that thou must suffer; short, yea nothing, in respect of that eternity, which thou canst either hope for or fear. Smart awhile patiently, that thou mayst not be infinitely miserable.

SECTION 7.

The benefit of the exercise of our patience.

THOU complainest of pain :-What use were there of thy patience, if thou ailest nothing? God never gives virtues, without intending their exercise. To what purpose were our christian valour, if we had no enemy to encounter?

Thus long thou hast lain quiet in a secure garrison, where thou hast heard no trumpet but thine own; and hast turned thy drums into a dicing-table, lavishing out thy days in a variety of idle recreations. But now, God draws thee forth into the field, and shows thee an enemy. Where is thy christian fortitude, if thou shrink back; and cowardly wheeling about, chusest rather to make use of thy heels than of thy hands? Does this beseem thee, who professest to fight under his colours, who is the great Conqueror of death and hell? Is this the way to that happy victory, which shall carry away a crown of glory?

My son, if thou faint in the day of thine adversity, thy strength is but small. Stir up thy holy courage: Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' Ephes. vi. 10. Buckle close with that fierce enemy, wherewith thy God would have thee assaulted, looking up to him who hath said, and cannot fail to perform it; Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.'

SECTION 8.

The necessity of expecting sickness.

THOU art surprised with sickness :-Whose fault is this, but thine own? Who bade thee not to look for so sure a guest ?

The very frame of thy body should have given thee other thoughts. Dost thou see this living fabric made up as a clock, consisting of so many wheels and joints, and couldst thou imagine that some of them should not be ever out of order? Couldst thou think that a cottage, not too strongly built, and standing so bleak in the very mouth of the winds, could for any long time hold tight and unreaved? Dost thou not rather wonder, that it hath stood so many blustering blasts thus long, utterly unruined; or that the wires of that engine should so long have held pace with time?

It was scarcely a patient question which Job asked, Is my strength the strength of stones; or is my flesh as brass.' Job vi. 12. No alas, Job, thy best metal is but clay; and thine, as all flesh, is grass: the clay mouldereth, and the grass withereth. Why do we make account of any thing but misery and fickleness, in this woeful region of change? If we will overreckon our condition, we only help to aggravate our own wretchedness.

SECTION 9.

God's most tender regard to us in sickness.

THOU art retired to thy sick bed :-Be of good comfort: God was never so near thee, never so tenderly indulgent to thee, as now.

The whole, saith our Saviour, need not the physician, but they that are sick. The physician, made only for the time of necessity, comes not but where there is need; and where need is, he will not fail to come. Our need is

motive enough to him, who himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. Matt. viii. 17. Our health estranges him from us. While thou art his patient, he cannot be kept off from thee. The Lord, saith the psalmist, will strengthen thee upon the bed of languishing. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. Psal. xli. 3. The heavenly Comforter not only visits, but attends thee; and if thou find thy bed uneasy, he shall turn and soften it for thy repose.

Canst thou not read God's gracious indulgence, in thine own disposition? Thou art a parent of children : perhaps thou findest cause to regard one more than another, though all be dear enough. But if any one of them be cast down with a feverish disease, thou art more carefully busy about him than all the rest. How thou pitiest him; how thou pliest him with medicine; with what silent anxiety dost thou watch by his couch, listening for his breathings, jealous of every whispering that might disturb his slumber, answering all his groans with as many sighs; and in short, so making of him for the time, that thy greatest darling seems the meanwhile neglected, in comparison of this more needful charge. How much more then shall the Father of mercies be compassionately intent upon the sufferings of his dear children, according to the proportion of their afflictions!

SECTION 10.

The comfortable end of our sufferings.

THOU art wholly taken up with the extremity of thy pains-Alas, poor soul, thy purblind eyes see nothing, but what is laid close before thee. It is thy sense which thou followest; but where is thy faith? Couldst thou look to the end of thy sufferings, thou couldst not but rejoice in tribulation. Let patience have her perfect work, and thou shalt soon say, It is well for me that I was afflicted.

Thou mightest be gay and cheerful long enough, ere

thy cheerfulness could make thee happy. Yea, woe be to them that laugh here;' but on the contrary, our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' 2 Cor. iv. 17. Blessed improvement of a few groans; glorious issue of a short brunt of sorrow! Why do we pass for christians, if we be nothing but mere flesh and blood? And if we be more, we have more cause of joy than complaint for while our outward man perisheth, our inward man is renewed day by day. Our outward man is but flesh: our inner man is spirit, infinitely more noble than this living clay that we carry about us. While our spirit therefore gains more than our flesh is capable of losing, what reason have we not to boast of the bargain.

Let not therefore these close curtains confine thy sight; but cast up thine eyes to that heaven, whence thy soul came; and see there that crown of glory, which thy God holds forth for all that overcome. Run with patience the race that is set before thee, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who is set down at the right-hand of the throne of God. Heb. xii. 2. And solace thyself with the expectation of that blessedness, which, if thy torments were no less than those of hell, would make more than abundant amends for all thy sufferings.

SECTION 11.

The favour of a peaceable passage out of the world.

THOU art sick to die, having received the sentence of death in thyself. Thy physician hath given thee up, to act this last part alone: neither art thou likely to rise any more, till the general resurrection.

How many thousands have died lately, who would have thought it a great happiness to die thus quietly in their beds! Many whom the storm of war hath hurried away furiously into another world, snatching them suddenly out of this; not suffering them to take leave of that

life which they are forced to abandon. Whereas, thou hast a fair opportunity to prepare thyself for the entertainment of thy last guest; to set both thy house in order, and thy soul.

It is no small advantage, my son, thus to see death at a distance, and to observe his paces towards thee; that thou mayest put thyself into a fit posture to meet this grim messenger of heaven, who comes to fetch thee to immortality. Dying thus by gentle degrees, thou hast the leisure, with the holy patriarch Jacob, to call thy children about thee, to bequeath to each of them the dear legacy of thy benediction; and being encompassed with thy sad friends, now in thy long journey to a far country, though thine and their home, thou mayst take a solemn farewel of them, as going somewhat before them to the appointed happy meetingplace of glory and blessedness. One of thine own may close up those eyes, which shall in their next opening, see the face of thy most glorious Saviour; and see this flesh, now ready to lie down in corruption, made like to his in unspeakable glory.

CHAP. II.

COMFORTS FOR THE SICK SOUL.

SECTION 1.

The happiness of a deep sorrow for sin.

THY sin lies heavy upon thy soul:-Blessed be God, that thou feelest it to be so. Many a one hath more weight upon him, and boasteth of ease.

There is music in this complaint: the Father of mercies delights to hear it, as next to the melody of saints and angels. Goon still, and continue these sorrowful notes, if ever thou look for sound comfort. It is this