SECT. I. Of Afflictions in general , their Usefulness and Necessity ; and in particular , the loss of Children considered , with the use and end of it .

THE first thoughts which presented themselves to me ( and what I ever before firmly believed ) were these ; That , first , as there is one Eternal wise God , Creator of Heaven and Earth , and all things therein ; So , secondly , the same God has a care over all the works of his Creation , and continually rules , and disposes all things , according to his infinite wisdom , which act of his we call Providence .

To doubt of this , were not only to deny all Scripture , and relinquish my profession of Christianity , but even to abandon my very Reason ; For , from this first part of my belief , I think there are few dissenters , and although this Age affords a number of David's jolly sanguine Fools , who at some time think otherwise in their hearts , yet those same hearts from afflictions , will think the same with mine , unless they have hardned them on purpose , to shut out all Deity ; and since at first they would have none to serve , now they are resolved to let in none ( so long as they can oppose it ) to punish .

As to the second part of my belief , opposed by the more moderate Atheist , I think it has , and might be made good ; not only by Scripture , but Reason : Yet seeing it is not the thing , I am about to take in hand , nor whereof I doubt ; let other men seek their satisfaction from more Learned hands . I , for my part think , that if God take care of the Sparrow , he will take care of me ; and if the hairs of my head are numbred , God will not take less care about my Body , than the Excrescencies thereof .

All that I shall say hereabout further , is , I cannot conjecture , by what new methods the Devil has brought in Proselytes for open Atheism , since his ancient method was to nooze men by Polytheism ; but I am verily perswaded , that since his Trade failed him therein , and the Temples of Idols began to be thrown down , so as he could not reap so large a Crop that way ; it has been none of his slightest policies , nor the least covert Trap or Ginn to take men in , to infuse slily into the brains of a number of men , ( who account themselves Sages ) That God has allotted the Government of Sublunary affairs , to inferiour Powers ; and from hence have increased and multiplied , the strange opinions and notions of Fate , Destiny , Necessity , Fortune , Chance , and the like . Now if he can perswade us to ascribe to these , any sole or chief operation in our actions , he obtains by consequence , e're we are aware , what by express terms he could not so easily do ; For if we attribute any ruling Power to ought else then one Eternal God , we do in effect deny such an Existence ; because Unity is the inseparable and essential attribute of Deity , and by acknowledging more than one , we do in effect deny that there is any .

I will not dispute what Influences , or benign or malevolent Aspects coelestial Bodies have over us : But this I am assured of , and am no whit afraid by God's assistance to maintain , That there is a Superior Power ruling in them , one a a Psal. 147.4 . who telleth the Stars , and calleth them all by their names , that doth order and determine them according to his good will and pleasure , from whom we are to look for all our good or evil in this World . And thither it is , that the Apostle St. Iames directs us plainly , when he tells us , b b Jam. 1.17 . Every good giving , and every perfect gift is from above , and cometh down from the Father of Lights , with whom there is no variableness , nor shadow of turning . On which place , says one , would not any man have thought it a more proper attribute of God , for the Apostle to have said there , From God the author of all good things , or the like , then , Father of Lights ? No , says he , there is something more in it : He would have us look higher than those Lights , ( from whose influence so many place their good or evil ) and think , they have not their wisdom from Mercury , &c. And upon that very Text doth the c c Bishop Andrews . Author very prettily observe , that in the foregoing vers. 16 ( which is , Err not , my dear Brethren ) that the phrase Err not , is in the original , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which very word , says he , come the Planets . Indeed were any man assured , that all our inclinations and actions , all our good or ill success , were under the sole uncontroulable disposition of a few wandring Planets , or the government of a blind Goddess Fortune , or Chance ; he need not be very earnest or solicitous ( for that were vain , since they are inexorable ) for the life of himself , Children or Friends ; but rather rejoyce at the exemption from such a dominion by death , and conclude then with Iob , that there only shall we d d Job 3.13 . & 17. be at rest .

