Help 6. It would much stay the heart under adversity, to consider That God, by such humbling providences, may be accomplishing thai for zahich you have long prayed and waited : And should you be troubled at that ? Say, Christian, hast thou not many prayers de- pending before God upon such accounts as these : that he would keep thee from sin, discover to thee the emptiness and insufficiency of the creature ; that he would kill and mortify thy lusts, that thy heart may never find rest in any enjoyment but Christ ? Why now, by such humbling and impoverishing strokes, God may be fulfilling thy desire : Wouldst thou be kept from sin ? Lo, he hath hedged up thy way with thorns. Wouldst thou see the creature's vanity ? Thy affliction is a fair glass to discover it ; for the vanity of the creature is never so effectually and sensibly discovered, as in our own experience of it. Wouldst thou have thy corruptions mortified ? This is the way ; now God takes away the food and fuel that maintained them ; for as prosperity begat and fed them, so adversity, when sanctified, is a mean to kill them. Wouldst thou have thy heart to rest no where but in the bosom of God ? What better way canst thou ima- gine providence should take to accomplish thy desire, than by puU
444 HOW TO KEEP THE HEART FROM DESPOXDIXG
ling from under thy head, that soft pillow of creature delights on which thou restedst before ? And vet thou fret at this, peevish child ! how dost thou exercise thy Father's patience ? If he delay to answer thy prayers, thou art ready to say lie regards thee not ; if he do that which really answers the scope and main end of them, but not in the wav thou expectedst, thou quarrellest with him for that : as if in- stead of answering, he were crossing all thy hopes and aims ; is this ingenuous ? Is it not enough that God is so gracious to do what thou desirest, but thou must be so impudent to expect he should do it in the way which thou prescribest.
Help 7. Again, It may stay thy heart, if thou consider, That in these troubles^ God is about that zcor\\ which if thou didst see the de- sign of^ thy soul XL'ould rejoice. We, poor creatures, are bemisted with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular pro- vidences work towards God's end ; and therefore, like Israel in the wilderness, are often murmuring, because Providence leads us about in a howling desart, where we are exposed to straits ; though yet, then he led them, and is now leading us, by the right way^ to a city of habitations. If you could but see how God, in his secret coun- sel, hath exactly laid the whole plot and design of thy salvation, even to the smallest means and circumstances; this way, and by these means such a one shall be saved, and by no other ; such a num- ber of afflictions I appoint for this man, at this time, and in this order ; they shall befal him thus, and thus they shall work for him : Could vou, I say, but discern the admirable harmony of divine dis- pensations, their mutual relations to each other, together with the general respect and influence they all have unto the Jast end ; of all the conditions in the world, you would chuse that you are now in, had you liberty to make your own choice. Providence is like a curious piece of arras, made up of a thousand shreds, which single we know not what to make of, but put together, and stitched up orderly, they represent a beautiful history to the eye. As God works all things according to the counsel of his own will, so that the counsel of God hath ordained this as the best way to bring about thy salvation ; Such a one hath a proud heart, so many humbling providences I appointed for him : such a one an earthly heart, so many impover- ishing providences for him : Did you but see this, I need say no more to support the most dejected heart.
Help 8. Farther, It would much conduce to the settlement of your hearts, to consider. That by fretting and discontent, you do yourselves more injury than all the ojfiictions you lie under could do ; your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a stin^ ; it is you that make your burden heavy, by struggling under it. Could you but lie quiet under the hand of God, your condi- tion would be much easier and sv.eeter than it is ; Impatiens cegrotus crudeUmfacit mcdiciim. This makes God lay on more strokes, as a father will upon a stubborn child that receives not correction.
IN TIMES OF ADVERSITY. 445
Besides, it unfits the soul to pray over its troubles, or take in the sense of that good which God intends by them : Affliction is a pill, which being wrapt up in patience and quiet submission, maybe easily swallowed ; but discontent chews the pill and so embitters the soul ; God throws away some comfort which he saw would hurt you, and you will throw away your peace after it ; he shoots an arrow which sticks in your clothes, and was never intended to hurt, but only to fright you from sin : and you will thrust it onward to the piercing of your very hearts by despondency and discontent.
Help 9- Lastly, If all this will not do, but thy heart, like Rachel, still refuses to be comforted, or quieted, then consider one thing more, which, if seriously pondered, will doubtless do the work ; and that is this. Compare the condition thou art now in, and art so much dis^ satisfied with, with that condition others are, arid thyself deservcst to he in : Others are roarinsc in flames, howling; undor the scourge of vengeance, and amongst them I deserve to be. O my soul ! is this hell ? Is my condition as bad as the damned ? O what would thou- sands now in hell give to change conditions with me ! It is a famous instance which* Dr. Taylor gives us of the duke of Conde ; ' I have ' read (saithhe) that when the duke of Conde had entered voluntarily ' into the incommodities of a religious poverty, he was one day espied ' and pitied by a lord of Italy, who out of tenderness wished him ' to be more careful and nutritive of his person. The good duke
* answered, Sir, be not troubled, and think not that I am ill provided
* of conveniences, for I send an harbinger before me, who makes ' ready my lodgings, and takes care that I be royally entertained. ' The lord asked him who was his harbinger ? he answered. The ' knowledge of myself, and the consideration of what I deserve for
* my sins, which is eternal torments; and when with this knowledge ' I arrive at my lodging, how unprovided soever I find it, methinks ' it is ever better than I deserve.' Why doth the living man com- plain ? And thus the heart my be kept from desponding, or repining under adversity.
Season B. ' The third season calling for more than ordinary dili- ' gence to keep the heart, is the time of Zion's troubles: When the ' church, like the ship in which Christ and his disciples were, is op-