very frequently to conclude that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them are very highly to their prejudice From the embittered Heart of a Iacob in his exercises there is often sob'd that melancholy Groan All these things are against me Alas under Affliction we can usually speak no other Language but that in Lam. 3. 1. I have seen Affliction by the Rod of Gods wrath we see nothing but Wrath and Curse and fiery Vengeance dispensed unto us in our Bitter things Question Whence do's this come to pass One reason of this Misprision is The best people of God are not without bad remainders of Flesh Now every Affliction will grate hard upon That the galled Flesh of Afflicted Men cannot forbear that shreek I am hurt This Flesh of ours will cloud our understandings and beget in us very false Conceptions of our sharp Afflictions The methods wherein the great God pursues our good are very Certain and very Glorious but they are also very Obscure Silly shallow Creatures who dwell in Houses of Clay cannot fathom the Mysterious proceedings of the God whose Way is in the Deep and whose Iudgments are a great Deep and when we go to Contemplate these deep things then our Flesh offers unto us very injurious Glasses to view them in listen to this misjudging Flesh and it will tell us If thou dost not live surrounded with the Pleasures and Riches and Honours of this World and leave a good Portion of them unto Children of thy own when thy time shall come to Dye thou art a Miserable Man. The moan of Iacob in our Text is by some Englished so All these things are Above me Truly 't is above the Reach above the ken of our Flesh to imagine That what impairs our Worldly greatness and glory is no real Detriment unto us our Sense our carnal perverse dim-sighted Sense will not easily make sence of that Riddle in Iudg. 14. 14. Out of the Eater came forth Meat Another reason of this Error is The people of God have been guilty of much Sin against God. In the dark doleful days of their Unregeneracy how many how mighty were our doings against the Lord Yea and since the Lord made us know wisdom in the hidden Man how crooked how faulty have our ways before him been The Psalmist complained in Psal. 49. 5. In the days of Evil the iniquity of my heels doth compass me about Our Heels formerly have step'd awry into dirty Iniquities and those Iniquities we have been ready to lay at our Heels by our Impenitent forgetfulness But in our Afflictions those Iniquities rising as it were out of their Grave haunt us dog us and stare us full in the Face our Hearts now condemn us and thereupon they likewise condemn God We are prone to think that Gods designs cannot be good because we know that our deserts are very bad Sinful Man will not quickly believe that word of the Lord My Thoughts are not as your Thoughts Hence our own first misgiving and then misjudging Hearts will in Affliction say Now I feel the wounds of an Enemy It is not possible that I should suffer these terrible things from one who is the God of my Salvation the Lord proceeds to Afflict me thus because he intends to destroy me for ever When once a thinking Man comes to say God is Angry he will soon add I am undone A Third reason to say no more of it is The Devil of Hell often falls upon the people of God in their Afflictions that soul Fiend falls foul on them when he has them thus at a disadvantage The Powers of Darkness take the Hours of Darkness therein to make their Assaults on the Faith of them that they would annoy The Accuser of Men to God is also an Accuser of God to Men and when it is a Gloomy time without them then will Satan suggest within them Terribilia de Deo very frightful Visions of their Almighty Saviour he will pour in upon them those things which are call'd in Eph. 6. 16. The fiery Darts of the Wicked one He would have us entertain hard and Hellish thoughts of that God whose Mercy endureth for Ever Hence he will be still telling of us God counts thee for his Enemy and thy God hath forgotten thee and the Mercy of the Lord is clean gone from thee for ever thou art before thy Maker as a Vessel wherein he will have no pleasure for evermore he will undo thee before he has done with thee Now What is the Result of all this Alas the people of God now frequently have cause to give that mean that shameful that pitiful account of themselves in Psal. 77. 