Sunday fwaded that God is infinitely above us, that II. we are vileness and nothing in Comparison of him, we fhall never pay our due Obedience. between us. 3. Therefore if ever you mean to obey intirely (as you muft, if ever you mean to be faved) get your Hearts poffeft with the Sense of that great unfpeakable Distance that is beThe great tween God and you. Confider him, as he is a Distance God of infinite Majefty and Glory; and we God and poor Worms of the Earth: He infinite in Power, able to do all Things, and we able to do nothing, not fo much as to make one Hair white or black, as our Saviour speaks, Mat. 5. 36. He of infinite Purity and Holinefs, and we polluted and defiled, wallowing in all kind of Sins and Uncleannefs; He Unchangeable and Conftant, and we fubject to Change and Alteration every Minute of our Lives; He Eternal and Immortal, and we frail Mortals, that whenever he taketh away our Breath, we die, and are turned again to our Duft, Pfalm 104. 29. Confider all this, I fay, and you cannot but acknowledge a wide Difference between God and Man, and therefore may well cry out with Job, after he had approach'd fo near to God, as to difcern fomewhat of his Excellency, Job 42. 56. Now mine Eye feeth thee, wherefore I abhor my felf, and repent in Duft and Afbes. The Unwor shinefs of our best Works. 4. And even when this Humility hath brought us to Obedience, it is not then to be caft off, as if we had no further Ufe of it; for there II. there is ftill great Ufe, nay, Neceffity of it, to Sunday keep us from any high Conceits of our Performances, which if we once entertain, it will blaft the best of them, and make them utterly unacceptable to God; like the Strictnefs of the Pharifee, which when once he came to boast of, the Publican was preferred before him, Luke 18. The best of our Works are so full of Infirmity and Pollution, that if we compare them with that. Perfection and Purity which is in God, we may truly fay with the Prophet, All our Righteousness are as filthy Rags, Ifaiah 64. 6. and therefore to pride our felves in them, is the fame Madnefs, that it would be in a Beggar to brag of his Apparel, when it is nothing but vile Rags and Tatters. Our Saviour's Precept in this Matter must always be remembred, Luke 17. 19. When have done thofe Things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable Servants. If when we have done all, we must give ourfelves no better a Title, what are we then to esteem our felves, that are fo far from doing any confiderable Part of what we are commanded? Surely, that worfer Name of flothful and wicked Servant, Mat. 25. 26. we have no reason to think too bad for us. you 5. A fecond fort of Submiffion to his Will, Submission is that of Patience; this ftands in fuffering patience. in respect of his Will, as that of Obedience did in acting it, and is nothing elfe, but a willing and quiet yielding to whatever Afflictions it pleafes D 3 Sunday pleafes God to lay upon us. This the fore11. mentioned Humility will make eafy to us; for when our Hearts are throughly poffeft with that Reverence and Esteem of God, it will be impoffible for us to grudge or murmur at whatever he does. We fee an Inftance of it in Old Eli, 1 Sam. 3. who after he had heard the fad Threatnings of God against him, of the Deftruction of his Family, the Loss of the Priesthood, the cutting off both his Sons in one Day, which were all of them Afflictions of the heaviest kind; yet this one Confideration, that it was the Lord, enabled him calmly and quietly to yield to them; faying, Let him do what feemeth him good, Verse 18. The fame Effect it had on David, in his Suf fering, Pfal. 39. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my Mouth, becaufe thou didst it. God's doing it, filenced all Murmurings and Grumblings in him. And fo muft it do in us, in all our Amictions, if we will indeed approve our Humility to God. 2 6. For furely you will not think that Child hath due Humility to his Parent, or that Servant to his Mafter, that when they are corrected, fhall flie in their Father's or Master's Face. But this do we, whenever we grudge and repine at that which God lays upon us. But befides the want of Humility in our fo doing, there is alfo a great Want of Juftice in it; for God hath, as we are his Creatures, a Right to do with us what he will, and there II. therefore for us to refift that Right of his, is Sunday the highest Injuftice that can be; nay, farther, it is alfo the greatest Folly in the World, for it is only our Good that God aims at in afflicting us; that heavenly Father is not like our earthly ones, who fometimes correct their Children, only to fatisfy their own angry Hu mour, not to do them good. But this is fubject to no fuch Frailties, He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Children of Men, Lam. 3.33. They are our Sins, which do not only give him juft Cause, but even forcé and neceffitate him to punifh us. He carries to us the Bowels and Affections of the tenderest Father. Now when a Father fees his Child ftubborn and rebellious, and running on in a Course that will certainly undo him, what greater Act of Fatherly Kindness can he do, than chaften and correct him, to fee if by that means he may amend him? Nay, indeed, he could not be faid to have true Kindness to him if he should not. thus it is with God, when he sees us run on in Sin, either he must leave off to love us, and so leave us to ourselves to take our own Course, and that is the heaviest Curse that can befal any Man or elfe, if he continue to love us, he muft correct and punish us, to bring us to Amendment. Therefore whenever he ftrikes, we are, in all Reason, not only patiently to lie under his Rod, but (as I may fay) kifs it al- Thankfulfo; that is, be very thankful to him, that he nefs for is plea fed not to give us over to our own Hearts D 4 And Lufts, God's Cor rection. Sunday Lufts, Pfal. 18. 12. But ftill continues his II. Care of us; fends Afflictions, as fo many Meffengers to call us home to himself. You fee then how grofs a Folly it is to murmur at thofe Stripes which are meant fo graciously; it is like that of a froward Patient, which reproaches and reviles the Phyfician that comes to cure him; and if fuch a one be left to die of his Difeafe, every one knows whom he is to thank for it. them. -199 Fruitful- 7. But it is not only Quietnefs, no, nor nefs under Thankfulnefs neither under Afflictions, that is the full of our Duty in this Matter; we must have Fruitfulness alfo, or all the rest will ftand us in no ftead. By Fruitfulness, I mean, the bringing forth that, which the Afflictions were fent to work in us, viz. The Amendment of our Lives. To which purpose in time of Affliction, it is very neceflary for us to call our felves to an Account, to examine our Hearts and Lives, and fearch diligently what Sins lie upon us, which provoked God thus to fmite us? and what foever we find ourselves guilty of humbly to confefs to God, and immediately to forfake for the reft of our time... in all forts 8. All I fhall add concerning this Duty of of Suffer Patience, is, that we are as much bound to it ings. in one fort of Sufferings, as another, whether our Sufferings be fo immediately from God's Hand, that no Creature hath any thing to do in it, as Sickness, or the like; or whether it be fuch, wherein Men are the Inftruments of afflicting |