it cannot be much worse? Are we sunk to the bottom of all calamity? No surely; God's providence will not suffer, the state of things here can never admit that to be; here are succors always ready against extremities; our own wit and industry, the help of relations or friends, the natural pity and charity of our neighbors, will preserve us from them; especially persons in any measure innocent can never come near them: there will therefore never fail some good matter of content in what remains; a few good things, well improved, may greatly solace us. But, however, let us imagine our case to be the worst that can be; that a confluence of all temporal mischiefs and wants hath arrived, that we are utterly bereaved of all the comforts this world afforded; that we are stripped of all our wealth, quite sunk in our reputation, deserted of every friend, deprived of our health and our liberty; that all the losses, all the disgraces, all the pains which poor Job sustained, or far more and greater than those, have together seized on us; yet we cannot have sufficient reason to be discontent; for that nevertheless we have goods left to us in our hands, or within our reach, far surpassing all those goods we have lost, much outweighing the evils we do undergo: when the world hath done its worst, we remain masters of things incomparably better than it, and all it containeth; the possession whereof may, and, if we be wise, will abundantly satisfy us. We are men still, and have our reason left behind, which alone, in worth, exceedeth all the treasures of the world; in well using which, and thereby ordering all things for the best, we become more worthy, and more happy than the most fortunate fool on earth; we may therein find more true satisfaction, than any wealth or any glory here can minister: we may have a good conscience left, (the sense of having lived well heretofore, or at least a serious resolution to live well hereafter,) and that is a 'continual feast,' yielding a far more solid and savory pleasure, than the most ample revenue can afford: we may have hope in God, (the author and donor of all good things,) and thereby far greater assurance of our convenient subsistence and welfare than all present possessions can bestow; we have reserved a free access to the throne of grace, and thereby a sure means (grounded on God's infallible word and promise) of obtaining

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whatever is good for us; we have a firm right to innumerable spiritual blessings and privileges, each of them justly valuable beyond whole worlds of pelf; we can, in a word, (we can if we please,) enjoy God's favor, which immensely transcendeth all other enjoyments, which vastly more than countervaileth the absence of all other things: of this, by applying ourselves to the love and service of God, we are infallibly capable; of this no worldly force or fortune can despoil us; we having this, our condition cannot be poor, contemptible, or pitiful; it is indeed thereby most rich, glorious, and happy for how can he be poor, that hath the Lord of all things always ready to supply him; who hath God, as the psalmist is wont to speak, to be his portion for ever?' how can he be despicable, that hath the honor to have the Sovereign Majesty of the world for his especial friend? how can he be miserable who enjoyeth the fountain of all happiness, who hath the light of God's countenance' to cheer him, who hath the consolations of God's Holy Spirit to refresh and revive him? what can he want, who, beside his present interest in all the needful effects of God's bountiful love, is an heir of heaven and everlasting bliss? Seeing therefore it is in our power to be religious; seeing we may, if we will, (God's grace concurring, which preventeth us to seek, which never is withheld from those who seek it,) be good Christians; seeing nothing can hinder us from fearing God, or can separate us from his love,' neither can any thing render our condition bad or unhappy, really distressed or needy: O fear the Lord,' saith the psalmist, for there is no want to them that fear him: the young lions' (or the rich, as the LXX. render it) do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing;' and, 'Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing,' saith the wise man ; and, The hand of our God is on all them that seek him,' saith the prophet; and, 'Who is he that shall harm you,' (or do ill to you, or make you worse,) if ye be followers of that which is good?' saith St. Peter; and, We know,' saith St. Paul, that to them who love God, all things co-operate for good;' and, Godliness,' saith he again,' with contentedness is great gain; that is, supposing we have the goods which piety ministereth, although we have nothing more, we are, if wo

can be content, very well to pass; it is abundantly sufficient for us.

