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done? is the voice of one that recollects himself after ä rafh action; or the voice of a man ästonished at the discovery afflictions make of his fins; but no fuch voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal men.

3. Thirdly, An unfound profeffor, if left to his choice, would rather chufe fin than affliction; and fees more evil in that, than in this.

And it cannot be doubted, if we confider the principle by which all unregenerate men are acted, is fenfe, not faith. Hence Job's friends would have argued his hypocrify, Job xxxvi. 21. And had their application been as right as their rule, it would have concluded it; This (viz. fia) haft thou chofen, rather than affliction.

I do not fay that an upright man cannot commit a moral evil, to efcape á penal evil. O that daily obfervation did not too plentifully furnish us with fad inftances of that kind! But upright ones do not, dare not, upon a ferious deliberate difcufflon and debate, chufe fin rather than affliction; what they' may do upon furprifals, and in the violence of temptation, is of another nature.

But a falfe and unfound heart difcovers itfelf in the choice it makes upon deliberation, and that frequently when fin and trouble come in competition. Put the cafe, faith Auguftine, a ruffian should with one hand set the cup of drunkenness to thy mouth, and with the other a dagger to thy breast, and say, drink or die; thou fhouldeft rather chufe to die fober, than tơ live a drunkard: And many Chriftians have resisted unto blood, ftriving against fin, and, with renowned Mofes, chofen afflic. tion, the worst of afflictions, yea, death itself in the moft for midable appearance, rather than fin; and it is the habitual temper and refolution of every gracious heart fo to do, though thofe holy refolutions are fometimes over borne by violence of temptation.

But the hypocrite dreads lefs the defilement of his foul, than the lofs of his eftate, liberty, of life. If you ask upon what ground then doth the apostle fuppofe, 1 Cor. xili. 3. a man may give his body to be burnt, and not have charity; that the falamander of hypocrify may live in the flame of martyrdom? The answer is at hand; They that chufe death in the fenfe of this text, do not chuse it to escape fin, but to feed and indulge it. Thofe ftrange adventures (if any fuch be) are rather to maintain their own honour, and enrol their names among worthy and famous persons to posterity; or out of a blind zeal pofterity; VOL. VII.

to their espoused errors and mistakes, than in a due regard to the glory of God, and the prefervation of integrity.

I fear to fpeak it, but it must be fpoken, (faith Hierom), That even ⚫ martyrdom itself, when fuffered for admiration and applaufe,. profits nothing, but that blood is thed in vain.'

4. Fourthly, It is the property of an unregenerate foul, under, adverfity, to turn from creature to creature for fupport and comfort, and not from every creature to God alone. So long as their feet can touch ground, I mean, feel any creature relief or comfort under them, they can fubfift and live in afflictions; but when they lofe ground, when all creature refuge fails, then their hearts fail too.

Thus Zedekiah, and the felf-deceiving Jews, when they faw their own ftrength failed them, and there was little hope left that they should deliver themselves from the Chaldeans, what. do they in that ftrait? Do they, with upright Jehoshaphat fay, "Our eyes are unto thee?" No, no, their eyes were upon Egypt for fuccour, not upon Heaven; well, Pharaoh and his aids are left ftill, all hope is not gone, Jer. xxxvii. 9. See the like in Ahaz, in a fore plunge and diftrefs he courts the king of Affyria for help, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22, 23. That project failing, why then he will try what the gods of Damafcus can do for him; any way rather than the right way, Flectere fi nequeam. fuperos, Acheronta movebo.

So it is with many others: if one child die, what do they do, run to God, and comfort themselves in this, the Lord liveth, though my child die. If an ellate be loft, and a family finking, do they with David comfort themselves in the everlasting covenant, ordered and fure? No, no; but if one relation die, there is another alive; if an eftate be loft, yet not all; fomething is left ftill, and the cafe will mend.

As long as ever fuch men have any vifible encouragement, they will hang upon it; and not make up all in Chrift, and encourage themselves in the Lord. To tell them of rejoicing in the Lord, when the fig-tree bloffoms not, is what they cannot understand.

5. Fifthly, To conclude; an unfound heart never comes out of the furnace of affliction purged, mortified, and more fpiritual and holy than when he was caft into it; his fcum and drofs is not there separated from him; nay, the more they are afflic

*Timeo dicere, fed dicendum eft; martyrium ipfum fi ideo fiat ut admirationi et laudi habeatur a fratribus fruftra fanguis ef fufus eft. Hier.

ted, the worse they are. "Why should ye be fmitten any "more? ye will revolt more and more," Ifa. i. 5. And, to keep to our metaphor, confult Jer. vi. 29. God had put that incorrigible people into the furnace of affliction, and kept them long in that fire; and what was the iffue? Why, faith the prophet, "The bellows are burnt, the lead is confumed of the "fire, the founder melteth in vain, &c. reprobate silver shall "men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them."

If the fire of affliction be continually blown till the very bellows be burnt, that is, the tongue, or rather the lungs of the prophet, which have some resemblance to bellows; though thefe, be even spent in reproving, and threatening, and denouncing woe upon woe, and judgment upon judgment; and God fulfils his word upon them; yet ftill they are as before; the dross remains: though Jerufalem be made a furnace, and the inhabitants the fleth boiling in it, as is noted (pertinently to my difcourfe) in Ezek. xxiv. 6, 13. the fcum remains with them, and cannot be feparated by the fire; and the reafon is plain, because no affliction in itself purges fin, but as it is fanctified, and works in the virtue of God's bleffing, and in pursuance of the promises.

