afflictions 387. Reasons 1 God will then help us to beare them 396. 2 God will do us good by our afflictions 397. 3 No misery can make us miserable if God love us 401. Uses 1 Whence it comes to passe that many are so perplexed in their afflictions 411. Of inward and spirituall afflictions 432. Divers objections from feare and unbeliefe answered 462. 2 Be perswaded of Gods love 488. Tokens of Gods afflicting of us in love 493. 1 If he gives us a contented minde 494. 2 If affliction brings us neerer to God 496. 3 If they worke godly sorrow in us 498. 4 If thankfull for afflictions 502. Doctr. IIII. The chiefe end of Gods afflicting of us is the bettering of us 508. Reasons 1 By affliction wee come to know our selves 514. 2 By affliction wee come to judge aright of sinne 518 How wee may find out that sinne for which wee are afflicted 524. 3 Affliction makes us to feare God 536. Uses 1 Satisfaction is not made to God by our affliction 546. 2 Our stubbornnesse provokes God to afflict us 550. 3 Amend by little else greater affliction will come 554. 4 Adde not affliction to the afflicted but rather comfort them 564. 5 Bee thankfull for afflictions 578. Whether wee may pray for afflictions 585. Errata PAge 91. line 14. for complaining read complaineth p. 92. l. 17. Esa 64.7 8 9. p. 96. l. 13. for their r. they p. 105. l. 12. r. set to p. 159. l. 16. r. so much p. 190. l. 3. r. it may p. 199. l. 9. r. as ready p. 217. l. 1. for and with r. for p. 333. l. 7. for originally r. organically p. 340 l. 5. r. makes him p. 341. l. 13. r. and disquiet p. 453. l. 16. r. drawest back p. 456. l. 4. so much put out p. 461. l. 6. r. as is implied p. 480. l. 13. for ever r. never p. 489. l. 12. for being r. be p. 524. l. ult for baiting r. biting A CORDIALL FOR THE AFFLICTED Touching the Necessity and Utilitie of Afflictions REVEL 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and amend THese words are a part of that Epistle which was written unto the Laodiceans In which Epistle there is set down first the Inscription or Superscription of the party unto whom it was sent to wit The Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans vers 14. Secondly there is a Description of the person from whom it was sent set forth by a twofold property The first is his fidelity and truth from whence he is intituled Amen or according to the originall the or that Amen which is an Hebraisme and signifies as much as Truly or Trueth it selfe explicated in the next words That faithfull and true witnesse The second is his Eternity or Power noted in these words The beginning of the Creatures of God Thirdly there is laid down the Narration or matter of the Epistle wherein there is first of all a Conviction of the Angel his sinnes the first whereof is Lukewarmnesse verse 15. which is such a temper as is neither hot nor cold He was as all hypocrites are good only in outward shew and appearance for he wanted both the mettall and making of zeal and piety He had only an outside and face of religion but wanted both the power of Gods word and the zeal of his Spirit in this allyed to the Cretians who professed that they knew God but by their works they denied him being abominable disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Titus 1.16 Then follows a Commination or the Punishment which the Lord threatned to inflict upon him for this sinne of Lukewarmenes and that is Rejection in the end of the 16. vers I shall spite thee out of my mouth The second sinne for which the Angel and in him the whole Church of Laodicea is taxed is his Pride or Boasting vers 17. For thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing The third sinne was Ignorance of his wretchednesse and misery And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable Which misery consisted in three particulars Poverty Blindnesse and Nakednesse in the end of the 17. verse The third thing in the matter of the Epistle is a Remedy prescribed for the curing of these three fore-named miseries unto each misery a severall remedy For the bringing of him out of his Poverty the Lord counsells him verse 18. To buy of him gold tryed by the fire that he might be made rich For the covering of his Nakednesse he adviseth him to furnish himself with White rayment that he might be clothed And for the healing of his Blindnesse he would have him to Annoint his eyes with eye-salve that he might see Fourthly the Lord sets down a way and course which he usually takes with his best beloved ones for the reclaming and amending of them and that is Rebuking and chastening of them in these words which I have read unto you vers 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten c. Which words are as a comfortable cordiall prescribed by a wise and loving Physitian unto his sick diseased patient to whom hee hath formerly administred some bitter pills or unpleasing potions The Lord before threatned to reject the Laodiceans for their lukewarmnes whereupon lest they should altogether despaire of regaining his love and favor he doth prevent their fear by telling of them that his correcting of them was no argument either of his hatred or of their rejection but an evidence of his love beating them that hee might better them Whom I love I rebuke and chasten bee zealous therefore and amend These words consist of two parts The first acquaints us with the Lords practice The second layes down the drift and end of his practice His practice in these words As many as I love I rebuke and chasten The end and drift of his practice in the latter part of the verse Be zealous c. I will briefly unfold the sence of the words and then the Lord willing collect Instructions out of them As many as I love I rebuke This word rebuke in the originall signifies not a bare and fingle reproof but even such a reproof as is uttered with some strong arguments and reasons to convince the party reproved implying unto us that when the Lord rebukes man for sinne it is an argument of his dislike and hatred of sinne And chasten This also must not be understood of ordinary correction but such a chastisement as a loving father gives unto the child of his love for the originall is taken from a word which signifies a child that as a father useth to teach and instruct his child so the Lord correcting all those he loveth intendeth thereby to teach and instruct them Bee zealous therefore These words are in opposition to their luke-warmnes and therefore Beza well renders it be hot Zeal or spirituall heat is an affection compounded of two qualities love and hatred
are mercy and truth Therefore most true it is that whosoever in affliction offereth praise doth glorifie God Psalm 5.23 Men may be thankfull for peace plenty seasonable times deliverances and the like in selfe-love but for troubles and afflictions crosses and losses to bee thankfull this manifesteth our love to God which none can shew untill hee bee beloved of God Thankfulnesse in affliction is a notable soule of faith for faith will tell as that nothing can befall us which shall either lessen Gods love or encrease our hurt yea faith perswades us that God in afflicting of us loveth us though the affliction bee unto death and hence it comes that wee are thankfull for afflictions and patient in the bearing of them Now lay all these together Art thou willing to kisse that rod wherewith thou art beaten Canst thou cheerefully say as it is Mic. 7.9 I will heare the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him Art thou taken off from thine old courses thine old consorts thine old comforts and brought neerer unto God Is thy heart dissolved into teares of contrition for thy sinnes and transgressions Dost thou cordially unfainedly blesse God that ever hee took thee to do that ever he laid his hand upon thee then is it as evident as the Sun at noon day that God in afflicting of thee loves thee because hee hath taught thee to make so good and holy use of thy affliction For afflictions of themselves and in their own nature are fruits of the curse and such as being unsanctified will make us storm and rage and beat us further off from God but when wee feel and find them to worke contrary to themselves their nature altered and changed this is a most evident and infallible signe of Gods love and mercie extracting Treacle out of this ranck poison and good out of this evill Thou mayst hold it as a certaine truth that God in afflicting of thee loveth thee Now I come to the latter part of the verse the drift and end of Gods afflicting us in these words Be zealous therefore and amend I purpose not to make any discourse upon Zeal or Repentance for then I should go out or my intended course which tendeth wholy to the setting forth of the necessity and utilitie of Afflictions The Lord having said As many as I love I rebuke and chasten addeth by way of exhortation these words Bee zealous therefore and amend from which words wee may gather this conclusion The chiefe and speciall end of Gods afflicting us is the bettering and amending of us The Lord knows that grace is beter for us then great possessions and a healthfull soul is more to be desired then a strong and lusty body and therefore for the good of the soul doth many wayes afflict the body That ground from which wee expect and desire good wee digge or plough and harrow but that ground which wee regard not wee meddle not with it wee take no paines about it but let it lie waste Even so dealeth the Lord with man Hee lets the wicked alone hee looks for no good from them but hee ploweth over his children and harroweth them with affliction that so they may be fruitfull that in their lives they may bring forth a rich and plentifull crop of grace and godlinesse Why do we beat our wall-nut trees Why do wee prune and cut our vines is it not to make them more fruitfull So deals the Lord with his children hee breaks and cuts off many superfluous evils with the pruning knife of Affliction that so they may grow more fruitfull in well doing The end of Gods correcting of us is not as some may think to avenge himselfe upon us for those evils which wee have committed against him nor yet to please himselfe in our smart as if hee took delight in our punnishment and sorrow but it is for the bettering of us Moses tells the Israelites that the Lord was their guid in the great and terrible wildernesse to humble them and to prove them that he might do them good at their latter end Deut. 8.16 Hee chasteneth us for our profit that wee might be partakers of his holinesse Heb. 12.10 Hee woundeth us that hee may heale us A legge that is crooked and groweth awrye must bee broken before it can be made right and streight If the Lord should not break those crooked and perverse wills of ours they would never be rectified The Lord useth to beat out one evill with another the evill of sinne with the evill of punishment There is a great deal of folly in the hearts of his wisest children they are slow of heart to beleeve and practise that which will make for their good this folly the Lord in wisdom drives away from them by the rod of correction By this shall the iniquitie of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit the taking away of his sinne Esa 27.9 Naturally wee sport with sinne and make it a pastime to do evill Prov. 10.23 Many drink iniquitie like water Job 15.16 Wickednesse is sweet in our mouths and wee are loth to part with it untill the Lord in love doth administer unto us some affliction or other which like unto Stibium shall make us to vomit up these sweet morsells and make us out of love with our former evill wayes and courses as things not only unpleasing and distastfull unto the Lord but such as are noxious and hurtfull unto us Therefore for the preventing of that evill which sinne may bring upon us and for the bestowing upon us that good which the love and practise of sinne would hinder us of the Lord doth afflict and chastise us How did his people Israel go a whoring from him they were set upon gadding yea madding after sinne and therefore the Lord was constrained to fetch them back againe by his judgements Wee are as ready to wander out of the way as sheep going astray so that the Lord must send some affliction or other after us to call us back again as David Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray The prodigall in the Gospel turnes his back upon his father and takes his journey into a farre countrey where he consumed and wasted his goods with riotous living but having spent all and being pinched with penury he could then mind home and returne againe unto his father with griefe and shame which had not affliction been no doubt hee would never have done The like may be said of many moe who for ought wee know to the contrary had perished if they had not been afflicted So that few or none of Gods children but can say It had been wrong with them if they had not been afflicted for by afflictions they have been much bettered Reason And that first of all because by affliction they have been brought to know themselves and to see and acknowledge the damnable estate whereinto they were by sinne plunged Hence is it said That the prodigall
Prophet Jeremiah speaketh Thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a stone and have refused to return Jerem. 5.3 They were unwilling either to beare their correction or to be bettered by it But let it not be so with any that love the Lord or their own good let both these extremities be avoided of us and let us exercise the golden mean to be sensible of the hand of God and to be cheerfull and thankfull for our affliction seeing as hath been proved so much good commeth unto us by them Object If it be so that afflictions are so profitable then may wee yea ought wee to pray that God would afflict us for may not every one nay should not every one pray for that which may be profitable for himselfe and others Answ Those things which in themselves are evill howsoever by the wise Providence and mercifull disposition of God they may have a good issue and work together for the best to those that love God yet may wee not lawfully pray for such evills to light upon our selves or others upon presumption of Gods goodnesse to turn them to the best The disasters and miserable calamities which for many yeeres together have rent and torn the Church have stirred us up to seek and cry mightily unto â—he Lord and to be humbled with fasting before him may wee therefore pray that the rod of God may still lie upon the backs of his people that ruines and the breaches of Sion may not be repaired Surely no for wee are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem That peace may be within her walls and prosperitie within her pallaces Psal 122.6 7. Death in it selfe is an evill thing for it is the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 Yet by the infinite power and mercy of God who delights to bring good out of evill it is made the period of all our labors and an entrance into Gods own presence may we therefore being wearle of our lives desire death sooner then the Lord will Albeit afflictions when the Lord sendeth them unto us shall bring good unto his children yet ought wee not either to pray for them or wilfully to cast and plunge our selves into them Therefore Agar praies unto the Lord Give me not poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me Prov. 30.8 Wee are to pray for such a condition in which the Lord sees wee shall be best able to honor and glorifie him and procure most good to our selves and others Now whether this will be by prosperitie or adversitie wee must leave it to the wisedome of the Lord who knoweth better then our selves what is expedient and needfull for us Object But if it be so that afflictions are so profitable unto us whether being in them may wee pray for deliverance out of them or no Answ Wee are to pray for deliverance out of them if wee have received that good by them which God intended us otherwise wee are to be willing nay desirous that the Lord would not take off his plaister untill the sore be healed lest it ranckle and grow worse and so wee cause the Lord to apply some sharper medicine to lay upon us some greater affliction Therefore in thine affliction call upon the Lord and say Smite Lord correct me still untill thou hast done me good by thy rod let me have this affliction sanctified else let mee not be eased let it not be taken off me Are there not many delivered oft times out of sicknesse for whom it had been better in respect of their souls they had still continued upon their sicke bed The like may bee said of many other kinde of afflictions and that it had been better for some they had never come out of them Therefore when wee are in affliction let us not pray for freedome and deliverance but conditionally if it be the will of God to inlarge us and if he seeth that deliverance will be better for us Otherwise to desire the Lord to keep us still under and to give us patience and faith to beare his rod and to profit by it But if any shall unwillingly beare the Lords yoke using all means he can to cast it off and to pull his head out of the collar this shewes that such a person doth not desire that the Lord should do him good neither doth hee acknowledge the Lords wisedome and righteousnesse but seemeth to tell the Lord what hee thinkes were better for him And let him know that the Lord will either keep him in affliction longer then otherwise hee would or else that this affliction shall be but a fore-runner of some greater judgement Therefore let us not vexe or disquiet our selves in our afflictions and so make them more grievous unto us then the Lord would have them Lee us cast our selves upon the Lord and resolve to abide his pleasure and assure wee our selves that the longer wee are under his hand the more good he will do us and the better able we shall be to beare his hand You shall heare a new cart in the street which will squeak and make a noise if the least load that can be lie upon it whereas an old seasoned cart will go under a great weight and make no noise even so many a Christian not used to beare affliction will squeak and cry out upon every little trouble whereas hee that hath been seasoned long and exercised with afflictions undergoes many great and grievous ones cheerfully and contentedly Wert thou never in affliction untiil now then look up to the promises of God acquaint thy selfe with them and they will make thee cheerfull and thankfull for thy affliction It is my comfort in my trouble for thy promise hath quickened me Psal 119.50 Say as Sydrac Meshac and Abednego said our God whom wee serve is able to deliver us and hee will deliver us Hast thou been formerly afflicted and delivered let former deliverances confirm and strengthen thy faith in this present or future afflictions as it did Paul wee should not trust in our selves but in God Who delivered us from so great a death in whom we trust that yet hereafter hee will deliver us 2. Cor. 1.10 In the mean time resolve to tarry the Lords leisure consider not what now thou feelest but what good hereafter thou art like to find by thine afflictions Blesse God that hee will take this course with thee as Job said What is man that thou dost magnifie him and thou settest thine heart upon him And dost visit him every morning and triest him every moment We would take it as a great grace and honor if the King should every day send to know how we do but if hee should daily come in person to visit us how highly should wee think our selves honored It is thy case that art afflicted The King of Kings hath sent his servant nay comes with his servant to visite thee when he sendeth affliction unto thee Assure thy selfe he mindes thee nay sets his heart upon thee if he regarded not thy good and welfare hee would suffer thee to take thy swinge in sin but because he loveth thee he correcteth thee It is a truth the Lord hath spoken it As many as I love I rebuke and chasten bee zealous therefore and amend So be it FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fervent Zeal what it is Doct. 1. The best have afflictions Affliction findeth out sinnes Iob 36 8 9 Affliction purges out sinne Affliction is physick for the soul Affliction preventeth sinne Affliction teacheth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction trieth the truth of grace in us Affliction doth fit us for Gods service Affliction teacheth us to prize Gods benefits Affliction weaneth us from the world Affliction stirs us up to prayer 0. Affliction quickneth our devotion Affliction coÌ„formeth us unto Christ Vita crucis vita lucis Affliction prepareth us for glory Censure not the afflicted How are we said to be conquerers when conquered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Store thy self with comfort out of the word of God Break off thy sinnes by repentance Afflictions of the godly and wicked differ Seek to the Lord by prayer Comfort for the afflicted 1 Sam. 2.17 22. M. Culverwell of faith Desire to be with Christ Death how it may be desired Woe to those that are not afflicted Note Doct. 2. All our afflictions come from God God filleth both heaven and earth Againe it must needs be God worketh all things as he will All creatures are subject unto the Lord. Away with Fortune and luck 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God disposeth of all tempests Patient in afflictions 1 Helps to the patient bearing of affliction Our enemies are but the Lords rods to whip us Comfort for the afflicted God doth order our affliction Note Go to God for issue and deliverance Fero spero Note Vncheerfulnesse doth much hurt Doctr. 3. Perswasion of Gods love will helpe us to beare our affliction Because God will helpe our crosse God intends our good in afflicting us No misery can make Gods people miserable Nothing can separate us from God We learne from hence why we be so troubled with our affliction Note Be perswaded of Gods Love Tokens of Gods afflicting of us in love Note Doct. 4. The chiefe end of Gods afflicting us is the bettering of us By affliction wee come to know our selves Note By affliction wee come to judge aright of sinne Affliction makes us to feare God The feare of Gods is very profitable Wee do not make satisfaction by our afflictions Our stubbornnesse provoketh God to afflict us Amend by little else greater affliction will come Note Adde not affliction to the afflicted but pitty them Live by faith in affliction Be thankfull for affliction Note Dan. 3.17
