Hope that is so much the nearer to Fruition, by how much the greater thy external preffures are: when thou do'ft deferve the lofs of all, thou haft reason to be Patient if thou doft enjoy any thing; the Interrogation of the Prophet is Pathetical: Why doth the living Man complain? a Man for the Punishment of his Sin? Where there is Life, there is Hope; and for a finful Man to complain while he is yet living, carries with it the Conviction of the Unreasonableness of his Complaint, because he enjoys fomewhat that yet he deferved to lofe. 3. Bear it patiently, because it is but short; though it be never fo fharp, it may be that the fame God that inflicted or permitted it, is at this inftant refolving to turn thy Captivity, to give thee Beauty for Ashes: And what an unfeemly thing will thy Impatience be? How troublesome will the remembrance of it be to thy Soul upon the change of thy condition? How much wilt thou be ashamed at thy return, of the undecency of thy carriage under thy Affliction? I am perfwaded there was nothing more fower'd Job's returning Prosperity, than the remembrance of his former Murmuring and Impatience under the visiting hand of God. But again, fuppofe thy Affliction wait upon thee till thy Diffolution, yet it is but a Night, but an Hour of Affliction: This Night, and this Hour will end with thy Life; and this life of thine is but a Span, and then the Day will dawn, and the Sun will arife, and thy Affliction will vanish and never return again. 4. Bear it patiently, Because thy Patience will shorten thy Affliction. The Tryal and Improvement of thy Patience is one of the chief ends and bufinefs of thy Afflictions: It is fent to teach thee that Leffon, and the fooner thou learnest it, the fooner the bufinefs is difpatched, and the Difcipline difmift: Thy Impatience doth but protract and lengthen out thy Difcipline: If thou wouldeft be discharged of this importunate and troublesome Meffenger, fpeedily dispatch his bufinefs, and he is likely the fpeedier to leave thee. 5. Bear it patiently, Because thy Patience wi make thy Burthen the more eafie and tolerable. When God fends Afflictions to tame a Man, and bring him to a right

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temper, believe it, he will not be over-matched, he will bring thee down; and, if one Affliction will not do it, he will add more, and make thy bond stronger, and can, and will yet vifit thee fevenfold more, till he hath reduced thee to Patience and Humility: Struggle not with him, for he will be too hard for thee: If thou bear the Yoke Patiently, thou will bear it Eafily; but if thou fling and tofs, like a Wild Bull in a Net, thou mayeft hamper thy felf worfe, and thy Yoke will gall thee the more; but it will neither break the Net, nor the Yoke. Be contented therefore, Refign up thy felf to his Will with Humility, and receive the Chaftisement of thy Folly with Patience; thou wilt have this double advantage by it. First, The great God will then lay no more upon thee, for he hath attained his end and purpose by what he hath already inflicted; but will either remove it from thee, or put his own hand to help the to bear it. Secondly, By the quietness and Compofure of thy mind, thou wilt be of greater ftrength to bear thy burthen, and with more eafe under it; for it is a moft certain truth, That the Turbulency, and Storming, and Strugling of the Mind, is that which makes Affliction more fharp and troublesome, than the nature, or quality, or measure of Affiiction it felf; it is the Mind that gives the value and weight of external Profperity or Adverfity. Take two Men, the one of a Proud and Great Spirit, as they call it; the other of a Mild, Humble, Patient Spirit, we fhall eafily fee, that Difgrace or Lofs fhall more afflict and torture the former, than Five times as much of either, or both, fhall trouble the latter. And this is the True Reason why Afflictions at the firft are more troublesome and grievous than after, though they continue the fame. At the firft, they meet with a Mind unacquainted with it, and contefting against it, as a Heifer unaccustomed to the Yoke; but when by time and continuance the Mind is accuftomed to it, though the Yoke be the fame, yet it finds no fuch feverity and importableness in it. Á Patient Heart gains that habit quickly, which Cuftom, Length of Time, and Neceffity, doth, with more difficulty, produce in

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another temper. 6. Bear it Patiently, becaufe thou haft an Example of great Patience, under a greater Crofs, in a moft innocent Perfon: Thy Saviour hath left a Copy of his own Patience for thee to imitate; and thy Affiction is fent thee, to teach thee to Write after his Copy, and to conform thee to the Captain of thy Salvation, who was made perfect by Suffering; confider the disparity of the Perfons; He moft innocent, without any Sin to deferve it: Thou a perfon laden with Sin, that meritoriously deferves as much, if not more than thou hast a capacity to bear: He, the Son of God, clothed with Innocent Flesh; Thou a Worm, clothed with Impurity and Sin. Confider the disparity of the Sufferings; He a Man of Sorrows, under the Perfecution of those whom he came to fave, fubjected to all the Scorns and Torments that the Wit of moft Exquifite Malice could inflict, and above all this, under the sense even of the Wrath and feeming desertion of his Father: Thou, it may be, hast loft fome Eftate, or Reputation, or art in Prison, or Banishment, or Sickness, or Pain; but, under all this, do'ft, or may'ft injoy that Peace, and Pardon, and Favour of God, that his Sufferings purchased for thee: The Ingredients of His Cup, nothing but Gall and Vinegar; but thy Cup, though never fo feemingly bitter, yet fanctified and sweetned by his fufferings: And yet under all this, As a Sheep before his Shearers is dumb, fo be opened not bis mouth; though his moft Innocent Humane Nature fhrunk at the pre-apprehenfions of this bitter potion, yet with Patience he refigned up his Will to his Father, Not my Will, but thine be done. In fum, as his Providence was meritorious and expiatory for thy Sin, fo it was left as a Pattern and Example for thy Practice. 7. Bear it patiently, For it is reached unto thee from the hands of God, though it may be by the hands of moft vile and accurfed Inftruments; and this confideration is enough to tutor thee to an invincible Patience. 1. It is the Difpenfation of God, who is Infinite in Mercy and Goodness; and therefore it is moft certain, it is a Meffage of Mercy, for He doth not Afflict willingly, nor grieve the Children of Men. But fure