2. In the day of my trouble my Soul refused to be comforted Proposition III. The people of God conclude not a little wrongfully when they think his Afflictive Dispensations to be but a little for their benefit When Iacob would surmise All these things are against me it might have been reply'd upon him No you are greatly deceived you and yours must have perished if these things had not happened When the Afflicted people of God cry out Vndone Vndone they have cause to eat that word and rather to say Periissem nisi periissem I had been quite undone if I had not been thus undone Instead of concluding All these things are against me we do much wrong if we do not admit that Thought in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good Question How do's this Appear One piece of Injustice attending of that conclusion is There is a wrong thereby done to the Kindness of God. With such a clap of Thunder as this may the Lord reprove your hard opinion of him You think worse of me than I deserve Our good God hath assured us in Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten why then shall we contradict him with such a vain imagination as this I am Rebuked only that I may be ruined I am Chastened only because I am abhorred by the Lord Another Injustice expressed in that conclusion is There is thereby a wrong done to the Wisdom of God. They of Old reflected hard when they said Can any good thing come out of Nazareth Thus do they that say Can any good thing come out of Affliction Well and I pray Why not What should hinder Good from coming out of that grievous thing Is it impossible unto that God who is wise in Counsel and wonderful in Working We are informed in 1 Pet. 1. 6. It is only if need be that we are brought into Heaviness The Lord would not let one Affliction give thee any Trouble if some Occasion did not call for it if much Advantage did not come by it One more Evidence of Vnreasonableness in this conclusion is The people of God at the Period of their Afflictions will themselves confess this conclusion to have been Vnreasonable What our Lord said unto the Inquisitive Peter the same he says unto the Afflicted Christian
What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter Verily when we do hereafter know how God has at once Afflicted us and Amended us then we shall say He hath done all things well When we have got through the black Vallies out on the other side then we shall see what now we will hardly believe then we see that the Thoughts of God about us were Thoughts of Good and not of Evil then we see that the Aims of God were to do us Good in the latter end then do our Triumphing Souls declare as in Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been Afflicted Nothing is more common than to hear a Christian after many Afflictions professing I could not have been well without any one of all my Afflictions I had want of them all I have good by them all How much more will the Beauty and Benefit of all our Afflictions be thankfully acknowledged by us in the Land of light where every Labyrinth of providence will be explained for every one of our Afflictions in this we shall return a Million of Hallelujahs in another and a better World. The Improvement of these things remains VSE And now let these things incourage the people of the Saints of the most High unto a due Faith and Patience under the Afflictive Dispensations which their Heavenly Father tries them with Christians under all your Afflictions labour to say stedfastly to say joyfully not All these things are against me but rather Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gifts The Language that best befits us under our Afflictions is that the frequent using of which gave unto a famous Jewish Rabbi the name of Rabbi Ganizoth namely This Affliction was for my good and This too and This too I am this day visited my self with the sudden Death of a dear and only Child Permit me to endeavour your Edification for you all have been and may be under some Affliction and most of you under such Affliction let me do it by tendering unto you such Considerations as I would this day quiet my own tempestuous Rebellious Heart withal As our Lord Jesus Christ himself was Tempted for this cause in part That he might know how to succour the Tempted thus the frail Men whom he employes for this among other that are worse causes are Afflicted even That they may more feelingly speak a word in season unto others in Affliction too ¶ There is First a General and then a Special Case which the following part of my Discourse must apply it self unto The General Case The more General Exhortation to be now Urged is Let us under no Affliction whatsoever be discomposed with any Apprehension as if it were utterly Against us I am speaking to many Children of Iacob that are Children of Affliction some of us are lamenting over our broken Estates like Naomi in Ruth 1. 21. saying I was Full but I am become Empty Some of us are Lamenting over our blasted Credits like David in Psal. 69. 20. saying Reproach hath broken my Heart and there are with us those who are Weeping over their Dead Children like the distressed Women of Bethlehom in Matth. 2. 18. Weeping for their Children and not willing to be comforted because they are not And many more such Griefs are the minds of devout Persons among us Wounded with That which Iacob sigh'd over his Ioseph and Simeon is by multitudes Mourned over their other Enjoyments also An Ezekiel as in Ezek. 24. 