discern his meaning they adore his Righteousness Righteous art thou O Lord Ier. 12.1 when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper c. When the Soul is unsatisfied God is not unjustified Righteous art thou O Lord c. His Faithfulness Faithfulness in the affliction it self Psa 119 7â— Faithfulness in the very affliction it self I know Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Faithfulness to his Covenant for affliction is so much threatened as promised to Beleevers as Psal 89.30 31 32. of which more hereafter The more David was afflicted the more Gods faithfulness appeared Oh says the holy man I could not have wanted a blow of all that discipline wherewith my Father hath chastised me Faithfulness in hearing Prayer In hearing Prayer This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him Psal 34.6 and saved him out of all his troubles I never lost a prayer by God Even when David wanted faith God wanted not faithfulness I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voyce of my supplications when I cryed unto thee God was faithful with a non-obstante to Davids unbelief I said in my Haste and he that beleeveth will not make haste nevertheless thou heardest Unbelief it self cannot make the faithfulness of God of none effect I conceive that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2.13 to bear this sence If we beleeve not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself It is not to be understood of a state of unbelief but of an act of unbelief not of a want of faith but a want in faith neither of which can render God unfaithful who is engaged not so much to our faith as to his own faithfulness to himself to hear the prayer of his troubled servants Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psa 50.15 This faithfulness of God Beleevers do best experience in their sufferings Partly because then they are most powerful When our elder brother Esau is upon us we can wrestle with our elder brother Jesus and not let him go till he bless us And partly because then they are most vigilant to observe the returns of prayers My voyce shalt thou hear in the morning in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee Psal 5.3 and will look up In adversity we are early with God in prayer In the morning shalt thou hear my voyce in the morning will I direct my prayer it implyeth double earliness and double earnestness in prayer In their affliction they will seek me early And when we have done praying we will begin harkening I will look up In prosperity we put up many a prayer that we never look after God may deny or grant and we hardly take notice of it But in affliction we can press God for the returns of prayer Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like to them that go down into the pit not only denyals but delays kill us Then we can harken for the eccho of our voyce from Heaven Psal 85.8 I will harken what God the Lord will say for he will speak peace to his people As God cannot easily deny the prayer of an afflicted Soul so if he grant we can take notice of it and know our prayers when we see them again This wretch cryed and the Lord heard him and this endears the heart to God and to prayer I love the Lord because he heard my voyce and my supplications Ps 116.1 2 because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live As faithfulness in hearing prayer In accomplishing the promise so also in making good the promise The afflicted Soul can witness unto God as we have heard so have we seen Psal 48.8 What we have heard in the promise we have seen in the accomplishment God was never worse then his Word Affliction is a furnace as to try the Faith of Gods people so to try the faithfulness of God in his promises and upon the tryal the Church brings in her experience Psa 12.6 The Words of the Lord are pure words as silver tryed in a furnace of earth purified seven times Let a man cast in the Promise a thousand times into the furnace it will still come out full weight As for God Psa 18.30 his way is perfect the Word of the Lord is tryed It is to be understood in both places of the Word of the Promise A man may see Heaven and Earth upon a promise and it will bear them up As affliction gives out the experience of Gods faithfulness Mercies in moderating the affliction so also of his mercy mercy in the moderating of the chastisements In measure thou wilt debate with it c. Isai 27.8 In the midst of judgment he remembreth mercy Habak 3.2 Even when God in his compassions saith of his afflicted Church Isai 40.2 She hath received double of the Lord for all her sins in the sense of her own merits and his mercy she can reply Ezra 3.13 Thou hast punish'd us less then our iniquities deserve too much says God too little saith the Church Oh blessed sight thus to see God and the Soul contending together It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not cryeth the Church in Babylon q. d. it is banishment it might have been destruction we are in Babylon we might have been in Hell and it is the Lords mercies and his mercies alone that we are not there So faith the afflicted Soul If my burning feaver had been the burning lake if my prison had been the bottomless pit if my banishment from society with friends had been expulsion with Cain from the presence of God and that for ever God had been righteous It is never so bad with the people of God but it might have been worse any thing on this side Hell is pure mercy In supporting under affliction Psa 94.18 And as Mercy in moderating so Mercy in supporting when I said my foot slippeth now I sink I shall never be able to stand under this affliction I cannot bear it Thy mercy O Lord held me up when David was sinking God put underneath him his everlasting arms and held him up Even when Gods suffering people are not sensible of any great ravishments yet then they finde sweet supports His left hand was under me his right hand embraced me In giving in comfort in affliction And yet it is not supporting mercy onely which they experience in their sufferings but not seldom his refreshing his rejoycing mercy so it follows Verse 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul My thoughts were dark and doleful and full of
