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and this Hezekiah found by experience. Though Joseph's bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; yet Joseph may say, that the archers (or the arrow-masters, as the Hebrew hath it) have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him, Gen. xlix. 23, 24. And so David

sadly complained of Doeg, Psal. cix. 1-21. Yea, Christ himself (who was the most perfect pattern for dumbness and silence under the sorest trials) complains against Judas, Pilate, and the rest of his persecutors, Psalm lxix. 20-30. &c. Yea, though God will make his people's enemies to be the workmen that shall fit them and square them for his building, to be goldsmiths, to add pearls to their crown, to be rods to beat off their dust, scullions to scour off their rust, fire to purge away their dross, and water to cleanse away their filthiness, fleshliness, and earthliness; yet may they point at them, and pour out their complaints to God against them, Psal. cxlii. 2-ult. This truth I might make good by above a hundred texts of scripture; but it is time to come to the reasons of the point.

IV. Why must Christians be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest providences, and sharpest trials that they meet with in this world? I answer,

Reas. 1. That they may the better hear and understand the voice of the rod. As the word hath a voice, the Spirit a voice, and conscience a voice, so the rod hath a voice. Af

flictions are the rod of God's anger, the rod of his displeasure, and his rod of revenge; he gives a commission to this rod, to awaken his people, to reform his people, or else to revenge the quarrel of his covenant upon them, if they will not hear the rod, and kiss the rod, and sit mute and silent under the rod, Micah vi. 9. "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." God's rods are not mutes, they are all vocal, they are speaking, as well as smiting; every twig hath a voice. Ah soul! saith one twig, thou sayest it smarts; well, tell me, is it good provoking of a jealous God? Jer. iv. 18. Ah soul! saith another twig, thou sayest it is bitter, it reacheth to thy heart; but hath not thine own doings procured these things? Rom. vi. 20, 21. Ah soul! saith another twig, where is the profit, the pleasure, the sweet that you have found in wandering from God? Hos. ii. 7. Ah soul! saith another twig, was it not best with you, when you were high in your communion with God, and when you were humble and close in your walking with God? Micah vi. 8. Ah Christian! saith another twig, wilt thou search thy heart, and try thy ways, and turn to the Lord thy God? Lam. iii. 40. Ah soul! saith another twig, wilt thou die to sin more than ever? Rom. xiv. 6, 7, 8. and to the world more than ever? Gal. vi. 14. and to relations more than ever, and to thyself more than ever? Ah soul! saith another twig, wilt thou live more

to Christ than ever, and cleave closer to Christ than ever, and prize Christ more than ever, and venture further for Christ than ever? Ah soul! saith another twig, wilt thou love Christ with a more inflamed love, and hope in Christ with a more raised hope, and depend upon Christ with a greater confidence, and wait upon Christ with more invincible patience, &c. Now, if the soul be not mute and silent under the rod, how is it possible that it should ever hear the voice of the rod, or that it should ever hearken to the voice of every twig of the rod? The rod hath a voice that is in the hands of earthly fathers; but children hear it not, they understand it not, till they are hushed and quiet, and brought to kiss it, and sit silently under it: no more shall we hear or understand the voice of the rod that is in our heavenly Father's hand, till we come to kiss it, and sit silently under it. But,

Reas. 2. Gracious souls should be mute and silent under their greatest afflictions and sharpest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from the men of the world, who usually fret and fling, mutter or murmur, curse and swagger, when they are under the afflicting hand of God, Is viii. 21, 22. "And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king, and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth: and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be

driven to darkness." Ah how fretful and froward, how disturbed and distracted, how mad and forlorn are these poor wretches under the rebukes of God! They look upward and downward, this way and that way, on this side and on that, and finding no nelp, no succour, no support, no deliverance, like bedlambs, yea, like incarnate devils, they fall upon cursing of God, and their king, Is. lix. 11. "We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us." They express their inward vexation and indignation, by roaring like bears. When bears are robbed of their whelps, or taken in a pit, O how dreadfully will they roar, rage, and tear, and tumble *! So when wicked persons are fallen into the pit of affliction, O how will they roar, rage, tear, and cry out, not of their sins, but of their punishments; as Cain, "My punishment is greater than I am able to bear. Is. li. 20. Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God." When the huntsman hath taken the wild bull in his toil, and so entangled him, that he is not able to wind himself out; Oh, how fierce and furious will he be! how will he spend himself in struggling and striving to get out! Such wild bulls

* The bear, as Aristotle observeth, licketh her whelps into form, and loveth them beyond measure, and is most fierce, roaring, and raging when she is robbed of them.

are wicked men, when they are taken in the net of affliction.

It is said of Marcellus the Roman general, that he could not be quiet neither conquered nor conqueror. It is so with wicked men, they cannot be quiet, neither full nor fasting, neither sick nor well, neither in wealth nor want, neither in bonds nor at liberty, neither in prosperity nor in adversity: Jer. li. 37, 38. "And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing, without an inhabitant. They shall roar together like lions, they shall yell as lions whelps," Amos iii. 8. When the lion roars, all the beasts of the field tremble; when the lion roars, many creatures that could out-run him, are so amazed and astonished at the terror of his roar, that they are not able to stir from the place. Such roaring lions are wicked men, when they are under the smarting rod, Rev. xvi. 8-12. "They gnaw their tongues for pain, and they blaspheme the God of heaven, because of those sores, pains, and plagues that are poured upon them, and they repented not of their deeds, to give him glory." And therefore gracious souls have cause to be silent under their sorest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from wicked men, who are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Is. lvii. 20. Ah! what a stir do wicked men make, when they are under the afflicting hand of God! As the sea is restless and unquiet, when there is no storm;

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