represent the exceeding sinfulness that is in sin the stain and spot whereof could be washt out with no other element but the blood of the Son of God for as it was purchasing blood so it was expiating blood He hath loved us and washed us with his own blood Rev. 1 6. But though this be the purest glass yet God doth make frequent and great use of the third glass also sc afflictions and chastisements for sin to discover to the Children of promise the greatness of that evil which is in sin It is very notable how God brings the Israelites this glass in their affliction and bids them as it were see their face in it Jer. 2. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my feare is not in thee saith the Lord God of Hosts verse 19. In this glass he discovers to them a fourfold evil in sin 1. As it is cause of all other evils of punishment verse 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken me c. he bids them read all their sins in their punishments he bids them look upon sin as a Mother-evil that hath all other evils in the womb of it q. d. Thank thy self for all the affliction that is upon thee thou hast procured this unto thy self art thou in captivity in prison in distress c. Thank thy Idolatry and thy Adulteries whereby thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Thank thy self for all the misery that is upon thee every mans heart may say to him as Apollodorus his heart cryed to him out of the boyling Chaldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut I have bin the cause of all this As Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin so sin when it is finished when it is perfected Iames 1.15 will bring forth death sin is the Child of Lust and the Mother of Death 2. In this glass God represents sin to their view as an evil in it self know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that sin doth not only bring evil but is evil it is an evil thing not only that it works bitterness but is bitterness it is a bitter thing it hath a bitter root as well as it brings forth bitter fruits God leads the sinner by affliction to take notice not only what sin doth but what sin is It is evil Yea 3. That it is a pure unmixt evil It is an evil thing the whole being of sin is evil In the evil of affliction there is some good for it hath God for the Author Is there an evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3 6 Rom. 8 28. Psal 119.71 And it hath good for its end all things shall work together for good to them that love God It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted But now sin is a simple uncompounded evil 1 Iohn 3.8 Rom. 6.23 for it hath the Devil for the Author he that committeth sin is of the Devil and death for its end the wages of sin is death death in its vastest comprehension sin is evil all over 4. The glass represents it yet worse that is as it is an evil against God It is a departure from God thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God verse 17. and so again v. 19. Sin is averstâ—a deo conversio ad creaturam Ier. 2.13 thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God my fear is not in thee Sin as the Schools define it is an aversion from God and a conversion or turning to the Creature My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and shewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Sin is not only an unmixt evil but a twisted multiplyed evil It is a departure from the fountain of life and glory and a turning to a scanty and a broken Vessel which leaks out as fast as it is poured in Now here is the exceeding sinfulness of sin that it is an evil against God punishment is but an evil against the Creature thou hast procured this unto thy self affliction is but a contradiction to the will of the Creature but sin is a contradiction to the will of God whence we may safely conclude that there is more evil in the least sin then there is in the greatest punishment even Hell it self the Hell that is in sin is worse then the Hell that is prepared for sin Yea and behold one evil more in this glass the aggravation of all the rest and that is 5ly that sin is a causless evil a causless departure thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way v. 17. when he led thee as a Guide to direct thee lead thee as a stay to support thee he put underneath thee his everlasting arms he led thee as a Convoy to guard thee led thee as a Father to provide for thee Thou wantedst nothing and yet thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God This is the aggravation verse 31. O generation Generation of what why of what you will God leaves a space as it were that they may write down what they please Generation of Vipers Generation of Monsters any thing rather then the Generation of his children O Generation see the word of the Lord still he holds the Glass before their eyes and what are they to behold there why their causeless Apostacy and rebellions for so it follows have I been a barren Wilderness a Land of darkness have ye wanted any thing wherefore then say my people we will come no more unto thee oh this departure is causeless and wilful God saith to the sinner as Pharaoh said to Jeroboam when he would be gone from him 1 Kings 11.22 But what hast thou lacked with me that behold thou seekest to be gone from me and the sinner seemeth to answer God as Jeroboam there answered Pharaoh nothing howbeit let me go in any wise Jeroboam could come to Pharaoh when he was in distress but when the storm was over at home he will be gone again though he cannot tell why and so deals the treacherous heart with God and this causeless departure from God is an high aggravation of sin God is often upon it as Isa 1.2 and Amos 6.3 4 5 c. The soul sinneth only because it will sin In a word Affliction is one of Gods tribunals where the sinner is arraigned evicted and condemned As many as I love I rebuke and chasten the Greek words signifie to convince and correct Rev. 3 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by correction to convince of sin truly in affliction sin is laid open before a mans eyes in such sort as he is inforced to plead guilty God sits as Judg Conscience is witness a thousand witnesses sin the inditement affliction both evidence and execution Hence it is that sooner or
or twice surpriz'd with dreadful fear I said in my Haste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fâ—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 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 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 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 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 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 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
