A cordial For a heartqualme.  
Or, several Heavenly Comforts for all those who suffer any Worldly cross or calamity.  
By Simon Birckb●…k, bachelor of Divinity, sometime Fellow of Queen's college in Oxford: And now Minister of God's Word at gilling, in Richmundshire.  
London, Printed for Richard Best, and are to be sold at his shop at Gray's inn Gate. 1647.   

To the Right Worshipful, colonel Richard sbuttleworth of Galthrop, in the County of Lancaster, a Member of the Honourable House of Commons, in this present Parliament. 1646.  
Sir  
IT is too apparently visible, how it hath pleased our only wise good God, to suffer this poisonously infected Cup of heart-dividing distractions, to be generally and strongly handed to most of this kingdom, yea and the dregs thereof to seize upon the vitals of many; which hath produced, even very dangerous and unexpressible epidemical Anxieties and Sinco●…s. Upon serious and frequent meditation thereof, raised through my own sad experiences, even in the midst of our greatest continuing miseries, I here have endeavoured to fit and prepare this discourse, as a Co●…fectionary of spiritual relief and cordial Comfort for all such as may fa●…le and faint under the heavy pressures of any of this world's Afflictions; and now make bold to present them unto you, not as if●… any necessity in you called upon any such advertisements: But that I very well know with what christian resolution and patience you have out passed the loss of 〈◊〉 hopeful and valorous son, slain in the public cause of Religion & kingdoms, besides the danger of your own, hazard and wounds of divers other your sons, banishment from your own house & family, plundering of your goods, and the continued want (even until this time) of a part of your estate. These, I say, may sufficiently testify your proficiency in this more than Aesculapian Art: Yet howsoever in tender of my due observance to yourself, hoping their shortness may no way impedite your more serious employments, now of public concernment and present agitation: I dedicate this cordial, and offer the perusal thereof unto you: Desiring from my heart, as they are by me intended, they may strengthen the weak and feeble, be oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and so safely to usher us along in uprightness and holiness here, that we all may receive eternal bliss and happiness hereafter; through Christ Jesus our Lord, which is the constant and fervent prayer of  
Yours ever bounden, S.B.   

The Contents.  

The Preface, or Preparative to the cordial Pag. 1.  
Sect. sickness the ordinary Harbinger of Death p. 1.   

SECT. I. Comforts for the sickbed. 3  

Sect. 1. Comfort from the Author of sickness, that God hath a special hand in it 1  
Sec. 2. How, and in what sense Affliction is good 7  
Sect. 3. 'tis some comfort that Health and sickness come by courses 8  
Sect. 4. How to serve God in●… sickness and Health 11  
Sect. 5. The sweet fruit and effect of Affliction 12  
Sect. 6. The benefit of Affliction, Affliction is medicinal 15  
Sec. 7. Affliction is a Trier 18  
Sect. 8. Affliction weaneth us from the World 21  
Sect. 9 Whether Affliction be desirable. Of a three sold Affliction, Punishments, Chastisements, Trials 23  
Sect. 10. We shall meet with Crosses, we need no self created Crosses 28  
Sect. 11. God Corrects, but we put the rod into his hand 30    

SECT. II.  

Cordials & Comforts 'gainst the loss●… of our goods 34  
Sect. We want, whose fault●… is it 36  
Sect. 1. Consider how little sufficeth Nature 37  
Sect. 2. The Godly destitute, not forsaken 39  
Sect. 3. Consider the worst Condition of others 47  
Sect. 4. Consider the benefit of a slender Condition 55  
Sect. 5. The Cares that attend on wealth 57  
Sect. 6. The security of a small state 64  
Sect. 7. The fickle nature of carthly goods 67 

Sect. 1. uncertainty of Riches, their staying with us 70  
Sect. 2. uncertainty of our staying with them 72  
Sect. 3. uncertain, to whom we shall leave them 74    
Sect. 8. Riches, they are not ours, but lent us 76  
Sect. 9 Labour to be Content with a simple Condition, not depending upon many things 79 

Sect. 1. The Benefit of an Independent Condition 83      

SECT. III.  

Comforts against Imprisonment 87  
Sect. 1. We are free Prisoners, the mind is at liberty 87 

Sect. 1. The Saints Imprisoned 88  
Sect. 2. Imprisonment not strange; we are imprisoned in the womb, the world, the Body, and the Grave ibid.  
Sect. 3. Hell a fearful prison, the●… no light, ●… no favour there, no delivery thence 89  
Sect. 4. Pray, we never be delivered to that Prison 92      

SECT. IV.  

Comforts against Banishment 93  
Sect. 1. We are all pilgrims, Heaven is our Home 93 

Sect. 1. The benefit of Remooveall 95  
Sect. 2. Abraham enjoined to leave his own country 97  
Sect. 3. We have Right in any country, by the Lord's Title 98  
Sect. 4. The Saints banished ibid.  
Sect. 5. God accompanieth His, even in Banishment 99      

SECT. V.  

Comforts against public Calamities 100  
Sect. 1. Of the ●…series of a Civil war 100  
Sect. 2. Comfort from the sense and sympathy of common evils 104  
Sect. 3. Comfort from the justice of God's proceedings 110 

Sect. 1. personal Corruptions 111  
Sect. 2. National sins common and peculiar ibid.  
Sect. 3. war the Malady, Repentance the Remed●…e 118    
Sect. 4. Comfort from God's overruling Providence 122 

Sect. 1. God's providence instanced in Joseph 124  
Sect. 2. To depend upon●… God's Providence 128    
Sect. 5. The remedy, our Particular and general Repentance 131    

SECT. VI.  

Of means to work us to Patience under the cross 143  
Sect. 1. Comforts from the greater sufferings of Holier men 144  
Sect. 2. Our Sufferings short of our deserts 151  
Sect. 3. Our Sufferings infevior to our Glory 152  
Sect. 4. look on our Comfort, as well as our Corrafive 156  
Sect. 5. Compare ourselves afflicted, with ourselves at ease 158  
Sect. 6. Our good days more than our evil days 160  
Sect. 7. Of patience in suffering 162  
Sect. 8. God exchanges his blessings; denies us wealth peace and deliverance; and gives us Conte●…ment, Patience, and Supportation 164  
Sect. 9 We must be fitted for mercy, and then 〈◊〉 166  
Sect. 10. The use of patience, and the need of it 169    

SECT. VII.  

Directions for the recovered Patient. 174  
Sect. 1. Be thankful after Recovery 174  
Sect. 2. See whether Affliction have bettered thee 176  
Sect. 3. Take heed of Relapses they are dangerous 178  
Sect. 4. Strive for a Blessing, Prayer will procure it 181     

A cordial for a Heartqualme.  
The Preface or Preparative to the cordial.  
DEath (as 
a Job. 18. 14.  Job 
Sect. 〈◊〉. Sickness the ordinary Harbinger of Death.  calleth him) is the King of terrors, who, (like some great Commander) hath large quarters, and sends forth his Harbingers before him: Affliction is the ordinary forerunner of Death, taking up his billet and lodging almost in every house. One crieth out, 
b 2. Kin. 14. 18.  My head, My head, ●… with the Shunamites son; another, 
c 2. Mac 9 5.  my bowels, my bowels, as Antiochus; another, my feet, 
d 1 Kin. 15. 2●….  my feet, as Asa; being troubled (as it is probable) with the gout. One complaineth of a palsy, another of a burning fever, another of the Stone, or Strangury: and they that are not troubled with any of these, yet they are still under this King of fear, lest he should enlarge his quarters, and take in them too. But is there no balm in Gilead? Yes, there be (God be blessed for it) Cordials, and Scripture-Comforts, appliable to such as are cast on their sickbed, their deathbed, their Grave-bed; for so 
e Isai. 57 2.  Isaiah calleth it: they shall●… rest in their beds: that is, their graves; every one walking in his uprightness, where they shall securely sleep in a bed of ease, till the morning of the resurrection.  

SECT. I. Comforts for the Sickebed.  
COnsider with thyself 
Sect. I. Comfort from the Author of sickness, that God hath a special hand in it●…  dear Patient, and fellow-labourer, under the cross of Christ; that God hath a special hand in thy visitation, even thy God the Father of Mercy, which chastiseth thee for thy good, and then thou wilt kiss both●… the Rod, and hand that correcteth thee. For, as Job saith, 
f Job. 5. 6.  Affliction comes not out of the duft. Sickness and Affliction, that alights upon men, comes not either by casualty, or of itself, or merely from the second causes, whether of men, or other creatures, or by distem per of body only, but it comes from above, and is inflicted by the divine hand of supreme and infinite Justice, so as thou mayst say with the Psalmist, 
g Psal. 119 75.  I know o Lord, that thy judgements are right, and that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me. It were not well with us, if these maladies came by chance, or were let loose to alight where they●… list: it is our comfort they are swayed by the provident hand of a loving Father, who like a skilful physician tempers the Dose and receipt according to the need and strength of his Patient. 
h 1. Cor 10.13.  God is faithful, who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation also, make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it: He will give a happy issue out of it, and enable us to go through with it. He corrects his children, not out of measure, 
i ●…r. 46. 28.  but in discretion; with the Rod of men, 
k 2 Sam 7. 15.  that is, moderately, and with compassion, in a fatherly tenderness and love, for their good and amendment. He●… knows their strength is not the strength of stones, 
l Job 6. 12.  nor their flesh as brass; his anger endures but for a moment. 
m Psal. 30.5.  Look then upon the Author of thy sickness, and how it is stinted, and under Commission; and this will work thee an unmooved patience and humble submission. And thus Ely when God foretold by Samuel the ruin of his house, quiets himself, 
n 1. Sa. 3.18.  It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. And thus the people of God, when Paul was resolved to go to Jerusalem, submitted, saying, 
o Act. 21, 14.  the will of the Lord be done; a speech fit to proceed out of the heart, and mouth of a Christian.  
It is true indeed, sickness 
Sect. II. How, and in what sense Af●…ction is good.  and affliction simply considered, and in their own nature, are not good; but consequents of sin; their use and fruit is a blessing of God, giving us thereby a sight and sense of our sins; but that good, it is not wrought out of the nature of misery, but comes from them by accident only. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: 
p Heb. 12. 11.  nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. As it is in these human corrections, those chastisements, which were grievous unto us in our childhood, are afterwards allowed of us, as●… profitable unto us: So is it in these afflictions from the hand of God; none of them are for the time pleasing, but grievous and irksome; yet afterwards we find them to be exceeding beneficial, by taming, disciplining, and fitting us to an holy life, which bringeth peace of conscience after all the unquiet broils and ●…mults of trial and temptation: Now blessed is that sickness, that proves the cure of the soul: Oh welcome fevers, that may quit our soul from everlasting burnings.  
Thou complainest that 
Sect. III. 'Tis some comfort that health and sickness come by courses  now thou art sick, now thou art grievously pained; I apprehend it as such, and pity thee with all my soul: But●… tell me, wert thou not before a long time healthful? Canst thou not be content to take thy turns, and let God have his intercourse of favours and crosses, health and sickness? Can we look for fair weather every day? As well may the day be without succession of night, as a mortal body, of so frail and brittle consistence, without fits of distemper. It was the answer 
q Job 2. 10.  where with that pattern of patience, Job, stopped the clamorous mouth of his tempting wife; shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil? It was a memorable example 
r B. Hall of Contentation. Sect. 15.  of a worthy Christian, who had lived to his middle age in●… much health and prosperity, and was now for his last two years, miserably afflicted with the S●…gury; who in the midst of his torments could say; Oh my Lord God how gracious hast thou been unto me? Thou hast given me eight and forty years of health, and now but two years of pain thou mig●…st have caused me to ●…e in this torture all the days of my life; and now thou hast carried me comfortably through the rest, and hast merci●…lly taken up with this last parcel of my ●…ment; bl●…d by thy name for thy mercy in fo●…ng me, and for thy justice in afflicting me.  
Yea, but thou complainest 
Sect. iv. How to serve God in sickness and health  of these fits and changes, that they interrupt thee, and break off the works of thy calling; it is that erstwhile thou hadst so much respite and breathing, as to follow thy vocation. This cessation and intermission, will upon thy recovery, make thee fall more freshly to thy task. If the Lord be pleased to send thee a Writ of ease, a 〈◊〉 est, to take thee off thy business by sickness, yet even then thou hast time to serve God another way, to wit, by a self-resignation, and patient submitting to his will. If he mean to use thy service any further, he will restore thee to thy health & strength, to do the work he●… sets thee about. For health is at his command, and sickness stays at his rebuke. In the interim, and mean, this time of sickness, is a purging from that desilement, we gathered in time of health, till we come purer out; which should move us the rather willingly to abide God's good lay sure.  
The Lord seeth, that if 
Sect. V. .  the body be not sick, the soul would. Blessed is that sickness of the body, which procures the health of the 〈◊〉. We are best for the most part, when we are weakest: when we are God's petitioners, and cast on our sickbed, than it appears w●… good proficients we have been in the time of health. ●… If there we learned any good lesson, this is the time to practise it. This will put us to it, and make us, (if ever,) turn Confessants, Supplicants, Comprecants: do we then, under God's visitation, confess our faults more fu●…ly, then formerly? do we sue for pardon more earnestly, and pray more fervently? This is a good symptom and token of our spiri●…ali state, if we can pra●… that in time of sickness, we learned in time of our health: Affliction indeed gives understanding, and we may thank affliction for it: gramercy affliction, that now we are promising men, that now we promise amendment of life, that now we are●… peaceable men, as bring tied (as it were) to good behaviour, that now we are not catch●… with those baits of the world, 
s 1 Joh. 2.16.  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that is, with carnal lusts and concupiscences, covetous desires, proud & ambitious thoughts and affectations, but that we can say, 
t 〈◊〉. 12.2.  I have now no pleasure in them. I was sometimes alive to those sinful courses, I relished them: I was then in mine element, even there where I would have been: now, I find no more taste in them, then in the 
u Job. 66.  white of an egg: now I am dead to them, as 
w 1 Sam 25.  Abigail to dead Nabal. Gramercy affliction. And yet affliction, ●… as of itself, could not work us to any good, were it not that the Lord gave us a sanctified use of Crosses, and sweetened these bitter waters of Marah to the Israel of God.  
The Benefit of Affliction. 
Sect. VI. The benefit of Affliction. Affliction is medicinal.  Affliction is of a medicinal quality: 'tis a preparative to 〈◊〉 for further trials, and namely, for our last duel, our combat with Death. It is of a purgative nature also: when the physician finds the body distempered, the blood foul and ●…amed, he ordereth the opening of a v●…inc, and the drawing out of so many ounces, as may leave the rest meet for correction: Our spiritual physician finds we have distempered●… ourselves by riot and surfeits, and now he diets us with the bread and water of affliction, and ministers some bitter potion to take down our foul body of sin, to 
x I sai. 1. 25. Dan. 11 35.  refine and purify his Patients; wherein they lose nothing but dross.  
Affliction hath its alterative property; where it works kindly, it changeth and reforms the Patient. David drank of it, and found himself better after it, 
y Psal. 119.67.  Before I was afflicted, saith he, I went astray; but now I keep thy word. Manasse was far gone in a Lethargy of sinfulness, but this Antimonian cup of Affliction recovered him, When he was in Affliction, saith the story, ●… he 
z 2 Chr. 33. 12.  besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly before him. The goal was a happier lodging to him than his Palace; Babylon schooled him better than Jerusalem. It changed him from an Idolatrous and murderous Manasse, to a Convert, and penitent Manasseh.  
Affliction is a correctory for sins past; and thus the Lord awakened Jonah out of the sleep of security, by casting him into the Sea: he cured Zachary of his Infidelity of not believing the angel's message, by striking him with dumbness. 'Tis a Defensative, a Preservative to prevent our future falling into sin: Thus was Paul 
a 2 Cor. 127.  buffeted by the messenger●… of Satan, and why? lest he should be exalted above measure: The Lord suffered Satan to lay hard both at his faith and his sincerity, lest he should be puffed up with multitude of Visions, Revelations, and angelical Apparitions.  
Affliction is a Trier. The 
Sect. VII. Affliction is a tryer.  Lord afflicts us to prove us, whether we can endure the hammer and the test: What dross of corruption, and what sound mettle of Faith, Love and Obedience is in us: he proves us, even as silver is tried in the fire 
b Psal. 66.10. , when the Sea is calm, it looks even and level, let the wind rise, it rages and swells, and casts up wrack: stir the liquour in the●… glass, and the lees and dregs will appear: in time of peace and prosperity many carry themselves moderately towards God and Man; but if God lay, I say not his hand, but his little finger upon them, than they begin to murmur and grudge, and discover their hidden corruptions: Yea the godly man would hardly think there were so much distrust, impatience, frowardness, faintheartedness and love of the World, as he shall find in himself in the day of his affliction. 
c D●…. 82. Exod. 16. 4.  Moses told the Israclices, that God therefore humbled them with want, to prove them, and to know what was in their heart; that is, to try them, ●… or make them known, no to himself, who knew them well enough before (without any experimental trial of them) but to make it known●… to themselves, and others, whether afflictions or favours would work them to obedience. And thus the Lord proved Abraham's obedience in offering up his son, & Job's patience, upon the loss of his children & substance, albeit he knew what was in them, what was in man. Action quickens Gracelanguishing, it manifests hidden and secret graces, and justifies a man's sincerity; & so it cleared David, Job & Ezechiah 〈◊〉 it cleared them from hypocri●…sy, & justified their sincerity. Affliction reviveth Grace, ●… which otherwise would faint and languish for want of exercise and employment: were it not for assliction, there were not altogether that use of patience, nor of temperance, but for the many incentives and provocations there are to riot and excess: nor of christian valour, but that we have spiritual enemies to encounter.  
A●…iction ferves to wean 
Sect. VIII A●…iction weanes us from the World.  our affections from the world: thus the Lord visits his children with crosses: as lo●…e of friends, loss of goods, weakness of body, meanness of estate, and the like; that in case they will delight in some sinful course, and dote on things vain and transitory: then●… these corrasives and corrections may vex and disquiet them as the Canaanites did the Israelites: as the Nurse weanes the child, by laying some bitter herb on her breast; so the Lord imbittereth the pleasures of this life, to make us long after that better life to come: for those whom he afflicts more feelingly, can part with the pleasures of sin more freely, and say with him in the Preacher 
d Eccle. 12.1. , I have no pleasure in thee, nor thee, nor thee. My soul (saith David 
e Psal. 131.2.  is even as a weaned child. A child that cannot want the teat for an hour or two, yet if it be disused and weaned a while, seeks not after it: do thus●… with thy bosom sin, thy Dalilah, thy Herodias, the sin that hangs on thee more than the rest, be it chambering and wantonness, surfeiting and drunkenness, or the like, single it out, do to it as David did to his: I kept myself (saith he) from mine iniquity: I kept myself from following my corrupt affections to the sin I was most inclined unto.  

