Serin. 16. and in what not I' 387 comfort of health, and,mcre endangering our lives. And not overfear- ing the greatei`t,viz.Death,calied by7ob,TheKingof terrors(i 5,& r4.) and by the Philofopher,W3fe v goSePwzaari, of all terribles the moll ter- rible, which our Saviour,as man,feared wich a natural fear, yet charg- erfi we fhould not over -fear it, Mat. i o. 28. L4IZ i z. 4. Yea, though we fhould fear political or publike evils, as Wars, Famine, Penitence, more than our own perfonal (of which you fee I 1peak only all along) in regard thofe are greater the publick good being better and to be preferred before any private, yet not chefe too much. 2. We muff moderate our grief and trouble for thefe according to the good we want ,crlofe by them. There are imaginary evils, that are of our own creation,begot,broughtup,and nourifhed only by our own bra in;thefe we mull carefully avoid,& if formed,not be cruel to our felves in being compafïionate to them,but dafhthem in pieces.And there are realevils, which come not forth of our own dun, nor fpring out of the ground, but are from abòve,of Cods creating and framing,/,'rhos 3.6. //a.45.7. yer. 18. i i. Thefe we are rot to be fenflefs under, but duly affec`fed with, and yet not over_affet ed, fo as to murmur and repine, much lefs quarrel with God. A Stoical apathy becomes us not, and yet better than quarrelling at Gods Providence,it coming nearer moderation;for where fore dotb a living mass cornplain,a man for the punifhment of his fin, (Lim. 3.39.) little reafon whilst thou art living, feeing it is lefs than thy def.rt,and no reafon even for death and heil,for they are but equal to thy defers ; it thou confefs thy felf a firmer thou mull confefs this. Plato faid, that God doch :c1 ye(0, ;,E,;.). wch is expounded by Plutarch Sy,,.l,o f ;, a, well ; That God is laid always to ad the Geometrician, in r gird of 0_2. his equal dealing with all men, in proportioning rewards and punifh- ments to their defer And a greater than he, yea, the greaten that can b.e, God himfelf, appeals to the (inners own confcience , Is not my way equal ? are not yours unequal ? Ezell. i 8, which whole Chapter is a defence of his equity. Troubled then we may be, murmuring and dif- contented we mull not be. Nay, troubled we ought to be, as the evils are greater or lefs,which mull be judged by the good they deprime'ns of; more for publick,becaufe that good is greater,lefs for private evils, becaufe our own good is not equal to the communities. But in the bo- dy politick 'cisquite. otherwife than in the natural body,we are ufually too fenflefs under publick, and too fenlibie of, and immoderate under our own particular evils :rather apt to quarrel with God,like 7onah,for a Gourd,nr fome inconfiderable concerns of our own, than be troubled at the deftrudion of a great 1llinevey; more troubled at our own houfes :D d d being
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