The love of God and his truth and the hatred of every evill which tendeth to the dishonour of God or to the clouding or eclisping of his truth against which evils when the childe of GOD shall any way bestirre himself hee is said to be zealous for the Lord. So that to be zealous is to shew love to God and hatred of error and false wayes to be grieved at those things which may dishonour God or crosse his truth to oppose them with might and main and to the utmost of our power to resist them And amend or repent These words have relation to their Lukewarmnesse The Lord will have them to leave off their Lukewarmnesse to repent them of their sinfull temper being negligent and carelesse in good duties and promoting the glory of God Object But it may be demanded why the Lord doth here put zeal before repentance when as zeal is by Paul set down as a fruit and effect of repentance For writing unto the penitent Corinthians 2. Cor. 7.11 He saith Behold this thing that you have been godly sorry what care it hath wrought in you yea what zeal making zeal an effect of repentance Answ The meaning of the Lord in this place is to exhort the Laodiceans to the practice of that duty which they had altogether neglected being a lukewarme a remisse and carelesse people Therefore having before reproved them for their sinne of Lukewarmnesse he doth now exhort them to be zealous and not only so but to repent them of their former remisnesse The words of the verse may be thus metaphrased Those that are my dearest children my best beloved I do rebuke and convince of their sinnes yea as a loving father tendering their good I do in mercy correct and chastise them therefore see you be not so Lukewarme as heretofore you have been but shew more love to mee and my word and more hatred to error and evill wayes be grieved and sorry for your olde courses and amend your lives Come wee now to the raysing of some Instructions out of the words In that the Lord telleth the Laodiceans that he rebuketh and chasteneth as many as he loveth wee may in the first place from hence learn that None no not the best of Gods dear children are without their trials afflictions Man is born unto trouble as the sparkes flie upward Job 5.1 Affliction is the lot and portion of all Gods children It was a cup which Almighty God did temper and put into the hands of Christ his best beloved Sonne Shall I not drink of the cup which my father hath given me John 18.11 And in this cup Christ will have all his members to pledg him as appeareth Mat 20.23 Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with Hence it is that Tryals and afflictions are by Paul called the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6.17 I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus The crosse is Christ his badge and cognizance If any man will be my follower let him denie himself and take up his crosse daily and follow me Luke 9.23 The way wherein Christ went to glory was affliction and in this path all that shall be glorified with him must foot it after him for Acts. 14.22 Thorow many afflictions wee must enter into tho Kingdom of God The way to heaven and happinesse is not strewed with rushes or set with violets and roses but with briars and thorns it is not a milky but a thorny way not a faire broad smooth and easie but a narrow cragged crooked and crosse way through many difficulties and troubles As the children of Israel were evill intreated in Egypt groaned under heavy burdens sighed and cried for their bondage before they could be possessed of that land which flowed with milk and hony so must we know what troubles and sorrows mean before we come at our place of rest our spirituall and Heavenly Canaan True it is that some have but a few tryals in comparison of others yet the most have many and the best yea all have some for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2. Tim. 3.12 Do you desire examples for the better setling and confirming you in the trueth of this point Sooner may I find where to begin then where or how to make an end therefore out of an heap and a cloud of witnesses I will take but an handfull some few drops Job was a holy man as the Lord himself hath witnessed of him Job 1.8 An upright and just man one that feared God and eschewed evill Yet how great were his tryals how sharp and bitter were his afflictions Stript of all his outward means brought unto a morsell of bread bereaved at one time of all his children and that by sudden death yea whiles they were eating and drinking not having it may be breathing time to call and cry for mercy Wee should take it to be a heavy judgement and think that the Lord were highly displeased with us if out of ten children some two or three of them should be made away by an untimely and sudden death but to be at one blow bereaved of all our children to lose ten at one clap where is the man that would lay his hand upon his mouth in so great a tentation and not murmurre against the Lord Besides the Lord came neerer to Job fighting against him with many personall terrors afflicting his body with aches and botches vexing his soul in the day time either with the words of a foolish woman his wife or with the biting and taunting speeches of some which came to visit him whereas in truth like miserable comforters Job 16.2 they came to vex and gall him And in the night time how was he tumbled and tossed up and down Job 7.4 for when he said My couch shall relieve me and my bed shall bring mee comfort then was hee feared with dreams and astonished with visions Job 7.13.14 So that he was a burthen to himself grew weary of his life cursing the day wherein he was born wishing that he had died in his birth that he might not have lived to see and feel the miseries and sorrows which he sustained David also was a man after Gods own heart 1. Sam. 13.14 Yet how sorely did the Lord almost all his life time exercise and afflict him Hee was daily punished and chastned every morning Psal 73.14 So as he roared day and night through extremity of grief his bones were consumed with sorrow and his moysture was like the drought in summer Betrayed by his false-hearted friends persecuted and pursued from place to place by Saul 1. Sam. 26.20 As one would hunt a partridge in the mountains And which went neerer him then any other troubles his sins excepted what heart-breaking sorrows did he sustain through the wickednesse of his children defiling each other murdering each other yea and most unnaturally seeking to depose him
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
the gold Behold saith the Lord I have fined thee I have chosen thee in the fornace of affliction Esa 48.10 The Lord compares affliction unto a fornace into which the Gold-smith doth cast his metals to fine them to purge them from that dirt and drosse which is mingled with them Prosperitie health ease libertie are occasions of contracting and gathering soyle and drosse therefore the Lord who loves to see his children clean will bring them thorow the fire and will fine them as Silver and trie them as Gold is tryed Zach. 13.9 Hence it is that the Apostle Peter saith Wee are in heavinesse through manifold temptations that the trial of our faith being much more precious then gold that perisheth might be found to our praise 1. Pet. 1.6.7 He doth chasten us for our profit that wee might be partakers of his holinesse Hebr. 12.10 Which we cannot be unlesse wee be washed and clensed from the filth of sinne Let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit and grow up into full holinesse in the fear of God 2. Cor. 7.1 Hence it is that David Professeth It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119.71 Afflictions oft times make a bad man good they always make a good man better Therefore take this for a sure ground That the Lord never afflicts the body but for the souls good he never brings any evill upon our bodies but with an intent to better the soul When the Lord doth afflict us he is in a course of Physick with us to purge out those malignant humors which in the daies of our prosperity wee have contracted unto our selves Therefore as wee are content to receive bitter pils sick vomits and unpleasing potions for our bodily health striving to take them down though they go sore against our stomack As wee endure sharpe salves and strong eating plaisters and powders to be applied to bodily sores for the taking down of our proud and eating out our dead flesh so must wee be patient in the time of affliction seeing it is a means of helping and curing our sick distempered souls Sinne is the souls sicknesse and affliction is that physick which the Lord that wise and good Physician sees meet to be applied unto us for our health and recovery Therefore as that mans body is in a dangerous if not desperate case upon which physick will not work or working but a little doth little or no good unto him so as still the dissease prevaileth and the body languisheth even so it fareth with our souls if afflictions cannot better us our case is desperate Eze. 24.13 Thou remainest in thy filthinesse and wickednesse because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse till I have caused my wrath to light upon thee Gods corrections are for our reformation and amendment but if they cannot reform us they make way either for greater judgements as Levit. 26.21 Where the Lord telleth us that if wee walk stubbornly against him will not obey him he will then bring seven times moe plagues upon us according to our sinnes Or else they prepare us for confusion destruction for he that hardneth his neck when he is rebuked shall suddenly be destroyed and cannot bee cured Prov. 29.1 Some by accustoming themselves to sinne are brought at last into an incurable condition so that wee may say of him and to him as it was spoken to the King of Ashur There is no healing of thy wound Nahum 3.19 To be never the better for affliction is to bear the brand of a wicked person This is King Ahaz who in the time of his tribulation did yet trespasse more against the Lord. 2 Chro. 28.22 And this will seal up unto all incorrigible persons Gods heavier judgements which he will one day bring upon them True it is that many are so farre in league with sinne that none of those blowes which God giveth them will break that cursed league betwixt them and their sinne all that the Lord doth unto them is little enough to bring them to a sight of sin But God will have sinne out of request with us and us out of love with it that sinne may stink in our nostrills as it is unpleasing to the Lord. Many having a stinking disease in them or upon them seek not out for cure because it savors not amisse to them the smell thereof is not offensive unto them but when once they begin to be annoyed with their own stinck then they seek out for helpe and remedy Affliction searcheth sinne to the quick stirres up the bottome of our corruption makes it stink in our nostrils so as wee begin to grow out of love with that evill which somtime hath been most delightful and pleasing unto us Therefore if iniquitie be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickednesse dwell in thy tabernacle said Zophar Iob. 11.14 This was good counsell given to Job in his affliction he must purge his hand house yea and heart too of all wickednes then he should lift up his face without spot he should be stable and not feare Job 11.15 then should he be justified of the Lord freed from the staine of his sinne and be without all feare of judgement yea saith Zophar Thou shalt forget thy misery Not onely be an end of troubles but ease and joy shall come in the place of them Reason 3 Thirdly as affliction serves to finde out sinne past and to purge sinne present so also to prevent sinne to come which the Lord who knows us better thē we know our selves seeth wee would run into Hence it was that a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet Paul lest he should be exalted above measure 2. Cor. 12.7 The Lord was pleased so highly to honor Paul as to take him up into Paradice where he heard words which cannot be spoken which are not possible for man to utter whereupon least Paul should grow too high in the instep and thinke better of himself then there was cause the Lord in wisedom takes him down a peg sendeth a satanicall messenger to buffet him that so hee might not be exalted The Lord sees we are ready to cast our selves into some perils and dangers or to run into some evils which would tend to the dishonor of his name or the scandall of our profession therefore by affliction as with a bit or bridle put into our mouthes he doth restrain us and so wisely prevents those sins which if affliction were not we should fall into God in his afflicting of his children lookes not alwayes backward upon their sinnes past but sometimes forward upon sinnes to come and makes them his principall aime and end of afflicting his children There is a preventing Phisicke for preservation of our health as well as Phisick for recovery out of some desease already grown upon us And yet I would have none
to be mistaken in this particular as though God did at any time afflict any without cause Although the Lord doth sometimes afflict and not for sinne yet never without sinne either inherent or imputed God is so farre from picking holes in our coat so far from afflicting any without just cause that hee may see enough in the best of us yea even in our best services performances to afflict us The best of us brought with us into the world so much corruption and do carry about us such bodies of sinne as may expose us to all the plagues of this and another life Every one of us hath in himselfe sufficient fewell for the fire of Gods wrath to work evermore upon him if the Lord in his justice would be pleased to kindle it Let no man therefore question Gods justice in afflicting the best of his children because as I have said he somtimes afflicteth us to prevent some evill to come which through our naturall propension through some violent occasion or through some strong temptation wee may be drawne into Ephraim was mad upon sinne therefore saith the Lord Hos 2.6 I will stop thy way with thornes and make an hedge that she may not find her paths Too much sun-shine will dazle our eyes Too much honey turnes to gall so too much prosperity and ease breeds security and makes us proud or wanton therefore lest our ranck blood should cause some inflamation it pleaseth God our wise and loving Physitian to open a veine to cool us and to keep us in good temper Horses that are full fed and pampered grow many times restif Vessels unused do quickly grow rusty even so our nature would soon contract some evill if the Lord should not now and then take us into affliction 's scouring house The Lord sees that prosperity and immunity from affliction blunts the edge of our devotion cools the fire of our zeal and dulleth our eager pursuit after Heaven and Heavenly things and therefore he afflicts us to prevent these evils as hee took away Jeroboams sonne by death lest if he had lived longer he might have trod in the steps of his wicked father and been tainted with his sinnes It may be the Lord seeth that wee would run into some danger if he should let us alone therefore as he snached Lot out of Sodom lest he should have perished in their flames so he catcheth hold of us by affliction thereby to deliver us from some sinne wee are falling into Therefore whatsoever triall and affliction doth befall thee lay thy hand upon thy mouth murmure not against the Lord but be thankfull unto him and say O Lord thou knowest the distemper of my soul thou knowest how prone I am to sinne and wickednesse and thou who seest things to come as if they were present seest I was inclining to some evill but in mercy hast by this affliction prevented mee keep mee therefore from falling into evill by what means thou pleasest suffer mee not to sin against thee Reason 4 Fourthly the Lord doth afflict us to teach us some good lesson which without affliction hee sees wee shall hardly learn Psal 119.71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Corrections are instructions God will have none of his to perish for want of instruction he sendeth his word amongst us to teach us his wayes that so we may walk in his truth Psal 86.11 But outward prosperity so thickens our eare and so hardens our heart that we cannot wee will not heare to our profit Jerem. 22.21 I spake unto thee when thou wast in prosperitie but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou wouldest not obey my voice therefore the Lord openeth the ear of men even by their corrections Job 33.16 For such as will not hear the word shall hear the rod Mica 6.9 Manasses learned that lesson in the school of affliction which could never be taught him in the school of the Prophets 2 Chron. 33.12 In his tribulation he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers He that was prowd and could set himselfe against the Lord and his truth and all that professed it all the while he was in prosperity and upon his throne when the Lord caused him to be cast in prison and put chaines of iron upon his leggs in stead of a chaine of Gold about his neck hee could then learn to be humble and obedient unto the Lord. Nabuchadnezzar being pulled out of his Babel driven from men to have his dwelling amongst the beasts could at length come to praise extoll magnifie the King of heaven whose works are all truth and able to abase those that walk in pride Dan. 4 34. Our hearts are very hard and sturdy so as the word will not break them untill the Lord by affliction subdues and humbles these hearts of ours making them soft and yeelding so as the word may take some impression in us Hence it is that Solomon tells us Prov. 15.32 Hee that obeyeth correction gets understanding Some say that many and I have found it true in some children after a sicknesse grow both in ripenesse of understanding and in stature of body so it is with the Lords children affliction bringeth them to a better understanding of heaven and heavenly things as Nebuchadnezzar confessed Dan. 4.33 Mine understanding was restored unto me and causeth the inner man to grow more then before It teacheth us to walk in the right way and to keep Gods Word as Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy word What havock did Paul before the Lord met with him make of Christs flock entring into every house hee drew out both men and women and put them into prison Acts. 8.3 And being armed with malice and authority he posteth to Damascus to put in execution his bloody commission but the Lord meets him by the way unhorseth this persecutor strikes him down to the ground and smites him with blindnesse and what followed Paul was now a new man Act. 9.6 He then both trembling and astonied said Lord what wil thou that I do What had become of Paul if affliction had not beene Which of Gods children cannot say as David said It is good for me that I have been afflicted Nay what affliction hath at any time befalne us which wee could have spared Nay let me go a little further is it not best with us when wee are under the rod Would it not be better with us thinke you if the Lord should afflict us more If thou beest the child of God I appeale to thy conscience whether thy case had not been farre worse then now it is if affliction had not been Many are like unto those kind of fishes which seldom or never without much difficulty and labour can be caught but when the water is troubled So before troubles do befall many they cannot be caught
