the tree which bringeth not forth good fruit Mat. 3. 10. And now also the Ax is laid to the Root of the Trees therefore every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewen down and cast into the Fire And if this bringing forth no good Fruit brings the Tree to Everlasting burning what fierce Flames will burn those Trees which bring forth a great deal of bad Fruit Such as you read of Deut. 32. 32 33. For their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are Grapes of Gall their Clusters are bitter their Wine is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venom of Asps To go on in Sin after recovery from Sickness may shorten your days and make Sentence against you to be speedily executed 5. Though Death is a little delayed yet it will certainly and quickly come let it not find you unprepared Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed unto men once to dye and after this the Judgment And this appointment is concerning you as well as others Therefore speak every one of you as Job did Job 30. 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death and to the House appointed for all the living 'T is not more certain you are alive than 't is certain that you shall shortly die And wo to you if you lie still and at last die in your Wickedness If Sin be the sting of Death then so many Sins as you have been guilty of so many stings will your Death have A King of Terrors indeed it will be found when with so many stings 't is armed Pray hard that a saving change may be wrought in Heart and Life before the great change come and that you may pass from Death to Life in a Spiritual Sense before in a Natural Sense you pass from Life to Death USE III. Of Direction more generally unto all and here I shall direct you How to carry it under Affliction And likewise how after Affliction that you may receive much good by Affliction In the first place I am to direct you how to carry it under Affliction 1. Under Affliction be perswaded and take great notice that God himself is come to visit you Though he be not the Author of sin yet Penal Evils are all from him chastning is called the Chastning of the Lord Heb. 12. 5. Chastisements are stiled his rebukes His Providence is so extensive that not a Sparrow falls to the ground without Him Nothing then befalls any of the Children of men but by Divine Appointment Fix your Eyes therefore upon God He has taken you in hand and out of his hand none can rescue you and the wound that is made will remain uncured till the same hand heal which gave it Job 9 13. If God will not withdraw his anger the Proud helpers do stoop under him The Chaldeans were the Ax but Gods hand hewed Israel with it they were the Saw but Gods hand did shake it And when you see 't is really God himself that visits you in Severity behave your selves as Creatures ought to do towards their Creator who is infinitely above them has been greatly offended by them can easily crush them and yet is able and ready upon Humiliation to cure them If the Invisible God who corrects were more eyed in all the strokes he give you this would have a mighty Efficacy to abase you before him and to make Affliction attain its end upon you that an end might be put to your Affliction 2. Under Affliction Justifie God and accept the Punishment of your Iniquity in Affliction Conscience may speak very plain and home and so as that you have nothing to reply and the Spirit of God may set in with Conscience and make its charge more unanswerable Heedfully listen to Conscience and Mind the Convictions of the Spirit Oh search and try your ways the ways that your Hearts and Affections have gone as well as the Paths you have broken with your Feet Be better acquainted with the evil nature of your own ways and their pernicious and destructive Tendency Lay blame where it ought to be laid upon an evil Heart especially for that 's the fruitful womb in which Sin is conceived that brings forth all the Evils wherewith the man is defiled 'T is the Evil Heart which through unbelief departs from the Living God and is inclined to dead works and lying Vanities Fail not to clear the Justice of God as it is written That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged Rom. 3. 4. Judge likewise and condemn your selves and your Sin as the meritorious cause of all your Sorrows and Sufferings Never look upon Sin but behold the long train of Evils that follow after it and if you were not deliver'd from Sin it self this train of Evils would run Parallel with Eternity God requires the Heart should be humbled and accept the Punishment of its Iniquity The Heart must firmly believe that Sin is that whereat God is displeased that Sin is the procuring Cause of all other Evils that are felt and that the true Reason of Gods Controversie is because even because his Word and Commandments have been cast behind the back despised and broken Levit. 26. 41 43. 