16. Sighs over the Desire of his Eyes She is not A Widow of one of the Sons of the Prophets as in 2 King 4. 1. Sighs My Husband is not An Isaac as in Gen. 24. 67. may Sigh over his Mother She is not An Israel as in Gen. 35. 29. may Sigh over his Father He is not And if a Ionah have had any Gourd which he has taken much contentment in he too as in Ion. 4. 8. is made to Sigh It is not But that which puts a Sting into all these Afflictions is that the Afflicted say All these things are against me Now O that there may be laid upon the thus talking Sorrow a charge of Silence Eternal Silence unto thee now O thou inordinate Passion before the Lord. Let this be as a Word upon the Wheels running into the very Souls of them that are of an heavy Heart Be entreated O Afflicted Christians to say no more All these things are against me No be Comforted be Refreshed with Sentiments that are quite contrary thereunto In your most cloudy hours O strive to say with him in Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my Thoughts within me O Lord thy comforts delight my Soul. COMFORTS It is the advice of the Wise Man in Eccl. 7. 14. In the day of Adversity consider Now there are these comfortable things which it is fit for you to consider in this day of your Adversity let me advise you with some Good and Comfortable Words Consider FIRST Those very things which your Affliction lies in the absence of might for ought you can say be very much unto your prejudice That very Ioseph that very Simeon that very Benjamin which you are Afflicted for the want of might do you more Hurt than Good. Even in outward Respects you canot determine what is best for you It were as much Arrogance in you to direct the Providence of God as it was Blasphemy in the well-known Prince to Correct the Creation of God when he said Had I been by at the Making of the World I could have shown how some things might have been better done Perhaps you are Afflicted because your Possessions about you are diminished but have you not read in Eccl. 5. 13. of Riches kept to the hurt of the Owners Many a Mans Cash has been his Crime his House has cost him his Head by his Land he has forfeited his Life the poor Heathen of old cursing of his Enemy wished that he might be a Rich man. Perhaps you are Afflicted because of a little Mud thrown upon your Reputations but have you not read in Prov. 27. 14. How pernicious a thing it is to have too much Applause in the World To be too well spoken of procures that Envy before which Who can stand The Breath in the Trumpet of Fame not rarely carries a Plague and a Bane to them whose Names it founds It may be your Affliction is the loss of Children well have you not read such a Message sent to a godly Man as that in 1 Sam. 2. 33. The Son of thine whom I shall not cut off shall be to consume thine Eyes and to grieve thine Heart T is possible that if thy Child had liv'd it might have made thee the Father of a Fool or that I may speak to the Sex that is most unable to bear this Trial the Mother of a Shame It is a very ordinary thing for one Living Child to occasion more trouble than seven Dead ones However in Spiritual Regards
Translation of it seems more worthy of Approbation and Acceptation All these things are AGAINST me And then this Paraphrase will carry the sence of it q. d. The things which have been my Trouble will be my Ruine they are a sort of things which I cannot conceive any advantage to my self consulted in or accruing by When I look upon the dealings of the Lord I cannot but be full of awful Apprehensions that I am utterly banished from the mercies of the Lord these things render me an undone Man. Now remember that the happy event proved him egregiously mistaken here Ioseph is not said he yet he was and his Father had no cause to be sorry that he was what he was Simeon is not said he yet he was and his Father might have been starved if he had not been where he was Those things which he so fondly counted against him were the very things that not only try'd his Grace but also sav'd his Life Let us admit the deplored Child himself to correct the sad mistake he said afterwards in Gen. 50. 