comming towards them in the time of a tempest at sea when every wave threatens to swallow up the ship or in the time of any terrible thunder and lightning how godly how holy will the prophanest be out of their beds they must and to prayer they will if they be able themselves if not as Pharaoh intreated Moses Exod. 9.28 Pray unto the Lord that there be no more mighty thunders and hail So they will intreat those that can to pray for them But what sayes holy Job of such hypocrites as these are Will God hear his cry when trouble commeth upon him will be set his delight on the Almighty will hee call upon God at all times Job 27.9 10. Is hee like to speed that seldome or never goes unto the Lord but when want necessity drives him for if affliction were not he would not come at God It fares with many as with young chickins in á faire calme sun-shine day you may see them all stragling from the hen one heere and another there the hen desirous to have her young ones neere here clucks and clucks again for them as having some provision for them but they regard not her call untill at length the kyte draws neer them ready to catch one of them up then they cry and runne with all speed to their dam for shelter Even so the Lord seeing us to straggle too farre from him calls us unto him but wee regard not his call whereupon he lets flie at us hee causeth some affliction or other to terrifie us and then wee speed it to the Lord then wee can lay on tongue Help Lord c. So that the Lord deales with us as Absalom did with Joab because we deal with the Lord as Joab did with Absalom Absalom sends for Ioab but hee would not come to him 2. Sam. 14.29 Absalom sends again and Ioab was the same man still he stirs not a foot hee would not come Whereupon Absalom commandeth his servants to set fire on a field of barley which Ioab had Ioab then needs no more messengers hee can then arise and come in haste to Absalom without any more sending for Thus it is with us the Lord sends for us by the mouth of his Ministers he would have us come and appeare continually before him Cant. 2.14 Shew me thy sight let me hear thy voice but wee have little or no minde this way he may send in haste but wee take time and will goe at our own leisure whereupon the Lord sets on fire something wee have that is spoiles us of some-thing that is pleasing and delightfull unto us and then wee can run with open mouth Save us Lord c. So that it is meere need drives many unto God by prayer If they could have helpe elsewhere or by any other wayes be furnished or have their turn served they would not come at God Davids words may well be applyed unto them Psal 142.4 5. I looked upon my right hand and beheld but there was none that would know me all refuge failed mee and none cared for my soul then cried I unto the Lord and said Thou art my hope and my portion When other refuge and helpe failes then they can runne unto the Lord for help and succour These do in a manner tell the Lord as many rogues do answere us at our doores Truely they never asked any thing of us before and if they could shift it or if great necessitie did not compell them to begge they would not now have troubled us Therefore the Lord deales with these as many a wise and discreet tradesman doth with some pedling chapman whose custome he never had before neither now should have it if hee could elsewhere have furnished himselfe with wares and commodities for his turne If any wares be worse then other the tradesman will put them off to such a fellow because he knows it is not love but necessitie that brought him unto his shop As for his choyce and best commodities those he will reserve for his best chapmen whose custome he hath alwayes had and who will not leave his shop to go to another Even so will the Lord deal with the wicked who do not continually trade with the Lord in prayer but now and then when they are at some pinch Haply the Lord who is good unto all and his mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 may put them off with some of his refuse wares helping them at their need with some outward worldly commodity but as for his choice and rich wares his love his grace his Christ his salvation these shall those have who seeke him continually Reason 1 Againe affliction puts life into our devotion and maketh us more instant in Prayer For if Affliction maketh us not importunate nothing will The Lord holds us many times at the staves end and seemeth to turn away from our prayers that so our prayers may grow more fervent for though God knows our wants and takes no delight in our sorrows yet oft times hee seems not to heare us till our cries be loud and strong God sees it best to let his penitent ones dwell for a time under their affliction and when he sees them sinking he lets them alone till they be at the bottome that out of the deep they may fetch deep sighes and cry louder to the Lord and so prevail For a vehement suiter cannot but speed with God whatsoever he askes If our prayers want successe it is because they want mettall and heart their blessing is according to their faith and fervencie In this behalfe affliction is very needfull for the best of Gods children for too many of them too often seek the living God with dead affections Oh the perfunctory cold drowsie lifelesse prayers which are made by some Many which make conscience of the duty and dare no day omit it do pray so coldly with so little zeal and devotion all the while they are full and at ease that the Lord is even compelled to lash them to sharpen their fervency and to shake off that lythernesse and luskishnesse wherewith they were wont to come before him Our God that heareth prayers knoweth how cold and feeble how slight and perfunctory oft times wee be when wee are in prosperity and the rod of God is not upon us so as little or no life and power appeareth in them do wee not find by our own experience that trouble and affliction whether it be outward or inward not onely drives us to prayer but causeth us to set all our might and strength when wee are wrestling with the Lord that so wee may be the more able to prevaile with his Majestie Affliction will fashion and forme the flowest tongue unto this holy duty and doth oft times furnish us with sighs and grones which cannot be expressed If ever a Christian will tugge and wrestle with the Lord it shall be when affliction lieth sore upon him All the while the childe feels the
is the portion of Gods dear children hast thou not read that wee are every day to take up our crosse Why hast thou not then prepared thy soul for tentation Art thou now free from affliction now barrell up against an hard time the winter of adversity for the day of affliction is a time of living upon the old store spending or using not getting of spirituall strength Strength to bear affliction must be provided before affliction come Is it not childish folly or rather desperate securitie for any man that hath his enemie ready to assault and wound him to have his weapons to seek Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that yee may be able to withstand in the evill day Eph. 6.13 This evill day is the time of temptation and affliction which that wee may be the better able to encounter wee must bee well appointed and furnished with Christian fortitude and courage that so affliction although it may at the first daunt us yet it may neither vanquish nor foil us To this purpose first of all I advise thee to be oft and serious in this meditation Whose thou art and whose all thou hast is Art thou not the worke of Gods hands hath he not formed and fashioned thee and may not hee alter and change thee at his pleasure So the things of this life health wealth honor libertie and the like doe they not hold all in chiefe is not the earth the Lords and the fulnesse thereof Is it not lawfull for the Lord to do with his own as seemeth good in his eyes Do not wee hold these outward things with condition of the crosse and with a limitation of Gods correction Secondly know as afterward you shall hear that Gods love is immutable though our outward estate and condition be changeable Gods love never changeth he is the same God and his love as entire and great when wee are in affliction as when wee are out of it He may and doth as you have heard for speciall ends change our estate yet for his own glory sake and our comfort hee continues still the same A loving father to all that love and fear him before affliction a tender and loving father in affliction and so for ever after for whom once he loves unto the end hee loves These things setled in our hearts by the help and assistance of the Lord wee shall be armed to encounter affliction strengthned with all might through his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulnesse Col. 1.11 Which words do teach us that the power and strength by which wee stand upright in time of trouble and bear with patience any affliction is not of our selves but from the Lord It is God that doth stablish our hearts with his grace hee it is that worketh faith in us and a feeling perswasion of his unchangeable love and a voluntary and cheerfull resignation of our selves and all wee have to be ordered and disposed of by God as seemeth good in his eyes Whereupon saith Saint Paul I can be abased and I can abound every where in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry and to abound and to have want I am able to doe all things through the helpe of Christ which strengtheneth mee Phillippians 4.12 13. Wee say fore-warned fore-armed Bee warned therefore betimes to prepare for thy triall that when it comes thou mayst be the better armed against it Evils the more suddenly they come upon us the more grievous they prove unto us and we are the lesse able to grapple with them and encounter them Whereas preparation doth as it were pull out the sting or beat out the teeth of affliction that either it bites us not at all or else doth not so deadly wound and hurt us When Agabus had told St. Paul what welcome and entertainment hee should find at Jerusalem how they would manacle him and deliver him over into the hands of the Gentiles Acts 21.11 Some of his friends besought him that hee would not go up to Jerusalem unto whom he answered What do yee weeping and breaking mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus vers 13. Saint Paul being thus prepared for his triall could chearefully and joyfully undergoe it Hee is like to look his enemy in the face and not like a dastard to turn his back upon him and betake himselfe to his leggs that armes himselfe and prepares for the encounter The life of a Christian is a continuall warrefare and wee are souldiers Thou therefore suffer affliction as a good souldier 2. Tim. 2.2 A good souldier in garrison or in the field is every day armed at all seasons ready for the assault which may suddenly come the enemie being at hand Affliction is our common enemie which as it hath foyled many for want of preparation so hath it been vanquished of many of the Lords worthies being evermore armed against it For thy sake are wee killed all the day long wee are counted as sheep for the slaughter Neverthelesse in all these things we are more then Conquerors What bee killed and yet be a conqueror This may seem a paradox a thing contrary to common reason but it is a divine truth Would you know how Gods children do conquer trials and afflictions it is thus First when troubles and afflictions cannot vanquish or overcome them cannot spoyle them of their patience and inward peace cannot batter down their comfort but that they still rejoyce in tribulation Rom. 15.3 A Christian is then beaten when his heart and minde is beaten A man is then overcome when his heart failes when his patience joy and peace is vanquished and put to flight But if these hold it out howsoever tribulation persecution may vanquish yea destroy the outward man yet the heart and minde being not overcome wee are conquerers though outwardly conquered Object Haply you will reply and say That even the best of Gods children through the extremity of their afflictions do oft times utter many rash and inconsiderate words and shew much impatience under their crosse how then may these be said to be conquerers Answ True it is that the flesh being pinched and pained may kick and winch but yet the heart is untouched neither doth the childe of God allow of any impatient carriage or passage but is ready to take himselfe in the manner and to reprove himselfe for it As Job said I will lay mine hand upon my mouth once have I spoken but I will answere no more yea twice but I will proceed no farther Job 40.4 5. Now the minde in Gods account is the man And so long as the heart is not vanquished though through the sence and smart of the affliction the outward man and flesh may storme the Lord will crowne such for conquerers 2. Againe we are said to be conquerers when still we hold our own ground and
Lord assuring us that there is hope in Israel that there is balme in Gilead to asswage all griefs to cure all sores The Word of God teacheth us how to construe God aright in all his dealings with us and to wait for promised salvation which in due time shall come when it shall be most for Gods glory and best for us How easily would afflictions batter down our confidence and over-turn our faith if it were not continually supported and strengthned by the Word Satan will be ready to buzze into our eares that God in wrath afflicteth us that those are most beloved which are least afflicted but the sheep of Christ will not know nor follow the voice of a stranger that is they will not subscribe nor yeeld to any temptation which tendeth to the withdrawing of their hearts and hopes from God but set their seal to the Word of and so through comfort of the Scriptures rest in hope For the more plenteously the Word of God in the love and evidence thereof doth dwell in any man and enable him to prove all things the more stedfastly will he hold that which is good and stand immoveable in the mids of all afflictions and temptations that shall assault him Though thy bones should be vexed and dryed like a pot-sheard and turned into the drought of Summer though thou wert powred out like water all thy bones out of joynt and thy heart melted like wax in the middest of thy bowels though Gods arrows should stick fast in thee and his hand presse thee sore though there should be no soundnesse in thy flesh nothing but stinch and corruption yea though innumerable evils should compasse thee about and thou not able to look up though fearfulnesse trembling should come upon thee and horror be ready to over-whelme thee yet if thou wilt have recourse unto the Word of God and beleeve what is there promised thou mayest with joy draw waters to refresh thy soul out of the wells of salvation Isa 12.3 If thou desirest sound and solid comfort such as will give true content to thy soul thou must pick it out of the Scripture Thou shalt never be truly satisfied unlesse it be with the breasts of her consolation Isa 66.11 Thou must suck sweetnesse out of the Word to uphold thee It is my comfort in my trouble saies David for thy promise hath quickned mee Psalme 119.50 When affliction commeth whether wilt thou run for comfort to thy honors thy revenews thy possessions thy friends I may say of them in this respect as Job speaks to his friends Miserable comforters are ye all Job 16.2 Thou maiest as well fetch water out of thy brick-walls as draw sound comfort from those outward things which are worse then vanitie for they are vexation of spirit Eccl. 1.14 These outward things can afford thee no comfort for they are nothing Prov. 23.5 He is a very simple and silly Arithmetician who knows not that of nothing comes nothing If thou placest thy comfort or puttest thy confidence in the best of earthly things thou buildest upon the sands every little blast and tempest will overthrow thy building The ground of all our comfort the onely anchor to stay our souls in any spirituall tempest the only staffe we have to rest upon in the time of afflictions are those sweet and precious promises made known unto us in the word What ever other carnall comforts men may for a while rejoyce in they will prove but a flame of stubble or as a blaze of thorns which can yeeld no solid or abiding light unto the soul A man may as soon drink up the water of the sea with spunges or remove mountaines with one of his fingers as be able by vain sports youthfull recreations and pastimes songs and musick though hee adde to these the consideration of his honors greatnesse and riches to alay those sorrows and paines which sinne and affliction may bring upon him All these vanities will but respite them for a little time that they may return the fiercer I say it again solid and lasting comfort must be fetcht out of the word or no where if thou expect comfort from other things thou wilt be deceived Every toy and trifle a bable a thing of nothing will cut the throat of thy comfort if thou joyest especially in earthly things Haman was second to a mighty Monarch and wanted nothing that the world might afford a subject In the 5. of Ester at the 11. you may read how he boasted of the glory of his riches and all the things wherein the King had promoted him and how he had set him above the Princes c. One would think that this mans condition was farre enough from vexation or discontent No no the want of a cap and a knee from poore Mordecai sitting at the Kings gate did so perplexe and vexe this proud Courtier that all hee had could avail him nothing as he professed vers 13. Ahab you know was King of Israel and therefore had the world at will yet the want of a little vineyard of Naboths which lay full in Ahabs eye because Naboth would neither sell it unto him nor yet exchange with him for a better it is said 1. Kings 21.4 That Ahab came into his house heavie and in displeasure because of the word which Naboth had spoken unto him he throwes himself down upon his bed turned his face and would eat no bread Surely a poore triall for a rich man for a King to bee so much troubled about Yet so it is and shall be with all those that set more by their outward glory their gardens and pleasures then by the Word of God If they set their hearts upon these outward things as they fail as fail they will being subject unto corruption so their heart fails them and they are all a mort halfe dead for want of comfort Whereas that soul that can truely say as did Jeremiah Chap. 15. vers 15. Thy word was unto mee the joy and rejoycing of mine heart Whatsoever affliction can befall him he shall be sure to have comfort by him yea within him Delight thy selfe therefore in the Word of God Now barrell up whiles these cunduits of comforts be full and the pipes do runne Learn Wisedome of the men of the world to take that oportunity which the Lord doth now afford thee Make hay whiles the Sunne shines The seasons you know are not alwayes faire After a long calme oft times there follows blustring stormes As goodly gleams as these of ours are now clouded in other places And little do wee know how soon the Sunne may goe down over the Prophets when night shall bee unto us for a vision and darknesse for a divination Mic. 3.6 When Agabus had signified by the Spirit that there should bee a great famine throughout the world Then the Disciples purposed to send succour unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea which thing they also did Acts. 11.29 30. Wee now blessed
