Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

A sixth means is this, We must likewise compel, ¹and work our hearts to take this cordial, you have it, Rom. 8. 28. We know saith Saint Paul that all things work together for the best to those that love God. I say, let us have this persuasion in our hearts ready, that all things shall work together for the best: therefore, they shall not hurt thee: Now he saith they work together, that is to be marked; the Apostle saith not that this or that thing alone worketh for good to the servants of God. As now there are divers ingredients in a receipt; if a man take one or two or three, they may poison and kill, and be deadly, but altogether being tempered by the Physician, are a preservative, and save life. So if a man stay Gods leisure, as before I said, to add one thing to another, to do that he hath to do, as well as that he hath done; when you put all together, and make the up shot of all, you shall see and acknowledge it for the best. David saith, It was good for him to have been in adversity. Now certainly whatsoever hath been true, in regard of the time past, hath been true for the present then as now. It was as true for David when he was in adversity to say it is good for me to be afflicted, as well as after when he was come out of it to say it was good that he had been; for if it were not good, then it was never good. Therefore in regard of this, the assurance that all things shall work for good, we are commanded to give thanks in all things, Ephes. 5. ²25. There is great reason to thank God for all things, ⟨p. 336⟩since a part and portion of our comfort and happiness is in all things, in John. 16. Christ useth these words, he ³tells them that they should mourn, and the world should rejoice, but their sorrow should be turned into joy. Now I conceive the meaning of those words not only to be this, that they should have an exchange in time; their sorrow, and mourning should not last alway with them, but they should have a condition of comfort. But this I take it is further implied, that that joy and those comforts that succeeded their sorrow, that happiness should be answerable in the degree and quantity, to that sorrow, and sufferings they had. For you know when one thing is turned into another the more of the substance there is of that from which the conversion and change is made, so much accrues to that in which the change is made. As for example, in