Object.  
If Affliction be (as is pretended) 
Sect. ix.. Whether Affliction be de●…cable. Of a three fold Affliction. Punishments. Chastisements. Trials.  such a benefit, why do we not give thanks for it? why do we seek by all means how to avoid it, how to come out of it?   

Sol.  
Here the old distinction must be remembered. Of Afflictions, ●… some are punishments 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Punishments.  properly so called, they be such as proceed from God's vindictive Justice, and are not matter or occasion of 〈◊〉, but rather of deep humiliation and trembling, unless the offendor repent: others {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 〈◊〉. are chastisements, or fatherly Corrections; they differ from the former, not so much in the matter, as in their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉, and end: their Rise is from God's love (for whom he loveth, 
f Prov. 3. 12.  them he correcteth) and from his Fatherly care, willing thereby to reclaim us: they have their temper, measure, 
g Esay 27. 8.  and mitigation, according to the ability of the Patient: they tend to●… make us partakers of the 
h Hebr. 12. 11.  quiet fruit of righteousness. Sickness and other scourges of God, which are punishments to the wicked, inflicted upon them for their 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nocumen ta. Documenta.  sins, are Fatherly chastisements of God's children for their instruction and amendment. In afflictions of this nature, in respect of their use and fruit, we have 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Triall●….  cause of thankfulness: Corrections are instructions. Lastly, some are Trials, and trials of faith: whether by Satan, as those of Job were, or by men that persecute others for righteousness sake: In this sort we find great cause of thankfulness and rejoicing. Peter and his fellow's 
i Act. 5●… 41.  rejoyced●… therein, as in a great dignity; that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name: Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians calls his cross his Grace. 
k phil●…. 17.  It seemeth say the lea●…ned Annotators on the B●…ble; that some of the Philippians were partakers with the Apostle in his bonds, which the Apostle was so far from esteeming any disgrace or disparagement to him, that he accounted them a grace and an ornament to him. As also did the noble Martyr Babylas, who gave charge at his death, that his bolts should not be knocked off his feet, but be buried with him. Now, how far forth we may desire affliction, I conceive●… it thus: Some things are desirable for themselves, as happiness and holiness; some things are desirable not for themselves, but as they make way to better things, being ●…ower and bitter to nature themselves; as physic is desired not for itself, but for health; we desire health for itself and physic for health: and so is it in the case of affliction; we should hardly take down the bitter pills of Affliction, were it not for the good use, and quiet fruit of righteousness that it yieldeth.   

Quest.  
Belike than if Crosses be so penal and afflictive, 'tis not fair●… for us to call in Crosses.   

Answ.  
We shall meet with crosses, 
Sect. X. We shall meet with Crosses, we need no felfecreated Crosses.  we need not create crosses. There be some self created crosses, which we have reason to bear, and bewail, as having pulled them upon our own heads, for want of forecast, unthriftiness and rash suretyshippe, We fall into want; upon wilful distempers of drink riot and surfeits, into fevers, upon intemperances, and licentiousness into consumptions: There be other Crosfes which are immediately God's hand-wo●…ke: Shall there be evil in a City, to wit, evil of pain and adversity, and the Lord hath not done 
l Amos 3. 6.  it? saith the Prophet Amos. There can be●… no evil of punishment wherein God hath not an hand; but some evils are more immediate from a divine stroke. We must set our thoughts on work or else like millstones wanting grist, they will grate and wast one another. Yet take heed lest we spend our spirits with carking care of fore thought and future evils, which (haply) either fall not out at all, or not in our time; so as they need not trouble our heads. Some man is haunted with thoughtfulness, what shall become of his child when he is gone; or lest his wife marry after his departure; whereas they die in the me●… time, and he out-lives●… his own grief: Another frettingly fears he shall be undone in a dear year, or in case there be some change in Religion; whereas he dies in the interim, and ends his days in the same professaon, in peace and plenty. A moderate care and forecast doth well, either for provision of things necessary, or prevention of damages and dangers; but not to antedate our misery by such fore-conceits of imaginary evils: we have our hands full already; 
m Mat. 6.24.  sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We complain 
Sect. 11. God corrects, but we put the Rod into his hand.  of crosses; and yet we put the Rod into God's hand, so as he is glad to deal with us, as we do with frisking horses●… in a large pasture, which will not be taken, till they come to a strait gate: The 
n Jer. 2. 24.  wild ass, that snuffs up the wind, to cool her heat, will not be taken, till she be in her months, till she be with foal, and loaden with her burden. We have grown wanton with ease and long peace and plenty; and if the Lord should not tame us with affliction, we should run wild after the excess of riot with the world; there would be no rule with us. We are like unto Ephraim; 
o Jer. 31 18. 19  the Prophet saith of Ephraim, that, before he was chastised, he was like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, but after he was instructed, than he smote his thigh; ●… he was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because he did bear the reproach of his youth: As if he should say; Thou hast a●…cted me O Lord, and I am humbled, I do now bow my neck, and stoop under thy yoke; I was like an untamed Colt, but now the hand and rod of affliction hath broken me, now I smote upon my thigh, in token of remorse, shame and detestation of my former wicked ways; I did bear the reproach of my youth, of mine excesses committed in my younger days. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; after that thou hadst wrought upon me, and showed me my sin, I repented. When he smote them, saith●… the 
p Psal. 78.34.  Psalmist, than they sought him, yea, they sought him early; 
q Hos. 5. 15.  yea, then (saith the Lord) they will se●…ke me diligently; early, and diligently. God that can draw light out of darkness, can give a good issue and success of our a●…ction; albeit they be harsh to flesh and blood; yet he can turn them to our good, to our profit. Metals are never so bright, as when they are scoured; Perfumes and spices never so redolent and savoury, as when they have felt the fire, and the p●…. Affliction serves to scour our earthen vessels of that soil and rust of corruption, that we formerly contracted. We may think it were well if we escaped this scouring●… and burnishing, but it is good for us to be thus afflicted; 
r Psal. ●…1971.  that now the Lord pricks the swelling of our pride, extracts the malignity of our humour; so as now we give up the sweet morsels of sin that overcharged us, and pay dear for the stolen pleasures of sin.    

