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

A Believer, while he feels the weight of God's Hand, uncessantly seeks his Face with the most ardent Affections. He doth not murmur against the Displeasure ⟨p. 118⟩of God, but mourns bitterly that he hath deserved it. He surrenders himself to the Divine Pleasure, which is the purest Act of Obedience. He subdues his unruly Passions, which is a more noble Victory than the Achievements of the most celebrated Conquerors. 'Tis true, the power of Grace is very conspicuous in resisting pleasant Temptations, the pernicious attractives of the Senses and carnal Appetites; but more in the Battles of Patience, by how much 'tis more easy to Nature to be content without unnecessary and superficial Pleasures, than to endure oppressing and painful Evils. I will produce an instance in both kinds, recorded in Scripture, for the Veneration and Imitation of all. The first is that of Joseph, whose unspotted ⟨p. 119⟩Chastity was discovered by rejecting the impure desires of his Master's Wife. Three powerful Tempters joined to draw his Consent, Solitude, Youth, and Solicitation; Solitude with its Silence, is often more persuasive to the commission of Sin than the strongest Eloquence; because there being none that sees, takes away the shame of being seen in guilty and foul Actions. Youth is violent in its Appetites, and needs no entreaties to induce it to gratify them: The Sensual Fancy reigns, and has such a ravishing power upon the Will, that to corrupt Nature the Temptation is irresistible, and without Divine Strength, an instance of overcoming it, would be as rare as a Phoenix in the World. Besides, Joseph was her Slave, and was tempted ⟨p. 120⟩by entreaties mixed with enticements from a Superior, that (like a Bow that draws Strength from its bending) by making a show of subjection acquires a double Empire. But he had a reverence of his invisible Observer and Judge: How shall I do this great Wickedness, and sin against God? Now Joseph in the Flower of his Age, was not emboldened by Solitude, nor excited by Concupiscence, nor poisoned by the breath of the Basilisk, was an admirable effect of Divine Grace. He preserved his sincere and constant Innocence, as the Sun its undefiled lustre in the midst of all the feculent exhalations that ascend from the Earth.