20. God meant it unto Good. The Truth which from this Mistake we may raise for a Doctrine to be now insisted on is therefore this Doctrine The People of God are apt very frequently but not a little wrongfully to conclude that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them are very highly to their Prejudice or but a little to their Benefit The Propositions that may serve to state this Truth distinctly in your Thoughts are such as these Proposition I. The People of God are sure to be exercised with Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them in the World. There is in every Generation a Remnant a Little little Flock of Men who are effectually called from the Vanities which the biggest part of perishing Mankind is wofully drowned in unto the service of the Living God who have chosen God as their Best good and their Last end chosen Christ as their Lord Redeemer and resolved to be for him and not for another These renewed Children of Adam are the Mystical Children of Israel they may with an Eye to a Spiritual relation point at Iacob and say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father Now these must even in a peculiar manner expect to be like their Father Iacob who in the close of his days was forced to say Gen. 47. 9. Evil have been the days of the years of my Life In every Age and in every Place we may see the most High God afflicting of a Iacob in his Relations of them some are Churlish others are Profane and others are Taken away We may behold the Lord â—fflicting of an Heman in his Mind thâ— Man complains Lord Why dost thou cast off my Soul While I suffer thy Terrors I am distracted We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Timothy in his Body he feels a weak Stomack with often Infirmities We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Lazarus in his Estate he is reduced unto Beggery at the Doors of a wicked Belly-God We may behold the Lord Afflicting of an Elijah in his Esteem he is Libelled as a Seditions Boutefeau always Troubling of his Country In a word we may ordinarily behold a David a Iob a Paul Afflicted in all or most of these regards The Christian that promises himself an Immunity from Afflictions in this Evil World is indeed a Christian only in the Italian wicked scoffing usage of the Word that is a Fool. It is one of the Names put upon the People of God in Isa. 54. 11. O thou Afflicted Nor can any particular Believer escape this common Lot No every one that is of Israel must look to say with Israel in Psal. 129. 1. Many a time have they Afflicted me from my Youth Indeed the People of God will at last arrive unto a Quiet Haven Sedes ubi Fata quietas Ostendunt Or in a better Dialect Where all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes But where But when Truly this Bliss-land is not on this side the Water it is a Land a far off and we shall not see it until we put a-shore on the Land flowing with Milk and Honey beyond the Stars We must Sail through a turbid Ocean full of horrible Tempest here and Vt Fluctus Fluctum sic Luctus Luctum One Wave will follow upon another the last Wave still seeming the tenth Wave untill we drop Anchor within the vail of Heaven it self When the Ancient Martyr Ignatius was brought to have his Flesh torn from his Bones and his Bones broken by the Teeth of Wild Beasts he uttered such a speech as that O now I begin to be a Christian Thus our Lord hath laid down this as the A B C of Christianity in Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me he must take up his Cross and follow me This is the first Lesson for a Disciple in the School of the Lord Jesus Look for Afflictions here The Glorious God will lay over our Shoulders that ragged piece of Wood a Cross when once we are associated with his people who all Travel through the Valley of Baca that is of Weeping unto their Everlasting Happiness This was the condition of our Illustrious Fore-runner he ran thrô a way all strow'd with Briars and Thorns as it is said in Luk. 24. 46. He must suffer and enter into his glory and all his followers are to drink of his Cup We cannot escape treading in the Bloody Tracks which he hath left behind him we have received this warning from our Lord himself in Ioh. 16. 33. In the World you shall have Tribulation We have received this Witness from his Apostles also in Act. 14. 22. Through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God and the experience of above Five thousand Years hath now set a Seal to that Observation in Psal. 31. 19. Many are the Troubles of the Righteous Question But from whose Hands do the Afflictions of the Lords people come This is that which we have said They are the Dispensations of the most High. Indeed there may often be the Hand of Ioab in our Afflictions there may be the Malice of Satan and his Instruments Those fierce Natives of this dark Climate will be often as Thorns in the sides of the Pilgrims that are Travelling to a better Country But still these Rods are all in the Hand of God We are told in Amos 3. 7. there is no such Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it O that every Man would always remember this the Griefs of thy Heart are all ordered by that God by whom the Hairs of thy Head are all numbred Not so much as the Tongue of a Dog will ever stir against thee unless managed by the Hand of the Lord. The King of Assyria himself by whom a vast part of mankind may be Afflicted is but a staff of Indignation in that all disposing Hand Proposition II. The people of God are apt