rod and who hath appointed it It is the great mistake and folly of men that they make more haste to get their afflictions removed then sanctified The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed and that he should not dye in the pit c. q. d. men would fain break prison or leap 〈…〉 the window before God open 〈…〉 But this their way is their folly so the following words imply But I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared Verse 15. the Lord of Hosts is his Name q. d. Men would fain be delivered but they take not the right course Deliverance belongs unto me I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea and made it a way for my ransomed to pass over and that when it was most tempestuous when the waves thereof roared When I will deliver no obstruction can stand in the way and yet Israel now in captivity will not look to me I am the Lord of Hosts that have all the Armies in Heaven and Earth at command and yet when they are besieged with troubles and dangers I cannot hear from them they run to the creature and neglect God or if they cry to me in their distresses it is for deliverance only but not for teaching though I have put my words in thy mouth vers 16. that is I have given them my Laws and Statutes wherein I have made known my design in affliction why I send them into captivity namely that there I might TEACH THEM that I might humble them and prove them and make them know what is in their heart This is the shortest way to deliverance and in this path if they had trod I would have planted the Heavens and layd the foundations of the Earth vers 16. even the NEVV HEAVENS and the NEVV EARTH of Ierusalems Restoration and say to Sion Thou art my people in the same verse This is Cods method wherein he will own his people and wherein if they meet him they shall not stay long for their deliverance And therefore be wise O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Isai 54.11 be instructed lest Gods Soul depart from thee make more haste to be taught then to be delivered and chuse rather to have thy affliction sanctified then removed Consider 1. That this is Gods design 1. If we cross Gods project God will cross ours that he might teach thee by his chastisements and if thou crossest Gods design God will cross thy design if thou wilt not let God have his end in instruction he will not let thee have thy end in enlargement The only way to retard deliverance is to make too much haste to be delivered and he that beleeveth will not make haste 2. Consider 2. Deliverance is not the Blessing That bare deliverance is not the Blessing I told you before that deliverance alone is but the fruit of common bounty I le tell you more now Deliverance alone may be the fruit of the Curse a man may be delivered in wrath and not in love Deliverance from one affliction may but make way for another for a greater Affliction may return like the unclean spirit with seven more worse then it self So God threatens an unteachable people If by these things ye will not be reformed but will walk contrary to me cross my design in my chastisements then will I walk contrary to you Levit. 26.23 24. I will cross your design and in stead of deliverance I will punish you yet seven times more for your sins The blessing of correction is instruction O let not God go till he bless thee It is a sad thing to have affliction but not the blessing of affliction to feel the wood of the Cross but not the good of the Cross to taste the bitter root but not the sweet fruit of a suffering condition the Curse but not the Cordial Truly in such a case one affliction may not only make way for another for more for greater but affliction here may make way for damnation hereafter and as one saith wittily by all the fire of affliction in this world a man may be but perboild for Hell And therefore mind instruction study the Lessons of a suffering condition ut sup and be importunate for nothing so much as to be taught of God and to be taught not with a common teaching but that special Covenant saving teaching which changeth the Soul into the nature of the Truth and makes it holy as it is holy and pure as it is pure and heavenly as it is heavenly He for our profit Heb. 12.10 that we might be partakers of his holiness Third Branch of Exhortation 3 Branch of Exhort to such as are come forth of affliction To them that are come out of affliction and fiery tryals Sit down Christian and reflect upon thy self turn in upon thine own heart examine thy self Have teachings accompanied chastisements hath the rod budded cast up thy accounts What hast thou learn'd in the School of Affliction Not to go over the larger Catechism of those twenty Lessons again view the abbreviate Hath God discovered to thee the sinfulness of sin the emptiness of the creature the fulness of Christ Is no evil like to the evil of sin * Fornicatur anima quae avertitur abs te quaerit extra te ea quae pura liquida non invenit nisi cum redit ad te Aug. Confess l. 2. c. 5. no good like to Iesus Christ Is the world become an empty vanity a mockery a nothing in thine eyes Canst thou say it is good I have been afflicted and canst thou point out that good and say This I had this I have got by my sufferings I know divine Truth more inwardly more clearly more experimentally more powerfully more sweetly then ever it hath a more abiding impression upon my heart I would speak a word 1. To them that can evidence these teachings to their own Souls 2. To them that cannot First To those who through grace do find the fruit of affliction in the savory and saving teachings of God upon their hearts let me by way of Exhortation commend a threefold duty to you 1. Three duties Study to be thankful 2. Labor to preserve the teachings of God upon thy spirit 3. 1 Duty Thankfulness The priviledges of being taught as well as corrected Learn to pray for them that are afflicted and what to pray First Study to be thankful Hath God taught thee as well as chastised thee O say with David What shall I render to the Lord For consider how great things God hath done for thy Soul 1. 1. It is more better then deliverance God hath done more for thee then if he had never brought thee into affliction and trouble or then if he had brought thee out the same day on which he sent thee in if he had delivered thee upon the first prayer that ever thou madest in thine affliction
