tears, and I shall die with tears; and why then should I live without them in this valley of tears?

There is as well a time to weep, as there is a time to laugh; and a time to mourn as well as a time to dance, Eccl. iii. 4. The mourning garment among the Jews, was the black garment, and the black garment was the mourning garment, Psal. xliii. 2. "Why go ye mourning? The Hebrew word signifies black, Why go ye in black?" Sometimes Christians must put off their gay ornaments, and put on their black, their mourning garments, Exod. xxxiii. 3, 4, 5, 6. But,

6. A gracious, a prudent silence, doth not exclude sighing, groaning, or roarings under affliction. A man may sigh, and groan, and roar under the hand of God, and yet be silent*: it is not sighing, but muttering; it is not but groaning, grumbling; it is not roaring, but murmuring, that is opposite to a holy silence, Exod. ii. 23. "And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. Job iii. 24. For my sighing cometh before I eat, (or, as the Hebrew hath it, before my meat;") his sighing, like bad weather, came unsent for, and unsought for; so Psal. xxxviii. 9. "Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. Psal. cii. 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning,

* You may see much of this by comparing the following scriptures, Lam. i. 4, 11, 21, 22. Psal. xxxi. 10. Jer, xlv. 3. Exod. ii, 24. Job xxiii. 2. Psal. vi, 6.

my bones cleave to my skin. Job iii. 24. And my roarings, are poured out like the water. Psal. xxxviii. 8. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Ps. xxii. 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Psal. xxxii. 3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roar ings all the day long." He roars, but doth not rage; he roars, but doth not repine; when a man is in extremity, nature prompts him to roar, and the law of grace is not against it; and though sighing, groaning, roaring, cannot deliver a man out of his misery, yet they do give some ease to a man under his misery. When Solon wept for his Son's death, one said to him, Weeping will not help: he answered. Alas! therefore do I weep, because weeping will not help. So a Christian many times sighs, because sighing will not help; and he groans because groaning will not help; and he roars, because roaring will not help. Sometimes the sorrows of the saints are so great, that all tears are dried up, and they can get no ease by weeping; and therefore for a little ease they fall a sighing and groaning: and this may be done, and yet the heart may be quiet and silent before the Lord. Peter wept and sobbed, and yet was silent. Sometimes the sighs and groans of a saint, do in some sort tell that which his tongue can in no sort utter. But,

7. A holy, a prudent silence* doth, not exclude nor shut out the use of any just or lawful means, whereby persons may be delivered out of their afflictions. God would not have his people so in love with their afflictions, as not to use such righteous means as may deliver them out of their afflictions, Matth. x. 23. "But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Acts xii. when Peter was in prison, the saints thronged toge ther to pray, (as the original hath it,) ver. 12. and they were so instant and earnest with God in prayer; they did so beseech and besiege the Lord, they did so beg at heaven's gate, ver. 5. that God could have no rest, till, by many miracles of power and mercy, he had returned Peter as a bosom-favour to them: Acts ix. 23, 24, 25. “And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him; But their lying in wait was known of Saul; and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket." The blood of the saints is precious in God's eye, and it should not be vile in their own eyes. When providence opens a door of escape, there is no reason why the saints should set themselves as marks and butts for their enemies to shoot at, 2 Thess. iii. 1, 2. The apostles desire the brethren, "to pray for them, that they may be delivered from unreasonable men; for all men have

* 2 Kings v. 10-14. Matth iv. 6,7. and chap. xxii, 4, 5, 8. Luke xiv. 16-24. Acts xxvii. 24, 25, 31.

not faith." It is a mercy worth the seeking, to be delivered out of the hands of absurd, villanous, and troublesome men.

Afflictions are evil in themselves and we may desire and endeavour to be delivered from them, Jam. v. 14, 15, Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19, 20, 21. Both inward and outward means are to be used for our own preservation. Had not Noah built an ark, he had been swept away with the flood; though he had been with Nimrod and his crew on the tower of Babel, which was raised to the height of one thousand five hundred forty-six paces, as Heylin reports. Though we may not trust in means; yet we may and ought to use the means; in the use of them, eye that God that can only bless them, and you do your work. As a pilot that guides the ship, hath his hand upon the rudder, and his eye on the star, that directs him at the same time; so, when your hand is upon the means, let your eye be upon your God, and deliverance will come.

We may tempt God as well by neglecting of means, as by trusting in means. It is best to use them, and, in the use of them, to live a bove them. Augustine tells of a man, that being fallen into a pit, one passing by, falls aquestioning of him, what he made there, and how he came in? Oh! saith the poor man, ask me not how I came in, but help me, and tell me how I may come out. The applica tion is easy. But,

8. Lastly, A holy a prudent silence, doth not xclude a just and sober complaining against

the authors, contrivers, abettors, or instruments of our afflictions, 2 Tim. iv. 14. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works." This Alexander is conceived, by some, to be that Alexander that is mentioned, Acts xix. 32. who stood so close to Paul at Ephesus, that he run the hazard of losing his life, by appearing on his side: yet if glorious professors come to be furious persecutors, Christians may complain, 2 Cor. xi. 24. "Of the

Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.' They inflict, saith Maimonides, no more than forty stripes, though he be as strong as Samson; but if he be weak, they abate of that number. They scourged Paul with the greatest severity, in making him suffer so oft the utmost extremity of the Jewish law, when as they that were weak had their punisment mitigated, ver. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods; that is, by the Romans, whose custom it was to beat the guilty with rods.

If Pharaoh make Israel groan, Israel may make his complaint against Pharaoh, to the Keeper of Israel, Exod. ii. If the proud and blasphemous king of Assyria shall come with his mighty army to destroy the people of the Lord, Is. xxxvii. 14-21. Hezekiah may spread his letter of blasphemy before the Lord.

It was the saying of Socrates, that every man in his life had need of a faithful friend, and a bitter enemy; the one to advise him, and the other to make him look about hum i