be the name of our good and bountifull God live in plenty of the Gospel so as wee may speak of the food of our souls as Moses doth of bodily Lev. 26.5 Our threshing reacheth unto the vintage and the vintage unto the sowing time and wee eat our bread in plenteousnesse But little do wee know how soon the Lord may send a famine of the word as hee threatned Israel Amos 8.11 12. When wee shall wander from Sea to Sea from North to East too and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it Churches and people of other nations who not many yeares sithence had as little cause of fear and dread as wee do now feel the smart of this famine The Tabernacle of David is fallen amongst them Idolatry and superstition is in the place of the Gospel And why may not wee fear the like judgement especially seeing the Gospel is so much contemned of many amongst us Vse 4 Fourthly doth the Lord thus afflict his dear children be wee then admonished to break off our sinnes by repentance that so the Lord may either divert his judgements or else aswage and alay the heat of them For if wee will sinne God will punish Sin is that seed which being sown grows up unto a harvest of punishment Hee that soweth iniquitie shall reap affliction Prov. 22.8 Trouble waits upon sinne for affliction followeth sinners Prov. 13.21 Yea it so follows them as it will be sure to catch hold of them All these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord thy God Deut. 28.45 Is there any thing under the Sunne that is able to make a separation between sinne and punishment If the one be welcomed and entertained the other will not be shut out Paradice could not shelter nor priviledge our first parents from punishment after they had once sinned How then shall those be able to escape the wrath and vengeance of the Lord who make it their pastime to do evill into whose hearts and affections wickednesse hath warped and woven it selfe these must if speedily they repent not look to have the judgements of God to light upon them For what saies Job Is not destruction to the wicked and strange punishment to the workers of iniquitie Iob 31.3 Notorious offenders have oft times notable judgements Wicked ones may revell and be joviall and go on in their own wayes and pleasures but which of them can say I will continue my game my sport my lusts unto the end without feare or danger little do they know how neer at hand some judgement or other is to arrest them as it did Balshazzar to interrupt and turn their jollitie into woe and miserie Shut sinne out of dores if thou wouldst have that punishment either sanctified or taken away which doth now lie upon thee To complain of troubles or to seek to be eased of them and not to mourn and be sorry for those sinns which have procured them is folly and madnesse Do not our children when wee are correcting them confesse their faults and promise to do no more so by these words hoping to have their correction lessened and ended Wee shall shew our selves to have lesse understanding and wisedome then young children if wee take not the same course when the rod of God is laid upon us Repentance will make us gainers by our afflictions What wise man will not be willing to take that course albeit painfull which may be beneficiall and profitable unto him Repentance so sanctifies our affliction or removes it that a blessing comes with it or follows in the room of it If when our heavenly father correcteth us wee doe unfainedly promise and purpose to cast away our sinnes from us the Lord will speedily either lay aside his rod or else bestow upon us some blessing which shall make it evident that hee is pleased with our humiliation and will love us the better after it So well is the Lord pleased to see his children stoop under his hand that he will be so much the more gratious and mercifull unto them by how much the more he hath afflicted them so as they shall see the curse turned into a blessing unto them Repent thee of thy transgressions and the Lord will repent him of his corrections For that which the Lord promiseth unto a Kingdom or Nation Iere. 18.8 shall also be made good unto every person If wee will turn from our wickednesse the Lord will repent of the judgement which hee thought to bring upon us I will cast them into great affliction except they repent them of their works Revel 2.22 As our impenitencie hastens judgements threatned and continues them being inflicted so our repentance diverts them being threatned and removes them being inflicted The Ninivites repentance wrought repentance in God God saw their works that they turned from their evill wayes and God repented of the evill that he said he would do unto them and he did it not Ion. 3.10 Thus by their repentance the sentence pronounced was reversed Is not this a strange thing that the repentance of condemned malefactors should repeal the Judges sentences It were strange to see this in the Courts of men but with God it is not so strange as true our repentance not only frustrates Gods condemning sentence but turns it into an acquitting sentence it turns away the evill and as I said even now brings good in the stead of it Davids murtherous and adulterous marriage with Bathsheba brought many direfull curses but yet unfained repentance turned all those curses into blessings unto them and us for of this marriage came Christ the worlds Saviour Therefore as Daniel said unto the King Dan. 4.24 Let my counsell be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sinnes by righteousnesse for man suffereth for his sin Lam. 3.39 If wee will forsake Gods law and not walke in his judgements if wee break his statutes and keep not his commandements then will the Lord visit our transgressions with a rod and our iniquitie with strokes Psal 89.31 32. The more libertie that any of Gods children shall take to sinne the more liable are they to punishment The more care the Lord takes of them the more love he beares unto them the readier will he be to chastise them offending Is not the whole history of the Jewes a people once as dear unto the Lord as ever any were even as the signet on his right hand and as the apple of his eye Zach. 2.8 a pattern and example of an ungratious child continually exercised under the rod of his loving father evermore labouring as he trespassed so to correct him for his sinne The Scripture doth plentifully tell us how the Lord nurtured his people with severe discipline sending them one judgement upon the neck of another and all by reason of their sinnes Iere. 30.15 Why criest thou for thine affliction because thy sinnes
were increased I have done these things unto thee Thus visiting even the best of his children with the rods of men yea and sometimes scourging their transgressions with whips of scorpions which hath made them roar through anguish and to cry night and day through extremity of gtiefe For if a man will sinne God will yea must punish unlesse hee should let us perish for hee that spareth the rod hateth his sonne but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Prov. 13.24 Bee not therefore ventrous in sinning Though Israel transgresse yet let not Judah sinne Hos 4.15 The Lord hateth sinne wheresoever hee sees it and will sooner punish it in his deare children then in the wicked although hee will not do it with that rigor wrath and severitie wherewith hee plagues the wicked They are the people by whom his name is called upon of his houshold his servants friends sonnes yea his beloved spouse and therefore do not only shame themselves by sinning but highly dishonour God their Lord their father The lewd prankes which rogues commit in streets or vagrant persons by high-way sides do not redound to the reproach of the housholder but if any of his family especially son or daughter do grow outragious hee thinkes his credit is neerly touched and it is a matter which much concerns him to look unto Even so the prophane and licentious lives of open and notorious sinners do not so much dishonor God therefore many times he lets them have their swinge and take their course but if such as make profession of piety and truth will be bold with sinne whereby the mouthes of the wicked are opened and the name of God blasphemed the Lord if he love such and purpose to save them will not suffer them to go unpunished For as the Lord is zealous of maintaining his own glory and will have it known to men and Angels that he is no patron of sinne or sinners but will punish the wicked sinning be they never so great neither will he give alowance unto iniquitie in the godly be they never so good so also is he tender of the good of his children and therefore must not suffer them to go on in sinne which they would do if the Lord should nor restrain them being so ready to cast themselves into perils if they be but a while exempted from affliction Therefore let none of Gods children say I am safe and farre enough from correction because sure of salvation If thou beest bold with sinne thou maiest fall into sore affliction in this life though thou beest in a state of happinesse for the life to come As appeareth by old Eli whose sonnes wickednesse which hee connived at when as he should have sharply punished it was in the eye and mouth of all Israel so that Gods glory should have been much wronged and his name as much blasphemed as his offerings were abhorred if they had escaped unpunished No doubt but Eli repented him of his sinne but this might not quit him from temporall judgement The chastisements of the Almightie are many times deadly though the sinne be remitted by which the Lord was provoked God had said that the wickednesse of Elies house should not be purged with sacrifice for ever 1. Sam. 3.14 Repentance doth not alwayes free us from outward afflictions Freedom from damnation doth not free a man from affliction What punishment unlesse it bee eternall torments in hell fire can any of Gods children think to escape unlesse he will forbeare such sinnes as provoke the Lord to wrath against him David was as far from damnation if wee consider Gods purpose and decree as the devill is from salvation yet you have heard how his afflictions made him roare and roare againe Obje If it be thus that upon every sinne the Lord is thus ready to afflict his children may bee demanded what priviledg the godly have more then the wicked or what difference there is betwixt them seeing the one must be corrected and punished as well if not before or more then the wicked if they do sinne Answer Surely the child of God hath no more rather lesse liberty and priviledge to sin then the wicked Yet there is a great deal of difference in their afflictions For though all things fall alike to both in respect of the evills themselves as the childe of God may perish through famine fall by the sword die of the pestilence c. Yet in respect of the effects and ends of these outward evills there is great difference betwixt them For their nature is much altered and there is as much difference betwixt the afflictions of the Godly and the wicked as is betwixt poison corrected and rectified by the arte and skill of the Physitian that so it may be medicinable and wholsome and that poison which remains in its naturall temper The Lord in afflicting his children doth it with a father-like heart and hand in mildnesse and mercy to amend and better them Whereas hee correcteth the wicked with the rod of his wtath in justice and severity to plague and torment them The wicked shall be cast away for bis malice but the righteous hath hope in his death Pro. 14.32 In respect of the wicked the Prophet Nahum 1.2 speaks thus God is jealous and the Lord revengeth even the Lord of anger the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies Loe here is anger wrath and vengeance belonging to the wicked Whereas in respect of the godly Mica 7.18 19. speakes thus He taketh away iniquitie and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage Hee retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him Hee will turn againe and have compassion upon us hee will subdue our iniquities and cast all our sinnes into the bottom of the sea By which places it appeares that afflictions are nothing but the messengers of Gods wrath the rods of his indignation the arrows of his vengeance to plague and punish the wicked for their sinnes and to give them an earnest and taste of those endlesse torments which they have purchased by their wickednes Whence ariseth in them feare and terror horror of conscience rage and desperation Whereas to his children afflictions are tokens of the tender and father-like care the Lord hath of them they are cords of his love to draw them neerer unto him Yea they be badges of their adoption For whom the Lord loveth hee chasteneth and scourgeth every sonne that hee receiveth Hebr. 12.6 And this bringeth forth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to them that are thereby exercised Again the Lord takes pleasure in avenging the wickednesse of the wicked upon their own pates I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies Esay 1.24 And not only so but I will laugh at their destruction and mock when their fear commeth Prov. 1.26 Whereas it is a grief unto him to afflict his people His soul was grieved for the
misery of Israel Judg. 10.16 So concerning Ephraim the Lord said his bowels were troubled for him Jere. 31.20 There is a conflict betwixt Justice and Mercie when he goeth to correct his children as appeares Hos 11.8 9. How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are rouled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of my wrath I will not destroy Ephraim When hee punisheth the wicked he doth it in the fircenesse of his wrath as appeareth Psal 78.49 Hee cast upon them the fiercenesse of his anger indignation and wrath And to conclude The godly have libertie yea a command to come unto the Lord to call upon him and cry unto him in the day of trouble Ps 50.15 and he wil hear their cry and will save them Ps 145.19 Whereas the wicked shall cry unto the Lord but hee will not heare them hee will even hide his face from them at that time because they have done wickedly Micah 3.4 For the Lord may justly answere them as Iphtah did the Elders of Gilead Judg. 11.7 Did ye not hate mee How then come yee unto me now in the time of your tribulation Wicked persons are haters of God therefore these seeking to God in their need are like to have cold comfort from him What answere did the Lord make to Israel when in their distresse they sought unto him Yee have forsaken mee and served other gods Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them save you in the time of your tribulation Judg. 10.13 14. So will he answere all those that make either their lusts or their belly or their Mammon their god you have devoted your selves unto the world and your lusts why then seek you not help and comfort from them You have hitherto observed and served these let them now help and save you What hope have the wicked Will God hear his crie when trouble comes upon him saies Job 27.9 By all which it appeareth that there is a great difference betwixt the afflictions which the Lord doth exercise his withall and those judgements which hee layeth upon the wicked Vse 5 Fiftly Is it so that the best of Gods children go not without affliction then let all that desire to have a good use of their affliction or a good issue out of them bee earnest suiters at the throne of grace and humbled before the Lord in prayer Is any among you afflicted let him pray James 5.13 Of all other helpes which wee can use wee may say as David of Goliahs sword There is none to that 1. Sam. 21.13 so none to prayer As the Load-stone draweth Iron unto it so our prayers if they be made in faith and proceed from a broken heart do draw God unto us Thou drewest neere in the day that I called upon thee Lam. 3.57 As the Lord gives us power to aske for it is his spirit which helpeth our infirmities so somtimes he gives us benefits without asking that wee may bee the more bound unto him and his benefits may be the more welcom unto us by how much lesse they are deserved or expected When God bids us to call upon him and pray unto him it is not for that hee needs to be intreated but that he may make us more capable of blessings by desiring them It being his own ordinance that if wee ask we shall have c. And therefore he that oft gives ere wee ask will not fail us when we seek aright unto him The Lord is ready to hear as wee are to pray and if wee send up our requests unto him hee is ready to send down comfort and help unto us Call upon mee in the day of trouble so will I deliver thee Psal 50.15 But to whom think you is this sweet and comfortable promise made even to such as have a desire to glorifie God Therefore as followeth in the next verse Vnto the wicked said God What hast thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behind thee Psal 50.16 17. Although the Lord be a God hearing prayers yet hee is a God that heareth not sinners Job 9.31 Let every one that calleth upon the Name of the Lord depart from iniquitie 2. Tim. 2.19 It is not obedience but impudencie for such as in their health and prosperitie have not harkned unto God speaking unto them in his Word and Works to presse upon him in their need and affliction for help and comfort if their hearts be not more rent and broken by repentance and godly sorrow for their sinne then their estate or bodies are hurt or wounded by their punishment The Lord hath protested against such When affliction and anguish shall come upon you Then shall they call upon mee but I will not answere they shall seek me early but they shall not find mee Prov. 1.27 28. If hee that stoppeth his eare at the crying of the poore shall also cry and not be heard Prov. 21.13 How much lesse hee that stops his eares against the Lord calling and crying unto him in his holy Word His prayers shall bee abhominable Pro. 28.9 O how miserable and lamentable must his case needs be unto whom that exercise becomes sinne by which the godly and penitent obtain remedy against sinne and comfort in affliction Therefore let us be humbled under the hand of God in the sight and sence of our sinnes and then as our troubles will bee a motive to stirre us up to prayer so will they be a motive to procure ease and comfort from the Lord. O Lord turn unto mee according to the multitude of thy tender mercies hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble Psal 69.16 17 Such is the goodnesse of God toward sinners that all that seek unto him by prayer shall fare the better for it Whosoever returned in his affliction to the Lord God of Israel and sought him hee was found of him 2. Chron. 15.4 Jonah did behave himselfe stubbornly against the Lord and the Lord was even with him for his stoutnesse he was thrown into the sea and swallowed up of a Whale Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and hee heard him Jon. 2.1 2. Wee have heard what a vile and wicked man Manasses was Hee had done evill in the sight of the Lord like the abominations of the heathen hee built the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down he set up Altars for Baalim and worshipped all the hoast of Heaven and served them And he caused his sonnes to passe thorow the fire hee gave himselfe to witch-craft to charming and to sorcery hee did very much evill in the sight of the Lord to anger him shedding exceeding much innocent blood Yet for all these abominations when hee was in tribulation hee prayed unto the Lord and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer 2.