O think on this you that have had thousands of afflictions in one kind and another, and none of them all have done you good; they have not mortified, humbled, or benefited you at all And thus you fee what the effects of adversity are, when it meets with a graceless heart.

SECT. IV.

BY this time, reader, I fuppofe thou art defirous to know what effects adverfity and affliction ufe to have when they meet with an honeft and fincere heart: Only, before I come to particulars, I think it needful to acquaint thee, that the fruits of afflictions are moftly after-fruits, and not fo difcernable by the Chriftian himself under the rod, as after he hath been exercifed by it, Heb. xii. 11. and calmly refects upon what is past; nor doth every Christian attain the fame measure and degree; fome rejoice, others commonly fubmit; but I think these feven effects are ordinarily found in all upright hearts that pass under the rod.

1. First, The fincere and upright foul betakes itself to God in affliction; Job i. 20. When God was fmiting, Job was praying; when God afflicted, Job worshipped: So David, Pfalm cxvi. 3, 4. "I found forrow and trouble, then called I

upon the name of the Lord." And when the messenger of Satan buffered Paul," For this caufe (faith he) I befought the "Lord thrice," 2 Cor. xii. 8. Alas! whither fhould a child go in diftrefs, but to its father?

2. Secondly, He fees and owns the hand of God in his afflictions, how much or little foever of the inftruments of trouble appear. The Lord hath taken away, faith Job, Job i. 21. God hath bidden him, faith David, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. If the blow come from the hand of a wicked man, yet he fees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand, Pialm xvii. 14. And this apprehenfion is fundamental to all that communion men have with God in their afflictions, and to all that peaceableness and gracious fubmiffion of their fpirits under the rod: He that lees nothing of God in his troubles, hath nothing of God in his foul.

3. Thirdly, He can justify God in all the afflictions and troubles that come upon him, be they never fo levere. "Thou "art ju in all that is brought upon us," faith Nehemiah, Neh. ix. 33. "Thou haft punished us less than our iniqui"ties delerve," faith Ezra, Ezra ix. 13. "It is of the Lord's 66 mercy we are not confumed," faith the church, Lam. iii. 22. Are we in Babylon? It is a mercy we are not in hell. If God condemn him, yet he will juftify God; if God cast him into a fea of trouble, yet he will acknowledge, in all that fea of trouble, there is not one drop of injuftice. If I have not deferved fuch ufage from the hands of men, yet I have deferved worfe than this at the hands of God.

4. Fourthly, Afflictions ufe to melt and humble gracious hearts; there is an habitual tenderness planted in their fpirits, and a just occafion quickly draws it forth: And so usual a thing it is for gracious hearts to be humbled under the afflictings of God, that affliction is upon that fcore called humiliation: The effect put for the caufe, to fhew where one is, the other will be, 2 Cor. xii. 21. My God will humble me, i. e. he will afflict me with the fight of your fins and diforders; and if a gracions foul be fo apt to be humbled for other mens fins, much more for his own

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5. Fifthly, The upright foul is inquifitive under the rod, to find out that evil for which the Lord contends with him by affiction; Job x. 2. "Shew me wherefore thou contendeft with "me" And Job xxxiv. 32. "That which I fee not, teach "thou me: If I have done iniquity I will do no more," So Lam. iii. 39, 40. "Let us fearch and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord." In afflicting, God fearches them, and upder affiction they fearch themselves: Willing they are to hear

the voice of the rod, and glad of any difcovery it makes of their hearts.

Sixthly, The upright heart chufeth to ly under affliction, rather than to be delivered from it by fin. I fay, this is the choice and refolution of every upright heart, however it may be fometimes over-borne by the violence of temptation, Heb. xi, 35. Not accepting deliverance, viz. upon finful terms and conditions.

They are fenfible how the flesh fmarts under the rod, but had rather it should fart, than confcience should fmart under guilt. Affliction, faith an upright foul, grieves me, but fin will grieve God; affliction wounds my flesh, but fin will wound my foul. Deliverance I long for, but I will not pay fo dear for it, how much foever I defire it: Nolo tanti emere poenitentiam: Outward cafe is fweet, but inward peace is fweeter.

7. Seventhly, He prizeth the spiritual good gotten by affliction, above deliverance from it, and can blefs God from his heart for those mercies, how dear foever his flesh hath paid for them; Pfalm cxix. 67, and 71. “It is good for me that I have "been afflicted." Such is the value the people of God have for fpiritual graces, that they cannot think them dear, whatever their feth hath paid for them. The mortification of one luft, one difcovery of fincerity, one manifeftation of God to their fouls, doth much more than make amends for all that they have endured under the rud.

Is patience improved, felf-acquaintance increased, the vanity of the creature more effectually taught, longings after heaven enflamed? O bleffed afflictions, that are attended with fuch bleffed fruits! It was the faying of a holy man, under a fore trouble for the death of an only fon, when in that dark day God had graciously manifested himself to his foul; O, (faith he) I would be contented, if it were poffible, to lay an only fon in the grave every day I have to live in the world, for one fuch difcovery of the love of God as I now enjoy.'

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