and legs torn out of the body and to lie bleeding in their separation I know what it is to be cast into prison to be lockt up alone in the dark with no other company but fears and sorrows I know what it is to receive the sentence of death in our selves c. Shall not I pity and pray and pour out my Soul over such as are bleeding and languishing under the like miseries And this Argument yet makes deeper impression when a Christian compares and measures his lighter burden of affliction with anothers more grievous yoke and reasons thus within himself Imprisonment was grievous to me and yet I enjoyed many comforts and accommodations which others have not I had a sweet chamber and a soft bed when some poor Members of Jesus Christ in the Spanish Inquisition and the Turkish Slavery are cast into the Dungeon and sink with Jeremiah into the mire their feet are hurt in the stocks and the irons do enter into their Soul others lie bleeding and gasping upon the cold ground with their undrest wounds exposed to all the injuries of hunger and nakedness in the open ayr I saw the face of my Christian friends sometimes enjoyed refreshment in converse with dearest relations while some of Gods precious people are cast into dark and stinking prisons and do not see the face of a Christian not of a man possibly in five ten or twenty years together unless it be of their tormenters I had fresh dyet every day not only for necessity but for delight while other precious servants of God want their necessary bread lie starving in the doleful places of their sorrowful restraint and would be glad to eat bread that falls into the very loathsom excrements of Nature and perhaps for extremity of hunger never stand to wipe it possibly forced to rake dead and stinking carkasses out of their graves for their sorrowful food to eat the fruit of their own loyns yea to feed on their own dung and drink their own piss c. Oh shall not my bowels yern and my compassions be rouled within me towards such Objects of misery and compassion Truly Brethren we see it dayly in case of the Stone Toothache Gout Strangury and the like evils how experience doth melt the heart into tears of sympathy and fellow-feeling while strangers to such sufferings stand wondering at and almost deriding the heart-breaking laments of poor wretches Brethren that you may not wonder at this consider I beseech you what the Apostle speaks of Christ himself Heb 2.17 It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his Brothren that he might be a merciful and faithful high Priest in things pertaining to God And again Cha. 4.15 We have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are And Chap. 5.2 Who can have compassion c. for that he himself also is compassed with infirmities A man would say within himself Why what need had the Lord Jesus to invest himself with a body of flesh to know the infirmities of our nature since he was God and knew all things Nay but my Brethren it seems the knowledg which Christ had as God was different frō that knowledgwhich he had as man that which he had as God was intuitive that which he had as man was experimental experimental knowledg of misery is the heart-affecting knowledg and therefore Christ himself would intender his own heart as Mediator by his own sense and feeling And if the Lord Jesus who was Mercy it self would put himself into a suffering condition that he might the more sweetly and affectionately act those Mercies towards his suffering Members how much more do we that by nature are cruel and incompassionate need such practical teachings to work upon our own hearts Certainly we cannot gain so much fense of the Saints sufferings by the most artificial skilful relation that the tongue of men or Angels is able to express no nor by all our Scripture-knowledg though sanctified as we do by one days experience in the School of Affliction when God is pleased to be the School-master This is one end why God sends us thither and the first Lesson we learn by Affliction sc Sympathy with and compassion to our suffering Brethren I come to the Second Lesson And that is 2 Lesson 1. To prize earthly comforts more By Chastisements God doth teach us how to prize our outward mercies and comforts more and yet to dote upon them less to be more thankful for them and yet less ensnared by them This is a Mystery indeed to Nature a Paradox to the World for naturally we are very prone either to slight or to surfeit and yet it is sad to consider we can make a shift to do both at once we can undervalue our mercies even while we glut our selves with them and despise them even when we are surfeiting upon them Witness that inculcated caution by Moses and Joshua When thou hast eaten and art full Deut 8 10 11 12. and 6 11 12. take heed thou forget not the Lord thy God Behold while men fill themselves with the mercies of God they can neglect the God of their mercies When God is most liberal in remembring us we are most prone to forget God Now therefore that we may know how to put a due estimate upon mercies God often outs us short that we may learn to prize that by want which our foolish unthankful hearts slighted in the enjoyment Thus the Prodigal who while yet at home could despise the rich and well-furnisht table of his father when God sent him to School to the Swine-trough could value the bread that the Hinds did eat How many of my fathers hired servants have BREAD enough Luk. 15 17 and to spare He would have been glad of the reversion of broken meat that was cast into the common-basket I do not believe David ever slighted the Ordinances yet certainly he never knew so well how to estimate them as when he was banisht from them Psalm 84. then a Porters place the Sparrows nest and the Swallows neighborhood to the Altar of God were matters of envy to him The remembrance of the company of Saints Psal 42 5 110.3 the beauty of the Ordinances and the presence of God Psal 63.2 fetcheth tears from his eyes and groans from his heart in his sorrowful Exile When I remember these things Psal 42.4 I pour out my Soul in me c. My tears are my meat day and night Verse 3. Oh how amiable are the Assemblies of the Saints and the Ordinances of the Sabbath when we are deprived of them In those days the Word of the Lord was precious 1 Sam. 3.1 What days were those It followeth There was no open Vision Word and Prophets were precious when they were not Carendo potius quam fruendo Sen. Ep. Want will teach us the
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
much light as another may possibly have In point of holy emulation we should look at degrees of Grace but in point of thankfulness and comfort we should look at the truth and being of Grace Thirdly When we say 3 Caution Divine Teaching doth put the Soul into an unchangeable estate that God teacheth powerfully and abidingly it is not to be understood as if these teachings did put the Soul into an immutable evenness of spirit or freed it from all insurrections and disturbances from opposite corruption such a frame of Soul is onely the priviledg of the glorified estate wherein we shall see God face to face and dwell in immutability it self to all eternity Here the Church hath its fulls and its wains David had his sinkings and Job his impatient fits We have heard of the patience of Job yea and of his impatience too moved the taught of God may be but not removed fall they may but not fall away fearfully but not finally terribly but not totally But these things are unseparable to Covenant-Teaching What is unseparable to divine teaching 1. Sense of corruption Rom. 7.23 First The Soul is thereby made sensible of the least stirrings and whisperings of corruption I finde a law in my members warring against the law of my minde Others have it but they do not finde it they are not sensible of the law in their members c. Secondly 2. They are displeased with themselves They are exceedingly displeased with the opposition they finde in their natures against the Teachings of God and do rise up in indignation against all that contradiction which is in the unregenerate part in what kinde soever Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquiet within me Is there cause for this despondency is this done like a David like a man after Gods own heart Is this the fruit of all the experiences of Gods Faithfulness and All-sufficiency And so in other cases doth the Soul chide down distempers and uncomely workings of spirit the Soul is full of displicency against it self so foolish was I and ignorant Psa 73.22 as a beast before thee it cannot finde words bad enough to give it self Thirdly And if that will not do 3. They pray down temptation Psal 46 6 then they go to God in prayer and spread their temptations before the Lord O my God my Soul is cast down within me When they cannot lay the storm and still the tempests by their own word then with the Disciples in the ship they go and awaken Christ and desire him by his powerful Word to rebuke them that there may be a calm They go and pray out their distempers Vir iste potuit quid voluit and pray their hearts into a better frame as once it was said of Luther that when he found distempers upon his spirit he would never give over praying till he had pray'd his heart into that frame he pray'd for Fourthly 4. Maintain opposition against opposition Gal. 5.17 By vertue of the Teachings of God they are enabled to maintain opposition against all that opposition which they finde in their own spirits As the flesh lusteth against the spirit so the spirit lusteth against the flesh Caâ—o concu piscit adversus spiritum si non spiritus adversus carnem faciunt adulterium Aug. i. e. the spiritual regenerate part doth as naturally rise up and make war against the flesh and fleshly motions as the flesh doth against the Teachings of God in the spiritual part Opposition is not maintain'd onely by precept and rules and an extrinsecal policy but natually and by vertue of an inward antipathy the spirit lusteth The spritual opposition is as suitable and agreeable to the new Nature as the sinful opposition is to the old nature Hence is the life of a Believer call'd a wrestling a warfare Eph. 6.12 And fifthly Not onely so but by the help of Divine Teaching the soul gets ground of that fleshly opposition wherewith it is molested by degrees In the day when I cryed Psa 138.2 thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my Soul Prayer brought in God and God brought in strength whereby he got ground of his distempers and though all was not done at first yet his comfort was all should be done in Gods time Vers 8. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me I am not perfect but I shall be perfected He that hath begun a good work will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Sixthly Though the Soul be not always the same for temper and acting yet it is always the same for purpose and design Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandments Though he could not keep all he could respect all the Commandments of God My Soul presseth hard after God Psal 63.8 Crouds of opposition intercepted and disturbed his sweet and constant communion with God sometimes he brake through that croud by main strength to recover Gods presence again My Soul presseth bard after thee Phil 3.12 13 and Paul is pressing after perfection when he could not overtake it Seventhly and lastly The Soul hath not always possibly the same relish and taste of divine Truths and Ordinances but it hath the same estimat it keeps up high appreciating thoughts of spiritual things and when it cannot relish them yet even then it doth hunger after them My Soul breaketh for the longings it hath unto thy Judgments AT ALL TIMES Psal 119 20 And yet even in reference to these dispositions which I call inseparable concomitants to Saving Teaching I must add this one Caution in close of all namely That allowance be made in case of Desertion A childe of God for causes which here we cannot stand to mention may be cast into so deep a state of desertion for a time that he may as the Apostle speaks forget that he was purged from his old sins 2 Pet. 1.9 Isa 50.10 A childe of Light may walk in Darkness And though there be no such deliquium gratiae no such swoon in the new-man wherein both habits and acts do cease yet they may be so stupified by the impressions of the present Temptation as the poor Soul shall be sensible of neither but reduc'd as it were into such a state as when grace was but an embrie in the womb that spiritual life shall be tantum non extinguit there may be life Vivit est vitae nescius ipse suae but no sense of that life More might be added but I am sensible how this Discourse swells beyond the proportion I intended and therefore I must hasten Thus much therefore for the second thing propounded in the Doctrinal part the nature and properties of Divine Teaching I come now to The third thing propounded viz. 3 Thing How affliction lieth in order to divine teaching to enquire How Affliction lieth in order