3.3 No man should bee moved with afflictions for ye your selves know that wee are appointed thereunto Vse 1 Is it so that all our afflictions come from God Away then with that heathenish conceit or dreame of Fortune Luck or Chance words too frequent in the mouths of Christians If any thing befall our neighbor better then ordinary and beyond our expectation wee are ready to congratulate his good fortune If any thing succeeed evill contrary to his desire or if any affliction doth befall him wee are ready to bemone or condole his ill luck and his bad chance Would you know from whence Fortune did first spring One tells us from nature I rather think from ignorance of nature Nature is nothing else but that order and course which the Lord hath set and established in all his creatures Why doth bread strengthen us rather then stones You will say it is the nature of bread to nourish and strengthen us and why so even because God hath said it and appointed it to be so This order and course of nature the Heathen being ignorant of as also of the Divine Providence guiding and disposing of all particulars they ascribed the event of things to a power of their own devising which they called Fortune Now for Christians who have the light of truth so clearely shining amongst us that wee should take up the language and termes of blind Pagans what a shame is it to our profession and reproach to our God Object But doth not the Scripture speake of chance Luk. 10.31 By chance there came down a certaine Priest that same way Answer In regard of God there is no chance although things may be said to bee casuall in respect of our ignorance who know not the causes of many things which fall out many times suddenly and beyond our expectation but all things past present and future are present with the Lord. And that all things in appearance casuall are ordered and governed by God may be gathered by that Vision of Ezechiel 1.18 Who beheld all things in the World in appearance to runne upon wheeles the ring of which wheeles hee observed to bee full of eyes implying hereby the universall and intentive Providence of the Lord overseeing all things Neither may wee ascribe any thing to that unluckie and as many call it unfortunate or fortunate Planet under which any may be said to be borne as the starre-gazer doth fondly hold and maintaine or that some dayes be good and some bad is a heathenish conceit For the Lord God Almightie that Most High and Incomprehensible JEHOVAH that Everlasting Alpha and Omega He that was that is and is to come He is the former framer and governor of all things Who made Arcturus Orion and Pleiades those famous starres and placed them in the firmament of heaven Who limited the North and South climats Hath not the Lord formed them and doth not He governe them Hath not He appointed them their severall spheares and motions Have they not their influences from him and doth not He withdraw from them at His pleasure Do they not remaine and continue as servants for the behoof of man as other creatures do and are not as gods or governors of mans nature neither can they dispose of our inclinations constitutions and affections or make us happy or unhappy at their pleasure but are ruled and commanded by God to stand or move at His will and pleasure Did not the Sunne stand still in Gibeon and the Moone in the valley of Ajalou a whole day Josh 10.12 By which and many other places it is evident that Sun and Moon and so all other creatures are subject to the will of the superior Governor who needeth not the helpe of such weake instruments to draw out or to shorten the life and wellfare the happinesse or the miserie of man to make our portion the more fat or lean to further or hinder us either in our spirituall or bodily welfare Thinke not therefore that either thy good or bad successe in thy proceedings the prosperous or adverse issues of thine indeavors thy riches or thy povertie proceedeth from the influence domination or power of the creatures but that all are ordered and disposed of by a higher cause the wise and righteous Providence of Almighty God Let us not therefore so much as name Fortune seeing all things in the World though many of them seem casuall and contingent to our weake and shallow apprehension are notwithstanding regulated by Divine Providence Some will say that Jonah being cast into the sea had good fortune that a fish should be ready at hand to swallow him up and so carry him a shore againe but this fortune was no other then Gods providence For the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah 1.17 The selling of Joseph unto the Ishmaelitish Merchants in appearance seemeth to be no other then the cruell act of his unnaturall brethren disputing and debating with themselves what they were best to do with him Yet Joseph telleth his brethren You sent me not hither but God Gene. 45.8 Can any thing appeare more casuall then the drawing of a lot yet it is the Lord that directeth my hand to this lot rather then unto another The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord Prov. 16.33 Gods Providence extendeth it selfe even to the smallest things the falling of every sparrow on the ground Matt. 10.29 The numbring of the haires of oun heads the feeding of the birds of the ayre and what not Hold wee it therefore as an undoubted truth that there is no fortune and that nothing comes to passe without the decree of God no not any of our afflictions nor any judgements which at any time befall any wicked person When the Drunkard hath besotted himselfe with excessive drinking and even transformed himselfe into a swine he takes his horse homeward goes the beast but the man more sencelesse then the beast is carried he knowes not whither down at last hee tumbles from his horse and breaks his neck or being on foot falls into the ditch and there is drowned you will say This man hath hard fortune And so when two roaring ruffians shall fall to word it upon some indignitie or wrong received or conceived and from words proceed either to blows or stabbing each other their companions will say the wounded party had a hard mischance befalne him verie ill lucke No no these had the just and righteous hand of God against them the Lord in justice and wrath appointing these heavie judgments unto them Hence it is that Jude speaketh of some which were before of old ordained to this condemnation Jude 4. The word ordained is very emphatical in the originall and signifies as much as if they were inrolled or set down upon record or registred and set down by the hand-writing of God to this condemnation Fortune befits the mouth of a heathen but Gods Providence the
the sight of Heaven What was it that carried those blessed Martyrs so joyfully thorow flames of fire but hope of glory After their sharp break-fast they were assured of a sweet and Royall supper Againe wee are to be patient in respect of our enemies whom the Lord is pleased to use as his instruments to afflict and scourge us Whosoever they bee that trouble us they are but the Lords instruments whom he sets on work for the execution of his will and purpose If we consider Jobs afflictions wee shal find three Agents in them God Satan and the Sabeans and all these three had their severall end in afflicting holy Job The Devill stirres up the Sabeans and God permits both The Sabeans spoile Job of his substance that so they might inrich themselves The Devill sets upon Job to provoke him to impatience and to stirre him up to blaspheme the Lord. And God permits all first for the punishment of the Sabeans wronging and robbing his servants secondly to prove the devill a malicious lier thirdly to justifie the innocency and patience of his servant Job and last of all to crown his patience and constancy with greater honor and glory both in this life and in the world to come But of all these three Agents whose hand was Jobs eye upon did he curse the Sabeans did he raile upon the Devill no such matter As the by-word is he set the saddle upon the right horse Hee lookes up to the hand of God The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken it blessed by the name of the Lord Job 1.21 So in that most bloody and nefarious fact which ever was under the sunne commited I meane the murthering of the Lord of life glory there cōcurred the Jewes malice Judas his treason and Pilate in his injustice And yet all these were ordered by a superior power the Lord using these as his instruments for the execution of his purpose Acts 4. To do whatsoever thine hand thy counsell had determined before to bee done Now then if the Lord intendeth to afflict thee who shall let him from using what instruments hee pleaseth Looke not then upon secondary causes lest thou swell against them and grow impatient Look up to the hand of God that thou maist be quiet whatsoever or whosoever the instruments be As David asked the woman of Tekoa Is not the hand of Joab in all this 2. Sam. 14.19 So bee thou assured the hand of the Lord is in all thine afflictions And yet alas in trouble and affliction wee can see any thing before and more then the hand of God that smiteth us and our sinnes which have drawne forth the hand of God against us The want of which spirituall eye to behold Gods hand is the ground of that impatience which is too often seen in our afflictions and bewrayes it selfe in our uncharitable speeches I may thanke such a villain for this trouble I am beholden to such a neighbour for this crosse such a one hath done me thus much wrong these injuries I will therefore be revenged of him c. Many there be which set down by that affliction which comes immediately from God but can not be so still quiet in those wrongs and injuries which come from man They know there is no striving against the streame a vaine thing for man to contend with his maker and therefore fret not lost there impatience should open a new gappe or make the old breach wider to let in more if not greater afflictions But why they should be thus dealt withall by man it may be their inferior one that they can shift withall one that it may be they thinke they can crush to put up such a wrong this goes against the haire they can not beare it no wise man they say would put it up at his hands These words argue too much selfe too much pride and too little grace too little patience It will be our glory to passe by offences from whomsoever they come The greater the injurie is or the more able thou art to avenge thy selfe of thine enemie the greater will be thy glory to passe it by No wise man will fight against an enemie with his own weapon Christian wisdome teacheth us not to render evill for evill and rebuke for rebuke If thine enemie provoke thee either by his words or by his deeds and thou through impatience be stirred up to revenge what difference is there in both your faults and folly Only this Hee sinnes first and thou art second in evill Hee sinnes by provoking of thee and thou by being provoked by him Hee sinnes in offering the wrong and thou by revengeing it Are thou angry with thine enemie for troubling thee He may answere thee as David did his brethren when they were angry with him 1. Sam. 17.28 29. What have I now done Is there not a cause What hath thine enemy done unto thee which the Lord did not see cause to set him about Know therefore that how malicious and potent soever thine enemies are they can do no more unto thee or against thee nay they shall do no lesse then the Lord hath appointed them to do There is not so much as one poisoned arrow shot at thee but the hand of the Lord doth nock it not one bitter taunting or reproachfull word uttered against thee but the Lord wills it Suffer him to curse saith David to Shimei for the Lord hath bidden him 2. Sam. 16.11 And yet how soon is our blood up How ready are our hearts to rise against any of the Lords instruments like dogges running after the stone which was cast at them never looking to the hand that threw it Common humanity teacheth us not to flie in the face or fall about the eares of that mans servant which doth only bring us a message from his master The enemies of Gods Church and people are but the Lords servants The Lord calls Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babell his servant Jere. 27.6 Our enemies doe but bring us a message from the Lord as Ehad said unto Eglon Judg. 3.20 I have a message vnto thee from God If they doe but their errand why should wee be offended with them Were it not folly if not madnesse for him that is beatten with a wand to rent and teare it The wicked of the World are but Gods wands or rods to beat and lash his children withall Ashur the rod of my wrath and the staffe in their hands is my indignation Esay 10.5 A rod you know can do nothing of it selfe any further then that hand which holdeth it doth put force unto it it falls heavier or lighter according to the strength of the hand that useth it Bee patient then and fret not swell not against thine enemies It may bee they revile thee raile upon thee they backbite and slander thee be patient for the Lord hath bidden them as David said 2. Sam. 16.11 It may bee they hinder thee in thine estate they offer
violence to thy person in all these or any other wrong they can do unto thee they are but the Lords rods to whip thee withall Seeke not revenge against them but leave them to the Lord and hee will one day recompence them for their malice and cruelty against thee Implacable is the malice and rage of the wicked against the godly so furious that if the Lord should not curbe and restrain them as Jezebel vowed to take away the life of Eliah 1. King 19.2 So they would not suffer a soul to breath amongst them which feareth God and walketh not after the course of the World But blessed be our good God that giveth not up his children as a prey into their teeth Psalme 124.6 but avengeth the afflicted Psalme 140.12 And will recompence the wicked according to their deeds Psal 28.4 For it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you which are troubled rest 2. Thess 1.6 7. Object But is the Lord just in this is it equall that any should bee punished for that worke which the Lord hath set them about Answ Yes if they do it not to that end and in that manner which God would have them True it is they can do no other then God will have them to do but God wills them not to do his worke in that manner which they perform it The Lord commanded Jehu to root out the posterity of Ahab which Jehu according to the Word of the Lord fulfilled Yet the Lord by the Prophet Hoseah 1.4 saith I will visit the blood of Israel upon the house of Jehu For though Jehu was Gods instrument and servant and did that worke which the Lord imployed him about and the Lord was well pleased with the doing of it yet the manner and the end of his doing it caused God to be offended with him For Iehu did it not in conscience and obedience to the will of God hee did it not with an upright heart but with an ambitious and wicked mind Hee did it not in zeal of Gods glory as he boasted but hee did it to advance himselfe and to settle the crown more surely upon the head of his posterity Hee threw down Baal Ahabs Idoll to set up Jeroboams calfe Hee did it not in detestation of Ahabs sinne but in the hatred of his person and love unto himselfe and therefore the Lord threatned and afterward punished him So many that trouble and vexe the Lords people do that which the Lord would have them but not to that end or in that manner as the Lord speakes by the Prophet Zachariah I was angry but a little and they helped forward the affliction Zach. 1.15 Therefore when our enemies have done their worst spit out all their malice and spewed out all their venom against us which they can disgorge then will the Lord take them to taske then will hee recompence and reward them for their malice and mischiefe Behold thus saith the Lord unto the Ammonites because thou hast clapped thy hands and stamped with thy feet and rejoyced in heart with all thy despight against the land of Israel Behold therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee c. Ezek. 25.6.7 This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the Lords people Zepha 2.10 The more our enemies do insult over us and wee patient the sooner wil the Lord help and deliver us Jere. 30.17 If wee did but seriously consider of these things much matter of patience would be administred unto us Men would not swell with the desire of revenge if these truths could enter into them Did wee beleeve that whatsoever wrongs and injuries either by word or deed any of our enemies offer unto us the Lord sets them on worke the Lord wills them to do it for the exercising of our faith the triall of our patience and other ends would wee durst wee fret and fume and chafe as wee do at our enemies Were wee but perswaded of this truth That if wee patiently sat down by our wrongs seeke not revenge but commit and commend our causes and our enemies to our God hoping that the Lord wil do us good for that evill they have done unto us as David said It may bee the Lord will look upon mine affliction and do me good for his cursing 2. Sam. 16.12 Wee would be more patient and there would be lesse heart-burnings and fewer quarrells and suits at law amongst us then be Before I passe from this use of the doctrine in hand it will not be amisse to lay down some helps how a Christian may attaine to this gift of patience which is so needfull to the carrying of him on cheerfully and peaceably in his race for wee must runne with patience the race that is set before us Hebr. 12.1 How may wee come to bee furnished with patience First by our profitable and fruitfull entertaining and welcoming the Word of God for this being effectuall in us will still the heart in all stormes and cause us quietly to sit downe by all wrongs done unto us by all afflictions that befall us Hence it is that the Lord cals the Word The Word of his patience Revel 3.10 And so it is called either because it teacheth and instructeth us unto patience For whatsoever things are written aforetime are written for our learning that wee through patience and comfort of the Seriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Or else because it is an instrument and means of working patience in us promising unto us peace with God through Christ and not only so but also a sanctified use of all our afflictions heere and salvation hereafter to all that keep this Word which doth much pacifie the heart and cause us to be patient in our afflictions Or else it may be called a word of patience because without patience the Word cannot be rightly professed nor wee hold out in a holy profession unto the end whence wee may safely conclude that it is either through ignorance of the Word or neglect of the Word or want of the power of the Word that wee are impatient A second meanes of furnishing the heart with patience is the exercising of our faith Knowing that the trying of your faith bringeth forth patience James 1.3 Object But doth not Saint Paul say Rom. 5.3 That tribulation bringeth forth patience Answ Yes and both speake the truth and meane one and the same thing Know that neither faith nor tribulation do beget procreate patience for patience is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Tribulation doth not naturally and of it selfe beget and bring forth patience but originally and by accident for to speak properly it is the work of the Spirit to still and pacifie the troubled mind of man but tribulation is a means and instrument by which patience is brought forth that is is exercised and manifested Neither doth faith bring forth patience as the mother bringeth
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
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
