God, that it has pleafed him fo far to remember you, as to lay his hand upon you, to remind you of your own frailty, and both the unfatisfactoriness and uncertainty of all fublunary enjoyments; and to put you upon feeking after a better and an enduring substance; which having once obtained, you will be in no danger of ever being fick, or grieved, or tormented, or in trouble or want, any more. You are also to look upon your fickness as a trial of your patience, to fee whether you can bear it as you ought. And I cannot therefore but heartily recommend to you, the advice of the wife fon of Sirach: (b) My fon, if thou come to ferve the Lord, prepare thy foul for temptation; fet thy heart aright, and conftantly endure, and make not hafte in time of trouble. Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayft be increafed at thy last end. Whatfoever is brought upon thee, take chearfully; and be patient, when thou art changed to a low eftate. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adverfity.

Anchith. Your advice, I confefs, is good, and I will fet myself to put it in practice; which I fhall be the better able to do, because I am fenfibly affected with what has been fo plentifully alledged out of the Holy Scriptures. Believe me, Sirs, it is a reviving cordial to my foul, to hear fuch plain evidence from the word of God, that this ficknefs which I now labour under, may probably be a loving vifitation of God, and an inftance of his good-will towards me.

Theoph. It is matter of unfeigned joy to me, that you have attain'd to a conviction of this comfortable, truth. And I beg of you not to doubt, but that your benign and gracious God, and moft tender and loving Father, who has promis'd, that all things shall work together for good, to them that love him, will crown this your forrow with joy and comfort in the end. (c) He is faithful, and will not juffer you to be tempted above what you are able; but will with the temptation alfo make a way to escape the overpreffure of it, that you may be able to (6) Ecclus ii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (c) 1 Cor. x. 13. bear

bear it, without prejudice to yourself, or dishonour to the holy religion you profefs. (d) His wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleafure is life; beaviness may endure for a night, but it shall not last long, for it is often feen, that joy cometh in the morning. This the royal pfalmift experimented in his own cafe, and he held himself obliged to own God's goodnefs in it, and to blefs him for it. (e) Thou, fays he, haft turned my heaviness into joy; thou hast put off my fackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Therefore shall every good man fing of thy preife without ceafing; O my God, I will give thee thanks for ever. And at another time, (f) Oh! what great troubles and adverfities baft thou fhewed me! and yet didst thou turn and refresh me; yea, and broughteft me from the deep of the earth again. Thou haft brought me to great honour, and comforted me on every fide. Therefore will I praife thee with faithfulness, O God, playing upon an inftrument of mufick: unto thee will I fing upon the harp, O thou Holy One of Ifrael. And again, (g) They that fow in tears, fhail reap in joy. He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth good feed, fhall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his heaves with him.

Anchith. Amen, Amen, good Lord. I trust thou wilt deal thus gracioufly with me; who am now dejected and weak, but hope to be again in a better capacity to ferve thee,

Theoph. Be not difcouraged, nor suffer yourself to question, but that if you (b) call on the name of the Lord, you shall be delivered, and fhall find great comfort. To this end, hear again the declarations of the forefaid royal prophet, profeffing what fingular manifeftations of divine goodnefs, in this refpect, he had opportunity to oblerve. (i) The righteous crieth, and· the Lord beareth, and delivereth him out of all his troubles. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart; and (d) Pfal. xxx. 5. (e) Ver. 12, 13. (f) Pfal. lxxi. 18, 19, 20. (g) Pfal. cxxvi. 5, 6. (6) Joel ii. 32. (i) Pfal. xxxiv. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. I 4

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will fave fuch as be of a contrite fpirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken. The Lord redeemeth the foul of his fervants; and none of them that trust in him shall be defolate.

Eufeb. These are comfortable paffages of Scripture; and, if seriously laid to heart, muft needs be of great ufe to an afflicted foul; which cannot fail of being delighted with the thoughts of a gracious Divine Providence, continually watching over us for good, that will never be wanting to any of us, unless through our own fault. When men once forfake God, no wonder if he forfake them, and leave them to be toffed about by every blaft of an adverse fortune, till at length they become overwhelm'd with evils, and ready to fink under them. But whilft we duly fear him, and put our truft in him, he will let us fee, to our comfort, that this is the fureft way to get rid of our burden. So himself profeffes by the pfalmift: (k) Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And the apostle St. Peter exhorts, to reft upon him in all our ftreights and neceffities, from this confideration, that he will not neglect us when we do fo; (1) Cafting all your care upon him for be careth for you. He careth for us, and oftentimes works deliverances, beyond all we could have an expectation of.