which the Apostle after he presented them with a large catalogue and list of the primitive Martyrs before Christ in the eleventh Chapter bestows the twelve first verses of the twelfth Chapter sc to prove by reasons drawn from nature c. instances taken out of Scripture the first whereof is that unparalleld and astonishing instance of Jeâ—us Christ the firstborn the * Unum habuit Deus filium sine flagitio nullum sine flagello Son of Gods loves and delights I say to establish this as a Conclusion of unquestionable verity namely That Gods LOVE and Gods ROD may stand together The truth is my Brethren there is nothing can make a man miserable but sin It is sin that poysons our afflictions The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15 56 and so we may say of all other evils which militate under Death as Soldiers under their General The sting of sickness is sin and the sting of poverty is sin and the sting of imprisonment and banishment is sin sic in caet Take the sting out which is purchas'd by the blood of Christ and evidenced by Divine Teaching and they cannot hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain Isai 11.4 And therefore let no children of God be rash to conclude hard things against themselves and take heed of making evidences of Wrath where God hath made none Let Christians on both sides look further then the affliction it self the Holy Ghost having long since determined this controversie by a peremptory decision Eccles 9.1 No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them i.e. no man can make a judgment either of Gods love or hatred towards him by any of these outward Dispensations He causeth his Sun to shine upon the evil Mat. 5.45 Bonis brevibus mala aeterna malis brevibus bona aeterna succedunt Lactant. Div. Inst and upon the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust The sun of prosperity shineth upon the dunghil as well as upon the bed of spices and the rain of adversity falleth upon the fruitful garden as well as upon the barren wilderness he judgeth truly of his estate that judgeth by the Word and not by Providence Evidences of Grace consist in inward impressions not in outward dispensations Thirdly 3 Branch Informat Deliverance not enough to argue a man happy That Deliverance out of trouble is not enough to evidence or make a man happy It is not said Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord AND DELIVEREST HIM out of trouble but Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest A man may get rid of the affliction and yet miss of the blessing All the bread which men may eat without the sweat of their brows is not therefore hallowed abundance may flow in without labor and yet not without a curse A woman may be delivered from the pain of child bearing and yet lie under the curse of child-bearing an easie travel is not an infallible symptome of a state of reconciliation 1 Tim. 2.15 If there be not faith in Christ who hath born and born away the Curse a speedy and easie deliverance is no more then God indulgeth the bruit creatures for by him the Hindes do calve and the wild Asses bring forth their young * Hos 9.14 Calvin understands it as a prayer for them not an imprecation against them hic coram Deo se offâ—rt 〈◊〉 quasi deprecatorem In Loc. A miscarrying womb may be a mercy when a mature and facile birth may be in judgment A man may leave his chains and his blessing behinde him in prison and the fire of a Feaver may be extinguish'd when the fire of Hell is preparing for the sinner It is good to be thankful for but extreamly dangerous to be contented with a bare deliverance I shall conclude this branch with this note which alone might have stood for a distinct observaetion or corollary That those prayers in troubles are not best heard which are answered with deliverance but those prayers are best heard which are answered with instruction Even of our blessed Saviour it is said In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able taâ— save him from death and WAS HEARD Sancti ad salutem per omnia ex audiuntur sed non ad voluntatem Aug. in Epist Johan tract 6. in that he feared Hebr. 5.7 How was he heard not in that save me from this hour Joh. 12.27 but in that Father glorifie thy name Vers 28. not in deliverance but in instruction for for that he giveth thanks Psal 16.7 〈◊〉 will bless the Lord who hath GIVEN ME COUNSEL My REINS ALSO INSTRUCT ME in the night season His Father taught him and strengthened him vers 8.9 10 11. in his passion and this was the hearing of his supplications That is the best return of prayers which works our good when not our wills and when God doth not answer in the Letter if he answer in the Better we are no losers by our prayers even * Etiam daemones exaudiâ—isunt ad porcos quos petiveranti remissi sunt Idem Devils themselves are heard to the letter when his own son is not yet heard in that be feared and therefore when we have pray'd let us refer it unto God to determine the answer Fourthly 4 Branch Informat How to judg of our afflictions and deliverances Hence we may learn â—ow to judg of our afflictions and of â—ur deliverances from them and it may serve in stead of an Vse of Exâ—mination by this I say we may know when our sufferings come in wrath and when in love You need not as the Scripture speaks in another case say Who shall ascend up into Heaven to look into Gods book of Life and Death or who shall descend into the deep the deep of Gods secret Counsels to make report hereof unto us But what saith the Scripture the Word is nigh thee the word of resolution to this enquiry it is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that â—s to say if thou canst evidence this to thine own soul That Instruction â—ath accompanyed Correction That God hath taught thee as well as chaâ—tened thee thou art a blessed man thou shalt be saved thou hast the Word of him who is the Author of blessedness and BLESSEDNES IT SELF Blessed is the man whom the Lord chasteneth and teacheth him out of his Law And therefore peruse I beseech you that model of divine Instructions or Lessons presented to you in the Doctrinal part of this Discourse either at large in those twenty particulars or in the abridgment the three great heads to which they were reduc'd And then withall set before your eyes those six Preperties of Divine Covenant-Teaching and compare your hearts and those Lessons together Ask your own Souls Hath God taught you those Lessons or any of them
can heal our malady Pray thus for all your friends who are or have been in the furnace of affliction pray that they may come forth as gold purified seven times in the fire that they may lose nothing there but their rust Pray Lord what they see not teach them and if they have done wickedly let them do so no more One great use which Christians should make of reading the Scripture is to learn from thence the language of prayer And oh that the professors of this age would in this particular learn what to pray and how to pray for their brethren in tribulation O that they would censure less and pray more and in stead of speaking one of another speak more one to another and one for another that was the good old way Mal. 3.16 THEN they that feared the Lord spake often one To another But oh the tender praying healing restoring SPIRIT is departed and if Christians stir not up themselves to call it back again it is a sad presage that God is departing too Hos 9.12 and wo unto us when God departeth from us We are like water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again We judg before we enquire and reject before we admonish Our Brethren upon vain surmises are to us as Heathens and Publicans before we have been to them as Christians and fellow-members And this we think becometh us and we take a kind of pride and contentment in it But oh to inform to convince Gal. 6.1 Mat. 18.15 16 17. to exhort to pray to put the bone if out in joynt again this were done like the Disciples of Christ Violentia Sancta obtabilis rapina to shew our selves Christians indeed Professors not of the letter but of the Spirit and would gain our Brethren in stead of blasting them Consider what I say and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things And thus much for such as are come out of affliction and find that it hath been through free grace a teaching affliction But now secondly Exhort to them that have been corrected but not instructed To such as cannot evidence to their own Souls that chastening hath been accompanied with divine teaching in any Gospel-proportion or at least are not deeply sensible of the want of it here is a word of Exhortation for them suffer it I beseech you Roul your selves in the dust before the Lord smite upon your thigh sigh with the breaking of your loyns and cry out with Ephraim Thou hast chastised me Reader excuse the frequent use of this Scripture Ier. 31.18 Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur that cannot be too often spoken which cannot be sufficiently learned Sen. Epist Hosea 9.11 Psal 58.8 and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke I have felt the blows of God but that is all I have received no more instruction by all my correction then a brute beast or if I had I have quickly lost it it is fled like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception It is like the untimely fruit of a woman that never saw the Sun Truly thou hast cause to sit down and even wish for thy affliction again God had put himself into thy hands as it were and thou hast let him go without THE Blessing the blessing of saving Instruction how mayst thou even wish I say O that I were in prison again in my sick bed again in banishment again et sic in caet However humble thy self greatly before the Lord and wrestle mightily for the AFTER TEACHINGS of God upon thy heart pray Turn me Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God what affliction hath not done Lord do thou set Omnipotency on work and it shall be done turn me and I SHALL BE turned that so thy Soul may yet speak to the praise of free grace AFTER that I returned I repented Ier. 31.19 and AFTER that I was instructed I smote upon the thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Urge the Lord as Sampson did after his victory Judg. 15.18 Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and shall I now dye for thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised Say thou Lord thou hast given thy servant this great deliverance from danger and death and shall I now perish for want of teaching and go down to Hell among the uncircumcised TEACH me thy way Psal 86.11 O Lord I will walk in thy truth Vnite my heart to fear thy Name TEACH me to do thy will Psa 143 10 for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness In a word desire the Lord that He would do all the work and then take all the glory Say Lord teach me as well as deliver me and I shall be blessed The fourâ—h and last Branch of Exhortation is to Parents and Governors To exhort them in the Education of their Children to imitate God Exhortat to Parents and that in two things 1. In affording their children due correction 2. To Correction to add Instruction First 1. Exhort Withhold not due correction Prov. 19.18 Afford your Children due correction It is the counsel of the Holy Ghost CHASTEN thy son while there is hope and let not thy Soul spare for his crying Behold God counselleth you that are Parents or in stead of Parents to do with your children as He doth with his wisely to use the discipline of the rod before vicious dispositions grow into habits and folly be so deeply rooted Pro. 22 15 Mr Trapp in his Comment on Prov. in locum that the Rod of Correction will not drive it out Error and folly saith one very well be the knots of Satan wherewith he ties children to the stake to be burnt in Hell and these knots are easiliest cut betimes or if you should make the child bleed in cutting of them let it not cause you to withdraw your hand for so it followeth Chasten thy son c. and let not thy Soul spare for his crying It is not only foolish but cruel pity to forbear correction for a few childish tears to suffer the child to howl in Hell for sin father then to shâ—d a few tears for the preventing of it Foolish fathers and mothers call this love but the Father of spirits calls it hatred He that spareth the rod Hateth his son Prov. 13.24 Surely there is nothing so ill spared as that whereby the child is spoiled such sparing is hatred and because you hate your children in not correcting of them they come afterward to hate you by not correcting of them But that is not all * Valde inutiliâ—â—er valdc perniciose sentiet filius patris lenitatem ut postea juste sentiat Dei severitatem Aug. in Psa 50. Ad interficiendum Pagn deriving the
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
the Spirit of God as sometime the sons of Jacob said one to another in reference to Joseph Gen. 42 21 We are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Res delicata est Spiritus sanctus In some such language I say will the Soul in the hour of temptation bespeak it self Ah I am verily guilty concerning that tender Spirit of Grace and Comfort which hath often besought me as it were in the anguish of his Soul saying Ier. 44 4 Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate but I would not hear Is not this He whose rebukes I have slighted whose counsels I have despised whose motions I have resisted whose warnings I have neglected whose warmings I have quenched yea whose comforts I have undervalued and counted them as a small thing Ah wretch how just is it now that the Spirit of God should withdraw that he should despise my sorrows and laugh at my tears shut out my prayers quench my smoking flax and break my bruised reed How just were it that He whom I would not suffer to be a Reprover in the day of my peace should now refuse to be a Repairer of my Soul in the hour of my temptation How righteous a thing were it that I who so often have carryed my self strangely to his Counsels should now in my sorrows be a stranger to his Comforts that I who have walk'd in the sparks of mine own kindling should now at length lie down in sorrow Well if the Lord shall please indeed to bring my Soul out of trouble and to revive my fainting spirit with his sweet Consolations I hope I shall carry my self for the future more obedientially to the counsels and rebukes of Jesus Christ in my Soul and harken to the least whisperings of the Spirit of Grace A tenth Lesson 10 Lesson Communion with God by Chastisements God draws the Soul into sweet and near communion with himself Outward prosperity is a great snare to our communion with God Partly because by letting out our affections inordinately to the creature we suffer the world to come in between God and our hearts and so intercept that sweet and constant traffique and intercourse which should be between God and our Souls Gods people offend most in their lawful comforts because there the snare being not so visible as in grosser sins they are the easilier taken we are soonest surprized where we are least jealous Partly also for want of keeping up our watch against lesser sins While our hearts are warmed with prosperity we think many times small sins can do no great harm but herein we do wofully deceive our selves for besides that the least sin hath the nature of sin in it as the least drop of poyson is poyson and that in smaller sins there is the greater contempt of God in as much as we stand out with God for a trifle as we count it and venture his displeasure for a little sensual satisfaction I say besides these and many other considerations which may render our small sins great provocations this is one unspeakable mischief that small sins intercept our communion with God as much as great sins and sometimes more For whereas great sins by making deep wounds upon Conscience make the Soul go bleeding to the Throne of Grace and there to mourn and lament and never to give God rest till he gives rest to the Soul and by a fresh sprinkling of the Blood of Christ to recover peace and communion with God Smaller sins not impressing such horror upon the Conscience are swallowed in silence with less regret and so do ininsensibly alienate and estrange the heart from Jesus Christ The least hair casts its shadow a Barly corn layd upon the sight of the eye will keep out the light of the Sun as well as a Mountain The eye of the Soul must be kept very clear that will see God Matth. 