you may be exceedingly harmed by the secular Delights which you desire you may have cause to Rue what you Wish because it may prove an Idol which will render your Souls like the Barren Heath in the Wilderness before the Lord. We do very Childishly often cry for a Knife that would cut the Fingers of our own Souls we pant after those things which may be to our Souls as bad as drink to the Thirsty craving Man in a Dropsie It was the very direful calamity of the ancient Israelites in Psal. 105. 15. The Lord gave them their Requests but sent leanness into their Soul. A Lean Soul a Wretched Soul a Soul pining away in its iniquities is oftentimes the effect of those fine things which we Dote upon It is a blasted banned Soul that sets up a Creature in the Room the Throne of the great God that gives unto a Creature those Loves and those Cares which are due unto the great God alone Such Idolatry the Soul is too frequently by Prosperity seduc'd unto We are told in Prov. 1. 32. The prosperity of Fools destroys them many a Fool is thus destroy'd O fearful case A full Table and a lean Soul A big Title and a lean Soul A numerous Posterity and a Soul e'n like the Kine in Pharaohs Dream Madness is in our Hearts if we tremble not at this Soul-calamities are sore Calamities Consider NEXT The benefit which the Lord intends you by your Afflictions is really very great and glorious The sweet Influences which your Afflictions are like to have upon you who can enough describe If you lose a Ioseph or a Simeon or a Benjamin behold these are Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly things with which God will abundantly make up your loss That very rule which the Lord has given us about the Nurture of our Children He observes in the Discipline of his own we are under our Heavenly Fathers executions of that Rule even then when the Death of our Children is the Affliction under which we labour Prov. 23. 14. Thou shalt beat thy Child with the Rod and shalt deliver his Soul from Hell. In this World you are like to be much the Wiser and much the Better for your Afflictions and much the more Blessed for them in the other World for evermore What And are these things against you God forbid you should imagine so I. Those things which you conclude to be against you are the things by which the most High designs to promote your KNOWLEDGE It is affirmed in Psal. 94. 12. That those Whom God chastens he also teaches out of his Law. The Almighty is now but putting of you to School and Schola Crucis est Schola Lucis you are in a School where the Lord will have you to learn many very notable and surprizing Lessons God will have Afflictions to be the Clay and Spittle that shall open those Eyes which Sin hath blinded horrible Cataracts have seized those Eyes which are by these means removed the Physician recites to you the names of some Bitter Herbs which the Eye-sight is relieved by We are indeed all of us a sort of Creatures which can see best in the Dark it was the Aphorism of Solomon the Wise in Prov. 29. 15. The Rod and Correction give Wisdom It usually comes to pass that Correction and Instruction go together You shall find that II 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Quae Nocent Docent that Maturant Aspera Mentem and that Vexatio dat Intellectum or as the Proverb of the Ancients hath it In Adversity Men find Eyes You shall now know more but hear of What § The Lord resolves to make you know more First of HIMSELF We have been miserably deficient in the knowledge of God we may say of our selves as Paul of some we may speak it unto our shame Our Ignorance of God hath been the cause of ours Sins Heu Prima haec scelerum causa est mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei And our Knowledge of God will be the effect of our Sorrows for them The Lord is carrying of you into the Clifts of a cragged Rock and it is to make the Glory of his Attributes pass before you When Iob had gone through his weary Months he then said unto the Lord as in Iob. 42. 5. Now mine Eye sees thee It is by Affliction that we are brought to see the Soveraignty of God and to lie before him as Clay in the Hand of the Potter to see the Righteousness of God and to own that he punisheth us far less than our iniquities deserve to see the Holiness of God and to Reverence him as one that is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil to see the Power of God and to think that nothing is too hard for the Lord to see the Goodness of God and to find him a rewarder of them that diligently seek him in a word a little more Affliction will bring thee to say Lord I know thy Name and I will put my Trust in thee § The Lord resolves to make you know more Secondly of his SON What are all those Afflictions that make you groan Truly they are a few Chips and Splinters of a Redeemers Cross They are as 't is said in Col. 1. 