What think ye, sirs ? Should God remove your present troubles, supply all your outward wants, give you the desire of your hearts in crea- ture comforts, but hide his face from you, shoot his arrows into your souls, and cause the venom of them to drink up your spirits ? Should he leave you but a few days to the buffeting of Satan, and his blas- phemous injections; should he hold your eyes but a few nights wak- ing with horrors of conscience, tossing to and fro till the dawning of the day : should he lead you through the chambers of death, shew you the visions of darkness, and make his terrors set themselves in array against you : Then tell me if you would not count it a choice mercy to be back again in your former necessitous condition, with peace of conscience ; and count bread and water, with God's favour, a happy state ? O then, take heed of repining. Say not God deals hardly with you, lest you provoke him to convince you, by your own
HOW TO KEEP THE HEAUT FROM REPINING, &C. 46t
sense and feeling, that he hath worse rods than these for unsubmis- sive and froward children.
Consid. 5. If it he had now, it will he hetter shortly.
O keep thy heart by that consideration : the meal in the barrel is almost spent ; well, be it so, why should that trouble me, if I am al- most beyond the need and use of all these things. The traveller hath spent almost all his money, but a shilling or two left : well, saith he, though my money be almost spent, yet my journey is almost finished too ; I am near home, and then I shall be fully supplied. If there be no candles in the house, yet it is a comfort to think that it is al- most day, and then there will be no need of candles. I am afraid. Christian, thou misreckonest thyself when thou thinkest thy provi- sion is almost spent, and you have a great way to travel : many years to live, and nothing to live upon ; it may not be half so many as thou supposest ; in this be confident, if thy provision be spent, either fresh supplies are coming, though thou seest not from whence, or thou art nearer thy journey's end than thou reckonest thyself to be. Desponding soul, doth it become a man or woman travelling upon the road to the heavenly city, and almost arrived there, within a few day's journey of his Father's house, where all his wants shall be sup- plied, to take on thus about a little meat, drink, or clothes which he fears he shall want by the w^ay .'' It was a noble saying of the forty Martyrs, famous in the Ecclesiastical story, when turned out naked in a frosty nig-ht to be starved to death, with these words they comforted one another, d^i/M/Mvg o yjiiJ^uv, S^c. The winter indeed is sharp and cold, but heaven is warm and comfortable ; here we shiver for cold, but Abraham's bosom will make amends for all.
Objection 1. But I may die for want.
Solution (1.) Who ever did so? When were the righteous for- saken ? (2.) If so, your journey is ended, and you are fully supplied.
Objec. 2. But I am not sure of that ; were I sure of heaven, it were cmother matter.
Sol. Are you not siMre of that ? Then you have other matters to trouble yourselves about than these: methinks these should be the least of all your cares : I do not find that souls perplexed and trou- bled about the want of Christ, pardon of sin, &c. are usually very anxious, or solicitous about these things. He that seriously puts such questions as these. What shall I do to be saved ? How shall I know my sin is pardoned? doth not usually trouble himself with, " What *• shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed T""
Consid. 6. Doth it hecome the children of such a Father to distrust Jtis all-sufficiency, or repine at any of his dispensations ;
Do you well to question his care and love upon every new exigence? Say, have you not been ashamed of this formerly ? Hath not your Father's seasonable provisionsfor you in former straits, put you to the blush, and made you resolve never to question his love and care any more ? and yet will you renew your unworthy suspicious of him
462 HOW TO KEEP THE HEART rilOM REPIXING. kc.
again ? Disingenuous child ! reason thus with thyself; if I perish for want of what is good and needful for me, it must either be because my Father knows not my wants, or hath not wherewith to supply them : or else regards not what becomes of me. Which of these shall I charge upon him ? Not the first ; for, Mark vi. 32. " My " Father knows what I have need of;"" my condition is not hid from him : nor the second, " For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness " of it,"" Psal. xxiv. 1. His name is God all-siijflcient. Gen. xvii. 1. Not the last, for, " as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities " them that fear him,'"' Ps. ciii. 13. "The Lord is exceedingly pitiful, *• and of tender mercy," Jam. v. 11. " He hears the young ravens " when they cry,'' Job xxxviii. 41. and will he not hear me ^ " Con- " sider, saith Christ, the fowls of the air," Matth. vi. 26. Not the fowls at the door, that are every day fed by hand, but the fowls of the air that have none to provide for them. Doth he feed and clothe his enemies, and will he forget his children ? He heard the very cry of Ishmael in distress. Gen. xvi. 17. O my unbelieving heart ! dost thou yet doubt ? Remember Hagar and the child.
Consid. 7. Your poverty is not your s'm^ hut your affliction only! if by sinful means you have not brought it upon yourselves ; and if it be but an ajffliction, it may be borne the easier for that.
It is hard indeed to bear an affliction coming upon us as the fruit and punishment of sin ; when men are under trouble upon that ac- count, they use to say, O ! if it were but a single affliction coming from the hand of God by way of trial, I could bear it, but I have brought it upon myself by sin, it comes as the punishment of sin : the marks of God's displeasure are upon it ; it is the guilt within that troubles and galls niore than the want without.
But it is not so here, and therefore you have no reason to be cast down under it.
Objection. But though there be iw sting of guilt, yet this condition wants not other stings : Asjirst, the discredit of religion ; I caniiot comply with mine engagements in the ztvrld^ and thereby religion is like to suffer.
Solution. It is well you have an heart to discharge every duty, yet if God disable you by providence, it is no discredit to your pro- fession, because you do not that which you cannot do, so long as it is your desire and endeavour to do what you can and ought to do ; and in this case God's will is, that lenity and forbearance be exer- cised tov/ards you, Deut. xxiv. 12, 13.
Object. 2. But it grieves me to behold the necessities ofotherswhom I was wont to relieve and refresh., but now cannot.
Sol. If you cannot, it ceases to be your duty, and God accepts the drawing out of your soul to the hungry in compassion and desire to help them, though you cannot draw forth a full purse to reheve and supply them.