But having granted this to my self , That there is nothing happens here on Earth , but what is ordered and disposed by the first Creator , who by rooting up one , and planting another ▪ does , as the Psalmist says , in that ravishing subject of his providence , e e Psal. 104.30 Renew the face of the Earth , my thoughts in the next place , tended unto this ; whether the loss of my Children were an angry correction of God , against which , f f Psal. 6.1 . & 38.1 . Jer. 10 ▪ 24. David and Ieremy so pray . If it were , I thought even then , I had little reason like a sullen Ass to lye down under the burthen , but rather to get up , and bear it with patience , lest the same Master should lay a greater weight upon me , and not only so , but even draw forth his Sword and slay me too ; nay Reason prompted me , rather to examine my self , wherein I had more chiefly provoked him to wound and pierce me through with these Darts , and to stay his hand if it were possible , not barely by a sincere repentance for the same , but a full purpose and resolution to depart from every evil way ; and certainly in all God's ways and methods , this is the chief end and design , to make us wise unto Salvation .

But since as the Prophet says , g g Psal. 36.6 . His righteousness is like to an high Mountain , visible to every Eye , but his Iudgments are as a great deep , past finding out , or fathoming ; I thought it not good , to make too curious an enquiry thereinto , nor dive into his secrets , nor despair of his mercy and loving kindness , but to purpose and resolve of amendment , and to trust , though h h Jer. 30.11 . he will not leave us altogether unpunished , yet that his correction may be in measure ; and since he has been pleased to promise , i i Rom. 8.28 . that every thing shall work for the good of them that love him , it may not be presumption in us to think , that whatsoever happens , is not only what he sees best for us ; but that we may turn the Perspective , and look on his Judgments sent in mercy , not in wrath : And , seeing he has given us the grace to behold it is his doing , we may therefore conclude with Manoah's Wife , If he were pleased to kill us , k k Judg. 13.23 . he would not have shewed us these things .

Now first , let us look on afflictions , losses , crosses , and calamities , in general so termed , and see whether there be such evil in them , as men generally opine . Indeed so wonderful are the goods of affliction , as l l Bacon in his Essays . one of the learnedst of our Nation has highly admired Seneca for that saying of his , Bona rerum secundarum optabilia , adversarum mirabilia ; That the good things that belong to prosperity are to be wished , but the good things which belong to adversity , are to be admired : And indeed although the Apostle tells us , that m m Hebr. 12.11 . no affliction for the present is joyous , but grievous ; yet if we look ( as wise men should ) upon the end , we shall find cause to glory in tribulation , n n Rom. 5.3 , 4 , 5. knowing ( as it s said ) that tribulation worketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hope , and hope maketh not ashamed . Now if from tribulation , as the first seed sown , there is once grown up in us , a well-grounded hope , and our o o Rom. 8.20 . subjection to vanity becomes a subjection in hope , we shall p p Vers. 18. reckon the sufferings of this present life , not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ; then have we got on an q q Ephes. 6.17 . Helmet , as St. Paul calls it ; then have we an r r Hebr. 6.19 . Anchor sure and stedfast ; then instead of sorrowing , are we become s s Rom. 12.12 . rejoycing ( as he terms it ) in hope .

David ( stiled the man after God's own heart ) could find t t Psal. 23.4 . comfort in his rod and his staff , and was both sensible of the goods of u u Psal. 119 67 , 71 , & 75. affliction , and that God out of very faithfulness sends it . But beside these Cordials to be extracted ; Adversity has other natural fruits , and is a School , wherein more have profited many ways , than Prosperity ; it is indeed the fire most apt to refine the whole nature of man , and take off those drossie humours , which disquiet the mind . We shall find little , either purity or virtue , in our settled Waters ; there must be certain seasons , for the Angel of affliction to come down and trouble us , like the Pool of Bethesda , before virtue shall arise from us . It is a common old Fable ( but has a good Moral ) of the Wager between the Wind and the Sun , which should soonest rob the wayfaring man of his Cloak ; all the stormy blasts which came from the first , made him but to hold it the faster , and closer to him ; but the bright shining rays of the later , did so insensibly melt him , that he was forced to throw it off , and expose himself as it were naked to danger : Our moral virtues are our coverings , which we embrace in adversity , and cast off in prosperity . It has been observed , that Rome never had braver , or better men , than at that time , when Hannibal stood before the Walls . And the best man of Rome ( if we may take the Oracle of Apollo's word for it ) Scipio Nasica , did afterwards oppose Cato in open Senate , against the razing of Carthage , for this very reason , that it might stand as a bridle against Rome's exorbitances ; since peace and prosperity , would as well destroy them , as it had done other Nations , ( viz. ) the Persians , Graecians , &c.