SECT. II. Cordials and Comforts against the loss of our goods.  
HE●…, me thinks, I hear the tender Patient reply; It is not this present malady and infirmity●… afflicts me so much: this comes by the wise and orderly guidance of the good hand of God, and is laid upon me for my correction and amendment, or for trial of my faith and patience, and will (I trust) work for my good, if I make a sanctified use of God's visitation there, in my sickness, I fell into the hands of God, 
s Sam●… 24 14.  whose mercies are great: here I have lost my goods by Plunderers, and am fallen into the hands of men, into mine enemy's hand, whose mercies oft-times are cruelties. I was but a little displeased with my people (saith the Lord) 
t Za●…, 1.15.  but they, to wit, the Chaldeans, their enemies, they helped forward●… the affliction; and so have these sons of violence done. Indeed these be heavy pressures, and such as require more sovereign cordials.  
You complain of want 
Sect. We want, whose fault is it?  and poverty; but who ha●… caused it? H●…d it come through your own negligence and laziness, your unprovidence and unthristinesses, your rash suretyship and engagements; then you had reason to have borne that burden you had drawn on your own back; as women that marry husbands of their own choosing against their friend's consent, if they be never so ill used, yet you shall seldom see them complain, but set a good face on it. Now that others have●… spoiled you, you may bear your cross more comfortably, as not being accessary thereto; And yet therein you may discern, the rod of the Lord's anger (as the Assyrian is termed) 
u Isai●… 10 4.  chastising you by their hands, as his instruments; wherein yet you may rather be grieved at their wrong doing, and ill dealing, then at your own innocent smart, and suffering.  
Thou complainest thou 
Sect. I. Consider, how little sufficeth nature.  hast lost thy goods; why, but hast thou not necessaries left? if so, then 'tis the Apostles Charge; having food and raiment, 
x 1. Tim 6. 8.  let us therewith be content: Other things serve for Ornaments, and Trappings of state; but that's most useful, that nourisheth●… us within, and covereth us without. Nature is content with a small pittance, and Grace with less; they that have taken the measure of our throat, and other instruments, say, that it is less than in other Creatures of answerable proportion; 
Qu●… sunt multa quae ●…se non d●…! Said Socrates.  to teach us temperance, and to beware of sup●… considering how little sufficeth Nature. The countryman expressed his contentment, who coming into a merchant's Shop furnished with great choice of commodities; Oh, said he, how many things be here, which I stand no need off? It was Agu●…s wish, 
y Prov. 30. 8.  feed me with food convenient for me; and so we have a competent●… livelihood for our estate and charge; why should we Martha-like, trouble ourselves about many things? As our Saviour said in an other case, one thing is needful: 
z Luk. 10.41.42.  And if 〈◊〉 be not so competently ministered to us; it may (haply) be good for us to be kept short for a time; and that God will make provision for us in the Mount, 
a Gen. 22. 14.  that is in extremity, when all other means fail us.  
David saith, 
b Psal. 37. 25.  he never 
Sect. II. The godly destitute, not forsaken.  see the righteous forsaken, nor their feed begging bread: Godly men in all Ages have been put to want; but this poverty of theirs, came not through their own lewd and wasteful course of 
c Job. 30 1. 3. Psal. 59.15.  life, ●… as it is with divers lazy and idle beggars, but from God's visitation: Christ saith, 
d Ma●… 26. 11.  we shall have the poor always with us, that so their poverty might exercise the rich man●… charity: They have been straightened with penury for the time, but it was not derived along from the needy Parents to their Children, but it was ere long supplied either to themselves, or theirs: He might see them destitute, but not forsaken, not so forsaken, but there were ever some that releived them, or took compassion on them: And thus the Israelites found favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, and borrowed Jewels of them; so did Joseph wi●● the Keeper of the Prison; Ruth was suffered for her relief to glean in B●…z his field. J●…mic being imprisoned was highly respected by the S●…ward of the King's household, Ebedmelech the Ae hyopian, as also by Nebuzaredan the captain of the Guard; Paul and his Company were kindly entreated by the Barbarians.  
The Lord is my shepherd (saith David) 
e Psal. 23. 1. & 34. 10.  I shall not want: and yet David was an hungered, and wanted bread; when Abiathar was glad to relieve him with the hollowed bread, 
f 〈◊〉. Sam 21. 3 4.  which none but the Priest might 〈◊〉 off, unless (as this was) in case of necessity and charity, which dispense with●… Ceremonies: He was thirsty, and wanted drink when he wished, that one would help him with drink of the water of the Well of Bethlem; 
g 2 Sam. 23.15.16. 17.  and when he saw it was purchased with the hazard of the lives of three of his Worthies or Colonels, he would not drink of it, but poured it out as an Oblation, to testify his thankfulness to God for preserving these men in this extreme danger. The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want, he takes care of us, and ministereth things necessary to u●…, albeit we may be pinched for the present: The Lord hath his appointed time of relief; it is seasonable with him to reach forth his hand, when●… we are brought (as Master Calvin speaks) (h) in ●…mas 
Calvin. 〈◊〉 Psa. 54. 〈◊〉  angustias, to the last cast, then to help at a dead lif●…. And if we be stri●… of all, we be b●… as we were, and as we shall be. For, we brought nothing into the world, 
i 1. 〈◊〉. 6. 7.  neither shall we carry any thing out: we are but as others have been. Was not the victorious 
k Osiand. Epi●…. Cen. Eccles.  Emperor, Henry the Fourth, who had fought fifty two pitch Fields (at last) compelled to make suit in his old age, for a poor Prebend, in the Church of Spyra? And was not Bellisarius 
l Carion-Chron.  (sometime the only man for prowess and honour) driven to that hard exigent, that having his eyes put out, and being●… led in a string to beg by the high way side, he cried out to the passengers, Date obulum Be●…isario, for God's sake bestow one half penny on Bellisarius?  
Thou art stripped of all, and yet thou livest; the Prophet Jeremy 
m Jer. 45.5. 〈◊〉  comforts Baruch the Scribe against the public calamities of the time, that his life should be 
Save my life & take my goods.  given unto him for a prey; as if he should say: 'tis not a time for thee now, in this common danger of all things, to be casting about for any great matters for thyself; thou Mayst think thyself well dealt with, if (what ever become of thy outward state) thou escap'st with thy life. If one's house●… be fired, or plundered, he thinks it well, if he can save a brand, a desk, a trunk, a Cabinet or his Box of writings: he that's in danger of sh●…p-wrack, casts his goods away, and is glad if himself come safe to the harbour. 
History of the 〈◊〉 Roman Emperors.  The Emperor Conrad, third of that name, having besieged Guelphe Duke of Bavaria, would yield to no milder conditions, but only to suffer such Gentlewomen as were with the Duke in the City, (their honour's safe) to issue the town a foot, with such things as they could carry about them: they resolved (neglecting all other riches, or Jewels) to carry their husbands, children, and the Duke●… himself on their backs. The Emperor perceiving the quaintness of their device, took so great pleasure at it, that he wept for joy, and after entreated the Duke and his with all favour. Is not the life more excellent than meat, and the Body more than raiment? 
n Mat. 6 25.   
It will not be amiss 
Sect. III. Consider the worse condition of others.  sometimes to step aside into the homely cottages of our poor neighbours, and there take an Inventory ('tis soon done) of their mean utensils, course fare, and hard lodgings, thereby to make us relish our own condition the better: we are apt to complain of our courser di●…t, and thinner meals; and yet the Prophet Elijah was●… fed by 
o 1 King 17 4.  Ravens, and one bit from their mouth, more pleasing to him than a whole table-full of Ahab's delicate dishes. Obadiah hid the Prophets of the Lord, by fifty in a Cave 
p 1 King 18. 4. , and fed them with bread and water: this was but poor feeding; yet in such a famine and drought as that was, bread and water was good fare, brown-bread and the gospel are good cheer. When the Prophet Elijah was boarded with the widow of Sar●…pta 
q 1 King 17. 12. , she had not so much as a little Cake baked on the hearth, no bread at all baked in the Oven, nothing but a little meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse to entertain him withal. Daniel 
r Dan. 1. 12. 15.  and●… the captive children were fed with pulse and water, and yet were fatter and fairer than those that were di●…ted at the Court. We find John Baptist feeding on Locusts & wild honey, 
s Mat. 3. 4.  such as Bees made ordinarily in woods and clefts of the Rocks; he fed on such home lie and voluntary diet as that wild place of his abode would afford; a few barley loaves, 
t Math. 14. 17.  and some little fishes was all the provision was ready for our saviour's train.  
Do we complain, that our Lodgings are homely, and unfurnish't? When the good Shunamite prepared a chamber for the Prophet Elisha; 
u 2 King. 4. 10.  what other furniture●… had it, save a Bed, a Table, a stool, and a Candlestick? these were such things as were fit for Study and Rest: the Prophet is not curious, so things be convenient. When the Sons of the Prophets were straightened for room, they went to the banks of Jordan, 
w 2 King 6.1. &c.  and took thence every man a beam to build withal: now one of them lets fall the head of his axe into the River, and makes his moan to Elisha, Alas Master, for it was borrowed: Elisha causeth the Iron to swim like Cork, and move towards the hand that lost it. Here was a building towards, none of the curiousest; here is no hiring of any curious●… artificers, no procuring of some costly marble or cedal: every man is to hew, and square and frame his own b●…ame; they are their own Carpenters, and their tools are borrowed 
x M●…h. 8. 20. . The Foxes have holes, the Birds have nests, but the Son of man hath not whereon to lay his head. He doth not say, Kings have Palaces, but I have none; or, rich men have house and land, but I have none. He lays down his Condition to be below the very 〈◊〉 of the air, and the meanest beasts upon earth: In this humbled condition of his, he did not so much as provide a set houseroom for himself and his family: the stable was his●… inn, the crach was his bed. The Disciple is not above his Master. St. Paul saith, 
y 1. Cor. 4. 11.  to this present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and have no certain dwelling place.  
Do we complain that our attire is mean, our clothing homespun? Elijah 
z 2. Kin. 1. 8.  was clad with a rough hairy coat (such as the Prophets used to wear) and girt about with a plain girdle. John Baptist, as he came in the spirit of Elias, so he resembled him in his Habit: He wore a rough garment of Camels hair, and a leathern girdle, 
a Matth. 3. 4.  not as was usual with those of the better sort in those parts, of finer stuff. If some say his garment was●… Chamblet, they speaken to 
Dr. Fulks Answer to the Rh●…mists, in Matt. 3.  of fine Chamblet, but of a rough and course cloth, made of the great, and hard hairs of Camels; not of the fine and soft hairs, called Camels wool, whereof our Chamblet and Grograines are made. But what ever John's garments were made off, or how course soever ours be, frieze or Russet, or as it comes off the sheep's back, without further ●…ncture or die; we find that others, perhaps better deserving then ourselves, have wandered in sheepskins, goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented. 
b Hebr. 11. 37.   
In a word: If I lie in a poor cabin: Those ancient Worthies, we read of, ●… in the Church-story, they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in Dens, and Caves 
c Hebr. 11. 38.  of the earth. If I live in a low-thatched Cottage, the Prophet 
d Jonah. 4. 5.  Jonah had but a Lodge, or a Booth made of boughs, that he sat in. If I have a hard lodging; jacob's. was harder, when the earth was his bed, and a stone 
e Gen. 28. 11.  his pillow. If I want money; so did Peter; silver and gold (saith he, 
f Act. 3. 6.  to him that asked him an A●…me.) have I none. If I be but a day-labourer, and put to earn my living with my hands; so was that great Doctor of the Gentiles, Paul; he was a tentmaker, 
g Act. 18. 1.  and stitched up skins for his Tentworke; a Trade which then●… was much in use in those hot Countries, and by this means he maintained himself. And to speak of later times, so did that learned writer, Musculus, 
h .  who after his worthy service in the Ministry, was fain to get into a weaver's house, and learn to weave, to get bread for himself and his Family; and after thrust out of the house by his Master the Weaver, was forced to the common dich of the town, and work with his spade to get his living. Why should I look for Joseph's particoloured coat, or Benjamin's five Messes? When as others of my brethren, deeper (happily) in God's books, than myself, have●… been so homely entertained. What am I that I should speed better than the meanest of these Patients? What had they done that they should fare worse than I? If I have little, others have less.  
Consider the benefit, that 
Sect. iv. Consider the benefit of a slender condition.  accrueth (by accident, at least) out of a mean state and condition of life; and it will help to work out our present discontentment. It is true, we want some former conveniences, & accommodation for our dier, lodging, attendance, and entertainment: But if our allowance be shortened, our retinue must be reduced. We shall have courser fare, thinner meals, meaner utensils, homelier attire, ●… fewer attendants; but withal we shall have as quiet rest, as found Sleeps, as safe security, a better appetite, freer merriment, fewer cares and fears, less danger of distemper by surfeits; we shall not be so deep charged in the Excise Office, but quietly enjoy such provision as nature, and honest earnings shall furnish our Table withal. We cry up rich places, and great purchases; but are not those places attended with cares and emulation, and those purchases charged with secret encumbrances? How often are their Masters ●…eep broken, and their beds disquieted with cares? What toil took we in getting a little wealth, what care to●… keep it, what fear to lose it, what grief ●…is to part with it? And now we are eased of our burden, full sore indeed against our will, and yet we complain.  
What pains took we 
Sect. V. The cares that attend on wealth.  to dig into the bowels of the earth? Not as others do, who search there for minerals, and hidden treasures, to enrich themselves withal; but to hide some poor utensils, lest others should find them, and spoil us. What fear had we then, lest somecurious eye should watch, & observe us, lest our own trustee should betray us, or some casually fall upon our close Reserve? How ready were we then to sequester our own state, to be●… strangers at our own home, and to go into a kind of voluntary exile? Me thinks I hear what thoughtful consultations we had in those p'undering times. Shall we fly with David 
i 1. Sam 23. 19  into the wilderness of Ziph? Why, the Ziphites (of whom David afterwards complains, strangers are risen up against me) 
k Psal. 〈◊〉. 3.  they will discover me to Saul, to mine enemy. Shall I ●…e beholden to the futtlety of a woman for my shelter? For, even that weak sex hath of entimes saved the lives of God's servants. Shall I go to Rahab, 
l J. 〈◊〉. 2.6 Hebr. 11. 31.  who hid the Spies, and covered them with the stalks of fl●…xe, and is commended for it? Shall I hide myself on●… her flat-roofed house? I fear the Terrase and Leads are too open; and exposed to the view of the enemy; the lumber there, were soon rifled, and remooved, and myself discovered. Shall I go to the Well of Bahurim, 
m 2. 〈◊〉. 17. 18. 19  where that good woman hid the messengers, that carried secret intelligence to David, of Absalon's plot, and Achitophel's counsel? she covered the Well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon. The sudden wit of a woman hath choked the mouth of her Well with dried corn, that it might not bewray the Priests Sons, the messengers. Is not this Well (being in an open Court) too well kowne to the neighbours●… that repair thither, so as some one false brother or other may give the searchers some notice of it? May not the corn thereon, and the covering thereof, serve for provender and provision for themselves and their horses? The well is uncovered, and I am discovered. I fear this Well is too shallow to hide me.  
Shall I betake me to Michal's wile? When David's house was beset with murderers, Michal 
n 1 Sam. 〈◊〉. , to gain time for David's escape, feigned that David was sick, and laid a statue in his bed, with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster, as if it had been David's hair, thereby deluding Saul's men with hope●… of taking him, till by this their stay David had time to escape out at a window: this was a quaint device, but who but Michal, Saul's daughter, would have adventured to delude Saul's Messengers? This wile of hers, would in another have been held a mere mockage and affront, and have enraged the pursuers: our searchers are not so tame as to be cozened with a picture or a pillow, Michal's wile is not for my safety. Well yet I remember Rachel's device; she was one could hide as close, and carry the matter as covertly as any of her sex. When Rachel perceived that Laban made search for his Idols in the Tents, she took the Images●… and put them in the camel's litter 
o Gen. 31 33. etc , or furniture, & she sat upon the Idols, and covered them with her coats pretending for her not rising to her Father, the necessity of her present condition, (Levit. 15. 19) according to her sex, that the accustomed infirmity of women was upon her, & therefore she desired to be excused, so Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. This of Rachel's was subtle, but not warrantable. For, first she stole her father's Idols, and then she cloaked her thest with a lie; yet this excuse of hers passed; it passed with a Father, but it would not now be admitted; the childbed, the sickbed, the●… grave-bed, all are rifled and ransacked.  
I will not balk any means that may make for the preservation of my life and my state; but I will not rely on any but that of David's, 
p Psal. 119. 114.  Lord, thou art my hiding place, my refuge and my shield. The Lord hath his close Reserves; he provided a little Zoar for Lot's entertainment, the land of Goshen for his Israelites, an Egypt for Mary and the babe; the town of Pella, for the Christians that quitted Jerusalem: he hath Caves and Rocks for David, and for Obadiah's hundred Prophets, and a basket for Paul, to let him down the wall. Thou shalt hide them●… in the secret of thy presence, 
q Psal. 31.20.  from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion, from the strife of tongues: It may be (saith the Prophet 
r Zeph. 2.3.  we shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.  
We have heard the complaint 
Sect. VI. The Security of a small estate.  & troubles of a full estate, look now upon a mean condition, and observe the better temper thereof; what an advantage is it to be freed of those cares that fret the owner's heart, as a moth doth a garment? Arise (saith the Prophet) get ye up into 
(s) Jerem 49.31.  the wealthy nation, or to a nation without either fear or care, a secure nation, as it is explained by the words following, which have neyther●… gates nor bars, which dwell alone. He means the Kedarens of Arabia, that dwelled without care in their Tents; without gates or bars. It you came to a man's house that hath neither lock nor key, neither door nor bar, you may well resolve that he dwells securely and in safety: And if you come to a City that hath neither gates nor bars, you may well say, either this City hath no enemies, or else it fears none: A City without gates or bars, is the emblem of security; and such is the plundered man's character. He sleeps with his doors open, no dangers threaten him, no fears break his rest: he starts not●… out of his bed at midnight, and cries thieves thieves; there's none needs give him the warn-word, the watchword. The Philistines be upon thee Samson; Samson the Philistines be upon thee: he looks the taker in the face, and siniles to think how he is disappointed of his prey: he is not troubled with hiding his treasure, nor tortured for discovering of it. He is not served with a writ of Latitat, but makes his appearance upon any law full summons and occasions: He fears no rifling or pillaging, for he can carry the choice of his wardrobe on his back, if any casualty befall his cottage he takes it not to heart, as knowing that●… a little labour and charges will make him another H●…t He is like the pinetree, which (they say) if his bark be pulled off lasts long, else it rot●…: He lives the longer and better for his losses. 〈◊〉 
August. 〈◊〉. 45. in 〈◊〉.  necessitas quae in mel●…ra compellit; well fare that want and necessity, which bettereth a man in the course of piety.  
Thou complainest of the 
Sect. VI. The fickle nature of these carthly goods  sudden and unexpected loss of thy goods; why do but consider the fickle nature of these earthly commodities, and it will help to allay thy grief. Riches (as 
u Prov. 23. 5.  Solomon saith) have wings, and what use is there of wings but to fly? Sometimes they fly of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying●… to bring in more; and yet even then, by trusting of ill customers, by the unfaithfulness of facto, or the unexpected falls of Markets, they may (happily) come home with their feathers, and train shorter, till they be imped again. Some have erected a winged Statue in honour of the Lady Victoria, hoping thereby to have her more favourable and propitious to them; yet fearing lest she should desert them, and fly into the enemy's camp, they clipped her wings, to make her reside with them: If we could pini●…n the wings of our riches, and nail them fast down to us, it were something; but We can have no steadiness, no●… certainty of them. The Apostle charges us not to trust in uncertain riches, 
w 1. Tun. 6. 17  in the uncertainty of riches; the very form of money ('tis Austin's conceit) 
x Aug. in Psa. 83.  agreeth well with the condition thereof; for it is stamped round, as being very apt to run from us; we call it current, and our goods, movables. If riches were certain, how is it that they that trade most for them, are driven to hazard, and put their goods continually in a venture, merchant Adventurers? If riches were certain, what need such bills and Bonds, and Assurances so strong as our learned council, and the wit of man can devise, and all to secure them? They●… pretend it is because of man's mortality, but they mean many times, the mortality of his wealth, as well as of himself, and yet if the man live, there be some will break these bands asunder, as easily as Samson did the sevenwiths, or cords, wherewith he was tied; even in security there's uncertainty.  
there's a double uncertainty 
Sect. I. Uncertainty of riches, their staying with us.  in riches; their staying with us, and our staying with them; our parting certain, their stay uncertain. How many men have been driven to an untimely want, by casualty of fire, inundation of waters, violence of tempests, by robbery of thieves, negligence of servants, or suretyship for●… friends? By Pirates and R●…vers by Sea, by robbers and Pillagers by Land? By perils from strangers, and those of their own household? Besides, if there fall an invasion, or some garboil in the State by foreign, or (as now) by civil Wane, then if ever is Job's Simile verified, that Riches are like a cobweb, 
y Job. 8. 14.  which is to day, and to morrow is swept away; that which a man shall be weaving all his life long, with great a do and much travel, there comes me a soldier, a barbarous soldier, a Plunderer, with his broom, and in the turning of a hand sweeps it clean away. How many good men during these dangerous times have●… tasted of this incertainty? As it is in a wheel, the spoke that is now upward, is by and by downward; so comes it to pass, he that is now rich, shortly becomes poor. Job was yesterday the richest man in the East, to day he is so needy that he is grown into a Proverb, As poor as Job: Bellisarius the great and famous commander, to whom Rome owed her life twice at least, came to Date ●…buluns Belisario, one half penny to Belisarius. How many have gone to bed rich, and risen poor men in the morning?  
But be it that they were 
Sect. II. Uncertain tie of our staying with riches.  certain to tarry with us, yet except we ourselves were sure to tarry with them also, it is as good as nothing. Now●… we are not certain of ourselves, we may have Leases of them for three lives, or one and thirty years, but they have no Leases of us for three hours. For when the grounds are stocked and stored, and the barns full; Hâc nocte, 
z Luke 12.20.  if God say but this night, it dasheth all. This night thy soul shall be required of thee; and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? here is another uncertainty; we may be outed of possession: many (as the Prophet 
a Habbak. 2.6.  speaks) lade themselves with thick clay, that is, with earthly riches, the desire whereof is like a burden that overcometh and smothereth the bearer alive: but●… as the question is there, How long? this ●…ading must be laid down again, and if the times prove dangerous, we have but a poor fruition and enjoying of that whereof we 
Sect. III. It's uncertain to whom we shall leave them.  are possessed: Besides there's an uncertainty in the conveying them, and our leaving them, by reason of the danger of our children's scattering of them. Whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? perhaps a strangers, perhaps some false Executors, perhaps an Enemies. We may indeed with Zacharias call for writing tables, and write his name John, but do we not often ●…ee that men make heritages, but God makes heirs; that many son's roast not that●… their fathers got in hunting? He heaps up riches, saith the 
b Psal. 39 v. 6. & 49. 〈◊〉.  Psalmist, and knoweth not who shall gather them, whether his children or strangers: I must leave them (saith the Preacher 
c Eccl. 〈◊〉. 18.19.  to the man that shall be after me, to my successor, to the generation following, I cannot be sure to leave it to one that will use it well: Who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool, a good husband or not? The snow in the sun never melted faster than some men's riches as soon as themselves be gone. A moderate portion and provision doth well: A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey, round about, to seize●… on him, if he be not all the better educated and stablished in years and judgement.  
Besides, these riches, they 
Sect. VIII Riches, they are not ours, but lent us.  are not ours, but lent us: we may say of them, as the poor man of the hatchet, Alas Master, it is but borrowed 
d King. 6. 5. : we have jus adrem not dominium in rem: right to these earthly things, not any Lordship over them, and but a right of favour, as Tenants at the will of the Lord, the proprietary; and we must be accountable for them, and the greater our receipt, the greater will our reckoning be. Bernard saith, 
e Serm. 4. de advent.  these earthly riches, nec verae, nec vestrae sunt; they are neither true riches, nor●… yet your own. If they be yours, saith Gregory; why do you not take them with you, when you go? By leaving them behind you to the world, you confess they are not yours, but the worlds. Indeed they are the riches of this world, for here you get them, and here you may lose them; here you get them, and here you must leave them. The very certainty is, losing or leaving, that is, foregoing them; so the very certainty, is an Uncertainty. 
f 17. 18. 19  Leave them, or lose them we must: leave them when we die, or lose them while we live. You must either leave them when you die, or they will leave you while you●… live, this is certain: but whether you them, or they you, this is uncertain. Job tarried himself, his riches went. The rich man's riches 〈◊〉, but he himself went, Luke 12. 20. One of these shall be, we know, but which of them shall be, or when, or how, or how soon it shall be, that we know not, saith that sweet singer of Israel. We have an usual phrase among us, and it is a very proper one; When a rich man dies, (we say) he left a great estate, he leaves it indeed, for he cannot carry it with him: he must go out naked, how well clothed soever he was while he was here. Well then, since these earthly goods are of so frail and brittle●… consistence, let us according to our saviour's charge, 
g Mu●…h. 6. 20.  lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth, (which builds in another man's possession) and ●…ust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break thorough and steal.  
If we seek for contentment 
Sect. ix.. Labour to be content with a simple condition, not depending on many things.  (as who doth not?) We must not like Martha trouble our heads with many things, but some few necessaries; and reduce our affections to some short dependences. It is true we have a body consisting of divers members, which have need of several helps and supplies, as air, diet, houses, exercises, recreations; and we are subject to much weakness, hurts, ●… losses, and hindrances: The 
See B. Hal of Contentation.  best way for our conveniency and accommodation, will be to draw out mind into as narrow a boundary & compass as may be, like thrifty husbands that cash●…ere unprofitable retainers; and not to depend upon many things: But taking the Lord for the portion of our Inheritance; 
h Psa. 16 5.  Content ourselves with a simplicity of condition, not hankering upon this, and that, and the other changeable object, as if (forsooth) we could not live, nor subsist without it. As for example; some cannot live without sports and pleasure, and great means; another is all for a convenient house, and sociable company; take●… any of these from him, you touch him in his freehold, and he is (as it were) dead in the nest.  

