A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable Sir ROBERT CLAYTON Lord Mayor OF LONDON, AT GUILD-HALL-Chappel, December 7. 1679.  
By THOMAS MANNYNGHAM, M.A. and Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford.  
Printed by the Lord Mayor's especial Order.  
LONDON: Printed for William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-bar. 1680.   

TO The Right Honourable Sir ROBERT CLAYTON, Lord Mayor of London  
Right Honourable:  
IT is maliciously observed by a late pretender to History, that London has a great Belly, but no Taste: whereas its Refinement is of such Eminency, and its Judgement so accurate as well in Religious as Civil Concerns, that it must be held for no ordinary achievement to be Master of any Discourse that may rise up equal to its Approbation, and strike gratefully on its palate: And I am persuaded, that no man who enters on this Stage, will ever find any just occasion to fear, lest too much Learning should make him a Barbarian to his Auditory. How this present Sermon, in the general, has been received, I ought not to acquaint the world; 'tis a sufficient recommendation, that it has been acceptable to your Lordship's better Judgement, and has made the Author unexpectedly known to your Favour: For whilst I paid my your Favour: For whilst I paid my Reverence to your Dignity, I found a Friendship from your Person. My Lord, I esteem it an extraordinary Felicity, that my first Obligations are so well placed, that it may be said hereafter, that I Lived under your Consulship, and that all my future Gratitude may henceforth run in one Channel. My Lord, I can scarce refrain from publishing very great things of your Honour, but that I think this is no fit Paper wherein to attempt your Character; and besides, your Lordship's real Worth would go near to spoil the best Oratory: for solid Virtue, like a natural Rock, has always something massy, and bravely rough, which the best polishings of Art would but deform: Some counterfeit, or imperfect Virtues, might receive a strange Advantage from Invention and Language; such might do well in Landscape, to be viewed at a Distance; but a true Eminency is better showed, than described.  
Perhaps I am come abroad in a false Season, where the best prospect which can be taken is terminated in a sullen cloud of doubtful affairs; however, this is no discouragement in the least; for although a large measure of Political Divination may be requisite to make a man cunning, yet a small foresight will serve to make him honest: And every one may rationally presume, that he, who without any worldly Interest, loves and clings to a persecuted Church, loves it as a Church; it being easy to distinguish a person of Naked Valour, and an unbeneficed Affection, from such, who grow resolute only from a Confidence in their Armour; or who (like the Tragedian, that lamented the ruin of this Country over the dead Bones and Coffin of his Son) cast an earnest and private eye on their dear Preferments, and then are Nationally afflicted. I never found my Pen more ungovernable, or a greater Temptation to write on, than at present. But lest the Epistle Dedicatory (as it usually happens) should prove the strongest Prejudice against the ensuing Discourse, I shall beg leave to subscribe myself,  
Right Honourable, Your Lordship's most obedient Servant, Thomas Mannyngham.   
PSAL. 119. v. 67. 
Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.  
THE Lot or Distribution of Afflictions, especially on the Good and Wise, which by many of the Heathens was urged as a grand argument against Providence, and which served to countenance either their total denial of it, or their Murmur against it, is now amongst us Christians made the great conformation, as of its Existence, so of its Justice and Goodness too; since our Holy Gospel has assured us, that suffering for righteousness sake Martydom, & the scandal of the Cross, are promised and 
* Phil. 1.29.  graciously appointed for the privilege, triumph, and glory of the Heroical Christian. And albeit those severer blessings, which were so proper for the Infancy of the Church, requiring a most strict Discipline, and glorious Examples for a standing Rule and Encouragement to Posterity; and which were so remarkably verified in the immediate persecutions of the Apostles, and the succeeding Centuries of Martyrs: I say, albeit those more rigorous mercies seemed now to have expired in these our days, since our Emperors are become Christian, and our Kings nursing Fathers; since Credit and Security are the ornament and guard of Piety, Affluence and Honours the National rewards of Virtue and Religion; yet notwithstanding all these smooth Appearances, these hopes and flatteries of a new Paradise, and a Triumphant Church, the Gospel must be fulfilled; and 
* Luke 14.27.  whosoever beareth not his Cross, cannot be a true Disciple, a true follower of Christ; but every person who has entered himself into the Covenant of sufferings, must with all humble resignation wait, and with patience undergo his 
* Rom. 8.29.  predestination to Afflictions.  