5 8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Little sins though they do not disturb Reason so much as great sins yet they defile Conscience and the Conscience under defilement unlamented is shy of God and God of it But now affliction fanctified as it doth deaden the heart to the world so it doth awaken and intender Conscience towards sin Fecisti nos Domine ad te in quietum est cor nostrum donec requiescet in te Aug. Med. the Soul is made sensible of her departures from God and of the bitter fruits of that departure and now begins to lament after God in Augustin's language Lord thou hast made my heart for thy self and it is restless and unquiet till it can rest in thee Return unto thy rest O my Soul The Soul hath many turnings and windings but with Noah's Dove it can find no place for the sole of its foot to rest on till it return into the Ark from whence it came And now when the Soul hath been weather-beaten abroad if God will please to put forth his hand and take it into himself Psal 88. â— 18 when dearest relations are become strangers as David complains if God come and give the Soul a visit when the poor creature is in darkness and can see no light then for God to lift up the light of his countenance and shine in a gracious smile upon the Soul and say unto it I am thy Salvation of what sweet and unspeakable refreshment and consolation is this to the afflicted spirit And what a gracious condescention is this in God that when the Soul by prosperity hath waxed wanton against Christ and sported it self in unspouse-like familiarities with strangers Jesus Christ should send it into the house of Correction and there by the discipline of the Rod correct and work out the wantonness of the flesh and when he hath made it meet for his presence take it into sweet and social communion with himself This is stupendious Mercy Goodness that cannot be parallel'd in the whole Creation Ier. 3.1 In the eleventh place 11 Lesson The Exercise of Grace God maketh affliction the exercise and improvement of grace In prosperity grace many times lieth dead and useless in the Soul which affliction awakens and draweth forth into exercise the winter of our outward comforts proves not seldom the spring of our graces Frosts and Snow do starve the weeds and nourish the good corn Though faith and patience be of an universal influence into the holy life Gal. 2.20 The life I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God yet affliction giveth them their perfect work Of the times of persecution it is said Rev. 13 10 Here is the patience and faith of the Saints that is now is the time for the Saints of God to exert their faith and patience and to let them have their perfect work
represent the exceeding sinfulness that is in sin the stain and spot whereof could be washt out with no other element but the blood of the Son of God for as it was purchasing blood so it was expiating blood He hath loved us and washed us with his own blood Rev. 1 6. But though this be the purest glass yet God doth make frequent and great use of the third glass also sc afflictions and chastisements for sin to discover to the Children of promise the greatness of that evil which is in sin It is very notable how God brings the Israelites this glass in their affliction and bids them as it were see their face in it Jer. 2. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my feare is not in thee saith the Lord God of Hosts verse 19. In this glass he discovers to them a fourfold evil in sin 1. As it is cause of all other evils of punishment verse 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken me c. he bids them read all their sins in their punishments he bids them look upon sin as a Mother-evil that hath all other evils in the womb of it q. d. Thank thy self for all the affliction that is upon thee thou hast procured this unto thy self art thou in captivity in prison in distress c. Thank thy Idolatry and thy Adulteries whereby thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Thank thy self for all the misery that is upon thee every mans heart may say to him as Apollodorus his heart cryed to him out of the boyling Chaldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut I have bin the cause of all this As Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin so sin when it is finished when it is perfected Iames 1.15 will bring forth death sin is the Child of Lust and the Mother of Death 2. In this glass God represents sin to their view as an evil in it self know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that sin doth not only bring evil but is evil it is an evil thing not only that it works bitterness but is bitterness it is a bitter thing it hath a bitter root as well as it brings forth bitter fruits God leads the sinner by affliction to take notice not only what sin doth but what sin is It is evil Yea 3. That it is a pure unmixt evil It is an evil thing the whole being of sin is evil In the evil of affliction there is some good for it hath God for the Author Is there an evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3 6 Rom. 8 28. Psal 119.71 And it hath good for its end all things shall work together for good to them that love God It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted But now sin is a simple uncompounded evil 1 Iohn 3.8 Rom. 6.23 for it hath the Devil for the Author he that committeth sin is of the Devil and death for its end the wages of sin is death death in its vastest comprehension sin is evil all over 4. The glass represents it yet worse that is as it is an evil against God It is a departure from God thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God verse 17. and so again v. 19. Sin is averstâ—a deo conversio ad creaturam Ier. 2.13 thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God my fear is not in thee Sin as the Schools define it is an aversion from God and a conversion or turning to the Creature My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and shewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Sin is not only an unmixt evil but a twisted multiplyed evil It is a departure from the fountain of life and glory and a turning to a scanty and a broken Vessel which leaks out as fast as it is poured in Now here is the exceeding sinfulness of sin that it is an evil against God punishment is but an evil against the Creature thou hast procured this unto thy self affliction is but a contradiction to the will of the Creature but sin is a contradiction to the will of God whence we may safely conclude that there is more evil in the least sin then there is in the greatest punishment even Hell it self the Hell that is in sin is worse then the Hell that is prepared for sin Yea and behold one evil more in this glass the aggravation of all the rest and that is 5ly that sin is a causless evil a causless departure thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way v. 17. when he led thee as a Guide to direct thee lead thee as a stay to support thee he put underneath thee his everlasting arms he led thee as a Convoy to guard thee led thee as a Father to provide for thee Thou wantedst nothing and yet thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God This is the aggravation verse 31. O generation Generation of what why of what you will God leaves a space as it were that they may write down what they please Generation of Vipers Generation of Monsters any thing rather then the Generation of his children O Generation see the word of the Lord still he holds the Glass before their eyes and what are they to behold there why their causeless Apostacy and rebellions for so it follows have I been a barren Wilderness a Land of darkness have ye wanted any thing wherefore then say my people we will come no more unto thee oh this departure is causeless and wilful God saith to the sinner as Pharaoh said to Jeroboam when he would be gone from him 1 Kings 11.22 But what hast thou lacked with me that behold thou seekest to be gone from me and the sinner seemeth to answer God as Jeroboam there answered Pharaoh nothing howbeit let me go in any wise Jeroboam could come to Pharaoh when he was in distress but when the storm was over at home he will be gone again though he cannot tell why and so deals the treacherous heart with God and this causeless departure from God is an high aggravation of sin God is often upon it as Isa 1.2 and Amos 6.3 4 5 c. The soul sinneth only because it will sin In a word Affliction is one of Gods tribunals where the sinner is arraigned evicted and condemned As many as I love I rebuke and chasten the Greek words signifie to convince and correct Rev. 3 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by correction to convince of sin truly in affliction sin is laid open before a mans eyes in such sort as he is inforced to plead guilty God sits as Judg Conscience is witness a thousand witnesses sin the inditement affliction both evidence and execution Hence it is that sooner or
to extinguish that light which distrubeth their quiet Rom. 1 18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies forcibly unjustly to withhold They hold the truth in unrighteousness Gr they imprison the Truth and will not suffer it to do its office But saving Teaching is sweet and delightful because it is suitable to the renewed part to which it comes in with fresh succors to relieve and fortifie it against the assaults of opposite corruption I say it is always sweet in that respect but never more sweet then in affliction the bitterness of adversity giving a more delicate rellish unto the Word by healing the distempers of the spiritual palate and then the Soul cryeth out with Jeremy in the prison Thy Words were sound and I did eat them and thy Word was unto me the joy and the rejoycing of my heart Jerem. 15.16 6. And lastly 6 Property Abiding Divine Teaching is an abiding Teaching The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you 1 Joh. 2.27 Notional knowledg where it is no more is flitting and inconsistent and leaveth the Soul dubious and uncertain Observe how the Apostle S. James expresseth it speaking of the meer notional hearer Jam. 1.24 He beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what man he was Observe he doth not onely forget what he heard but he forgets what he was The glass whether Word or Affliction discovered to him his spots shewed him his pride his covetousness the impurity of heart and life c. but he goeth away and forgetteth what manner he was he forgets the Word he forgets the Rod and what both Word and Rod discovered to him together with the resolutions and promises made to God in both A godly man may forget the Word a gracious heart may have a bad memory but he will not so easily forget himself he doth not forget his spots and that keeps him in continual work to wash and PURGE himself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit Remembering mine affliction and my misery Lam. 3.20 the wormwood and the gall My Soul hath them STILL IN REMEMBRANCE and is humbled in me The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways Iam. 1.8 Humane Teaching beget at best but opinion not faith the Word implieth one that is distracted and divided in his thoughts floating betwixt two contrary Opinions There be notions contradicting notions and principles fighting against principles and such knowledg is not abiding knowledg this unfixedness in principles produceth instability in practice if a man be double-minded in his principles he will be unstable in all his ways none are so constant in the profession of any truth as they that are fully convinced and assured of it none so stable in their conversation as they that are rooted and stablished in the present Truth This is the effect of Gods Teaching it keeps the judgment steady and the heart stable Teach me O Lord Ps 119.33 the way of thy Statutes and I will keep it unto the end He dares promise Perseverance if God will undertake Instruction and accordingly he made good his promise upon this very account I have not departed from thy Judgments for thou hast taught me Observe it He doth not say I will keep thy Statutes but he can say and that many years after I have kept thy Statutes Many will say in their affliction I will keep thy Statutes promise fair if God will but deliver them but how few can say with David I have kept I have not departed from thy Judgments Of old time saith God I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds and thou saidst I WILL NOT transgress Jer. 2.20 when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot Good words in trouble but poor performance out of trouble no sooner out of affliction but they fall again to their old trade of spiritual Adultery against God no sooner their old hearts and their old temptations meet but they close and embrace one another they started aside like a broken bow I but David was taught of God and therfore he is as careful to make good his vows as to make good vows I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered Psal 66 and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble The after part of Davids life was much more severe and exact then the former I have not departed from thy Judgments for thou hast taught me These are the properties of Divine Teachings but lest I should lay a snare before the blinde and make the heart sad which God would not have made sad I must of necessity lay in a few brief Cantions When we say God teacheth 1. Inwardly 2. Clearly 3. Experimentally 4. Powerfully 5. Sweetly 6. Abidingly It is not so to be understood Cantions First 1. God teacheth not all at first As if God taught All at first viz. either All Truths or All of any truth God doth not teach all his Lessons at the first entrance into the School of Affliction at least not usually for we dare not limit God The fruit of Affliction is not gathered presently No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Heb. 12.11 nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby Teaching is the fruit of affliction and fruit is not gathered presently it must have a ripening time And therefore O thou discouraged Soul say not God doth not teach thee at all if he do not teach thee all at once The entrance of thy Word giveth light God lets in light by degrees Usually God teacheth his children as we teach ours now a little and then a little Isa 28.10 somewhat this week and more next week somewhat by this affliction and more by the next affliction and more by a third c. It is not to be despised if God discover to the Soul the need of divine Teaching and engage the heart in holy desires and longings after it so that the afflicted Soul can say in sincerity My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times Ps 119.20 Secondly 2 Caution nor all Alike When we say that God teacheth whom he chasteneth and teacheth them thus and thus it is not to be understood as if he taught All alike God hath several Forms in the School of Affliction as well as in the School of the Word There be fathers for experience 1 Ioh. 2.12 young men for strength and babes for the truth and being of Grace And therefore if God have not taught thee so much as another say not here again he hath not taught me at all As one Star differeth from another in glory so also is the School of Christ it is free grace thou art a star though thou art not a star of the first or second magnitude that God hath let in some divine light though not so