Quest.  
Why, you will say, may we not use such things?   

Answ.  
Yes, but with weaned affections, so using them as if we used them not, 
i 1. Cor. 7. 21.  not abusing them by an inordinate use of them, or by too much doting on them, and cleaving unto them; not so, as if we were wedded to them. You shall have some their hearts so glued to them, as they are like to break, if their friends, estates, or credit fail them, or they be hindered of their pleasures, and profits. Now he that enjoyes●… these things so, as to set up his rest thereon, so as he terminates his comfort and contentment therein; such an one Idolizeth them, and committeth a kind of Idolatry with the Creature; in such sort as St. Paul calleth a covetous man an Idolater. 
k Ephes. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The Idols of the Heathen (saith the Psalmist) are gold and silver, so are they of the covetous man: The one worshippeth the Image of gold and silver in the Church, the other of the Prince stamped upon his coin in his chest. And as the Idolater putteth his trust and confidence in his gods; so doth the covetous man in his goods, saying to the wedge of gold, 
l .  thou art my hope, and confidence.  
Give me now the man 
Sect. I. The benefit of an Independent condition.  that can sit down with a slenderness of condition, that depends not on many things, and see how he hath taken out St. Paul's Lesson, and can say; I have learned in whatsoever estate I am, 
m Phil. 4. 〈◊〉  therewith to be content, that is, riches or not riches, honour or not honour, I can be happy with them, and without them: I can live by them, and without them, I can live without liberty, I can live without friends, I can live without sports and pleasures, without worldly credit and esteem, without wife and children, without riches, without conveniency of air, Gardens and Orchyards: Yea, were he put into●… a Country town far from all suitable acqu●…intance; yea were he shut up in close prison, yet even there he could walk with God, and do as Paul and Silas, have his heart filled with joy and peace through believing. And how so? because he fetcheth comfort from God's All-sufficiency, so as come what will come, whatsoever condition he is put into, let him be up and down (like the Spring-weather) sometimes fair, sometimes foul, he hath a bottom of his own to stand upon, he hath somewhat to comfort his heart.  
Let our conver●…ion (as the Apost. saith) 
n Hebr. 23 〈◊〉  be without covetousness, and be●… we content with such things as we have. If we have teg●…menta, covering only for our nakedness, and alimenta, food for our emptiness, let us therewith be content, albeit we have not ornamenta, rich attire also for comeliness, and oblectamenta, delicious fare for daintiness. If we have an easy saddle, what though we want trappings? Rest is good, though it be between two panyers. Let us neither grudge at the leanness of our own portion, nor envy at the fatness of another's lot. Far be it from us to deal with God herein, as Hiram did with Solomon. Solomon gave him twenty cities in the Land of Galilee, 
o 1. King 9 11. 13.  but because the●… country was low and deep (and so in all likelihood more fruitful for that, we say deep riding, good abiding) they pleased him not: So as he said to Solomon, what Cities are these thou hast given me? And he called them Cabul, that is to say, displeasing or dirty; or therefore displeasing, because dirty: Say rather with David, 
p Psal. 16. 5. 6.  The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, the lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place; yea I have a goodly heritage.    