worth of mercies Our liberties and dearest relations how cheapand trivial things are they while we possess them without any check or restraint While we have the keeping of our mercies in our own hands we make but small reckoning of them Oh but let God threaten a divorce by death or banishment let Task-masters be set over us and our comforts who shall measure out unto us at their own pleasure let us be lockt up a while under close imprisonment and there be kept fasting from our dearest enjoyments then the sight of a friend through an iron grate the exchange of a few common civilities with a yoke-fellow under the correction and controul of a stranger how sweet and precious when as moneths and years of arbitrary enjoyments are past through and we scarce sit down to reflect one serious view upon our mercies seldom spread them before the Lord in prayer or send up one thankful Ejaculation to God by night upon our beds in this or the like manner Lord what mercy is this which I enjoy in my yoke-fellow children friends liberty estate comforts and accommodations of all sorts not for necessity only but for delight while others better then I languish under an unequal yoke have great rebukes in their children are separated from friends despoil'd of their estates imprison'd banisht afflicted deserted tormented How comes it to pass that so much mercy falls to my share that I want nothing while others have nothing c. Oh how rarely do we entertain such discourses with our own hearts but pass by mercies as common things scarce worth the owning whereas in the house of bondage in a Land of Captivity the lees and dregs of those mercies will be precious which while the Vessel ran full and fresh we could hardly relish In famine the very gleanings of our comforts are better then the whole Vintage in the years of plenty 2. Not to surfeit on them And then secondly As God teacheth us to prize our mercies so by affliction also he doth teach us moderation in the use of them while we value not to surfeit And indeed it is the inordinate use of outward comforts which renders us unfit to prize them we lose our esteem of mercies in excess Ex consuetudine hebescunt affecte fit prava voluptas dolor Surfeits do usually render those things nauseous which formerly have been our delicacies By our excesses in Creature enjoyments Reason is drown'd in sense Judgment extinguisht in appetite and the affections being blunted by commonness of exercise even pleasures themselves become a burden Surely the excessive letting out of our selves to sensual fruitions is both a sin and a punishment while thereby we lose both the creature and God and our selves at once Now this distemper God doth many times cure by the sharp corrasive of affliction and by hardship teacheth us moderation Partly by inuring us to abatemeuts and wants whereby that which at first was necessity afterwards grows to be our choyce Hence saith the Apostle I have learned to want Phil. 4.12 how why God had taught him to live of a little By feeding of us sparingly God abates and slackens the inordinacy of the appetite Partly and especially God takes off our hearts from inordinate indulgencies in a suffering condition by discovering richer and purer satisfactions in Jesus Christ It is Gods design by withdrawing the Creature to invite and fix the Soul upon himself The voyce of the Rod is O taste and see how good the Lord is which when the Soul hath once perceived thrusting the creature away with contempt and indignation it opens it self to God saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee Psa 73.25 and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee Surely it was in the School of Affliction that David learn'd that Lesson even when the wicked prospered and himself with the rest of the godly Verse 14. were plagued all the day long and chastned every morning This is the second 3 Lesson Self-denyal and an happy Lesson sc to prize comforts more and yet prey upon our comforts less A third Lesson which God teacheth by his Chastisements is Self-denyal and obediential submission to the will of God In our prosperity we are full of our own wills and usually we give God counsel when God looks for obedience as if we could tell God how it might have been better and so we dispute our crosse when we should take it up but now ferendo discimus perferre by bearing a little we learn to bear more Iames 1 3 the tryal of our faith worketh patience the more we suffer the more God fits us to suffer partly by working us off from our own wills folly is bound up in the heart of Gods children Pro. 22 15 as well as our own but the rod of correction driveth it far from them God fetcheth out the stubbornness and perversness of our spirits by the Discipline of the Rod So that before he hath done with us we have not a will to lift up against his will And surely as we say to our children Oh it is a good rod which breaks us of our stomacks Partly by inuring us to the Cross The Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke is very impatient under the hand of the husbandman but after she is inured to labor she willingly puts her neck under the yoke and so it is with Christians after a while the yoke of affliction begins to be well setled and by much bearing we learn to bear with quietness A new Cart maketh a great noise and squeaking but when once used it goeth silently under the greatest load None murmur so much at sufferings as they who have suffered least whereas on the contrary we see many times that they are most patient who have the heaviest burden upon their backs He sitteth alone Lam. 3 28 and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him q. d. He is patient because he is acquainted with forrows When people cry out Oh never such sufferings as mine it is an argument they are strangers to afflictions Partly also because by chastisements God works out by degrees the delicacy of spirit which we contract in our prosperity mercy makes us tender They who are always kept in the warm house dare not put their head out of doors in a storm none so unfit for sufferings as they that have been always dandled upon the knee of Providence the most delicate constitutions are most unfit for hardship But lastly and chiefly this comes to pass because by suffering we come to taste the fruit of sufferings No chastening for the present seems joyous Heb. 12 11 but grievous At first chastisements seem very bitter but afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby The fruit of patience is not found at the first brunt but after we are well exercised and acquainted with a suffering condition affliction is the