Philog. So that here you fee, Anchithanes, that as afflictions are no proof of any one's being out of God's favour, fo has he fhewn himself ready to remove them, when fitly applied to, to do it.

Anchith. This is comfortable indeed.

Eufeb. But not more comfortable than true, as divers relations in Scripture plainly testify.

Anchith. Will you please, Sir, to repeat fome of them, if it be not too much trouble to you?

Eufeb. Do not think, my friend, that I can reckon any fervice, that is in my power to do you, troublefome. It would rather be a great delight to me. And `(4) Pfal. 1. 15. (?) 1 Pet. v. 7.

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accordingly I moft willingly enter upon what you defire. And to pafs over the more antient patriarchs, every one knows what portion was allotted to Jofeph, both before and after his coming into Egypt; yet not for any fault of his own, but purely to try his faith, love, obedience, patience, thankfulness and perfeverance, and that deliverance might be wrought for others, no less than himself, by his means. He was not only caft into (m) the pit, without any provocation given on his part, except barely (n) the declaring his dreams: and fold by his brethren (0) against all reafon and juftice, and natural affection, into flavery; but, being brought by the (p) Ishmaelites into Egypt, was fold again to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and captain of his guards. And though it were no small alleviation of fuch his captivity, that he found himself in a little time made (q) ruler of his master's house, and entrusted with all his concerns; yet pray obferve what quickly followed. Because he had, as became a faithful fervant of God, a greater regard to his own (r) virtue, than to the repeated folicitations of his luftful mistress, he was falfly accused by her, of having made an attempt upon her chastity; and, upon this unjust accufation, not only loft all the interest he had before in his mafter's favour, but was cruelly thrown into (s) prison, and kept there for fome years under confinement. This was a hard cafe, for an innocent man to be forced out of his own country, made a flave in a foreign land, and there wrongfully accused and imprisoned. And who would not have been ready, fadly to deplore his unhappy fate, and the ill ufage he had met with? Yet behold the refult of all this was, that the mercy of God manifefted itself the more illuftriously, in refcuing him out of these his undeferved fufferings. For having found Jofeph, upon fo remarkable a trial, to be faithful, conftant, and patient, he deliver'd him out of prifon, fet him at liberty, and gave him fuch favour with king Pharaoh, that he ap(m) Gen. xxxvii. 24. (2) Ver. 19. (o) Ver. 28. (p) Chap. xxxix. 1. (g) Ver. 4. (r) Ver. 7, &c. (s) Ver. 20.

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pointed him (t) ruler over all the land of Egypt, and put his own ring upon him, and arrayed him in vestures of fine kinen, and with a gold chain about his neck; made him ride immediately after himself, in the fecond chariot that be bad; and caused the knee to be bowed before him.

Anchith. This I freely acknowledge to be a wonderful change of fortune, and a fingular mercy of God to his poor afflicted fervant.

Eufeb. See another fignal inftance of God's goodnefs in this refpect: Before king David was quietly fettled in his kingdom, he met with great oppofition, and causelefs perfecution from Saul, to whom he always fhewed himself a moft dutiful and loyal fubject: infomuch that when he had only cut off the fkirt of Saul's garment, in the cave at Engedi, that it might be a teftimony of his reverence to his lord, whom this fhewed to have been indubitably in his power at that time, if he durft have offer'd him any violence; yet even for this (u) his beart fmote him, and he was uneasy at so small an indignity done to his prince, and for fo plaufible a reafon too. So (x) inviolable did he efteem the perfon of his outrageous fovereign. Yet could not this obtain him his quiet, but he was driven from place to place, to fave his life; was (y) bunted as a partridge in the mountains, (to ufe his own expreffion) and never could be at reft during the remainder of Saul's reign. And again, when it had pleafed God, without any infurrection of his own, to bring him to the throne, which he would not feek to gain before his time by any unlawful means, what frequent difturbances did he meet with from his undutiful children! but especially how was he forced (z) to fly out of the land for Abfalom! And glad that he could escape so, that he might hope in time to recover his kingdom, moft unjustly with-held from him. He had this teftimony from the prophet Samuel, that (a) the

(t) Gen. xli. 40, &c. intelligebat perfonæ ejus ac Pacis, 1. 1. c. 4. §7. (a) 1 Sam. xiii. 14.

(u) 1 Sam. xxiv. 5. (x) Tantum effe fanctitudinem, Grot. de Jure Belli ) Sam. xxvi. 20. (≈) 2 Sam. xix. 9.

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