exhorteth us to shut the doore after us hereby he perswades us unto courage constancy or else to keep our selves close from Satans temptations that he may find no chink nor crevis open whereby he may enter into us to disturbe us for if our hearts lie but a little open so as he may have but the least advantage he is at hand to disquiet and perplex us And whereas he bids us to hide our selves he would have us to enjoy a secure freedom under Gods promise and pretection in faith and humility we should shrowd our selves under Gods wings that so he may keep us from inordinate fears and terrors untill the affliction be past which is but as a cloud or storm that will not last alwaies but will blowe over ere it be long and be at an end Therefore be cheerefull in thine afflictions Againe in that it is said As many as I love I rebuke and chasten not barely I rebuke and chasten you but I rebuke and chasten as many as are deere unto me or beloved of me this manner of speech is used for the confirmation of our faith in time of trouble and to keep us from sinking through grief or despaire For what argument can bee more forcible to perswade us to the quiet and patient bearing of our afflictions then to beleeve they be Gods love-tokens sent us for our good Whence mee may learne this Instruction that A great helpe to keep us from sinking and to enable us to beare up our heads with patience and cheerfullnesse in the time of affliction is to be perswaded of Gods love in afflicting of us This hath been in part touched before therefore I shall bee the briefer in the point How fearefull our nature is of troubles how unwilling the flesh is to taste of the cup of affliction yea how we labor to shift and avoyde it with a kinde of abhorring it common experience teacheth us And the mistrust of Gods providence and love wherewith naturally the best are infected makes us to shun and avoyd afflictions as much as possibly wee can lest wee should not bee able to grappie and encounter with them Wherein as wee bewray much weaknesse so do wee expresse great incredulity for hereby we do manifestly shew that wee thinke that God in afflicting doth not love us and that therefore hee cannot or will not helpe us to beare them that hee cannot or will not bring us fairely off them Therefore let us not give way to carnall reason nor heare what flesh and blood shall suggest unto us but what is delivered from the Word of truth which tels us that the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth even as the father doth the childe in whom hee delighteth Prov. 3.12 If wee give eare to carnall wisdome it will tell us surely if God loved us he would not thus afflict us As if our afflictions were a wall of separation twixt Gods love and us But what saies Paul Ro. 8.38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus This strong perswasion of Gods love carried Paul on cheerfully in his troublesome pilgrimage and made him joyfull in all his sorrowes and afflictions Thus strongly should wee bee perswaded of Gods love for hath not the Lord said Esay 54.10 The mountaines shall remove and the hils shall fall downe but my mercy and love shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away as if hee should have said though the whole world be turned topsy turvy and heaven and earth do meet together yet standeth still my love and affection firm to theewards The change and alteration of our outward estate and condition causeth no change of Gods love for hee is still the same unto us and with us though the face and fashion of the world goeth away 1. Cor. 7.31 The things of this life are mutable and our condition is subject to daily change and alteration Times have their vicissitudes to day it is well with us to morrow ill to day at ease to morrow in paine to day we have something to morrow lesse it may be nothing to day in honor to morow in disgrace seldome continuing in one stay In which variable condition of ours and amids all changes and chances of this life here is comfort to the child of God that God is the same and changeth not but as he now loveth him so hee will for ever continue loving and gracious to him John 13.1 And hosoever we cannot tell what shall bee to morrow James 4.14 wee know our beginning as the old saying is but we know not what our end shall be as Paul went up to Jerusalem but knew not what things should come unto him there Acts 20.22 Yet such is our happinesse and comfort that come what will come no event whatsoever can keepe back or turne away Gods love from us and though our state be changed yet Gods love to us is not changed but still the same as true and as intyre as over it was My enemies may take away my liberty my goods my good name my deare friends and that which of all other things is most deare unto me even my life but I have one Jewwell all the devils in hell all the powers of darkenes all the rage and malice of the world can never spoile me of they cannot rob me of the love of my God This confidence and perswasion of Gods love and favor beares up the godly from sinking under the burden of their affliction and makes them cheerfull when as the wicked wanting this assurance are either sencelesse or else faithlesse and impatient under the crosse The faithfull making God and his favor their portion and happinesse enjoy this priviledge in time of adversity as well as in the day of prosperity and therefore their hearts or their desire is to bee as joyfull when they are in trouble and afflictions as if they were most free from them Whereas the wicked placing their whol felicity in these earthly things their profits pleasures c. When their wealth and worldly things faile their joy their hope and comfort ends with them These have nothing but nature to helpe them beare their burdens Whence it commeth to passe that infidelity and impatience do make them more grievous and burdensome whereas the faithfull having the perswasion of Gods love and the presence of his Spirit to support them take comfort in their troubles during the time of their tryall and wait for a seasonable and cumfortable issue and deliverance out of them So that it is a truth not to be questioned that the perswasion of Gods love in afflicting of us is a great help to keepe us from sinking under afflictions and to enable us with patience and cheerfullnesse to undergo them this
of his deare Sonne Is any man so mindfull and carefull of keeping covenant and promise as the Lord Is any so able to make good his word as God Tricks of Law and the wilie subtilties of mans braine are oft occasions of frustrating promises made betwixt man and man but there is no wisedom neither understanding nor councell against the Lord Prov. 21.30 God is not as man that hee should lye neither as the sonne of man that he should repent hath hee said and shall he not do it hath hee spoken and shall hee not accomplish it Numb 23.19 God is so faithfull of his Word that nothing is able to make him goe back or to falsify his promise Gods Word shal stand when Heaven and Earth shall fall To mistrust Gods promise is to question whether there be a God or no. For either to deny or doubt of his truth and fidelity is to deny or doubt him to bee God Every honest man scandeth upon his credit for his credits sake he dares not eate his word hee keepeth promise though it bee to his own losse and hindrance How much more will the Lord who is jealous of his glory bee carefull to make good whatsoever hee hath said What greater indignity can bee offered to an honest and godly man then to question the truth of his word What greater dishonor can be unto the Lord then to call into question his truth which wee do when wee either say or thinke hee loves us not in afflicting of us Howsoever crosses and afflictions do oft times present themselves to the apprehension of carnal men with much terorr horror yet even in the very bitternesse and extremity of them thou by the helpe of faith maist draw a great deal of joy and comfort from them if thou wouldst fix thy minde upon such places and promises as these are Isa 43.2 and 63.8 Rom. 8.28 2. Cor. 4.17 Heb. 12.6 A patient submission to Gods will and a perswasion of his love in correcting of us is an infallible evidence that thou art a sonne and not a bastard Is there not more sweetnesse in those afflictions which are evidences of Gods love tokens that thou art in the right way to Heaven then in outward ease worldy pleasures and carnall liberty which clearly demonstrate to thy conscience that thou art in the broad way to Hell hence it was that the Apostls rejoyced when they were beaten That they were counted worthy to suffer rebuke for the name of Christ Act. 5.41 Nay all the scorne and contempt all the contumelious reproaches which the world shall spit out at thee do crown thy head and therefore should fill thy heart with aboundance of glory blessednesse and joy If ye be reproched for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory of God resteth upon you 1. Pet. 4.14 Schoffes spitefull and taunting speeches odious nick-names and lying imputations cast upon thee by those whose tongues cut like sharpe raisors are but so many honorable badges of thy profession and Christian resolution of standing for Christ his truth and shall pull down a blessing upon thee Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all evill against you for my sake rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. 5.11 12. I define to beate this mile home to the head therfore I tarry the longer upon this use for if we could but bee thorowlie perswaded of this truth that God loveth us in that he correcteth us all differences betwixt the Lord and us about affliction would bee at an end and our sorrow would be turned into joy and rejoycing in tribulation Rom. 5.3 our unquietnesse would bee turned into patience our lumpishnesse into cheerfulnesse and our murmurring into thankfullnesse Therefore I would have you know that the Devill our adversary hath not a more forcible engine or any more cunning stratageme to batter our peace and patience and so to draw away our hearts from resting upon God in the time of our afflictiō then to make us to question Gods love and so to mistrust his truth Who did ever trust in the Lord and was deceived Our Fathers saith David trusted in thee they trusted thou didst deliver them they called upon thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. Whereupon David praies My God I trust in thee let mee not bee confounded so all that hope in thee shall not bee ashamed Psalme 25.2 3. And was the Lord the God of David only Is he not also their God that do put their trust in his goodnesse and mercy Is Gods love and kindnesse his mercy and goodnesse lesse unto his people now then it was to those of old Or is the Lord more feeble and lesse able to helpe and do good to us then to our fathers before us No no hee is the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7.22 the same God now that ever hee was as able and as willing now to do good to those that beleeve in him as he hath beene of old Therefore in all thine afflictions learne to judge of and to measure Gods love by his word not by thy present feeling and comfort Let thine eye bee upon that love which will one day change thy estate and give thee a plentifull croppe of good out of this sorrowfull seed time of affliction Should any husbandman measure his estate and wealth by his seed time there were poore comfort to bee found for doth hee not weary his body through painfull toile and labor doth hee not empty his store and cast away his corne out of his hand but when hee doth consider that without a seed time there is no possibility of an harvest and withall that Hee that soweth liberally shall reape liberally 2. Cor. 9.6 He is then contented both with his paines and expences Even so if our eyes bee so fixed upon our present afflictions that wee see not the future good which through the love of God unto us they will bring us wee shal very hardly bee upheld in the time of our affliction but if wee look off the affliction and fasten our eye upon the love of God and that good he will doe us for that evil which we patiently and thankfully sustain how joyfully how contentedly how sweetly may we sit down and blesse God for afflicting of us Object But may some weak beleever object and say I make no question but that God in love doth chasten some of his children but how can I beleeve that my afflictions are tokens of his love when as I find and feele no good that hath come unto me through them nay I feare I am the worse for them for I am now more impatient more uncheerefull and more distrustfull of the love and providence of God then ever I was before Answ To favor thy weaknesse a little let mee tell thee that it may be this is but one of Satans wiles enterprises
to rob thee of that good hee sees thine affliction is like to do thee and that thou art not so distrustfulll of Gods love nor so unbeleeving as the Devill doth beare thee in hand thou art But admit it bee so and that thou art as thou speakest of thy selfe wilt thou judge of the good effect of thy bodily physicke or the skill and love of thy Physician by the sick and painfull working of the Physick What wise man would so do This were all one as if a man should judge of his future strength or a woman of her beautie by their present condition of sicknesse Therefore howsoever no good by affliction may appeare at first but the contrary rather there being much impatience infidelity c. Yet know thou that no mans grace is to be judged of in the time of temptation for certainly many even of the Lords deare children when the hand of God is upon them especially if it lie more heavily and longer then ordinary do doubt of Gods love and favour and do bewray much corruption by their unadvised and inconsiderate words by their sowre and lumpish cariage in the time of their afflictions The Scripture commendeth Moses for faith and obedience yet being perplexed and vexed with the dogednesse and rebellion of the Israelites hee so offended the Lord by his unbeliefe that the Lord did cut him short of Canaan and would not suffer him to set foot on that promised land Because yee beleeved mee not to sanctifie mee in the presence of the children of Israel therefore yee shall not bring this people into the land that I have given them Numb 20.12 Admirable and invincible was the patience of Job Yet when the hand of God was first upon him how did hee curse the day of his birth wishing that hee had died as soon as he was born Let that day perish wherein I was born c. Job 3.3 And afterward againe Oh that God would destroy me that he would let his hand go and cut mee off Job 6.9 Was not David beloved of God and a man after his own heart yet hee was so overwhelmed with the cloud of afflictions and so battered with the storme of adversity that he could not discerne the love of God towards him but hee cries out Will the Lord absent himselfe for ever and will hee shew no more love or favor Psal 77.7 And againe Lord why dost thou reject my soul and hidest thy face from mee Thine indignations go over mee and thy feare hath cut me off Psal 88.15 16. I alledge not these examples for the fostering of any in their impatience and unbeliefe nor that any should take libertie from hence for the like behavior in the time of affliction but I speak this the rather partly to uphold and comfort weak beleevers that they listen not to Satans temptations who will be ready to buâ—e it into their eares that none of Gods children do question his love in the time of triall or shew any impatience under the rod and partly to stop the mouthes of the wicked and to stay their uncharitable censure from going too farre they being so ready to measure the child of God either by his afflictions or by his behavior in them Objects But may Gods children be sad and heavie in time of affliction Answ No doubt they may for doth not Saint Peter say now for a season if need require yee are in heavinesse through manifold tentations 1. Pet. 1.6 but in our heavinesse these cautions must be observed First our sorrow must be greater for our sinne which brought the affliction then for the affliction it selfe Secondly wee must not bee excessive but moderate in our heavinesse Object But how may wee know that our sorow for afflictions is moderate Answ First if it exceed not the measure of our sorrow for sinne If our sinnes bee our greatest heart-smart our sorrow for affliction is moderate Secondly if our sorrow for affliction hurt us not that is drieth not up our bones impaireth not our strength or make us unfit for publique imployment Thirdly and lastly if it withdrawes not the heart from God and the dueties of his worship and service Object But the weake beleever will still object and say If my troubles and afflictions were only bodily and outward I make no question but I should see Gods love in them but my wound and griefe is inward and spirituall I cannot finde or feel the sweet comforts of Gods Spirit I see the angry countenance of God bent against me for my sinnes God mee thinkes lookes not now upon mee with the amiable countenance of a loving Father but with the face of a severe and strict judge ready to take vengeance upon mee for my sinnes how can I then be perswaded either or Gods love or that my case is good or that good is intended mee by this affliction Answ Howsoever these inward and spirituall afflictions be the sorest of all trials for the spirit of a man may sustaine his bodily infirmities but a wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18.14 Yet I would have thee know that even these inward and sad afflictions are no other then are incident unto the best of Gods children and wherewith the Lord in love doth afflict them For the Lord seeth as wee have spoken before what his children stand in most need of out of his deep and unsearchable wisedome hee singles out and makes choice of those tryalls which shall make most for our spirituall good the Lord ever pitcheth upon that affliction which shall worke best upon us and serve most punctually to humble and awe us Some he afflicts with varietie of worldly crosses as in their children or outward estate Some he doth extraordinarily exercise with spirituall conflicts and troubles of conscience thus sorting out unto his children those severall crosses and corrections which out of his unsearchable wisedome and their spirituall necessitie hee sees most expedient for them Therefore of what nature soever thy crosse be do thou take it up seeing it pleaseth our wise God to exercise thee with it as thy portion It may be thou thinkest that no outward and worldly crosse could go so neere thee as doth this inward tentation but who knowes what thou wouldst be if this tryal were removed It may bee the Lord sees that without it thou wouldest grow worldly or waspish or secure or proud now high spirits must be abased low and the Lord sees that these inward and spirituall conflicts are the best and surest way to humble us and to bring us out of love with sinne and our selves and more in love with his majestie He breaks up hee rents and teares the heart and conscience with fears and terrors that so it may bee made more plyable and gentle more fit to receive and to retaine that seed of grace which the Lord is now casting into them Therefore assure thy selfe that it is not for any want of love that the Lord doth lay so heavie
not any of thy failings can nulifie Gods covenant which he hath made because it is an everlasting covenant Jer. 32.40 The best of Gods children do daily faile in one part of the covenant or other yet if there be not a revolting a turning back a falling away from God a betaking of thy selfe unto an other husband another love thou art no breaker of the covenant tho there be failings All this is come upon us yet do we not forget thee neither deal we falsly concerning thy covenant Psal 44.17 As the Lords love towards us did not begin in us so doth it not so much depend upon us but upon the mercy goodnesse and truth of him with whom there is no variablenesse neither shaddow of turning Jam. 1.17 For I am the Lord I change not and ye sons of Jaakob are not consumed Mat. 3.6 If Gods grace and mercy should depend upon our deservings the Devill would alwayes pick some hole or other in our coate we should never have inward rest nor assurance either of Gods love or of our own salvation For Satan is subtle and deceiptfull and he will not faile to tell us that we have broken covenant and therfore God hath cashiered us and cast us off therefore whensoever Satan comes to parlie with thee it must be thy wisdom and it will be thy safety not to hold him chat but to break off reasoning and dispute with him Object But Satan doggs and followes me with restles assaults he daily casts his firy darts at me he is daily battering my faith Answ Then go to Heaven for helpe encounter him in the name of Christ as David set upon Golia in the name of the Lord have recourse unto the promises which being well and wisely mannaged by faith will be able to foile the Devill and send him packing from thee A greater and a surer signe of victory we cannot have then this viz. To renounce our own confidence not to stand upon our own bottom but to cast our selves upon the Lord and so wee shall be strong in the power of his might Ephesians 6.10 Therefore give no way to Satan howsoever for the present he may bang thee and cause thee to bauke yet be stedfast in the faith and thou shalt be able to resist him because the Lord taketh thy part For the exceeding greatnesse of his power is toward us which beleeve Eph. 1.19 Assure thy selfe Satan shall be foiled if the power of God doth underprop thee which power if thou wilt call for and beleeven thou art sure to partake of and then if thou chance to be foiled thou standest as one undefiled in Gods account In the old Law if any womans chastitie was assaulted by any varlet if shee cryed out for helpe shee was blamelesse Deutr. 22.27 Even so when satanicall tentations do assault us if wee in the assault crie unto the Lord for helpe the Lord will not require the tentation at our hands but of Satan whose worke it was The ravished woman was chaste in Gods account because her heart and mind was so though her body was defiled So if Satan draw not consent from us his tentations may prevaile with us but shall not be layd unto our charge Therefore slie to God for help cry unto him and hee will either weaken Satan and strenâ—â—hen thee or else not lay the tentation to thy charge And take heed that thou beest not over much disquieted or unsetled by any of Satans tentations for this may give Satan some advantage if hee sees thee to be dejected hee will be the more insolent and double his forces against thee Therefore be strong in the faith feare not be not disheartned the Lord will be thy defence and under the shadow of his wings shalt thou have shelter Thinke never the worse but the better of thy selfe because Satan assaults thee it is a signe thou goest not the way that hee would have thee When any man drives his cattle to pasture if they go the way that hee would have them he is well pleased with them but if they hap to straggle out of the way he throwes a stone at one and his staffe at another even so when wee go the way Satan would have us hee lets us alone as implied by those words of our Saviour Luk. 11.21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace the things that hee possesseth are in peace but if wee disquiet him hee will not faile to disquiet us so far as he may or can for satan can not tempt thee longer then the Lord wil permit him and hee that suffers Satan to tempt thee will not suffer thee to be tempted by him above that which thou shalt be able to beare but will even give issue with the tentation 1. Cor. 10.13 But I am feeble and weak and am not able to hold out against such fierie darts such furious oppositions as I am assaulted withall Answ But if thou wilt trust in the Lord hee will not faile thee nor forsake thee Object But I feele my heart to faint and my strength to faile Answ Hee giveth strength to him that sainteth and to him that hath no strength hee increaseth power Isa 40.29 Object I had a little strength but it is gone and vanished my faith begins now to flagge and therefore I feare I shall not hold out long Answ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall runne and not be weary they shall walke and not faint Isa 40.31 If thou hadst strength of thine own it were not to be trusted unto and though thine bee gone the Lord remaines his arme is not shortned his power is not lessened Therefore cheere up thy drooping and fainting heart let the tentation be never so smart or tart yet it is no other then that out of which God intends to fetch some glory and thou in the end shalt receive some good And know it for truth that the more restlesly Satan doth follow thee with varietie of tentations the more sweetly and securely thou maist repose thy perplexed soule upon this comfortable perswasion and assurance that thou art the Lords Object But I feele much lumpishnesse and dead-heartednesse in the best duties I performe my prayers have little or no life in them my mind is full of wandrings and idle vagaries as soone as I have begun to seek the Lord whereupon I am oft times at a stand not knowing whether I were best proceed or recede and leave off And which doth most of all perplexe mee Satan spares not to cast in oft times Atheisticall and blasphemous thoughts which makes me to feare that when I have ended my prayer God may justly begin my punishment seeing I have more offended him I feare in my prayers then I should have done with my silence Answ But dost thou admit of any of these evill thoughts are they not such as make thy heart to ake and thy soul to bleed within thee Dost thou not ever tremble at the