which the Apostle after he presented them with a large catalogue and list of the primitive Martyrs before Christ in the eleventh Chapter bestows the twelve first verses of the twelfth Chapter sc to prove by reasons drawn from nature c. instances taken out of Scripture the first whereof is that unparalleld and astonishing instance of Jeâ—us Christ the firstborn the * Unum habuit Deus filium sine flagitio nullum sine flagello Son of Gods loves and delights I say to establish this as a Conclusion of unquestionable verity namely That Gods LOVE and Gods ROD may stand together The truth is my Brethren there is nothing can make a man miserable but sin It is sin that poysons our afflictions The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15 56 and so we may say of all other evils which militate under Death as Soldiers under their General The sting of sickness is sin and the sting of poverty is sin and the sting of imprisonment and banishment is sin sic in caet Take the sting out which is purchas'd by the blood of Christ and evidenced by Divine Teaching and they cannot hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain Isai 11.4 And therefore let no children of God be rash to conclude hard things against themselves and take heed of making evidences of Wrath where God hath made none Let Christians on both sides look further then the affliction it self the Holy Ghost having long since determined this controversie by a peremptory decision Eccles 9.1 No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them i.e. no man can make a judgment either of Gods love or hatred towards him by any of these outward Dispensations He causeth his Sun to shine upon the evil Mat. 5.45 Bonis brevibus mala aeterna malis brevibus bona aeterna succedunt Lactant. Div. Inst and upon the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust The sun of prosperity shineth upon the dunghil as well as upon the bed of spices and the rain of adversity falleth upon the fruitful garden as well as upon the barren wilderness he judgeth truly of his estate that judgeth by the Word and not by Providence Evidences of Grace consist in inward impressions not in outward dispensations Thirdly 3 Branch Informat Deliverance not enough to argue a man happy That Deliverance out of trouble is not enough to evidence or make a man happy It is not said Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord AND DELIVEREST HIM out of trouble but Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest A man may get rid of the affliction and yet miss of the blessing All the bread which men may eat without the sweat of their brows is not therefore hallowed abundance may flow in without labor and yet not without a curse A woman may be delivered from the pain of child bearing and yet lie under the curse of child-bearing an easie travel is not an infallible symptome of a state of reconciliation 1 Tim. 2.15 If there be not faith in Christ who hath born and born away the Curse a speedy and easie deliverance is no more then God indulgeth the bruit creatures for by him the Hindes do calve and the wild Asses bring forth their young * Hos 9.14 Calvin understands it as a prayer for them not an imprecation against them hic coram Deo se offâ—rt 〈◊〉 quasi deprecatorem In Loc. A miscarrying womb may be a mercy when a mature and facile birth may be in judgment A man may leave his chains and his blessing behinde him in prison and the fire of a Feaver may be extinguish'd when the fire of Hell is preparing for the sinner It is good to be thankful for but extreamly dangerous to be contented with a bare deliverance I shall conclude this branch with this note which alone might have stood for a distinct observaetion or corollary That those prayers in troubles are not best heard which are answered with deliverance but those prayers are best heard which are answered with instruction Even of our blessed Saviour it is said In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able taâ— save him from death and WAS HEARD Sancti ad salutem per omnia ex audiuntur sed non ad voluntatem Aug. in Epist Johan tract 6. in that he feared Hebr. 5.7 How was he heard not in that save me from this hour Joh. 12.27 but in that Father glorifie thy name Vers 28. not in deliverance but in instruction for for that he giveth thanks Psal 16.7 〈◊〉 will bless the Lord who hath GIVEN ME COUNSEL My REINS ALSO INSTRUCT ME in the night season His Father taught him and strengthened him vers 8.9 10 11. in his passion and this was the hearing of his supplications That is the best return of prayers which works our good when not our wills and when God doth not answer in the Letter if he answer in the Better we are no losers by our prayers even * Etiam daemones exaudiâ—isunt ad porcos quos petiveranti remissi sunt Idem Devils themselves are heard to the letter when his own son is not yet heard in that be feared and therefore when we have pray'd let us refer it unto God to determine the answer Fourthly 4 Branch Informat How to judg of our afflictions and deliverances Hence we may learn â—ow to judg of our afflictions and of â—ur deliverances from them and it may serve in stead of an Vse of Exâ—mination by this I say we may know when our sufferings come in wrath and when in love You need not as the Scripture speaks in another case say Who shall ascend up into Heaven to look into Gods book of Life and Death or who shall descend into the deep the deep of Gods secret Counsels to make report hereof unto us But what saith the Scripture the Word is nigh thee the word of resolution to this enquiry it is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that â—s to say if thou canst evidence this to thine own soul That Instruction â—ath accompanyed Correction That God hath taught thee as well as chaâ—tened thee thou art a blessed man thou shalt be saved thou hast the Word of him who is the Author of blessedness and BLESSEDNES IT SELF Blessed is the man whom the Lord chasteneth and teacheth him out of his Law And therefore peruse I beseech you that model of divine Instructions or Lessons presented to you in the Doctrinal part of this Discourse either at large in those twenty particulars or in the abridgment the three great heads to which they were reduc'd And then withall set before your eyes those six Preperties of Divine Covenant-Teaching and compare your hearts and those Lessons together Ask your own Souls Hath God taught you those Lessons or any of them