of a peice, all in order and at reft. If this undif ciplin❜d and perverse spirit were quite banifhed; Oh what a calm day would it be in the foul ! what fair and fweet correfpondence would there be between God and his creature! for certainly this is the Jonah that raises the ftorm, and makes the great deeps of the foul that they cannot reft, but do perpetually roll and tofs, yea and caft out mire and dirt continually. But alas, I doubt this fpirit is not quite laid, no not in the most spiritual man: the best of men are ready to nourish and hatch up fome darling, fome private intereft or other of their own, diftinct from God, and the grand intereft of their fouls; which God himself muft not touch; fome gourd or other that the cold wind muft not blow upon. He is a bleffed man indeed, who doth fo understand that he lives and moves in God alone; and is fo overpowered with the fenfe of the infinite goodness and holiness of God, and the abfolute perfection of his divine will, as that he reckons it his greatest perfection to be nothing in himself, nor have nothing of his own diftinct from God, but only ftudies to be great in God, to be filled with God, to live to him, and for him; to enjoy all things as in and under him; who counts it his only intereft to quit all felf-intereft, and particular ends, and to be freely at the difpofal of the higheft mind, conformable to the highest good, chearfully compliant with the uncreated will. Potiphar had fo committed all to Jofeph, in the fenfe of his great faithfulness, that he knew not ought he had, fave the bread that he did eat, Gen. xxxix. 6, but this fimilitude is too low: a godly foul fhould commit all its intereft, its life and live

lihood,

lihood, and all to God in the fenfe of his fove→ reignity, and not know ought that he hath, no not his own life, but defpife it in comparison of uncreated life; as Fob fpeaks, fob ix. 21. methinks the fovereignty of God fpeaks fuch language to the foul and in it, as Eli to Samuel, my. Jon, bide nothing from me, keep nothing back of all that thou haft, and the pious foul fhould not, with foolish Rachel, conceal any felfifh intereft, fo as not to be willing to part with it, when its fovereign Lord and father comes to search the tent; but, with allufion to Amos vi. 10, when God comes to ferret out all felf-intereft, and fhall afk Is there any fuch yet with thee? Should be able to anfwer boldly, No, there is none. Bleffed is the man that is in fuch a cafe; bleffed is the man whose only intereft is to ferve the will of the Lord! well, improve the infinite fovereignty of God to this end, and work it upon and into your hearts, that all felf-will may stoop to it: and let the main intereft of your fouls, be fo planted and established in your fouls, that no other interest may be able to grow by it: charm your own felf-will with fuch fevere reproofs, as this is; either deny thyself, O my foul, or deny thyfelf to be a creature: either be wholly at God's command, or call him not thy fovereign.

3. When the fenfe of it dotb beget reverence in the foul towards God. We ought not only to be fubject to the rod of God, but even to reverence him when he correcteth with it: and fo only to accept of the rod, but to kifs it too. And furely if the fathers of our flesh corrects us; and we give them reverence, Heb. xii. 9. much more ought we to

reverence

reverence the fovereign father both of flesh and fpirit. This is a devout act of the foul, whereby it looks up and adores the infinite and fovereign majefty, and thinks equitable and honourable thoughts of him, even when he is in the way of his judgments. And these are the proper acts of a foul's converfing with God's fovereignty in the time of afflictions. When we are filent before him, subject unto him, and reverencing of him; then do we really and truly converse with him as our almighty and abfolute fovereign. But God's authority and prerogative, though it may filence, will scarce fatisfy: fuch a corrupt and rebellious pass are our natures grown to. Therefore,

2. Converse with the perfect and infinite righte oufness of God in the time of all afflictions; that divine perfection whereby he renders to every man what is juft and due, and no more. This we are to eye and own, and fincerely to acknowledge, even in the time of our greateft extremity, after the example of Daniel, chap. ix. 14. The Lord our God is righteous in all his works: and of the godly Levites, Neh. ix. 33. Thou art juft in all that is brought upon us, thou hast done right. Argue with Abraham, Gen. xviii. 25. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Can righteousness itself err in judgment? Shall the timber fay unto the rule, why haft thou measured me thus; or to the line, thou art crooked? Are not my ways equal, faith the Lord? Ezek. xviii. 25. are not the Lord's ways equal? Let your fouls fay too. Be ye firmly perfuaded of the infinite and incorruptible righteoufnefs and equity of God, but that's not all; we do not then converse with the righteousness of God, when we

do

do believe it, or acknowledge it; a very Pharaoh may be brought to make fuch a confeffion, Exod. ix. 27. the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. But then do we converse with the righteoufnefs of God, in general, when the fenfe of it doth give a rational fatisfaction to the foul. And indeed, whereas the fovereignty of God is enough to filence, yet his righteoufnefs had need to be called in to adminifter fatisfaction: the former is fufficient to stop the mouth; but there is need of the latter to fettle the heart, and indeed methinks it is a heart-fettling confideration. For, how can the interest of the creature be better fecured than in the hands of a righteous God? Where can we venture all we have, better than in fuch a certain and steady bottom? How can we better truft ourfelves, than on fuch firm and even ground? We will truft ourselves far with an upright and righteous man and if we hear of the miscarriage of any intereft of ours at any time, it doth mightily calm and fatisfy our hearts, if we are affured that it was in the hands of a juft and upright perfon: much more rational and fteady fatisfaction may the infinite righteousness of God administer even in the time of the greatest affliction, if it be duly wrought into the heart. But more particularly,

1. The powerful fenfe of the righteousness of God Should make us fenfible and ferious. It becomes us feriously to ponder, duly to weigh, and in good earneft to lay to our hearts, all that is done to us by a righteous God. We use flightly to pass by, and flightly to esteem the words or actions of vain man: but it is not for nothing that the righteous God afflicts any man, in any measure, at any

time. The voice of God, though it be not always articulate, yet it is always fignificant. Will a lion roar for nothing? Surely every action of the righteous God hath a meaning in it. A hair falls not from our head, nor a sparrow to the ground without him: much lefs fure do greater changes befal us without him. And in all things he is infinitely righteous. Oh how doth this call upon us to fenfiblenefs and feriousness! how ought all the powers of the foul to be awakened to attention, when the righteous God utters his dreadful voice! and the whole frame of the heart and life to be composed under his heavy hand! now if ever, one would fay of laughter, it is mad: one would reckon trifling to be a kind of prophaneness and judge that foolish jeftings do almost border upon blafphemy, formerly not convenient, now not lawful. For indeed a vain, frothy, light, trifling spirit, in the day of affliction, is in a fenfe a blafpheming of the righteousness of God. As a confequent of this,

2. It should put us upon felf-examination. Nature itself hath taught the Heathenifh mariners to enquire where the fault was in a ftorm, Jonah i. 7. Much more may the knowledge of God's infinite righteousness teach us: fo may the holy word too, that word in Lam. iii. 40. Let us fearch and try our ways, &c. And many others. Now do the faculties of the godly foul being awakened, begin to caft lots upon themfelves, to find out the guilty party and certainly God hath a great hand in ordering these lots; he doth ordinarily fhew unto man his fin, even by the verdict of his own heart. Confcience, I mean, is God's vicegerent in the

foul;