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that, it coming from the Fountain of Goodnefs and Love, it hath a Bleffing in it, though thou canst not at the prefent fee it. 2. It comes from the Hands of the most wife God, that doth all things for moft excellent ends, and even in thofe Difpenfations that are moft obfcure and rugged, that we cannot unriddle, yet there is always a complication of most Șoveraign and Excellent Defigns which fhall not be difappointed. 3. It comes from the hands of that God, that is under the relation of a most tender Father, that hath the very fame Bowels of Mercy, Goodness, and Love to us, in his Corrections, as in his Favours. A poor filly Child, when a Father either Corrects him for a Fault, or takes that from him that will hurt him, or keeps him hard to his Book, or other imployment, or denies him fomewhat that is noxious to him, thinks his Father deals heardly with him, when in truth the very fame tender and Fatherly Love, that discovers it self in more grateful difpenfations, is the cause and companion of thefe. The fame is thy cafe and mine, be patient therefore; it is the hand of a Father that Afflicts thee; and that may affure thee that it is for thy good, and it shall be in measure., 4. It comes from that God, that is thy abfolute Lord, that hath that unlimited right over his Creature, that his only Will is a fufficient rule of Juftice; thou oweft an infinite fubjection to him, from whom thou haft received thy Being: His Soveraignty over his Creature is even by the very right of Nature, Infinite and Boundlefs. Be contented therefore to bear whatsoever he inflicts, without the leaft difputing of the Juftice or Injuftice of it. This was the excellent Contemplation of old Eli, under the most fevere denunciation of God's Judgment. It is the Lord, let him do what Seemeth him good. And it was that great Leffon that Fob's Afflictions were fent to teach him, though he could not learn it, till God himfelf, as well for our Inftruction, as His, taught him out of the Whirlwind; but then he learned it, and abhorred himself in Duft and Afhes for his former Ignorance and Frowardnefs. 8. Yet further; tear it patiently, for that God that fent this Meffenger,

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doth behold and observe how thou entertaineft it; wherein we may with all due Reverence, fuppofe the Lord of Heaven, thus refolving. Yonder is fuch a Man, that profeffeth to Know, and Fear, and Love me, and I fee him nevertheless fond of his Wealth or Honour, or fome other Bleffing; I will give leave to Evil Men, or Evil Angles (as once in the cafe of my fervant Job) to spoil him of Wealth, and to caft him into disgrace; and I will obferve his carriage and deportment under it; and though I know what it will be, yet I will make it now confpicuous both to Himfelf, and Men, and Angels: And if his deportment be not answerable to his Profeffion, if he ftorm against my Providence, or use unworthy Means to free himself, or grow Impati ent and Disorderly under it, I will make his folly confpicuous, and fend more and sharper Vifitations unto him, till this fire of Afflictions bath brought him to his due temper of Patience, Humility, Submiffion to my Will, Dependance upon my Power, "Subjection to my Soveraignty: But if on the other fide I fee bim bumble himself under my hand, Submit to my Will, Juftifie me in Sufferings, Patient under them, and Waiting my time to be delivered from them, I will exhibit him before Men and Angels as a Pattern of Patience, and I will make him as Signal in his Deliverance, as he is Eminent in his Patience. Suppofe thou couldest hear fuch a Deliberation, and fee and behold fuch Spectators of thy Deportment, how wouldft thou endeavour to compofe thy felf with all Patience, and Contentedness, and Quietnefs, and Refignation of thy felf under the most severe Affliction? And how lit tle wouldst thou dare in fuch a Prefence to difcover, or fo much as entertain any Murmuring or Empatient Thought? Affure thy felf, though thou canft not with a bodily eye behold this Great Lord of the World beholding thee, while thou art in this Scene of Affliction, yet he beholds and obferves thee, and the very motion of thy Soul; and the Glorious Angels, though they cannot look into the fecret retirements of thy Thoughts, yet they behold thy external Deporment, and are grieved, if it be unfeemly and unfuitable to the Honour of their and thy Lord, and are glad to behold a Deportment fuitable to the Ends and Glory of their Lord: And the Evils Angels,