comes forth singing 1 Sam. 15 32 33 Surely the bitterness of death is past when behold he is going to his execution both he and his hopes are hewen in pieces before the Lord. David himself looked on his right hand and beheld and there was no man that would know him Peter-like they knew not the man they made as if they had never seen him before So that Churl 1 Sam. 25 10 Who is David and who is the son of Jess some Run-agate some idle fellow that hath broken away from his master c. And it was not Nabal only that stood at this distance from him his neerest and dearest acquaintance cast him off Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness Psal 88.18 Refuge failed me no man cared for my Soul Psa 142.3 4 or as the Hebr. hath it no man sought after my Soul Saint Paul was in no better condition in the persecution which befell him at Rome At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me not a man of all them that sat under that famous Apostle's Ministry that would or durst appear to speak a word for him or to him Oh bitter disappointment had not he had faith to support him under it And truly such is our expectation Isai 20.6 whither we flee for help to be delivered c. Sorrow and shame is the fruit of creature-expectation But now on the contrary They looked unto the Lord Psal 34.5 and were enlightened and their faces were not ashamed Faith meets with no disappointment God is always better then our expectation 2 Tim. 4 17 Nevertheless the Lord stood with me and strengthened me c. and I was delivered from the mouth of the Lion By such experiences do we learn the necessity of living by Faith I had perished in my affliction unless thy Law had been my delight i. e. unless David had learned to live by a promise he had been but a dead man Surely he dyeth oft whose life is bound up in the dying Creature as oft as the Creature fails his hope fails and his heart faileth when the creature dyeth his hope giveth up the ghost He onely lives an unchangeable life that by Faith can live in an unchangeable God We hear such things indeed in the Word but we beleeve them not till our own experience convinceth us of our infidelity A long time do we stick totally in the creature knowing no other life then of Sense and Reason Sacrificing to our own nets and burning incense to our own drags and because the Word tells us much of living by Faith we would fain patch up a life between Faith and Sense which indeed is not a life of Faith we do not live at all by faith if we live not all by faith though we may use means we must trust God and trust him solely and therefore to bring us to this God suffers us to be tired and vext with the mockery of second causes and when we have spent all upon these physicians of no value then and never till then we resolve for Christ When David had experienc'd sufficiently the falseness and hypocrisie of Saul and his Parasites They delight in lyes they bless with their mouth but they curse inwardly Psa 62.4 then he resolves never to trust creature more My Soul wait thou only upon God He onely is my Rock and my Salvation Vers 5 6. Unmixt trust in God is the fruit of our experience of the creatures vanity we never resolve exclusively for God till with the Prodigal we be whipt home stark naked to our Fathers house When the Church had run her self * Jer. 2.25 barefoot in following her Lovers who answered her expectation with nothing but fear and sent her away with shame in stead of glory Isai 20.6 then she can go home and confessing her Atheism and folly gives up her self purely to divine protection Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our gods Hos 14.3 for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy 2. 2 The excellency of a life of Faith By the mutability and disappointment of the creature God teacheth his people the excellency of the life of Faith David when he learn'd it in the School of Affliction prints it and publisheth it to all the world Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Psa 146 5 He had before Vers 3. entred a Caveat against creature-confidence Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man and gives the reason of it there is no help or salvation in the best of men nor in the son of man in whom there is no help alass he is but a little breathing clay and when that breath goeth forth he returns to his earth when the breath is gone there is nothing but a little clay remaining In that very day his thoughts perish when the man dyeth all his counsels and plots and projects dye with him And having thus put in his Caution against creature-dependance and given in the account of the vanity thereof he shews the difference between trust in a dying man and a living God Trust in God is onely able to make a man happy they may seem happy who have the great men of the world to trust to but he onely is happy who hath the God of Heaven to trust to Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help why so because while they that trust in Princes shall be disappointed he that trusts in God shall never be disappointed For 1. He is Jehovah whose hope is in the Lord or in Jehovah his God Isai 26.4 Jehovah a Fâ—untain of Beings He gave a Being to Heaven and Earth Psa 146.6 He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is and he that gave Being to every creature can give Being to his promise also Can any thing be too hard for a creating God and as he can so he will for He keepeth Truth for ever Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one jot or one tittle of his promise shall pass away till all be fulfilled Mat. 5 18. Men may prove unfaithful but God will never prove unfaithful He keepeth Truth for ever Faithful is he that hath promised Heb. 10.23 And thus the soul comes to see the sweetness and excellency of a life of Faith while others are mock'd and abus'd and slain by disappointment from the second causes He is kept in perfect peace Isai 26 3 whose minde is stayd on God because he trusteth in him He liveth indeed that liveth in him to whom Always is essential The excellency of a life of Faith discovers it self in these four particulars 1. It is a secure life 2. It is a sweet life 3. It is an easie life 4. It