SECT. III. Comforts against Imprisonment.  
THou complainest of 
Sect. I. we are free Prisoners, the mind is at liberty.  want, but it is want of liberty, that troubleth thee more. Indeed liberty is a blessing we prize next to our life; so dear, as many have lost their life, to purchase their liberty. But be not disheartened with this confinement: The outer man is restrained; the inner man, 
See Bp. Hall of the free Prisoner.  the mind, is at liberty: Thou are thine enemy's prisoner, and God's freeman; thou art barred from the Country●… thou wert borne in, not from the country thou art borne for, borne to.  
Thou art imprisoned, (see 
Sect. I. The Saints imprisoned.  thou suffer not for thine own fault, but for a good cause) thou art clapped up within four walls; why thou hast worthy Precedents; so was Joseph, Michaiah, Jeremy, John Baptist, Peter, Paul and Silas, who sang like Nightingales in their Cages.  
What though I be coup●… 
Sect. II. Imprisonment not strange: we are imprisoned in the womb, the world, the body, and the grave.  up in prison? Why should that be so strange to me? I was kept close prisoner nine months together in my mother's womb, when I came into the world, I was put into a liber â custod â, a wider prison; my soul is now imprisoned in my body, and●… ere long I look for an habeas corpus to remove me out of this place, to the Grave, the Land of darkness, as Job 
q Job. 10 21.  calleth it. But God, who hath all times in his hand, will in his good time send me my writ of ease, and give me my liberate, and thereby free both this body of mine, from these outward prison-walls, my soul from the prison of this body, and both body and soul from the 
r Rom. 8 21.  bondage of corruption, and restore me to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. 
Sect III. hell a fear full prison, there's no light, no favour there, no delivery thence.   
There is yet a terrible and fearful prison, whence there is no redemption, no goaledelivery, without bail or mainprize, but this is our●… comfort, the Lord hath the keys of H●…ll, 
s Revel. 1. 18.  so as he hath an absolute power over it, to deliver and discharge the penitent from the fear and danger thereof: He hath the keys of death to unlock the graves, and the keys of Hell, 
t Revel. 20 3.  to lock up the old Dragon, and his crew, into the bottomless pit,  
When I was an Embryo in the da●…ke Cell of the womb, I was penned up there as a close Reserve, and yet there I had a kind and loving keeper, my mother my midwife, and afterwards my nurse: But in that other p●…ison, the keeper there is our 
u 1 Pet. 5. 8.  Adversary the devil, who walks about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he●… may devour. In other prison's men have fou●…d some favour and mitigation; Joseph was put in fetters, 
w Gen. 39.21.  but the Lord was with him, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, but never any in that prison. Jeremy was in the dungeon, 
x Jer. 38.7.  yet he had Ebedmelech a Courtier to intercede for him to the King: But there's none to solicit for the prisoners there, as being extr statum merendi, without all capacity of favours, and acts of grace. 
y Acts 12.7.  Peter was put into a dark prison, but the light shoes round about him, his fetters fell off from him, and the Angel led him forth, and set him free. But in that other●… prison, there's nothing but utter d●…knes, no Angels there, but such as kept not their first estates, 
z Jude 6.  reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the Judgoment of the great day.  
Now then as Jeremy 
Sect iv. Pray, we never be delivered 〈◊〉 that prison.  prayed unto the King Z-dechias, 
a J●…r. 37. 20.  that he would not cause him to retu●…ne to the house of Jonathan the Scribe (which was the prison) lest he died there. So let us put up our supplications to the Lord, that he would not send us into that eternal prison to die for ever.   

SECT. iv. Comforts against Banishment.  
THou complainest 
Sect. I. We are all Pilgr●…ns, Heaven is our true home.  that thou art banish'c out of thy Country; why, who is not? We are all of us Pilgrims and Strangers; 
b 1 Per. 2.11.  our conversation is in Heaven; 
c Philip. 3.20.  Zanchius translates it, our burgesship, our society is in Heaven, we look higher than the earth, we set our affections upon the things that are above; we carry ourselves like fe●…low-Citizens of Saints, there we live according to the●… laws of Heaven, and here on earth in part enjoys the privileges of that heavenly Corporation, the new Jerusalem that is above. It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine (d) upon his 
Dr. Pre●…on.  deathbed that he should change his place, not his company: His conversation was now beforehand with his God, and his holy Angels, and now he was going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that Region of glory above. Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, as St. Paul saith: 
e 2 Cor. 5.6.  This is not our true home, we seek for a better country, 
f Hebr. 11.16.  that is, an Heavenly. There is our true●… home, and were we (as it is thought S●…. John was) banish'c into the Isle Patmos, 
g Revel. 1.9.  or the Archipelago, for the word of God, and the Test●…mony of Jesus Christ; even there we should find as ready a passage to Heaven in our addresses to God, as in our native soil. This centre of earth is equidistant, alike distant from the glorious circumference of Heaven; as Hierom said of old to his Paulinus, De Hierosolymis & de Britanniâ aequaliter patet aul a caelestis, Heaven is as open in Britain as in Jerusalem.  
It is Cyril's observation, 
Sect. I. The benefit of remooveall.  that Abraham whilst he was in his own country, had never God appearing to●… him save only to bid him go forth of his country, 
h Gen. 12. 1.  his Kindred, and his father's house; but afterwards, when he was gone forth, he had frequent visions of his Maker. Had Joseph been ever so great, or had such trust in Potiphar's House, or Pharaoh's kingdom, if he had not been sold into Egypt? Had Daniel and his three companions of the captivity ever attained to that honour in their native Land? Themistocles 
i Plutar. in Themist.  being banished from Athens, grew into great favour with the King of Persia, so as he was wont to say, my sons, we should have been undone, if we had not been undone.  
Art thou banish'c out of 
Sect. II. Abraham enjoined to leave his own Country.  thy country? Why, what other thing hath befallen thee then it pleased God to enjoin Abraham the father of the faithful? Saying to him, 
k Gen. 12. 1.  get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to a Land that I will show thee. He must go from the place of his birth, and wonted abode, but he knoweth not whether, 
l Hebr. 11.8.9.  to a place he knew not, and to men that knew not him. He must sojourn 
m Gen. 14.13.  in a strange country, where he is constrained either to buy, or hire, or borrow both a place for his dwelling, as also a plot of ground, for the bi●…iall of his dead. 
n 〈◊〉. 23.4. &c.   
What though we be 
Sect. III. We have right in any Country, by God's title  strangers at home? The Lord can provide us an home amongst strangers. Egypt the slaughter-house of God's people, the furnace of Israel's affliction; hath nevertheless three several times been the Sanctuary and Harbour to preserve God's Church, as namely; in Abraham, in Joseph, and in Christ. God oftentimes makes use of the world for the behoof of his own. The earth is the Lords, and all places are alike to the wise and ●…hfull. God that is everywhere, the same, makes all places alike to his.  
In a word; am I banished 
Sect. IV. The  from home I meet with many of whom the world●… was not worthy, 
o H●…. 11.38.  wand●…ing about in sheepskins, in goats-skins, in Dasarts, and in mountaios, and in Dens, and in Caves of the earth. Why am I then discouraged or disheartened? There hath no temptation taken me, 
p 1. Cor 10.13.  but such as is common to man: there's nothing hath befallen me herein, but what is incident to other men holier than myself; such as usually hath been incident to God's dearest children; such as may be borne by man in this life, specially assisted by God's grace, which is always suffici●…nt for his children. 
Sect. V. God accompanieth his, even in Banishment.   
B●…sides, if I be east upon a foreign Coast, I shall have good company, For he●… hath said, 
q Hebr. 13.5. Jos. 1.5.  who cannot fail, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; which though it were spoken to Joshua, yet it belongeth to us: For even particular promises may be generally applied, specially when the thing promised appertains unto all.   

