patience is necessary to alleviate and lighten the afflictions we suffer.

The same burden shall not, by this means, have the same weight in it. There is a certain skill in taking up our load upon us, to make it sit handsome and easy; whereas, others, that take it up untowardly, find it most cumbersome and oppressive: let the very same affliction befal two persons; the one, a patient, meek, and self-resigning soul; the other, a proud, fretful wretch, that repines and murmurs at every cross and every disappointment; and, with how much more ease shall the one bear it, than the other! the burden is the very same, but only the one is sound and whole, and it doth not wring nor pinch him; but the other's impatience hath galled him, and every burden is more grievous and intolerable to him, because it lies upon a raw and sore spirit. And, therefore, since afflictions and sufferings are unavoidable in this life, which is a vale of misery and tears, if thou wouldst make thy sufferings easy and supportable, fret not thyself at any dispensation of the Divine Providence: keep thy spirit sound; and, whatsoever burden it shall please God to lay upon thee, add not to it by thy impatience: be not ingenious to torment thyself, by thy own troublesome thoughts and reflections; nor to find out circumstances to aggravate thy sufferings: swallow down the bitter draught, that God puts into thy hand, without straining it through thy teeth; for so the trouble will be sooner over and less distasteful. It is not so much the wearing, as the striving with our yoke, that wrings and galls us: and, as it is

with beasts caught in a snare, so is it with impatient men; the more they struggle, the closer and faster they draw the knot, and make their sufferings more uneasy and their escape more impossible. But patience gives the soul some kind of scope, and liberty under afflictions: they may surround him; but at some distance: he may be troubled on every side; but yet he is not distressed: he may be God's prisoner; but yet he is not cast into gyves and fetters: and, though the affliction come very close to his outward man and his temporal estate, yet, so long as patience hath her perfect work, it can never corrode or eat into his spirit: in this sense, the iron enters not into his soul.

That is, therefore, the First Motive to Patience: it is a most necessary grace, because it is necessary in this life that we should suffer; and nothing doth more alleviate and mitigate our sufferings, than a patient bearing of them.

2. Another motive to patience may be, to consider, who is the Author and Inflicter of all the sufferings which thou undergoest.

Possibly, when thou eyest only the instruments of thy sufferings, their disingenuous, unworthy, and spiteful way of proceeding, thy impatience may take advantage to fret and torment thee: but, if thou wouldst look up to the principal cause, thou wouldst find abundant reason meekly to submit; for it is the hand and dispensation of God.

There are many things in this reflection, that should quiet and stablish our minds, under all the afflictions and trials which we are exercised with. As,

(1) Consider, That God is the absolute and uncontroulable Sovereign of all the World.

He doth whatsoever pleaseth him, in heaven, and in earth, and with all things: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Dan. iv. 35. It is in vain to strive with him; for he giveth not account of any of his matters: Job xxxiii. 13. Consider, you are in God's hands, but as so much clay in the hands of the potter: and wilt thou, O arrogant man, dispute with him, why he hath so formed thee? or, why he thus breaks thee? Satisfy thyself, that it is fit and reasonable it should be with thee as it is for so is the sovereign will of God; and his will being the first and supreme cause, must needs be the highest reason in the world. Canst thou contend with the Almighty ? or wrest either his scepter or his rod out of his hand? if not, what folly and madness is it, to vex and fret thyself at the accomplishment

of that will upon thee, which never was, never can be frustrated? We may impotently, in both senses of the word, wish and desire this or that to come to pass: but, alas! where is our power, where is our authority, to effect it? Shall thy designs give laws to his purposes? or, will the course of second causes stoop to thy appointment, or run according to thy arbitration? It will only be our torture to struggle, when it is not in our power to dispose. And know, that thou dost insolently invade the prerogative of the Almighty, when thou repinest at any of his dispensations: for it shews a rebellious will in thee, to rescind his decrees, and disturb the method and order of his administration of affairs.

(2) Consider, That God is not only our Sovereign, but he is our Proprietor.

All our comforts and enjoyments, yea. our very selves, are infinitely more God's, than they are ours: he hath but lent them to us, for our present use and service; but the title and propriety are still his own. And what hath busy and pragmatical man to do, to intermeddle with that, wherein he is least of all concerned? Thy children, thy estate, thy liberty, yea thy life itself, whatsoever is dearest to thee and most prized by thee, is not so much thine, as it is God's. And what presumption then is it, to prescribe unto him, or to murmur against him, for disposing as he pleaseth, what so entirely appertains unto him! may he not do what he will with his own? Certainly, this consideration alone, were it well wrought into our hearts, would be sufficient to allay all our impatience, and to silence all our repining thoughts: That, since all is God's, we ought rather to bless him, and gratefully to acknowledge his goodness, that he hath spared us any comforts thus long, than to complain of his rigour and severity, that he is pleased again to cali for them from us, and to require again what he only lent but never alienated.