the noise of the tumult carries him into his Counting-house lays him upon his knee with the rod in his hand and then the father can be heard So doth God I say Verse 6 with his children He openeth their ears Hebr. He uncovereth their ears which the Worlds vanity had stopped and then instruction will enter When Joab would not come to Absalom he sets his field on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And thus after neglects God brings us to treat with him by affliction God saith as it were Come let us reason together and the Soul eccho's back again Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and when the Soul is thus silent unto God He cometh and sealeth Instruction by his Spirit Fourthly and lastly 4. Affliction is an Eye-salve Affliction is an Eye-salve whereby God openeth the eye of the Soul to see the need of divine Teaching by the discovery of its own brutish ignorance of God and of his ways under all divine Administrations as Ephraim once bemoaned himself to the Lord I have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke the Prophet David will English it So foolish was I and ignorant Psa 73.22 and like a beast before thee And by means of this discovery God draws out the heart into humble and holy supplication for Divine Teaching Iob 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more When or how cometh the Sinner thus to put in for Instruction why Vers 31. I have born chastisement Correction discovered the need of Instruction That which I see not teach thou me And thus Ephraim Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised but blows alone will not do it therefore it follows Turn thou me and I shall be turned though Chastisement could not turn Ephraim yet it made him see an absolute necessity of divine power to his conversion less then Omnipotence would not serve the turn And when God hath brought the heart once into this frame sc to see and be affected with the sense of its own ignorance and impotency and to lie in the dust at Gods feet humbly importuning an effectual Teaching from Heaven if God should withhold it he should fail not his promise onely but his own counsel and project in reference to which God cannot lye but when he hath prepared the heart to pray Psa 10 17 He will cause his ear to hear When God hath engaged the heart in holy desires of saving Instruction it is not mercy onely in God but faithfulness to satisfie the desire of his own Creation Psal 25 8 Good and UPRIGHT is the Lord and therefore he will teach sinners in the way Thus much for the third particular thing propounded for the opening of the Doctrine I come now to The fourth and last c. Grounds or Demonstrations of the point The Grounds and Demonstrations of the Point Of which in a few words and then I shall come to the Use and Application It must needs be a blessed thing when Correction and Instruction meet if we consider 1. The Lâ—ssons which God 〈◊〉 cheth are so many Blessednesses First The Lessons themselves which God teacheth his Ephraim's in the School of Affliction exâ—gra Is it not a blessed thing to be taught how to compassionate them that are in a suffering condition yea â—aith the Psalmist Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble the Lord will preserve him Psa 41.1 2 and keep him alive and he shal be blessed upon earth c. he is blessed and he shal be blessed not in heaven onely but upon earth also and that with a multiplyed blessing see a troop follows Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of his languishing Vers 2 3 thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness oh the blessedness of a compassionate heart towards afflicted ones how easie must that bed be which God maketh And 2ly is it not a blessed thing to know how to value our earthly comforts without doating upon them to be thankful and yet not to surfeit blessed is he that feareth alwayes i. e. that feareth a snare in all his earthly contentments And 3ly if it be a blessedness to be conformed to Jesus Christ then surely self-denyal is a lesson which will make one blessed If any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and follow me saith our Saviour Matth. 16.24 And 4ly Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 5 3 5 and blessed are the meek for they shal inherit the earth if heaven and earth can make one blessed then Humility is a blessed Lesson And so it is 5ly To have our hearts discovered to our selves corruption is matter of humiliation but sight and sense of corruption is matter of comfort and rejoycing it is a miserable thing indeed to be poor and not to see ones poverty Thou sayst thou art rich Rev. 3.17 but knowest not that thou art poor and miserable but happy is that man to whom the Lord first discovers the hidden corruption of his heart and then teacheth him to mourn over it Mat. 5.4 blessed are they that mourn for they shal be comforted 6ly A man is never in a happier condition then when his heart is in a praying frame It is a mercy with a note of observation Acts 9.11 Behold he prayes a man is never miserable but when he cannot pray And 7ly what think ye of the Word surely he is a blessed man that by affliction is brought acquainted with his Bible which is nothing else but a treasury and Magazeen of blessings blessed is the man whom thou chastisest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law it is your text and the first Psalm is your comment His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night v. 2. And 8ly blessed are they whom the Lord teacheth to clear out their evidences for heaven to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 11 for so an abundant entrance shal be administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when others shall but creep to heaven as it were upon all four they shal ride as in a triumphant charet into the gates of the New Jerusalem 9ly Blessed are they who weep over their grievings of Gods Spirit for God shal wipe off those tears from their eyes and He will comfort them whom they have grieved And 10ly what is the blessedness of heaven it self but Communion with God! 11ly The exercise of Grace 12ly The Life of Faith 13ly Trust in God that raises the dead and cals things which are not as though they were 14. a clearer discovery of Gods Excellencies what are these but heaven begun on this side heaven glory antidated John