Now the reason and justice of this proceeding with wise and virtuous men, has continually tortured the inquiries of the Learned through all times and Sects, although with very different events; rendering the Epicurean careless and independent on Providence, the Stoic sententious and witty, but the true Christian wise and humble, who considers that the best man on earth is still a grievous sinner, and highly deserving the severest Temporal Afflictions; that according to the Law of rational nature, the wicked are in a great measure, without the immediate interposals of Omnipotence, permitted the freedom of their wills, a dominion over their ordinary actions, and consequently the molestation of others; who, with a pious confidence, expects a mighty recompense in the next world, at the revelation of righteous judgement; who glories to follow the 
* Heb. 2.10.  Captain of his Salvation, made perfect and consecrated through sufferings; and rejoices with St. Paul to complete and 
Col. 1.24.  fill up in his flesh the remainders and relics of Christ's sufferings; as if every Christian were to be in some measure even crucified for himself.  
These are some of those most powerful considerations which may sufficiently evince the justice and the necessity of our Afflictions; but the Royal Psalmist in my Text presents us with a further argument, even of their goodness too, in relation to those manifold advantages which they bring to Religion. And that,  
I. As they respect every Individual, and may be called Personal Afflictions.  
II. As they respect a Church and Nation, and may be called Public Calamities.  
And first, as they respect every Individual, either the Wicked or the Righteous; being often found the best expedients to convert the one from their vicious Habits, to confirm and improve the other in their course of Piety.  
And first, Afflictions are often found the best Expedients to convert the wicked from their vicious Habits.  
It is reported of 
* Porphyrius in vitâ Pythag.  Pythagoras, that he could tame wild beasts with the Morality of his presence, and suspend their natural horror with a Precept: but the commanding part of the world has long since lost this secret of Restraint, even in more proportionate objects: every bold sinner is become more Magical in his constitution, than that hardened Germane Sennertus writes of; his obstinacy has steeled his very infirmities into Armour; so that the sharpest reproofs men dart at him, either reflect, or drop short, like a charmed Bullet: if their Invectives are poignant and severe, he sets himself on his guard, and holds those sins the closer about him, with which he is covered as with a garment; if their insinuations are gentle, mild, and beseeching, they fall like the Dew on the Rocks, which only serves to nourish those Serpents that inhabit them; for he makes their endearments but forms to offer up his Lusts in, and gathers Courtship from their phrase: Grant that he hears them 
* Mark 6.20.  gladly for the newness of their Topic, or becomes 
* Acts 26.28.  almost a Christian by the terror of their Eloquence; yet will his next disorder so scatter those discourses, that they usually prove no more beneficial to him, than the quick moments of Lightning to a Traveller in the night, who before he advances one step forward, has lost his direction, and is only more amazedly relapsed into his former darkness.  
And how can it naturally be otherwise, when the whole system of his thoughts and inclinations, the great bent of his nature stands contradictory to Religion? how can persuasions work on a petrified heart, or the 
* 1 Cor. 1.21.  foolishness of preaching reform the chair of the scornful? his daily voluptuousness corrupts his natural Conscience, extinguishes his first Principles, and afterwards draws a thick vail before his understanding: for whilst his eyes are caressed with the visits and interviews of beauty and dress, his Tympanum dancing to the soft Vibrations, the delicate Modulations of Harmony; whilst his Tongue and Palate, with their exquisite Membranes, lie bathed in all the variety of Luxury, and a studied Epicurism; his Smell incensed with the costly sacrifice of Odours, every return of breath bringing with it the Treasures of Arabia: whilst, I say, the busy Machine is in this Tumult of sensual Ecstasy, this Tyranny of delight, how desert, how neglected must the Cells of Reason lie? In this Riot of the Senses, how shall he attend to the still voice of Judgement and Conscience? Or how shall he perceive the little spiritual appulses of reflective thoughts?  
