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
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
in the heart Ioh. 17.17 Sanctifie them with thy truth thy Word is truth It is the commendation of Timothy his Mother that from his very infancy she instructeed him in the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.15 cum cap. 2.5 Hierom. Chrysost Theoph. docent ex hoc loco Parentes etiam de Scripturis dehere instituere liberos suos That Parents ought to instruct their children in the holy Scriptures 2. Tim. 4.3 which were able to make him wise to Salvation When there is a divine sentence in the mouth of the Rod it brings wisdom and life with it And therefore O that Parents would imitate the Father of spirits in this blessed art of Paternal Discipline joyn the Word of Instruction to the Rod of Correction teach as well as chastise Reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine It is true it is enjoyned Timothy as a Pastoral duty but it is as true that every Parent is a King a Prophet and a Priest A King to govern and chastise a Prophet to teach and instruct and a Priest to offer up spiritual sacrifice to God Prayer and Praise with and for the Family O that every childe might have cause to give their Parents that commendation Illa magis satagebat ut tu mihi pater esses quoniam sempiternam salutem charius parturiebat Confess l. 1. c. 11 which once Augustin gave his Mother in reference to his Baptism My mother saith he made it her business to make God my Father because she travelled with my everlasting salvation with more tenderness and sorrow then ever she did with my first birth O that natural Parents could bespeak the fruit of their loyns as S. Paul bespeaks his Galatians My little children Gal. 4.19 of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you that so they might rejoyce in the second more then ever they did in the first birth Why this is done by the Word and the Rod. Pro. 29.17 Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy Soul Correct how the 15 verse answers The Rod and Reproof give wisdom Thus give your Children correction and they shall give you rest and delight Though correction for the present do not give them rest for no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous yet it will make them give you rest and though correction doth not delight them yet it shall make them give delight to you 3 John 4 What greater delight then to see your children walking in the Truth and to think thus with your selves Quot dedit familiaâ— juvenes totredâ—idit curiae consulares not as Cassiodor expresseth it that so many sons so many Counsellors to to the State but that so many children God hath given you so many children you have brought up for God and so many heirs for the Kingdom of Heaven Well Chastise and teach them out of the Law of God and thy Children shall be Blessed Which that they may indeed take one short CAUTION more and that is Add Prayer to Instruction Last Cautios Add Prayer to Instruction As Teaching should accompany Chastisement so Prayer should accompany Teaching God need use onely the Rod and the Word because the blessing is in his own hand he can command a blessing It is not so with us As Paul may plant and Apollo may water but God must give the increase so the Father may correct the Mother may instruct both may do both but God must give the Blessing and therefore Christian Parents while they add Instruction to correction should add Prayer to Instruction Ora labora Pray and labor Means are ours Success is Gods and therefore let us put the Rod into the hand of Instruction Instruction into the hand of Prayer and all into the hand of God Pray and teach your Children to pray that God would so bless Correction and Instruction that both may make you and your Children BLESSED Amen FINIS