fpect of the goodness, mercy, and juftice of God, who though with most unblameable juftice, yet with fingular mercy, is very likely to fend Affliction to awaken him and amend him, and to recal him from that tendency to apoftafy, that fecurity is apt to bring upon him. Secondly, in refpect of the malice and vigilancy of the great enemy of mankind; who, as he never wants malice, fo he often gets a permiffion to worry a man whom he hath under this difadvantage of unpreparednefs and fecurity.

5. Be careful to keep as great Afflictions, so alfo great deliverances, in memory. Moft men upon the fresh receipt of mercy and deliverance have a quick and lively apprehenfion of it; and accordingly their af fections of thankfulness, and practices and purpofes of obedience are lively and diligent; but in procefs of time, and as the man is further diftant from his deliverance, fo the memory of it doth gradually, and poffibly fuddenly, vanish and decay and as the remembrance of the deliverance decays and grows weaker and weaker, fo do thefe affections or difpofitions of the foul that are before-mentioned: The thankfulness grows faint, and fo doth the obedience, and fo doth the humility, and fo doth the watchfulness: and as the water that hath been heated, being removed from the fire, grows by degrees colder and colder, till at last it comes to its old coldnefs that it firft had; fo in a little time the Affliction is forgot, and the deliverance is forgot, and the man is grown into the very fame ftate, as if he never had felt either, and poffibly worse. Therefore keep deliverances and Afflictions too, frefh in thy memory; call thyfelf frequently to account for them; ufe fome expedient that may frequently remind thee of them with all their circumftances; fet them down. in writing; mention them often; recollect them often; and recollect what thoughts, purpofes, temper of mind and spirit was then upon thee, when thy Afflictions were upon thee, or thy deliverances frefhly given to thee. Caft with thyfelf how if thefe were now as frefh

to thee as they were then, with what motions or dif pofitions of foul thou fhouldeft receive them; and reason thyself into the fame temper and habitude of thankfulness, as then thou hadft. By this keeping the memory of these Afflictions and thefe deliverances fresh under all its circumftances, thou wilt with them, and in the fame degree as thy remembrance is of them, revive and excite, and preferve and keep alive, and quick and active, the fame gratitude, the fame humility, the fame obedience, the fame vigilance that these Afflictions or thefe deliverances wrought in thee, when they were fresh with thee or upon thee. The vigorous perpetuating of the remembrance of them will be an effectual means to perpetuate the due fruit of them in their life, vigour, and intention.

>

A GOOD METHOD

TO ENTERTAIN

UNSTABLE AND TROUBLESOME TIMES,

THE first expedient is to expect them before they come The very state of the world is uncertain and unstable, and for the most part stormy and troublesome; if there be fome intervals of tranquillity and fedateness, they are commonly attended with longer periods of unquietnefs and trouble; and the greatest impreffions are then made by them, when they furprife us, and come unexpected. When the mind is prepared for them by a kind of anticipation, it abates the edge, and keennefs and fharpness of them. By this means a man, in a great measure, knows the worft of them before he feels them, which renders the very incumbence 2 of them not fo fmart and troublesome to fenfe, as otherwife they would be. This pre-apprehenfion and anticipation of troubles and difficulties is the mother of prevention, where it is poffible; and where it is not, yet it is the mother of patience and refolution when they come. Bilney, the Martyr, was wont, before he fuffered, to put his finger in the candle, to habituate himself to a patient undergoing of his future martyrdom; by this means, he in a great measure knew the worit of it, and armed himself with refolution and patience to bear it. Men are apt to feed their fancies with the anticipation of what they hope for and wifh in this world, and to poffefs it in imagination before they at

1 To bear with.

2

' weight.

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tain

tain it in fruition; and this makes men vain: but if they would have the patience fometimes to anticipate what they have juft caufe to fear, and to put themfelves under a pre-apprehenfion of it, in relation to croffes and troubles, it would make them wife, and teach them a leffon of patience and moderation, before they have occafion to use it; fo that they need not then begin to learn it, when the present and incumbent preffure renders the leffon more difficult. This was the method our bleffed Lord took with his Difciples, frequently to tell them before-hand what they must expect in the world, and in divers other places, telling them, they muft expect in this world the worst of temporal evils, that they might thereby be prepared to entertain them with refolution and patience, and might habituate their minds for their reception.

2. The fecond expedient is, that we use all diligence to gain fuch a treasure as lies above the reach of the ftorms of this world; a kingdom that cannot be fhaken; namely, our peace with God in Chrift, the pardon of our fins, and a well-grounded hope and affurance of eternal life. These be things that lie out of gun-fhot, and will render the greatest troubles that can befal this lower world, or us in it, not only tolerable, but fmall and inconfiderable, when in the midst of all the concuffions of this world, in the midft of loffes of goods or estate, in the midst of storms and confufions, and disasters, and calamities, a man can have fuch deep and fettled confiderations as thefe: " Though I can fee nothing but confufions, and little hopes of their amendment, yet I have that which is out of the reach of all thefe; that which is infinitely more valuable to me, than all the beft the world can give; that which I can please and comfort myself in, notwithstanding all thefe worldly distractions and fears; namely, the • affurance of my peace with the great God of Heaven

! Matth. x.

• and

and Earth. The worst that I can fuffer by thefe dif compofures, and the most I can fear from them, is but death; and that will not only put a period to the things I fuffer, or can fear in this life, but will let me into the actual poffeffion of my hopes, even fuch a ftate of glory and happiness as can never be ended nor fhaken. Such a hope, and fuch an affurance as this will keep the foul above water, and in a state of peace and tranquillity in all the tempefts and shipwrecks that can befall either this inferior world, or any perfon in it.

3. The third expedient is this, that a man be refolved. ly conftant to keep a good confcience, both before the approach of troubles, and under them. It is most certainly true, that the very fting and venom of all croffes and troubles, is fin, and a confcioufnefs of the

guilt of it. This is that which gives troubles and croffes, and calamities their vigour, force, and fharpness; it is the elixir, the very life of them, when a man shall be under extreme outward calamities, lofs of goods, lofs of liberty, lofs of country, all outward hopes failing, and ftill greater billows, and waves and ftorms, and fears in profpect, and within an angry, unquiet, avenging confcience, then indeed troubles have their perfection of malignity. But if a man in the midft of all these black and stormy appearances, hath a confcience full of peace, and integrity, and comfortable atteftation, this gives a calm in the midst of all thefe ftorms; and the reafon is apparent, for it is not the tempeftuoufness or tranquillity of externals, that creates the trouble or the quietness of the man, but it is the mind, and that ftate of composure or difcompofure that the mind is put into occafionally from them: -and fince there is nothing in the world that conduceth more to the composure and tranquillity of the mind, than the serenity and clearness of the confcience, keep but that fafe and untainted, the mind will enjoy a calm and tranquillity in the midft of all the ftorms of the world: and although the waves

beat,