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
James 1.4 there is a work of patience and there is a perfect work Verse 3 The tryal of Faith worketh patience i. e. the sufferings whereby our Faith is tryed as gold is tried in the furnace it worketh or as the word signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it perfecteth The Cross exerciseth and exercise perfecteth the grace of patience as sufferings arise so patience ariseth also Be patient Iames 5.7 brethren till the coming of the Lord i. e. do you bear the affliction till Christ come and take it off let your patience be of the same extent with your sufferings As Patience so Faith is not acted only but perfected by temptations Sometimes the Soul findes that Faith lively in a suffering condition which before it questioned whether it were alive or if affliction do not finde it lively it makes it lively the same furnace of affliction wherein God tryeth our Faith he doth refine it and purifieth it more and more from the dross of infidelity They are the purest acts of faith which the Soul puts forth in the dark Faith never beleeves more then when it cannot see Isai 50.10 because then the Soul hath nothing to stay it self upon but God Hence while it seems to help difficultates the work of faith by doubting of it a man must first beleeve the insufficiency of what he seeth before he can beleeve the Alsufficiency of him that is invisible We look not at the things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 but at the things which are not seen It is harder to live by Faith in abundance then in want The Soul is a step neerer living upon God when it hath nothing to live upon but God yea and when God is not seen he is most beleeved Psal 22.1 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Observe and thou shalt find a great deal more of precious faith in that desertion then of complaint For first Faith like Pharez breaks forth first My God before forsaken And again you have two words of Faith for one of despair My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Faith speaks twice before Sense can speak once And thirdly Faith speaks confidently and positively Thou art my God Sense speaks dubiously why hast thou as if Sense durst not call it a forsaking while Faith dares say my God Surely Faith is never so much Faith as in desertion Faiths triumphs lie in the midst of despair and even in this sence also Having not seen yet beleeving 1 Pet. 1.8 we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Godly sorrow how is it enlarged by sanctified affliction while that stream which was wont to run in the channel of worldly crosses now is diverted into the channel of sin I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I HAVE SINNED Micâ—h 7.9 c. Any burden is light in comparison of sin the very indignation of God The Soul that God teacheth by his chastisements can stand under the burden of Gods indignation for sin when it cannot stand under sin which hath kindled that indignation Ah cryeth Job upon the dunghill I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men He forgetteth his suffering in his sin he saith not I have lost all my substance I am now upon the dunghill as naked as ever I was born save that I am clothed with scabs my friends reproach me my wife curseth me or that which is worse she bids me curse God Satan persecutes me and God himself is become mine Enemy c. all this is befallen me what wilt thou do unto me O thou preserver of men but I have sined what shall I do unto thee c. Sufferings lead to sin and sense of sin swalloweth up sense of sufferings And what shall I say more the time would fail to instance in other Graces Love Fear Holiness c. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Isai 27.9 and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Hâ—b 12 10 He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Grace is never more Grace then when besieged with temptations The battel draws forth that fortitude and prowess which in time of peace lay chill'd in the veins for want of opposition and exercise A twelfth Lesson 12 Lesson A life of Faith which they learn in the School of Affliction is The necessity and excellency of the life of Faith 1. The necessity of living by faith 1 The Necessity of it Hab. 2.3 4 where Sense endeth Faith beginneth The vision is for an appointed time I but what shall we do in the mean time why the just shall live by Faith live by Faith or dye in despair when God pulls away the bulrushes of Creature-supports the Soul must either swim or sink God teacheth this Lesson Partly by the uncertainty of second causes the vicessitudes that are in creature-expectations a little hope to day to morrow reduc'd to despair good news to day Pharaoh says Israel shall go bad news to morrow he rageth and swears that if Moses see his face any more he shall dye c. O the ebbs flows of sublunary hopes one speaks a word of comfort another speaks words of soul-wounding terror now a promise anon a threatening The sick man is in hopes of reviving to day to morrow at the gates of death What a woful heart-dividing life is a life of Sense a life which is worse then death it self to be thus bandied up and down between hopes and fears to be baffled to and fro between the may-be's of second Causes to be like Mariners upon the billows and surges of the tempestuous sea Psalm 107 26 27 They mount up to Heaven they go down again to the depths their Soul is melted because of trouble they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end Heb. all their wisdom is swallowed up And partly God teacheth the necessity of a life of Faith by the disappointment of the Creature How often doth the Creature totally fail and abuse our expectation Iob 6.15 16 like the deceitful brook to which Job most elegantly compares his brethren which mocks the traveller and when he comes for a draught of water to quench his thirst Verse 20 sends him away with confusion and shame Surely men of low degree are vanity Psal 62.9 and men of high degree are a lye Men of low degree would help but cannot there is vanity and men of high degree can help many times but will not no not when they have promis'd and sworn there is a lye both disappoint the one by the necessity the other by deceit and disappointment is one of the great torments that a rational creature is capable of Trust defeated causeth sorrow of heart Isai 20.5 and confusion of face and the stronger the confidence Ier. 14.3 the more shameful is the disappointment Agag
