[...]. Correction, Instruction. THE Rod, and the Word.
THis Psalm being [...], without a Title, it is not so easily determined, when, or by whom it was pen'd. Probably by David, when himself, and the rest of the Godly Party, were under a [...]ore and bitter persecution by Non est dubium quin de oppressoribus domest [...]cis [...]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.
- [Page 2]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 [Page 3]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 [Page 6]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 brickkills there their hard hearts might [Page 7]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; [Page 8]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 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 [Page 9]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 [Page 10]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 [Page 11]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 [Page 12]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 Scriptureknowledg, 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 [Page 14]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 Swinetrough, 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, [Page 15]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 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 [Page 16]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 [Page 17]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, [Page 18]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 [Page 19]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 [Page 20]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 [Page 21]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 [Page 22]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 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 [Page 23]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 [Page 24]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 [Page 25] 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 [Page 26]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, D [...]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 [Page 27]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 [Page 28]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 fall into divers temptations? what a deal of self-love, [Page 29]pride, distrust in God, Creature-confidence, discontent, murmur, rising of heart against the holy and righ teous dispensations of God, is there boyling and fretting within me! Wo is me what an heart have I?’
And besides all this, in the hour of temptation, God brings old sins to remembrance. We are verily guilty concerning our brother could Iosephs brethren say, Gen. 42.21. twenty yeers after they had sold him for a slave, when they were in danger to be questioned for their lives (as they feared:) and thus when the Israelites cry to God in their sore distress for rescue and deliverance, God puts them in minde of their old Apostacies: Ye have forsaken me and served other gods, &c. Judg. 10.13, 14 go and cry to the gods whom ye have chosen. Suffering times are times of bringing sin to minde: i Kin. 8.47 If they bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives: Heb. If they bring back to heart. Captivity is a time of turning in upon our selves, [Page 30]and bringing back to heart our doings which have not been good in Gods sight: Thus David under the rod could call himself to account, I thought on my ways, Psa. 119.19 and turned my feet, &c.
This now is another lesson which God teacheth by affliction; and it is of great use to humble us, and to empty and out us of our selves, to make us fly to Jesus Christ for righteousness and strength. Isa. 45.24 In a word, God lets us see what is crooked that we may streighten it, what is weak that we may strengthen it, what is wanting that we may supply it; what is lame that it may not be turned out of the way, but that it may rather be healed.
Sixthly, 6 Lesson, Prayer. In the School of affliction God doth teach us to pray. They that never prayed before will pray in affliction. Isa. 26.16 Lord in trouble they have visited Thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening is upon them. They that kept their distance with God before, yea that said to the Almighty depart from us, in their affliction [Page 31]can bestow a visit upon God, in trouble they have visited thee: and they that never prayed before, or at least did but now and then drop out a sleepy sluggish wish, can now pour iout a prayer when chastisement is upon their loins. a Psa. 107.11, R [...]bells, b 17 Fools, c 23 Mariners, even the worst of men, can cry to God in their trouble. The very Heathen-mariners fall to their prayers in a storm, and can awaken the sleepy Prophet to this duty; Ionah 1.5, 6 What meanest thou O sleeper! arise and call upon thy God. Hence we use to say, He that cannot pray, Qui nescit orare discat navigar [...]. let him go to sea. Thus I say affliction opens dumb lips, and untyeth the strings of the tongue to call upon God.
But whom God teacheth in affliction, they learn to pray in another manner, more frequently, more fervently.
First, More frequently; Gods people are vessels full of the spirit of prayer, and affliction is a piercer, whereby God draws it out. For [Page 32]my love they are my adversaries, but I give my self unto prayer. Psal. 109.4 David was always a praying man, but now under persecution he did nothing else; I give my self unto prayer: as wicked men give themselves up to their wickedness, so David gave himself up to prayer, he made it his work. Hence you may observe that most of all the Psalms are nothing else almost but the runnings out of Davids spirit in prayer under variety of afflictions and persecutions; as his troubles were multiplied, so his prayers did multiply. The holy man was never in that condition wherein he could not pray, &c. Alas, it is sad to consider that in our peace and tranquility, we pray arbitrarily by fits and starts many times, we suffer every trifle to come and justle out prayer; but in affliction God keeps us upon our knees, and (as it were) tyeth the sacrifice to the horns of the altar.
And as he teacheth us to pray more frequently, so also to pray more fervently. Even of Christ [Page 33]himself it is said, Luk. 22.44. [...], intentius. that being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; more intensively; he prayed till he sweat again; yea till he sweat great drops of bloud: he sweltred out his soul through his body in prayer, the reason whereof was, because he had not only the pangs of death, but the sense of his fathers wrath to conflict withall; and so it is with believers many times; outward afflictions are accompanied with inward disertions. So it was with David, Psal. 22. and Psal. 116.3, 4 &c. And then he gathers up all his strength to prayer, and like a true son of Iacob wrestleth with God, and will not let him go till he gets the blessing, Psalm 143. vers. 6, 7. &c.
Truly Christians, those prayers wherewith you contented your selves in the day of your peace and prosperity, will not serve your turn in the hour of temptation; then you will call to mind your short, slight, cold, dead, sleepy, formal devotions in your families and closets, [Page 34]and be ashamed of them: Then you will see need of praying over all your prayers again, and stir up your selves to take hold upon God. Isa. 64.7 Indeed for this very end God sends his people into captivity that he may draw out the spirit of prayer, which they have suffered to ly dead within them. Oh my dove that are in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, Cant. 2. let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comly. Christs dove never looks more beautiful in his eies, then when her cheeks are bedewed with tears; nor ever makes sweeter musick in his ears, then when she mourns to him, out of the rock, and from under the stairs, in a dark and desolate condition: then saith Christ thy countenance is comly, and sweet is thy voice.
Seventhly, 7 Lesson, Acquaintance with [...]he word. By correction God brings the Children of promise into more acquaintance with the Word. He teacheth them out of his Law. As here: It is good for me that I [Page 35]have been afflicted, that I might learn thy Statutes. God sent David into the School of affliction, there to learn the Statutes of God. By Correction the people of God learn,
- 1. To converse with the Word of God more abundantly.
- 2. To understand it more clearly.
- 3. To relish it more sweetly.
First, By affliction they come to converse with it more abundantly. It is their duty a all time to study the Word: Colos. 3.16 To let it dwell richly in them in all wisdom: Iob esteemed the words of Gods mouth more then his necessary food. And it is their happiness as well as their duty. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psa. 1 [...] 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 [Page 36]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 [Page 37] 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 [Page 38]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: [Page 39]When we are fill'd with Creaturecomforts, we nauseate many times the very Word it self, which is sweeter then the honey or honeycomb: but to the hungry Soul every bitter thing is sweet. Let God famish the world round about us, then how cordial is Scriptureconsolation? 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 [Page 40]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, [Page 41]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?’ [Page 42]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 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 [Page 43]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, [Page 44]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 [Page 45]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 [Page 46]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, [Page 47]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. [...], 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 [Page 48]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 [Page 49]faith and patience, and to let them have their perfect work: James 1.4 there is a work of patience, and there is a perfect work; Verse 3 The tryal of Faith worketh patience, (i. e. the sufferings whereby our Faith is tryed, as gold is tried in the furnace,) it worketh, or as the word signifieth, [...]. it perfecteth: The Cross exerciseth, and exercise perfecteth, the grace of patience: as sufferings arise, so patience ariseth also; Be patient, Iames 5.7 brethren, till the coming of the Lord: i. e. do you bear the affliction till Christ come and take it off: let your patience be of the same extent with your sufferings. As Patience, so Faith is not acted only but perfected by temptations. Sometimes the Soul findes that Faith lively in a suffering condition, which before it questioned whether it were alive: or if affliction do not finde it lively, it makes it lively: the same furnace of affliction wherein God tryeth our Faith he doth refine it, and purifieth it more and more from the dross of infidelity. They are the [Page 50]purest acts of faith, which the Soul puts forth in the dark: Faith never beleeves more then when it cannot see, Isai. 50.10 because then the Soul hath nothing to stay it self upon but God. Hence while it seems to help, difficultates the work of faith by doubting of it: a man must first beleeve the insufficiency of what he seeth, before he can beleeve the Alsufficiency of him that is invisible; We look not at the things which are seen, 2 Cor. 4.18 but at the things which are not seen: It is harder to live by Faith in abundance, then in want. The Soul is a step neerer living upon God, when it hath nothing to live upon but God: yea and when God is not seen he is most beleeved. Psal. 22.1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Observe, and thou shalt find a great deal more of precious faith in that desertion, then of complaint: For first, Faith (like Pharez) breaks forth first, My God, before forsaken: And again, you have two words of Faith for one of despair; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [Page 51] Faith speaks twice before Sense can speak once. And thirdly, Faith speaks confidently and positively, Thou art my God; Sense speaks dubiously, why hast thou? as if Sense durst not call it a forsaking while Faith dares say, my God: Surely Faith is never so much Faith as in desertion. Faiths triumphs lie in the midst of despair, and even in this sence also; Having not seen, yet beleeving, 1 Pet. 1.8 we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Godly sorrow, how is it enlarged by sanctified affliction! while that stream, which was wont to run in the channel of worldly crosses, now is diverted into the channel of sin: I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I HAVE SINNED, Mic [...]h 7.9 &c. Any burden is light in comparison of sin, the very indignation of God. The Soul that God teacheth by his chastisements can stand under the burden of Gods indignation for sin, when it cannot stand under sin, which hath kindled that indignation. Ah, cryeth Job upon the dunghill, I [Page 52]have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? He forgetteth his suffering in his sin; he saith not, I have lost all my substance; I am now upon the dunghill as naked as ever I was born (save that I am clothed with scabs,) my friends reproach me, my wife curseth me, or (that which is worse) she bids me curse God. Satan persecutes me, and God himself is become mine Enemy, &c. all this is befallen me; what wilt thou do unto me, O thou preserver of men? but I have sined, what shall I do unto thee? &c. Sufferings lead to sin, and sense of sin swalloweth up sense of sufferings. And what shall I say more? the time would fail to instance in other Graces, Love, Fear, Holiness, &c. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, Isai. 27.9 and this is all the fruit to take away his sin: H [...]b. 12, 10 He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Grace is never more Grace then when besieged with temptations. The battel draws forth that fortitude [Page 53]and prowess, which in time of peace lay chill'd in the veins for want of opposition and exercise.
A twelfth Lesson, 12 Lesson, A life of Faith. which they learn in the School of Affliction, is, The necessity and excellency of the life of Faith.
1. The necessity of living by faith: 1 The Necessity of it. Hab. 2.3, 4 where Sense endeth, Faith beginneth. The vision is for an appointed time: I, but what shall we do in the mean time? why the just shall live by Faith; live by Faith, or dye in despair: when God pulls away the bulrushes of Creature-supports, the Soul must either swim or sink. God teacheth this Lesson, Partly by the uncertainty of second causes, the vicessitudes that are in creature-expectations; a little hope to day, to morrow reduc'd to despair: good news to day, Pharaoh says Israel shall go; bad news to morrow, he rageth, and swears that if Moses see his face any more, he shall dye, &c. O the ebbs & flows of sublunary hopes! one speaks a word of comfort, another speaks words of soul-wounding [Page 54]terror; now a promise, anon a threatening: The sick man is in hopes of reviving to day, to morrow at the gates of death. What a woful heart-dividing life is a life of Sense, a life which is worse then death it self, to be thus bandied up and down between hopes and fears, to be baffled to and fro between the may-be's of second Causes! to be like Mariners upon the billows and surges of the tempestuous sea! Psalm 107 26, 27 They mount up to Heaven, they go down again to the depths; their Soul is melted because of trouble: they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end; Heb. all their wisdom is swallowed up. And partly God teacheth the necessity of a life of Faith by the disappointment of the Creature: How often doth the Creature totally fail, and abuse our expectation! Iob 6.15, 16 like the deceitful brook, to which Job most elegantly compares his brethren, which mocks the traveller, and when he comes for a draught of water to quench his thirst, Verse 20 sends him away with confusion [Page 55]and shame. Surely men of low degree are vanity, Psal. 62.9 and men of high degree are a lye: Men of low degree would help, but cannot, there is vanity; and men of high degree can help many times, but will not; no, not when they have promis'd and sworn; there is a lye: both disappoint, the one by the necessity, the other by deceit; and disappointment is one of the great torments that a rational creature is capable of: Trust defeated causeth sorrow of heart, Isai. 20.5 and confusion of face; and the stronger the confidence, Ier. 14.3 the more shameful is the disappointment. Agag 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 [Page 56]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 [Page 57]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 [Page 58]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 [Page 59]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 [Page 60]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 F [...]untain [Page 61]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: [Page 62]
- 1. It is a secure life.
