dust and ashes.* Why art thou proud, O dust and ashes?" saith Siracides, and Bernard, Cum sis humi limus, cur non es humilimus? Why art not thou most humble, O man, seeing thou art but the dust of the earth. As for the soul, that was purely from God, Divinæ particula auræ, as an ancient poet calleth it, for God saith Moses, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This should render us restless till that image after which Adam was made be renewed in us by regeneration. The relics of it found in men unconverted what are they but magni nominis umbra, the mere shadow of a great and glorious name. How unlike are natural men to God for all these? Our Queen Elizabeth once in her progress observing some pictures of hers hung up for signs to be very unlike her, caused them to be taken down and burnt. Burning must be the end of those that continue unlike to God; whereas such as are by converting grace changed into the same image (as Paul speaketh)† from glory to glory, shall at length arrive at that perfection of glory, which is also the image of God, as David hath it, "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy like ness. *Ecclus. x. 9. + 2 Cor. iii. 18. EXERCITATION V. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providential dispensations, the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes vii. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. lxvi 10. 11. Cheerfulness a duty in six respects; crosses how to be considered. § 1. THE vicissitude of divine dispensations (which I am to treat of next) is exactly recorded by Solomon, saying, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him."* It is most clear hence, that there is an intermixture of dispensations, adverse and prosperous, in the course of divine providence, and that we may see much of God therein. It will appear in six particulars. There are times. I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs, yet well with the public, which keepeth him from sinking into despondency. Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands; yet "let him take all, said he, for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house. The woman of Sparta, of whom we read in Plutarch, being told that all her five sons were slain Eccles. vii. 14. + 2 Sam. xix. 29. 30. in the battle, but withall that the enemies were worsted, and her countrymen victors, uttered this heroic speech, Lugeant ergo miseræ ; Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico. Let such as are miserable lament; I cannot but account myself happy now that my country háth had the better. II. Wherein a man's personal comforts are multiplied, but the church's misery damps his mirth. Nehemiah was much in favour at the king of Persia's court, yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard "that the city the place of his fathers sepulchres lay waste, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire."* We read of Terentiusf, an orthodox captain under Valens an Arian Emperor, who having done some eminent service was desired by the Emperor, who intended him a just recompence, to ask of him what he would. He preferred a petition in be half of the orthodox Christians, that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in. Valens displeased, tore the petition and threw it away. He gathered up the scattered pieces, and professed that seeing he could. not be heard in the cause of Christ, he would make no suit for his own advantage. That of Esaias," Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, &c. that ye may suck and be satisfied," is both preceptive and argumentative. Jerusalem is compared Nehem. ii. S. + Theodoret lib. 4. cap. 2. 8. to a nursing mother, believers to her sucking children; if the nurse be in health, the child hath cause to rejoice in that, and shall fare the better for it if she be distempered, the child will go near to suck the disease from her. § 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity, as in Joseph's case. He had been envied, sold, imprisoned; "His feet were hurt in the stocks, the iron entered into his soul."* Yet afterward Pharaoh give h him his own ring, arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen, putteth a gold chain about his neck, maketh him ride in the second chariot he had, caused the people to cry before him, bow the knee; and appointed him ruler over all the land of Egypt; in which height of honour he lived and died.† IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels: of long prosperity, as in Job's case. The candle of God had long shined upon his head, and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle. His children then were about him, he had washed his steps with butter, and the rock poured him out rivers of oil. His root was spread by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon his branch. His glory was fresh in him, and his bow renowned in his hand, which are his own expressions.‡ Job xxix. But ere long, his servants are slain with the edge of the sword, his cattle taken away by the enemy, all his children killed at once with the fall of a Psal. cv. 18. t Gen. xli. 42, 43. Verse 3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 20. house in which they were feasting, he himself afflicted in body, vexed in spirit, grieved by his comforters, in a word brought from the throne to the dunghill, so as to give just occasion to the proverb, As poor as Job. 1 Fifthly, Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns, so that a man goes out of one into ano→ ther, in a succession of vicissitudes. Thus it fared with Hezekiah. After his coming to the crown for divers years, "the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth." But in the fourteenth year of his reign, the tide of prosperity begins to turn. Sennacherib comes up against him with a most formidable host, and took his fenced cities. He betakes himself to prayer, and the Lord delivers him by a miracle, sending an angel to destroy one hundred and eighty five thousand of his enemies in a night. But the next news we hear, is that Hezekiah was sick unto death; yet he dies not, but had fifteen years added to his life, and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery. * Yet Yet presently after all this, he receives a sad message thence concerning the loss of all his treasure, and the woeful condition of all his posterity. See what a strange succession is here; after glorious victories, comes the loss of his fenced cities, and an alarm given to Jerusalem itself. After that a miraculous deliverance, then a mortal sickness, 2 Kings xx. 2. 1 |