Chapter X. — Means not to be overcharged with sorrow.
To help us further herein, besides that which hath been formerly spoken, 1. We must take heed of huildbuj an ungrounded conjidence of happiness
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Jot time to come, which makes us when changes come, 1, Unacquainted with them ; 2, Takes away expectation of them ; 3, And preparation for them. When any thing is strange and sudden, and hghts upon us unfurnished and unfenced, it must needs put our spirits out of frame. It is good therefore to make all kind of troubles familiar to us, in our thoughts at least, and this will break the force of them. It is good to fence our souls beforehand against all assaults, as men use to keep out the sea, by raising banks ; and if a breach be made, to repair it presently.
We had need to maintain a strong garrison of holy reasons against the assaults of strong passions ; we may hope for the best, but fear the worst, and prepare to bear whatsoever. We say that a set diet is dangerous, because variety of occasions will force us upon breaking of it ; so in this world of changes we cannot resolve upon any certain condition of life, for upon alteration the mind is out of frame. We cannot say this or that trouble shall not befall ; yet we may, by help of the Spirit, say, nothing that doth befall shall make me do that which is unworthy of a Christian.
That which others make easy by suffering, that a wise man maketh easy by thinking of beforehand. Quoi alii diu patiendo levia faciunt, sapiens levia facit diu cogitando. If we expect the worst, when it comes, it is no more than we thought of; if better befalls us, then it is the sweeter to us, the less we expected it. Our Saviour foretells the worst, * In the world you shall have tribulation,' John xvi. 33 ; therefore look for it ; but then He will not leave us. Satan deludes with fair promises ; but when the contrary falls out, he leaves his followers in their distresses. We desire peace and rest, but we seek it not in its own place ; ' there is a rest for God's people,' Heb. iv. 9, but that is not here, nor yet ; but it remains for them ; ' they rest from their labours,' Rev. xiv. 13, but that is after they ' are dead in the Lord.' There is no sound rest till then. Yet this caution must be remembered, that we shape not in oui* fancies such troubles as are never likely to fall out. It comes either from weakness or guiltiness, to fear shadows. We shall not need to make crosses ; they will, as we say of foul weather, come before they be sent for. How many evils do people fear, from which they have no further hurt than what is bred only by their cause- less fears ! Nor yet, if they be probable, must we think of them so as to be altogether so aflfected, as if undoubtedly they would come, for so we give certain strength to an uncertain cross, and usurp upon God, by anticipat- ing that which may never come to pass. It w^as rashness in David to say, 'I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul,' 1 Sam. xxvii. 1.
If they be such troubles as will certainly come to pass, as parting with friends and contentments, at least, by death ; then, 1. Think of them so as not to be much dismayed, but furnish thy heart with strength beforehand, that they may fall the hghter. 2. Think of them so as not to give up the bucklers to passion, and lie open as a fair mark for any uncomfortable acci- dent to strike to the heart ; nor yet so think of them as to despise them, but to consider of God's meaning in them, and how to take good by them. 8. Think of the things we enjoy, so as to moderate our enjoying of them, by considering there must be a parting, and therefore how we shall be able to bear it when it comes.
2. If we desire not to be overcharged with sorrow when that which we fear is fallen upon us, we must then beforehand look that our love to any thing in this world shoot not so far as that, when the time of severing cometh, we part with so much of our hearts by that rent. Those that love too much wiU always grieve too much. It is the greatness of our affections which caufteth
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the sharpness of our afflictions. He that cannot abound without pride and high-mindedness, will not want without too much dejectedness. Love is planted for such things as can return love, and make us better by loving them ; wherein we shall satisfy our love to the full. It is pity so sweet an affection should be lost. So sorrow is for sin, and for other things, as they make sin the more bitter to us. The life of a Christian should be a medi- tation how to unloose his affections from inferior things. He will easily die that is dead before in affection. But this will never be, unless the soul seeth something better than all things in the world, upon which it may bestow itself. In that measure our affections die in their excessive motion to things below, as they are taken up with the love and admiration of the best things. He that is much in heaven in his thoughts is free from being tossed with tempests here below. The top of those mountains that are above the middle region are so quiet as that the lightest things, as ashes, lie still, and are not moved. The way to mortify earthly members, that bestir themselves in us, is to mind things above. Col. iii. 1, 5. The more the ways of wisdom lead us on high, the more we avoid the snares below.