SECT. V. Comforts against public Calamities.  
HE●…e me thinks I 
Sect. I. Of the mi series of a Civil war.  hear the tender hearted Patient reply; It is not the want of health, or loss of goods, restraint●… at home, or exile abroads, or the like personal grievances, that affect me so much, as the public calamities; to see the Sword, the Famine, and Pestilence like the three bands, 
r 1. Sam 13.17.  or Companies of the Philistines, ready to wast the land of Israel. My heart bleeds to see the fearful effects of this civil war waged in the hands of our homebred enemies. Many of our dear brethren are stain and fallen by the sword, their blood hath been spilled like water, and their bones have been scattered, as when one cleaveth and cutteth wood upon the earth: what tumbling of garments, and weltering of the horse and his Rider in●… their mingled blood? The spoilt cry to us for bread, the sick and wounded for help and healing. Many towns have been plundered, many Matrons and Virgins have been ravished, many Families have been plundered, many Wives and Children deprived of their Husbands and Parents, left widows, and fatherless Children Many Parishes berese of faithful Pastors, and some of our dwellings turned to ashes. What an unspeakable misery is it, to heat the sh●…ieks and horror of some dying, to see the ghastly rage of others killing To see the streets and fields strewed with carcases, and the channels running●… with streamos of blood?  
Indeed it is just with God, and our sins (Personal and national●…) did well deserve it; that our plenty should be turned into want, and famine; our health into sickness; and our long peace (●…he crown of all these blessings, and the Envy of the Nations round about us) into the worst and most miserable of all wars, (for, it is ever a dangerous-fire that begins in the bedstaw) a civil War, a War of Christian against C●…ristian, Neighbours against Neighbours, Brethren against Brethren, a war of Ephraim against Manassch, of Manasseh against Eph●…aim, so as the Lord's Judah is endangered. O thou●… of the Lord, how long will 
(〈◊〉) Jer. 47 6.  it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into the scabbard, rest and be still.  
The Prophet complaineth 
Sect. II. Comfort from the sense and sympathy of common evils. (〈◊〉) Amos 6. 6.  of Israel's wantonness, that they drank wine in bowls, but were not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph: They let themselves loose to all intemperance and carnal pleasures, drinking in measures without measure; and in the mean time were not sensible of the miserable condition of Gods wrongfully oppressed servants. It is a dead member that is not sensible of the state of the body: You do well to be touched with the sense of the common calamities of these woeful times; ●… by this your sympathy, and follow-feeling, you show yourself to be a member of the Church and State wherein you live; we are not whole, and entire pieces, but as St. Paul saith, 
u 1 Cor. 12. 26.27.  members in part, members in particular, each one for his part, and in his place, so as we share, and have community both in commodities and discommodities. If one member suffer, all the rest suffer with it: If there be a thorn in the foot, which is the lowest member, the head stoops, the back boweth, the eye discovereth, the hand searcheth, and all are set a work to relieve the engaged part: How much more if the whole body suffer?  
It is a rule in Law, 
w Reg. Juris. 29. ab omnibus appro. b●…ri debet  Quod on●…nes tangit, abomnibus each one must take care of that, wherein all are alike concerned. We have each of us some 〈◊〉 of commodities that common vessel set forth by the Church and State, so as we had need pray for a 〈◊〉 gale to bring it 〈◊〉 to harbour; for if that miscarry, what will become of our stock, of us passengers? God is pitiful, 
x Jam. 5. 11.  of many bowels, and of tender mercy: now as his bowels are tender, and yea●… towards us, so should his people have rolling and tender bowels towards Him, his cause, his people, and his Church. A Christian, as he●… must not be proud flesh, so neither must he be dead flesh, but feeling and sensible, as of his own sinsulnes, so also of the common malady. Now the fruit of this sensibleness, is earnest prayer to God. Melanchton said well; Si nil curarem, nilorarem: If I cared for nothing, I would pray for nothing. There be some that have hard bowels, hidebound, such as take little care what becomes of Church or State, sink or swim, so themselves may sleep in a safe skin: but if the public suffer either in Church or State, no man's private pleasure, or profit, can stand firm unto him. And Cicero 
y Lib. 〈◊〉. ep. 15. ad Attic. Qui amisiâ Re publicâ Piscinas suas fore Salvas Sperare videntur.  had reason enough to laugh at the folly●… of those men, which in his time seemed to conceive such a windy hope, that their fishponds, and places of plea ure, should be safe, when the commonwealth was lost.  
When David would have gone to the field in person, his Worthies dissuaded him from so doing, saying; the enemy, 
z 2. Sam 〈◊〉 .3.  they care not for us, but thou art worth ten thousand of us, their principal aim is at thee; they had rather surprise thee our general, then thousands of us: so may we say; we are all interessed in the public, and should be more deeply affected, what befalls it, than our own private, as being of more value and concernment, ●… then our particular. He is too wary, that hath more care of himself, than the cause of Christ, the Churches, and his own country. Old Eli was sorry to hear the news of Israel's discomfiture, and his son's death; but when he heard the report, that the ark (the Testimony of God's presence) was taken by the enemy, this struck 
a 1. Sam 4.17.18.  him dead. His Daughter in law, 
b 1. Sam 4.20. &c.  no sooner heard of that heavy news, but she sell to her travel; and when the women that stood by her, bid her, fear not, for she had borne a son, she regarding more the loss of the ark; the common loss, then rejoicing at her new●… son, she calls her child Ichabod, that is, where is the glory? And with her last breath answers herself: The glory is departed from Israel, the ark is taken.  
Thou mournest for the 
Sect. III. Comfort from the justice of God's proceedings.  common sufferings; Indeed these be woeful and distracted times, and much to be bemoaned; but as the Prophet saith, 
c Lam. 3.39.  wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin? Why doth he complain of God's hand? He suffereth nothing but what he hath brought upon himself by his sin. Man sinneth, and God proceedeth to punishment; this is an Act of divine Justice; of corrective Justice; and shall not the●… Judge of all the earth do right? 
d Gen. 18. 25.  It cannot be denied, that our sins have reached up to Heaven, and called down these judgements.  
For, besides those secret 
Sect. I. personal corruptions.  personal corruptions, which are in every one of us, and whereunto every man's heart is privy; there be many public and national fins, whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty; such as are abundantly sufficient (〈◊〉 God's actions were to be ●…●…●…nned) to justify his dealing towards us, to acquit and clear him when he is judged. 
e Psal. 514. ect. II. national fins, common and peculiar.   
〈◊〉 For besides the sins, common to us with other Nations, there be some peculiar●… to us alone, as namely: our wretched unthankfulness unto God, for the long continuance of his gospel, and our Peace: our long peace bred us to security, and we grew wanton with plenty: we ran into riot and excess (the noted proper sin, of our Nation) and much intemperate abuse of the good creatures of God in our meats and drinks and disports, and other provisions and comforts of this life. The people of Israel required meat for their lust, and the people of England nourished their lust and appetite for their meat; so as we became a byword to the neighbour nations for gluttony and belly-cheer. ●… And for Novelties, in fashion, in opinion; Athens 
f Acts. 17. 21.  itself was nothing so mad thereon, as our English Nation; witness, our guises in apparel so many times disguised; the people so chameleonlike transfashioned into the Italian, Spanish, French, any foreign form they had but seen in countries where they trafficked or travailed, so as one might thence conclude, Levity to be, after a sort, our national sin: and for novelty in opinion it is too palpable, our wantonness and toyishness of understanding, hath almost corrupted the simplicity of our Christian Faith; we have troubled the peace of the Church with a●… thousand nic●…ties and novelties, and unnecessary w●…lings in matters of Religion: we pity the former Ages contending about leavened and unleavened bread, keeping of Easter, fasting on Sundays, and the like. The future ages will do the like for us, and our bickerings, about gestures and postures, habits and attires, rites and Ceremonies, and the like.  
Now to these peculiars, may be added, our carnal confidence and security, in our wooden and watery walls, our shipping. We were a wealthy and a careless Nation; our deliverances were great, we dwelled alone without fear of evil, and were become the envy●… of those that were round about us. Look into the Church, and there might be 〈◊〉 many, rather professing the form, then practising the power of piety; our cheap and irreverent regard unto God's holy Ordinances of his Wo●…d and Sacram●… and Sabbaths and Ministers, our hearing of the Word, our partaking of the Sacraments, our praying and invocating God's sacred name, were become both in Pastor and People, for want of true devotion, and the inward guidance of the holy-Spirit, but as it were so many outward fashions, forms, and compliments, walk into the courts of Judicature and there behold corruption●… by sale of offices and enhancing of fees; by making the petty penal Statutes like traps to catch the weaker sort, and the more weighty and material laws, like Cobwebs, for the abler and mightier to break; and pass thorough at their pleasure. Step aside into our shops and warehouses, and see (though I confess it is hard to discover that mystery, and handy-crast) how our trades and traffic were become the practice of deceit; while we made our gain by lying, and forswearing, by false lights, false weights, false measures, which are abomination to the Lord. And (to reckon no more) our Incompassion to our brethren miserably●… wasted with war●…e and famine in other parts of the World, and our heavy oppressions of our brethren at home, in racking the Rents, and grinding the faces of the poor 
g Esay. 3 15 . We were (as the Prophet speaks 
h Jer. 49 31.  a wealthy nation, which dwelled alone; a secure people, as either having no Enemies, or fearing none: Peace was within our walls, and plenteousness within our palaces. But when we had eaten and were full, and had waxen fat, we rose up against the Lord our maker, who had done so great things for us; our heart was lifted up, and we forgot our God, and lightly esteemed the Rock of our Salvation, ●… we loathed the Manna that rained down upon us.  
Therefore the Lord hath 
Sect. III. W●…tre the malad●…e, 〈◊〉 ●…ance the remedy.  recompensed our ways upon our heads, and suffered our destruction to proceed from ourselves; our wickedness doth correct us; our backsliding doth reprove us, and our iniquity is become our ruin. The Lord hath broken us with a grievous breach, his anger hath divided us, and his fury hath dashed us one against another. The sword is drunk with our blood, and we are numbered to the slaughter: the high ways are unoccupied, 
i Judg. 5.6.7.  there's not that commerce and intercourse of trading, because men dare not travel in the high ways for●… fear of enemies and robbers; they forsake the beaten roads to escape the enemy; the travellers walked through byways, or crooked ways; the inhabiters of the villages ceased, the unwalled Towns lay wast, because the country people durst not dwell in them, our goods are for a spoil, and our substance to the robbers. Now in all this, 
k Ezek. 18.25.  the way of the Lord, is it not equal? Is there any can tax his actions with unjustice? nay, are not our ways unequal? Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? 
l Jer. 5. 9  shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation? Lord, thou hast visited us, and that sharply: say to the destroying sword, It is now enough. ●… Let our (m) sword blades be turned into ploughshares, and our speare-heads into Scithes, and our helmets into bee-hives. Peace is a Compendium of all prosperity, even the prosperity of war is called peace. David demands of Uriah, how Joab the captain did? In the original it is, 
n 2. Sam 〈◊〉. 7.  how Joab's 
(o) Ps. 90. 13.14.15.  peace did? and how the people did, and how the war prospered: As on the contrary, war is the Master of all misery: the Hebrews they call war Milchama, from eating, because it devoureth all things. Return, (O Lord) how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may●… rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us; and the years wherein we have seen evil. But how shall we either remove present, or prevent future judgements? There is no way under Heaven but this, to break off our sins by a seasonable and serious repentance.  
When the body is distempered, and the blood inflamed, the physician ordereth the opening of a vein, and the drawing out some ounces of blood, for the preservation of the whole: The great physician of the State hath taken the like course with us; we ran into riot and excess, sin was our●… surseit, and war is our disease and now her's a deep incisi on made in the main body and it lies a-bleeding: Ther'●… no way to staunch and stop this issue, but by bewailing and abandoning our forme●… wickedness, and to diet ourselves hereafter by abstinence from sin, lest otherwise our disease grow desperate.  
Thou complainest of thes●… 
Sect. iv. Comfort from God's overruling Providence.  confused and tumultuar●… courses; indeed they ar●… lamentable and distracte●… times: But he that sits i●… Heaven orders these earthly affairs, according to the eternal counsel of his will: He sits at the stern, and steers this tossed vessel of Church and State; and how●… ever the proud billows arise, and threaten to overturn it, yet he can tack a●…out, and serve himself even of contrary winds, to b●…ing it safe to Harbour. God doth not put things into a frame, and then leave them to their own motion, as we do clocks, after we have once set them right, and ships after we have once built them, commit them to wind and waves; but as he made all things, and knows all things, so (by a continued kind of Creation) he preserves all things in their being and working, and governs them to their ends. There is nothing so high, that is above his providence, nothing so low that is beneath●… it, nothing so large but is bounded by it, nothing so consused, but God can order it, nothing so bad, but he can draw good out of it; nothing so wisely plotted, but God can disappoint it, as he did Achitophel's counsel, nothing so simply and unpolitiquely carried, but he can give a prevailing issue unto it.  
A notable precedent 
Sect. I. God's pro●…ence instanced in Joseph, Gen. 37.1. &c.  hereof we have in Joseph. Jacob sends Joseph to Dothan to visit his Brethren, his Brethren cast him into the Pit, Reuben relieves him, the Ishmaelitish merchants buy him, and sell him to Potiphar, his Mistress accuseth him, his Master condemns him, the Butler (after long●… forgetfulness) recommends him, and Pharaoh exalts him. O what instruments were here! how many hands about this one poor man of God? How was he passed over from hand to hand, from his Brethren to the Ishmaelits, and from them to Potiphar? Never a one of them looking to that end which God had purposed unto him; yet the Lord contrary to their intention, makes them all wo●…ke together for Joseph's advancement in Egypt. It was not you that ●…ent me hither, saith Joseph 
p ●…eu 45. 8.  to his brethren, but God; ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people, to●… wit, the Egyptians, and other people, who in the famine were furnished with corn, by the store which Joseph's providence had laid up in the years of plenty. Joseph meant not to clear his brethren from all fault, but to cheer them up in contemplation of God's providence, who turned their malice and his misery, into a means of great mercy. And indeed God is so good, that out of the worst conspiracies and deeds of the wicked, he can work the greatest welfare; as from the bloody counsels of Herod, 
q Acts 4. 27.  and Pilate, and many others against our Saviour, the salvation of the Elect. 
r Ephe. 〈◊〉. 7.  This may minister comfort, and●… confidence against the plots, and attempts of the wicked; wherein though they mean nothing but mischief, God can by his omnipotent providence, bring forth quite contrary effects to that they intend; and as he brings light out of darkness, 
s 2. Cor 4. 6.  so he can bring peace out of war, quiet and orderly government out of confused commotions. God's goodness overmasters the malignity of men, turning their evil into good, ex viper â theriacum, treacle out of the viper, and make a medicine of a poison. He that is so infinitely wife to know the designs of his enemies before they are, could as well prevent them, that they might●… not be; but he lets them run on their own courses, that he may fetch glory to himself out of their wickedness. This cannot but bring strong security to the soul, to know that in all conditions, and in all variety of changes, and intercourse of good and bad events, whatsoever befalls us: God and our good God, hath such a disposing hand.  
If thou seest (saith the 
Sect. II. To depend on God's Providence.  Preacher) 
t Eccles. 5. 8.  the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgement & justice in a Province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest, regardeth, and there be higher than they. Stand not as it were at a bay, in a careful & cumbersome thoughtfulness, ●… as if God did not see and regard these things below: be not amazed and dismayed, as if all things were let loose: as if these earthly things were not orderly swayed by a wise and most provident God, who in his good time will redress these things, and therefore we must depend upon him: for we are under a providence that is above our own. That wise moderator of all things, that works his will in us, loves so to do it, as may be least with our foresight and acquaintance, and would have us fall under his decrees unawares, that we may so much the more adore the depths of his providence, which we cannot●… Every creature walks blindfold, only he that dwells in light, sees whither they go.  
God is like to a skilful Artisan, who out of a crooked and untoward piece, can frame an excellent work: he can dispose of things confused and out of order, and even contrary to their nature turn them to good ends and uses. Where we cannot t●…ace him in the course of his providence, there we ought with Saint Paul 
u Rom. 〈◊〉. 33. , to admire and adore him, when we are in heaven, it will be one part of our happiness, to see the harmony of those things that seem now consused unto us. All God's dealings will appear beautiful in their due seasons, ●… though we for the present see not the contiguity and linking together of one thing 
Sect. V. The Remedy our particular, and general Repen tance.  with another. Thou complainest of these woeful times, thy soul (thou sayest) mourns in secret, for the common maladies of this distempered State; thou dost well to mourn over such sins as the Land is generally guilty of, but let me tell thee, hast thou not reason so to do? Hast thou not put thine hand to the wickedness of the times? Hast thou not carried in some fuel to this common fire, and cast in thy mite to the common shot? Though others be principal, yet thou art accessary to the evil thereof. Hast thou not either commanded●… it, as Jezebel did to the Elders of Israel? Advised it, as Jonadab did to Amnon? Consented to it, as Bathsheba did to David? Soothed it, as Zedekiah did to Ahab; Furthered it, as Joab did to David? Forborn to dissuade it, as Hirah the Adullamite to Judah? Not resisted it, as partial Magistrates? Not revealed it, as treaeherous Confessaries? Thou hast not mourned for the corruptions of the time so feelingly, nor endeavoured the reformation of them to thy power so faithfully as thour oughtest, and mightest have done. Thou shalt do well to begin at home, and to make thine own composition●… and peace with God, for thy particular offences, and then to move for an Act of Oblivion, for a general, a national Pardon; so shall thou put out the brand which thyself cast in, and help to abate and quench the common flame. Indeed public humiliations have ever been thought, and so they are, proper remedies against public Judgements: yet if every man would cleanse his own Front-stead, the whole City would soon be cleared. Let every one then return to his own heart, to know there (as Solomon saith 
w 〈◊〉 8. 38.  his own plague, even the sins wherewith he hath grieved God, to be sorry for them, and●… henceforth with the duty of repentance, and real reformation, with more precise caution against spiritual Relapses; to betake himself more frequently to private supplication, and to perform both that and the public with more sincerity and fervency of affection: that so the God of Peace might be pleased to put an end to these wars.  

Quest.  
How shall we know when a man is cast down and disquieted, otherwise then is befitting?   