3. Under Affliction be sensible of the Plagues of your own Hearts and Consent with Earnest Desire to have them presently and throughly healed The Sickness and Perishing of the outward man is for the restoring the inward man to Health The Humours and Appetites and Inclinations of the Body are an occasion of much Sin in the Soul which should make you the more contented that the Flesh should be diseased and pained and ready to perish that the Spirit may be healed and saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Corporal Diseases attain not their end unless they make you sensible of Spiritual Maladies Is thy Head thy Breast thy Back or any part of thy Body out of Order presently look with a diligent search into thy own Heart to know what that ailes that there may be the more serious and speedy Application to the great Physician of Souls Ephraim when chastized was sensible of the stubbornness of corrupted Nature and its backwardness to come under the Yoak of God I was says he as a Bullock unaccustomed to the Yoak and he prays not so much for the removal of the Rod as for Grace that might Convert him unto God who did correct him Afflictions are Spiritual Medicines much made use of by the Lord who heals his People Sick-beds are the places where he Works great cures when the Face is Pale when the Pulse beats disorderly when the Blood is boiling hot and the whole Body in a Flame and the frame of Nature seems just ready to be dissolved all this has a mighty Influence unto the Souls Healthiness and Prosperity How are dreggs then purged out and how Pure Humble and Heavenly minded is the Heart then 4. Under Affliction desire
Saints to God and strengthen their Resolutions to abide with God! Thus have I demonstrated that Saints are afflicted for their good In the Second Place I am to specifie that good which accrews to the Saints by Affliction 1. One good consequent of Affliction is a greater Power of Spiritual Discerning Prov. 29. 15. The Rod and Reproof give Wisdom If Mans Rod does so then it follows that the Rod of God does it much more Gods Teaching accompanies his Chastning and who Teaches like him Afflictions clear the Eye of the Soul so that it is more Single and Piercing It sees now plainly through the deceitfulness of Sin It sees the Worlds emptiness and Vanity and an End of all its Perfection It sees the Subtilty of the old Serpent and how much it concerns all neither to believe nor follow him It discerns the Insufficiency Weakness and Wickedness of Self and that 't is neither to be trusted in sought or pleased It sees the greatness of that Salvation which is in Christ and what an All-sufficient and Eternal Portion the Lord Jehovah is And the Afflicted Saints Knowledge of all this is more than Notional He knows by Experience as well as Speculation the Evil of Sin and the unsuitableness of the World is plain to his Spiritual Sense and so is the Power of the Grace of Christ In Affliction the other World opens and the Eye looks into it and what a Cypher then is this whole Globe of Earth and Waters The Apostles outward Man perished He was exercised with Affliction and what clear views had he then of things unseen 2 Cor. 4. 16 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish our inward man is renewed day by day While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal 2. Another good Consequent of Affliction is a more Pure and tender Conscience How great a Misery is it to have a stupid Conscience that is without or past feeling When a man has all his own Guilt and the Wrath of God abiding upon him not a Promise in the Bible belonging to him all the threatnings full charged with Curses and Woes just ready to be discharged at him And He himself is upon the very brink of Hell just ready to tumble in every Moment and yet is altogether unsensible of any danger Such a senseless Conscience is a deadly Sign it argues Spiritual Death to have full Power and Eternal Death to be at the door In the depths of Despair there is more Probability of Salvation than in the heighth of Presumption But Affliction startles the Conscience how quick is its Sight and Sense then The Saints have recourse to the Blood of Christ to purge their Consciences from all the Dead works in which they have been formerly employed And that Blood is sufficient for their Purgation and Peace Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered up himself without Spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God! And afflicted Saints are exceedingly afraid of making new wounds in their Consciences since the Smart of former wounds in their Spirits was so intolerable Lam. 3. 19 20. Remembring my Affliction and my Misery the Wormwood and the Gall my Soul has them still in remembrance and is humbled in me 3. Another good Consequent of Affliction is the Mortification of the Sin of Pride Pride is a Sin hateful to God it strikes at his Glory which God aims at in every thing he does And Pride is very hurtful to man 't is the hindrance of the Help which Divine Grace affords for God who gives Grace to the Humble instead of assisting does resist the Proud 1 Pet. 5. 5. And this Pride is the forerunner of falls into Sin and Ruine therefore says Solomon Pride goes before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a fall The Lord cannot endure this Pride in his Saints and Affliction is sent to kill it The Troubles which the Israelites met with in the Wilderness when they were encountred with Fiery Serpents and Scorpions and Drought and many other Calamities the end of them all was to Humble them and Prove them and to do them good in the latter end Deut. 8. 