be feared that man never felt the sweetnes of Gods love in the assurance of the pardon and forgivenesse of his sinnes Skin for skin and all that ever a man hath will he give for his life Job 2.4 Then much more will hee part with all that hee hath so be it he may have his part in Gods love for thy loving kindnesse is better then life Psal 63.3 for what is life but death if it be not upheld by the love of God Art thou then heartily content with the Lords handling of thee Dost thou with all cheerefulnesse take up thy crosse and beare thine affliction Canst thou truely say Behold here am I let him do to mee as seemeth good in his eyes 2. Sam. 15.26 I dare be bold to say thou art an happy man God in afflicting thee loveth thee Secondly if God loves thee hee will fetch thee neerer unto him by thy affliction See what the Church professed Esay 26.8 9. Also wee O Lord have waited for thee in the way of thy judgements the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me will I seek thee in the morning By which words it appeares that Gods people those that are beloved of him are so farre from being driven from God by affliction that they are brought thereby neerer unto him Afflictions are so farre from extinguishing grace in Gods people that they increase it rather as water cast upon the smiths fire doth not put it out but increaseth the flame thereof Afflictions drive us unto the Lord in prayer Esay 26.16 In trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them Affliction will send us to the Sanctuary and make us more diligent in hearing the Word more conscionable in the practise of good dueties So that as judgements lighting upon the wicked do come from Gods avenging wrath and justice and so are as pikes and clubs to beat them further off from God even so those afflictions which befall his people proceeding from his love are as cords to draw them neerer unto him Thirdly thou mayest assure thy selfe of Gods love in afflicting of thee if thine afflictions do raise up godly sorrow in thy heart causing thee to grieve and be disquieted that thou shouldest by thy wickednesse thus provoke the Lord and put him as it were out of his course forcing him to do that which he goeth unwillingly about for Hee doth not punish willingly nor afflict the children of men Lam. 3.33 This was that which did break the heart of David to consider how hee had offended the Lord who had been so gracious and bountifull unto him Against thee against thee only have I sinned and done evill in thy sight that thou mayest be just when thou speakest and pure when thou judgest Psalme 51.4 A good heart grieves more that by his sinnes hee hath grieved God then that God hath grieved him by some affliction And therefore had rather the Lord would take away his sinne then his affliction And therefore when the Lord had so severely threatned David by the mouth of his Prophet Nathan David cries not out through feare of Gods judgements as some would have done upon so hard tydings Alas I am undone how shall I ever be able to hold up my head if Gods judgements come so thick upon mee c. No no the sword which pierced Davids heart was his sinne against God and therefore hee praies Wash mee throughly from mine iniquitie and cleanse me from my sinne Psal 51.2 Hee that in the time of affliction can find his sinne the greatest cause of his humiliation may assure himselfe of a sanctified use of his affliction and of Gods love in so dealing with him Wee shall find little fruit and lesse comfort to grow out of our griefe sorrow and humiliation if it be for outward things and not for sinne Grieve wee never so much never so long for our outward afflictions and crosses our griefes can neither abate them nor remove them whereas godly sorrow sorrow for sinne if it doth not batter our crosse it weakens it and in the meane time procureth much ease to the minde and peace to the conscience Assure thy selfe that sorrow is no where so well bestowed as upon sinne Godly sorrow is the salve appointed to heale and cure sinne now to apply this salve to a wrong sore to affliction is lost labor Learn therefore to turn thy sorrow against thy sinne and then thou wilt say as David speakes Psalm 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou hast afflicted me justly as the old translation hath it And so saying thou mayst boldly proceed with David and pray Let thy mercy comfort mee according to thy promise unto thy servant Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live vers 76.77 Therefore whensoever the Lord entereth into judgment with thee fall thou to judging of thy selfe Accuse thy selfe that God may be justified And let thine own heart speak unto thee in the words of the Prophet Hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Jere. 2.17 This is a good signe that God will do thee good by thine affliction which hee would not if hee did not love thee Fourthly and lastly thou maiest bee assured that God afflicteth thee in love if hee gives thee a heart to be thankfull to him for thine affliction Canst thou blesse God taking from thee as well as giving unto thee I dare then confidently avouch that thine afflictions are sanctified unto thee and that in love he hath afflicted thee Thus did Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken it blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1.21 For prosperitie and good things many wicked men will in their manner be thankfull to God but for adversitie and such things as are in appearance evill to be thankfull this is the property onely of good men Wee can easily bee brought to praise the Lord when hee pleaseth us but when hee crosseth us when he cuts us short and keeps us to hard meat then to blesse and praise his name this is clean against our nature it is onely the worke of grace in us for grace will make those things easie which are very hard and difficult unto nature And therefore there cannot be a better evidence of a gracious and sanctified heart then to praise and glorifie God for afflictions For in so doing a man doth justifie the Lord in his dealing yea by our thankfulnesse for afflictions we magnifie the glorious attributes of God wee acknowledge his justice Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou hast afflicted me justly Wee acknowledge his truth Psalm 19.9 The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether Wee acknowledge his mercie Psalm 25.10 All the pathes of the Lord
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
4.31 At the end of those dayes I Nebuchadnezzar lift up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding was restored unto mee being a blinde beast before afflictions came Object But what if neither my conscience telleth me of any great sinnes committed by me nor the Lord revealeth unto me any sinne which hath provoked him to punish mee Answ Then thou must know and beleeve that thy affliction and crosse is for tryall for example for prevention and not for punishment The Lord will have the truth and strength of thy grace tryed God will have thee to bee a pattern unto others of obedience and patience or else by this affliction as hath been said he intendeth to prevent some sinne which if thou wert let alone thou wouldest fall into Reason 3 Thirdly it must needs bee that God by afflicting of us intendeth the bettering of us because by afflictions hee workes our hearts to a holy feare of his Majestie The judgements of the Lord make the very wicked oft to tremble as it is evident in divers places of the Scripture Egypt shall be like unto a woman for it shall be afraid and feare because of the moving hand of the Lord of hosts which hee shaketh over it Esay 19.16 The shaking of Gods rod makes many oft to tremble That all Israel may heare and feare and do no more any such wickednesse among you Deutr. 13.11 God whips his own to keep them in awe that the feare of God may ever be in our hearts not such a feare as is in the wicked who dread him only because of his power and will to punish them for sin and is therefore called a servile or slavish feare because it hath not the love of God or the hatred of sinne annexed unto it but a holy and a pious feare of God such a feare as is joyned with the hatred of evill Prov. 8.13 and so causeth an eschewing of evill as it is said of Job hee was one that feared God and eschewed evill Job 1.1 This is that feare the Lord wisheth might take up the hearts of his people Deut. 5.29 Oh that there were such an heart in them to feare mee and to keep all commandments alway Which feare the Lord increaseth in the hearts of his children by afflicting them 1. Sam. 12.18 The Lord sent the Israelites thunder and rain in harvest and the people feared the Lord. Prosperity and immunity from affliction makes many people secure careles fearelesse Because they have no changes therefore they feare not God Psal 55.19 Implying by these words that the want of the feare of God groweth from the want of affliction So Psal 73. the prosperity of the wicked is made the ground of their iniquitie There are no bands in their death they are lusty and strong They are not in trouble as other men neither plagued with other men Therfore pride is as a chain unto them They are licentious they speak wickedly they talke presumptuously c. These are the wicked who although they be long spared shall in the end be destroyed perish and horribly consumed because they did not chuse the feare of the Lord. Prov. 1.29 If then affliction is the means of working this feare in us it must needs be that God in-intendeth our great good by afflicting of us for no good thing shall be wanting to those that feare him Psal 34.9 The feare of God may bee compared unto the needle which makes way for the thred and drawes it after it even so the feare of the Lord makes way for much good and as it were draws it along withall First it is a means of our humiliation it will take downe our high thoughts and abate and abase our lofty spirits Jacobs feare of Esau made him to bow seven times unto his brother Esau High-mindednesse and feare are opposite one to the other hence Paul exhorteth us Rom. 11.20 Be not high-minded but feare Secondly the feare of God is as a bridle unto our unruly wills and as a curbe unto our disordered affections to represse sinne This kept the mid-wives from murdering the infants of the Hebrew women Exod. 1.21 This kept Joseph from yeelding to the lust of his adulterous Mistris How can I do this great wickednesse and so sinne against God Genes 39.9 Thirdly the feare of the Lord will make us couragious in Gods cause so as wee shall not feare the face of man Say not a confederacy neither feare you their feare nor be afraid of them sanctifie the Lord of hosts and let him be your feare and your dread Esa 8.12 13. There be amongst us too many face-fearers who had rather sinne against the Lord then displease sinfull men these I may compare unto little children which are afraid oft times to touch toyes and bables yet will be bold to put their finger into the fire But those that feare man more or before the Lord 〈◊〉 look to meet with the Judgement of God Jere. 1.17 Therefore let us feare the Lord and this will swallow up all needlesse feare of men as Aarons rod devoured the rod of the inchanters for the feare of the Lord procureth a good conscience and where a good conscience is there is holy courage and boldnesse the righteous are bold as a Lyon Prov. 28.1 Fourthly the feare of God keeps the heart and conscience waking and watchfull it leaves no place for security Hence the Apostle exhorts the Philipians to work out their salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in trembllng Psal 2.11 Hee that feareth the Lord considereth that Gods eyes do alwayes behold him that whatsoever hee goes about though in secret or in darknesse yet all things are open and manifest unto the Lord Yea that he understands the thoughts and secrets of every heart Psal 139.2 and that nothing is hid from him The consideration whereof will make us to watch over our very thoughts seeing wee are lyable to Gods Judgements for evill thoughts as well as for evill words and workes Rom. 2.16 Fiftly and lastly the feare of God will make us happy for wonderfull are the benefits both temporall and spirituall which the feare of God procureth to us and ours Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord his generation shall be blessed riches and treasure shall be in his house Psalm 112.1 2 3. Such as feare the Lord have a promise of great prosperity Deut. 5.29 How great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that feare thee Psalm 31.19 Not onely temporall good things but spirituall also for the secrets of the Lord are with them that feare him Psalm 25.14 Yea the Angels of the Lord do pitch and tent about those that feare him Psal 34.7 Great are the priviledges of such as feare God which in this life they partake of but the priviledges and mercies of another life are so great as wee are no way able to conceive of them May wee not then safely conclude
That the end of Gods afflicting of us is the bettering of us When as by affliction hee brings us to a thorow knowledge and understanding of our selves to judge aright of the nature of sinne and so to come to abhorre and detest it and last of all by affliction wee are brought to feare the Lord. Not that afflictions of themselves do work this good in any for they only make the wound they do not heal they only cast us down but cannot raise us up againe they are as a Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ they bring not Christ into the heart of a sinner It prepares the heart and makes a way for good it is only the spirit of God working with the Word and helping us to apply the same aright unto our selves which is the efficient cause of all good that betideth us yet because the Lord doth work good by affliction that thing is figuratively applyed unto affliction which is the proper worke of Gods Spirit in the hearts of his children Vse Is it so that the chiefe end of the Lords afflicting of us is the bettering of us Then are the Romanists grosly mistaken who say that God hath another end in correcting of us and that is say the Papists for the punishment of our sinnes and the satisfying of Gods Justice All sinne doth deserve a double punishment both temporall and eternall This latter say they Christ hath undergone for all his members but the former the temporall punishment lyeth upon our necks and must be undergone by us as a satisfaction to be made of our parts to the Justice of God And for proofe hereof they alledge the example of David who howsoever hee was received into mercie upon his humiliation and contrition and so freed from eternall punishment yet was hee not quit of that satisfaction which he was in his own person to make unto God for his offences therefore did hee say they indure temporal punishments A foul and a grose error and that which doth not only derogate from the all-sufficiencie of Christ his merrit and satisfaction for with one offering hath hee consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Hebrewes 10.24 But it also takes much from the goodnesse of God his love and mercie is wonderfully clouded eclipsed by their doctrine For whereas the Lord telleth us that hee doth afflict us in great love for the bettering of us for the beating of sinne down in us and driving it away from us they say that God correcteth us for the punishment of sinne in us and the satisfying of his justice Away therefore with their blasphemous doctrine and beleeve wee the Word of truth and be wee assured that our afflictions are rather furtherances of sanctification then any helps or means of satisfaction administred unto us rather as medicines and preservatives to help us then as swordes to wound or hurt us For the Lord in afflicting of us seeks us not himselfe alone and rather the bettering of us then the satisfying of his own minde for hee goeth unwillingly to punish Lam. 3.33 And yet how ready are wee to turn the truth of God into a lie wee are ready to think that the Lord doth punish us to ease his mind of us and that wee suffer to satisfie Truth it is that the Lord doth punish the wicked his enemies to ease himselfe and to be avenged of them Esay 1.24 But hee hath other ends as we have heard in afflicting his children therefore wee may not say by our temporall punishments wee are any way able fully to satisfie the justice of God for one sinne If this debt had not been discharged by Christ our surety wee should be cast into prison wee should perish everlastingly Vse 2 Therefore hold wee this as an undoubted truth that God may forgive us our sins yet here punish our persons not to exact any satisfaction of us as if Christ his satisfaction were insufficient and wee reconciled unto God by halves but to make us better for time to come Secondly if the end of Gods correcting us bee the bettering of us wee may take notice of our perverse and crooked nature and temper with whom gentle and faire means that is the Word of God and benefits bestowed upon us cannot prevail but that the Lord must bee forced to take this tart and unpleasing course with us namely correcting us for our amendment The Lord as hee proclames himselfe is a father of mercies slow to anger and of great patience long in his long-suffering one that delights not in our griefes but is rather grieved for our miseries Judges 10.16 and his bowels are troubled for us Jeremie 31.20 Object If the Lord were so unwilling to punish his children and so grieved for their sorrow and miserie as the Scripture telleth us why doth hee not which if it please him he might spare himselfe that labor and us those paines hee putteth us unto Answ His love and your good constraineth him so to deal with you Suppose thou hadst a childe that had broken his leg what course wouldst thou take with him for the helping and healing of him wouldst thou not bind him hand and foot tye him down to some place or other c Thy childe it may be cries out good father let me alone you hurt me c. Wouldst thou give over because of his cry Dost thou not rather cry with him to consider what paine thou art constrained to put him unto Wouldest thou not tell him O childe I may not let thee alone for then thou wilt be lame for ever yet still thy childe renews his cries good father if you love me let me alone Wouldst thou not reply againe O childe because I love thee I cannot let shee alone for then thou wert spoil'd for ever Even thus dealeth the Lord with us it is for our good and in love that hee doth any way chasten us this course hee must take with us unlesse hee should suffer us to perish which thing his love will not give him leave to do He smites us with the rod that wee die not and that our soules may bee delivered from hell Proverbes 23.13.14 Oh the wickednesse of our hearts and the rebellion of our wils that wee must bee thus hampered and handled before we can be bettered We may see and confesse if wee were not blind and hardned that corruption is deeply setled in us in that such sharp physick such bitter and unpleasing potions must be administred and that again and again unto us before we can be cleansed from that filthinesse of the flesh and spirit which is innated and setled in us Vse 3 In the third place wee are to be admonished from hence to profit by those light and gentle afflictions wherewith it shall please the Lord to exercise us For if little ones will not serve the turn to reclaim us greater shall bruise if not breake us If we shal dare to walke stubbornly against the Lord Then will he