single them out to encounter with unparalleld affliction so on the other side it is an incentive to compassion to them that are free to consider that they are liable to the same temptations therfore should measure out the same compassions to their suffering brethren that they would expect in the same tryals not knowing how soon the cup of trembling may be put into their own hand to be sure insensibleness of other mens miseries will hasten it They put far away the evil day Amos 6.3 4 5 6 they lie upon beds of Ivory c. eat Lambs out of he flock and Calves out of the stall c. drink wine in bowls c. i. e. they give themselves up to all maoner of sensuality and thereby drown the sense of their brethrens miseries they are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph they lay not the affliction of the Church to heart it never cost them an hours sleep they abated nothing of all their sensual excesses they never turn aside to shed one tear over bleeding Sion in secret what follows why saith God therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive Verse 7. and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed as if God should have said As I live because you have not pityed your brethren in captivity you your selves shall be led away captive and the next turn shall be yours and there you shall learn by experience what it is to be plundred and what it is to lie in chains what it is to have cruel Taskmasters set over you what it is to want bread you shall banquet it no more you shall feel by sense what you would not feel by sympathy And therefore Christians set your hearts to the afflictions of the Church and people of God it is the great duty which the times call for and I am afraid God is now visiting England and London for the neglect of this duty We are verily guilty concerning our brethren in Germany in Ireland in England and Scotland c. in that we saw the anguish of their souls when they besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us We have not grieved their sorrows nor wept their tears nor sigh'd their groans nor bled their blood and therefore may fear lest God should say unto us also even unto us With the next that go into captivity they shall go into captivity with the next that are plundered and spoyled London shall be plunder'd and spoyl'd with the next that shall be imprison'd you shall be taken prisoners with the next that shall be slain with the sword you shall be slain with the sword you wives shall be made widows and your children shall be made fatherless and your dwellings shall cast you out and be left desolate And therefore let us look to it and know in this our day the things of our peace before they be hid from our eyes Shew compassion that you may not need compassion or if you need it you may finde it In like manner set your hearts to the other Lessons which God teacheth by his chastisements Prize Creature-comforts more and surfeit upon them less be more thankful and less sensual especially prize a Gospel while ye have a Gospel prize it by its worth Amos 8. ◠that you may not prize it by the want prize it that you may keep it lest you prize it one day when you cannot recover it that 's a dreadful word They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord Hosea 5.6 but they shall not FIND Him Amos 8.11 And I wil send a famine not of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord c. and they shall run to and fro Verse 12 to seek the Word of the Lord and Shall not FIND IT Study self-denyal meekness of spirit labor to discover the hidden corruptions of your own hearts be still digging in that dunghill you will finde it a bottomless pit The heart is deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 and desperately wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart Oh entreat the Lord to discover your hearts to you Study Scripture-evidence for your interest in Christ rest not in any evidence which you will not venture your souls upon if you were to dye this moment Labor to maintain sweet communion with God to be able to say with the Apostle and to say truly Our communion is with the Father 1 Joh. 1.3 and with his Son Jesus Christ Make God your choyce and not your necessity and labor to maintain such constant converse with him that when you dye you may change your place onely but not your company Live up in the exercise of your grace add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledg and to knowledg temperance 2 Pet. 1.5 6 and to temperance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity Be adding one grace to another and one degree of grace to another and one exercise of grace to another exercise of grace that you may not put God to add affliction to affliction and sorrow to sorrow while others are adding sin to sin drunkenness to thirst do you add grace to grace Be stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord c. Acquaint your selves with God Iob 22.21 and good shall come thereby Study to know God more and love him better This is Life eternal c. Joh. 17.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6.3 Minde I beseech you while you are in your strength and peace that one thing necessary there is but one thing necessary Hoc age there be many may-be's but one must-be O take heed of industrious folly and dis-spirit not your selves in the pursuit of trifles minde your work Redeem the time the days are evil O that Christians would study the worth of time value a day say of every HOUR yea of every moment This is TIME Redeem time while you have it redeem time while time may do you good Evil days are coming wherein you will say I have no pleasure in them Yea the days are evil evil with sin evil with sorrow redeem the time to do good to receive good that neither you may be the worse for the times nor the times for you Happy shall that man be call'd who contributeth not to the heap of the God-provoking abominations nor receiveth impressions from the hypocrisie and prevarication of the present generation Study the sufferings of Jesus Christ Resolve with Paul to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified A due contemplation of the Cross wil heighten Christs Love and lessen your own suffrings And labor to get your conversation in Heaven Looking for and hastening to or as the word signifies * 2 Pet. 3 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. hasting the
whom it was pen'd Probably by David when himself and the rest of the Godly Party were under a â—ore and bitter persecution by * Non est dubium quin de oppressoribus domestâ—cis â—â—quatur quorum iniqua dominatio non minus Sanctis infesto molista erat quam omnes Gentium injuriae Calv. in loc Presertim ad regnum Saulis sanguinolentum ac violentum referri potest Musc in loc Saul and others of that bloody and hypocritical faction that bare sway under him Briefly In the Psalm the Prophet doth these three things 1. He doth appeal to God for vengeance on the persecutors describing them by their pride v. 2. Prophaneness v. 3 4. their intemperate virulency of speech v. 4. Cruelty and bloody practises v. 5 6. and lastly by their Atheisticall security v. 7. 2. He diverteth to the Enemies endeavouring to convince them of the bruitishness and folly of their Atheism the Mother and Nurse of the other impieties charged on them v. 8. and that by a threefold Argument sc 1. The power and skill of God in creating the hearing and seeing Organ in Man v. 9. 2. The Soveraignty of God and the Righteousness of his Judgments which he executes in the world v. 10. the former part 3. His Wisdome and knowledge in enduing man with such an excellent intellectual faculty whereby even the creature it self is able to attain to admirable degrees of knowledge v. 10. latter part and 11. 3. He labours to comfort the godly against all the pressures and persecutions under which they did groan and languish The first Argument which the Psalmist useth to this purpose is in the Text. sc The sweet fruit which is to be gathered from the bitter root of affliction which being accompanyed with divine instruction is no longer to be esteemed a punishment but a blessing Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law This being the subject I intend to insist upon I shall without any more ado contract it into this Doctrinal point of Observation sc That man is a blessed man Doct. whose Chastisements are joyn'd with Divine Teachings or It is a blessed thing when Correction and instruction go together The Rod and the Word make up a compleat blessing I shall take chastisements here in the utmost latitude for all kindes and degrees of sufferings whether from God or Man or Satan whether sufferings for Sin or sufferings for Righteousness sake And for the Doctrinal part of the Point I shall endeavor these four things 1. To shew you what those Lessons are which God doth teach his people by his chastisements 2. What the Nature and Properties of Divine Teachings are 3. In what tendency Correction lyeth in Order unto these teachings or what Use God doth make of Affliction for the carrying on of the Work of instruction in the hearts of his People 4. I shall lay down the Grounds and Demonstrations of the Point or Considerations to evince the happiness of that man whom God is pleased to teach by his Corrections I begin with the Lessons which God doth usually teach his people in a suffering condition Amongst many which may fall within the experience of the suffering Saints of God I shall observe unto you twenty severall Lessons Cant. 6.6 most whereof like the teeth of the Spouse you shall see will bear twins or if any of them should fail the rest will more then make up the account which when I have presented at large 20 Lessons which God teacheth by affliction I shall then contract into three summary and comprehensive Instructions which will contain the substance of all The first Lesson which God teacheth by Affliction is 1. Lesson-Compassion towards sufferers Compassion towards them which are in a suffering condition Truly we are very prone to be insensible of our Brethrens sufferings when we our selves are at ease in Zion Partly by reason of that sensuality which is in our natures reigning in carnal men and dwelling even in the regenerate themselves whereby we let out our hearts so inordinately to our own comforts as to quench the tenderness and sense which we ought to have of the miseries and hardships of other men Partly out of the delicacy of self-love which makes us unwilling to sowre the rellish of our own sweet fruitions with the bitter taste of strangers afflictions Partly through sluggishness and torpor of spirit which makes us unwilling to rise up from the bed of ease and pleasure to travel in the enquiry of the state of our Brethren either abroad or at home so that as the Apostle saith in another case we are willingly ignorant and are not only strangers but are content to be strangers to their miseries and calamities One way or other even Christians themselves and such as are truly so called are more or less guilty of the sin of the Gentiles Rom. 1.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without natural affection unmerciful without bowels without compassion Hence you may find that it was one of the errands upon which God sent Israel into Egypt that in the brick-kills there their hard hearts might be softened and melted into compassion towards strangers and captives Therefore when God had turn'd their Captivity that was one of the first lessons of which he puts them in mind Thou shalt not oppress a stranger there 's the duty which though negatively exprest yet according to the Rule of interpreting the Commandments doth include all the affirmative duties of mercy and compassion and the motive follows for you know the heart of a stranger How came they to know it seeing ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt As if God had said I sent you on purpose into Egypt that by the experience of your own sufferings and miseries you might learn as long as you live to lay to heart the anguish and agonies of strangers and captives that whensoever you see a stranger in your habitations you may say O here is a poor Sojourner an Exile I will surely have mercy upon him and shew him kindness for I my self have been a stranger and a bondslave in Egypt I know by experience what a fearful trembling bleeding heart he carrieth in his bosom c. And upon this very account God still brings variety of afflictions and sorrows upon his own children he suffereth them to be plundered banished imprisoned reduced to great extremities that by their own experience they may learn to draw out their bowels towards such objects of pity that they might say within themselves I know the heart of this afflicted Soul I know what it is to be plundered to be rich one day and the very next day to be stript naked of all ones comforts and accommodations I know what it is to hear poor hunger-starved children cry for bread and there is none to give them I know what it is to be banisht from dearest relations to be like arms