15 16. A Saint who comes out of the Fire of Affliction with a Meek and humble Spirit his high Conceits and Thoughts of himself all cast down seeing himself to be nothing but what he is by the Grace of God this man looks like Silver coming out of a Furnance of Earth purified seven tunes and what a shining brightness and lustre is upon him 4. Another good Consequent of Affliction is a more perfect Subjection of the whole Man to God There is a Submission to Him by a Penitential Acknowledgment of Offences against him and justifying of him in his severest Dispensations Neh. 9. 33. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done Right but we have done Wickedly There is a Submission to his Righteousness a great sense that 't is by the Righteousness of One onely the second Adam that the Free Gift comes upon all that are in him unto Justification of Life Rom. 5. 18. So Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth There is likewise a Subjection of Body and Soul unto the commands of God which reach the whole man and require service from the whole And Affliction quickens Desires after Grace to keep these Precepts better so that there may not be a wandring from them Psal 119. 10. With my whole Heart have I sought thee oh let me not wander from thy Commandments Sin 's service becomes more irksome the Law of Sin more grievous but the Lords service is accounted Liberty and Life Rom. 6. 22. But now being made free from Sin and become Servants to God ye have your Fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life 5. Another good Consequent of Affliction is greater Exactness and Spirituality in Duty and Obedience Affliction causes Saints to Eye their Hearts more which God does Eye Principally Lip Labour Bodily Exercise outward Ceremonies are perceived to be when alone altogether insignificant Afflicted Saints give God their very Hearts The Strength and Vigour of their Spirits and Affections 't is very evident to them that He alone is Worthy of them And Christ not Self has their Confidence Phil. 3. 3. We are the Circumcision who Worship God in the Spirit rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no Confidence in the Flesh Afflicted Saints lift up their Souls to God in his hand they are safe and this is the Way to have them satisfied and fill'd with Joy Psal 86. 4. Rejoice the Soul of thy Servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my Soul Duties to God are performed with more Grace
has done its work for which 't was laid upon you 'T is sad when Affliction goes off without doing any good to the afflicted when the Rod is like the first King that Israel had given in Gods Anger and taken away in his Wrath. When the Lord afflicts his Dispensations are mixed Checker-work Black and White Goodness and Severity together and there should be a Mixture of Holy Affections that are diverse one from the other answerably in your Hearts This is notably represented by one of our English Poets and his Verses have a great deal of Sense and Direction in them Ah my dear angry Lord Since thou dost Love yet strike Herberts Bitter-sweet P. 165. Cast down yet help afford Sure I will do the like I will complain the Praise I will bewail approve And all my four-sweet days I will lament and love Be not too eager for the removal of the stroke you smart under that removal is but a common Mercy but the Sanctification of it is peculiar kindness that which accompanies Salvation If the Plaister lies not on long enough it heals not the Sore if the Potion be cast up again assoon as taken down it works not a cure God knows when 't is fittest to remove your trouble therefore be dump with Silence and wait with Patience till this fittest time comes David did so though he was in an horrible Pit in the Miry Clay he was not over eager to be pluckt out but exercised Patience and how Happy was the issue Psal 40. 1 2 3. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also out of an horrible Pit out of the Miry Clay and set my Feet upon a Rock and established my goings And he hath put a new Song in my Mouth even Praise unto our God many shall see it and fear and trust in the Lord. 8. Under Affliction let there be a most profound Subjection to the Father of Spirits Lights and Mercies The Father of Spirits will take special care of Souls and consult their Health and Reace and endless welfare If the Soul be safe the Body must be safe in the same Bottom The Body that belongs to a sanctified Soul must be a Glorious Body at the Resurrection of the Just And since the Lord is the Father of Lights you may conclude he perfectly understands what is most conducive to your Interest and what kind and degree of Affliction is most expedient and best for you and because he is the Father of Mercies Mercy he delights in as a man does in his own off-spring he will deal tenderly with you Mercy shall not be forgotten in the greatest Severity Psal 103. 13. Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him for he knoweth our frame and remembreth we aye dust Subjection to God when he afflicts becomes you and besides this Subjection is the way of Life Heb. 12. 