for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 nor their labour for that which satisfieth not Heb. 11.1 Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but labor for Faith which might realize and substantiate unseen and spiritual things and give them a being unto the soul They that will not learn this lesson in the school of the Word shall learn it in the School of affliction if they belong to God and therefore set your heart to it In the eighteenth place 18 Lesson Time-redemption Time-redemption is another lesson which God teacheth whom he correcteth In our tranquility how many golden do we throw down the stream which we are like never to see again for one whereof the time may come when we would give Rivers of Oyl the wealth of both the Indies Mountains of precious stones if they were our own and yet neither would they be found a sufficient price for the redemption of any one lost moment It was the complaint of the very Heathen and may be much more our complaint Quis est qui diem estimat qui se Cum cogitat se quotidie mori Sen. Ep. who is there amongst us that knowes how to value time and prize a day at a due rate most men do rather passe away their time then redeem it prodigal of their precious hours as if they had more then they could tell what to do withall our season is short and we make it shorter How sad a thing is it to hear men complain O what shall we do to drive away the time Alas even Sabbath-time the purest the most refined part of time a Creation out of a Creation time consecrated by divine sanction how cheap common is it in most mens eyes while many do sin away and the most do idle away those hallowed houres Seneca was wont to jeer the Jews for their ill husbandry in that they lost one day in seven meaning their Sabbath truly it is too true of the most of Christians they lose one day in seven what ever else the Sabbath for the most part is but a lost day while some spend it totally upon their lust and the most I had almost said the best do fill up the voyd spaces and intervales of the Sabbath from publick worship with idleness and vanity But oh when trouble comes and danger comes and death comes when the Sword is at the Bowels the Pistol at the brest the knife at the throat Death at the door how precious would one of those despised houres be evil days cry with a loud voice in our eares Redeem the time That caution was written from the Tower in Rome Eph. 5.16 Redeem the time because the dayes are evil In life threatning dangers Rev. 10.6 when God threatens as it were that time shall be no more then we can think of redeeming time for prayer for reading for meditation for studying and clearing out our evidences for Heaven for doing receiving good according to opportunities presented yea then we can gather up the very broken fragments of time that nothing may be lost Then God teacheth the soul what a choice peece of wisdom it is for Christians if it were possible to be before hand with time for usually it comes to passe through our unskilfulness and improvidence In hoc n. fallimur quod mortem prospitimus Sen. in ep that we are surprized by Death and we that reckoned upon yeers many yeers yet to come have not possibly so many hours to make ready our accompts It may be this night is the Summons and then if our time be done and our work to be begun in what a case are we The soul must needs be in perplexity at the hour of death that seeth the day spent and its work yet to do A Traveller that seeth the Sun setting when he is but entring on his journey cannot but be agast the evening of our day and the morning of our task do not well agree together that time which remaineth is too short for lamenting the losse of by-past time By such hazards God doth come upon the soul as the Angel upon Peter in prison Act. 12 7 and smites upon our sides bids us rise up quickly and gird up our selves and binds on our Sandalls c. 1 Cor. 7.29 that we may reedeem lost opportunities and do much work in a little time It is pity to lose any thing of that which is so precious and so short 10 Lesson To value Christs sufferings Lam. 1.12 A ninteenth Lesson is how to estimate at least to make some remote and imperfect guess at the sufferings of Jesus Christ In our prosperity we passe by the Crosse i. e. carlesly and regardlesly at the best we do but shake our Heads a little the reading of the story of Christs passion stirrs up some compassion towards Him and passion against his persecutors but it is quickly gone we forget as soon as we get into the world again but now let God pinch our flesh with some sore affliction let him fill our bones with pain and set us on fire with a burning Fever let our feet be hurt in the stocks and the Irons enter into our soules let our soules be exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud let us be destitute afflicted tormented c. then happily we will sit down and look upon him whom we have peirced and begin to say within our selves And are the Chips of the Crosse so heavy what then was the Crosse it self which first my Redeemer did bear and then it did bear him Are a few bodily pains so bitter what then were those agonies which the Lord of glory suffered in his soul Is the wrath of man so piercing what was the wrath of God which scorcht his righteous soul and sweltred his very heart blood through his flesh in a cold winters day so that his sweat was as great drops of blood trickling down to the ground are the buffetings of men so grievous what were the buffetings of Satan which our Lord sustained when all the brood of the Serpent lay nibling at the heel of his passion Is a burning Fever so hot Christ felt paenas infernales though not inferni how then did the flames even of Hell scald my Saviours spirit Is it such an heart-piersing affliction to be deserted of friends what was it then for him that was the Son of Gods love the darling of his bosom to be deserted of his Father which made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Is a chain so heavy a prison so loathsom the sentence and execution of death so dreadful oh what was it for him that made Heaven and Earth to be bound with a chain hurried up and down from one unrighteous judg to another mockt abused spit upon buffeted reviled cast