24. That which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ some Vinegar and Gall was left by him for us to pledge him by tasting of God will thereby make you sensible a little of the Agonies and Anguishes that made him to Roar when there were Laid on him the Iniquities of us all We were never yet enough affected with the Kindness of our Lord Jesus in the dark doleful day when he endured the Cross despising the Shame which was due unto us all Art thou Poor God will have thee call to mind the Poverty which thy Redeemer underwent for thy sake the Poverty which when our Lord Inventoried his Estate rendred the Sum Total of it only this The Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Art thou Pained God will have thee mindful of the strong Pains which thy Redeemer felt when his Flesh was torn from his Bones when from Head to Foot bloody Wounds and Stripes and Stabs were to be seen upon him Art thou Fearful God will have thee bear in mind the horrible Consternation which caused thy Redeemer to Sweat clots of Blood tho' in a cold Night he were groveling on the cold Ground Art thou Disgraced God will have thee mindful of the Ignominy cast upon thy Saviour when he was used as a Traytor as all that was Vile and when the basest fellow in the City was counted a better Man than he Do thy Friends deal unworthily Thou shalt then learn what the Exercise of thy Redeemer was when even those of his own Family all forsook him and fled these things Affliction will make us Thoughtful of and Thankful for And as the Kindness of a Iesus so the Value of a Iesus comes to be
duly rated by such means as these The Afflicted man is driven to call every Creature A lying Vanity and from hence he comes to call a Christ The Pearl of great Price It hath been said Vnto you that are Believers he is Precious we may add He is Precious to you that are Afflicted also The Afflicted man finds that Gold it self will do him no good whereupon a Saviour becomes more desirable than whole Mountains of Ophirs Gold unto him § The Lord resolves to make you know more Thirdly Of his WORD There is a Glorious Letter which the God of Heaven hath sent from the Third Heaven unto the Children of Men. Foolish man often throws it by like Wast-paper until Affliction puts him upon the due the diligent study of it David that had a lesser Bible than we could say in Psal. 119. 23. Princes did sit and speak against me but what was the issue of the Affliction which the Calumny and Obloquy of his Persecutors gave unto him It follows Thy Servant did Meditate on thy Statutes Bad weather in the World makes Afflicted men to keep their Eyes much upon the Light shining in a Dark place unto them To Meditate on a fit portion of the Bible dwelling on every Verse till at least one Observation and one Supplication be drawn from it hath not seldomer been the Ease than it hath been the Work of Afflicted Men And God will hereby help you as to a better Relish of so to a fuller Comment on these Miraculous Lines than once you had The bitter Tang of Afflictions will bring you to a better Taste of that Book whereof the Psalmist could say How sweet are thy words unto my Taste A Leaf of the Bible appears as to Luther not to be parted withall for all this whole World chiefly unto those whom Affliction hath convinced of the Vanity and Vexation here But this is not all the best Expositors of not a few Assertions in the Bible are some sore Afflictions in the World. The Stars and the Scriptures are seen best in a Frosty Night The Mysteries of a Well-ordered Covenant the Maeanders of a Deceitful Heart the worth and use of Great and Precious promises you will best understand in your Afflicted Hours Adversity makes a Verse of Scripture to be not like a Verse of Ovid as it often is to them that are not in Trouble as other men § The Lord resolves to make you know more Fourthly of YOUR SELVES The Golden Rule Know thy self is that which our God will have us Learn while we feel his Rod. A Wound will convince an Emperour that he is a Man. It was said unto Israel in Deut. 8. 2. The Lord Humbled them that what was in their Hearts might be known God will have us to see our own Follies and be Ashamed God will have us to see our own Graces and be Refreshed and in the Furnace of Affliction we must undergo a Fiery Tryal in order thereunto Scilicet ut Fulvum spectatur in Ignibus Aurum Under Affliction as God will bring you to say of your selves I have perverted that which is Right so he will find occasion for you to hear him saying to you Now I know that thou fearest me § But where shall I stop About the advancements of Sight procured by Affliction I may say as about the Instances of Faith it is said by the Apostle The time would fail me to mention them Yet let me briefly add By the Afflictions whereof you complain God will bring you to Know what SIN is You that formerly counted Stollen Waters are Sweet shall now see Sin in a truer uglier dress you shall see that it is as in Ier. 44. 