Such Methods are for the Ingenuous and the Tractable, the humble and the relenting Sinner; but when either the powers of the Soul lie dissolved in Prosperity, or Contumacy has skinned the Tumour, then can no other discipline prove effectual, than that which sacrifices unto health, that which stabs the Imposthume. Accordingly the Royal Psalmist having seriously considered the blasphemies of the wicked, entreats the Lord to take their Reformation into his own hands, to arise with sudden vengeance, and 
* Psal. 74.23.  maintain his own cause. An eminent example of this proceeding, we may read in the Conversion of St. Paul, Acts the 9th, who whilst he was raging throughout all the Synagogues of Damascus, and breathing out slaughters against the Disciples of our Lord, was struck down into an Apostle by a voice from Heaven; had his malice purged away, by the Lightning that shone round him; and from his blindness, recovered a most glorious Illumination: for as soon as his scales had dropped from his eyes, he from thenceforth beheld nothing but Christ and him crucified.  
And although we cannot promise that the Lord will appear to every desperate sinner in such a Miracle, such a mercy of consuming fire; yet doubtless before the full measure of their iniquity is completed, there are never wanting to the wicked some such seasons of Afflictions, as may create in them serious thoughts, and furnish their minds with a true judgement of things; and they are never permitted to 
* Matth. 26.45.  sleep on till the whole Agony of Divine goodness is over.  
How conspicuous was this method in the Ancient Excommunications? when the sinners were not only excluded from the Service and Sacraments of the Church, but were delivered over to the buffet of Satan, to sicknesses and torments of Mind, to terrifying Dreams and horrid Illusions: These were the severities that reduced them to a captivity of thought, to poverty of spirit, to their whole years of prostration, and to the humbling of themselves through all the degrees of Penance.  
The obstinate and the sensual must have the Law again delivered to them in darkness, Clouds, and dreadful Thunders; and when the terrors of the Lord shall have opened their ears to discipline, and set scourges over their hearts, then may the standing Ministry take effect, and the arts of persuasion enter; for so we have read of a deaf person, who as easily perceived the least whisper of a voice whilst a drum has beaten at his ear.  
That 
* Luke 16.19.  rich man in the Gospel (as we may probably guests from his delicious fare) scarce ever once thought of Heaven, till he lifted up his eyes in Hell; whereas if he had received but a small portion of those Torments in his life-time, he might from hence have taken a surer prospect of Heaven, through a less Chasm, and have discovered a place for himself in Abraham's bosom.  
Those young Courtiers of Abdera, who went distracted from the Andromeda of Euripides, ran raving about the Town a whole Summer, Acting and Reciting in every corner of the Streets, with all the Rabbis of the Play in their Mouths; and notwithstanding there were made several applications for their Recovery, continued on their frantic Jollity, till the following Winter starved their Poetic Fury, and cooled them into Common Sense.  
A Bed of Sickness may reform that man, whom the Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, nay, and one risen from the dead, would never have reclaimed: for, when having danced through various Scenes of false pleasure and wild mirth, and drawing near to the last Act of that Fable, Life, his distemper shall then chance to give him the dreaded leisure of his thoughts, how quickly will the Gospel break in upon his retirement, and set all its contempts, all its profanations in array before him? how will his Objections against Revelation 
* Exod. 15.15.  then melt away, like the Canaanites before Joshua; and his strong Scepticism grow sickly, and consume at the victorious appearance of Truth? how different will his Imaginations then be, from those that were the entertainment of his hotter bravery, when his Constitution was Athletic, and his blood in all its boast and pride; when his vital Sulphur was strong, and his Pulse beat high within him; when in his prosperity he said, That Virtue was a path too narrow for the Generous, only a beaten way for the loaded Ass; that deliberation was the cowardice of thought, Vice the exuberancy of Parts, and Piety the wisdom of the Spleen? But lo, now the long-resisted notion of a Deity breaks out and kindles upon him, it even haunts and persecutes his reflections; 'tis about his paths and about his bed, and spies out all his ways: If his thoughts can 
* Psal. 139. v. 8, 9, etc.  ascend into Heaven, it is there; if they go down into Hell, it is there also; if they take the Wings of the Morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there they shall perceive the terrible works of the Lord, and his Wonders in the Deep; if peradventure darkness covers him, yet behold, the Lord comes riding on that Cloud, and then even that darkness will be day: now will his long-abused Soul grow Conscious of her own Immortality, and his Mind swell with inward Argument; 'twill be no more accounted a vapour in the nostrils, or a little spark in the moving of the heart, but an eternal subject of Glory or Confusion: now let him tell me, if he can, how ravishing the Psalms of David are, beyond the Odes of Pindar, or the Lunacy of Lucretius; how venerable a plain Homily appears, how full of Sacred Apothegm, how each Paragraph contains somewhat Infinite and Immense, and a Canaan distils from every Text!  