true moly though the root be bitter yet the fruit is sweet there is meat in the eater out of the strong comes sweetness and then when the Soul begins to taste the sweet fruit which grows upon that bitter root it says with the Church in the Lamentations Lam. 3 26 27 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord it is good that a man should bear the yoke in his youth i. e. I shall not be a loser by my sufferings I see the fruit will abundantly compensate the smart of a suffering condition Thus I say one way or other God works his children into a sweet obediential frame by their sufferings Even of Christ himself the Son of God by nature it is said Heb. 5 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. reipsa expertue est He learned obedience by the things which he suffered He experimentally came to know what it was to be subject to the Will of his Father It is most properly true of the adopted children they learn obedience by the things which they suffer and that not only in a passive but in an active sence By suffering Gods Will we learn to do Gods Will God hath no such obedient children as those whom he nurtures in the School of affliction At length God brings all his Scholars to subscribe What God will When God will How God will Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven A blessed Lesson A Fourth is 4 Lesson Humility Humility and Meekness of Spirit It is one of Gods designs in affliction to hide pride from man Iob 33.17 to spread sackcloth upon all his glory that so man may see no excellency in all the creature wherein to pride himself God led Israel forty years in the wilderness to humble them By the thorns of the wilderness God prickt the bladder of pride and let out the windyness of self-opinion that was in their hearts Prosperity usually makes men surly and supercilious towards their poor brethren Pro. 18 23 The rich answers roughly Even while the poor useth entreaties maketh his addresses to him with all humility and observance he holds up his head or turns his back upon him with scorn and contempt and thinks himself too good to give his poor neighbor a soft and peaceable answer Ioquuntur lapides they speak hard things these rough-cast Nabals Riches make men proud but poverty humbleth the heart a man cannot tell how to speak to them Pride is an humor which naturally runs in our veins and it is nourish'd by ease and prosperity And therefore to tame this pride of spirit that is in man God takes him into the house of Correction puts his feet in the stocks and there teacheth him to know himself He humbled thee Deut. 8.3 and suffered thee to hunger Hunger brought down Israels stomack did eat out that proud flesh which began to rankle Hence it is that if you take the children of God either yet in or newly come out of the furnace of affliction you shall observe them to be the tamest meekest creatures upon the earth as it is said of the new Convert Isa 11.6 A little child may lead them whereas before it may be they were so stiff and high in the instep that an angel of God could not tell how to deal with them now the meanest of Gods ministers or servants may reprove and counsel c. a little child may lead them That David whom Sin made so fierce that he put his poor Ammonitish prisoners and captives to death in cold bloud 2 Sam. 12 31 yea tormented them to death with sawes and harrows and axes of iron and burnt them alive in fiery brick-kils Him did banishment and persecution make so tame that not only the righteous might reprove him but even the wicked might reproach him Psa 141 5 and he holds his peace or if he speak they be words of patience and submission 2 Sam. 16.10 So let him curse because the Lord hath said curse David A man by trouble comes to know his own heart which in prosperity he was a stranger to seeth the weakness of his grace and the strength of his corruption how nothing is weak but grace nothing strong but sin and this lays him in the dust Oh wretch that I am And truly when a man hath learned this lesson he is not far from deliverance Seek the Lord all ye meek of the earth Zeph. 2.3 seek righteousness seek meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger This is Gods design first to meeken his people by affliction and then to save them from affliction Psa 149.4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifis the meek with salvation Fifthly 5 Lesson Dâ—scovery of corruption Dent 8.2 God by affliction discovers unknown corruption in the hearts of his people He led thee through the Wilderness these forty yeers to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thy heart i. e. to make thee know what was in thy heart what pride what impatience what unbelief what idolatry what distrust of God what murmur what unthankfulness was in thy heart thou never tookest notice of it I tell you Christians sin lieth very close and deep and is not easily discerned till the fire of affliction comes and makes a separation of the precious from the vile The furnace discovers the dross which lay hid before Ier. 9 7 What shall I do saith God for the daughter of my people they are exceeding bad and they know it not what shall I do with them I will melt them and try them into the furnace they shall and there I will discover themselves to themselves and shew them what is in their hearts In the furnace we see more corruption and more of corruption then ever appeared or was suspected On saith the poor soul whom God hath taught in the School of affliction I never thought my heart so bad as now I see it is I could not have believed the world had had so much interest in my heart and Christ so little I did not think my faith had been so weak and my fears so strong I finde that faith weak in danger which I had thought had been strong out of danger little did I think the sight of death would have been so terrible parting with nearest friends and dearest relations so piercing Oh how unskilful and unwise am I to manage a suffering condition to discern Gods ends to finde out what God would have me to do to moderate the violences of mine own passions to apply the counsels and comforts of the Word for their proper ends and uses Oh where is my patience my love my zeal my rejoycing in tribulation Ah did I ever think to finde my heart so discomposed my affections so out of command my graces so to seek when I should
of the ungodly but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night Psa 1â— 1 2 But what through distraction without and distemper within the children of God many times grow strangers to their Bibles they suffer diversions to interpose between the word and their hearts and as they pray arbitrarily so they read arbitrarily and suffer their Bibles to ly by the walls while they are taken up with other entertainments in the world and therefore God is forced to deal with them as we do with our children to whip them to their books by the rod of correction It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes When they are cast out by the world then they can run to the World Psal 119.23 Princes did sit and speak against me i. e. they sat in Councel to take away his life that they might condemn him as a traitor against Saul and what did he in the mean time it follows but thy servant did meditate in thy Statutes Ver. 161. And again Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in aw of thy word While the persecutors are consulting with the oracles of hell to sin against David David is consulting with the oracles of heaven that he might not sin against God My heart standeth in awe of thy Word while they sinned and feared not David fears and sins not 2. They learn by affliction to understand the Word more clearly As it was with the Disciples in reference to Christ his Resurrection the Resurrection of Christ was a lively Comment upon the Prophecies of Christ Ioh. 12.16 These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they these things i. e. they remembred them understandingly they remembred them beleevingly they knew what they meant So it is with the people of God many times in reference to affliction the Rod expounds the Word Providence sometimes interprets the Promise The children of God had never understood some Scriptures had not God sent them into the School of affliction then they can remember how it is written c. they can bring Gods Word and Gods Works together 3. Affliction makes them relish the Word more sweetly In prosperity many times we suffer the luscious contentments of the world so to distemper our palates that we cannot relish the Word taste no more sweetness in it then in the white of an egg as Job speaks in another case but when God hath kept them for weeks months and years it may be fasting from the worlds dainties when they are throughly hunger-bitten in the creature then How sweet are thy words to my taste Psalm 119 103 sweeter then honey to my mouth They are the words which David spake in his affliction witness Vers 23. cum 24. Princes did sit and speak against me but thy servant did meditate in thy Statutes and what follows thy Testimonies are my delight And vers 161. with 162. Princes have persecuted me without a cause c. I rejoyce at thy Word as one that findeth great spoyl The Rod did sweeten the Word It is my delight my joy a nest of sweetnesses Prov. 27.7 The full Soul loatheth the Honey-comb When we are fill'd with Creature-comforts we nauseate many times the very Word it self which is sweeter then the honey or honey-comb but to the hungry Soul every bitter thing is sweet Let God famish the world round about us then how cordial is Scripture-consolation How precious are the Promises Oh said a gracious woman reduced to great straits I have made many a meals meat upon the Promises when I have wanted bread The Word is never so sweet as when the world is most bitter and therefore doth God lay mustard upon the teats of the world that we might go to the brests of the Word and there suck and be satisfied with the milk of consolation Isai 66 11 This is my comfort in my affliction Ps 119.50 for thy Word hath quickened me Blessed be God for that Correction which sweetens the Word unto us 8 Lesson The need of sound Evidence for Heaven Eightly God by bringing his people into troubles especially if lifethreatening dangers doth shew them the necessity of sound evidence for Heaven and Happiness Alass with what easie and slight evidences do we often content our selves in the time of our prosperity when the Candle of the Almighty doth shine in our Tabernacles when all is peace and quiet round about us The heart being taken up with other fruitions we want either time or will to pursue the tryal of our own estates People minde onely what will serve their turn for the present and quiet their hearts that they may follow their pleasures and profits with the less regret and therefore to save themselves a labor they take that for evidence which the sluggish carnal heart wisheth were so But now in the hour of temptation fig-leaves will cover nakedness no longer nothing will serve the turn but what will be able to stand before God and endure the tryal of fire in the day of Christ Oh then one clear and unquestionable evidence of interest in Christ and the of love of God wil be worth ten thousand worlds Shadows and appearances of grace will vanish before the Searcher of hearts It must be perfect love that will cast out fear 1. Iohn 4 17 Truth and soundness of grace onely can give boldness in the day of Judgment Ah what idle and deceitful hearts have we in the midst of us that can take up with loose conjectures go to the Word and Sacrament with these evidences upon which we dare not venture to dye And yet good and upright is the Lord that will teach sinners his way Psal 25 8 that by the thunder-claps of his righteous judgments will awaken the vain creature out of these foolish dreams in which if they should dye they were undone for ever Well let us be still urging and pressing this question upon our own Souls Will this faith save me when I come to stand before the Throne of the Lamb Will this Love give me boldness in the Day of Judgment Will this Evidence serve my turn when I come to dye Oh Christians let us be afraid to lie down with that Evidence in our beds wherewith we dare not lie down in our graves 9 Lesson What an evil thing it is to grieve the Spirit A ninth is this In the time of our trouble God causeth us to see what an evil and a bitter thing it is to grieve the good Spirit of God When we are in the bitterness of our spirits and want the Comforter then we begin to call to minde how oft we have grieved the Spirit which would have been a Comforter to us and have sealed us up to the day of Redemption and say within our selves in reference to
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
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
