Patience and its perfect work under sudden & sore trialsPatience and its perfect work under sudden & sore tryals

4. Patience in all sufferings, submits to God, and the will of God. The Apostle sedulously puts in [if it be the will of God] when he had occasion to mention their sufferings; and he doth it twice, 1 Pet. 3. 17. If it be the will of God that ye suffer. And chap. 4. v. last, Wherefore let him that suffers according to the will of God, &c. And in chap. 1. 6. [If need be] that is, if God see it requisite, to bring them on you: And the Apostle would needs bring these clauses in, though by way of Parenthesis; so in two of these places mentioned. The stronger the sufferings are, the stronger is the will of God in bringing those sufferings. And ⟨p. 92⟩it is Patience in the Soul, that works the heart to submission to that will, Psal. 39. v. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; [BECAUSE THOU DIDST IT.] Then, when he confessed his sin of Bathsheba, and murdering Uriah, he considered not the wrong done them, in comparison of That he had done against God; therein: Against THEE, against THEE only have I sinned, and ¹done this evil in thy sight. And now, when a retaliation for that sin, in the rebellion of his own Son Absalom, came upon him, and Shimei had likewise bitterly cursed and reviled him (which some latter expositors have deemed to have been the occasions of that Psalm.) ^*He in like ⟨p. 93⟩manner, in this his punishment, layeth aside the consideration of all instruments, that had brought those evils on him, (whoever they were, whether it were these or some other) and looks only unto God, and submits, [because thou hast done it.] And though he confesseth, that he was in a fume at first, notwithstanding his fixed resolution to have been dumb as for speaking any thing that should savour of murmuring, afore men: Yet his flesh and corruption boiled within him, (as that useth to rise and work in us first) so v. 2. 3. I was Dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good: And my sorrow was stirred, or my distemper wrought the more, my heart was hot within me; whilst I was musing, the Fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue: And what he spake, savours of a man weary of life it self: For he