This meditation will prevent our murmuring in the midst of our greatest troubles and most racking pain : it will cause us to say with David, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it, Psal. xxxix. 9; or, if we open our lips, it will be to say, with a blessed servant of God; Lord, thou troublest me! but it is enough for me that I know it is thy hand. This physic is marvellously bitter; but, O great physician of my soul and body! I will drink it up with joy, seeing thou hast prescribed it. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Job ii. 10. Shall we complain of a disease with which he visits us for a few days, instead of blessing him, and giving glory to his holy name, for the health which we have enjoyed so many years? In a word, though our soul should be afflicted even to death, and our agony should be so great that drops of blood should issue out of our body, yet must we lift up our eyes to heaven and say with our Lord and Saviour, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done, Luke xxii. 42.

The same consideration will preserve us from falling into despair, and from fancying that we shall be swallowed up in our own sorrows. For since it is God that dispenses both evil and good, and that he is faithful and just, that is to say, a God of truth and mercy, he will not suffer us to be tempted (that is afflicted) above that we are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it, 1 Cor. x. 13. He kindles not all his fury, stirs not up all his wrath, Psal. Ixxviii. 38, and employs not the whole strength of his arm. But when his fury is hottest, he remembers to have pity and compassion on the

afflicted, Hab. iii. 2; for he knoweth our frame: He remembereth that we are but dust and ashes, Psal. ciii. 41. Gen. xviii. 27. He remembereth that we are but flesh; that is to say, weakness itself, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again, Psal. lxxviii. 39. He proportions his chastisements, not according to our crimes, but according to our great weakness. Therefore, when God speaks of David's Son, the true and lively image of the holy seed with which he hath concluded an eternal covenant, he saith, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my mercy shall not depart away from him, 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15. And St. Paul, speaking in general of the afflictions with which God visits his children, styles them temptations common to man, 1 Cor. x. 13, to assure us that they shall never surpass the strength of our frail and feeble nature.

The wise and experienced physician prescribes neither physic nor bleeding to the patient, until he hath first examined his pulse, and learned thereby the strength of his constitution; and shall not God, who is wisdom itself, and hath made all things by weight and measure, who knows the temper of our souls, who searcheth our reins, and sees our very heart, proportion his remedies to our weakness: He that inflicted punishments upon Babylon by measure, and numbers the vials of his wrath which he pours upon the seat of the beast, how much more shall he measure the rods, and weigh the afflictions, with which he chastises his children? how much more shall he number their sighs and tears? This consideration comforted King David, O God, said he, thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle are they not in thy book? Psal. Ivi. 8.

Notwithstanding the flesh is of a contrary opinion, I am persuaded that our diseases ought to be looked upon as our most gentle and favourable afflictions. This was David's persuasion: for when he was offered three punishments, and bid to choose one of them, either war, famine, or the pestilence, which is the most hated and dreadful of all distempers, he chose the pestilence. The reason which he gives for this choice should be for ever engraved in the bottom of our hearts, Let us fall now, saith he to the prophet Gad, into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14.

The evils wherewith the Lord visits us are expressions of his love and fatherly care for the judgment, that is, his chastisements, begin at his own house, 1 Pet. iv. 17; and, among all his servants, he chastises them most severely whom he loves themost tenderly. There fore he tells the angel of the church of Laodicea, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, Rev. iii. 19. The most terrible affliction that can befall us in this world, is never to be afflicted; and the most dreadful temptation, is never to be tempted. The apostle to the Hebrews speaks most excellently upon this subject: Forget not, saith he, the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons, chap. xii. 5, 6, 7, 8.

All things work together for good, to them that love

God, Rom. viii. 28. The diseases of body are the medicine of the soul. The pains which rack thy flesh are meant to instruct thy conscience. God will have thee sigh for thy sins, water thy couch with thy tears, Psal. vi. 6, and abhor the remembrance of thy past life, which hath brought all this evil upon thee. He would bring thy flesh into subjection, mortify thy lusts, and make thee partake of his holiness. If it please God in this manner to sanctify his chastisements unto thee, thou wilt one day cry out with David, It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statutes. Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word, Psal cxix. 71, 67.

Although our Lord and Saviour was the only Son, and the beloved of the father, yet learned he obedience, by the things which he suffered, Heb. v. 8. God hath predestinated thee to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren, Rom. viii. 29. He would arm thee with an holy constancy and teach thee to possess thy soul in patience, Luke xxi. 19. Therefore he causeth thee to see with thy eyes, and feel with thy hands, That all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, 1 Pet. i. 24. He teacheth thee to humble thyself under his mighty hand, that he may exalt thee in due time, 1 Pet. v. 6.

When God intended to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, he caused the yoke of their bondage to become more grievous and intolerable, Exod. i. and v. For the same reason, God sends thee this cup of bitterness, because he would breed in thee a loathing of the world, and all its vain delights; and that thou mayest only think upon heaven, and its eternal happiness. He

chastens thee, that thou mayest not be condemned with the world, 1 Cor. xi. 32. He punishes thy flesh, that thy spirit may be saved, 1 Cor. v. 5.

As gold is tried in the fire, so the Lord casts us into the flames of affliction, to make trial of our faith, which is more precious than fine gold, 1 Pet. i. 7. Therefore let us glorify God, even in the midst of tribulations, Knowing that tribulations worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, Rom. v. 3, 4, 5.

God will kindle again thy languishing zeal, renew the ardour of thy prayers, and give them wings to fly to his gracious acceptance. Tell me not that thy distemper is an heavy burden that hinders thy soul from lifting itself towards heaven, and that thy grievous pains dry up the moisture of thy tongue, and cause thy lips to cleave together; for I mean not the prayers composed by art, but the holy affections, and earnest sighs and groans, of a soul overwhelmed with trouble. One groan wrung from us by a sense of our misery, or a single tear that flows from a penitent heart, is far more acceptable to him than a prayer of forty hours that comes from an hypocritical mouth.

When the prophet Moses saw himself inclosed between Pharaoh's army, and the Red Sea, he was so troubled and perplexed, that he could not open his mouth; but God heard the voice of his heart, and answered his silent cry, Exod. xiv. King Hezekiah chattered like a crane or a swallow, and mourned as a dove, Is. xxxviii. 14; yet God had respect to his groans and tears and heard him in his holy sanctuary.