- 2. It is a sweet life.
- 3. It is an easie life.
- 4. It is an honorable life.
First, The life of Faith is a secure life, the onely safe life: He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the ammunition of rocks: How securely doth he dwell, whose fortifications are impregnable, inaccessible rocks? rocks so high that none can scale them: In the Hebr. it is, He shall dwell in heights, or in high places: rocks so thick that no breach can be made in them, rocks within rocks; ammunition of rocks: and rocks so deep that none can undermine them: surely a people or person thus rockt on every side, need not fear storming. Object. I, but though rocks may be a good fence, they are but ill food, a man cannot feed on rocks; rocky places are barten, though impregnable; he may be starved, though he cannot be stormed! No, the words following relieves that fear also, Bread shall be given him; he shall have [Page 63]bread enough, and it shall cost him nothing; it shall be given him: and whereas a rock is but a dry scituation, without either springs or streams, and thereupon a man might be exposed to perishing for want of water, Thirst will slay as well as hunger; therefore it is likewise added, His waters shall be sure: He shall have waters which neither Summers heat nor Winters frost shall be able to dry up; never-failing waters shall fill his Cisterns from day to day; His waters shall be sure. Under such an excellent metaphor is the security of a life of Faith described; and this metaphor is expounded Isai. 26.1. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks: walls and bulwarks shall not be their Salvation, but Salvation their walls and bulwarks: how safely do they dwell who are wall'd about with Salvation it self? The bulwarks are Salvation, and that Salvation is Jehovah; for so it follows, Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting [Page 64]strength; or the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of Ages: His place of defence is the ammunition of Rocks; and the Lord Jehovah is those Rocks, a Rock of Ages; Ages pass away one after another, but the Rock abides, and abides for ever: In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He that rain'd Manna in the Wilderness, will give bread; and he that fetcht water out of the Rock, will be a never-failing fountain, his waters shal be sure. Oh the security of a life of faith!
And secondly, It is as sweet as it is safe. Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae. Is it not a sweet thing to fetch all our waters from the fountain, from the spring-head, before they be degenerated or mudded by the miry channel? Why all my fresh springs are in thee, saith faith to God, Psal. 87.7. Is it not sweet to be fixt and composed in the midst of all the mutations and confusions that are under the Sun? Why this is the priviledg of him that liveth by faith: No evil tydings shall make him afraid, Psal. 112 7 his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. [Page 65]And again; Isai. 26.6. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee: Heb: Peace, peace; that is, multiplied Peace; pure, unmixt Peace, constant and everlasting Peace is the portion of him that liveth by faith, so far as he liveth by faith; unless sense and reason break in to disquiet, he liveth in a most sweet and immutable serenity.
Thirdly, It is an easie life: It is an easie life to have all provisions brought in to a man without any care or trouble; why such is the priviledg of a Beleever; he hath a quietus est, that supersedes all his cares. In nothing be careful, Phil. 4.6. but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Faith leaveth a Beleever nothing to do but to pray and give thanks; to pray for what he wants, and to give thanks for what he hath; that is all he hath to do. It is true, Beleevers must labour and travel in the use of means, as well as the rest of the sons [Page 66]of Adam: but, first, it is without care; [...]. in nothing be careful; without anxious, heart-dividing, Souldistracting care: O that is the thorn, the sting, which the sin of man and the curse of God hath thrust into all our labours, care and distraction; and this faith pulls out: so that now all the labour of faith is an easie labour, like the labour of Adam in Paradise: Faith useth means, but trusteth God; obediently closeth with the Providence of means, but sweetly leaveth the Providence of success to God. Yea, Faith can trust God, when there are no means to use, and say, Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the Vines, the labour of the Olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Heb. 3.18. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation. Faith can live upon God, when there is a famine upon the whole Creation: The Peace of God is as a Court of Guard, to fence the heart [Page 67]from all surprizes of fear and trouble: In nothing be careful, but in every thing pray and give thanks, Phil. 4.7. and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. As faith enjoyeth God in all things in the greatest abundance, so she can enjoy all things in God in the deepest want.
Fourthly, and lastly, The life of faith is an honorable life. It is the honour of the Favorite that he can go immediately to his Prince when strangers must trace the Climax of Court-accesses. Yea, without all peradventure, it is an honorable life to live as God himself liveth; and this is the glory of God, that he liveth in himself and of himself: and truly in their proportion such honour have all the Saints. They live in God and upon God here by faith; and they shall live in God and upon God hereafter by sight, in the beatificate Vision.
This is the excellency of the life of Faith, and this the people of God experience [Page 68]by their sufferings, whereby God calls them out of the world, and taking them into himself, he doth reveal to them by degrees the mystery and priviledg of living upon God, and upon God alone.
In the next place, 13 Lesson, God taketh us off from selfconfidence. By afflictions and distresses God takes us off from selfconfidence, and teacheth us to trust HIM more, and our selves less. This is the same with the former, save only that we speak now of trust in God, in opposition to confidence in our selves, and not in others; a distemper that prevails much in our natures: Ever since we rendred our selves able to do nothing, nothing but sin, we think our selves able to do any thing: We fancy to our selves a kind of omnipotence, when all our strength is to sit still: Naturally we are prone to entertain and nourish high presumptions, of our own strength, and of our own wisdom.
1. Of our own strength: In our prosperity we think our selves able to carry any cross; we fancy our [Page 69]selves strong enough to carry away even Sampsons gates upon our shoulders, and mettled to encounter any affliction in the world; but when the hour of temptation comes, we find we are but like other men, and are ready to sink, with Peter, if but one wave rise higher then another. Usually sufferings before they come are like a Mountain at a great distance, which seems so small, that we think we could almost stride over it; but upon nearer approaches, when we come to the foot of it, it appears insuparable, and looks so huge, as if it would fall upon us, and crush us in pieces. Peter is so big with love to Christ, that he will dye with Him, rather then forsake Him; yea though all the rest should betake themselves to their heels, he will stand by him to the last drop of blood: and yet behold, when it comes to the tryal, a weak silly Damosel is able with a single question to fright him out of his confidence, and he doth not only forsake, but forswear his Lord. Pendleton, in the Book of Martyrs, will [Page 70]fry out a fat body in flames of Martyrdom, rather then betray his Religion; but when the hour comes that Christ and Religion had most need of him, he had not one drop of all that fat to spare for either.
And, 2. As we are prone to presume of our own strength, so we are very apt to idolize our own wisdom; to lean to our own understanding, and think by our policy to wind our selves out of any labyrinth of trouble and perplexity. But we find it otherwise; when we come into the snare, we then are forced to cry out with the Church, He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out, Lam. 3.7. he hath made my chain heavy: Like a malefactor that hath broke prison; he thinks to run away, but he hath an heavy chain upon his heel, that spoils his haste; and being fenced in round about, he goeth to this corner, hoping to find some gap, but there he finds the hedg made up with thorns; and to another corner, and there also the bryars stop him, &c. I, but mark ye, that is not all; read on in the [Page 71]Churches complaint, and you shall find greater obstructions: Verse 9. Verse 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stones. Suppose a man would venture the scratching of his flesh, to break through an hedg to save his life, (skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life,) yet that would not do, God had taken away the hedg, and built a wall in stead of it; a wall so high, that they could not clamber over; a wall so thick, that they could not dig through: The meaning is, Man in affliction thinks to make his way through by his own art and cunning, but upon the attempt he finds difficulties arising still higher and higher, so that when all is done, escape is impossible, without an immediate rescue by the arm of omnipotence. This was Pauls case: 2 Tim 1.8, 9 When we come to Asia, we were pressed out of measure beyond strength, in so much that we despaired even of life: A great strait, (what it was in particular you may read Acts 19. from 22. so forward; in all probability it was that uproar [Page 72]at Ephesus, wherein Paul was like to have been pull'd in pieces, for it was a trouble that befell him in Asia, vers. 8.) I say, it was a great strait, a strait wherein the Apostle was at his wits end: Dicitur [...] qui non novit quomodo sese ex aliqua difficultate expediat. Beza. [...], i. e. we were bereft of all counsel how to expedite our selves out of the danger: As David complains, Psal. 13.2. How long shall I take counsel in my Soul! i. e. When he was persecuted by Saul, and beset with innumerable dangers, he took counsel, he thought of this means, and t'other means, cast about this way, and that way, how to escape, but in vain, all his counsels left him as full of sorrow and despair as they found him: How long shall I take counsel in my Soul, having sorrow in my heart? He had his sorrow for his pains. Thus it was with the Apostle; all his counsel left him in the hand of despair: We despaired even of life: His case was no other then the prisoner at the bar, at what time the sentence of death is past upon him; he looks upon himself (and so [Page 73]do standers by) as a dead man; he is legally dead, dead to all intents and purposes of the Law; there wants nothing but execution: Why so it was with Paul; We had the sentence of death in our selves: The sentence was past in his own brest; and now saith Paul, I am but a dead man: This was his strait, and it seemeth God had a plot in it, a design upon Paul; and what was that? Himself will tell you; We had the sentence of death in our selves, Verse 9. that we should not trust in our selves, but in God which raiseth the dead, &c. See here, the design is exprest negatively and affirmatively. Negatively, that we might not trust in our selves: God saw, even in that great Apostle himself, a disposition to selfconfidence, a proneness to be exalted above measure, 2 Cor. 12.7 through the abundance of Revelations: And therefore, as to prick the bladder of pride, God gave him a thorn in the flesh, &c. so, to work out this self-trust, God reduceth him to a state of despair, as to outward and visible probabilities: [Page 74]We had the sentence of death in our selves, that we should not trust in our selves; there is the negative branch of the design. And then the Affirmative followeth, But in God which raiseth the dead: By this desperate exigence God would teach Paul ever after where strength and counsel was to be had in the like extremities; no where but in God, and in him abundantly: The God of Resurrections can never be non-plust; Resurrectio mortuorum, fiducia Christianorum. Tert. de Resur. carnis. He that can raise the dead, can conquer the greatest difficulty; He that can put life into dead men, can put life into dead hopes, and raise up our expectations out of the very grave of despair: That God can put life into dead bones, is a consideration able to put life into a dead faith.
To this purpose it is very observable, that even those to whom God hath indulg'd the largest proportions of faith and courage, not only above other men, but above other Saints; yet even them God hath suffered not only to languish under fears, but even to despair under insuperable difficulties, [Page 75]before they could recover holy confidence in God. We find David, that great Champion of Israel, more then once or twice surpriz'd with dreadful fear: I said in my Haste, [...] from the root [...] f [...]stinare, praecipitare obstupescere. Hicron. [...]. Sept. Psa. 31.22. & 116.11. The Hebrew signifieth, in trepidatione mea, or in festinatione mea, in my trembling, in my precipitancy; or as the Septuagint translate it, in my extasie, when I was almost besides my self for fear: Well, what did he say then? Why he said, I am cut off from before thine eyes; that is, God hath cast me out of his care, he looks no more after me, I am a lost man. And again, I said in my haste, in my passion, all men are Lyars; even Samuel himself, that told me I should be King; he hath seen but a false Vision, and a lying divination; God never said so to him; no, I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul.
And thus the Prophet Jeremiah, Chap. 3.57. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not: I, but before God spake a Fear not to his Soul, he was [Page 76]afraid to purpose: hear what he saith, vers. 53, 54. They have cut off my life in the Dungeon, and cast a stone upon me; waters flowed over mine head, then I said, I am cut off. Mark ye, with Paul, he had received the sentence of death in himself, he looks upon himself as a dead man, yea as already in his grave, and his grave-stone layd upon it; they have cut off my life in the Dungeon, and cast a stone upon me, dead and buried, and a stone rouled to the mouth of the sepulchre. And thus you may hear Jonah crying in the Whales belly, Ionah 2.4. I am cast out of thy sight. And Sion, in the dust, tuning her Lamentations, Isai. 49.14 The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Hezekiah reporting the sad discourses he had in his own bosom upon the sight of death, Isai. 38.9, 10, &c. It were easie to multiply instances.
