e beginning of the world was in such a
woeful case. To such persons I oppose God's mercy and his justice; _Judicia
Dei occulta, non injusta_: his secret counsel and just judgment, by which
he spares some, and sore afflicts others again in this life; his judgment
is to be adored, trembled at, not to be searched or inquired after by
mortal men: he hath reasons reserved to himself, which our frailty cannot
apprehend. He may punish all if he will, and that justly for sin; in that
he doth it in some, is to make a way for his mercy that they repent and be
saved, to heal them, to try them, exercise their patience, and make them
call upon him, to confess their sins and pray unto him, as David did, Psalm
cxix. 137. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments." As the
poor publican, Luke xviii. 13. "Lord have mercy upon me a miserable
sinner." To put confidence and have an assured hope in him, as Job had,
xiii. 15. "Though he kill me I will trust In him:" _Ure, seca, occide O
Domine_, (saith Austin) _modo serves animam_, kill, cut in pieces, burn my
body (O Lord) to save my soul. A small sickness; one lash of affliction, a
little misery, many times will more humiliate a man, sooner convert, bring
him home to know himself, than all those paraenetical discourses, the whole
theory of philosophy, law, physic, and divinity, or a world of instances
and examples. So that this, which they take to be such an insupportable
plague, is an evident sign of God's mercy and justice, of His love and
goodness: _periissent nisi periissent_, had they not thus been undone, they
had finally been undone. Many a carnal man is lulled asleep in perverse
security, foolish presumption, is stupefied in his sins, and hath no
feeling at all of them: "I have sinned" (he saith) "and what evil shall
come unto me," Eccles. v. 4, and "Tush, how shall God know it?" and so in a
reprobate sense goes down to hell. But here, _Cynthius aurem vellit_, God
pulls them by the ear, by affliction, he will bring them to heaven and
happiness; "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,"
Matt. v. 4, a blessed and a happy state, if considered aright, it is, to be
so troubled. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," Psal. cxix.
"before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Thy word."
"Tribulation works patience, patience hope," Rom. v. 4, and by such like
crosses and calamities we are driven from the stake of security. So that
affliction is a