Answ.  
There is a threefold miscarriage of inward trouble.  
1. When the soul is troubled for that it should●… not be vexed for, as Ahab, 
x 1 Kin. 21.  when he was crossed in his will for Naboth's Vineyard.  
II. In the measure and extent, when we trouble ourselves (though not without cause) yet without bounds. Put the case a man be disquicted for sin (for which not to be disquieted is a sin) yet we may look too much and too long upon it: for the soul hath a double eye, one to look to sin, another to look up to God's mercy in Christ. Having two objects to look on, we may sin in looking too much on the one, with neglect of the other: we should so mind our grief, as not to forget God's mercy. Saint Paul would have the Corinthian●… Delinquent, upon his unfeigned tokens of Repentance, released of the censure and received again into the Church, and comforted, lest he be swallowed 
y 2 Cor. 2.7.  up in the gulf of despair.  
III. Thirdly (And this to our present case) there may be a miscarriage in the ground of our trouble, as when we grieve for that which is good, and for that which we should grieve for; but it is with too much reflecting upon our own particular.  
For instance sake; in these unhappy times, and dismal days, there's great troubles both in Church and State; three kingdoms involved in a bloody unnaturall●… war, betwixt those who are brethren by nature, nation, and profession of Religion; wherein what party soever gains, the kingdom loseth many loyal subjects, and the Church many Christian professors; which causeth our enemies to insult; ourselves and all good Christians to lament, and be deeply affected herewith. But now if we would deal truly with our own hearts; what is it indeed that makes us take on so? Is it not because these troubles hinder the liberties of the flesh, and restrain the pride of life? Is it not because our liberty is abridged, our ease disquieted, our wealth pared with the razor of war, ●… our attendants reduced, our recreations stopped, and our visits discontinued? Other things, (the common sufferings) may be pretended, but it seemeth it is our private sore that toucheth us, and if it be so, our respects are but private, and personal, self-respects. Men are usually grieved for public miseries from a spirit of self-love only, or specially, because their own private is embarked in the public. There is a depth of deceit of the heart in this matter.  
If our trouble have no higher rise, it is but private and personal, but if we take to heart the woeful breaches that are made amongst us, for that by these troubles God●… is dish●…noured, the public exercises of Religion hindled, & the gathering of souls thereby stopped; that hereby, the S●…ates and Commonweal●…hs, which should have been harbours of the Church are disturbed, lawless courses and persons prevail, Religion and Justice is triu●…phed over, and trodden under, this shows that we are men of public spirit.  
To discover this self-deceit, we may make this home lie trial. If we can be as hot as tostes in our own private cause and quarrel, and yet as cold as ice, when most dishonourable indignities and affronts are offered to the Lord, without our own impeachment: then it is evident, ●… that in those cases, where Gods and the common cause are joined together, our zeal was only for our own interest, and not for Gods, and the public good. Here was the trial of Moses his meekness, and his passion. When the people murmured, & when Korah, 
z Num. 16.  Dathan and Abiram rebelled against him, here was just cause of anger: but here God's cause and his own were coupled. Let us therefore mark Moses behaviour, when they were singled. When Miriam and 
a Num. 12. 1. 3.  Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Aethiopian Woman, whom he had married; and when they offered him this private injury, it is●… said Moses his meekness was such, that he gave them not a word: inasmuch as he is commended for the meekest man that was upon the face of the earth. Look now upon him in another posture When the people had fallen to Idolatry, 
b Ex. 32  and had made a calf, and Aaron had his hand therein. Here God's quarrel was severed from his own, and how carrieth he himself here? He spares neither Aaron, nor the people, but in a godly fit of zeal takes on, and breaks the two Tables in pieces, being transported with zeal (though for God's glory) as he some times spoke unadvisedly with his lips, 
c Psal. 106. 33.  so he might now do unadvisedly with his●… hands, and so may be a●… example of man's imperfect sanctity, which hath a mixture of divine grace, and human weakness even i●… the b●…st of God's children however, he was a meek●… lamb, and patient in his own quarrel, and as fierce as a Lion in God's cause, and the common cause of salvation. In the Lord's service we should be common men as well as private.  
In a word, we complain of these woeful times, that we are the worse for them: but may not the times complain of us? Let us take heed we be not a part of the misery of the times, that they be not the worse for us.    

SECT. VI. Of means to work us to Patience under the cross.  
We have seen what fruit the cross bears; our next care must be with Simon of Cyrene to bear it patiently, when we are put to it: For if we be impatient in word, or behaviour, we shall afflict ourselves the more, like the bird caught in the net, the more she struggles, the more she is entangled.  
Thou complainest that 
S●…ct. I. Comforts from the greater suff●…rings of holier men.  thy malady increaseth; I bemoan thy case, and wish I could give health and ease, as well as advice. We cry out, my body is troubled, my state is broken, my friends fail me; but all this while, there is not that care for the poor soul to settle that in peace. See that all be well within, and then all troubles from without, cannot much annoy us. Besides, holier men have suffered more. The Lord measures out affliction according to the ability 
d 1. Cor 10. 13.  of his children. Now our strength when it is at the best, is far inferior to the strength of Job, David, or Abraham; and therefore we must trialls●… and troubles are far shore of theirs. The Lord, lest any should be discouraged, or faint under the weight of the cross, hath sampled out the sufferings of his Saints, men of our own mould, and subject to the like infirmities that we are, that have gone before us in the hardest duties of affliction. What duty so harsh to flesh and blood, as to take up the cross, and follow Christ? What cross can be named, which they have not borne, and comfortably endured to the end? It is hard, you will say, to part with our goods; yet there have been they that have taken joyfully, the spoiling of their goods; 
e Hebr. 10. 34.  not that the loss of their goods, ●… was of itself, and its own nature joyful to them; but they were so far from being dejected, and disheartened with the afflictions they suffered for Christ, as they accounted them matter, or occasion of joy; and why? Both because they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ; 
f Act. 5. 41.  as also because of the blessed fruit 
g Heb. 12. 11.  and issue of their affliction. Tribulation (as the Apostle saith) 
h Rom. 5. 3.  worketh patience. Tribulation accustometh us to patience, and patience assures us by experience of God's merciful sustentation and aid; and this experience of God's goodness, puts us in hope of his further mercy, and seasonable●… deliverance: besides this experience under the cross, it confirms and fastens this our Anchor-hope, and this hope deceiveth us not, it disappointeth us not, it being grounded on the love of Christ, shed abroad in our hearts. Tribulation then worketh patience, not, that of itself, and its own nature it worketh so; for it often produceth contrary 
* Job 3. 1. &c. Ps. 73. 12. Jer. 12. 1.  effects both in the wicked, and the godly, as in Job, David, and Jeremy; but it doth so, when God gives us a sanctified use of Crosses, conforming 
i Rom. 〈◊〉 8. 28.  us thereby to our Head Christ Jesus.  
It goes had to exchange hoped of advancement for rebukes, 
k Heb●…. 11. 16.  and reproaches; ●… and yet Moses chused it willingly, and counted it an honour to him: Moses was jeered for marrying the Aethiopian woman, Joseph was nicknamed a Dreamer in scorn: This is the manner of ill minded men to set terms of reproach upon the religious; so Christ was called a Galilean by Julian; the Apostle Paul a babbler 
l Acts 17. 18.  by profane philosophers. This Age abounds with such abusive appellations cast upon the best Christians, by such as are of an heretical Religion, or of no Religion at all, the practice of this kind of contumely is ancient, and the patience under it as ancient; which may make us both to look for it, ●… and make light of it.  
'Tis too much to leave country and kindred and father's house, and yet Abraham did so. 'Tis hardest of all to leave our sweet life, especially by violent torments: what death can we think so full of shame and torture, but it hath been endured 
m H●…er. 11. 37.  by the Saints of God? by the Prophets, Apostles and martyrs: some of them have been put on gridirons, others in boiling Cauldrons, some on the spits, others under the saws, some in the flames, others crushed with the teeth of wild Beasts, some on the racks, others in fiery furnaces, most of them in such torments, as in comparison whereof, our●… pains are but flea-bitings. We do but taste and sip of that cup of affliction which Christ and his Saints dra●…ke shear off, as appears by the church's story, the Martyrologies, the Acts and Monuments of the Saints. Why then do we grudge to wet our fee●…e, where they waded over the ford, even a red Sea of blood? We should look to others as good as ourselves (as well as to ourselves) and then we shall see it is not our own case only: who are we that we should look for an exempted condition from those troubles which God's dearest children are addicted unto?  
Comparison to this end is●… very available. Compare 
Sect. I●… O●…r Sus●…ings shorc of our deserts.  we our sufferings for Christ, with his sufferings 
n Hebr. 12. 2.  ●…or us: Compare we our momentany afflictions of this life, with the endless torments of hell endured by others, and deserved by our sins, from which by those, as means, we are freed (for we are chastened of the Lord 
o 1 Cor. 11. 32. , that we should not be condemned with the world.) We are mercifully chastened by the Lord, on purpose that we may escape that eternal condemnation which befalls the wicked of the world, and we shall find that there is no proportion betwixt our sufferings and our deserts. Alas the wages of every sin is Death, a double death; of the●… body, and of the soul; both temporal and eternal: Any thing the Lord sends below this, is mercy. We must not ●…ke so much at what we ●…ele, 〈◊〉 what we have deserved to seel. What ever our crosses are, or may be, justly we are in them, our sins have deserved that, & more, so that we are to beaer God's chastisement willingly, si●…h we have so sinned against him. I will bear the indignation of the Lord with patience and humility, because I have sinned against him, saith the Prophet Micah 
p Mich. 7. 9 .  
Compare we our sufferings 
Sect. III. Our sufferings inferior to our glory.  with our glory that shall be revealed: our suffering is but for a moment, our reward shall be great and glorious●… far above the proportion of all our service, or suffering for our light affliction, 
q 2 ●…or. 4. 17.  which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The afflictions of the godly are not light in themselves, but Comparatively, to the infinite and eternal weight of heavenly glory, which our affliction worketh for us, not by any merit of ours, but out of God's mere grace and mercy for Christ his sake. Rom. 8. 17. 18. or, they be called Light, because God maketh them seem light unto us by the strong support and comfort of his Spirit, Rom. 8.37. I reckon (saith Saint Paul 
r Rom; 8.18.  that the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us: word for word it is, the sufferings of this now season, whereby the Apostle intimates, that our tribulations and afflictions last but for a 〈◊〉, that is a moment, in comparison. S●…. Paul cal●…s the afflictions of this life light, and but for a moment: Our sufferings, our sorrow shall have an end, ●…aec non d●…rabunt atatem, as A●…hanasius said of his troubles: For his anger endureth but a moment 
s Psal. 30. 5. Isai. 54.7. 8. , his corrections last but a while, but his favour lasts all out life long, our joy shall have no end. St. Bernard 
t Bern. Sermon 14 〈◊〉 Cantic●…  computing the time●… of his own assl●…ction, and the Saints, reduceth it to an hour's space or thereabouts, Opus meum vix unius est horae, & siplus, prae amore non sentio; my work and labour is but an hour's task: if it be more, I am scarce sensible thereof, by reason of the love I bear to my Saviour, who hath suffered so much for me. How graciously hath the wisdom of our God thought fit to temper our afflictions, so contriving them, that if they be sharp, they are not long: if they be long, they are not over sharp? What a short moment is it that we can suffer? Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry 
u Hebr 10.37. . Let us wait a●… while, and we shall see the salvation of the Lord, Exod. 14. 13. 
Sect. IV. Look on cur Comfort, as well as our Cor●…asive.   
In all our grievances (saith an excellent D●…vine, 
w Dr. Sibbs of the soul's Conflict. pag. 171. 173.  let us look to somewhat that may comfort us, as well as discourage us. Look to that we enjoy, as well as that we want. God usually makes up that with some advantage in another kind, wherein we are inferior to others. Others are in greater place, so they are in greater danger. Others be richer, so their cares and snares be greater: the poor in the world, (as St. James saith 
x J●…m. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  may be richer in faith then they. Others are not so afflicted as we; why then they have less experience of God's gracious power●… than we. Others may have more healthy bodies, but souls less weaned from the world. We would not have Nabals wealth, not Haman's preferment, nor change conditions with them, so as to have their spirits with their condition. For one half of our lives, the meanest are as happy and free from cares, as the greatest Monarch: that is, whilst both sleep; and usually the sleep of the one, is sweeter than the sleep of the other. What is all that the earth can afford us, if God deny health? And this a man in the meanest condition may enjoy. That wherein one man differs from another, is but Title, and but for a little time: death leveleth all.  
We have compared our 
Sect. V. Compare ourselves afflicted, with ourselves at ease.  selves with others: compare we now ourselves with ourselves: ourselves afflicted, with ourselves at ease: how languishing in devotion, how inordinately walking, how secure and forgetful of our God, did prosperity make us? Before I was afflicted, I went astray, 
y Psal. 119. 67.  I was a waive and stray, but now have I kept thy word, the use of God's rods is to bring us home. To be afflicted, and not to be purged by it, to be stricken with God's rod, and not to be thereby corrected and amended, is an ill token. I will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried, saith the Lord: ●… 
z Zach. 13. 9  Now if the wicked be not plucked away, as the Prophet speaks, 
a Jer 6. 29.30.  that is, if our wickedness be so tough that it will not be wrought out of us in the Crucible of affliction, than it is a plain token, that we are but base mettle, drossy matter, and refuse silver: the bellows are burnt, the Founder melteth in vain; that is, all the pains and labour that hath been taken about refining of us, is lost. Fire makes metals pliable and malleable, so doe●…h the sanctified use of affliction: it worketh the heart to be pliable and ready for all good impressions of holicos and obedience.  
If we look into the Diary, 
Sect. VI. Our good days more than our evil days.  or journal book of God's dealing with us from our youth up to this present time; we shall find, he hath sent us more fair Halcionian 
Haltion is a sea fowl betokening a calm sea●…on whiles ●…he hatcheth her young. Isidor. Etim. l. 12. c. 7.  days, than foul weather. There is scarce any man, but the good he receives from God, is more than the ill he feels, if our unthankful hearts would suffer us to think so. Is not our health more than our sickness? Do we not enjoy more than we want, I mean, of the things that are necessary? are not our good days more than our evil? Joseph was a precedent of affliction, insomuch as the Prophet gives instance in him, 
b Amos, 6.6.  they were not grieved for the afflictions●… of Joseph; yet the years of his affliction were but about thirteen, the years of his honourable preeminence and principality fourscore: So the Lord blessed the later end of Job 
c Job 42. ●…2.  more than his beginning: God made him twice so rich in cattle, as he was before, and gave him as many children, as he had taken from him, which may cheer up the hearts of the godly, though for a season they suffer under the prevailing power, and spite of the ungodly; for they may assure themselves that God (if they suffer not as evil doers) will do them right, and make them a full amends for all their wrongs. But we would●… have a velvet gospel, we would go to Heaven upon Roses; and usually one cross is more taken to heart, than an hundred blessings. So unkindly we deal with God. Is God indebted to us, doth he owe us any thing? Shall the River be beholding to him that drinks of it, because he comes and quencheth his thirst? Or shall the Sun be beholding to him that hath the use of his light? Those that deserve nothing, 
Sect. VII. Of patience in suffering.  should be content with any thing.  