Wherefore if now, even in this his day, he will be obedient to the vast infusions of his Conversion; if he will constantly maintain the great Current of Repentance in its proper Channel, and with all Sincerity live up to the vows of his Sickness; then may he be advanced into my Second part, and be numbered amongst the Righteous, where Afflictions are sure to meet him again, though with another face; for as they are often found the best expedients to convert the obstinate from their vicious habits: So,  
Secondly, They do confirm and heighten the Righteous in their course of Piety.  
He that considers the slow progress of virtuous Habits, the constant solicitations of the World without him, the continual Treacheries of his own Nature within, the secret and malicious Insinuations of all the Powers of Darkness that are round him, will readily confess, That the frequent and most instant admonishments of Afflictions, are the best Guards against Vice, the surest strong Hold against all those Enemies; and that the Implacable Canaanite only defends that Land, that Israel against which he fights.  
We find this state of Afflictions almost every where recommended by the wiser Heathens; which did not proceed from any Ostentation of Wit, was not any Rant of Stoicism, but the result and sobriety of their best Reasoning, and sprang from the cooler Counsels of Philosophy; consonant to which, we meet with a most remarkable sentence of Plato, in his 
* Plat. 2. Repub. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc.  Republics, whereby you would imagine that he prophetically described one of our Primitive Martyrs; where he says, That to approve a man hearty righteous, he must be scourged, tortured, bound, have both his eyes burnt out; and in the close, having suffered all evils, must be Impaled or Crucify'd.  
Neither was it the affectation of the retired, or a melancholy Doctrine of the Cell, but grew a Maxim even amidst the softnesses of Courts, and gained the Suffrage of the Noble too: Let one instance out of many suffice, and that of Philip King of Macedon, concerning whom profane History relates, that having in one day succeeded in three notable Erterprises, he immediately implored the gods, that they would be so propitious to him, as to expiate that immoderate prosperity with some misfortune, and temper it into a draught fit for Mortality.  
Moreover, what is more remarkable, 'twas chief from this State, that most of their eminent Heroes were Canonised; for after they had been broken and dissipated here on earth by vast Calamities, than were they placed amongst the Stars, and their mighty Souls collected into their assigned Orbs.  
Even the ancient Patriarches (who lived before the Mosaic Institution) passed away their numerous years in Sorrows and Pilgrimages, mighty Judgements, or Egyptian slavery: And about those times (according to the best conjectures of Ecclesiastical Authors) the righteous Job flourished in his Afflictions, and now remains to all posterity, a stupendious example of Religion and Misery.  
Besides, in the established oeconomy of the Jewish State (which though it was so full and pregnant of the happiness of this world, that its Political appearance was nothing but the promise of a Temporal prosperity) yet we find, that for the most part, amongst the Jews, their stoutest Leaders, best Kings, and noblest Prophets, were most severely treated with Crosses and sharp Afflictions.  
And now, if the constancy, equanimity, and all the gallant worth of the best of Heathens, the Righteousness of the ancient Patrianches, the Valour, Wisdom, and Integnity of the more renowned Jews, have been signalised and made conspicuous chief by their Afflictions; surely Christianity, which has placed Immortality in a fuller light, which has set an exceeding glory before us to animate our Contentions in Tribulation, and has given us an infallible assurance of that astonishment of Men and Angels, a Crucify'd God; aught in all natural reason to be productive of infinitely more illustrious effects under its severer dispensation: especially if we consider, that there is not a Virtue proposed to our Imitation through the whole life of our Saviour, which has not for its appendage that which the Animal man calls Misery, although it proves, in the event, the only winging of the Soul, the highest exaltation of Humane Nature, which had never been honoured with the Union of God, if it had not been in order to suffer.  