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
despair and not a few of them multitudes brake in upon me and even swallowed me up but thy comforts were light and life and delight to my Soul my thoughts did not sink me so deep but thy comforts raised me up as high my thoughts were an hell but thy comforts were an heaven within me The Soul hears of Gods mercy in prosperity but it tastes of Gods mercy in affliction and as it were â—pprest with delights can call to others O taste and see how good the Lord is Hence it is that of all the days of the year the Apostle would chuse as it were a Good-Friday a passion day to rejoyce in God forbid I should rejoyce in any thing but in the Cross of Jesus Christ Christs sufferings for him and his sufferings for Christ The Al sufficiency of God is the last Attribute I mentioned Alsufficiency in delivering out of affliction which God proclaims before his suffering people Now thou shalt see saith God to Moses what I will do to Pharaoh Exod. 6.1 Hitherto thou hast seen what Pharaoh hath done to Israel now thou shalt see what I do to Pharaoh and so they did The doubling of their burdens was the dissolving of their bondage the extinguishing of their line was the multiplying of their seed The same waters which were Israels rocks were the Egyptians grave Exod. 15 9 I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoil my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy so boasts the proud Tyrant I will I will I will c. nay not so fast Pharaoh let God speak the next word Verse 10 Thou didst blow with thy wind the sea covered them they sank as lead in the mighty waters Oh sudden turn there lieth Pharaoh and his six I will 's and I shall 's drowned in the Sea Thus did God appear to his oppressed Israel in the very nick of their extremities In the thing wherein they delt proudly Exo. 18 11 God was above them And Israel SAVV that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord and his servant Moses Exod. 14.31 Israel SAVV in prosperity God works but we see him not affliction openeth our eyes when we see our dangers then we can see God in our deliverances God could have brought Israel to the Land of Promise a shorter cut in fourty days but he leads them about in an howling wilderness fourty years not a like place in all the world to have starved them and their flocks Deut. 8.3 and why but to proclaim to Israel and all succeeding generations that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord c. Israel learn'd more of Gods Alsufficiency in a Land of drought then she could have learn'd in the Land flowing with milk and hony namely that God can feed without bread and satisfiâ— thirst without streams of waters that he can make the clouds rain bread and the rock give out rivers that the creature can do nothing without God but God can do what he please without the creature Instances are endless In a word the suffering time is the time wherein God makes his Attributes visible The Lord will be a refuge to his people a refuge in time of trouble Psal 9.9 and what follows And they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Vers 10. In the School of Affliction God reads Lectures upon his Attributes visible Lectures and expounds himself unto his people so that many times they come to know more of God or more experimentally by half a years sufferings then by many years Sermons A fifteenth Lesson 15 Lesson God teacheth them in a suffering condition to mind the duties of a suffering condition to study duty more then deliverance seriously to enquire what it is which God calls for under the present Dispensation The Soul cryeth out with Paul Acts 9.6 when layd for dead at Christs feet Lord what wilt thou have me to do There is no condition or tryal in the world but it gives a man opportunity for the exercise of some special grace and the doing of some special duty and that is the work of a Christian in every new state and in every new tryal to mind what new duty God expects what new grace he is to exert and exercise To minde deliverance onely is self-love which is natural to man The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed and that he should not dye in the pit c. Man in affliction would fain be delivered have the burden taken off the yoke broken men make more haste to get their afflictions removed then sanctified but this is not the work God looks for No nor to think onely what a man would do if he were delivered Oh thinks a man if God would deliver me out of this sickness out of this distress I would walk more close with God I would be more abundant in family-duties I would be more fruitful in my converse I would do thus and thus c. Why now I say though men should sit down in their afflictions consider their ways and make new resolutions for better things if God shall give better times yet if this be all it may be nothing else but a wile of the deceitful heart a temptation and snare of the Devil to gain the time as it were of God a meer diversion to turn aside the heart from the present duty which God expects And therefore when God intends good and happiness to the Soul by the present chastisement he pitcheth the Soul upon the present duty which is to a Mica 6.9 hear the rod and who hath appointed it to discern Gods aym and to finde out the meaning of the present Dispensation to say to God Job 34 31 32 I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more To reflect upon our ways and spirits to complain of sin and not of punishment Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. To think the present condition the best Phil. 4 11 I have learned in what ever state I am therewith to be content In our patience to possess our Souls Luk. 21.19 Ro. 5.2 3 to rejoyce in God yea to rejoyce in tribulation To minde the publique calamities of the Church more and our private sufferings less to pray for the welfare of Sion In thy good pleasure do good unto Sion Psa 51.18 To lift up Jesus Christ and to make him glorious by our afflictions That Christ may be magnified in our bodies Phil. 1.20 whether it be by life or by death Paul studied more how to adorn the Cross then to avoyd it how to
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