9. Furthermore we have had Fathers of our Flesh who corrected us and we gave them Reverence shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Subjection to God is the wisest course to have temporal Life prolonged and liv'd to purpose and Eternal Life at length vouchsafed In the second Place I am to direct you how to carry it after Affliction now is a time of great danger when the Heart is apt to shew both its Wickedness and Deceitfulness together and to grow secure as if all Peril were over therefore 1. Keep alive in your Hearts the same Apprehensions of things after Affliction which you had under Affliction Things are really as they were though we of Sick grow well again therefore our thoughts of them should not alter The great Truths revealed and so much insisted on in the Word of God in Affliction had deep Impressions upon our Spirits How clearly and concernedly did we then perceive that Christ is the onely Saviour that all things were justly to be accounted loss that he might be gained We lookt upon time as too precious a thing to be spent Idly or Wickedly The Soul was lookt upon as more worth than the whole World and more to be regarded not to be neglected for the Worlds sake Mat. 16. 26. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul How did the thoughts of Eternity affect our Hearts when we were in the depth of Affliction Our Apprehensions of this Truth were amazing That all must quickly be in Eternity and all must be unto Eternity either in Joy or Wo. Our Conceptions of these and such like things were most rectified in Affliction therefore when Affliction is removed our Judgments should still remain the same The concerns of another World should always be esteemed far greater than the highest concerns of this Seriousness well becomes us in those matters which are of Everlasting Consequence where carelesness or mistake will issue in endless ruine understanding Diligence in Eternal Happiness 2. After Affliction be very Jealous over your own Spirits which are so very prone to deal treacherously both with God and your selves You are not naturally trusty to either but unfaithful to God and unfaithful to your own Souls Hearken how the Lord complains Hos 6. 7. They like men have transgressed the Covenant they have dealt treacherously against me You do not know your selves to be men if you don't know your selves to be treacherous and strongly inclined to break through all obligations in Point of Duty Gratitude and Interest it self which you are under ever since the first Adams Apostacy and fall from God his Posterity have a vehement Propension to start aside alike deceitful bowes A notable instance of the Hearts treachery in Afflictions and instability upon the removal of it you have Psal 78. 34 35 36 37. When he slew them then they sought him they returned and inquired early after God they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer nevertheless they did flatter him with their Lips and lied unto him with their Tongues for their Heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Mens Resolutions in Afflictions are like Nautarum Vota the Vows of Marriners in a Storm the first things that are broken when once they get safe to Shore Be sure therefore to check your hearts and lift them up to God to secure them when first you perceive them so much as begin to start aside Apostacy begins in the Heart that does first turn back from God then afterwards the steps decline from his ways distrusting therefore your own Hearts follow Solomons Counsel Prov. 4. 23. And keep them with all diligence and unto your own strictest Vigilancy add fervent Prayer that the Lord would make your Hearts clean Hearts and that he would renew and keep your Spirits right with him Psal 51. 10. 3.
is a Grace with a great deal of Reason in it for who can rationally take it ill when good comes to them and spiritual kindnesses which are the most real kindnesses are done them I have demonstrated the good of Affliction to the Saints I shall now demonstrate the good of Patience Patience is your great Security and makes you to keep Possession of your Selves Luk. 21. 19. In your Patience possess ye your Souls A Patient man whatever he loses whatever he suffers is still himself not discomposed not distracted and hurried away from the Conduct and Satisfaction of that Holy Wisdom and the Grace of God which is in Him By Patient Continuance in well-doing and by patient Suffering rather than he will cease in well-doing his Soul is safe and shall never be lost for he that endures to the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24. 13. And in what a calm has he Possession of his own Spirit when his outward Condition is most Stormy and Tempestuous He has cast Anchor within the Vail and that Anchor is sure and stedfast Heb. 6. 19. Keeps his Mind from Fluctuation and tossing too and fro Patience is the Souls Garrison and preserves it in that Peace which neither Earth nor Hell are able to disturb Patience is that which makes you perfect Jam. 1. 4. But let Patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing The more there is of Christian Patience and Strength to persevere both in Active and Passive Obedience which God calls you to 't is an Argument you are arrived to the greater Degree of Perfection in Grace and Holiness And besides this Patience will make you less concerned at those Wants which to impatient Creatures are so sensible an Affliction He that is very Patient under Sickness may truly be said not so much to want health He that is Patient under Poverty does not so much want Riches The Christian is not disturbed at the want of those things which he can be contentedly without Patience made the Apostle go through great variety of Conditions with a most even and composed Mind and Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 4 8 9 10. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much Patience in Affliction in Necessities in Distresses By Honour and Dishonour by evil Report and good Report as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastned and not kill'd as sorrowful yet always rejoycing as Poor yet making many Rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things Patience very well becomes you considering the Relation you stand in to God who is a Father too Good and Wise to give to any of his Children a just ground for unsubmission things cannot be ordered better or with more Wisdom than He orders them The compliance of your Wills with His will be a great evidence that you are renewed in the Spirit of your Minds and that you have the new Heart promised in the new Covenant And this Patience of yours being manifested in whatever you feel from the Hand of God or Man will be a great Credit to Religion and a Conviction to the World that there is a great Efficacy in the Truth of the Gospel and in the Grace of God which can carry you so far beyond the Strength of Nature * Patientia est quae nos Deo commendat servat Ipsa est quae iram temperat quae linguam fraenat quae mentem gubernat pacem custodit incendium simultatis extinguit coercet potentiam divitum inopiam pauperum refovet facit humiles in prosperis in adversis fortes contra injurias contumelias mites tentationes expugnat persecutiones tolerat passiones martyria consummat Cyprian De Patientiae bono pag. mihi 319. Finally Patience will make and keep you acceptable to God it will restrain Anger and every other disturbing Passion it will bridle the Tongue keep the Spirit under Rule and Government it will extinguish Contention and keep Peace from being broken It will be coercive of the Power of the Rich and it will refresh the neediness of the Poor It will make you humble in the height of Prosperity so strong as not to faint in the depth of Adversity it will make you mild against the greatest injuries it will break the force of Temptation and fortifie you against Persecution though it should rise so high as Martyrdom Let all this perswade you to the exercise of this admirable Grace of Patience and see that it fail not in Affliction Cry to the Lord for the increase of it and that nothing may be too hard or heavy for it He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God of Patience and Consolation the more Patience is wrought in you you are likely to Experience the greater Comfort 2. You that are afflicted Saints Pray that your Faith may be so far from failing that it may continually be increasing Faith is a Grace of great Necessity and Use the Christian lives by Faith he sees by Faith he stands by Faith he works by Faith and is kept through Faith unto Salvation In Affliction Faith is the Saints mighty support for Faith bears hard upon the Faithfulness of God which will never fail God is faithful not onely in giving the good things he has promised but also in vouchsafing Correction which he sees 't is needful The Psalmist speaks thus I have believed therefore have I spoken I was greatly afflicted Psal 116. 10. The greatness of Affliction hindred not the Acting of his Faith but his Faith hindred his fainting under the greatest Affliction Psal 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living God may be trusted in though he hides his face though there are rebukes and frowns in his Countenance God may be trusted in though his ways are Dark and Cloudy and his Hand heavy Nay Holy Job says Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Job 13. 15. Though the Providence of God seems hardly reconcileable with his Promises but looks as if it thwarted his Promises this is onely Deceptio visus the Eyes mistake Let Faith believe what Sense cannot discern and Sense will be forced at last to grant that Faith was in the right In all Afflictions God is making good his Everlasting Covenant which is well ordered in all things and sure he is still pursuing his design of Mercy towards his People and promoting the Work of Grace and Salvation Believe this and rest satisfied onely let desires be strong that what God designs in sending Affliction may be attained and that his Discipline may be to good effect and purpose 3. You afflicted Saints give Glory to God who afflicts you Here you must know that God is of none but of himself his Perfections undenied He is unchangeable no Addition can be made to his Essential Excellency or his Blessedness As all that
World Now they may adorn the Doctrine of God their Saviour in all things Now with well-doing they may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15. Now by a Consciencious Performance of Relative Duties they may be great Blessings to their Relations and greatly promote their Eternal Interest They may be blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation acting like the Children of God shining as Lights in the World holding forth the Word of Life Phil. 2. 