But yet Christianity would be a strange irrational Doctrine, and as eagerly derided as the Stoical Apathy, if from its Principles and Duties we should endeavour to persuade men that in Afflictions and Miseries there was a sensitive pleasure, or at least not sensitive regret: Virtue and Piety do not charm us into to a Lethargy, do not lessen the Impressions of Pain, or the resentments of Injuries; they rather improve them, by how much the Temperate and the Intellectual are more keen and exquisite in all their perceptions, than the Sensual and Debauched; so that the true Christian is altogether as sensible and as conscious of the Wounds and Indignities offered to his Nature, as the Voluptuous and the Revengeful; but he bears them with an entire submission to the Providence, Correction, or Trial of his Heavenly Father, not only without Murmur, but with Joy, 
* 2 Cor. 7.4.  exceeding Joy, by reason of that Prospect that is still before him; a Prospect, which shows the duration of his Misery short and vanishing, the Recompense of it immeasurably great and Eternal. This was St. Paul's comfort in the midst of his 
* 2 Cor. 11.  perils, fightings, and jeopardies; of his stripes, prisons, and deaths: when he was a Gladiator in the world in the behalf of Christ, a Spectacle and 
* 1 Cor. 4.9.  Theatre to Men and Angels. Even our blessed Saviour himself was pleased to sustain his suffering Humanity with the full Confidence and Expectation of the 
* Heb. 12.2.  Joy that was set before him; for than he despised the shame, and endured the Cross, when he looked through the darkness of his Agony and Crucifixion, and beheld his 
* Eph. 1.20, 21.  Glorification above Principalities and Powers, his Exaltation at the right hand of God.  
Afflictions are those storms that six and strengthen our Principles, that settle and secure our Fundamentals; that fasten our Religion, not on the complacencies of our Affections, and the accidental deliciousness of a prosperous Piety; but on strong reason, deep consideration, and an invincible wisdom in spiritual concerns. On these waves are we dashed the nearer Heaven, till our Hope and our Faith advance into Hypostasis, into the 
* Heb. 11.1.  evidence of things not seen. These are the two-edged swords, the sharpnesses that perform the true Anatomy of the Christian, that pierce and search to the 
* Heb. 4.12.  dividing of Soul and Spirit, joints and marrow, to the distinguishing of true Piety from Temper: for many specious acts and offices in Religion, do oftentimes proceed more from Constitution than Precept; are not so much the certain effects of a steady Judgement, as the casual efforts of a warm Imagination; as 'tis not strength and choice, but weakness and infirmity, that makes a man Run, when he should only Walk; whereas, Afflictions prove us invincibly constant to our Resolutions, and pursuit makes us cling to the Horns of the Altar.  
Besides, they are Trials which Hypocrisy can never stand; they pluck off its disguise, and make it quit the Stage; they shake and ruffle the man till they discover a true vital Devotion from a Mechanic Impulse; which, like the motion of a Paralytic, argues not progression, but disease.  
They give us an exquisite relish of those Mercies we do enjoy, wean our Affections from the world, prevent our surfeits of prosperity, and place us in a continual preparation for Death: Moreover, what is not so commonly insisted on, they enlarge our Experience, and give our Faculties a miraculous perfection. For, do but consider what excellent discourses are owing to the Pen of the Mourners? what Divine 
* Both.  Consolations we have received from the damps and horrors of a Prison? what 
* Lipsius.  constancy and peace of mind from the incirclings of War? What Meditations from a Martyred King? as if men's understandings had been purged and refined by their Afflictions, and their faculties vexed into Intuition: as 'tis observed of the more Intellectual Platonists, that by long fastings, and frequent severities, they raised themselves unto those Abstractions and pure Ideas, which some men are not yet Dieted to apprehend: whereby they did in a manner resemble those Prophets of old, who received their Inspirations, and delivered their Oracles in Tortures. Nay, perhaps the renowned wisdom of ancient men is not so much extracted from long observations and repeated experiences, as from the Lectures of their Gout and Stone, as from those infirmities which accompany their Age.  
Neither do they give a perfection only to men's natural powers, but more especially an extraordinary advancement and supereminency to their Spiritual Capacities; making them 
* Heb. 12.10.  partakers of God's Holiness. It must be confessed, that many have very resolutely undergone great and formidable Torments, even death itself, in its most cruel and vilest cumstances, out of false and unworthy Principles; such as Fanatic Obstinacy, National Custom, Secular Gallantry, mere Sullenness and Stupidity, blind and misguided Zeal, and what is more remarkable, even Jesuitical policy: but these spurious and equivocal examples are so palpably discerned from those excellent persons who have suffered in the behalf of the Religion of the Gospel, with true Christian meekness and patience, that they need not in the least disturb our present argument: for had these false Martyrs that general conspiration of Graces, which Afflictions always produce in the truly Righteous? did they manifest in their demeanour and conversation that fruit of the Spirit summed up Gal. 5.22. viz. love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance? if so, they could never have been enemies to Civil Government; they could never have scornfully rejected the humble addresses of holy Confessors, and good men; have wilfully stifled the Evidences and convictions of Truth; have designed and acted barbarities, contrary to all natural justice, moral goodness, and heathenish civility. No, the afflicted righteous man has no such concerns upon earth; he leads a 
* Col. 3.3.  life hid with Christ in God, dwells in the Contemplations of Heaven, is exercised in pious Raptures, and encompassed with the Ministry of Angels: his earnest Devotions gather vigour and accent from the acuteness of his pains, from the overwhelmings of an horrible dread; whilst he considers and knows, that all his persecutions will arise into the enlargements of future happiness, and his fiery trials be purified into a glory round his head.  