Why now this is continually our case, and this is still Gods design: We are proud creatures, full of self-confidence; and therefore God by strange and unexpected Providences, [Page 77]doth hedg up our way with thorns, and wall up our path with hewn stones, brings to despair even of life, bereaveth us of counsel, outs us of all our own shifts and policies, brings us under the very sentence of death; that we might not trust in our selves, but in God which raiseth the dead, he unbottoms us by despair, convinceth us of our impotence and folly, shews us what babes and fools we are in our selves, that in all our future hazards and fears we might know nothing but a God; go in the strength of the Lord, and make mention of his righteousness, and of his only. And thus you see Peter, who before was so confident, that he thought all the world might forsake Christ sooner then himself, after he was convinc'd of his own infirmity and instability, when Christ, to put him in mind of his three-fold denyal, put him upon that three-fold Interrogatory, Simon Peter, lovest thou me more then these? i.e. then the rest of thy fellow-disciples, durst make no other answer but this, Lord, [Page 78]thou knowest: he pleads nothing but his sincerity; and for that also, he casts himself rather upon Christs tryal, then his own; Lord, thou knowest.
In the next place, 14 Lesson, God makes himself known. By affliction God maketh himself known unto his people. How long do we hear of God before we know him? We get more by one practical discovery of God, then by many Sermons: I have heard of thee often by the hearing of the ear, Iob 42.5, 6 but now mine eye seeth thee, therefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes, cryeth Job upon the dunghill. In the Word we do but hear of God, in affliction we see him. Prosperity is the nurse of Atheism; the understanding being clouded with the steams and vapors of those lusts which are incident to a prosperous estate, men grow brutish, and the reverence and sense of God is by little and little defaced: But now by affliction the Soul being taken off from sense-pleasing objects, hath a greater disposition and liberty to retire into it self: and being freed [Page 79]from the attractive force of worldly allurements, Maturant aspera men tem. the apprehensions are wont to be more serious and pregnant, and so more capable of divine illumination. The clearer the glass is, the more fully doth it receive in the beams of the Sun. When the warm breath of the the world hath blown upon us, we are not so capable of the Visions of God. Iob 21.14 The wicked through the pride of his heart will not know God; they say to the Almighty, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways. Who is the Lord? saith Pharaoh. And truly the very godly themselves are exceeding dark and low in their apprehensions of God; our ignorance of God being never perfectly cured till we come to Heaven, where we shall see him face to face, and know him as we are known. In the mean time, as by the strokes of divine vengeance God makes the wicked know him to their cost; so by the rod of correction he makes his people to know him to their comfort. As God brought all his plagues upon Pharaohs heart, [Page 80]that he might know who the Lord was in a way of wrath; so he lays affliction upon the loyns of his people, that they may know him in a way of love; Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. Moses never saw God so clearly, as when he descended in a Cloud. Exod. 34.5 And truly that dispensation was but a type of the method which God useth in making himself known unto his Saints: He puts them into the clefts of the Rock, Exod. 33.21, 22, 23. & 34.5, 6, 7. covereth them with his hand while he passeth by, and then proclaimeth his Name before them, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, By affliction God makes known his Attributes. &c. The people of God have the most sensible experience of his Attributes in their sufferings; his Holiness, Justice, Faithfulness, Mercy, Alsufficiency, &c.
His Holiness: Holiness. Affliction sheweth what a sin-hating God, God is: For though his chastisements on his Church be in love to their persons, they are in hatred to their corruptions; while he saveth the sinner, he destroyeth the sin. By this shall the [Page 81]iniquity of Jacob be purged, Isai. 27.9. and this is all the fruit to take away his sin: If the Soul live, sin must dye.
His Justice: Iustice. Afflictions are correction to the godly, punishment to the wicked; in both God is righteous: Thus Israel knew God, Neh. 9.33. Howbeit thou art just in all that is come upon us, for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly: In the severest dispensations they judg themselves, and justifie God; Thou art just, &c. Yea when they cannot 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. 119.7 [...]. 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 [Page 82]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 [Page 83]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 [Page 84]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 [Page 86]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 [Page 87]that for ever; God had been righteous. It is never so bad with the people of God, but it might have been worse: any thing on this side Hell is pure mercy. In supporting under affliction. Psa. 94.18
And as Mercy in moderating, so Mercy in supporting: when I said, my foot slippeth: now I sink, I shall never be able to stand under this affliction, I cannot bear it: Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up: when David was sinking, God put underneath him his everlasting arms, and held him up. Even when Gods suffering people are not sensible of any great ravishments, yet then they finde sweet supports; His left hand was under me, his right hand embraced me. In giving in comfort in affliction. And yet it is not supporting mercy onely which they experience in their sufferings, but not seldom his refreshing his rejoycing mercy; so it follows, Verse 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy Comforts delight my Soul: My thoughts were dark and doleful, and full of despair, and not a few of them; multitudes brake in upon [Page 88]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 [...]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 [Page 89]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; [Page 90]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 satisfi [...] 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, [Page 91]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 [Page 92]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 [Page 93]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 [Page 94]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 [Page 95]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 creaturecomforts, 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 [Page 96]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 [Page 97]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 [Page 99]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 [Page 100]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, [Page 101]and assurance of glory, &c. are the only indispensibles. In a word, that Christ alone, is the Ʋnum 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 [Page 102]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 [Page 103]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 [Page 104]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 [Page 105]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; [Page 106]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, [Page 107]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 [Page 108]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 [Page 109] 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 [Page 110]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.
- [Page 111]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 [Page 113]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 [Page 114]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 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 [Page 115]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. [Page 116]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: [Page 117]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, averst [...]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 [Page 118]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 [Page 119] 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 [Page 120]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, [Page 121]or later the convinced soul sees sin a greater evil, then affliction, whatever it be; and now as it were forgetting the affliction, begins to mourn only for sin, Iob. 7.20 crying out with holy Job in the dust, I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? he saith, not my substance is spoiled, my Children destroyed, my body is become a Spittle of loathsom Diseases, and my self a terror to my self and standers by, what wilt thou do unto me, O thou preserver of men? but I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee &c. Affliction led him to sin; Correction was made conviction, and sin now lyeth heavier upon him then all his sufferings. This is the first comprehensive Lesson.
In our prosperity we stick in the Creature, The emptiness of the world. and dote upon the Creature, the things and persons in this present world, as if there our happiness [Page 122]and comfort were bound up: but in the day of adversity, God convinceth us of our mistakes, by causing us to see the emptiness and vanity of all sublunary contentments: we begin to find the world to be but guilded emptiness, a meer nothing. Then ask the soul what it thinks of the World and all the elements thereof, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, as the Apostle sorts them, which formerly did so glitter in its eyes, Isa 40.6. and the answer will be with the Prophet, all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field: vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The afflicteth soul saith of all Creature-excellency, It is not; it looks upon them as so many non-entities: Prov. 23 5 so many Nots: Not that which it seems: Not that which is promiseth: Not that which we expect, and flatter our selves with. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. Prov. 11 4 Whatsoever it is that a man makes his riches, whether friend, or wealth, or parts, or Creature-interest [Page 123]whatsoever, they profit not, i. e. they cannot deliver out of the hands, either of death or judgment. And besides, the soul finds by experience the unsutableness and dissatisfaction that is in all these seen things; that there is no proportion between an invisible soul and visible comforts, Fulgentins triumphos Romanos cum spectarit, appellavit vanitem. Author vitae apud Sur. procop. l. 2. de bello Vand. between an immortal soul and perishing contentments, between a spiritual being, and an earthly portion; that the winde which a man takes in by gaping, will as soon fill an hungry belly, as Creature-comforts will satisfie the Spirit: In the hour of temptation the soul says, miserable comforters are ye all, Physicians of no value, upon which a man may bestow all that he hath in expectation of a cure, and find himself no whit better, but rather worse; surely the world in all its bravery is to the afflicted soul no better then the Cities which Solomon gave to Hiram, which he called Cabul, that is to say, displeasing or dirty: 1 King 9.13. the day of affliction is one of those days, wherein men cast away their Idols [Page 124]of silver and their Idols of Gold, Isa 2.20 which they made each one for himself to worship, Abite hinc, Abite Ion ge. Phil, Morn. to the Moles and to the Bats, and saith unto them with indignation, Get ye hence.
3. 3 Summary Lesson. Fulness of Christ. And lastly, in the day of affliction, God discovers to the soul, the fulness of Jesus Christ. There is an infinite fulness in Jesus Christ. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell: Colos. 1.19. The Covenant of grace is suted to all the exigencies and indigencies of a poor undone convinced sinner; 2 Sam. 23.5. it is ordered in all things: In opposition to the power of corruption in the heart, I will put (saith God) my Law in their inward parts, Ier. 31 33, 34. &c. In opposition to error and ignorance in the understanding, they shall all know me, &c. In opposition to Guilt, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And the Offices of Jesus Christ are suted to all the branches of the Covenant. In order to the first branch, I will write my Law in their hearts, &c. Behold [Page 125]Jesus Christ is a King: In order to the second, they shall all know me, &c. behold Jesus Christ is a Prophet: and in order to the third, I will forgive their iniquities; behold Jesus Christ is a Priest: The Offices of Christ, fill and execute the Covenant of grace; and the fulnes of God fills & acts the Offices of Jesus Christ; the Power of God, and the fulness of Power, his Kingly Office. The wisdom of God, and the fulness of wisdom, his prophetical Office. The Righteousness of God, and the fulness of Righteousness, Psal. 45.7 his priestly Office: this is that which the Psalmist celebrateth in that Song of Loves God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of gladnes ABOVE TH [...] FELLOWS: never King was anointed with such power; never Prophet with such wisdom, never Priest with such Grace and Righteousness, they had their stinted proportions; but God gave not the spirit by measure unto HIM. Ioh. 3 34. Colos. 2 9 In him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. It is not less then an infinite fulness which fills Jesus [Page 126]Christ as Mediator, that we of his fulness might receive grace for grace: But we are not always in a capacity either to receive or to see that fulness: And the reason is, because in our prosperity we fill our selves so with the World, Intus eaistens prohibet [...]lienum. covenda sunt isla [...]b lectamenta tanquam laquei et plagae, &c. Lactan. divin. Inst. l. 6. c. 21. Isa 53 2. with the pleasures and profits of the World, that it fares with Christ now as it did when he was born, there is no room for him in the Inn: while the World glitters in our eyes with her painted gaudery, he hath no form nor COMLINES, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him: we are very prone to love the World for the World, terminate our affections in the Creature, and do not use terrene comforts in that way, Minus te amat Domine qui at liquid amat quod non preter te amat. In licitis perimus engies. and to that end, that we might thereby be the more fitted to walk with God; and when our desires are such, the more they are, the lefs are our delights in Jesus Christ: this is our sin and folly, that we do not fear the unlawful use of unlawful things; nor see where the snare lieth to inveagle [Page 127]those affections to the Creature which are only due to God himself: and a great reproach it is to Jesus Christ. But now when God spreads sackclothe upon all the beauty and bravery of the Creature, and so hideth pride from man, when God by some flashes of Lightning strikes us blind to the World, then we can discover beauty and excellency in Christ, infinitely transcending all the beauty and excellency in the World, Thou art fairer then the Children of men, grace is poured into thy lips: when under the stairs, Psal. 45.2. Cant. 5.10. and in the Clifts of the Rocks, then the soul can sing, my beloved is white and ruddy, the chicfest among ten thousand. When the God of Heaven hath famisht all our Gods on earth, when he hath hungerstarved us, as to Creature comforts, in any way whatsoever, then we can hunger after and taste the sweetness, the fulness, which is in Jesus Christ; O then, Christ a King to govern, a Prophet to teach, a Priest to save! how precious! then none but Christ, none but Christ; give me a [Page 128]Christ or else I die. In a word my Beloved, when once it is come, (by what exigencies and surprises soever) to an, Oh wretch that I am, who shal deliver me? Rom. 7.24 then, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Truly God is forc't to exercise us with a severe Discipline, that he may endear Jesus Christ to our hearts; and secludes us from the World, that we may study and improve his fulness: As the Law is our School-master, Gal. 3.24 so affliction is an Ʋsher to the Law: affliction brings us to the Law, and the Law brings us to Christ.
And thus I have dispatcht the first thing I undertook, for the opening of the Doctrine, sc. The Lessons which God teacheth those whom he chasteneth: both in their twenty particulars, and in their three summary comprehensive heads, to which all the rest may be reduced.
I come to the second thing; namely, The Nature or properties of divine teaching. The nature and propetries of divine teaching,
For my Breth [...]en, it is not every teaching that will make or evidence a man to be a blessed man under affliction. There is hardly any man that is under affliction, but he learns somewhat by it; & yet few are blessed: the reason is, because it matters not so much what a man is taught, as who is the Teacher, whither he be taught of God or no: yea that is not all neither; for we are not to enquire only, whether we be taught of God, but how? There is a twofold teaching of God. There is a common teaching, which even Heathen, men out of the Church, Hypocrites & Reprobates within the Church, may have; the very Philosophers have read excellent Lectures upon affliction, Seneca & others; and there is a special teaching proper and peculiar only to the Children of promise. A Covenant-teaching; Isa. 54.13. All thy Children shall be [Page 130]taught of God; it is the Covenant of God with th [...] Redeemer, Isa 54 13. A teaching without which no man can come to Christ, John 6.45. Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.
Now this teaching hath a sixfold property.
The first property is, 6. properties of Covenantreaching. It is an inward teaching. Inward in respect of the Object, and inward in respect of the Subject.
Inward in respect of the Object; 1. Property, it is inward. so our Saviour concerning the saving teaching of the Holy Ghost: when the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. Ioh. 16 13 Man may lead you UNTO truth; but it is the spirit of God that only can lead you INTO truth; he only that hath the Key of David, that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth, can open to you the door of truth, and shew you the inside of truth. And great is the difference between these two teachings. He that comes to a stately [Page 131]house or place sees only the outward fabrick and structure; and even that may take much: but he that comes into it, sees all the inward contrivances and conveyances; he sees all the rich furniture and adornings of the several rooms and Offices of the house, which are not only for use, but for delight and ornament: Surely, the very out-side of truth is goodly; but, like the Kings Daughter, it is all glorious within; not pleasing only, but ravishing; this they see who are led into truth: Psal. 119.18. by ver [...]ue whereof David saw wonderful things in the Law; Objects which filld his soul with wonder and delight. And as the teachings of the Covenant are inward in respect of the Object, so inward also in respect of the Subject: In the HIDDEN PART thou hast made me know wisdom, Psal. 51.6. and again I thank the Lord that gave me counsel, MY REINS also instruct me in the night seasons: Psal. 16.7 the Reins are the most inward part of the Body; and the night-season the most retired and private time; both express the [Page 132] intimacy of divine teaching; man may teach the Brains, but God only teacheth the Reins; the knowledg which man teacheth is a swimming knowledg, but the knowledg which Christ teacheth is a soaking knowledg; God who commanded light to shine out of d [...]rkness, 2 Cor. 4 6 hath shined into our HEARTS, to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: it is a loaden expression, and holds forth the inward teachings of God on both sides; both in reference to the Subject, and in reference to the Object. In reference to the Subject, He that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts; Mans light may shine into the Head, but Gods light doth shine into the Heart. God hath his Throne in Heaven; Cathedram habet inCaelis, quicorda do [...]et A [...]g. but his Chair, his Pulpit, is in the heart: he hath shined into our hearts. And then you have the inwardness of divine teaching in respect of the Object: he hath given us the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Man may give knowledg, [Page 133] confused general knowledg, but God giveth the light of knowledg in the lustre and brightness of it. In thy light we shall see light: Psal. 36.9. the soul seeth by the same light whereby God himself seeth, thy light: and not only so; here is not only knowledg and light of knowledg, but the glory of that light; the light which God brings in to the sanctified understanding, is a glorious light, a marvelous light, 1 Pet. 2.9. the soul that the spirit taketh by the hand, & leadeth into truth, standeth wondering at the glory and excellency of that light which shines round about it: And then lastly, all this, in the face of Jesus Christ: The face is the full discovery of a person. Moses could not see Gods face, but only his back-parts he might see; Exod. 33. last. But now by the flesh of Josus Christ God hath put a vail upon his face: the vail of his flesh, Heb. 10.20. through which we may see the face of God; 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 [Page 134]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 [Page 135]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 [Page 136]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 [Page 137]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 [Page 138]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 [Page 139]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 [Page 140]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 [Page 141]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, C [...]m su [...]n pa [...]citatem & tenuitatem i [...]tu [...]bantar trepidaba [...]t &c. & putabant se tutis [...]im [...]s sore si tam poten [...] ipsis R [...]x contigiss [...]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 [Page 142]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, [Page 143]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 [Page 144]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 [Page 146]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 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 [Page 147]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 [Page 148]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 [Page 149]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 [Page 150]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 [Page 151]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 [Page 152]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 [Page 153]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 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 [Page 154]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 [Page 155]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 [Page 156]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; Ca [...]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 [Page 157]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 [Page 158]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 [Page 159]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 to Instruction? what tendency Chastisement hath to promote the Teachings of God in the Soul? what [Page 160]use God makes of Correction to this end?
For it may possibly be demanded, Quest. Might not God as well teach his people by sin, as by affliction?
He might, Answ. and doth: whence that gloss of Augustin upon Rom. 8.28. [All things work together for good to them that love God, Aug. etiam peccatum ipsum. ] even sin it self; and in as much as he saith, All things, it is evident he excepteth nothing, that doth not co-operate for good to the Called according to Gods purpose: All things do work, but all things do not work alike: Sin works for good, but it is by absolute Omnipotence, by pure Prerogative; for sin is properly the Devils creature, and in its own natural tendency works meerly to destruction: Melius judicavit Deus, de malis bene facerequam nulla mala permittere. Aug. no thank to sin that any good comes of it; God beats Satan with his own weapons. But Affliction is an Evil of Gods making, as Amos 3.6. and he hath so temper'd the nature of it, and doth so ingredient it by his divine skill, that there is some fitness and disposition in it [Page 161]to serve and promote his own gracious designs in the children of promise. It is true, there is need of an arm of Omnipotence to make Chastisement to have a saving influence upon the heart; and so there doth also even in the Word it self, and divine Ordinances: they do not save ex opere operato, by any intrinsecal vertue, or power of their own; but yet there is a passive fitness in them to serve Omnipotence for divine and saving ends; Heb. 4.12 The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper then a two-edged sword. a fitness of instrumentality: as there is in a Saw to cut, and in a wedg to cleave, &c. The instrument can do nothing alone, but there is a fitness in it to serve the hand of the work-man. And thus it is, in a proportion, with Affliction; It is true, there is not so immediate and direct a tendency in the Rod, as there is in the Word, to teach and instruct the children of God; yet there is in Chastisement a subserviency to prepare the heart of man, and to put it into a better disposition to close with divine Teaching, then naturally it is capable of. [Page 162]The hot furnace is Christs workhouse, the most excellent vessels of honor are formed therein: Manasseh, Paul, the Jaylor, were all chosen in this fire; as God saith, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction, Isai. 48.10. Grace works in a powerful, yet in a moral way. God speaks when we are most apt to hear; congruously, yet forcibly, by a fit accommodation of circumstances: The fruit of Correction in order to divine teaching. 1. It taketh down pride of heart. which you may discover in these four particulars.
First, By Correction God taketh down the pride of mans heart: there is not a greater obstruction to saving knowledg then pride and self-opinion, whereby man either thinks he knoweth enough, or, that not worth the learning which God teacheth: therefore it is proclaimed before the Word, Hear and give ear, BE not proud; for the Lord hath spoken, Jer. 13.15. In divine matters, as well as humane, Prov. 13.10 onely by pride cometh contention: It is pride which raiseth Objections against the Word, and disputeth the Commands when [Page 163]it should obey them. Ier. 43.2 The proud men in Jeremiah, when they could clude the message of God by his Prophet no longer, do at length stiffen into down-right Rebellion: first they shift, Thou speakest falsly, &c. Verse 2 and then they resolve, As for the Word that thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord, Cap. 44.16 we will not harken unto thee, &c. q. d. be it Baruch, or be it God, we will have none of it; but we will certainly do whatsoever goeth forth out of our own mouth, &c. Such a master-piece of obduration is the heart of man, that it stands like a mountain before the Word, and cannot be moved, till God come with his instruments of affliction, and digging down those mountains (as it is proclaimed before the Gospel, Luk. 3.5.) casteth them into a level; and then God may stand, as it were, upon even ground, and talk with man. This pride of heart speaketh loud in the wicked, and whispereth even in the godly; it is a folly bound up even in the hearts of Gods children, till the Rod of Correction [Page 164]driveth it out; and the stomack broken, the poor bleeding wretch cry out Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Secondly, 2. It softeneth the heart. Affliction is Gods forge wherein he softens the iron heart: There is no dealing with the Iron while it remaineth in its own native coldness and hardness; put it into the fire, make it red-hot there, and you may stamp upon it any figure or impression you please: Iob 65.10 God maketh my heart soft, saith Job: melted vessels are impressive to any form. So it is with the heart of man; naturally it is colder and harder then the northern iron; and that native induration is much increas'd by prosperity, and the patience of God towards sinners: the iron sinew will rather break then bend: It is the hot furnace onely which can make it operable and impressive to Gods Counsels: which course therefore God resolveth on; I will melt them and try them, Jer. 9.7. and sometimes God is forced to make the furnace seven times hotter, to work out that dross which renders men so [Page 165]unformable to the Ministry of the Word, while God sends his prophets, rising up early, and sending them; and yet they will not encline their ear, but harder their necks against divine Instruction.
When the earthly heart of man is so dryed and hardened by a long sunshine of prosperity, that the plough of the spiritual Husbandman cannot enter, Psa. 65.10 God doth soften it with showres of adversity, maketh it capable of the immortal seed, and blesseth the springing thereof: The seed falleth upon stony ground, till God turn the stone into an heart of flesh.
Thirdly, 3 It maketh man attentive to God. By Chastisement man is made more attentive unto God: In prosperity the world makes such a noise in a mans ears, that God cannot be heard; Iob 33.14 He speaks indeed once and twice, again and again, very often; yet man perceiveth it not: he is so busie in the croud of worldly affairs, that God is not heeded. In the godly themselves there is much unsetledness and giddiness of minde; naturally [Page 166]our thoughts are vain and scattered, the spirit sl [...]ppery and inconsistent, which is a great impediment to our clear and full comprehensions of spiritual things: And therefore God is forc'd to deal with man as a father with his childe playing in the market-place, and will not hear or minde his fathers call, he comes and takes him out of the noise of the tumult, carries him into his Counting-house, lays him upon his knee with the rod in his hand, and then the father can be heard: So doth God, I say, Verse 6 with his children; He openeth their ears, Hebr. He uncovereth their ears, which the Worlds vanity had stopped, and then instruction will enter. When Joab would not come to Absalom, he sets his field on fire, 2 Sam. 14.30. And thus after neglects God brings us to treat with him by affliction: God saith as it were, Come, let us reason together; and the Soul eccho's back again, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth: and when the Soul is thus silent unto God, He cometh and sealeth [Page 167]Instruction by his Spirit.
Fourthly and lastly, 4. Affliction is an Eye-salve. Affliction is an Eye-salve, whereby God openeth the eye of the Soul to see the need of divine Teaching, by the discovery of its own brutish ignorance of God, and of his ways, under all divine Administrations; as Ephraim once bemoaned himself to the Lord, I have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: the Prophet David will English it, So foolish was I, and ignorant, Psa. 73.22 and like a beast before thee: And by means of this discovery God draws out the heart into humble and holy supplication for Divine Teaching; Iob 34.32 That which I see not, teach thou me; and if I have done iniquity, I will do no more: When or how cometh the Sinner thus to put in for Instruction? why, Vers. 31. I have born chastisement: Correction discovered the need of Instruction; That which I see not, teach thou me: And thus Ephraim, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised; but blows alone will not do it: therefore it follows, Turn [Page 168]thou me, and I shall be turned: though Chastisement could not turn Ephraim, yet it made him see an absolute necessity of divine power to his conversion; less then Omnipotence would not serve the turn.
And when God hath brought the heart once into this frame, sc. to see, and be affected with the sense of its own ignorance and impotency, and to lie in the dust at Gods feet, humbly importuning an effectual Teaching from Heaven; if God should withhold it, he should fail not his promise onely, but his own counsel and project: in reference to which God cannot lye; but when he hath prepared the heart to pray, Psa. 10 17 He will cause his ear to hear: When God hath engaged the heart in holy desires of saving Instruction, it is not mercy onely in God, but faithfulness, to satisfie the desire of his own Creation: Psal. 25 8 Good and UPRIGHT is the Lord, and therefore he will teach sinners in the way.
Thus much for the third particular thing propounded for the opening [Page 169]of the Doctrine: I come now to
The fourth and last, &c. Grounds or Demonstrations of the point. The Grounds and Demonstrations of the Point. Of which in a few words, and then I shall come to the Use and Application.
It must needs be a blessed thing when Correction and Instruction meet, if we consider: 1. The L [...]ssons which God [...] cheth are so many Blessednesses.
First, The Lessons themselves which God teacheth his Ephraim's in the School of Affliction: ex [...]gra. Is it not a blessed thing to be taught how to compassionate them that are in a suffering condition? yea, [...]aith the Psalmist, Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble, the Lord will preserve him, Psa. 41.1, 2 and keep him alive, and he shal be blessed upon earth, &c. he is blessed, and he shal be blessed, not in heaven onely, but upon earth also; and that with a multiplyed blessing: see a troop follows: Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies; the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of his languishing; Vers. 2, 3 thou wilt [Page 170]make all his bed in his sickness: oh the blessedness of a compassionate heart towards afflicted ones! how easie must that bed be which God maketh? And, 2ly, is it not a blessed thing to know how to value our earthly comforts without doating upon them? to be thankful and yet not to surfeit? blessed is he that feareth alwayes, i. e. that feareth a snare in all his earthly contentments: And, 3ly, if it be a blessedness to be conformed to Jesus Christ, then surely self-denyal is a lesson which will make one blessed; If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and follow me, saith our Saviour Matth. 16.24. And, 4ly, Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven, Mat. 5 3, 5 and blessed are the meek for they shal inherit the earth: if heaven and earth, can make one blessed, then Humility is a blessed Lesson. And so it is, 5ly, To have our hearts discovered to our selves; corruption is matter of humiliation, but sight and sense of corruption is matter of comfort and [Page 171]rejoycing: it is a miserable thing indeed to be poor and not to see ones poverty, Thou sayst thou art rich, Rev. 3.17 but knowest not that thou art poor and miserable; but happy is that man to whom the Lord first discovers the hidden corruption of his heart, and then teacheth him to mourn over it; Mat. 5.4 blessed are they that mourn for they shal be comforted. 6ly, A man is never in a happier condition, then when his heart is in a praying frame: It is a mercy with a note of observation; Acts 9.11 Behold he prayes: a man is never miserable but when he cannot pray. And, 7ly, what think ye of the Word? surely he is a blessed man that by affliction is brought acquainted with his Bible which is nothing else but a treasury and Magazeen of blessings: blessed is the man whom thou chastisest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy Law: it is your text, and the first Psalm is your comment, His delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in his Law doth he meditate day and night, v. 2. And 8ly, blessed are they [Page 172] whom the Lord teacheth to clear out their evidences for heaven, to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure, 2 Pet. 1.10 11 for so an abundant entrance shal be administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; when others shall but creep to heaven as it were upon all four, they shal ride as in a triumphant charet into the gates of the New Jerusalem. 9ly, Blessed are they, who weep over their grievings of Gods Spirit, for God shal wipe off those tears from their eyes; and He will comfort them whom they have grieved. And, 10ly, what is the blessedness of heaven it self, but Communion with God! 11ly, The exercise of Grace. 12ly. The Life of Faith. 13ly. Trust in God that raises the dead, and cals things which are not as though they were: 14. a clearer discovery of Gods Excellencies; what are these but heaven begun on this side heaven, glory antidated! John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee: our Saviour saith not, [Page 173] it shal be life eternall, but it is; eternall life is begun already where these things be. In the fiftteenth, and sixteenth place, to be taught the Duties and Priviledges of a suffering condition, is a blessed Teaching, for hereby the soul is enabled to taste and see what is good and sweet in every affliction, and is set above all that which is grievous and intolerable to Nature; for this cause we faint not, &c. 17ly, The unum necessarium, the one onely thing necessary, must necessarily be a blessed thing: It is, saith our Saviour, Luk. 10 42 the better part which shall not be taken away. 18ly, The Art of Time-Redemption, is a blessing, not less then an evidence of Soul-Redemption; if ye compare the first Epistle of Peter, Chap. 1. vers. 17, and 18. together. 19ly, Ask S. Paul, and he will tell you, that the knowledg of the sufferings of Jesus Christ is an excellent knowledg, in comparison of which all other things are loss and dung, Phil. 3.8, 9, 10. And lastly, To long for Heaven, is [Page 174]the very first fruits of Heaven; the evidence and seal of our conjugal CONTRACT with Jesus Christ; The Spirit and the BRIDE say, Rev. 22.17 Come Lord Jesus. Eruditur ad b [...]atitudinem. Greg. Moral. Behold Christians, to be taught of God when chastised by him, is a Blessedness compounded of twenty several precious ingredients: At least if ye will take in
The Nature and Properties of divine Teaching; 2 Demonst. The Properties of Divine Teaching make up real blessedness. which may make a second Demonstration; that is to say, to be taught all these;
- 1. Inwardly.
- 2. Clearly.
- 3. Experimentally.
- 4. Powerfully.
- 5. Sweetly.
- 6. Abidingly.
This must needs be a blessed teaching; It being a Teaching which doth possess the Soul of the excellencies which it discovereth. Doctrinal and notional knowledg is a blessing: Blessed (saith Christ to his Hearers) are your eyes, Mat. 13.16 for they see, and your ears, for they hear: I, but it is but an occasional, preparatory blessedness, blessedness in the offer and opportunity; Oh but to be taught these [Page 175]Lessons with these qualifications; to be taught as the truth is in Jesus; 2 Cor, 3. last to be taught into the nature and image of the truth; to be taught into the possession of divine excellencies; this is blessedness indeed; blessedness in Being; full, perfect, fruitional blessedness.
A third Demonstration, 3 Demonst. They are fruits of Gods distinguishing love.
A Teaching Chastisement is the fruit of Gods distinguishing Love. Chastisements (simply considered in themselves) lie in common to all the sons and daughters of Adam since the Fall; the fruit of that first apostacy, as well as of actual and personal departures from God: yea and deliverance also, lieth in common: Providence dispenseth Deliverance to the worst of men: The 106 Psalm is a Psalm of Promises, made to the Church; but the next Psalm, the 107, is a Psalm of Providential Dispensations to the World; and there, as you finde affliction, so you may finde deliverance also out of those afflictions, to be the portion of wicked men; Rebels, Vers. 11. [Page 176]and Fools, Vers. 19, 20. ( i. e. wicked fools, Solomons fools all along the Proverbs,) Seamen, Vers. 23. (for the most part, not the most religious order in the world;) all these are delivered out of their troubles: The worst of men, I say, share in this fruit of Gods Providential Goodness, Deliverance; but a teaching sanctified affliction is the privy seal of special love, Psa. 89.33 My LOVING KINDNES wil I not take from him: whom the Lord LOVETH he chasteneth; Heb. 12.6 that is to say, with a teaching chastisement: when Word and Rod meet together, when Correction and Instruction kiss each other, they are the fruit of paternal affection, and therefore must needs have a blessing bound up in them. Deut. 8.5 As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord chasteneth thee.
Fourthly, 4 Demonst. It is a branch of the Covenant of Grace. Isai 54.13 Ier. 31.33 A Teaching-Correction is a branch of the Covenant of Grace, which God hath made in Christ for the Children of Promise; All thy children shall be taught of God: They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. by [Page 177]vertue of Divine Teaching Affliction is adopted to be a clause in the Covenant of Grace. That 89 Psalm is a Song of the New Covenant; I will sing of the mercies of the Lord, Vers. 1. what mercies? not providence mercies onely, but promise mercies, Covenant mercies; vers. 3. I have made a Covenant with my my chosen: And amongst the rest of the branches of the Covenant you shall find the rod and the whip have their place, Ver. 30, 31, 32. If his children forsake my Law, and walk not in my judgments, &c. Then will I visit their Transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: Behold rod and stripes standing here, not upon Mount Ebal, the Mount of curses, as branches of a Covenant of Works, but upon Mount Geriz [...]m, the Mount of Blessings, Deut. 11 as branches of the Covenant of Grace. Affliction is not so much threatned as promisd to Christs seed: My Cov [...]nant will I not break, ver. 34. When God seems even to break the bones and hearts of his people by [Page 178]sore and heavy strokes of correction, yet he doth not break his Covenant, My Covenant will I not break: it is in order to the Covenant when God chastiseth his children, and instructs them by his chastisements. Affliction separated from instruction is pure wrath, a blast from Mount Ebal, Deut. 28. but by a matrimonial Covenant those two Scriptures [ Psal. 89.32. I will visit, &c. and Isai. 54.13. I will teach,] are marryed together, and made one spirit (as in my Text,) and then they are pure grace. The Covenant is the Magna Charta of Heaven, and contains a list of what ever God the Father hath purposed, God the Son hath purchased, and God the Holy Ghost doth apply to the Heirs of promise. The brests of the Covenant run nothing but the milk of spiritual blessing to the children of God.
Fifthly, 5 Demonst. The purchase of Christs Death. A Teaching-affliction is the purchase of Christs death and bloodshed: Christ dyed not to exempt his redeemed from suffering, but to sanctifie their sufferings with [Page 179]his own blood: I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, Ioh. 17.15 but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil: whatsoever Christ purchas'd, he pray'd for; and this was one main priviledg, not freedom from the evil of affliction, but from the evil of sin; Sanctifie them with thy Truth, Vers. 17. Gods Teachings are sanctifying Teachings, Sanctifie them with thy Truth, thy Word is Truth: Christs blood purchas'd nothing but blessings.
Sixthly, and lastly, 6 Demonst. It is the result of all Christs Offices. A Teaching-affliction is the result of all the Offices of Jesus Christ: As a 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 [Page 180]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 [Page 181]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 [Page 182] 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 [Page 183]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 [Page 184]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 [Page 185]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 [Page 186]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 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 Je [...]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, [Page 187]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 [Page 188]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 [Page 189]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 off [...]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 [Page 190]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 ta [...] 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 exaudi [...]isunt, & ad porcos quos petiveranti remissi sunt Idem. Devils themselves are heard to the letter, when [Page 191]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 [...]ow to judg of our afflictions, and of [...]ur deliverances from them: and it may serve in stead of an Ʋse of Ex [...]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 [...]s to say, if thou canst evidence this to thine own soul. That Instruction [...]ath accompanyed Correction, That God hath taught thee as well as cha [...]tened thee, thou art a blessed man, thou shalt be saved: thou hast the [Page 192]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? 1. Inwardly, 2. Convincingly, 3. Experimentally, 4. Powerfully, 5. Sweetly, 6. Abidingly, (for even an hypocritical Ahab can humble himself for a time, walk in sackloth, and go softly; a bulrush can hold down its head for a day.) And if the Spirit of God can bear witness to thy spirit, that thou art thus taught, happy art thou; [Page 193]bless the Lord, for the Lord hath blessed thee; thou mayst sing Davids song, I will bless the Lord who hath given me Counsel; my Reins also instruct me in the night season: Psal. 16.7 And again, I know Lord thy Judgments are right, and that of faithfulness thou hast afflicted me. If I had been less afflicted, I had been less blessed.
But now on the other side, when there is no Interpreter to accompany affliction, to shew unto man the meaning of the Almighty in his chastisements; when there is not a divine sentence in the lips of Correction; when the rod is dumb, A dumb rod is a great judgment. or the creature deaf, and cannot hear the Rod, and who hath appointed it; it is much to be feared, the stroke is not the stroke of Gods children. O my Brethren, it is sad when men come out of affliction the same they went in; when affliction leaves them as it found them; as ignorant as unhumbled, as unsensible of sin as bowelless towards their suffering Brethren, as worldly as proud, as [Page 194] impatient as unsavory, as much strangers to Christ and their own hearts, as regardless of Eternity: In a word, as fit for sin as they were before: This, I say, is exceeding sad. And yet it is much sadder, when it may be said of a man, as once it was said of Ahaz, In the time of his distress he did trespass yet more against the Lord: 2 Chro. 28 22 It was an aggravation of wickedness, concerning which we may say, as our Saviour of the Alabaster box poured on his head; Where ever the Scripture shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this which this man did be published; THIS IS THAT KING AHAZ. Surely it is a standing monument of reproach and infamy unto him to all generations. Christians, it is sad and dangerous beyond all expression when affliction serveth but as a gage to give vent to the pride and murmur, the atheism and enmity, which is in mens spirits, against the Lord; when afflictions are but as oyl to irritate corruption, and make [Page 195]it blaze more fiercely; to continue in wonted sins, against such insensible and real proclamations to desist, is professed rebellion against God: an heavy inditement which the Prophet bringeth against Jerusalem; Ier. 5.3. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder then a rock, they have not refused to return. In such cases it is to be feared, the cup of affliction is a vial of wrath, and the plagues of this life nothing else but some previous drops of that storm of fire and brimstone wherein impertinent sinners shal be scorch'd and tormented for ever.
That Scripture speaks dreadfully to this purpose, Jer. 6.28.
They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders; they are all corrupters: The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire; the Founder melteth in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away: Reprobate silver shall men call them, [Page 196]because the Lord hath rejected them. They are all grievous revolters,] i. e. as the Prophet Isaiah expounds it, Isai. 1 5 [...] additis defectionem. ye revolt more and more; Heb. They encrease revolt, walking with slanders; they do not onely revolt, but slander those that reprove their revolting; They hate him that reproveth in the gate: Amos 5 10 they slander the Prophets, and their words; nay, God himself doth not escape the lash of their tongues: they say, Ezek. 18 The way of the Lord is not equal; when they should condemn their own ways, they censure Gods, The way of the Lord is not equal. They are brass and iron,] They would pass for silver and gold, a sincere and holy people, while they are a degenerate and hypocritical generation. They are all corrupters, Micah 9.9 ] They have deeply corrupted themselves; they have corrupted all their doings; Z [...]ph 3.7 Mal. 2.8. they have corrupted the Covenant of Levi, sc. the worship, the ordinances, the truths of God. The bellows are burnt in the fire, i. e. The Lungs of the Prophets, [Page 197]which have preach'd unto them in the name of the Lord, rising up early, and lifting up their voyces like trumpets, to tell Israel their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins, and stretching forth their hands unto them all the day long, they are spent. The Lead is consumed,] i. e. All the melting judgments and chastisements, which (as Lead is cast into the furnace to make it the hotter) God added to the Ministry of the Prophets, to make the Word more operative, they will do no good. All this while, The Founder melteth in vain] whether God the Master-Founder, or the Prophets, Gods Co-founders, or fellow-workmen, as the Apostle calls them; they all melt in vain: 2 Cor. 6.1 all their labor is lost; neither word, nor rod, neither judgments nor ordinances, can stir them; they refuse to receive correction, they will not be taught Men wil god the hearing, but are resolved on their own courses. . The wicked are not plucked away: They are the same that ever they were; the swearer is a swearer still, and the drunkard is a [Page 198]drunkard still, and the unclean person is unclean still; Isai. 32.6 The vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisie, and to utter error against the Lord: the unjust are unjust still, and the ignorant are ignorant still; nothing will better them, wicked they are, and wicked they will be. What follows? a formidable sentence; Reprobate silver shall men call them] They would be counted silver, but it is reprobate silver, refuse silver, dross rather then pure mettal: and their hypocrisie shall be made known to all men; Reprobate silver shall MEN call them; and happy they, if it were but the censure of mistaking men onely; nay, but the Searcher of hearts hath no better thoughts of them: men do but call them so, because God call'd them so first; Reprobate silver shal men call them, because the LORD hath Rejected them: God hath cast them out as the Founder casts out his dross to the dunghill, and they shall never stand among the vessels [Page 199]of honor, in whom the Lord will be glorified. A fearful sentence! the sum whereof is this, That when Teaching goeth not along with Correction, when men come out of the furnace, and lose nothing of their dross, it is a sad indicium of a reprobate spirit, without timely and serious reflection, nigh unto cursing. O consider this, you that forget God and his chastisements, lest he tear you in pieces, Psa. 50.22 and there 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 [Page 200]godly mans happiness or misery is not to be judged by the worlds sense and feeling, Nemo aliorum sensu mis [...]r est s [...]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. [Page 201]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 Inso [...]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 [...]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 [Page 202]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 [Page 203]spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 1 Cor. 11 32 V [...]ribus res disposita est; lugea. mus ita (que) 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 qu [...]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 [Page 204]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 Psalm [...]st can see no just cause of [Page 205]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 [Page 206]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: [Page 207]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 [Page 208]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 [Page 209]is dead and buried, and the gravestone 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 [Page 210]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 [Page 211]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 [Page 212]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, [Page 213]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 [Page 214]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 [Page 216]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; [Page 217]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 [Page 218]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 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 [Page 219]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 [Page 220]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, [Page 221]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 [Page 222]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, [Page 223]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. [Page 224]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 disspirit 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 [Page 225]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 coming of Christ: Say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
In a word, brethren, study, and study throughly, the
- Sinfulness of Sin.
- Emptiness of the Creature.
- Fulness of Christ.
And in all these, and the like Lessons, labor for an
- Inward
- Convincing
- Experimental
- Powerful
- Sweet
- Abiding
Teaching.
Content not your selves, Christians, with a general, slight, superficial, unsavory, powerless, flitting Knowledg: rest not in notions; be not satisfied with expressions without [Page 226] impressions; nor with impressions, that are not abiding impressions; that are like figures written in the sand: this is the ruine of professors. Those professors, their names shall be written in the dust, who write divine instructions in the dust: at least, if God have a minde to do you good, expect that he should send you into the house of Correction, and there teach you with scourges, and write his Instructions in your blood.
And therefore if you would prevent so severe a Discipline, oh improve your time well in the School of the Word; while you have the light, Iohn 3.35 walk in the light, lest darkness come upon you: while you sit under the Teachings of the Gospel, labor to get knowledg answerable to the means, and grace answerable to your knowledg. Thus much for the first Caution.
I come now to the second Caution. 2 Caution, Labor to profit by other mens sufferings.
If you would prevent affliction, labour to be instructed by the chastisements [Page 227]which you see upon other men. God deals with his children as Tutors do with the children of Princes, whip them upon strangers backs. Thus God scourged Israel upon the back of the Nations round about: Zeph. 3.6. Zeph. 3.6 I have cut off the Nations, their towers are desolate, I made their streets waste that none passeth by, their Cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant: SHORT WORK! But their punishment, was Israels Caution; I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction: The Worlds judgments are the Churches instructions, and God lookt that his people should have made that use of this practical doctrine; I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instructions: God had gracious ends in this dispensation; his severity to strangers, was his tender mercies towards Israel; he spared not the Nations, that he might have spared them, Verse 7. so their dwellings should not be cut off: God cut off the Nations, [Page 228]vers. 6. that he might not cut off Israel; Behold (as the Apostle saith in another case, Rom. 11.22.) the goodness and severity of God; severity to the Nations, but goodness towards Israel; had they continued in his goodness, had they received instruction by their neighbors destruction. And as God punisht Israel upon the Nations backs, so God punisht Judah upon Israels back: Ier. 7.12. Go ye now to my place in Shiloh, and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel: Israels chastisements should have b [...]n Jerusalems teachings, and by their stripes she should have been healed; for the neglect whereof God is highly displeased, and speaks concerning this in a very angry dialect; And I saw when for all the causes whereby back-sliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away, & given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, Ier. 3.8. but went and played the Harlot also. God took it ill, that Ierusalem should slight the kindness of such a [Page 229] Caution, and despise the counsel which was written to her in her sisters blood, q. d. I would have made Ierusalem wise by Samaria's harms, and taught her by a rod which she only saw: but she feared not; she hardened her heart through unbelief, and either would not understand the Caution, or dared me to my face to do my worst, while by her shameless whoredoms she went on to provoke me to jealousie. This hasteneth that judgment upon her self which she despised on others: Iudah must feel Israels rod, because she would not hear it: As Israel must suffer those judgments on the Nations which she would not improve; by those very Nations by whom she would not be instructed, she must be destroyed, Zeph. 3.8. So Iudah must feel what she feared not at a distance; she that would not tremble at her sisters divorce, must suffer divorce her self, and be judged as women that break wedlock, &c. Ezek. 16.38. And bear her own [Page 230]shame for her sins that she had committed more abominable then they, vers. 52.
Beloved Christians, if we would prevent the like severity, let us take heed of the like security: God hath been a long time scourging England upon Germanies back, and upon Irelands back, and upon Scotlands back; God hath for these many years scourged London on the back of all the Cities and Counties round about; and God doth dayly scourge every one of us in particular upon the back of our suffering brethren, in divers kinds; his design is, that we should fear him, that we should receive instruction: If we altogether fail his expectation, we may fear that the same rods are preparing for our backs wherewith they have bled, yea that their rods shall be turned into scorpions to us; we sin worse then others, when we sin those very sins for which others have been punisht before our faces, and [...]d contempt to their transgressions; and how just [Page 231]will it be with God, if as we aggravate their sins, so He aggravate upon us their plagues; we that would not be bettered by Gods warning pieces, should be destroyed by Gods murdering pieces; that we that would not see and learn, should feel and perish; Nocumentae documenta. even particular judgments should be our documents: Remember Lots wife; her pillar of salt should season our hearts, that when the judgments of God are abroad in the Earth, we that are the inhabitants, not of the Earth only, but of Sion also, may learn Righteousness. Even those judgments which the Magistrate doth execute by Gods appointment, are chiefly for caution to standers by, Deu. 13.11 that others may hear and fear, and do no more any such wickedness, &c. How much more those judgments which the Lord himself doth execute? vid. Psal. 64.7, 8, 9. 2 Pet. 2.6. When the father is correcting one child, the whole family should fear and tremble. Ier. 7.12. Go to my place in Shiloh, [Page 232]saith God to the Jews, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. If we would learn by other mens sufferings, we should prevent our own: This is the way to prevent sufferings.
The Lord make us wise to Salvation.
I come to the second branch of Exhortation. 2 Branch of Exhort. to such as are under affliction. sc.
To such as yet lie under affliction, and the chastisements of the Almighty.
Take notice, Take notice of Gods design. O thou afflicted Soul, what Gods design is in afflicting of thee, and make it thy design, namely, that thou mayst be taught, that correction may be turn'd into instruction; hear the 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 [...] [Page 233]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 [Page 234]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; Ile 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 [Page 236]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, [Page 237]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.
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 [Page 238]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 [Page 239]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, it had not been a comparable mercy to his teachings of thee by affliction: Prevention and deliverance may be in wrath, ut sup: but God never teacheth the Soul but i [...] is in love.
2. 2. It is a double, a multiplied mercy. God hath doubled his mercy and loving kindness to thee, he hath commanded deliverance and instruction too: a twisted mercy; yea, as Deliverance and Instruction were the return of Prayer, a treble, a multiplyed mercy: which should greatly endear the heart to God, and make it sing with David, I wil love the Lord, Psa. 116.1 because he hath heard the voyce of my Supplication, upon the return of prayer in a single deliverance, God expects the return of [Page 240]prayse, Cal upon me in the day of trouble, Psa. 50.15 I wil deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifie me; how much more when he wreaths and twists his mercies one in another? double and treble and multiplyed mercy, cals for double and treble and multiplyed thankfulness; when God loads us with mercy we should load him with our praises.
3. 3 A seal of Adoption. Instruction is the Seal of God, which set upon Correction doth Seal up Adoption and Son-ship, to them that are exercised thereby: the children of affliction are, by Divine Teaching, sealed up the children of promise: If his children forsake my Law, speaking of Christs spirituall Seed, Psa. 89.31 32, 33. I wil visit their transgression with a rod, &c. but my loving kindness wil I not take away: I wil visit them with the rod, that is, I will teach them with the rod, it shall be a rod of Instruction to them, that is the childrens portion; Heb 12.7. If his children forsake me, &c. God deals with you as with Sons. Behold oh thou Christian soul, God hath done [Page 241]that for thee in thy sufferings, which possibly he denyed thee in thy prosperity, given thee an Evidence of thy Son-ship; he hath made thy suffering time thy sealing time; and hath allured thee and brought thee into the wilderness, Hos. 2.14. and there hath spoken comfortably to thy heart. Thy Patmos hath been thy Paradice wherein hee hath given thee his loves.
4. 4. Sufferings are consecrated. God hath consecrated thy sufferings by his Teachings: Afflictions have taken Orders, as it were, and stand no longer in the rank of Ordinary Providences, but serve now in the Order of Gospel-Ordinances, officiating in the holy garment of Divine Promises, and to the same Uses. What is the great end and design of the Promises? the Apostle tels us, 2 Pet. 1.4. There are given to us exceeding great and precious Promises, that by them we should be pertakers of the divine nature, i.e. of gracious dispositions and qualities, which make the soul resemble God, holy as he is holy, &c. this is [Page 242]the end of Divine Promises and Ordinances; and mark, what the Apostle Peter affirms of the Promises, the very same doth the Apostle Paul affirm of Gods chastisments, Heb. 12.10 He for our profit, that we might be PARTAKERS Of His HOLINES: See, by vertue of divine teaching afflictions advancd to the same degree & office with Gospel Ordinances and Promises; so that what hinders, why we may not give those titles of honour to Afflictions, which the Apostle here gives to the Promises, and say, To you it is GIVEN not only to beleeve, but to suffer. Phil. 1.29. There are given unto us exceeding great and precious Afflictions, that by them we might be partakers of the divine nature, that is, made partakers of his holiness. See, O thou afflicted Soul, by teaching God hath changed the very nature of affliction; He hath turned thy water into wine; a prison, a bed of sickness, into a school, into a temple, wherein he hath taught thee into his own likeness.
5. 5. The sufferer is consecrated. As God hath consecrated thy sufferings, so he hath consecrated [Page 243]thee also by thy sufferings. As it is said of Christ, Heb. 2.10. He made the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings: [...] he consummated, or perfected; Christ became a perfect Mediator by his passion; the Cross was the complement and absolution of his Mediatory-office; Ioh. 19.30 Transacta sunt omnia. hence you hear him cry upon the Cross, [...], It is finished. And thus also may it be said of the members of Christ, they are perfected by sufferings: Chastisement being coupled with teaching, is the Consecration and Consummation of the Saints: I fill up, saith Paul, Col. 1.24. [...]. that which is Behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh; the after-sufferings of Christ. As Christ as a Mediator, so Christ as one Body, with his members, is compleated by sufferings: I fill up that which is behind: Christ is not full till all his members have had their measure of sufferings; You have need of patience, Heb. 10.36 that when you have done the will of God, you may inherit the Promises. When we have done Gods will, all [Page 244]is not done; there is somewhat to be suffered, without which the Christian is not in a capacity to receive his inheritance; you have need of patience, sc. to carry you through the suffering part of your work, as well as the doing, that so being perfect, you may inherit the Promises.
Lastly, 6. Crown'd with the Blessing. He is blessed, quia eruditur ad beatudinem. Greg. Moral. in Iob 5.17. By adding instruction to correction, God hath crown'd thee with the blessing: * Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest: God hath turn'd the Crown of thorns into a Crown of gold, and set it on thy head, and now brings thee forth wearing this Crown, and shews thee, as it were, to the world as a monument of free-grace, proclaiming before thee, Thus shall it be done to the man whom God will honour.
Well then, Christian, take up thy quid retribuam? sit down and consult with thine own Soul, what to render for so rich amercy? and behold, it is resolved to thy hand: Psa. 50.15. I will deliver thee, and [Page 245]THOU SHALT GLORIFIE ME: Behold God hath not only delivered, but taught thee, now therefore he expecteth glory from thee. Glorifie God, 1. Wi [...]h your lips.
Glorifie God,
1. With thy lips; I cryed to him with my lips, and he was GLORIFIED with my TONGUE: Let the lip of prayer be turn'd into the tongue of praise; make your tongues your glory, by proclaiming Gods glory; be telling what great things God hath done for you; say with David, Psa. 66.15 Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul: abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness, make his praise glorious. Extol him in Psalms of Thanksgiving: Sing unto the Lord, Psal. 30.4 O ye Saints of his, give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness: Psa. 50.23 He that offereth me praise, GLORIFIETH ME.
2. Glorifie God with thy life, 2. With your lives. live his praise; hath God taught thee? If thou wouldst glorifie God, go and put all the Lessons which thou hast learned into print; shew [Page 246]forth the graces of him that hath called thee out of darkness into his marvelous light; 1 Pet. 2.9 [...] the excelencies. print them in such a legible character, that who so runs may read: Lip-praise is good, but life-praise is better; He that offers me praise glorifieth me, and to him that ORDERETH HIS CONVERSATION ARIGHT will I shew the Salvation of God: Psa. 50.23 It is good to speak so, Loquere ut te videam. that men may see; that standers by may be Gods witnesses and yours, that you are taught of God; and say, Lo what hath God wrought? how holily, and humbly, and fruitfully, and self-denyingly do these servants of God walk since they came out of tribulation? Live so, that you may take off the scandal of the Cross of Christ, and bring men into love with a suffering condition: Mat. 5.16 Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven; Caelum quoddam luci dissimis virtutum stellis exornatum. that you may be a little Heaven-sparkling with bright stars of divine graces, as it was said of Joseph.
[Page 247]3. Now God hath taught thee, 3. Be ready to teach others. be thou ready to teach others: It is a debt which thou owest to all thou conversest with; When thou art converted, strengthen thy Brethren. Communicate what God hath taught thee to thy yoke-fellow, children, servants, friends, upon all seasonable opportunities. Sanctified knowledg is communicative; Freely thou hast received, freely give. Mark 4.21 God never lighttd this candle, that it should be put under the bed, or under the bushel; the bed of pleasure, or the bushel of profit; but that it may be put into the candlestick of thy conversation, and so shine before men, that they may see, and glorifie thy Father which is in Heaven. This is indeed to glorifie God. And thus much for the first Duty. I come to the second Duty; and that is,
Labor to preserve the teachings of God upon thy Spirit. 2 Duty, To preserve a good frame of spirit. Study how to maintain that sweet gracious frame of heart into which God hath taught thee by affliction. It is the [Page 248]duty which Christians should practise, as oft as they come from the Word, or any other divine Ordinance: When we come out of a Sabbath, we should sit down, and observe with what frame of spirit God sends us away from the Ordinance; If the Ordinance hath left no savory gracious impression upon the heart, to lie in the dust, and mourn, and commune with our own hearts, and lament after God: If there be an Ordinance-frame, we should rejoyce in it, bless God for it, and labor to keep up such a frame upon the heart till the next solemn approach to God. Christians, how much more should this be our care and study when we come out of Gods furnace, that solemn Ordinance of affliction, to labor to maintain that melting frame of heart, that warmth and heat, that life and vigor which we have brought with us out of affliction. 2 John 3 Look to your selves, that ye lose not those things which God hath wrought in you. To that end take a few Means or Helps.
First, Means to preserve a good frame of heart. 1. Be often perusing your Lessons. Be often reading over the LESSONS which God hath taught you; frequently revive the remembrance of them in your heads, and work the impressions of them upon your hearts: labor not onely to say them without book, but indeed to get them by heart. I tell you Christians, you had need to take much pains with your selves, to keep the Teachings of God alive upon your spirits: For be sure of this, that you will finde a great difference between your hearts yet under affliction, and when the affliction is taken off; and without infinite watchfulness your hearts will be too hard for you: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Jer. 17.9 There is much of a Pharaoh-like disposition in every man, very prone to harden when the storm is over. It is sad and wonderful to consider, how a corruption will lie as if it were quite dead, while danger and death are before us, and how suddenly and powerfully it will revive; and without special take-heed, betray [Page 250]the Soul, when the danger is over. That Caution which God by Moses gave the Israelites in the wilderness, may make every wise Christian to tremble: Deut. 31 21 I know their imaginations, which they go about EVEN NOVV, BEFORE I have brought them into the Land, which I sware. Their hearts were secretly projecting for their lusts, even while they were yet smarting under the rod: and in the howling wilderness they are forecasting hwo to satisfie sense, and serve their carnal interests, when they should come into the Land that flowed with milk and honey. Possibly, these were not down-right resolves; but saith the Lord, I know their imaginations: O my Brethren, we should harken to the whisperings of Lust in our own bosoms, and labor to suppress them; to crush the Serpent while it is in the shell; for if there be such floatings of sin in the imagination, while yet in durance, what projecting and contrivements will there be in the heart when liberty and [Page 251]enlargement shall present temptations and opportunities? And therefore keep we our hearts with all diligence; Prov. 4 23 or as the Hebrew phraseth it, of all keepings keep our hearts, Hic sons bo [...], & peccandi [...]igo. Hieron. for out of them come the issues of life: and when the days of affliction and trouble are gone, work Truths, and Counsels received, frequently and fixedly upon your Consciences; that you may, like good Scribes, instructed to the Kingdom of God, Mat. 13 52 bring out of your treasures things new and old; and have always in a readiness wherewith to oppose and check temptation, and may practise every Lesson which God hath taught you, in the season thereof.
Secondly, Renew, also, 2 Help, Renew the remembrance of the affliction. often upon your Souls, the remembrance of the sharpness and bitterness of the affliction: it will be a notable corrective to sensuality, and give check to sinful excesses. The flesh will quickly grow wanton when it findeth ease; Jesurun, when the neck was got from under the yoke, quickly, [Page 252] waxed fat, Deut. 32 15 Psal. 106, 13 and kicked: They soon forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly: WORKS and COUNSEL, CHASTISEMENTS and TEACHINGS were quickly forgotten, when once the affliction was over: They quickly forgot a barren wilderness, in a Land that flowed with milk and hony: They waited not for his Counsel; they grew weary of Counsel, when once free from Correction; and chose rather to walk by the 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 [Page 253]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 [Page 254] 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 [Page 255]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 [Page 256]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 [Page 257]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 [Page 258]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 a [...]monuit [...]p [...]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 [Page 259]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 my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. Lord, through grace assisting, I will be as ready to pay my vows, now I am well, as I was to make vows when I was sick, &c. Psa. 56.12 THY VOVVS are upon me, I will render praises unto thee. When you have made good Vows, be as careful to make good your Vows unto the Lord: Vow, Psa. 76.11 and PAY unto the Lord your God.
In the fifth place, 5 Means, Attend upon the Word. If you would preserve the teachings of God upon thy heart, attend constantly and conscionably upon the Ministry of the Word. The truth is, the Word and the Rod teach the same Lessons. The Rod many times is but the Words [Page 260]REMEMBRANCER: And therefore as the Rod quickens the Word, so the Word back again will revive and sanctifie the teachings of the Rod: They mutually help to set one another with deeper impressions. And therefore hear WISDOM, watching dayly at her gates, Prov. 8.34. waiting at the posts of her doors, if thou wouldst be blessed. It will be of a twofold advantage.
1. It will help your memories: As the Rod repeateth the Word, so the Word will repeat the instructions of the Rod; the Gospel will bring to remembrance what you have learned in the School of Affliction.
2. It will quicken affection: To hear that repeated by the still sweet voyce of the Gospel, which before God taught you in the voyce of thunder, this cannot but affect, and make you bespeak the Gospel, as once the Israelites did Moses, Deut. 5 25 26 Speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it, but let us not hear [Page 261]the voyce of God any more, that terrible voyce of Judgment, lest we dye. And certainly God will take it was well at your hands as he did at Israels, and will answer in some such language, I have heard the voyce of this people, they have well said all that they have spoken: O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, Verse 29. and keep my Commandments, that it might be well with them, and that I might not bring upon them such evils as I have done, any more.
6. 6 Means, Feed a good frame of heart. Be often feeding that frame of heart which God hath taught thee into: do by it, as thou dayly beggest God would do by thee; Give it day by day its dayly bread; Meditations suitable to the nature of that grace which thou wouldst maintain; threatenings, promises, truths, Scripture-considerations, agreeable to the Lesson: Take heed of feeding corruption with thoughts of the sweetness that is in sin; Take heed of starving grace by withdrawing from it suitable aliment. You will [Page 262]require the blood of your Infants that are starved at the Nurses hands: Will not God be much more jealous over the births and issues of his own Spirit? Meditate much upon the Sinfulness of Sin, the Emptiness of the Creature, the Fulness of Christ, the exquisiteness of his Sufferings, the severity of the last Judgment, the torments of Hell, the Joys of Heaven, the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature, Me litatio q. mentas dictatio. and the horror of Eternity. Rich in Meditation, and rich in grace.
7. 7 Help. And lastly, Be much in prayer. As it was not enough for God to make the first Creation, but he must uphold it by the word of his power, Heb. 1.3 or else it would quickly have returned into its first Nothing: So it is with the second Creation, Hebr. 12.3 Christ is the Finisher as well as the Author of grace; Phil. 1. He that hath begun a good work in you, must perfect it: Stability onely comes from the unchangeable God; and therefore pray, that God would put of his unchangeableness upon you. Pray as [Page 263] Luther was wont to pray, Act. & Mon fol. 777. Confirm O Lord in us what thou hast wrought, and perfect the work thou hast begun in us to thy Glory, so be it; which he seems to have taken out of Psal. 68.28. Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought in us. Pray that prayer which David prayed over that liberal frame of heart which God had formed in his people for the service of the Temple. O LORD God of Abraham, 1 Chron. 29 18. and Isaac, and Jacob our Fathers, KEEP THIS FOR EVER in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and PREPARE their heart unto thee; or [...] STABLISH their heart. Oh be earnest with God for stability of heart, Hosea 6.4 that thy goodness may not be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew, but that it may in some proportion resemble the Author of it, and be Yesterday, Heb. 13.8 and to day, and the same for ever.
In a word, By all these means and helps, and what other God hath sanctified for this gracious end, labor, Christians, to be such out of [Page 264]your afflictions, Possum ergo quod pluribus verbis pluribus eliam voluminibus philosophi docere conantur ipse breviter tibi mihique precipere, ut tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi. Plin. ep. 26 l. 7. ad max as you promised God and your selves to be when you were in; that neither God nor your own Souls may have cause to repent of your sufferings; that the fruit of chastening may be 2 Cor 7 Repentance never to be unrepented of, i.e. Marbury of Repent. 3 Duty, Pray for the afflicted. never to fall back again: Having in your troubles repented of your sins, take heed when you are delivered, that you repent not of your repentance; and he that doth not repent of his repentance now, shall never have cause to repent for his repentance hereafter.