(3) Consider the Relation, wherein God stands unto thee. He is not only thy Sovereign and Proprietor, which are titles of awe and majesty; but he is thy Father, which is the most sweet and endearing title of love and mercy: a Father, whose bowels yearn and roll towards thee, while he is correcting thee: Jer. xxxi. 20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord: he undertakes this work of correction unwillingly; and, as it were, by constraint; For he doth not

afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men: Lam. iii. 33: were it not that he sees this discipline of the rod is necessary for thee, thou shouldst never have other from him, but smiles and favours. Nay, God hath given us the highest expression of his tenderness, that ever could proceed from the heart of the most affectionate and compassionate father: Isa. Ixiii. 9. In all their affliction, he was afflicted: as a tender-hearted father chastiseth his children, with as much grief and regret as they themselves feel it; so doth God. And, should not this, then, be a prevailing motive unto patience, to consider, That it is our Father who chastiseth us; a Father, who is infinitely gracious and merciful, and whose mercy and pity alone put him upon this his strange and unwelcome work? shall I murmur and fret, because his goodness takes this necessary way of expressing itself towards me? because he is not so cruel, as to destroy me, by sparing me; and eternally to damn me, rather than, if need be, for a short time to cross and grieve me? Certainly, if there be any childlike ingenuity in us, we ought rather to kiss the rod, and the hand that lays it on; to bless and praise God, that he expresseth so much of a Father as to correct us. The Apostle strongly enforceth this argument: Heb. xii. 9, 10. Our earthly fathers correct us, and we give them reverence: how much more shall we be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, since he never chastiseth us out of passion and humour, as earthly parents often do, but for our profit? When we can thus look off from the absolute, to the relative nature of our afflictions; from them, as they are evil in themselves, to them, as they are in the hand and dispose of our Heavenly Father; we shall find more cause of joy and comfort, than of sorrow and repining. Thus, our Blessed Saviour supports himself: John xviii. 11. The cup, which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink thereof? Though we loath the cup of afflictions, in itself considered, as it hath many bitter ingredients in it; yet, when we look upon it, as it is held out to us in the hand of God, this will sweeten that bitter potion, and make us look upon every dispensation as a mercy.

(4) Consider, again; That it is an infinitely Wise God that afflicts thee; and, therefore, thou mayest well acquiesce in his providences.

Indeed, if afflictions did only befal us by blind chance; if they sprung up only out of the dust, as occurrences merely casual and contingent, without any intelligent nature to overrule and guide them; we might possibly give vent to our impatience,

by exclaiming against ill-hap and bad fortune; and be, if not more reasonable, yet, at least, less impious: but, when all events are eternally scanned and premeditated; when infinite wisdom hath sat in council, and maturely deliberated every minute circumstance of our lives; when there is not the least dust that falls into our eye, not the least trip or wrench of thy foot, but Infinite Wisdom foresaw and consulted about it, whether it should so fall out or no, infinite ages before the foundations of the world were laid; it is very foolish, as well as very wicked, for us, blind men, to find fault with the resolutions and conduct of divine wisdom and fore-knowledge. God's providence is described, by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. i. to be a great wheel, full of eyes: now, though he bring this wheel over thee, and crush thee by it; yet know, O Christian! that it sees its way. All thy sorrows and sufferings are chosen out for thee, by that God, who doth inflict them.

[1] He knows the just Proportion of what thou art to undergo.

He is the Wise Physician, that knows what ingredients, and what quantities of each, are fittest for thee to take; and will so temper them, both for measure and time, as shall be most proper and healthful for thee. And, if he prescribe thee a large and a bitter draught, appease thyself, and quiet the tumults of thy passions, with this consideration, That it was his infinité skill and art, that directed him so to do.

[2] He knows and considers the Events and the Consequences of things, which are hid in a profound obscurity from us shortsighted creatures.

Possibly, he intends thee the greatest mercy, when he brings the sorest trials upon thee; and, by pruning and lopping thee, designs only, that thou shalt grow the more stately and beautiful. His wisdom often so manageth our affairs, as to bring good out of evil, light out of darkness, and life itself out of death and that, of which at present we cannot conceive otherwise but that it tends to our ruin, proves afterwards the only means of our safety and preservation. And, therefore, since we ourselves are so infinitely foolish and God so infinitely wise, we may well, with patience and thankfulness, give up the dispose and government of ourselves unto him: for, believe it; undoubtedly, if God should model his providences according to our methods and contrivances, he need take no other way to curse and ruin us. Again,