The great duty of resignation to the divine will in afflictions enforced from the…

Direct. 4. A prudent forecast of possible Evils as future to us, arms us with Patience to sustain them. Since Man was expelled from the terrestrial Paradise, and is below the celestial, he is liable to innumerable afflicting Accidents. His condition here is like an open Sea, so voluble and inconstant, so violent and furious: Sometimes the Ships are raised upon the top of the Waves, as if they sailed in the Air; and sometimes plunged into the Waters and ready to be swallowed up: Such frequent changes happen in our passage to Eternity, and it is mercifully ordered so by the Divine Wisdom, that we may so use the World, as not to abuse it, and our ⟨p. 168⟩selves by over-waluing and affecting it. It is a contemplation of Theodoret, that the Sun and Moon, the most glorious Luminaries of Heaven, and so beneficial to the Earth, would be honoured as Deities, if they always appeared with the same invariable tenor of Light: And therefore God wisely disposed of their Motions, that at the revolution of certain Periods, they should suffer an Eclipse, that the ignorant World might be convinced they were but parts of Nature appointed for the Service of Man, and are not worthy of divine Honour. Thus we see, that often the brightest and fullest Prosperity is eclipsed, to convince us by the miserable changes in this World, that the best estate of Man is altogether Vanity, and that these things are utterly insufficient ⟨p. 169⟩to make us happy, and are not worthy of the chief Regard and Affection of our immortal Souls. To set our Hearts on them is to build on the Sand, and to expose our selves to ruinous Falls by every Storm. A sudden blast overthrows the Fabric of Fancy, our conceited Happiness in the enjoyment of perishing things. Our greatest Comforts may occasion our greatest Afflictions: The Glory of a Family may occasion the Grief of it. Now the consideration of the mutable nature of things here below, keeps the Heart loose from them, fortifies us with proper Thoughts to bear Evils that happen, and prevents Disappointments, that is an aggravating circumstance of our Troubles, and a great vexation to the Mind. The Israelites when transported ⟨p. 170⟩from the Land of Canaan to Babylon, felt the rigours of their Captivity the more sensibly, in that they were confident in their term and state in that Land, as their permanent Inheritance: