because our safety and security lieth in it As God loveth a cheerfull doer so hee loveth a cheerfull sufferer A childe that is willing to kisse the rod wherewith it was beaten gives great content unto the parent which corrected it and makes halfe amends for the fault it hath committed Christ will have every one of his to take up his Crosse daily Luk. 9.23 the taking up of our crosse implyeth willingnesse and cheerfulnesse in the bearing of it Many a childe of God is content to beare his crosse when the Lord hath laied it upon his shoulders as the Prophet Jeremiah speakeath Woe is me for my destruction and my grievous plague But I thought yet it is my sorrow and I will beare it Jerem. 10.19 Hee dares not mutter or repine at the Lords doing but here was no rejoycing in tribulation Whereas James tells us that wee must count it exceeding joy when wee fall into divers afflictions Jam. 1.2 When the Lord commeth as it were in open hostilitie against us mustering his forces towards us when one affliction comes upon the neck of another when wee fall into divers afflictions even then we have cause of rejoycing For our afflictions comming from the hand of our loving Father cannot be hurtfull but profitable unto us Hee chasteneth us for our profit that wee might he partakers of his holinesse Hebr 12.10 Indeed if our afflictions brought God out of love with us or us more in love with sinne which God hates and is hurtfull unto us if our afflictions were sent unto us as curses wee had cause to mourn in them But when the Word of truth so often pronounceth us blessed in them as Psalme 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastisest O Lord. Have wee not then great cause of rejoycing in them especially seeing our Heavenly Father hath the ordering and disposing of all our afflictions both in respect of their kinde and nature and also in respect of their measure either of quantity or continuance First in regard of their kind If you would know why this affliction befalls thee rather then another it is because the Lord the only wise and soveraign Physitian knows how to strike thee in the right veine hee knowes thy heart and the nature of thy corruption and therefore applieth such medecines unto thee as will bee most available for thy cure Which thing Job teacheth us Behold hee will break down and it cannot be built he shutteth a man up and hee cannot be loosed Behold hee withholdeth the waters and they drie up but when he sendeth them out they destroy the earth with him is strength and wisedom Job 12.14 15 16. Yea hee is mighty in strength and wisedom Job 36.5 Which he could not be said to be if any other course were better for us then that which he taketh with us The Lord is perfect wisedom and therefore will not cannot but go the best the safest and wisest way to worke for the good of his children Some peradventure may think that some other kind of affliction might have been better for them then the present some other they thinke would have done them more good then this can do But they speak they know not what And I may say unto them as Christ to his Disciples Luk. 9.55 Yee know not of what spirit yee are The choosing of the rod belongeth unto him that is to give the correction not to him that taketh it Indeed the Lord did once put David to his choice 2. Sam. 24.12 I offer unto thee three things chuse thee which of them I shall do unto thee But this was an extraordinary favor shewed unto David first to make triall of his Faith whether he had rather fall into the hand of the Lord then into the hand of man and secondly to let him know that the Lord would correct him in mercy in that hee gave him libertie to make choise of the punishment The Lord knew that either of those rods would bee sufficient to scourge David withall And none knows so well as the Lord how to meet with our corruptions or what afflictions are meet for us If thou canst not profit by that affliction which the Lord appointeth unto thee thou wilt profit by none To say some other kind were better for thee were to controll the judgement of the wise God as if hee knew not better then our selves to order and dispose of us Is it fit the patient should prescribe his Physitian what course to take with him wilt thou teach him what he shall administer unto thee this were to dishonor the Physitian therefore thou submittest to his judgement and takest what hee prescribeth thee resting upon his skill And wilt thou dare so highly to dishonor God as to question his wisedome and knowledge as if some other affliction were better for thee then this which hee is pleased to administer unto thee No no say as Ely did 1. Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Secondly the Lord hath the disposing of our afflictions for quantitie for hee doth order all things in their measure number and weight but especially the afflictions of his children Jerem. 30.11 I will not utterly destroy thee but correct thee in judgement or in measure as the new translation hath it God therefore metes out unto his children not according to their merit but in mercy according to their strength looking more what they are able to undergoe then what they do deserve to be laid upon them Hee correcteth in judgement that is wisely proportioning our affliction to our strength and not in anger least he bring us to nothing Jere. 10.24 Feare not therefore O Jacob my servant saith the Lord for I am with thee I will not utterly destroy thee but correct thee by judgement and not utterly cut thee off Jerem. 46.28 Comfort thy selfe therefore in this that God is faithfull who will not suffer thee to be tempted above that thou art able to beare but will with the tentation make a way to escape that thou maist be able to beare it as was formerly spoken Thirdly and lastly the Lord disposeth of all our afflictions in respect of their time and continuance which he hath promised shall be but short For the rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous Psal 105.3 Hee indureth but a while in his anger Weeping may abide at the evening but joy commeth in the morning Psal 30.5 Who is a God like unto thee saith Micah that taketh away iniquitie and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him Mic. 7.18 Therefore wait patiently upon the Lord for issue out of thine affliction which in due time thou shalt bee sure of For the Lord deals not with his children as the Devill doth with his servants bringing them into the briars and there leave them to scratch and rent and teare themselves but the
A CORDIALL FOR THE AFFLICTED Touching The Necessitie and Utilitie of Afflictions Proving unto us The happinesse of those that thankfully receive them AND The misery of all that want them or profit not by them By A. HARSNET B. D. and Minister of Gods Word at Cranham in Essex The Second Edition enlarged with direction touching Spirituall Afflictions LONDON Printed by Ric. Hodgkinsonne for Ph. Stephnes and Chr. Meridith at the Golden Lion in Pauls Churchyard 1638. TO THE HONOrable Lady the Lady JOHAN BARRINGTON The Wife of that Noble and renowned Sr. FRANCIS BARRINGTON late of Barrington Hall and to the Right Worshipfull The Lady MARY EDEN the Wife of Sr. THOMAS EDEN late of Ballingdon Hall Much honored Ladies IT is too true a saying that Greatnes and Goodnesse seldom go together for not many mighty not many noble are called Yet blessed be God for his mercies to you-wards wee finde both of these in both of you For your Greatnesse next under God yee are beholding unto your Parents out of whose loynes you came For your Goodnesse yee are in in some measure beholding unto Affliction by which The Lord hath done you good so as I make no question but that ye may both of you say with David It is good for mee that I have beene afflicted Hereupon worthy Ladies I have adventured to put forth this small Treatise touching the Necessitie and utility of Affliction under your Ladiships names and Patronage joyning you both together because God hath already conjoyned you so neere in affinity by the marriage of your Pious and Religious children beseeching your Ladyships to accept of these my poore labors being such as tend to the furtherance and increase of your comfort in present or future trials For allbeit yee bee good proficients in the School of Affliction Yet peradventure yee may have forgotten some good lessons which Affliction hath formerly taught you or else have not attained as yet to that good wherein it may hereafter instruct you To help you in either or both of these be pleased I heartily beseech your Ladiships seriously to peruse what is here tendered unto you and then I doubt not but by Gods blessing yee shall be able to make that good use of Affliction that yee shall not only blesse God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who as hee hath afflicted so hath hee comforted you in all your tribulations but yee shall also be able to comfort others which are in Affliction by the cōfort wherewith yee your selves have been comforted of God Which fruit that yee may reape I shall sow my Prayers before throne of Grace and for ever rest your Ladyships to be commanded in the Lord AD. HARSNET Cranham TO THE CHRIstian Reader Increase of Faith Hope and Patience SVch is our blindnesse and ignorance that wee are too ready to judg amisse of our selves as may appeare by two extreames into which the most runne The one is self-conceitednesse or flattering our selves in and about our spirituall estate perswading our selves that wee are in the estate of Grace and that wee have the love and favor of God when as it is neither so nor so For the redressing of which mischiefe I have heretofore undertaken the discoverie of true and sound grace from false counterfeit that so we may no longer be deluded by an overweening of our selves and too high an opinion of our goodnesse as if we were that which wee are not or were not that which wee are The other extream is a diffidence and distrust of Gods love and our own happines through the sense and smart of some troubles and afflictions wherewith it pleaseth the Lord in mercy and wisdom to exercise and trie us Whence it commeth to passe that too many of Gods deere ones are ready to cēsure themselves as out-casts or at the best as a people but meanly beloved or regarded of God in that they are so sorely afflicted For the healing of which error that there may be no mistaking that we neither charge the Lord with any want of love to us ward or hard dealing with us in afflicting of us nor surcharge our selves with unnecssary needles feares and cares nor yet causelesly increase our griefe by adding of more sorrow to our affliction I have now undertaken this Treatise Wherein my desire and ayme is to minister some comfort to such as are in affliction that so they may not cast off their hope of hapines in Heaven because they are exercised with judgments upon earth but rather beleeve that the Lord it now refining and pollishing them that so they may bee the fitter for that glory which is prepared for thē I know it is a hard thing to obey in suffering yet because it is that which maketh for our good we should with the more willingnes and cheerfulnes undergo whatsoever afflictiōs it shal please the Lord to exercise us with If our afflictions brought God out of love with us or us more in love with that which God hates and is hurtfull unto us or if our afflictions were sent unto us as curses wee had great cause to mourn in them but seeing they make so much for our good being sanctified unto us and the word of truth telleth us that wee are blessed in thē have wee not great cause to bee thankfull to God for them the Lord sees how ready we are to plunge our selves into perils if we be but a while exempted from afflictions therefore that wee may not be too bold with sin the Lord wil have us to fall into affliction least being let alone wee fall into condemnation For where God is most silent in threatning and most patient in sparing there is he most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge And seeing we are willing to receive being sick or diseased any medicine from the hand of him that can truely say probatum est good experience hath been made of the worth working of it let my counsel good reader be acceptable unto thee give me leave to tell thee how much good thou maist gain by afflictiō if through thine unbelief and impatience thou doest not put it from thee I assure thee by good experience that howsoever afflictiō be untoothsome and unpleasing to the flesh it is most soveraign and profitable unto the soul as in the Treatise following I have made plaine unto thee Now if the stile and phrase dislike any because it is so plain and homelike let him know that I prepared this provision for poore and hungry souls unto whom course mean things are welcome and bitter things are sweet not for queasie and full stomacks which despise an hony-combe He that is falne into a pit wil refuse no hand that may help him out of it He that hath a wound in his body will be glad of any plaister that may heal or ease him Accept then of these my poore labors which I desire may be as a hand to help thee out of affliction
with the net of the Gospel all the cost that is bestowed upon them all the pains that are taken with them do them little or no good All the good that the most of us learn is in the school of affliction So that affliction may say concerning the good wee have as Laban in another case said to Jacob Gen. 31.43 All that thou seest is mine So in some sence may affliction say Thy humility thy faith thy charity thy obedience c. all mine from whence hadst thou them of whom didst thou learn them but of me and therefore mayest thank me for them Blessed is the man saies David to the Lord Psal 94.12 whom thou chastisest and teachest him thy Law If we can pick no good out of our afflictions learn nothing from them woe will be unto us that ever we were corrected The judgements which are upon others should better us according to that of Esay 26. 9. Seeing thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousnesse If God will have us to profit by the calamities and miseries which do befall others how much more by those afflictions which touch our own skin or come into our own bowels But alas such blocks such non-proficients wee are that the Lord may justly complain of us as he did of Israel in the dayes of Amos I have thus and thus corrected you Yet have you not returned unto mee saith the Lord. Amos. 4.8 9 10. Reason 5 Fiftly the Lord doth sometime afflict his children to try the truth of grace in them 1. Pet. 1.6 7. Ye are in heavinesse through manifold tentations that the triall of your Faith being much more precious then gold that perisheth might be found unto your praise Apoc. 2.10 Some of you shall be cast into prison that you may be tried The Lord thy God led thee saies Moses to Israel Deut. 8.2 this forty yeere in the wildernesse for to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart Why doth not God know the secrets of al hearts doth not he understand our thoughts afarre off Psal 139 1. Why then should hee afflict his children to prove what is in their hearts That we being afflicted may know our own hearts the better and that others also may discern the truth of grace in us Every one almost will bee good whiles all things goe according to their hearts desire as the old saying is The devill is good while hee is pleased Even the wicked whiles there is nothing to thwart and crosse them will carry themselves temperatly and smoothly But let the Lord set fire upon their hedge of prosperity let the Lord but a little lay his hand upon them and you shall see that verified in them which Satan maliciously and falsly layd unto Jobs charge They will curse God to his face they will in a blasphemous manner spit out their venome and poison against the Lord. There is a bottomlesse gulfe of self-deceit in the hearts even of Gods children whence it comes to passe that they can hardly be brought to beleeve there is so much corruption in them as indeed there is but affliction yea sometime the fear of danger doth discover it unto us as appeares in Peter who hearing Christ say that all his Apostles should be offended that night and flie from him Matt. 26.31 utterly disclaimes such unfaithfulnesse and therefore telleth Christ that whatsoever became of the rest he would not forsake him whereas the very fear of some danger or trouble made him denie and forsware his master as if he knew him not Little do wee beleeve what filthy stuffe lurketh in these wicked hearts of ours untill such time as the Lord stirreth and provoketh us by afflictions A mans strength is never known untill such time as it be tried and he have some enemie to resist him Afflictions are tentations to try both the truth and the strength of grace in us our faith our patience our humilitie our obedience our love our courage and heavenly mindednesse then appeareth when affliction which is so contrary unto our nature doth encounter us For that corruption which dwelleth in us being exasperated and provoked by affliction will then or never shew it self in its proper colours Our frowardnesse impatience and infidelity will then appeare when wee are pained or pinched by affliction for then the flesh begins to kick and winch because Heb. 12.11 No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous though afterward it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are thereby exercised So that by affliction every one comes to have an experimentall knowledge of the truth and measure of any grace in him Whence hee may say of himselfe and others may beleeve and report of him as the Lord said to Abraham when hee saw how ready and willing he was to offer up his onely son Isaac whom hee so dearely loved Genes 22.12 Now I know that thou fearest God Whiles the Gospel doth go with a fair and calme gale whiles ease liberty and prosperity doth attend upon the profession thereof every one will be a Gospeler as Ester 8.17 Many of the people of the land became Jews when the fear of the Jews fell upon them But trouble and persecution tries the sound-hearted from false and hypocritical professors So that as Paul speaketh of heresies 1. Cor. 11.19 There must be heresies among you that they which are approved among you may be known So I may say of affliction there must bee afflictions among you that the truth of grace may be known in you Affliction saith Paul brings forth patience Rom. 5.31 which words to a carnall ear may sound like Samsons riddle Judges 14.14 Out of the eater came meat Patience to come out of affliction it may seem a paradox but it is a most divine truth not that afflictions do beget patience in the heart of a man but by them this gift and grace of patience is exercised and manifested in us and in our afflictions wee come to make experience of our patience Hence it is that our Saviour Christ is said Heb. 5.8 To have learned obedience by the things which he suffered Not that Christ was then to learn obedience but that in the time of his passions himself and others mighr see and discerne his obedience who preferred the will of his Father in drinking of that cup which was given him though it were never so bitter and unpleasing unto him Wee are all of us too prone to think better of our selves then there is just cause wee can promise our selves great things and build castles in the ayre all the while wee stretch our selves upon our beds and drink wine in bowles live at ease and in fulnesse but these paper buildings these clay walls of ours are quickly shaken and beaten downe if the Lord do but shoot one arrow of affliction out of his quiver against us Therefore the Lord in love and wisedome exerciseth
means of comfort Answ Gods wayes are not your wayes Esay 55.8 The Lord hath his wayes many times in the deep many times in the darke and secret Haply deliverance shall come some other way then thou canst imagine or thinke of When thou thinkest comfort and deliverance is farthest off it may be neare at hand yea when thou seest least likelyhood of it for In the mount will the Lord be seen Gen. 22.14 It may be thou seest no means but the Lord can worke without means yea by contrary meanes that his wisedome and power may appeare the more in thy deliverance What means had Daniel to save him from the fury of those hungry and devouring Lyons yet you know the Lord did deliver him Therefore Commit thy way unto the Lord and trust in him and hee shall bring it to passe Psalm 37.5 So that all things considered wee have little cause to bee disquieted in our afflictions seeing our heavenly Father sendeth them in love for our great good and lesse cause we have to fret or be disheartned if they tarry by us longer then wee would have them for when wee are fit for deliverance wee shall bee sure of it In the mean time if dangers or feares do increase upon thee say to the Lord as good King Jehosaphat 2. Chron. 20.12 Wee know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee Consider into what great distresse and strait the Lord brought the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt the sea before them their enemies behind them death as it were round about them yet how miraculously did the Lord make way for them So assure thy selfe whatsoever thy trouble or danger bee the Lord will one way or other give issue to his glory and thy good although thou seest not how because hee is the same God no changeling in his goodnesse towards his children It is a sweet motto which one hath I suffer I hope Though sorrows and afflictions increase upon thee yet give not over thy confidence but resolve with holy Job Loe though he slay me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 The motion of a thing the neerer it comes to the center the swifter it is Doth thy sorrow thy paine thy trouble increase upon thee hope it is neere at an end The children of Israel the neerer they were unto comfort and deliverance the sorer grew their afflictions and the greater were the burthens which their cruell taske-masters layd upon them and so doth the Lord oft deale in other kindes with his children Therefore wait with patience seeing the Lord many times doth suddenly turne tragedies into comedies sorrow into joy as he dealt with his people in Esters dayes to day in heavinesse through feare of being swallowed up and made a prey unto their enemies to morrow triumphing over their enemies and treading them underneath their feet Ester 8.15 16. For what thing can there bee under Heaven so heavie upon the heart of his children which the Lord cannot remove and put joy in the place of it before the day be light Therefore hope in the Lord and bee strong and hee shall comfort thine heart Psalm 27.14 Be cheerefull therefore in thy affliction Object Some will be ready to say I hope I hurt no body by my sadnesse but they are deceived for Answ First they wrong the Lord by their uncheerfulnesse not only in going and doing against his word which willeth us to bee joyfull in the Lord as Psal 32.11 Be glad ye righteous and rejoyce in the Lord and bee joyfull all ye that are upright in heart but they do also wrong the Lord in robbing him of that honor and praise which they might bring unto him by their rejoycing in affliction Secondly they wrong if not hurt their brethren being occasions of discouragement and disheartning them making them to feare and doubt of Gods goodnes and their own abilitie to bear any burden which the Lord shall lay upon them seeing others or longer standing in Christ his school and of greater knowledge to shrink and buckle under their affliction Thirdly they wrong their profession by opening the mouthes of those that are without or by putting a stumbling-blocke before them causing them to abhorre the way and practise of godlinesse when they see so great troubles to attend upon it and so little courage and cheerefulnesse in those that professe it Fourthly and lastly they wrong and hurt themselves not only by disinabling and indisposing themselves to the generall and particular dueties of their callings for a joyfull heart causeth good health but a sorrowfull spirit dries up the bones Prov. 17.22 that is makes the body weake and feeble for a man is said to bee in his full strength when his bones run full of marrow Job 21.23 24. but also in spoiling themselves of that peace and comfort which they might enjoy by their cheerfull undergoing of afflictions and loosing that holy vigor and strength they might partake of by rejoycing in the Lord for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehe. 8.10 Besides by their lumpishnesse they make themselves unfit for holy dueties they cannot serve God as they should being oppressed with sadnesse For we are to serve the Lord with gladnesse of heart Serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce before him Psal 2.11 How can any serve God joyfully or praise him heartily when the heart is laden with griefe and the mind oppressed with sorrow If no joy in the sweet promises of God what delight can be had in his worship and service And last of all they expose themselves unto Satans tentations when they are dejected with worldly sorrow then are they baits for Satan to catch at and fit subjects for him to worke upon How many have been brought to a shamefull and miserable end through Satans subtiltie and malice working upon them and taking them at advantage in the time of their sorrow and heavinesse So that it is evident that such by their sadnesse oft times do wrong both others and themselves But admit it were so as you see it is false that wee hurt no body but our selves by our sadnesse is this a sufficient warrant to bear us out in our lumpishnesse In what court was that commission sealed unto us which gives us liberty to harme or wrong our selves Are wee not delinquents against Gods law and the law of nature in offring wrong unto our selves Therefore seeing thy afflictions are but for a season hold fast the Confidence and the rejoycing of thy hope unto the end Heb. 3.6 Live by faith and as the Prophet exhorteth enter into thy chambers and shut thy doores after thee hide thy selfe for a little while untill the indignation passe over Esay 26.20 By chambers the Prophet meanes a quiet and peaceable conscience into the which he would have us sequester our selves all the while the storme of affliction bloweth that so with patience we may waite for the event of them And whereas he
of whom I spake even now being brought to that extreame want that hee would faine have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eate but no man gave him them then hee came to himselfe Luk. 15 16 17. Being before as it were out of his right wits that is ignorant of that miserable and wicked condition into which through sinne he had brought himselfe How many of Gods people have forgotten the Lord and themselves untill such time as the Lord hath remembred them with some affliction wee never come to a thorow understanding and knowledge of our own hearts untill affliction hath gaged and sounded them In prosperitie wee can carry our selves moderately and cheerefully towards God and man for the corruption that is within us lieth still and is not stirred and therefore not seene or discerned as the stinking smell and savor of some dunghill or bumby is kept in and not smelled untill it be stirred but if once you meddle with it then it casts up those stinking vapors that are in it even so let God lay affliction upon us then that corruption which before lay hid is now manifested Wee never come to make experience as was said before of our impatience testinesse rebellion infidelity love of the world and the like untill affliction come unto us Wee are so blinded with selfe-conceit and privie pride that when wee heare of or see others distempered with affliction wee can be ready to condemne them and in our own breasts justifie our selves and thinke that wee would beare out the affliction more manfully then so if the same or the like should befall us Whereupon the Lord to humble us and take us down sendeth us some affliction or other that so wee may thinke no better of our selves then there is just cause for when affliction comes wee can doubt of Gods promise wee can question his Providence wee can murmurre and repine or at the least hang down the head in a discontented and suâ—len manner as if wee had neither faith nor hope nor any dramme of grace in us Reason 2 Secondly by affliction wee come to judge aright of sinne as well as of our selves It is that which will make sinne as heinous and odious in our own view as it is in its own nature Did not the God of this world cast a mist before our eyes or else shew us our sinnes in false glasses wee would be so farre from pleasing our selves with any sinne that upon the committing of it wee would cry out with the leper in the law I am unclean I am unclean Lev. 13.45 Wee would abhorre our selves in dust and ashes if wee saw how loathsome sinne hath made us in Gods eye and this wee seldome see but when affliction opens our eyes Indeed afflictions of themselves can not do this it is the Word of God which inlightens us and brings us to the knowledge of our estates But wee seldome find instructions to enter home untill afflictions have sharpned them Those that live in prosperitie ease and fulnesse are ready to passe by rebukes and to slight reproofe as unseasonable and as that which belongs not unto them but when the chastisements of God have seazed upon them awakened their consciences and mollified and humbled their hearts then rebukes have a keener edge and pierce more deeply Instructions are the light that guides us in the way but corrections joyned with them do make our eye-sight more cleere and cause us more heedfully to follow the directions of the Word Affliction makes us to heed that which before wee regarded not As our eares are opened by correction which were formerly sealed Job 33.16 so also our eyes are enlightned which were formerly darkned After the Lord had smitten down Paul to the ground as hee was journeying towards Damascus it is said that there sell from his eyes as it had been scales and suddenly hee received sight and arose and was baptized Acts 9.18 untill affliction had seized upon Paul hee could never be brought to see the oudiousnesse of his sinnes If the Lord should alwayes sit still and never come forth to judge us for our sinnes many would not only flatter themselves in their evill wayes not only justifie themselves but condemne the Lord in being ready to thinke that the Lord himselfe were well enough pleased with them and their practise These things thou hast done and I held my tongue therefore thou thoughtest that I was like thee but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee Psal 50.21 Impunity and prosperity makes many think that sinne is not so dangerous a thing nor so foul an evill as many Preachers would beare them in hand it is whereupon they take heart and are emboldned to the committing of sin and continuing in it as the Preacher saith Eccle. 8.11 Because sentence against an evill worke is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evill Whereupon to beat us out of these wicked conceits the Lord sendeth some affliction or other home unto us to be an eye-salve to anoint our eyes that wee may see both the nature and the danger of our sinnes how odious and hateful they are unto the Lord How noxious and hurtfull they will one day prove unto us if by speedy repentance we do not turn away from them especially from those sinnes for which chiefly the Lord doth afflict us Naturally wee are all children of darknesse so blind and blockish that many know not like blindfolded people who smote them nor yet wherefore they are smitten In afflictions for the most part wee are like blind men or those that grope up and downe in the dark to feele the doore but cannot find the way out It is a master-peece of Satans pollicie to delude our understandings and judgements with carnall reasonings that so when God afflicts us to bring us unto the sight of our sinne wee should either hold on our old course or else do more wickedly by not seeing and so not amending that sinne for which we are punished that by sinne wee might be plunged into punishment and for want of repentance our punishment continued increased Object But how may I be certified what sinne it is for which I am corrected of the Lord Answ First of all look upon thine affliction and weigh well with thy selfe the nature and quality of the same for oft times the Lord meets with us in our own kind and paies us home with judgements sutable unto our sins Adonibezek had cut of the thumbs of the hands and feet of divers Kings and therefore God rewarded him as hee had done to others Judges 1.7 If David will kill Vriah with the sword the sword shall never depart from his house 1. Samu. 12.9 10. Thus wee see how the Lord oft times meets with sinners in the same kind wherein they have sinned what may wee say is the cause of this sore and baiting famine
which thus rageth amongst us Surely our great unthankfulnesse and our horrible abuse of Gods good creatures Doth the Lord punish thee with losses or with povertie Consider whether these outward things did not make thee proud or else were occasions of imboldening thee to the committing of some sin or other Are thy children stubborne and disobedient Twenty to one but it is to punish thy disobedient and undutifull carriage formerly towards thy parents Thus might I instance in divers particulars by which it is evident that the Lord doth oft times proportionate punishments to our sins so as by our affliction wee may easily guesse at what sin the Lord aimeth and of which hee would have us most heartily repent us Secondly look into the book of God whither thou canst there find any that have formerly drunk of thy cup have been exercised and chastised with the same rod that thou art if thou dost not find any such example there aske and enquire of thy friends whether they have knowne any to be punished as thou art now if thou find any upon record in Gods booke or by report from others canst heare of any that have been in thy condition then seek and enquire what their sinnes have been what manner of persons they have been and think with thy selfe thus surely I am sick of their disease in that my Physitian takes the same course with me which he did with them I have committed their sins in that I partake of their punishment Thirdly if thou wouldest faine find out that sinne for which especially thou art afflicted consider when thou art under the rod what sinne lieth heaviest upon thy conscience very probable it is that that sinne which now