4. The abominable thing which I hate saith the Lord. God will also bring you to Know what RELIGION is You that sometimes have said It is in vain to serve the Lord shall now be reduced unto better Sentiments you will soon believe that in Psal. 111. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom Finally God will bring you to Know what all Sublunary things are You have had your too high Thoughts in your good Times then your Song was My Mountain is made strong God will now show you what Creatures are and give you cause to say of them They are all Physicians of no value and They are broken Cisterns that can hold no Water Well then say not All these things are against me It is a matchless Priviledge to be thus Taught of God. We are told in Eccl. 1. 18. He that increaseth Knowledge increaseth Sorrow Behold we may Invert the Words and not Injure the Truth Increase of Sorrow brings increase of Knowledge with it II Those things which you conclude to be against you are the things by which the most High designs to promote your VERTUE also The interest of Holiness will be marvellously befriended in your Souls and Lives by the influence of Affliction we are told in Heb. 12. 10. That God chastens us to make us partakers of his Holiness that Holiness which he does like and which is like to himself These Three will the Holy Effects of your Affliction be § Your Afflictions will First Help your Disorders Your Souls are depraved with or exposed to dangerous deadly Disorders and Distempers By Afflictions your Heavenly Father will Prevent them by Afflictions he will Redress them What are you Afflicted for See a short and a sweet account given of this Physick in Isa. 27. 9. By this the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged and all the Fruit shall be to take away his Sin. The first ways of David were his best ways Why so Truly it was because the first days of David were his worst days He doth himself assign this reason of it Psal. 119. 67. Before I was Afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Usually men Sin least when they Suffer most God will have thy ways too to be good ways they shall therefore be ways Hedg'd with Thorns that thy Soul may not step awry Thy way must be incommoded by Thorns that it may not be over-run with Weeds There are great Sins which thy wild Lusts would hurry thee on unto there is a Madness in thy Heart that would produce all manner of Mischief in thy Life if restraint be not laid upon it now the Iron Chains of Affliction are clapt upon thee to keep thee from thy Exorbitancies What is said concerning the good Subjects of the Ancient Typical Antiochal Perfecution in Dan. 11. 35. is to be said concerning the good Subjects of any Affliction whatsoever They are Purged and made White thereby This more generally but more particularly I would add § Again Your Affictions will wean your Afflections from the wrong Objects of them God will have you to look upon all things here below with such Affections as David had for a Kingdom in an Exile and to say I am as a weaned Child To this end the Lord by Afflictions layes Wormwood
the Lord. Once more Suppose God should withdraw the light of his Countenance from your inward Man still say The Lord shall be my God my God even when he forsaketh me Still say I will fear the Lord and obey his Voice tho I walk in Darkness and shall see no Light. Happy is the Afflicted Man that is a thus Resolved Man. The followers of these Counsels may boldly and safely lay claim to all the Comforts which have this day been set before the Heirs of Consolation The special Case But there is a more special Exhortation to be pressed which may give a Period unto this Discourse Let not the loss of Children particularly as a thing Against us cause in us any irregular Discomposures The loss of Children did I say Nay let me recal so harsh a Word the Catachresis is a little too hard for the Language of a Christian. The Children which we count Lost are not so The Death of our Children is not the Loss of our Children when all the Losses of Iob were made up with Doublings yet the Number of his Children need not be doubled in the Restoration Our Children are not Lost but given back they are not Lost but sent before In such a Dialect have the Sager Heathen sometimes talked of this Affliction and shall the professors of Christianity with bitter Groans enter this among their Losses My Children are Dead O tell it not at Athens publish it not at Rome lest the Heathen Philosophers hiss at our weakness at our Folly Well this is the Calamity which many of you at some time or other have experience of The Death of Children this is a thing which the Children of Iacob seldome escape a resemblance of their Father in Many carry themselves under the tryal as if A Death of Vertue yea as if A Death of Reason had therewithal befallen them but recollect your selves O dejected Christians and be not like them that Mourn without Hope this day Let Bereaved Parents be yet Believing Parents the Voice of the great God that formed all things is unto them that in Ier. 31. 