Object.  
Alas, I shall never get through such a cross.   

Answ.  
But if God bring us into the cross, he will be with●… us in the cross, and at length bring us out more refined. We shall lose nothing but dross: of our own strength we cannot bear the least trouble, and by the spirits assistance we can bear the greatest; the spirit will join his shoulders to help to bear our infirmities. The Lord will put his hand to heave us up; he will uphold 
d Psal. 37. 24.  us with his hand.   

Object.  
We have prayed for Peace and Prosperity, for Health and Deliverance; and yet the scre runs and ceaseth not; the sword is not sheathed; we are still exposed to dangers, and threatened with Famine and cleanness of teeth; we are like to●… Issacha●…'s Tribe, couching under two burdens: 
e Gen. 49. 14.  we undergo the heavy burdens of Cesses, and Taxes, and other oppressions.   

Answ.  
In the midst of these unsupportable 
Sect. VIII God exchanges his blessings: he denies us wealth, peace, and deliverance, and gives us contentment, patience, and supportation.  pressures, 'tis our comfort, that God will grant us, either what we pray for, or what he in more wisdom, sees more expedient for us, if we faint not. The Lord sometimes in bestowing his blessings at our request, deals by way of exchange, and commutation; and 'tis well for us, for hereby he makes us, if not gainers, yet savours by the bargain.  
Doth the Lord deny wealth, and the peaceable possession of that stock and store, he hath bestowed on us? It is well for us, if he give us contentment. For godliness is great gain, if a man be content with that he hath.  
Doth he deny us deliverance from dangers? 'Tis well if he give us supportation; if he give us grace to support, and bear up, like the palmtree, against the weighty pressures of these times; if he support us by grace, his grace is sufficient for us.  
Doth he deny us Peace? 'Tis well if he give us Patience, that however we cannot keep our goods with others●… patience, yet we may possess our own souls in patience, Luk. 21. 19   

Object.  
Yea, but we lie long under the cross, and cry out, how long Lord? How long? Seven years is a man's age, a long time.   

Answ.  
Comfort thyself with 
Sect. ix.. We must be fitted for mercy, and then find it.  this, it shall lie no longer on thee then there is need, the plaster shall not lie a jot longer on thee then the sore is a healing; if it were sooner heased, it 〈◊〉 fall off sooner, but then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall off alone. The Lord will●… hear thee, but it may be, thou art not yet fit for the mercy; not because he doth not hear thy prayer, and tender thee in that case thou art in, but thou art not yet fit. Herein God deals with us as the physician with his Patient; The Patient earnestly desires such and such things; the physician wants not will to give them him, but he resolves to give them as soon as he is fit; and therefore he makes him stay till he have purged him, and made him fit for it, till he be fit for such a cordial, for such a Medicine. God hears the complaints of this our distressed Church and State: it may be, God stays us for this end; we are not yet●… (haply) in that capacity of mercy, as is fit. Twice was the Israelites, the better part foiled by the men of Benjamin, the less in number, and such as had the worse cause. The Israelites, 
f Jud. 20 23.26.30.  they wept, and fasted once or twice, and adventured upon the Benjamits, but prevailed not till the third time: They were fitted and prepared when they fasted, and wept, and prayed three times. 'tis to be feared we are not yet fit, there is somewhat more that must be done; we are not yet humbled enough. Some Colts are so untamed, they must needs be broken; so some corruptions are so unruly? that they will not be●… wrought out without great afflictions.  
We shall have need of 
Sect. X. The use of Patience and the need of it.  Patience, as the Apostle saith, 
g Heb. 10.6.  to endure these penal and painful evils. Fulgentius, a godly Father, was often divers days before his 
(H) sURIUS IN VIL●… Fulgent  death, heard to cry out; Domine da mihi modò patientiam, & postea indulgentiam: Lord grant me patience here and case hereafter. Lord give us patience to bear, and constancy to endure, whatsoever it shall please thee to inflict. And since this evil of pain, this painful evil, must come here, or elsewhere, say we with S. Austin, Domine hic ure, hic seca, ut in aeternum parcas: Lord fear us, lance us here, let us smart here, so thou spare us hereafter.  
And, yet since we must suffer (for our sins have so deserved) 'tis our comfort, that we are under the protection of the highest, and guided by such a providence as stoopeth to the lowest, and wisely disposeth of whatsoever can befall us. Let us then lay our hands upon our mouths, and command our souls an holy silence, not daring to yield to the least rising of our hearts against God. I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it, saith David. 
i Psal, 39.9.  That which I●… could not attain to by reason, while I looked on the second causes, now I have obtained by grace, looking up to thee, now I keep silence. Thus Aaron when he had lost his two sons, both at once, and that by fire, and by fire from Heaven, which carried an evidence of God's great displeasure with it, yet held his peace. 
k Levit 10.1.2.  In this silence and hope is our strength: Flesh and blood is prone to expostulate with God, and to question his dealing as Gedeon 
l Judg. 6.13.  did; If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us But after some struggling between the flesh and the spirit, the conclusion will be, ●… yet howsoever matters go, God is good to Israel. 
m Psal. 73.1.  truly God is good to Israel, saith David; though God may seem to favour bad men, because they prosper; 
De operibus Dei non est judicandum ante Actum Quintum. 〈◊〉  and to hate good men, because they are crossed; yet he assures himself, that God in the end would bless the godly, and such as were not hypocrites. Hold out faith and patience then, and our work will speedily be at an end; and, we shall receive the end of our faith, 
n 1 Pet. 1.9.  even the salvation of our souls; and through faith and patience 
o Hebr. 6.12.  inherit the promise; If we strive but a little we shall be happy for ever.  
Here it will (haply) be expected that I should go on, to make up other Cordials 
Jos. Hall. D.D. and B. N.  for several maladies, but this is done to my hand by a rare Confectioner, in his balm of Gilead, to whose store-house I refer the Patient.    

SECT. VII. Directions for the recovered Patient.  
When thou 
Sect. I. Be thankful after recovery.  art cased of the cross, be thankful for thy recovery, be not like the unthankful Lepers 
p Luke 17.17.18. , or Pharaoh's cupbearer 
q Gen. 10. 23. , who admired Joseph in the jail, but forgot him in the Court. Forget not God in thine health and prosperity, whom thou pliedst with suits and promises in thine adversity; even the wicked can be somwhat●… good whiles they are under the cross, and with Ahab hang down the head like a bulrush, and be humbled: but take them off the rack, case their pain, and they run to their old bias again: these are like Iron, which is soft, and will bow, as the workman will, when it is in the fire, but soon after it is drawn out, it returns to the old hardness, like hogs that seldom look towards heaven, but when they are cast to ground, and overturned, which if they be let go, they begin to poor on the ground, and root in the earth.  
Try thyself, how the cross hath wrought with 
Sect. II. See whether affliction have bettered thee.  thee, whether it hath bettered thee or no. Thou callest it a visitation, a correction, how is it so, if thou be not corrected by it? If the mettle be put into the furnace and not refined, it is but refuse. If after thou hast been humbled under God's hand, thou grow more faithful and Conscionable in thy calling than before, 'tis a good token; this is like treacle out of the Viper, and with Samson to taste sweet honey out of the sour carcase of a dead Lion 
r Judg. 〈◊〉. , now that thou art recovered, and the Lord added to thy days, ●… as he did to Ezekiah 
s Esay 38. 5. , do thou add Repentance and amendment of life to thy days: as the Lord hath made thee young and lusty like an Eagle 
t Psal. 103. 5. , renewing thy youth and strength like an eagle's beak: do thou likewise renew thy Repentance, and pay 
u Eccles. 5. 3.  that now in thy health, which thou vowedst on thy sickbed, to wit newness of life. Sin no more 
w John 5. 14.  lest a worse thing come to thee, to wit death, natural or spiritual. Return not with the dog to his vomit 
x 2 Pet. z 20. 22. , or the hog that was washed, to wallow in the puddle of thy former uncleanness. Fall not to thine old diet, lest thou fall to●… thine old disease; beware of a downcast, and be more precisely cautionate against spiritual Relapses.  
Take heed of a Relapse, 
Sect. III. Talre heed of reiapses, they are dangerous.  Relapses are dangerous; when I fell sick, it was some comfort to me, that I was but in the common condition of mankind; now in my relapse, I am barred hereof. I charge the fault (and that juftly) upon mine own self, mine own carelessness and disorder; I have pulled down a falling house on mine own head; I have marred, what physicians and friends under God, had amended. At the first grudging of my●… malady, I had some strength and resisted it, now it falls upon me, like an enemy, that finding the country weakened and depopulated, over runs it; the Relapse proceeds without control, now that my body is weakened, my spirits wasted and my forces spent. If Satan be outed of possession, we must be watchful, lest he make a reentry, he hath been our old guest, and knows every hole and corner in the house. It is this reiterating, this redoubling of the crime, which the Lord takes so ill. How oft did they 
y psa●… 78.40.  provoke me? How oft did they grieve me? Lord, by too lamentable experience, ●… we find, how prone we are to recidivate and relapse, how hard it is to leave an ill custom. Lord if we should (which God forbid) yet let not thy spirit of remorse and compunction depart from us. Thou that hast commanded us to pardon our trespassing Brother seaventy seven times 
z Math. 38.22, , that is many times, hast not limited thyself to any number, yet far be it from us, to work upon thy forbearance, and long sufferings. The bone that is once or twice broken may be set together again●…, but (haply) not so straight; or if it be, yet it will afterwards ache and pain a man at certaine●… seasons; a scar still remains after the wound be healed.  
Jacob wrestled with an 
Sect. iv. Strive for a blessing, Prayer will get it.  Angel, and had his thigh put out of joint, 
a Gen. 32 25.26.  yet would he not let the Angel go, except he blessed him, he lost a joint, and won a blessing. Though by his hurt in his thigh, he was made more weak, yet was he strong, 2 Cor. 12. 10. so strong, as to wrestle again for a blessing. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, Calar. 6. 12. that is, not against these alone; nor chiefly against these; for our principal enemy is Satan, who sets the world, and the men of this world, ●… Psal. 17. 14. and the flesh against us; and they serve, as it were under his banner; we grapple also with pressures and afflictions, private and public, inward and outward; and in all these conflicts we receive some venies to humble us, and we feel the smart thereof, so as it makes us go halting to Canaan. Yet, as the Prophet saith, 
b Hos. 12.4.  Jacob had power over the Angel, and prevailed, he wept, and made supplication unto him; he prevailed by a most vehement wrestling with weeping and supplication, that's the sovereign receipt to procure a blessing. The power of prayer is next to Almighty, and●… by this sometimes are the hands of the Almighty as it were bound to peace, when he hath a quarrel with his people. Moses after a sort forceth the Lord, insomuch that he craves dimission, let me alone, 
c Exod. 32.10. Deut. 9 14.  that I may consume them, let me alone; Domine quis te ligavit? Saith a Father, 
* Greg. l. 2. moral. c. 12.  Lord who stays thee? Surely Moses his instance and importunity. there's no way for us to prevail with that Angel of the Covenant, as the Prophet 
d Mal. 3.1.  calleth him, but by an holy striving 
e Rom, 15 30.  with God by in portunity of prayer, for a blessing upon our Church and State; that the God of Peace would be pleased to●… put an end to these our unhappy wars, and to settle Peace and Truth amongst us; and to deliver us from every evil work, 
f 2 Tim 4. 18.  and preserve us to his Heavenly kingdom; whither, God the Father, who prepared it, and God the Son, who purchased it for us, and the Holy Ghost, that giveth the livery and seisin vouchsafe to bring us in his good and appointed time. Amen.  
Amen.   
FINIS.