Where would have been the Annals of the Heroic? Where would have been victories of Faith mentioned Hebrews the 11, if it had not been for Swords, Tyrannies, wild beasts, for the numerous inventions of persecuting malice? Hence have proceeded all those Miracles of patience, courage, humility, resignation; that inspired complacency under Torments, suitable to what St. chrysostom Rhetorically writes of the three Children in the Furnace, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, they expatiated there with as gay a freedom and relaxation of mind, as they would, had they been on the plains of Mesopotomia, or walking in the gardens of the East.  
No Joy like to that of the Righteous under the glory of his Tribulations: How dead and vapid are all the Blandishments of the world to him, who is exercised in spiritual Agonies, in the Olympies' of the Soul? who when Persecution ceases, can yet obtain for himself a Crown of Martyrdom by strict Abstinencies, holy Discipline, and the rigours of Mortification? That even by these methods can completely conquer and make innocent that Triumvirate of afflictions, Poverty, Disgrace, and Sickness, which the world hath dressed in such frightful representations.  
For what relish can there be in the abundance of Riches to one, who has tasted the recollections of a Religious Poverty! who can be sedate and divinely busy amidst the peevishness of Want, and with Socrates maintain a deep and quiet Contemplation, with a Xantippe at his ear? who considers, how Poverty is a state so tolerable, that it has been courted and chosen by many persons, before ever any particular Providence had pointed out the Necessity, or laid the Constraint? A state so commendable, that 'tis made one of the most solemn Vows of those who at any time engage themselves in a Religious Order; that it was always recommended by men who were best able to give a true judgement of things, and had dedicated their lives to Wisdom and Philosophy. But above all, that 'tis sanctified and made Evangelical, by the History and Example of our Blessed Saviour, who has not spoken a much harsher thing in his whole Gospel, than what relates to a confidence in riches and great abundance; allowing only a 
* Matth. 15.26.  bare possibility, a possibility with God, with whom all things are possible, for the refuge and salvation of the wealthy: as it were, not receiving them within the ordinary extensions of his love and tenderness, but referring them to the omnipotence, and last reach of his mercy.  
What are the acclamations of Fame, or the obloquys of Scorn to him, who considers how intoxicating a great Reputation is, how apt to raise tumors in the imaginations of the best of men, and to tincture their reflections with pride and vain complacency? who calls to mind, that there is not usually a more precarious thing on earth, than he who has been nursed up with flatteries and applauses, who has lived upon public breath, and been the Idol of the admiring multitude; that such an one is the Creature of every Hyperbole; that he may be transformed and fashioned by every modish Epithet, and complemented into all the absurdities of opinion and action: who sadly reflects how the voluptuous and plausible, with Herod in the 
* 12.22.  Acts, are often panegyriced to Death and Hell, by the officious Blasphemies of the Rabble: who considers that an abused Reputation does often break more illustriously through a cloud of Infamy; and let whatever happen, yet a Blot on his name here, may give it a fairer Character in the sight of Angels, and make it more legible in the Book of Life.  
