Three tractates by Jos. Hall, D.D. and B.N.

SECT. XV.

Consid. the vicissitudes of favours and afflictions.

FUrthermore, it is a main help towards Contentation, to con∣sider the gracious vicissitudes of Gods dealing with us: how he intermixes favours with his crosses; tempering our much honey, with some little gall; the best of us are but shrewd children, yet he chides us not always, saith the Psalmist: hee smiles often, for one frown; and * 1.1 why should wee not take one with another? It was the an∣swer wherewith that admirable pattern of patience stopped the querulous mouth of his temp∣ting wife; What? shall we re∣ceive good at the hand of God, * 1.2 and shall we not receive evill?

It was a memorable example which came lately to my know∣ledge

of a worthy Christian, who had lived to his middle age in much health, and prosperity, and was now for his two last years miserably afflicted with the Strangury; who in the midst of his torments could say, Oh my Lord God, how gracious hast thou been unto me! thou hast given me eight and forty years of health, and now but two years of pain; thou migh∣te••t have caused me to lie in this torture all the days of my life; and now thou hast caried mee comfortably through the rest, and hast mercifully taken up with this last parcell of my tor∣ment; blessed be thy Name for thy mercy in forbearing me, and for thy justice in afflicting mee. To be thankfull for present bles∣sings is but ordinary, but to be so thankfull for mercies past, that the memory of them should be able to put over the sense of present miseries, is an high im∣provement of grace.

The very Heathens by the light of Nature and their own experience, could observe this interchange of Gods proceed∣ings; and made some kinde of use of them accordingly: Ca∣millus, after he had upon tenne * 1.3 years siege, taken the rich City Veios, prayd that some mis-hap might befall himself and Rome to temper so great an happi∣nes; when one would have thought the prize would not countervail the labour, and the losse of time and bloud; And Alexander the great, when re∣port was made to him of ma∣ny notable Victories, atchieved by his Armies, could say; O Jupiter, mixe some mis-fortune with these happy news: Lo, these men could tell that it is neither fit, nor safe for great blessings to walk alone, but that they must be attended with their pages, afflictions; why should not we Christians ex∣pect

them with patience, and thanks?

They say, Thunder and Light∣ning hurts not, if it be mixed with Rain. In those hot Coun∣tries, which lie under the sealding Zone, when the first showres fall after a long drought, it is held dangerous to walk suddenly a∣broad; for that the earth so moistned sends up unwholsome steams; but in those parts where the Rain and Sun-shine are usu∣ally interchanged, it is most pleasant to take the air of the earth newly refreshed with kindly showres; Neither is it otherwise in the course of our lives; this medley of good and evill conduces not a little to the health of our soules: One of them must serve to temper the other; and both of them to keep the heart in order.

Were our afflictions long, and our comforts rare and short, we had yet reason to be thankfull;

the least is more then God ows us: but now, when if heavinesse endure for a night, joy commeth in the morning, and dwels with us, so, that some fits of sorrow are recompensed with many moneths of joy; how should our hearts overflow with thank∣fulnesse, and easily digest small grievances, out of the comforta∣ble sense of larger blessings?

But if we shall cast up our eies to Heaven, and there be∣hold the glorious remuneration of our sufferings, how shall we contemn the worst that earth can doe unto us? There, there is glory enough to make us a thousand times more then a∣mends for all that we are capa∣ble to endure; Yea, if this Earth were Hell, and Men De∣vils, they could not inflict upon us those torments, which might hold any equality with the glo∣ry which shall be revealed; and even of the worst of them we

must say with the blessed Apo∣stle; Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh * 1.4 for us a far more exceeding, e∣ternall weight of glory: When the blessed Proto-Martyr Ste∣phen had sted fastly fixed his eies on Heaven, and (that Curtain being drawn) had seen the Hea∣vens opened, and therein the glory of God, and Jesus stand∣ing * 1.5 on the right hand of God; doe we think he cared ought for the sparkling eies, and gnashed teeth, and killing stones of the enraged multitude? Oh poor impotent Jews, how far was that divine soul above the reach of your malice? how did he triumph over your cruelty? how did he by his happy evolation make all those stones precious?

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ps. 103. 9.
• * 1.2

  Job 2. 10.
• * 1.3

  Livius.
• * 1.4

  2 Cor. 4. 17.
• * 1.5

  Acts 7.