render persecution amiable and if he must suffer for Christ yet that Christ might not suffer by him that Christ might be exalted and the Church edified Col. 1.24 2 Tim. 1 10 1 Pet. 4 19 This God taught him I have learned c. And lastly to commit the keeping of our Souls to God in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator The sixteenth Lesson is like unto it and that is The priviledg of a suffering condition In the School of Affliction one Lecture which the Holy Ghost readeth is the fruits and advantages of a suffering condition There is in every state of life a snare and a priviledg and it is the folly and misery of man left to himself that he willingly runs into the snare and misseth of the priviledg he is onely able to add to his own misery and to make his condition worse then he findes it Those whom God loveth he teacheth he teacheth them to study as the duty of their present state so the advantage When God takes away creature-comforts he doth not onely necessitate but by the secret impressions of love upon the heart he emboldens the Soul to look out for reparations and to urge God for a recruit in some richer accommodations Lord saith Abraham What wilt thou give me Gen. 15.2 seeing I go childless God had denyed Abraham a childe and He must make Abraham amends for it In like manner Lord what wilt thou give me saith a suffering Saint since I go wifeless and friendless and landless and houseless c. yea Lord what wilt thou give me since I go Ordinance-less Sermon-less Sacrament-less c. So the Disciples Mat. 10.28 Lord we have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore Faith may be a loser for Christ but it will not be a loser by Christ and accordingly Christ maketh an answer of faithfulness to this demand of Faith Verily I say unto you ver 29 30 there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sistors or father or mother or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time c. Advantage enough an hundred for one was the best year that ever Isaac had Gen. 26.12 I but how shall this be made good why with persecution Houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands WITH PERSECUTION Persecution must make up the account It is very observable That year wherein Isaac received his hundred fold was Isaac's suffering year the year wherein famine had banish'd him from his own Country to sojourn with Abimelech in Gerer Gen. 26.1 Isaacks best harvest was in a year of famine and this was Typical to all the Children of promise they must receive Isaacks increase upon Isaacks account an hundredfold with persecution And I conceive our Saviour may allude to this Type in this promise In persecution the people of God find their hundredfold when they make a Scripture inquiry they find sufferings especially those for Christs sake to be their letters testimonial for Heaven Luk. 21.13 The pledge of Adoption Heb. 12.6.7 A purge for corruption Isa 27.9 The improvement of Holiness Heb. 12.10 A fining pot to faith 2 Pet. 1.7 Communion with Christ. 1 Pet. 4.13.14 The presence of the spirit of God and of Glory 1 Pet. 4.13.14 The Churches Treasury Colos 1.24 Weak Christians strength Phil. 1.13 14. In both the Gospels advantage Strong Christians confidence Phil. 1.13 14. In both the Gospels advantage And lastly The inhancement of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 18. here 's the hundred fold with advantage In a word what ever the affliction be that it shall be the souls gain Rom. 8.28 all things work together for good to them that love God This God teacheth his people it is the very design of the eight to the Romans and of the twelve first verses of the twelfth to the Hebrews to shew that Gods Rod and Gods Love go both together And this is a sweet and blessed Lessen indeed for this quiets the heart and supports the soul under its burden for this cause we faint not why because though our outward man perisheth yet the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 q. d. what we lose in our bodies we gain in our soules what we lose in our estates we get in grace thus they bear up and comfort themselves in their deepest sorrows while they that lie poring upon their afflictions and are witty only to aggravate every circumstance of a suffering condition sink their own spirits vex their soules dishonour God by slandering his dispensations and bring up an evil report upon the Crosse of Jesus Christ The spiritual priviledges of Gods suffering people are therefore call'd the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12.11 because the tast of this fruit brings in such peace and comfort into the soul as it makes it rejoyce not in God only but in tribulation and in all these things to account it self more then Conqueror through him that hath loved us Rom. 8.37 This is the sixteenth Lesson A seventeenth Lesson which God teacheth by his chastisements 17 Lesson The one thing necessary Luk. 10 42. is that which Christ taught Martha sc what is the one thing necessary affliction discovereth how much we are mistaken about our must bee's our necessaries In our health and strength and liberty we think this thing must be done that thing must be done we think Riches necessary Honours necessary and a Name in the World necessary we must get Estates Psal 49.11 and we must lay up large portions for our Children and we must raise our Families and call our Lands after our own names and the like But in the day of adversity when death looks us in the face when God causeth the horror of the Grave the dread of the last judgment and the terrors of eternity to passe before us then we can put our mouths in the dust smite upon our thigh and sigh with the breaking of our loynes oh how have I been mistaken how have I fed upon ashes and a deceived heart turned me aside Isa 44.20 so that I could not deliver my soul nor say is there not a lie in my right hand Fool how have I been deceived and made the By the main and the main the By. Then we can see that pardon of sin interest in Christ evidence of that interest sence of Gods love a life of Grace and assurance of glory c. are the only indispensibles In a word that Christ alone is the Vnum necessarium the one thing necessary and that all other things at the best are but may-bees yea but losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus the Lord Phil. 3.8.9 and of interest in him and in his righteousness without which the soul is undon to all eternity And therefore oh that Christians would be wise that they would not spend their mony
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
1 Tim. 3.6 for now in Christ it is God manifest in the flesh the humane nature of Jesus Christ hath made God visible In this face now of Jesus Christ do they whom God teacheth by a saving Gospel-teaching see divine truth i. e. they see it now not only by borrowed representations and natural resemblances Ephes 4.21 but in its own native beauty and lustre as the truth is in Jesus He hath shined into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 property clear convincing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist A Syllogisme whereby the respondent is forced to contradict himself either concessa negando or per negata concedendo This is the first property of Divine Teaching It is inward and that both in respect of Subject Object 2. Divine Covenant-teaching is a clear convincing teaching so our Saviour of the spirit when He is come he shall CONVINCE the world c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifieth a clear demonstrative conviction so the Apostle defines faith to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence or demonstration the evident demonstration of things not seen The Holy Ghost in his teachings brings in divine Truths with such a clear and convincing light that the soul sits down under it fully satisfied it is not only convinc'd to silence but to assurance it doth sweetly and freely acquiesce in the present truths Now I know saith Moses Father-law that the Lord is greater then all Gods He had heard of God before Exod. 13.11 but that bred but opinion only but now he is throughly convinced I know that the Lord is greater then all Gods So David concerning his afflictions Psal 119.75 I know Lord that thy judgments are right and that of faithfulness thou hast afflicted me He was fully satisfied both of the equity and fidelity of Gods chastisements right in respect of the merit and faithful in respect of the end And thus in all the Lessons before presented to your view and in all other what God teacheth he teacheth with such a clear evidence of truth that the soul is set beyond all peradventure 1 Thes 1.5 Our Gospel came unto you not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much full assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word hath a double and a treble emphasis assurance full assurance and much full assurance such are the teachings of the Holy Ghost Common teaching may convince to silence but the understanding may remain doubtful still Formido oppositi there is that which the Schools call suspence or hesitancy in the understanding there is not a full and clear assent in the understanding to the truths propounded but a man remains in the Apostles Language a double minded man or as the word signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-sould man duplex amino a man of a double or doubtful or divided spirit floating between different opinions one soul as it were beleeveth this way and another soul beleeveth that way one while he beleeveth there is a God and anon the fool saith in his heart there is no God sometimes he calls sin evil and anon again he thinks it good He beleeveth and he beleeveth not sometimes what he heareth from the word is truth sometimes he thinks again it is but an invention of man there may be some mistake in it But now the teachings of God set a man beyond all those fluctuations and unsetledness in judgment there is that which the Apostle calls the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God Assurance of principles Col. 2.2 even when the soul may possibly want the assurance of application A third property of divine teaching It is an experimental teaching 3d property experimental The soul can speak experimentally of the truths it knows it is good for me saith David Psal 119.71 that I have been afflicted why but may not any man say as much as that yes few men there are but have the Notion in their heads in their lips I but mark I pray the Psalmist speaks experimentally to the point and doth instance the good which he had gained by affliction I have learned thy statutes He had learned more acquaintance with the word more delight in the word more conformity to the word He knew it more and loved it better and was more transformed into the nature of it then ever c. So Psal 116.6 The Lord proserveth the simple i. e. God stands by his upright hearted ones to secure them from violence a good notion but any man may have it in the proposition I but David hath it in the experience I was brought low and he helped me my faith was brought low and my comfort was brought low and my resolutions were brought low my feet had welnigh slipt Psal 73.2 but God helpt my faith revived my comfort strengthened my resolutions and stablisht my feet thou hast holden me by my right hand 2 Tim. 1.22 vers 23. Thus St. Paul I know whom I have beleeved c. I have experienc't his faithfulness and his All-sufficiency I dare trust my All with him I am sure he will keep it safe to that day And thus they that are taught of God in affliction can speak experimentally in one degree or other of the gains and priviledges of a suffering condition they can speak experimentally of Communion with God though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Psal 23 4 I will fear no evil why for thou art with me I have had comfortable experience of thy upholding councelling comforting presence with me in my deepest desertions so of other fruits of affliction this I had Psal 119.56 this I have got by my sufferings I bless God I have learned more patience humility self-denial c. to be more sensible of my Brethrens sufferings to sit looser to the World to minde duty and to trust safely with God to prepare for death and to provide for eternity one way or other it is good for me I could not have been without this affliction c. Common knowledg rests in generals lieth more in propositions then in application but they that are taught of God can say as we have heard so have we SEEN they can go along with every truth and say It is so I have experienc'd this Word upon mine own heart Iohn 3.33 they can set to their seal that God is true 4. 4 Property Powerful Divine Covenant teaching is a powerful teaching After a man hath got many truths into the understanding the main work is yet to do and that is to bring down holy truths to action to draw forth divine principles into practice a natural man may know much he may have an heap of truths in his understanding but they all lie strengthless in the brain he
hath no power to live the truths he knows Covenant-teachings convey strength as well as light and do what they teach Isa 8.11.12 The Lord spake to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people saying say ye not a confederacy to them who say a confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself c. It is a most sweet and comfortable Scripture and that in two respects 1. In respect of what it implieth 2. In respect of what it expresseth First it implieth thus much sc that even the Holy Prophet himself had no small combate and conflict within himself what to do in such a juncture of time as that was when it was told the house of David Chap 7.8 saying Syria is confederate with Ephraim that is that both those Kingdoms had made a League together and were now upon their march with their combined forces to make War against the House of David it was sad news and the Text saith The heart of Ahaz and the heart of the people was moved as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind i. e. They were terribly afraid even ready to die for fear and in that fear abundance of the people fell off to the enemy and engaged with them as it is intimated Chap. 86. They refuse the waters of Shiloh that go softly i. e. they lookt upon the forces of Jerusalem as poor and inconsiderable Câ—m suâ—n paâ—citatem tenuitatem iâ—tuâ—bantar trepidabaâ—t c. putabant se tutisâ—imâ—s sore si tam potenâ— ipsis Râ—x contigissâ—t quam Isralitis e Calv. in loc no ways able to oppose and engage so potent an adversary as came against them and so deserted their own party and rejoyced in Rezin and Remaliah's Son they rejoyced in them i.e. to cover their defection from their true Soveraign they cryed up the invaders as their best friends who cam to rescue them from the tyranny oppression of Ahaz And it seems the Prophet Isaiah himself was surprized with fear too for a time and began to dispute the matter within himself whither it were not best for him to strike in with the stronger side and to engage in the confederacy with those two Princes as the multitude did there wanting not probably fair and specious pretences to justifie that defection It seems I say that the Prophet had a sore temptation upon his spirit about this matter and was even ready to determine the question on the affirmative till God came in and instructed him c. And that is the second thing the comfort exprest in these words while the Prophet was thus conflicting and fluctuating in his own thoughts God came in and by strength of hand rebuked his Fears silenc'd his Objections quieted his spirit determined the dispute and instructed him what course to take which was not to comply but to beleeve to study duty and leave safety with God fear not their fear nor be afraid sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself c. Power went forth with instruction taught him what to do and enabled him to do what it taught Blessed be God who hath an Hand to teach his people with as well as a mouth an Hand of power as well as a mouth of instruction had it not been for this the Prophet himself had been certainly carried down the torrent of that apostacy as well as others And there is caution in this instance as well as comfort in reference to our selves and our Brethren and that is in case of surprise by some suddain gusts of fear and temptation not rashly to judg our selves or our Brethren but wisely and calmly to consider 1 Cor. 10.13 it is no other temptation then what is common to man yea to the best of men Iob and David and Ieremiah and Habbakkuk and Peter and here Isaiah were all nonplust and staggerd for a time and recovered only by a powerful word from Heaven and therefore in such cases it becoms Christians to pity rather then to insult and to study to heal rather then to reject Gal. 6.1 considering themselves lest they also be tempted This is the priviledg of the Children of promise strength goeth out from the Covenant with instruction the Lord who commandeth light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts q. d. God hath taught us by such a word as that whereby he made the World a creating word a word that giveth strength as well as Councel And this teaching it is which the Prophet David so frequently importuneth in his prayers Psal 119.33 cum 35. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes make me to Go in the paths of thy Commandments Psal 143.10 Teach me to do thy will mark that not only teach me the way but teach me to go not only teach me thy will but teach me to do thy will Common teaching may teach an Hypocrite the way but saving teaching only teacheth the soul to go in that way an unregenerate man may know the Will of God Nehem. 8 10. but he knoweth not how to do that Will. The joy of the Lord is our strength This is the fifth property A fifth property 5 Property Sweet The Teachings of God are sweet and pleasant teachings Psal 119.102 Psal 119 102 Thou hast taught me what followeth How sweet are thy words unto my taste sweeter then hony unto my mouth He rolled the Word and Promises as Sugar under his tongue and sucked from thence more sweetness then Samson did from his hony-comb Luther said Cum verbo etiam in inferno facile est vivere Luth. Tom. 4. oper lat he would not live in Paradise if he must live without the Word but with the Word saith he I could live in Hell it self When Christ puts in his teaching-hand by the hole of the door to teach the heart Cant. 5.5 his fingers drop sweet smelling myrrhe upon the handles of the Lock The Teachings of Christ leave a sweet remembrance of himself behinde them Cant. 1.4 We will remember thy Love more then wine As people when they are drunk with wine wherein is excess are apt to sing and hollow so those that are filled with the Spirit cannot but insult and triumph in the wonderful things which they taste and see in the Word There cannot be but much spiritual joy in divine Teaching because the Spirit doth accompany the Truths and so irradiate them with his own beauty and glory the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Christ that they do not onely affect but ravish the heart Psal 119 140 Sunt Scripturae tuae Deliciae meae Aug. Thy Word is pure therefore thy servant loveth it The Prophet saw a beam of divine excellency sitting upon the Word and that did ensnare his Soul Truth is burdensom to unsound spirits because convincing and they labor
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
be none to deliver A fifth branch of Information may be to teach us thus much sc 5 Branch Informat They may be blessed whom the world judgeth miserable That they may be blessed whom the world accounts miserabl The World judgeth meerly by outward appearances and therefore may easily be mistaken They see the chastisement which is upon the flesh and thence conclude a man miserable but they cannot discover that divine teaching which is upon the spirit which truly rendereth him incomparably blessed The men of the world are incompetent judges of the estate and condition of Gods Children The godly mans happiness or misery is not to be judged by the worlds sense and feeling Nemo aliorum sensu misâ—r est sâ—a suo Salv. de gub Dei lib. 1. but by his own it lieth inward save onely so far as by the fruits it is discernable and the worlds faculty of judging is onely outward made up of sense and reason therefore said the Apostle The spiritual man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man that is he is able to judg of the condition of the men of the world but the men of the world are not able to judg of his condition because it is above their faculty the natural man thinks the spiritual man under affliction to be miserable but the spiritual man knows the natural man in the midst of his greatest abundance and bravery to be miserable indeed Therefore may the Saints in their troubles think it with Saint Paul 1 Cor. 4 3 a very small thing to be judged of mans judgment This is but * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of mans day mans day of judging so the word signifieth Gods day is coming when things and persons shall be valued by another census or rate Christ in his day shall judg not after the sight of the eyes i.e. not as things appear to sense and reason nor after the hearing of the ears i. e. according to the report of the world but with righteousness shall he judg i. e. He shall judg of things and persons as they are and not as they appear Interim this is also another comfort We have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment of Christ by vertue whereof we are enabled in our measure to judg of things and persons as Christ himself judgeth A sixth branch of Information 6 Branch Insoâ—m To shew the wisdom power and goodness of God Is Chastisement a blessing when accompanyed with Instruction See then and admire the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God who can make his people better by their sufferings Who knows how to ferch oyl out of the scorpion to extract gold out of clay to draw the â—ichest wine out of gall and wormwood that can turn the greatest evil of the body to the greatest good of the Soul the Curse it self into a Blessing that can make the withered rod of affliction to bad Isai 27.9 yea to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Behold I shew you a mystery Sin brought Affliction INTO the world and God makes * By this shal the iniquity of Iacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Affliction to carry sin OUT of the world Persecution is but the pruning Christs Vine c. The Almond tree is made fruitful by driving nails into it Iust Martyr in Apol. letting out a noxious gum that hindereth the fruitfulness thereof God never intendeth more good to his children then when he seems to deal most severely with them Patrium habet Deus adversus bonos viros animum illos fortiter amat Sen. Our tonis viris mala accidant The very Heathen hath observed it to us God doth not love his children with a weak womanish affection but with a strong masculine love and had rather they suffer hardship then perish Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth God will rather fetch blood then lose a Soul break Ephraims bones then suffer him to go on in the frowardness of his heart Destroy the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 11 32 Vâ—ribus res disposita est lugea mus itaque dum Ethnici gaudent ut cumlagere caeperint gaudeamus c. Terr l. de spectic c. 28 7 Branch Inform. Sufferings not dreadful as Nature apprehends We are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world His Discipline is made up of severity and love he doth chastise but he will teach also that so his children may inherit the blessing the discipline is sharp but the end is sweet Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits Seventhly It shews us That a suffering condition is not so formidable a thing as flesh and blood doth represent it It is ignorance and unbelief which slandereth the Dispensations of God and casteth reproach upon the Cross of Christ He that heard the words of God which saw the vision of the Almighty having his eyes opened could by way of holy triumph ask this quâ—stion Why should I fear in the days of evil Psal 49.5 q. d. what is there in an afflicted estate so much to be dreaded let any man shew me a reason and I will give way to fear and despondency And that is more observable which follows When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about This is an addition of the greatest weight and wonder imaginable the meaning is when my transgressions pursue me so close that they even tread upon my heels as it were when sin it self hath brought me into the snare when God is correcting me for my iniquities why truly Christians that 's the thing which a child of God doth most of all tremble at to consider that he hath sin'd himself into a suffering condition In sufferings purely Evangelical viz. persecution for righteousness sake a gracious heart can see many times more cause of rejoycing then of perplexity 1 Pet. 4.13 16 Phil. 1.29 and look upon them as a gift rather then an imposition but afflictions and miseries which sin brings upon a man seem to be judicial and penal and carry a face of wrath rather then of love I but observe it even in these the Psalmâ—st can see no just cause of fear Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about See when sin and sorrows besiege him on every side he is fearless and knows no reason to the contrary unless any one can tell him what it is How so surely upon the same account in my Text because David had a God that could teach as well as chastise and therefore though sin were as poyson in his cup of
affliction yet divine teaching could antidote that poyson and turn it into a cup of blessing unto him Thy rod and thy staff comfort me Psa 23 4. O that the children of God in affliction or entering upon sufferings would sit down and dwell upon this Consideration The fruit and advantage which God knoweth how to bring out of all their sorrows even the peaceable fruits of righteousness This would keep them from uncomely despondencies and dejections of spirit For this cause we faint not saith the Apostle for what cause 2 Cor. 4.16.18 while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen that is to say not at the visible sufferings but at the invisible fruit and advantage of our sufferings This holds up head and keeps up heart and maketh the Soul not onely to be patient but to glory in tribulation Knowing that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5 3 4 5 Pericula non respicit Mar. yr coronas respicit Basil ad 40 Martyr and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us This is the way to counterpoise the temptation and in the conflict between the flesh and the spirit to come in to the succor of the better part Eightly 8 Branch Inform. Why we stay so long under affliction It shews us the reason why God doth keep some of his people so long under the Discipline of the Rod. Truly God doth not onely bring his children into the School of affliction but many times keeps them long there Psa 125.3 The rod of the wicked indeed shall not ALWAYS rest on the back of the righteous I but it may lie long for months for years for many years together seventy years were the Jews in the house of Correction at Babylon four hundred years in the brick-kils of Egypt Story and experience will serve in instances without number Hence you have the people of God so often at their How-longs in Scripture Psal 6.3 But thou O Lord HOVV LONG Psal 13.1 2. HOVV LONG wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever HOVV LONG wilt thou hide thy face from me HOVV LONG shall I take counsel in my Soul HOVV LONG shall mine Enemy be exalted over me In this Psalm where my Text is HOVV LONG shall the wicked HOVV LONG shall the wicked triumph twice How long before he can vent his complaint and yet again the third time HOVV LONG shall they utter and speak hard things HOVV LONG cries Jeremiah Ier. 4.21 shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet and Zechariah Zech. 1.12 O Lord of Hoasts HOVV LONG wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah The Souls under the Altar Revel 6.10 cry with a loud voyce i. e. in much anguish and agony HOVV LONG O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth Verily God doth keep his people sometimes so long under their pressures that they begin at length even to give themselves up to despair and to conclude they shal never see deliverance Thus you finde not onely the common multitude of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity concluding desperately Our bones are dryed Lam. 3.53 our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts dry bones may as well live as our captitivity have an end but even the Prophet Jeremiah himself whether in his own person or in the name of the whole Church I know not possibly both They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me He seems to himself to be in the condition of a man that is dead and buried and the grave-stone rould to the mouth of the Sepulchre a Metaphor expressing an hopeless and desperate condition yea hence it is that when deliverance is nigh they cannot believe it though a Prophet of God or an Angel from Heaven should report it Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her yea the set-time is come sings the Prophet Daniel or some other that lived neer the expiration of the seventy years captivity and yet in the mean time the Jews reply as before Our bones are dryed our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts q. d. tell not us of Gods arising c. we shall never see Sion again we are but dead men Observe it by the way They that would not believe the captivity while it was in the threatening Hab. 1.5 would not believe deliverance when it was in the promise A just judgment upon them that that they that would not beleeve God threatening should not beleeve God promising But that 's not all Deliverance was so incredible after so long a captivity that they could not bleeve it when they saw it When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion Psa 126.1 we were like them that dream They knew not as it fared with Peter half awake and half asleep Acts 12.9 whether it was true or whether they saw a vision onely Is this a real deliverance or are we in a dream onely Our Saviour tells us that when the Son of man shall come Luk. 18.8 i. e. with particular deliverances to his Church he shall not find faith on the earth there will not be faith enough in the people of God to beleeve it by reason of the long pressures and persecutions that have been upon them Now I say what is the reason that God suffers affliction to lie so long upon the backs of his children Truly one Reason is because they have lived long in sin they have been long a sinning and therefore God is long a correcting God puts them to THEIR How-longs because they have put God to HIS How-longs Exod. 6.28 HOVV LONG refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws HOVV LONG will this people provoke me and HOVV LONG will it be ere they believe Jerem. 4.14 HOVV LONG shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Hosea 8.5 HOVV LONG will it be ere they attain to innocency c. And truly if they have made God complain of THEIR How-longs no wonder if God make them complain of HIS How-longs But then again another and the main reason is because the work is not yet done they do not receive Instruction by their Correction else affliction would quickly cease God giveth not a blow he draws not a drop of blood more then needs For a season 1 Pet. 1.6 if NEED be ye are in heaviness if there be heaviness there is need of it and if heaviness continue long there is need of it It is not to gratifie their Enemies that God keeps them so long under their lash but to teach them not that God afflicts willingly Lam. 3.33 c. but that he may do them good in their latter end that by the rod