14 15 16. But when once Death has seized on the Preachers of the Word their Mouths are stopt with Earth and they are effectually silenced they can speak unto and oversee the Church no longer At Death also Christian 's Work is at an end in this World therefore before the approach of Deaths Night when it will be too late to work Let all in the mean time work the harder 8. Though you are deliver'd out of Affliction recover'd from your Distempers be sure to die daily So did the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 31. Dying daily implies a daily Meditation of Death looking upon your selves every day within the reach of Death and a continual preparedness for Death and a stedfast Resolution rather to suffer Death than to make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience Do not reckon upon long Life but be perswaded to live well is to live indeed Live as those that must die certainly as those that may die suddenly Be not offended at the Cross of Christ though it should ly so heavy upon you as to press you to Death Sinful saving the Life is losing it but they who are valiant for the Truth of Christ and will venture the losing of Life for Christs sake shall find it Mat. 16. 25. And if natural Life be continued be earnestly desirous that Spiritual Life and liveliness may be increased Pray to be quickned as the Psalmist often does Psal 119. and look unto Jesus who is a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first Man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit As he has given you Life so he is ready to give it more and more abundantly this will make you to live to him and to be unweariedly active for him The quickned Apostl's earnest desire was that Christ might be magnified by him his Life was at his Lords Service and he was ready to die also to serve him Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest Expectation and my Hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death USE V. Of Consolation to Saints to whom it is so good when they are afflicted Unto the Righteous there ariseth Light in the Darkness The Rainbow the emblem of Peace and token of the Covenant is often seen in the blackest Cloud The Saints are never in such depths but Comfort belongs to them 't is good for them to be as they are nay all things considered 't is best for them Quod sis esse velis nihilque malis Believers should never say they had rather it might be otherwise with them than God sees it fit it should be when the Plough of Affliction pierces deepest Light and Joy is sowing and the Hopes of what at last will be reaped should allay the Sorrow wherewith the sowing is attended The Grounds of Consolation to afflicted Saints are these 1. Gods goodness is unquestionable however he is pleased to deal with his People Let them be plagued let them be chastned never so sore yet God is good to Israel even to them that are of a clean Heart Psal 73. 1. God is their God and his dealings are ever according to his Gracious Covenant His wounding of them is not like the wounds given by an Enemy but like the Chyrurgians Lancings in order to greater soundness and for Lifes Preservation Isa 27. Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him No no great is the Difference between the Rod and the Scorpion between Believers being chastned as Children and the Wicked their falling into the hands of the Living God who takes Vengeance upon them 2. That good which Saints receive by Affliction is Spiritual The Soul has a great kindness done to it The Conscience is bettered as to calmness and cleanness the Heart is made more pure the Spirit of the Lord works a greater change into the Image of God so that there is an advancing from Glory to Glory When Job had been some while afflicted his Spirit began to run more clear Job 23. 10. But he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tried me I shall come forth like Gold The Fire and Furnace in Zion purges the Dross and how then does the Gold shine 3. That good which the Saints reap by Affliction is peculiar and distinguishing Wicked men are either stupid under Affliction or if they are startled they return to their former Security after Affliction To have Affliction sanctified is a favour peculiar to Gods peculiar People 4. This good which the Saints receive by Affliction at present is an earnest to them of Eternal good things in the other World Afflictions are part of the Purgatory through which the Saints pass and are made meet for Glory The Popish Purgatory is a meer Invention for that Antichristian Churches secular Gain The Dead find it to be nothing but vast is the Worldly gain accrueing hereby to the living by this Craft comes in the Priests Wealth But the Purgatory of Affliction promotes Purity and is really Beneficial The Rod at present yeilds the peaceable fruits of Righteousness and when these are brought forth a Crown of Righteousness is assured 2 Tim. 4. 8. I have done with the first Doctrine That Saints are afflicted for their good I shall be Brief in the Second which follows D. 2. The second Doctrine which I raised from the Text was this The Rod of God is a means to make the Word of God to be the better Learned Psal 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy Word Affliction was the means to put a stop to the Psalmists wandring it brought his Feet into the right Path and established his goings What a light shines in the School of Affliction Things are seen naked there Sin the World Hell and Destruction are all naked The great things of the Word are plainly seen to be great and good indeed and are no longer lookt upon as strange things In the handling of this Doctrine I shall 1. Shew you when the Word of God is indeed learned 2. What influence the Rod of God has unto the better Learning of his Word 3. Make Application In the first Place I am to shew you when the Word of God is indeed and aright learned 1. Learning the Word implies a Perswasion of the Words Divine Authority and Truth He has not