throwing dust among them. Did we in our thoughts often reflect upon that dust whereunto we must all shortly return, we should more easily lay down our quarrels, and animosities. While we contend about small things, little do we consider that death is coming on apace, and will swallow up the victor and the vanquished; him that is in the right, and him that is in the wrong. Look back upon the private contentions, or public commotions, which infested the world an hundred years ag. Where are they who managed them? They are all gone down into the dark and silent grave. Death hath decided their controversies, and within a few days it will do so with ours, and send us all to plead our cause before our great judge; and it will go ill with us, if we appear there in malice. 'Therefore, why should our hatred be long, since our life is so short? One would think we should find better employment for the short time we have to spend here.

Eut, lastly, and above all, let us propose to ourselves the blessed example of the holy Jesus, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

Let us frequently remember what great things he hath done and suffered for us poor sinful wretches; even while we were enemies and rebels to him; how that in all the passages of his life, and all the bloody scene of his sufferings, he was actuated by that same charity and love to his enemies which he calls for at our hands. It was this which moved him to descend from heaven, and clothe himself with the frailties of our nature, and endure the troubles of a calamitous life, and the pains of a bitter death, to deliver us from that eternal misery whereinto we had plunged ourselves. And may not his goodness and mercy to us, mollify our hearts, and overpower the corruption of our revengeful nature, and inspire us with earnest desires and resolutions to imitate his blessed example? After all that he hath done and suffered for us, can we be guilty of such a shameful ingratitude as to deny him this poor satisfaction and ac

knowledgement, to pardon an enemy for his sake? Has he died for us when we were his enemies, and shall we refuse to live at peace with ours? Remember with what patience he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself; with what humility he did condescend to wash the feet of that wicked miscreant, who was at the same time resolved to betray him; with what mildness he did bear the supine negligence and stupidity of his disciples who slept in the time of his agony. What charity and meekness did he evidence towards those who sought his life! He could have called for legions of angels to destroy them, or made the earth to open her mouth and swallow them up: but he would not employ his miraculous power, save only for their good, restoring a servant's ear, and reproving the preposterous zeal of him who cut it off. Yea, while he hung upon the cross, and was approaching to the gates of death, all the cruel pains of body and far more intolerable pressure of spirit which he then sustained, did not lessen his wonderful tenderness and affection for his bloody murderers: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Let us be frequent and serious in the meditation of these things. And if we have any veneration for the example of our Saviour, and any sense of his infinite mercy, this will dispose us to the practice of his precepts, and the obedience of his laws; and particularly the observation of this necessary, this reasonable, and delightful duty, that we love our enemies.

THE NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE OF EARLY

AFFLICTIONS.

LAM. III. 27, 28.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

THE great difference and contrariety between the maxims of the world, and those which religion doth propose, is in nothing more observable than in taking the measures of happiness and felicity. The world accounteth him a happy man who enjoyeth a perpetual calm and sunshine of prosperity; whose pleasant and joyful days are never overcast with any cloud, nor his tranquillity interrupted by any disastrous accident; and who was never acquainted with any other change, but that which brought him the new and fresh relish of succeeding pleasures and enjoyments. Put religion hath taught us to look upon this as a condition full of danger; much more to be pitied than envied; to be feared than to be desired. It hath taught us to consider afflictions as instances of the divine goodness, as tokens and pledges of his love; (for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth;) and that these severe dispensations are very necessary, and may prove useful and advantageous: Plessed is the man saith the Psalmist) whom thou chasteneth, O Lord, &c. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I may learn thy statutes. And the Prophet in the text, It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He was at this time loaded with the heaviest weight of trouble and sorrow, what for the public calamities of his nation, and what for his own particular sufferings: His eyes were running down with rivers of water, for

the destructions of the daughter of his people; they trickled down, and ceased not. Judah was gone into captivity because of affliction: she dwelt among the Heathen, and found no rest; all her persecutors overtook her in the straits. The ways of Zion did mourn, because none came to the solemn feasts; the young and the old were lying on the ground in the streets; the virgins and young men were fallen by the sword, and the few that remained were starving for hunger. The people did sigh, and seek bread; they gave their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soul; the children and sucklings did swoon in the streets, their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom; the women did eat their fruit, their children of a span long. And the Prophet had a large share in these calamities, both by his own interest, and his compassion towards his neighbour: I am the man (saith he) that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

But after he had thus bemoaned himself, and given some vent to his passion and sorrow, he puts a stop to the current that was grown too impetuous, and turns his thoughts another way. He acknowledgeth the justice of God's dispensations; and that it was a favour they suffered no more: This I recall into my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Nay, when he had further pondered the matter, he finds himself indebted to the goodness of God, even for the afflictions he endured: It is good for a man, &c.

The bearing of the yoke is an easy and obvious metaphor, importing the restraint of liberty, when our desires are denied, and we have not our wills; cannot ramble up and down as we please; and also the pressure of afflictions which gall and torment us, under which we smart and groan. Such is the yoke which the prophet tells us it is good for a man that he bear. A strange doctrine indeed to flesh and blood! and O how few do believe it! We judge of things by their outward appear

ance, and as they affect us at present, (now no affliction or chastening seemeth for the present to be joyous, but grievous;) and we cannot persuade ourselves that there is any good in that which we feel to be troublesome and unpleasant. But, if we consult our reason and our faith, they will soon bring us to the acknowledgement of this truth, That affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. The crosses we meet with, are not the effects of blind chance; but the results of a wise and uner: ing providence, which knoweth what is fittest for us, and loveth us better than we can do ourselves. There is no malice or envy lodged in the bosom of that blessed being, whose name and nature is love. He taketh no delight in the troubles and miseries of his creatures: He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. It were infinitely unworthy of his wisdom and goodness, to please himself in seeing such poor creatures as we are, tossed up and down in the world, to behold our anguish, and hear our groans. It is our happiness and welfare which he designs in all his dispensatious; and he maketh choice of the most proper and effectual means for that end. He seeth us wandering out of the way, ready to ruin and undo ourselves; and first he essayeth to reduce us by milder and more gentle methods: he trieth our gratitude and ingenuity, by all the endearments of mercy and goodness; he draweth us with the cords of love, and with the bands of a man. Put if we break all these bands asunder, and cast away these cords from us; if we abuse his goodness, and turn his grace into wantonness; then, not only his justice, but his love to us, not only his hatred to sin but his affection unto us, will oblige him to alter his method, and take the rod in his hand, and try what severity can do. God's design in afflicting us is excellently expressed by the author to the Hebrews, chap. xii. ver. 10. He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Holiness is the highest perfection and greatest happiness we are capable of. it is a real participation of the divine nature, the image of God drawn on the soul; and all the chastise