of Correction he may drive out that folly which is in their hearts And when that is done then they shall stay no longer for their deliverance then God opens the prison doors and throws the rod into the fire and infinite mercy it is that they are not delivered till they are bettered that God will not cease chastening till they are willing to cease sinning saying I have born affliction I will offend no more that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done wickedly I will do so no more Ninthly 9 Branch Inform. How unteachable we are by nature Take notice from hence what unteachable creatures we are by nature who will not set our hearts to receive Instruction till we be whipt to it by the rod of correction and hardly then neither unless God multiply stripes it is not multiplying of precepts that will do us good there must be stripe upon stripe and affliction upon affliction as well as line upon line and precept upon precept or else it is in vain we are so brutish with Ephraim that we make God spends his rods upon us and when all is done God must turn us by main strength or else our folly will not depart from us This is a lamentation and should be for a lamentation We would say that were a very bad child that will be taught no longer then the rod is upon his back such are we we are so indocible that we put God to it as it were to study what methods and courses to take with us How shall I do for the Daughter of my people Ier. 9 7 I will melt them and try them c. Well let us judg our selves and justifie God Tenthly and lastly 10 Branch Inform. How much good hearts love Instruction It sheweth us on the contrary How much gracious hearts are in love with the Word for the improvement of their spiritual knowledg wherein they can put such an estimate upon their sufferings and account that their blessing which other men call their misery BLESSED is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest The Psalmist in another place speaketh very warmly to this purpose It is good for me that I have been afflicted Ps 119 71 why that I might learn thy Statutes He loveth the Word so dearly that for the Words sake he is in love with affliction The whip the rod the prison the wilderness any thing is precious that brings Instruction with it Carnal people can be content to dye in their ignorance so they might dye in their nest whereas gracious hearts think not much to go to School to a Bridewell and even while the blood is running down the back can say it is good because they are taught by it O the different account that Grace and Nature make of the same Dispensation It is proud disdain to scorn to be taught by the lowest of Gods Ushers The treasure is precious Vilis saepe cadus nobile nectar habet though in an earthen vessel There is none too old none too wise none too high to be put into the meanest School on this side Heaven I have done with the use of Information I come now in the second place to the Use of Exhortation And it is to four sorts of People 1. Such as are yet free from sufferings Use Exhor 2. Such as are under sufferings 3. Such as are come out of a suffering condition 4. Parents in reference to their children The first branch of Exhortation is to such as through the patience and forbearance of God are yet free from chastisement and affliction 1 Branch Exhort To them that are free from sufferings The Candle of the Almighty doth shine in their Tabernacle and they wash their steps in butter c. Why now would ye prevent chastisement and keep off the strokes of divine displeasure from your selves or families Let me commend unto you A twofold Caution from this Doctrine 1. Study these Lessons well while ye are in the School of the Word 2. Labor to be instructed by the chastisements and afflictions which you see upon other men First 1 Caution To prevent affliction labor to profit by the Word If you would prevent chastisement study these and the like Lessons well while ye are under the Teachings of the Word Therefore doth God send us into the School of affliction because we have been non-proficients in the School of the Gospel because we will not hear the Word we force God to turn us over to a severer Discipline and to have our ears bored with affliction and then saith God now hear the rod and who hath appointed it O my beloved labor I beseech you to profit much by the Teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospel set your hearts to all the truths and counsels of God revealed to you therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 I am 1.13 The Gospel is the model or platform of sound words able to make you sound Christians wise to Salvation O let your profiting be made known to all men In special set your hearts to those Instructions or Lessons propounded in the Doctrinal part of this subject for the neglect whereof God is fain to send his people into captivity that there he may teach them with the bryars and thorns of the wilderness In particular 1. Learn in the time of your peace and tranquillity to lay to heart the sufferings of the rest of your brethren that are in the world Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them Heb. 3.13 Think of them that are in prison whose feet are hurt in the stocks and the irons do enter into their soul with the very same affection and affliction of spirit as if you your selves lay bound in chains by them in the same dungeon put your Souls in their Souls steads and content not your selves with those loose and fruitless and transient glances which those that are at ease in Sion do usually cast upon men in misery Be thou warmed and filled Iam. 2.16 a cold Lord have mercy on them and there 's an end Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and that you may know you are not to confine your compassion to prisoners onely it follows And them that suffer adversity c. Learn to sympathize with all the people of God under any adversity whatsoever hide not your eyes and shut not up your bowels of compassion from any that are in a suffering condition and that upon this account As being your selves in the body If the duty respect thy brother the motive respects thy self thou art yet in the body and while you remain in the flesh you cannot promise your selves one hours exemption from troubles but are exposed to the same common calamities which attend a state of mortality as it is an argument of comfort to them that are in affliction 1 Cor. 10 13 that their temptations and tryals are common to men God doth not
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
dictate of their own lusts then of Gods Laws till at length God grew as weary if I may so say of counselling as they were of being counselled and gave them up to their own hearts lusts Psa 81.12 to walk in their own counsels That they that would not live by Gods counsels should perish by their own And therefore you that are come out of the house of bondage remember the sorrows of a suffering condition set not your heart so much upon the pleasure of your present enlargement as upon the bitterness of your former captivity The Church found great advantage in it when returned from Babylon Remembering mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall Lam. 3.19 my Soul hath them CONTINUALLY in remembrance and what was the fruit of it it follows And is humbled in me The meaning is this The people of God among the Jews that desired to keep close to God after their great deliverance experienc'd a serious and constant remembrance of those seventy years sufferings to be an excellent preservative to that humble and gracious frame of heart which God wrought them into in their captivity And yet that is not all As remembrance of affliction preserved Humility so Humility strengthened Faith This I recall to minde therefore have I HOPE Tribulation wrought patience and patience experience Rom. 5.3 and experience HOPE c. By the kindly operation of the remembrance of former Dispensations she began to conceive good HOPE through grace that God had not chastened Her in wrath but in love and that all her Tribulations were the fruit of the Promise not of the Threatening a Blessing not a Curse Go you and do likewise Thirdly 3 Help Remember all your uncomely carriage in affliction Call often to minde the sad discourses and reasonings the fears and tremblings which you have had in your bosoms in the times of trouble and distress Thus the Church Lam. 3.17 I forgat prosperity She had been so long in a suffering condition that now she can scarce remember that ever she saw a good day in all her life and at length she sits down and giveth her self up to despair And I SAID my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord She remembreth what unbelieving conclusions she made in her affliction I SAID c. And so the Prophet Jeremiah Vers 54. Waters flowed over mine head then I SAID I am cut off when he began to sink in the mire he remembreth how his heart began to sink with fear he calleth to minde what faithless language his heart spake I SAID I am cut off Thus David I SAID in my passion c. Psal 31.22 and 116.11 and Jonah 2.4 THEN I SAID I am cast out of thy sight Hezekiah makes a large narrative of what discourses he had in his own Soul what time he had received the sentence of death and leaveth it in writing to all posterity Isai 38.9 THE WRITING of Hezekiah King of Judah Isai 38.9 10 when he had been sick I SAID in the cutting off of my days what did he say truly he uttered very strange complaints for such an eminent Saint as he was I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world mine age is departed and a great deal to that purpose The sum whereof is this I shall dye I shall dye I must take my leave of this world and worms must eat my flesh in the grave c. Such uncomely words he uttered but he remembereth them afterward and is contented to shame himself for them to all the world he puts his fleshly complaints in print that he may humble himself and caution yea and comfort others And thus Christians should we do we should call to minde our SAIDS i. e. we should sit down and recount the impatiencies and short-spiritednesses the murmur and unbelief the love of a present world the fear of death the hard thoughts of God all the irregularities and distempers of our own spirits in the time of Tribulation I said I said c. Doubtless it would be of singular use as to humble our Souls and to check corruption so to endear and proserve the Teachings of God upon your Souls while you might tune Davids Thanksgiving conceived upon some such like occasion Psal 25.8 Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he TEACH SINNERS in the way q. d. I sinned against the Lord in my affliction by my impatience unbelief unhumbledness c. yet He was pleased not altogether to leave me without the Teachings of his Spirit not because I was good but because He was good not because I pleased HIM but because Mercy pleased HIM not because I was upright before Him but because He was UPRIGHT true and faithful to his own Promise hath he done it Good and upright is the Lord and therefore HE hath TAUGHT me though I was a sinner in the way Fourthly Remember your Vows 4 Means Remember your Vows When God by the fire of affliction shew'd you your folly discovered to you the hidden corruption of your hearts and brought your ways and doings to remembrance which were not good you were ashamed yea even confounded and said as it is in Job Lord wherein I have done wickedly I will do so no more But take heed it be not so with you as it was with backsliding Israel of whom God thus complaineth Of old time I have broken thy yoke Ier. 2.20 and burst thy bands and thou saidst I WILL NOT TRANSGRESS q. d. I brought thee hundreds of years since out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage and then thou madest me fair promises I remember the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals vers 2. Thou saidst I will do so no more Lord I 'l be covetous no more and idolatrous no more adulterous no more I will murmur no more I will no more depart from thee Thou art the Guide of my youth Good words had she been as good as her word but Oh read what followeth and tremble when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wandrest playing the harlot i. e. no sooner her old heart and her old temptations met but presently they fell into mutual embraces And this is the temper of out hearts for all the world * Nuper me cujusdam amici lanquor aâ—monuit â—pâ—imos esse nos dum infirmi sumus Plin. ep 26. l. 7 ad Max. we are very good while we are in affliction and promise fair but no sooner the tryal over but we forget Gods Teachings and our own Vows and return into the same course and fashion of conversation as before Now therefore if you would preserve the Teachings of God upon your spirits sit down remember your vows and spreading them before the Lord say with David Psal 66 13 14 I will pay thee