And although prosperity was the blessing promised in the Old Testament , and God's peculiar people the Iews , possessed in peace a Land flowing with Milk and Honey , and x x Deut. 6.11 . Houses full of all good things , which they filled not , Wells digged which they digged not , and Vineyards and Olive-trees which they planted not ; that Kings bowed down unto them , and their Posterity multiplied like the Sand of the Sea : yet not only David , who had his particular affliction in his Children , tells us 't is good , &c. but in the full height of their prosperity , his Son Solomon , their most flourishing King , who enjoyed as many worldly comforts , as any man whatsoever , and wanted none of those things , the World calls felicities ; when he had considered all things , and sufficiently described the vanity thereof , and told us they are not only vanity , but vexation of Spirit ; he gives adversity ( as we term it ) the preheminence , and tells us , that y y Eccles. 7.2 ▪ 3 , & 4. it is better to go to the house of mourning , than to the house of feasting ; that sorrow is better than laughter ; that the heart of the wise man is in the house of mourning , but the heart of fools in the house of mirth . Solomon has , in the Christian part of the World , obtained the reputation of Wise , and surely we may justifie him in these sayings to the residue of it ; if men would consider the nature and quality of each of these kind of passions apart . For joy or mirth ( Worldly ) is a dilatation or relaxation of all the faculties of the Soul , and so , apt to loosen or slacken the reins of Reason , and give the Soul a free range over the World and Worldly objects ; when as , sorrow is a summoning of them into the heart , holds them in for a time , draws , and contracts again the reins of Reason , and , unless it degenerate into fearful despair , never breaks them , but has at length a kind of inward joy to accompany it : so as , if in laughter the heart may be sorrowful , ( which I doubt not many have experimented ) men want but the contrary motion , or sorrow barely and simply , without other ingredient , to experiment , that in tears , the heart may be joyful .

If we descend to the New Testament , which is our chief Tenure , there we find no benediction on prosperity , but the contrary ; and a wiser than Solomon , our Saviour himself , ( whom the Scriptures term to be vir dolorum ) in his Sermon on the Mount , begins with a blessing on adversities , a a Mat. 5.4 . Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted ; and b b Luk. 6.21 . Blessed are ye that weep now , for ye shall laugh ; nay in mundo pressura , hath been thought so sure a mark of a Christian , that some of the Ancient Fathers and Saints , have earnestly prayed for it , and have been ready to doubt of their Sonship for want of c c Hebr. 12.8 . chastisement .

Prosperity it self , is in no kind exempt from vexation of Spirit ; neither Solomon's great Estate , nor his honour , nor his very increase in wisdom excused him ; even there he found , the d d Eccles. 1.18 . increase of knowledge to be the increase of sorrow . Prosperity at the best , has its cares , and its troubles , its anxious thoughts and fears , and there we are generally our own Lictors and Tormentors . And when we once take up the Cross in that sence , and become our own Executioners upon the Rack , we can find no Physician to fly to , but e e Psal. 39.6 . disquiet our selves in vain , as the Psalmist says ; whereas , whenever the Cross is laid on us , we have recourse to God , the Physician of our Souls , who is ready to sweeten and allay those troubles , he sees not fit , wholly to remove : And indeed the one is the ready cure of the other , and often , I doubt not , in mercy sent , to take us off from afflicting our selves , and to teach us to throw down that burthen which is so heavy , and take up his , which in comparison thereof , through his gracious and merciful assistance , is light and easie . So true is that of David , f f 2 Sam. 24.14 . 't is better to fall into the hands of God , than into the hands of men , whether others , or our selves .