And thus I have done with the second Duty of those who through grace do find they have been taught by affliction.
I come now to the Third Duty.
Pray for the afflicted; and when you pray, say, Lord, teach them, as well as correct them, that they may be blessed. O pray thus for ENGLAND, she hath been a long time sorely chastised of the Lord, and yet hath been all this while like a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. O [Page 265]pray, Turn us Lord, and we shall be turned, thou art the Lord our God. Pray, that God would teach ENGLAND in this day day of her visitation the things of her peace before they be hid from her eyes. Luk. 19.42 Ier. 6.8 O pray that we may be INSTRUCTED, lest Gods Soul depart from us: If Correction go not forth into Instruction; if England be not at length reformed by all the judgments of God upon her, she hath seen her best days, and may expect to be made desolate, a Land not inhabited; Ier. 6.8 there is no balm for our pain, neither any Physician that 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 [Page 266]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 [Page 267]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.
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 [Page 268]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 [Page 269]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: Ʋnite 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 [Page 270] take all the glory: Say, Lord, teach me as well as deliver me, and I shall be blessed.
- The four [...]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 [Page 271]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 sh [...]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 inutili [...]er valdc perniciose sentiet filius patris lenitatem, ut postea juste sentiat Dei severitatem. Aug. in Psa. 50. Ad interficiendum. Pagn. deriving the original word from the root [...] which in Hiph. sig. to kill. the parents lenity in this case makes way for Gods severity: Pity to the flesh is cruelty to the soul; so the Hebrew may be rendred, Spare [Page 272]not to his destruction, or to cause him to dye, that is, to occasion his destruction: The foolish indulgence of the parent may be, and often is, the death of the child, eternal death: Parents spare their children in their folly to the destruction both of body and soul. And this may help us to expound that other parallel text, Withhold not correction from the child, Pro 23.13 for if thou beat him with the rod he shall not dye: The meaning may be either, that correction will not kill him; the rod will break no bones; so preventing and reproving at once the silly tenderness of fond parents, who think if they should correct their children, they would presently dye of it; they are as afraid to use the rod, as if it were a sword: Antiqui patres ut Deo placerent admortem filiis etiam non parcebant; nos autem cos quos secundum carnem diligimus etiam tenui verborum aspiritate insequi non audemu [...]. Greg. in 1 Sam. 14. Abraham feared not so much to sacrifice his son, as such parents fear to chasten him. Nay, but faith the Holy Ghost, fear not correction, for behold, the strokes of the rod are not the strokes of death: it is but a rod it is not a serpent, take it into thy hand; it may smart, it [Page 273]will not sting: To take away the fear of parents in this case, God himself giveth them his word for it, He shall not dye: This I say may be the meaning; by correcting thy child thou shalt not murder him. Or else (which I rather conceive) the words may be a motive drawn from the fruit of correction; Withhold not correction from the child; why? He shall not dye, i. e. it may be, and (through divine blessing accompanying it) is often a means to prevent death: it may prevent the first and second death to which the child is exposed by the finful indulgence of the parent. The Greg. Nys. in Cant. Hom. 12. word used in this place, saith one, seems to note an immortality; so that He shall not dye, is all one as if the Holy Ghost had said, There is a [...] in the words, wherein more is understood then exprest. 1 Cor. 11.32 He shal live for ever; the rod on the flesh shall be a means to save the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus: We are chastened, that we should not be condemned with the world. Psa. 141.5 Such smitings, as David saith in another case, shall be a kindness; and such [Page 274] rebukes are so far from breaking the head, that they shall be an excellent oyl which shall cure, and give life. The very Philosopher could say, [...]. Arist. Eth. l. 2. Correction is a kind of Physick or Medicine. Alas, our children are sick, and cruel is that mercy which will suffer them to dy [...], yea eternally, rather then disgust their palates with a little bitter physick? Apish parents they be, who hug their little ones to death; Peremptores potius quam parentes. Paricides rather then Parents; of whom we may say, as sometime the Cum dudisset Augustus inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes Rex Iudaeorum, infea bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus accisum, ait, melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium. Macrob. Sat. lib. 2. c. 4. Roman Emperor said of Herod (when he heard that he had murdered his own son among the rest of the infants when Christ was born, that so he might be sure (as he supposed) to destroy the King of the Jews,) It were better to be such peoples swine, then their sons. O hateful indulgence! merciless pity! to lose a child for want of correction! such parents throw both the rod and the child into the fire at once; the rod into the fire of the chimney, and the child into the fire of Hell. This is not [Page 275]done like God, Heb 12.6 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth: And so doth every wisely loving parent; He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that Loveth Him chasteneth him betimes. Pro. 13 24 As mo [...]hs are beaten out of a garment with a rod, so must vices out of childrens hearts. And for want of this disciplinary love, how have some children accused their parents at the Gallows? and how many do, and will curse them in Hell, in some such language as Cyprian supposeth infants to complain of their parents who denyed them Baptism; Perdit nos aliena perfidia, parenles sensimus paricidas. Cyp. Scr. de lap. The treacherous fondness of our parents hath brought us into these torments, our fathers and mothers have been our murderers; they that gave us our natural life, have deprived us of a better; and they that would not correct us with the rod, have occasioned us now to be tormented with scorpions. O it would grieve the heart of the most unnatural parept in the world to hear the doleful [Page 276]complain [...]s, and those hideous yellings of poor children in Hell fire, whom their fondness hath sent thither: and oh that they would listen to them, before they themselves come into that place of torment, and there find no mercy, because here they have shewed their children so much. Filius patris sentit lentiatem, ut postea sentiat Dei severitatem, & Hoc Non Solus Sed Cum Dissoluto Patre. Aug. in Psa. 50. The childe goeth to Hell for his wickedness, and the parent many times for his mercy. Yea even in this life how do many godly Parents smart for their fondness, because they will not make their Children smart for their folly. Vid. Chrysost. l. 3. ad veritus vitup. vitae Monasticae. 1 Sam. 3.13 Because Eli restrained not his sons, their sins destroyed him and his whole family. Chrysost. ut sup. Eli and David would not so much as rebuke their sons, and God gave them both great rebukes in their sons: It is said of Eli, His sons made themselves vile, and he RESTRAINED them not: the Hebr. signifieth, He FROWNED not upon them. Oh sad! for want of a frown to destroy a Soul! the Soul of a Childe! to smile a Childe to Hell! [Page 277]Consider of it; I am much afraid, this unchristian, yea unnatural indulgence of Parents, is the fountain of all that confusion, under which England at this time reels and staggers like a drunken man: and for this very sin, at least for this among others, yea, and for this above others, God is Unde nos mala innumera perpetimur quotidie? nonne quod filios nostros malos aspicimus & nos emendare negligimus? visiting all the families of the Land, from the Throne to the poorest Cottage. Parents have layd the foundation of their own forrows, their childrens ruine, and the desolation of the Nation, in the looseness and delicacy of their education; and yet are not sensible of it to this day: We have not corrected our children, and therefore God is correcting us in our children: We God makes our children our rods, because we have withheld the rod from them. We gave them too much rest, and therefore they give us none. Pro. 29 17 Levit. 26 have not cross'd them in their wills, and therefore God doth cross us in our wills: We have walked (even in this point, exceedingly) contrary to God, and to his Discipline; and therefore God is walking contrary to us, and is punishing us seven times more for this iniquity. And therefore, Oh that Parents would at [Page 278]length awaken themselves, to follow both the pattern and precept of their heavenly Father; who, as he correcteth whom he loveth, so he commands them to correct, Melius est perire in virga patris, quam in blandimentis perire praedonis. if they love, their children. Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou correct him with the Rod, he shall not dye: If the Rod draw blood (should need be) it is ad salutem; it is as the Physician deals with them to prevent a feaver; a feaver of boyling passions here, and of boyling fire and brimstone hereafter: it is to cure, not to kill; yea, thou killest, if thou dost not wound: and therfore again I say, withhold it not: Give the rod unto thy childe, and he will one day give thee thanks for it. Yea, it is worth observation, that the same word in the original, [...] which is translated withhold, signifieth also to forbid; meeting with another distemper in Parents, who as they will not correct their children themselves, so also they forbid others to correct them, under whose tuition they put them: As if they were afraid [Page 279]their children would not have sin enough here, nor hell enough hereafter, they lay in Caveats against the means which God hath sanctified for their reclaiming. What tears of blood are sufficient to bewail this folly! You that are godly-wise, and wisely-loving, take heed of it; and when you commit your children to others hands, do not in the mean while hold their hands: if thou judgest them not wise, why dost thou chuse them? if thou chuse them, why dost thou not trust them? Well then, if the rod be in thine own hand, withhold it not; if in thy friends hand, forbid it not. Certainly there is great need of this duty, which the Spirit of God doth frequently inculcate all along the Proverbs. I will conclude this branch of the Exhortation with inverting the Counsel of our Saviour; In this sence be ye not merciful, that you may be the children of your heavenly Father: Mat. 5.44 45 for whom he loveth he correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Go thou and [Page 280]do likewise; and this shall be your mercy and love to your children: He that spareth the rod, hateth his son; Pro. 13.24 but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes.
Secondly, 2 Exhort, Add Instruction to Correction. You that are Parents, or in stead of Parents, If you would have your children happy, Add Instruction to correction: imitate God in this part of patternal Discipline also; let Chastisement and Instruction go together: It is that which the Holy Ghost urgeth upon you; Bring them up in the NURTURE and ADMONITION of the Lord: Eph. 6.4 There be two words relating to both these Parental duties; [...], in Qua Pater erudit filium. Bez. castigatione, in the Chastisement or Correction; and it is added, of the Lord: that is, either in the Chastisement, wherewith the Lord exerciseth his children; or in the Chastisement which the Lord commandeth earthly Parents to exercise towards their children: this is the first duty, of which already. And then there is another word, which holdeth forth the end and design [Page 281]of Parental Correction, and that is, [...], Monitis ex verbo Dei petitis, sive sanctis & Deo acceptis. Bez. in the Admonition and Instruction of the Lord: i. e. in Counsels and Instructions taken out of the Word of God, or such as are approved of by God: The sum is this, That while we chasten the flesh, Proprie fignificat admonitionem non simpliciter sed talem, qualem in mentem pueri ponas & ingerasquae sunt illi ad salutem necessaria. Zanch. in loc. we should labor to inform and form the minde and spirit, by infusing right principles, pressing and urging upon their tender hearts counsel, reproof, and instruction, as the matter requireth. This is the duty of Parents, to imitate God, to let Instruction expound Correction; and with a rod in the hand, and a word in the mouth, to train up their children to life eternal. A dumb rod is but a brutish Discipline, and will leave the child as brutish as it found him. Chastisement without teaching may sooner break the bones then the heart; it may mortifie the flesh, but not corruption; extinguish nature, but never beget grace: But the Rod and REPROOF give wisdom. Pro. 29.15. Instruction added to Correction, as it makes excellent Christians, [Page 282]so it makes good Children. There be Parents that are severe and curst enough to their children; they spare for no blows: in stead of breaking them of their wills, by a wise and moderate correction, they are ready to break their bones, and their necks too sometimes, in their moods and passions: But they never minde the other branch of Paternal Discipline, sc. Instruction and Admonition: of such Parents I suppose the Apostle speaketh, Heb. 12.9, 10. We have had Fathers of our flesh, who corrected and chastened us after THEIR OVVN PLEASURE: He speaketh not of all Parents; but his meaning is, there be such men and women in the world, who are most unlike to God; and in smiting their children, rather please themselves, then profit their children: He for our profit, but they after their own pleasure, to give vent to their passion, and satisfie their vindictive rage and fury: and when is that? truly when the Rod and Reproof do not go together; it is an argument there [Page 283]is more passion then judgment, more lust then love, in such chastisements. Such Parents do rather betray their own folly, then take a course to make their children wise: Schola Crucis, Schola Lucis. The Rod and Reproof give wisdom: neither alone will do it: the Rod without Reproof will harden the heart, and teach the children sooner to hate the Parent, then to hate sin; Absque afflictione nulli utilia discunt. and Reproof without the Rod will leave no impression: Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, Pro: 6.23 or Corrections of instruction: a lesson set on with a whiping is best remembred. It is divine truth that must be the instrument of working saving grace 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 [Page 284]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 [Page 285]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 familia [...] juvenes, totred [...]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 [Page 286] Kingdom of Heaven. Well; Chastise and teach them out of the Law of God, and thy Children shall be Blessed.
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 [Page 287]your Children to pray, that God would so bless Correction and Instruction, that both may make you and your Children BLESSED. Amen.