16. Refrain thy Voice from Weeping and thine Eyes from Tears for thy Work shall be Rewarded saith the Lord. Let the Thoughts which have been this day tendered unto our Improvement gloriously compose and settle our Royled minds under this Affliction Let us not say This thing is Against us but let us say The Lord that hath given hath also taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. It is indeed very true That this Affliction is none of the most easie to be born the Heart of a Parent will have peculiar Passions working in it and racking of it at such a time as this Thô there be greater Sorrows than those with which we follow a Child unto the Grave I bless God it is a more bitter thing to say My Sin is mighty or to say My Soul is guilty than it is to say My Child is Dead that moan I have pierced my Saviour is more Heart-wounding than to Mourn as one mourneth for a First-born Yet few outward Earthly Anguishes are equal unto these The Dying of a Child is like the Tearing off a Limb unto us But O remember That if ever we had any Grace in our Souls we have e're this willingly pluck'd out a Right Eye and cut off a Right Hand for the sake of God. Why should we not then at the Call of God readily part with a Limb and leave Him room to say Now I know that thou fearest me because thou hast not withheld thy Child when I called for it It was from God that we did Receive those dear Pledges our Children and it is to God that we Return them We cannot quarrel with our God if about those Loans he say unto us Give them up you have had them long enough We knew what they were when first we took them into our Arms We knew that they were Potsherds that they were Mortals that the Worms which usually do kill them or at least will eat them are but their Names-sakes and that a Dead Child is a sight no more surprizing than a broken Pitcher or a blasted Flower But we did not we do not know What they might be in case they were continued among the Living on the Earth We cannot tell whether our Sons would prove as Plants grown up in their Youth and our Daughters as Corner-stones polished after the similitude of a Palace or whether our Sons might not like Isaac's Son do those things that would be a grief of Mind unto us and our Daughters like Iephta's Daughter be of them that Trouble us Christians let us be content that our wise and good God should Carve our Portion for us he will appoint us none but a goodly Heritage Our Temptation is no more than what is common to Men yea and to good Men. The biggest part of those Humane Spirits that are now beholding the Face of God in Glory are such as dwelt in the Children of Pious people departed in their Infancy And what have we to say why we should not undergo it as well as they Was the Infant whose Decease we do deplore one that was very Pretty one that had pretty Features pretty Speeches pretty Actions Well at the Resurrection of the Iust we shall see the dear Lambs again the Lord Jesus will deal with our dead Children as the Prophets Elijah and Elisha did by those whom they Raised of Old he will bring them to us recovered from the pale Jaws of Death and how Amiable how Beautiful how Comely they will then be no Tongue is able to express or Heart conceive Tho' their Beauty do Consume in the Grave yet it shall be Restored it shall be Advanced when they shall put off their Bed-cloths in the Morning of the day of God. Again Was the Infant now lamented very suddenly snatch'd away and perhaps Awfully too not meerly by a Convulsion but by Scalding by Burning by Drowning by Shooting by Stabbing or by some unusual Harm Truly it is often so that the quicker the Death the better It is more desirable for our Children to feel but a few Minutes of Pain than it is for them to lye Groaning in those exquisite Agonies which would cause us even our selves to wish that the Lord would take them out of their Misery As for any more grievous and signal circumstance attending of our Dying Children our best course will be to have it said of us They ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done As the Love or Wrath of God is not certainly declared in so our Grief before him should not be too much augmented by such things as these And it is a favour if so much as one of our Children be left alive unto us Let not the sense of one Trouble swallow up the sense of a Thousand Mercies The Mother from whom a violent Death has taken one of her two Children may immediately Embrace the other and say Blessed