cries loudest in thine eares from the voice of thy conscience cried loudest in the eares of God for punishment Too many commit sinne with delight thinking they shall never heare more or worse of it But when affliction commeth the consciencc begins to tell tales and lay open things done in secret Dost thou not remember how at such a time in such a place thou didst commit such a villany Dost thou not know how once in such a kind thou didst highly dishonor God Hast thou forgot how thou didst once wrong thy neighbor in such a thing Thus in affliction the conscience many times brings to mind that sinne of ours which wee had buried in forgetfulnesse as appeares by Joseph his brethren and so should never have repented of it if the Lord by affliction had not made our conscience to discover it unto us Fourthly if the Lord doth not meet with thy sinne in its kind or if thy conscience do not reveal unto thee all thy wickednesse or that sinne for which thou art punished then bee earnest with the Lord in prayer that hee would bee pleased to inlighten thine understanding and helpe thee to make a narrow search and tryall of thy wayes or else that hee would discover unto thee that or those sins for which his hand doth now lye so heavily upon thee Thus did Job I will say unto God condemne mee not shew me wherefore thou contendest with mee Iob 10.2 Before Ezekiel could behold the wicked abominations of Israel the Lord taught him to digge in the wall Ezek. 8.8 9. So before we shall be able to discerne that sinne or any other of our sinnes for which we are afflicted the Lord by his spirit must demolish that wall of hardnes of heart which hindereth us from seeing our sinnes or else he must give us of his eye-salve wherewith anointing our eyes those scales of ignorance and spirituall blindnes may fall from our eyes that so we may the better see our sinnes Intreat the Lord to shine into thy dark understanding by the light of his Word that it may enter thorow even to the dividing asunder of thy soul and spirit of thy joynts and marrow that it may be a discerner of thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart as the Apostle speakes Heb. 4.12 And be thou well assured of this for thy comfort that he that is truely desirous and withall scedulous and deligent to finde out his speciall sinnes hee shall have them in the end discovered and layed open unto him because as you have formerly heard this is one end why the Lord doth correct us that so we may search and trye our wayes and turne again unto the Lord. Lam. 3.40 That we may be brought to a true sight and sense of our sinnes and so be throughly humled for them Affliction serves to ransack the bottome of the heart to launch our festred consciences and o let out by confession the festred and corrupted matter there ingendred Iosephs bretheren never came to see the odiousnes of their sin untill affliction enlightned them and then they could say Wee have verily sinned against our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not heare him Gen. 41 21. Now if once we come to see sinne in its proper colours and to be perswaded of the nature and danger of it then we are in the broad way to repentance and this will worke our hearts not only to a loathing but to the leaving and forsaking of our former evils For what man but hee that is desperately carelesse of his own welfare and happines will dare to put on a garment infected with the Plague What man that is in his right minde will take a snake into his bosom Who is so foole-hardy as to pull a Lyon by the beard or take a mad Dog by the eare He that wilfully wittingly lives in sinne doth a great deale more endanger the safety and good of his soul then any man by the Plague or any other meanes doth the welfare of his body Lighten mine eyes saith David Psal 13.3 that I sleep not in death Prosperity thickens these eyes of ours or else doth cast such a mist before them that we cannot see sinne in its coulours yea the worse and more wicked any man is the lesse doth he see his evill the lesse is hee perswaded of the danger of sinne All the wayes of a man are clean in his own eyes Prov. 16.2 Through Satans subtilty and mans infidelity it comes to passe that those which commit the grossest sinnes and greatest offences imagine that their faults bee the smallest and those that are plunged into deepest dangers do dreame of greatest safety and security as many who have their hands deepest in the troubles and persecutions yea in the blood of Gods servants will thinke that they do God best service Ioh. 16.2 Of this minde was S. Paul all the the while hee breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord Acts 9 1. Therefore least such as belong to God should sleep in death by their blindnesse flying from repentance shunning reformation and running into destruction the Lord in great love opens their eyes by affliction as hee did the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar Dan.