is

Why then, I pray, are we discontent? what do we groan or grieve for? what is it that we do want? is it the use of reason, it virtue, is it God's favor? then indeed we have good cause to be displeased; for the want of those things is indeed lamentable but if we do want them, it is only ourselves that we should complain of; for we may have them if we will, and who can help it if we will not? Who, if we shall wilfully deprive ourselves of them, will be concerned to mind our complaints? But is it only a lump of trash, or a puff of honor, or a flash of pleasure, that we do need? Is it that we cannot so delicately glut our bellies, or so finely clothe our backs, or so thoroughly soothe our fancies, as we could wish, that we so pitifully moan? Is it being restrained in some respects from the swinge of our humor, is it that we are not so much regarded, or are slighted by some persons, is it that we are crossed in some design, that so discomposeth and discourageth us? then are we sottishly fond and childish in our conceits and our affections: for proper it is to children, whenas they want no solid or substantial goods, to wail for worthless toys and trinkets; it is for children, when they have not their will in petty and impertinent matters, to cry and lament; children are much affected with every word, or little show that crosseth them: if we were (as St. Paul chargeth us to be) perfect men, if we had manly judgments, and manly affections toward things, we should not so regard or value any of these temporal and transitory things, either good or evil, as by the want of one sort, or by the presence of the other, to be much disturbed; we should, with St. Paul, style any present evil, rò éλappòv Ts Oxiews, a lightness of affliction;' we should with him reckon, 'that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glories which shall be revealed to us;' we should, with St. Peter, 'greatly rejoice, though for a season we are in heaviness, through manifold trials,' or afflictions: we should esteem any condition here very tolerable, yea very good.

4. In truth, (if we will not mince the matter, and can bear a truth sounding like a paradox,) usually our condition is then better, when it seemeth worse; then we have most cause to be

glad, when we are aptest to grieve; then we should be thankful, when we do complain: that it appeareth otherwise to us, it is because in our taxations of things we do ordinarily judge (or rather not judge, but fancy, not hearing or regarding any dictate of reason) like beasts; prizing things merely according to present sense or show, not examining their intrinsic natures, or looking forward into their proper fruits and consequences.

Adversity (or a state, wherein we are not furnished with all accommodations grateful to sense or fancy; or wherein somewhat doth cleave to us offensive to those inferior powers of soul) is the thing which we chiefly loathe and abominate; whereas, in true judgment, nothing commonly is more necessary, more wholesome, more useful and beneficial to us; nothing is more needful, or conducible to the health of our soul, and to our real happiness, than it it is the school of wisdom, wherein our minds are disciplined and improved in the knowlege of the best things, whence it is termed aideia, that is, instructive chastisement: so David found it; 'It is,' said he, 'good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes :' and our Lord himself, ëμalev åq' ŵv ëñade, ‹ He learned obedience from what he suffered.' It is the Academy wherein virtue is acquired and exercised; so God meant it to his people: The Lord thy God,' saith Moses, led thee this forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, and prove thee.' So the wise man saith, that by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better;' and 'that stripes do cleanse the inward parts of the belly.' And, It yieldeth,' saith the Apostle, the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.'

It is the furnace of the soul, wherein it is tried, cleansed, and refined from the dross of vain conceits, of perverse humors, of vicious distempers: When,' saith Job, he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold;' and, Gold,' saith the wise man, is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity."

It is the method whereby God reclaimeth sturdy sinners to

* Hence reipaσμòs (trial) is the usual word signifying it. 1 Pet. i. 6. &c.

goodness, engageth them to seek and serve himself: so of the Israelites the prophet saith, Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was on them;' so Manasses, when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers;' so Nebuchadnezzar, after being driven from his kingdom, his understanding returned unto him, and he blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him that liveth for ever;' so David himself, Before,' said he, I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word.'

It is that whereby God doth prepare men, and doth entitle them to the blessed rewards hereafter: Our light affliction,' saith St. Paul, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;' and, 'Ye,' saith St. Peter, 'greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Such is the nature, such the use, such the fruits of adversity.

It is indeed scarce possible, that, without tasting it somewhat deeply, any man should become in good measure either wise or good. He must be very ignorant of himself, (of his own temper and inclinations, of the strength and forces of his reason,) who hath not met with some rubs and crosses to try himself and them with the greater part of things he must little understand, who hath not experienced the worst part: he cannot skill to wield and govern his passions, who never had them stirred up and tossed about by cross accidents: he can be no good pilot in matters of human life, who hath not for some time sailed in a rough sea, in foul weather, among sands and shelves; he could have no good opportunity of employing thoroughly, or improving his wit, his courage, his industry, who hath had no straits to extricate himself from, no difficulties to surmount, no hardships to sustain: the virtues of humility, of patience, of contentedness necessarily must be unknown to him, to whom no disgraces, no wants, no sore pains have arrived, by well enduring which, those virtues are learnt, and planted in the soul: scarce can he become very charitable or