Having somewhat considered Afflictions in general , my next step was , to descend to the particular loss of Children , who , being the express Image of our selves , and in whom we expect to live after we are dead , are most apt to creep insensibly into our hearts , and to steal away the strength of our affections from all other objects ; wherefore the loss of them usually works so deeply upon us , that thereupon we are ready to think , God is very angry with us , and that therefore he will blot out our name and memorial from off the face of the Earth . Yet as in Afflictions in general , so in this here , I thought it not amiss for every one , who professes himself a Christian , to look in the first place , how far Children are , or may be as a blessing to us . These we find in the front of blessings in the Old Testament , g g Gen. 1.28 . Be fruitful and multiply , which is also repeated to h h Gen. 9.1 . Noah immediately after the Floud ; and Abraham is brought to look on the Stars , and told , i i Gen. 15.5 . so shall thy seed be . Fruitfulness in this kind is all along promised as the reward of a virtuous life , and k k Gen. 20.18 2 Sam. 6.23 . barrenness pronounced as a curse , and the taking away a mans posterity , the severest Judgment , ( not only all , Male and Female , but even Male alone , as that of interficiam de Ahab mingentem ad parietem l l 1 King . 21.21 . ) as may be seen , by the destruction of the m m Exod. 12.29 . First-born throughout the Land of Egypt , and in the case of n n 1 Sam. 2.33 , 34. Ely , Ahab , and others . Yet even during the Law and the Prophets , beside the instances in that particular affliction laid on good men , as Iob and others ; David himself , who had as large a promise as any man , for the continuance of his posterity on an Earthly Throne , did not look upon it , as the only special mark of God's favour : For in that 17th Psalm , where he speaks of the men of this World , who have their portion in this life ; he says of them , o o Psal. 17.14 . they are full of Children , or have Children at their desire , and leave the rest of their substance for their babes . And his Son Solomon , the wisest of men , has made a counterpoize of that Earthly gift , whether they are given us as a blessing always , or as a punishment ; for if p p Pro. 10.1 . a wise Son make a glad Father , a foolish one is the heaviness of his mother , and q q Pro. 17.21 , 25. Father too : And even in that sense , his saying may be verified , that if a man beget an hundred Children , and live many years , yet an untimely birth is better than he .

But in the New Testament , where we claim as Legatees only , we find no promises of the inheritance of an Earthly Kingdom , or Children to inherit it , but are rather commanded by Christ , to forsake all to follow him , to set our affections on things above ; with this threatning caution , that r r Mat. 10.37 . he that loves father or mother , more than me , is not worthy of me ; and he that loves son or daughter more than me , is not worthy of me : nay St. Luke uses the word s s Luk. 14.26 . hate in the case of comparison ; and 't is observable that those who seemed to express it as a happiness in our very Saviour's parent , with this acclamation , t t Luk. 11.27 . Blessed is the womb that bare thee , and the paps that gave thee suck , received a very short and sharp reply from him . And indeed this ought above all things to be our Sovereign comfort in this affliction of loss of Children , that u u Rom. 8.32 . God spared not his own Son , but delivered him up for us all ; and therefore it should make us become true Sons of Abraham the Father of the faithful , and readily part with our only Son , when he is pleased to call for him .

And now if this severe punishment be no sign of God's forsaking us , but may be taken as a Fatherly correction as well as others , why then should we not look on it , as an Alarm to Repentance ? An intent to wean us from the World , and make us yield up our hearts , and place our affections on that true object of love , himself ? An invitation to more fixed joys then this World affords , to find out , and taste , and see , how good and gracious he is ?