into prison arraigned condemned executed in a most shameful and an accursed manner oh what was it for him to endure all this contradiction of sinners rage of the Devil and wrath of God in comparison of whom the most righteous person that ever was may say with the good Theif on the cross And we indeed justly Isa 53.9 but He what evil hath he done He made his Grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth Blessed be God my prison is not Tophet my burnings are not unquenchable flames my cup is not fild with wrath in a word this is not Hell Blessed be God for Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.10 by whom I am delivered from wrath to come And thus as the Lord Jesus by the sensible experience of his own passion came perfectly to understand what his poor members suffer while they are in the body so we by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remainders of his cross which he hath bequeathed us as a Legacy come in some measure to understand the sufferings of Christ or at least by comparing things of such vast disproportion to guess at what we cannot understand The twentieth and the last Lesson which God teacheth by affliction 20 Lesson is How to prize and long for Heaven In our prosperity when the Candle of God shines in our Tabernacles when we wash our steps in butter and the Rock powreth us out Rivers of Oyl Iob. 29.6 we could set down with the present World and even say with the Disciples Eccles 41.1 though not upon so good an account It is good for us to be here let us here build us Tabernacles while life is sweet death is bitter and Heaven it self is no temptation while the World gives us her friendly entertainments But when poverty imprisonment reproach and persecution sickness and sore Diseases do not only pinch but vex our hearts with verietie of aggravations we are not so fond of the Creature but we can be content to entertain a partly with death and take Heaven into our considerations Not that meerly to defire to be in Heaven because we are weary of the World is an Argument of grace or a Lesson that needs divine teaching self-love will prompt as much as that comes to But because like foolish Travellers we love our way though it be troublesom rather then our Countrey God by this Discipline taketh off our hearts by degrees from this present World and maketh us look homeward being burdened we groan 2 Cor. 5.4 and with the Dove we return to the Ark when the World floats round about us when David was driven from his Palace then wo is me that my Pilgrimage is prolonged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint renders it We should be contented like the Israelites with the Garlick and flesh-pots of Egypt if God did not set cruel Taskmasters over us to double our Burdens and when God hath thus lessened our esteem of the World he discovers to us the excellency of heavenly comforts and draws out the desires of the soul to a full fruition when shall I come and appear in thy presence EVEN SO come Lord Jesus Affliction puts Heaven into all those notions which make it Heaven indeed To the weary it is rest Isa 57.2 Revel 14.13 To the banished it is Home 2 Cor. 5.6 To the scorned and reproached it is glory Rom. 5.2 To the Captive it is liberty Rom. 8.21 To the conflicting soul it is Conquest Rom. 8.37 And to the Conqueror it is a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 Righteousnes 2 Tim. 4.8 Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 To the Hungry it is hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 To the thirty it is the fountain and waters of life and Rivers of pleasure Rev. 22.17 Psal 36.8 9. To the grieved soul whither with sin or sorrow it is fulnes of joy and to the mourner it is pleasures for evermore Psal 16.12 In a word to them that have lain upon the Dunghill and kept their integrity it is a Throne on which they shall sit and reign with Christ for ever and ever Rev. 3.31 and 22.5 Surely beloved Heaven thus proportioned to every state of the afflicted soul cannot chuse but be very precious and will make the soul with a stronger or weaker impulse desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. ◠23 which is best of all A Christian indeed is comforted by Faith but not satisfied or if satisfied it is in point of security not of desire because here we are absent from the Lord and walk by Faith not by sight 2 Cor. 5 6 7. Hope though it keep life in the soul yet it is not able to fill it he longs and thinks every day a year till he be at home in his Fathers Arms and sit down on his Fathers Throne crowned with his Fathers Honour and glory They that walk by Faith cannot be quiet till they be in the sight of those things which they beleive Jacob when he heard that Joseph was alive though he did beleive it yet could not be satisfied with hearing of it but saith he I will go and see him before I die so the beleiving soul He whom my soul loveth was dead but is alive and behold he liveth for evermore Rev. 1.18 I will die that I may go and see him as Augustine upon that answer of God to Moses thou cast not see any face and live Exod. 33.20 makes this quick and sweet reply then Lord let me die that I may see thy face Thus I have presented you with those 20 several Lessons which Jesus Christ the great Prophet of his Church teacheth his afflicted ones to take out in the school of affliction And now as I told you in my entrance upon this subject all these 20. Lessons may be reduc'd to three great summary comprehensive Instructions c. 1. The sinfulness of sin 2. The emptiness of the Creature 3. The fulness of Jesus Christ 1 Summary Lesson The sinfulness of sin The first summary comprehensive Lesson is the sinfulness of sin sin is alwayes very sinful but in our prosperity we are not so sensible of it the dust of the World doth so fill our eyes that we cannot make a clear and distinct discovery of the evil that is in sin but now by the sharp and bitter waters of affliction God doth wash out that dust and clears the Organ to make a perfect discovery and to discern sin as it is and not as usually it doth appear sin becomes exceeding sinful Rom. 7 13. God hath four Classes wherein he discovers to the soul the evil that is in sin 1. The Glass of the Law Jam. 1.23.24 2. The blood of Christ Rev. 1.6 3. Afflictions and chastisements in this present World 4. The torments of Hell Mat. 25.41 Indeed of all these Glasses the blood of Christ is the clearest and doth most fully perfectly