walk stubbornly againist us and he will also chastise us seven times more accordng to our sinnes Lev. 26.28 If lighter afflictions wil not serve the turn greater shall The Lord came to Ephraim first like a moth Hos 5.18 you know that a moth though it be a noxious and hurtfull creature yet if it bee looked unto betimes the harme is little which it doth and the breach or hole which it maketh may easily be darned up again Thus dealt the Lord at first with Ephraim hee did favorably and gently afflict them but this salve was not strong enough to take down their proud flesh yet would not Ephraim bee healed nor cured of her wound Therfore saies the Lord I will be unto Ephraim as a Lyon Hos 5.13 14 A Lyon we know rents teares where he comes so the Lord when gentle meanes will not serve the turne comes like a Lyon with tearing and devouring judgments God when he see good to exercise his power will make the proudest Pharoah the stoutest sinner to stoop and yeeld else he will not spare to follow them with one judgment upon the neck of another All these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtak◠thee till thou be destroied Deu. 28.45 Consider what is spoken by the Prophet Nahum 1.9 What do ye imagine against the Lord he will make an utter destruction affliction shall not rise up the second time The Lord tarrieth long before he comes to smite his enemies he forbeareth much but when his patience is abused then he oft times gives a deady blow The spirit of the Lord did a long time strive with man in the daies of Noah but when their sinnes began to bee multiplied against the patience and long suffering of the Lord When the Lord savv that the vvickednesse of man vvas great in the earth and that al the imaginatiō of the thoughts of his heart vvere onely evill continually Gens 6.5 Then the Lord could beare with them no longer then the Lord comes with his sweeping judgment destroying from the earth the man vvhom he had created from man to beast to the creeping thing and to the sowle of the heaven vers 7. The Lord suffered Sodom Gomorrah so long that the cry of their sins did ring up to heaven but at length the Lord was even with them and paied them home for all their wickednes destroying them with fire and brimston from heaven Many other such like examples might be brought to shew how the Lord comes out against sinners at last with sweeping and devouring judgements if they will not take warning by lesser ones The history of the Jevvs a people sometime as deare unto God as the apple of his eye and as neere unto him as the signet on his right hand doth plainly teach us how severely the Lord at last deales with stiffe obstinate and impenitent sinners The favors the benefits which God bestowed upon them the priviledges which they injoyed were above all the nations of the world yet for all this did they above all other people provoke the Lord to anger against them They mocked the messenger of God they despised his Word and misused his Prophets untill the vvrath of the Lord rose against them and there vvas no remedy 2. Chron. 16.26 They did not onely kill the Prophets and stone those that were sent unto them but they crucified the Lord of life Acts 3.15 Yea and preferred a murderer before him provoking the Lord so long as hee could endure them no more and therefore hee sends against them Titus the son of Vespatian the Roman Emperour who besiged and sacked the City of Jerusalem and made such havock of the people as is most lamentable to heare of It is reported that they were besiged so long as many thousands of them perished through the famine and many of them isuing forth in hope either to escape or to finde mercy with their enemies were most cruelly hanged upon crosses and gibbets set up before their walls 500. of them somtimes hanged in one day so long untill there was no more space left unto them for execution The number of dead carcases carried out of the Citie for want of buriall to be cast into the ditches if wee will credit histories was numberlesse for at one of their gates the keeper thereof took the the tale of one hundred and fifty thousand dead bodies Nay through the exttemity of famine they were driven to eate their old shooes the dung of their stables and the fruit of their own loynes And after all this thousands of them murdered by the sword and many moe thousands carried into captivity to be a spectacle to all succeeding ages of Gods indignation and wrath against them And these things are recorded for our good that wee may not dare to stand it our against the Lord but speedily to amend upon the first warning and blow given us else the Lord will not give over but come with seven times more and greater judgemenes against us If wee belong unto the Lord hee will never leave afflicting till wee cease provoking him If wee be beloved of God hee will still follow us with correction till wee fall to unfained and sound humiliation repentance For we shall never be able to overcome the Lord and make him give over by our stubbornnesse and resisting his blow but by falling down and yeelding unto him The sturdy oke is rent and torne in pieces by the tempest when poore and weak reeds stand still by yeelding and bowing There is no standing out against the Lord no resisting by force of armes what is a silly sheep to grapple with a Lion The sooner wee yeeld and turn from our evill wayes the readier will the Lord be to repent him of that evill which otherwise hee will surely bring upon us Thou that by the Word of God and by loving and gentle correction canst not be perswaded to leave thy sinne must know that if thou belongest to God hee will never leave following of thee with one affliction upon the neck of another untill hee hath his will of thee What may wee then think of those that are little or nothing at all amended and bettered by any judgements that have befallen them assuredly if they be such as belong to the Lord hee is preparing of sharper Physick for them if they be none of his it may be hee will give them over to their own hearts lust and reserue them unto those eternall and unavoydable torments of the second death Vse 4 Fourthly is it so doth God correct his children for their great good let us then beware of doing them hurt by persecuting those whom the Lord doth smite lest we adde afflict on unto the afflicted and this wee do when wee shall either uncharitably censure or deride and scoffe at those that are afflicted or else in our mindes contemn and scorne them because it pleaseth the Lord in love for their great good to humble
clothed for this is meere folly in us because with all our carking and caring we cannot better our condition this I say was the scope of Christs words and not to beat us off from a provident and wise fore-casting of businesse or from fitting and preparing of our selves for afflictions against which we shall be the better armed if we can weane our hearts and take off our affections from immoderate and inordinate loving of the world and the things thereof Whereupon saith Paul 1. Corinth 7.32 I would have you without care .i. without setting your mindes and hearts upon the world for the fashion of this world goeth away vers 31. and our time here is but short this night may our souls be fetched away from us for which change of ours and all other tryals that in the meane time may befall us we shall be the better fitted and armed if we will prepare for them If every morning thou wilt addresse thy selfe to meet with thy crosse and arme thy selfe against all assaults resolve ere it be night to meet with some trouble this I dare boldly and confidently promise and assure thee will be an excellent help yea singular means of carrying thee a great deale more chearfully thorow thy afflictions or else furnish thee with a great deale more strength and abilitie to beare and undergo them so long as it shall please God to lay them upon thee But when I speake of preparing for afflictions and arming your selves against them I would have you know that there must be more then a bare minding of affliction or a resolution not to be dismayed or daunted with them the soul must lay in some spirituall provision we must treasure up faith and a good conscience A stocke of true holinesse lying by us will alay the heat ease the smart and sweeten the bitternesse of any affliction that can befall us It is from the want of this spirituall and heavenly provision that many carnall worldlings when any crosses or troubles befall them are struck to the very heart with fearfull amazements fears and terrors of minde and spirit yea with passionate distempers sometimes of rage and fury which puts them upon desperate resolutions I may instance in Ahitophel a man of that brain and worldly wisedome that his counsell was esteemed as the oracle of God 2. Sam. 16.23 This great statist finding himself to be over-topped by the counsell of Hushai and fearing that the rejecting of his counsell would be the obscuring of his glory it is said That he sadled his asse arose and went home and put his houshold in order and hanged himself 2. Sam. 17.23 Would this man have laid a little disgrace so neere his heart if his heart had beene sound towards the Lord and his anointed Surely no. But being a traiterous time-server and going as he conceived with the strongest side making flesh his arme and his outward esteeme and glory his idoll he desperately plungeth himselfe into a sea of horror Whereas holy Job having other manner of tryals severall tydings one upon the neck of another of the losse of all his cattell substance yea and of all his children the least of which losses would have struck so cold to the heart of many a carnall worldling that it would have dyed within him like a stone as Nabals did What was the cause that Jobs heart was not crusht into pieces under the wait of so many losses but that still he kept within compasse and blesseth God for all Would you know the true ground of his patience and holy fortitude Job was one that feared God one who in the time of his prosperitie and outward happinesse laid up store of spirituall riches and treasures He had wisely layed in store of faith and holinesse and uprightnesse upon which his soul did feed in the dayes of his affliction So as no afflictions which befell him could beat him from his hold he resolves to trust in God though he slay him Job 13.15 The consciousnesse of his former gratious and righteous carriage towards great and small especially towards the oppressed the poore and fatherlesse did furnish him with strength to undergo the sorest of his sufferings Oh be then taught by this holy example how to be fitted and prepared against afflictions A godly life the feare of the Lord faith and a good conscience will lay such a foundation for time to come that though never so many stormes do arise though the winde of affliction waves of tentation do beat upon thee yet shalt thou stand as a tower impregnable no affliction shall be able to vanquish or overcome thee It may be thy afflictions may rise like a spring of bitter waters yet the salt of a good conscience wil sweeten these waters and heal them It may be afflictions like to over-flowing Jordan are come over thee so as thou cryest with David I am come into deepe waters and the streames runne over me Psal 69.2 yet a good conscience like to Elias his mantle will cut and divide this Jordan so as thou shalt be able to passe over it For this promise hath the Lord made to every one that is godly Surely in the flood of great waters they shall not come neere him Psal 32.6 That Panoplie and whole armour of God which the Apostle exhorts us to be furnished withall that so we may resist in the evil day Ephes 6. that is to say A girdle of vertue shooes of preparation the breast-plate of righteousnesse the shield of faith an helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit are all where a good conscience is for this is armour of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left Righteousnesse will keep thee from being shaken with afflictions though the earrh be moved and the foundations thereof totter though all things are in combustion about thine eares yet if iniquitie be put farre away and no wickednesse dwell in thy Tabernacle then truly shalt thou lift up thy face without spot and shalt be stable and shalt not feare Job 11.14 15. For though a just man falleth that is into trouble and affliction seven times yet he riseth again Pro. 24.16 For the Lord putteth under his hand Psal 37.24 Vse 3 Thirdly if it be thus let us be the more exercised in the Word of God which will teach us how to beare afflictions and minister comfort unto us even in the heat and extremity of them Whiles means and liberty is afforded be wise now to store thy self with heavenly provision that is to say comfort out of Gods Word to cheare up thy soul and refresh thy drooping spirits in the day of affliction If thy law had not beene my delight I should now have perished in mine affliction saies David Psal 119.92 My affliction would have destroyed me and made me perish from the right way if it had not beene lenified and sanctified by thy Word The Word of God teacheth us in all times of tryall to rest upon the
foes and their former love may be turned into future hatred It is possible that those that are nearest and dearest unto thee may reject thee Yet though thy father and thy mother should forsake thee the Lord will not he will take the care of thee Psal 27.10 If God hath once chosen thee for his own and set his love upon thee whether thou beest in health or in sicknesse in ease or in paine in prosperity or adversitie in life or in death all is one God loveth thee neverthelesse Before he shewed thee his love he knew what would befall thee yea nothing as wee have heatd can betide thee but that which he intended and provided in love for the so that whether you live or die you are the Lords Rom. 14.8 The Lord for special ends may give thee over unto afflictions he may give thee up into the hands of those that hate thee yea even unto the death and therfore will take away thy life from thee As it is written for thy sake are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8.36 Yet none of these nay not all these put together can any whit diminish or abate the love of God towards thee much lesse spoile thee wholly of it and take it cleane away from thee when they have done the worst they can against thee or unto thee When thou art plunged into the deepest distresse that might or malice can bring thee into thou art still as deere and precious in the Lords eye as ever thou wert nay if it were possible deerer now then ever thou wert before if those troubles and afflictions which thine enemies have devised and brought upon thee be for righteousnesse sake One friend may love another deerely yet when the one shall expose himself to danger or trouble for the others sake when I see my frend hath not regarded his life for my good but adventured and hazarded his own life in my defence and safety how doth this increase mine affection towards him as it was said of Jonathan his soule was knit with the soule of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soule 1 Sam. 18.1 So this will knit my heart and love unto him and I shal love him as mine own soule How much more then may we be assured that if our afflictions be for Gods cause in his defence he will abundantly recompence and more deerely love us Then let no man say that he is lesse beloved of God then others because he is more afflicted then others be God still loves his and will own them for his people whatsoever outward sorrowes or miseries may befall them I have surely seen the trouble of my people and have heard their cry and I know their sorrowes Exod. 3.7 Though wee bee in trouble yea and such trouble as makes us cry out for griefe and sorrow yet still we bee the Lords people Outward miseries and troubles cannot make God to respect any of his any thing the lesse God is not like some proud people of the world who will acknowledge their friends no longer then they are in prosperity and be able to requite their kindnesse with kindnesse againe Some such beasts there bee that if they bee either advanced into high places above their parents or their parents their brethren sisters and friends fallen into decay and poverty will scarse own them but grow to bee ashamed of them It is farre otherwise betwixt the Lord and his people when they are up to the knees in durt when they are cruelly oppressed when in a poore and base condition it may be not having cloaths to cover their nakednesse when their cheekes looke pale and their faces leane and wan through hunger sorrow or sicknesse when they be grown out of favor through bodily diseases they are even then as lovely in the Lords eyes as ever and hee will then acknowledge us for his people aswell nay better then in our great prosperity If a childe be sick in the family how are the thoughts and minde of the parents taken up about that child how do they tend it and pitty it O my poore sicke child c. thus doth the Lord pitty his children and tender them in their affliction Vse 1 Now to make some application of the point Is it so that the perswasion of Gods love is a great help to carry us cheerfully through afflictions here hence then we may be instructed what the cause is that wee are so much troubled and perplexed with afflictions as if they were the meanes of our undoing that the very thought or expectation of them is most grievous and irkesome unto us certainly here is the ground of all our feares and doubts the want of a sound perswasion and assurance of Gods love in correcting us Did we beleeve that when we are afflicted wee are in the hands of our holy righteous everliving and everloving God who never did us any wrong who never intended us any harme but alwayes goeth the best the wisest and the most loving way to worke with his children would wee not bee lesse afraid of afflictions then we be more willing to undergoe them then we are Little do wee know how highly we dishonor God how much we gratify and please the Devill when wee repine against the hand of God when wee bee impatient in afflictions and question his love for correcting us The Devill desired that Job might be sorely afflicted that so he might bee brought to curse God Stretch now out thine hand and touch his bones and his flesh to see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face Job 2.5 It is a pastime unto the Devill to set God and his children at variance and therefore hee desires to vex and perplex us that so wee may open our mouths against the Lord and quarrell with him for when we are discontented with the Lords dealing when wee mutter and murmur against the Lord what do wee lesse then rebell against him Hence it is that Moses called the murmuring Israelites Rebels Numb 20 10. Heare now ye rebels shall wee bring you watter out of this rocke Therefore murmure not against the Lord for then thou rebellest against him and robbest him as much as in thee lieth of his most glorious attributes his power his goodnesse his love his truth When we deal with that man which makes cōscience of his word wee question not the truth of his promise but rest upon the performance and making good of that which he hath said If a father promiseth unto his childe any thing the childe makes as sure reckoning of the thing promised as if hee had it already in possession Shall wee dare to give lesse credit to God then to man when hee telleth us hee correcteth us in love and intendeth our good in afflicting of us shall wee dare to question the truth of his word especially when hee hath seconded his Word by oath yea and sealed both with the blood