Chrift hath promised unto the humble: Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your Souls.

Matth. xi. 29.

Ii 2

THE

484

OF THE

Third Tabernacle:

THAT IS,

Of PATIENCE.

CHAP. I.

Of the Neceffity of Patience amidst the numerous Miseries of this Life.

1.

S

THE DISCIPLE.

INCE, Lord, thou haft vouchfafed to deliver certain Precepts touching Holy Poverty and Humility, it remaineth now, purfuant to thy promise, to fuggeft fomething unto thy Servant, concerning the admirable Virtue of Patience. For I acknowledge and confefs this before thee, that I am very deficient in this virtue, and that I have great need of much Patience. For what is

my

life, but one long continued Mifery, from the day of my nativity even unto the day of my burial? And there is no vacancy, no intermiffion between, from labour and forrow. And how came I into this miserable eftate, O my GOD! Thou knowest right well, what, and how great evils compass me about, during my imprisonment in the Body: And there is none that fo well knoweth the mifery of Man, as thou, O Lord our GOD. Thou feeft therefore, how neceffary Patience is for me. How happeneth it, O my Soul, that thou art in thine enemies land? For if thou hadst walked in the way of GOD, thou shouldst have dwelled in peace for ever. But thou haft for faken the Lord thy GOD, the Fountain of living waters, and hewn thee out cifterns, broken cifterns that could hold no water, and therefore thou art delivered into the hands of thofe that hate thee..

.

II. But return unto me, faith the Lord, and I will receive thee. For my fins, all these things, O Lord, by thy juft judgment are come upon me. I have finned with my fathers, and bear the heavy yoke upon all the fons of Adam, for his children are all

a Baruch iii. 10, 13.

b Jer. ii. 13. c Eccluf. xl. r.

Ii 3

of

of them the children of wrath. Howbeit, unless thy help had fuccoured us from above, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah which were deftroy'd in a moment. And therefore it is of the multitude of thy mercies, O Lord, that we are not confumed: and because thy compaffions fail not, that we are yet alive. We were all the children of death, but thou preventedft us with thy mercies, and not as our offence, fo was thy judgment, but thy mercy hath fuperabounded above all our iniquity. Thou remembreft that we are duft; that the days of man are but as grafs: that he flourisheth as a flower of the field. These things have I prefumed to utter before thee, O GOD, and Father of Mercies, to the end I might be fenfible of my own mifery, and be affured withal, that thy righteous judgment is the cause of all the evils we labour under. But nevertheless still I ask, if in all these there be any confolation in Chrift Jefus our Lord. And if I deferve not to be fully comforted, grant it at least in fome degree. Who therefore fhall comfort my Soul? Trouble and heaviness have taken

• Ifai. i. 9.

e Lam. iii. 22.

f Pfal. ciii. 14, 15. bold

hold upon me: Quicken me according to thy loving-kindness &.

III. Obeft of Comforters, thrice-welcome Gueft, and fweeteft refreshment of the af flicted Soul: Who filleft all things living with thy bleffing: Open thine hand, and pour down the dew of thy Heavenly Benediction upon my dry and parch'd Earth. I Stretch forth my hands unto thee: my foul gafpeth unto thee as a thirsty land. Hear me, O Lord, and that foon, for my Spirit waxeth faint. And whither fhall I go without thee? And to whom fhall I flee? Thou, O Lord, art my GoD; and therefore receive propitiously my Prayers. Unto thee have I lifted up my Soul; do not thou defpife me. I have fhewed my mifery; do not thou turn away thine eyes. I have finned; do not thou condemn me. My heart bath faid unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I feek, O do not forfake me. For thou haft said with thine own mouth, being defirous to comfort us: Come unto me, all that travel, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you And again: If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink *.

g Pfal. cxix.

i

i Matth. xi. 28.