First, It should teach us to admire and adore the good Providence of God to his Children, in so ordering it that the World should be thus ⟨p. 93⟩vain, and deal so ill with those who serve it. For if it were not so infamous and deceitful as it is, if it did not frustrate and disappoint our hopes, and pay us with Vexation, when it promiseth Fruition, and Content: What thinkest thou O Christian, would be the end of this? Would any one think of God or remember Heaven, and the life to come? St. Augustine somewhere, speaks excellently, Turbat me Mundus, & Ego eum diligo, quid si non turbaret? The World troubles and molests me, and yet I love it; What if I did not trouble me? Certainly, we should fall into an utter forgetfulness of God, if we could find any true satisfaction here. We should never think of returning to the Fountain of ⟨p. 94⟩living Waters, if we could find enough in Cisterns to quench the thirst of our souls. And therefore God deals with us, as some great person would do with a disobedient son, that forsakes his House, and riots among his Tenants: His Father gives order they should treat him ill, affront, and chase him from them, and all that he might reduce him. The same doth God. Man is his wild and debauched son. He flies from the commands of his Father, and cannot endure to live under his strict and severe Government. Whither goes he? But to the pleasures of the World, and revels, and riots among the Creatures. But God resolves to recover him, and therefore commands every ⟨p. 95⟩Creature to handle him roughly. Burn him Fire, toss him Tempests, and Shipwreck his Estate; forsake him Friends, designs fail him; Children be rebellious to him, as he is to me; let his supports and dependences sink under him, his riches melt away, leave him poor, and despised, and destitute. These are all Gods servants, and must obey his will. And to what end is all this, but that seeing himself forsaken of all, he may at length like the beggared Prodigal return again to his Father.
First, It should teach us to admire and adore the good Providence of God to his Children, in so ordering it that the World should be thus ⟨p. 93⟩vain, and deal so ill with those who serve it. For if it were not so infamous and deceitful as it is, if it did not frustrate and disappoint our hopes, and pay us with Vexation, when it promiseth Fruition, and Content: What think'st thou O Christian, would be the end of this? Would any one think of God or remember Heaven, and the life to come? St. Augustine somewhere, speaks excellently, Turbat me Mundus, & Ego eum diligo, quid si non turbaret? The World troubles and molests me, and yet I love it; What if I did not trouble me? Certainly, we should fall into an utter forgetfulness of God, if we could find any true satisfaction here. We should never think of returning to the Fountain of ⟨p. 94⟩living Waters, if we could find enough in Cisterns to quench the thirst of our souls. And therefore God deals with us, as some great person would do with a disobedient son, that forsakes his House, and riots among his Tenants: His Father gives order they should treat him ill, affront, and chase him from them, and all that he might reduce him. The same doth God. Man is his wild and debaucht son. He flies from the commands of his Father, and cannot endure to live under his strict and severe Government. Whither goes he? But to the pleasures of the World, and revels, and riots among the Creatures. But God resolves to recover him, and therefore commands every ⟨p. 95⟩Creature to handle him roughly. Burn him Fire, toss him Tempests, and Shipwrack his Estate; forsake him Friends, designes fail him; Children be rebellious to him, as he is to me; let his supports and dependances sink under him, his riches melt away, leave him poor, and dispis'd, and destitute. These are all Gods servants, and must obey his will. And to what end is all this, but that seeing himself forsaken of all, he may at length like the beggar'd Prodigal return again to his Father.