sackclothe upon all the beauty and bravery of the Creature and so hideth pride from man when God by some flashes of Lightning strikes us blind to the World then we can discover beauty and excellency in Christ infinitely transcending all the beauty and excellency in the World Thou art fairer then the Children of men grace is poured into thy lips when under the stairs Psal 45.2 Cant. 5.10 and in the Clifts of the Rocks then the soul can sing my beloved is white and ruddy the chicfest among ten thousand When the God of Heaven hath famisht all our Gods on earth when he hath hunger-starved us as to Creature comforts in any way whatsoever then we can hunger after and taste the sweetness the fulness which is in Jesus Christ O then Christ a King to govern a Prophet to teach a Priest to save how precious then none but Christ none but Christ give me a Christ or else I die In a word my Beloved when once it is come by what exigencies and surprises soever to an Oh wretch that I am who shal deliver me Rom. 7.24 then I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Truly God is forc't to exercise us with a severe Discipline that he may endear Jesus Christ to our hearts and secludes us from the World that we may study and improve his fulness As the Law is our School-master Gal. 3.24 so affliction is an Vsher to the Law affliction brings us to the Law and the Law brings us to Christ And thus I have dispatcht the first thing I undertook for the opening of the Doctrine sc The Lessons which God teacheth those whom he chasteneth both in their twenty particulars and in their three summary comprehensive heads to which all the rest may be reduced I come to the second thing namely The Nature or properties of divine teaching The nature and propetries of divine teaching For my Brethâ—en it is not every teaching that will make or evidence a man to be a blessed man under affliction There is hardly any man that is under affliction but he learns somewhat by it yet few are blessed the reason is because it matters not so much what a man is taught as who is the Teacher whither he be taught of God or no yea that is not all neither for we are not to enquire only whether we be taught of God but how There is a twofold teaching of God There is a common teaching which even Heathen men out of the Church Hypocrites Reprobates within the Church may have the very Philosophers have read excellent Lectures upon affliction Seneca others and there is a special teaching proper and peculiar only to the Children of promise A Covenant-teaching Isa 54.13 All thy Children shall be taught of God it is the Covenant of God with thâ— Redeemer Isa 54 13. A teaching without which no man can come to Christ John 6.45 Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Now this teaching hath a sixfold property The first property is 6. properties of Covenantreaching It is an inward teaching Inward in respect of the Object and inward in respect of the Subject Inward in respect of the Object 1. Property it is inward so our Saviour concerning the saving teaching of the Holy Ghost when the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Ioh. 16 13 Man may lead you UNTO truth but it is the spirit of God that only can lead you INTO truth he only that hath the Key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth can open to you the door of truth and shew you the inside of truth And great is the difference between these two teachings He that comes to a stately house or place sees only the outward fabrick and structure and even that may take much but he that comes into it sees all the inward contrivances and conveyances he sees all the rich furniture and adornings of the several rooms and Offices of the house which are not only for use but for delight and ornament Surely the very out-side of truth is goodly but like the Kings Daughter it is all glorious within not pleasing only but ravishing this they see who are led into truth Psal 119.18 by verâ—ue whereof David saw wonderful things in the Law Objects which filld his soul with wonder and delight And as the teachings of the Covenant are inward in respect of the Object so inward also in respect of the Subject In the HIDDEN PART thou hast made me know wisdom Psal 51.6 and again I thank the Lord that gave me counsel MY REINS also instruct me in the night seasons Psal 16.7 the Reins are the most inward part of the Body and the night-season the most retired and private time both express the intimacy of divine teaching man may teach the Brains but God only teacheth the Reins the knowledg which man teacheth is a swimming knowledg but the knowledg which Christ teacheth is a soaking knowledg God who commanded light to shine out of dâ—rkness 2 Cor. 4 6 hath shined into our HEARTS to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ it is a loaden expression and holds forth the inward teachings of God on both sides both in reference to the Subject and in reference to the Object In reference to the Subject He that commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts Mans light may shine into the Head but Gods light doth shine into the Heart God hath his Throne in Heaven Cathedram habet inCaelis quicorda doâ—et Aâ—g but his Chair his Pulpit is in the heart he hath shined into our hearts And then you have the inwardness of divine teaching in respect of the Object he hath given us the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Man may give knowledg confused general knowledg but God giveth the light of knowledg in the lustre and brightness of it In thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 the soul seeth by the same light whereby God himself seeth thy light and not only so here is not only knowledg and light of knowledg but the glory of that light the light which God brings in to the sanctified understanding is a glorious light a marvelous light 1 Pet. 2.9 the soul that the spirit taketh by the hand leadeth into truth standeth wondering at the glory and excellency of that light which shines round about it And then lastly all this in the face of Jesus Christ The face is the full discovery of a person Moses could not see Gods face but only his back-parts he might see Exod. 33. last But now by the flesh of Josus Christ God hath put a vail upon his face the vail of his flesh Heb. 10.20 through which we may see the face of God