Lastly, it must be confessed, that Health is an inestimable Blessing; that it was the chiefest of all Temporal Promises in the Old Testament, without which no other could have been enjoyed. But yet if we consider what nourishment and fuel it often administers to the grossest sensualities, what dangerous temptations lie in the bosom of the healthful continually pressing for admission, and how greedily they are many times entertained by those who are strong to undergo the labours of iniquity; we shall be apt to acknowledge that sickness is a proper season for the exercise and acquisition of many graces, or at least that 'tis a happy impotence, in respect of the most wasting vices we are subject to; that a firm constitution of mind is often wrought from the diseases of the Body, and the Soul grows more active and refined, by still working out its own separation; that the mortal part of us, by a continual succession of little dissolutions, may be better prepared to drop with ease, and just maturity, into that final one of death; which, when it meets a man in the full Tide of his prosperity, and the luxury of his Temper, with what confusions it assaults his Triumphant mind, with what violence it rends his strong ligaments of Life? No one will more readily part with his earthly Tabernacle, than he that by indispositions and long sicknesses, has been taught the trouble of keeping it Tenantable; he will rejoice to sleep with his Fathers, to be eased of the ruins of Adam, the dishonours of Original sin, and to resign up his dust and ashes for Immortality, and a glorious form.  
Thus we have seen by what gracious arts, strengths, and assistances, Afflictions may not only be patiently born by the Religious, but also improved into real comforts, and heightened into all natural and spiritual advantages; and this may be done, not only by persons in their private concerns, but also in their relative and public capacities, and as they constitute a Church or Nation: which brings me to my second General, viz.  
II. Briefly to consider what advantage Afflictions bring to Religion, as they respect a Church or Nation.  
Those narrow Reasoners, who, measuring Divine Providence by the modes of humane inspection, thought it trivial and perplexing for it to direct every Ordinary Agent, and to mingle its concourse with particulars; have notwithstanding been very generous and liberal, in allowing a constant and ample superintendency over Churches and Nations: and that there might be nothing wanting to the magnificence of Providence in their Government, have superadded peculiar Stars and Angels for subordinate ministrations. What appropriate Schemes of Government God Almighty is pleased to establish to himself in his presiding over those greater Bodies, is no man's Province to inquire, nor within his capacity to declare; but however, this we may be certain of, and it has been confirmed by the experience of all Ages, that ordinarily Nations may expect their prosperous or their adverse seasons, according as their Virtues or their Vices shall exceed.  
And although prosperity be the Vote of Nature, the thirst and instinct of the Soul, insomuch that Isaiah brings in the Jews begging a kind cozenage from their Prophets, 
* Esay. c. 30 v. 10.  Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; Torment us no longer with your Desolations and Captivities, those prodigies of a distempered sleep, but let your Dreams be a continued Pageantry of Heaven, and all your Visions a Shechinah: I say, although this be the universal voice of Mankind, and that with the Israelites, we lust for a Canaan in the very wilderness, are calling for new luxuries of mercy, whilst we are despising the former; yet the Lord graciously hears our Prayers, and grants us a denial; knowing, that in plenty and ease, we are apt to forget our Maker; but when he smites us, we turn back, we seek him, we inquire of him; we publish Fasts by Law, transfer our Policies into Piety, and make the depths of Empire serve Religion: even so the appearance of a Comet improves Astronomy, better than all the ordinary motions of the Stars and Planets; and the Sun invites more eyes towards Heaven by sits Eclipse, than by its constant splendour.  
The certain vicissitude of sins and judgements, mercies and provocations, hath in a manner rendered all Church-History but Repetition and Tautology: Thus God dealt with the ancient Jews, thus with the first Christians, and so he continues to deal with us: and although we cannot without detestation and amazement recall those 
* Psal. 106.  numerous ingratitudes of Israel, committed within the space of forty or fifty years; yet if we reflect on our own Chronicle, within near the same circuit of time, we shall be apt to conclude the Jews but puny sinners, as the horror of Regicide seems to lessen the guilt of Murder: for did not the memories and obligations of our Fathers, immediately cool upon almost as great a deliverance, as the Miracle of the Read-sea? and did not we within a while after murmur and rebel against Moses and Aaron, the best Monarchy, and the best Hierarchy? and in that Interregnum, when our King was but gone into the midst of the Cloud, to learn Afflictions, and to commune with the Lord; did not some of us set up a Calf in Horeb, and worship that molten Image? when we were brought into the promised Country, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with the secret, but most powerful hand of Providence, did we not run after the Counsels of Balac, and commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moah? and has not the Lord visited for this too, with as great a Plague? and, having now a while enjoyed the lots and divisions of our Inheritance, are not some amongst us erecting Altars on high places, serving Baal and Ashtaroth, and returning to the ancient Idolatry of the Land? These are our parallel provocations with Israel, and shall not our judgements be greater? even in this our Land, our sins are become our severest Executioners; for do not Heresy and Schism, profaneness and hypocrisle, like the four winds in the description of a Tempest, blow all together! insomuch, much, that we may paint our Church, like the Planetary figure, with a dart in every limb; for its whole body now appears only a larger constellation of Wounds.  
