tender to a man as an only daughter ; and because therein appears the likeness of a little daughter. Upon which words, saith Bellarmine, C lames asffidvZ ad Deum, non lingua, sed oculis, non verbis sed lichrymis, lata enim est oratio, qua; pacare solet : cry aloud, not with thy tongue, but with thine eyes ; not with thy words, but with thy tears ; for that is the prayer that maketh the most forcible entry into the ears of the great God of heaven. When God strikes, he looks that we should tremble ; when his hand is lifted high, he looks that our hearts should stoop low ; when he hath the rod in his hand, he looks that we should have tears in our eyes, as you may see by comparing of these scriptures together, Ps. lv. 2, xxxviii. 6, Job xxx. 2G-32. Good men weep easily, saith the Greek poet ;l and the better any are, are more inclining to weeping, especially under affliction : as yon may see in David, whose tears, instead of gems, were the common ornaments of his bed, Jonathan, Job, Ezra, Daniel, &c. How, saith one, shall God wipe away my tears in heaven, if I shed none on earth ? And how shall I reap in joy, if I sow not in tears ? I was born with tears, and I shall die with tears ; and why then should I live without them in this valley of tears ?
There is as well a time to weep, as there is a time to laugh ; and a time to mourn, as well as a time to dance, Eccles. iii. 4. The mourning garment among the Jews was the black garment, and the black gar- ment was the mourning garment : Ps. xliii. 2, ' Why go ye mourning T The Hebrew word Kedar signifies black. Why go ye in black ? Some- times Christians must put off their gay ornaments, and put on their black, their mourning garments, Exod. xxxiii. 3-6. But,
6. Sixthly, A gracious, a prudent silence cloth not exclude sighing, groaning, or roaring under afflictions.2 A man may sigh, and groan, and roar under the hand of God, and yet be silent, It is not sighing, but muttering ; it is not groaning, but grumbling ; it is not roaring, but murmuring, that is opposite to a holy silence : Exod. ii. 23, 'And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.' Job iii. 24. ' For my sighing cometh before I eat,' (or, as the Hebrew hath it) ' be- fore my meat;' his sighing, like bad weather, came unsent for and unsought : so Ps. xxxviii. 9, ' Lord, all my desire is before thee ; and my groaning is not hid from thee.' Ps. cii. 5, ' By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin.' Job iii. 24, 'And my roarings are poured out like the waters/ Ps. xxxviii. 8, ' I am feeble and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.' Ps. xxii. 1, 'My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my roaring?' Ps. xxxii. 3, ' When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roarings all the day long.' He roars, but doth not rage; he roars, but doth not repine. When a man is in extremit}7, nature prompts him to roar, and the law of grace is not against it ; and though sighing, roar- ing, groaning, cannot deliver a man out of his misery, yet they do give some ease to a man under his misery. When Solon wept for his son's death, one said to him, Weeping will not help. He answered, Alas '.
1 Of. Seneca de Consolatione ad Polybium, iv. § 2, and Juvenal, xv. 133. — G. * You may see much of this by comparing the following scriptures: Lam. iv. 4, 11, 2 1, 22; Ps. xxxi. 10 ; Jer. xlv. 3 ; Exod. ii. 24 ; Job xxiii. 3 ; l's. vi. 6.
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therefore do I weep, because weeping will not help. So a Christian many times sighs, because sighing will not help ; and he groans, be- cause groaning will not help ; and he roars, because roaring will not help. Sometimes the sorrows of the saints are so great, that all tears are dried up, and they can get no ease by weeping ; and therefore for a little ease they fall a-sighing and groaning ; and this may be done, and yet the heart may be quiet and silent before the Lord. Peter wept and sobbed, and yet was silent. Sometimes the sighs and groans of a saint do in some sort tell that which his tongue can in no sort utter. But,
7. Seventhly, A holy, a prudent silence, doth not exclude nor shut out the use of any just or lawful means, whereby persons may be delivered out of their afflictions.1 God would not have his people so in love with their afflictions, as not to use such righteous means as may deliver them out of their afflictions : Mat. x. 23, ' But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another ;' Acts xii. 5, When Peter was in prison, the saints thronged together to pray, as the original hath it, ver. 12 ; and they were so instant and earnest with God in prayer, they did so beseech and besiege the Lord, they did so beg and bounce at heaven- gate, ver. 5, that God could have no rest, till, by many miracles of power and mercy, he had returned Peter as a bosom-favour to them : Acts ix. 23-25, ' And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him : but their laying await was known of Saul : and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket' The blood of the saints is precious in God's eye, and it should not be vile in their own eyes. When providence opens a door of escape there is no reason why the saints should set themselves as marks and butts for their ene- mies to shoot at : 2 Thes. iii. 1, 2, the apostles desire the brethren ' to pray for them, that they may be delivered from unreasonable (dromi, absurd) and wicked (toi^sg/, villainous) men ; for all men have not faith.' It is a mercy worth a seeking, to be delivered out of the hands of ab- surd, villainous, and troublesome men.
Afflictions are evil in themselves, and we may desire and endeavour to be delivered from them, James v. 14, 15, Isa. xxxviii. 18-21 ; both inward and outward means are to be used for our own preservation. Had not Noah built an ark, he had been swept away with the flood, though he had been with Nimrod and his crew on the tower of Babel, which was raised to the height of one thousand five hundred forty-six paces, as Heylin reports.2 Though we may not trust in means, yet we may and ought to use the means ; in the use of them, eye that God that can only bless them, and you do your work. As the pilot that guides the ship hath his hand upon the rudder, and his eye en the star that directs him at the same time ; so when your hand is upon the means, let your eye be upon your God, and deliverance will come. We may neglect God as well by neglecting of means as by trustiug in means ; it is best to use them, and in the use of them, to live above them. Augustine tells of a man, that being fallen into a pit, one passing by falls a-questioning of him, what he made there, and how he came in ? Oh ! said the poor