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there was little hope left that they should deliver themselves from the Chaldeans, what do they in that strait? Do they with upright Jehosophat say, “Our eyes are unto thee?" No, their eyes were upon Egypt for succour, not upon heaven. Well, "Pharaoh and his aids are left still, all hope is not gone," Jer. xxxvii. 9. See the like in Ahaz, in sore distress he courts the king of Assyria for help, 2 Chron. xxvii. 22, 23. That project failing, why then he will try what the gods of Damascus can do for him. Any way, rather than the right way. 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 estate be lost, and a family sinking, do they with David comfort themselves in the everlasting covenant, ordered and sure? No, but if one relation die, there is another alive. If an estate be gone, yet not all; something is left still, and the case will mend.

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

5. To conclude; an unsound heart never comes out of the furnace of affliction purged, mortified, and more spiritual and holy than when he was cast into it. His scum and dross is not there separated from him. Nay, the more he is afflicted, the worse he is. "Why should ye be smitten any more? ye will revolt more and more," Isa. i. 5. And to keep our metaphor, consult Jer. vi. 29. God hath put that incorrigible people into the furnace of affliction, and kept them long in that fire: and what was the issue? Why, saith the prophet, "The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed 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 lungs of the prophet, though these he even spent in reproving and threatening, and denouncing woe upon woe, and judgment upon judgment, and God fulfils his word upon them; yet still they are as before. The dross remains, though Jerusalem be made a furnace, and the inhabitants boiling in it over a fierce fire of affliction. Yet as it is noted (pertinently to my discourse) in Ezek. xxvi. 13. The scum remains with them, and cannot be separated by the fire. The reason is plain, because no affliction in itself purges sin, but as it is sanctified, and works in the virtue of God's blessing, 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 benefitted you at all. Thus you see what the effects of adversity are, when it meets a graceless heart.

SECT. IV.

By this time, reader, I suppose thou art desirous to know what effects adversity and affliction have when they meet with an honest and sincere heart. Before I come to particulars, however, I think it needful to acquaint thee, that the fruits of afflictions are mostly after-fruits, and not so discernible by the christian himself under the rod, as after he hath been exercised by it, Heb. xii. 11, and calmly reflects upon what is past. Nor doth every christian attain the same measure and degree. Some rejoice, others commonly submit. But I think these seven

effects are ordinarily found in all upright hearts that pass under the rod.

1. The sincere and upright soul betakes itself to God in affliction. Job i. 20. When God was smiting, Job was praying; when God afflicted, Job worshipped. So David, Psalm cxvi. 3, 4. "I found sorrow and trouble, then called I upon the name of the Lord." And when the messenger of Satan buffeted Paul, For this cause, saith he, I besought the Lord thrice, 2 Cor. xii. 8. Alas! whither should a child go in distress, but to its father?

2. He sees and owns the hand of God in his afflictions, how much or little soever of the instruments of trouble appear. The Lord hath taken

away, saith Job, Job i. 21. God hath hidden him, saith David, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. If the blow come from the hand of a wicked man, yet he sees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand, Psalm xvii. 14. And this apprehension is fundamental to all that communion men have with God in their afflictions, and to all that peaceableness and gracious submission of their spirits under the rod. He that sees nothing of God in his troubles, hath nothing of God in his soul.

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3. He can justify God in all the afflictions and troubles that come upon him, be they ever so severe. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us,' saith Nehemiah, Nehem. ix. 33. "Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve," saith Ezra, Ezra ix. 13. "It is of the Lord's mercy we are not consumed," saith 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 justify God; if God cast him into a sea of trouble, yet he will acknowledge, in all that sea of trouble, there is not one drop of injustice. If I have not deserved such usage from the hands of men, yet I have deserved worse than this at the hands of God.

4. Afflictions melt and humble gracious hearts.— There is an habitual tenderness planted in their spirits, and a just occasion 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 score called humiliation. The effect is put for the cause, to shew where one is, the other will be, 2 Cor. xii. 21. My God will humble me, that is, he will afflict me with the sight of your sin and disorders. And, if a gracious soul be so apt to be humbled for other men's sins, much more for his

own.

5. The upright soul is inquisitive, under the rod, to find out that evil for which the Lord contends with him by affliction. Job. x. 2. "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me;" And Job xxxiv. 31. "That which I see not, teach thou me; I have done iniquity, I will do no more." So Lam. iii. 39, 40. "Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord." In afflicting God searches them, and under afflictions they search themselves. Willing they are to hear the voice of the rod, and glad f any discovery it makes of their hearts.

The upright heart chuseth to lie under affliction, rather than be delivered from it by sin. I say this is the choice and resoulution of every upright heart, however it may be sometimes overborne by the violence of temptation, Heb. xi. 35. Not accepting deliverance, viz. upon sinful terms and conditions.

They are sensible how the flesh smarts under the rod, but had rather it should smart, than conscience should smart under guilt. "Affliction," saith an upright soul," grieves me, but sin will grieve God; affliction wounds my soul. Deliverance I long for, but I will not pay so dear for it, how much so ever I desire it. Outward ease is sweet, but inward peace is sweeter."

7. He prizeth the spiritual good gotten by affliction above deliverance from it, and can bless God from his heart for those mercies, how dear soever his flesh hath paid for them. Psalm cxix. 67, and 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Such is the value, the people of God have for spiritual graces, that they cannot think them dear, what ever their flesh hath paid for them. The mortification of one lust, one discovery of sincerity, one manifestation of God to their souls, doth much more than make amends for all that they have endured under the rod.

Is patience improved, self-acquaintance increased, the vanity of the creature more effectually taught, longings after heaven inflamed? O blessed afflictions, that are attended with such blessed fruits! It was the saying of a holy man, under a sore trouble for the death of an only son, when in that dark day God had graciously manifested himself to his soul, "O, I would be contented (if it were possible) to lay an only son in the grave, every day I have to live in the world, for one such discovery of the love of God as I now enjoy!"

CHAP. VII.

Shewing what proof or trial is made of the soundness or unsoundness of our graces by the dutiesof religion which we perform.

SECT. I.

WE now come (according to the method proposed) to make trial of the truth or falseness of grace, by the duties we daily perform in religion. And certainly, they also have the use and efficacy of fire, for this discovery, 1 John ii. 4, 5. He that saith

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