King he chastens as a Prophet he teacheth and as a Priest he hath purchas'd this grace of his Father that the Rod might blossom that Correction might be consecrated for Instruction unto the redeemed Behold a sanctified affliction is a cup whereinto Jesus Christ hath wrung and prest the juice and vertue of all his Mediatory Offices surely that must be a cup of generous and royal wine like that in the Supper a Cup of blessing to the people of God And thus I have finished the fourth particular propounded for the clearing and confirming of the Doctrine sc the Grounds and Demonstrations of the point and with it the whole Doctrinal part of this great and blessed Truth namely That it is a blessed thing when CORRECTION and INSTRUCTION WORD and ROD go together I come now to the Use for the improvement of the point And it may serve for Information Exhortation First For Information and that in these particulars First Affliction alone cannot evidence a man to be blessed If they only be blessed whom God chasteneth and teacheth then Affliction alone is not enough to evidence a man to be an happy man no man is therefore blessed because he is chastened blows alone are not enough Ier 31.18 either to evince or to effect a state of blessedness Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised cryeth repenting Ephraim q. d. I have had blows enough if blows would have done me good nay but under all the strokes and smitings of thy displeasure I have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke unteachable and untractable thou hast drawn one way and I have drawn another thou hast pull'd forward and I have pull'd backward all thy chastisements have left me as they found me brutish and rebellious Surely blows onely may break the neck sooner then the heart They are in themselves the fruit of divine wrath a branch of the curse and therefore cannot possibly of themselves make the least argument of Gods love to the Soul Bastards have blows as well as Children and Fools because of their transgression are afflicted Ps 107.17 And yet it is very sad to consider that this is the best evidence that the most of men have for Heaven because they suffer in this world they think they shall be freed from sufferings in the World to come and because they have an hell here they hope they shall escape Hell hereafter they hope they shal not have two hells yes poor deluded Soul thou mayst have two Hells and must have two Hells without better evidence for Heaven Cain had two Hells and Judas had two Hells and millions of reprobate men and women have two Hells one of this life in torments of body and horror of conscience and another of the life to come in unquenchable fire and so I say shalt thou unless thou get better evidence for Heaven then the present misery which is upon thee the plagues and evils which are upon thee may be but the beginnings of sorrows pain now in the body may be but a forerunner of torments hereafter in thy Soul thou mayst have a prison on Earth and a dungeon in Hell thou mayst now want a crum of bread and hereafter a drop of water thou mayst now be the reproach of men Isai 66.24 Prov. 1.24 and hereafter the scorn of men and Angels and of God himself And therefore be wise to Salvation by working it out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 and giving all diligence make your Calling and Election sure God forbid that a man should take that for his security from Hell which may be but the prelibations of Hell the pledg and aggravation of endless misery Why but doth not the Scripture say Object Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth And again Heb. 12.6 As many as I love I rebuke chasten Rev. 3.19 Yes but mark I beseech you though the Scripture saith Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth Answ it doth not say Whomsoever the Lord chasteneth he loveth Though it saith He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth it doth not say whomsoever he scourgeth he receiveth him as a son Christ saith As many as I love I rebuke and chasten but he saith not As many as I rebuke and chasten I love These Scriptures include children but they do not exclude bastards they tye chastening to sonship but not sonship to chastening the sons are chastened but all the chastened are not therefore sons the beloved are rebuked but all that are rebuked are not consequently beloved But that place in Job 5.17 seems to say as much Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth It is true but one Scripture must interpret another David must expound Eliphaz Happy is the man whom God correcteth i. e. when instruction goeth along with correction when chastisement and teaching accompany one another Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law The Scripture doth not usually give things their names but when they are made up of all their integrals Who so fendeth a wife findeth a good thing Pro. 18.22 and obtaineth favor of the Lord i. e. a wife made up of Scripture qualifications otherwise a man may and many men do finde a plague in a wife and hath her from the Lord in wrath and not in love Every married woman is not a wife a bad woman is but the shadow of a wife And so here in this case c. Indeed chastening and affliction is an opportunity of mercy a may-be to happiness but not singly an evidence of happiness lay no more upon it then it will bear it is an opportunity improve it it is no more do not trust it Secondly 2 Branch of Informat Afflictions conclude not a man miserable This Doctrine informs us thus much sc that as affliction simply considered is not enough to make or evidence a man to be happy so neither is it sufficient to conclude a man to be miserable No man is therefore miserable because afflicted It may prove a teaching affliction and then he is happy And yet this is another mistake among men And that 1. In reference to others 2. In reference to our selves 1. In reference to others People are very prone to judg them wretched whom they see afflicted it was the miserable mistake of Jobs friends to conclude HIM miserable because smitten cursed because chastened 2. In reference to our selves it is a merciless mistake sometimes even of Gods own children to sit down under affliction especially if sore and of long continuance and conclude God doth not love them because he doth correct them It seems to be the very case of the beleeving Hebrews they judged themselves out of Gods favor Heb. 12 because under Gods frowns not at all beloved because so greatly afflicted under many and sore persecutions as you may see Chap. 10.32 33 34. And therefore it is that upon