Wherefore now is the proper and advantageous season, nobly to maintain the Purity of our Faith, and to defend the wisdom of our Discipline; to lay aside all peevish Principles, and sullen Separations; to conspire in nothing but mutual Charity and public Love; to heighten our Devotions by numbers and ardency; to encompass and besiege the mercy-seat of Heaven with importunity and holy violence.  
Now let our witty Gallants leave off their foolish Jesting, and irrational Scepticism, their customary, if not malicious levity in Sacred things; and with their solid Ancestors, grow wife and severe in their Conversation, faithful and friendly in their ordinary deal, generous and brave in their public Actions, manly and solemn in their Religious Duties. Let our Magistrates assume an Heroical spirit, and dare to be righteous where the wicked prosper; let them with wisdom, integrity, and zeal, execute Justice and Judgement in this our Land, and then the Lord will withdraw his: for who can tell but that the courageous and fervent Magistrate, like 
* Psal. 106. v. 30.  Phinehas amongst the Jews, may even now remove a National Calamity with his Javelin, with his speedy and zealous execution? Let our Princes be clothed with Sackcloth, and for a while make their Thrones in the dust: Let our Priests be decked with Righteousness, Courage, and the preparations of Martyrdon; let them rejoice to be made an Anathema for our Church, and to bless our Nation through the midst of their flames.  
And now to sum up all our foregoing discourse as briefly as we can.  
1. Let the bold and prosperous sinner, who after many afflicting Calls to Repentance, continues still to sin on with an high hand, let him with fear and trembling conclude, that his Impunity now proceeds from God's greatest vengeance, and the not Afflicting of him any more, from the very fury of his wrath and indignation; as those Arrows fly swiftest which fly invisible; and we often miss the blow, by the excess of anger. Let the obstinate Atheist, who will not be reformed by present judgements, but even after melting becomes nothing but dross; that asks who the Lord is; after so many plagues of Conviction, let him know, that he wants but few degrees of being reduced unto the utmost Analysis of hardening, of being consummated into the constitution of the damned, the eternal glass of Hell-fire.  
II. Let the Afflicted righteous man rejoice, that his infirmities explore the strengths of Heaven; that by his Trials is manifested the Victory of Faith, the omnipotence of grace. That 'tis the 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. St. Chrys.  business of Afflictions to create in him a due consideration, hearty contrition, strong cries, increase of reverence, and the inlargements of Piety.  
III. And let us of this Church and Nation consider, that as we certainly are (and without ostentation or any secular interest be it spoken) the most perfect, and the sincerest part of the Catholic Church now existent, so we trust that 'tis the particular indulgence of Almighty God to keep us up to this our refinement, by constant persecutions: to correct and abate our personal defects, but to confirm and make our Doctrines more Illustrious, by the implacable oppositions of Fanatic rage, and Jesuitical malice: and if we farther reflect on that unparallelled wisdom, learning, and moderation; that most rational and substantial Piety, Charity, and Devotion, which integrate the constitution of our Church, we shall be ready to acknowledge it highly expedient, that, with St. Paul, we should have a Thorn in the flesh, and be often under the buffet of Satan, the designs and attempts of unreasonable and malicious adversaries; lest we should be exalted above measure with our super-eminency of Doctrine; lest we should be puffed up 
* 2 Cor. 12.7.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with our abundance of Revelation.  
And let our Enemies now destroy our City, let them burn down our Temples; if we cannot sing Praises under their Roofs, we will Repent under their Ashes; we will meet in Dens and Caves of the Earth, and by those obscurities, those stealths of Worship, render our Religion more Apostolical, more Primitive. Yet will we set our Moses in the gap, to see if peradventure the Lord too will Repent, and turn away his Displeasure from us; to this end we will humble and prostrate ourselves, grow Pioners in Devotion, and countermine them with our Prayers; and should the Destroying Angel be already come forth, should Judgements be already Commissioned for our Ruin, yet will we pray against Decree, against Predestination itself; and 
* Mar. 26.39.  Lord, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from us!  
FINIS.