SERMON X.

A LIFTING UP IN CASE OF AFFLICTION.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me," &c.-Psalm xlii. 11.

VII. SOMETIMES the discouragements of the saints, are from their outward afflictions, and relations.

So it was here with David; for, saith he, verse 3, "My tears have been my meat day and night." Whereupon, verse 5, 6, "My soul is cast down within me:", then verse 7, 8, "All thy billows are gone over me:" verse 10, “As a sword in my bones, whilst they reproach me daily:" then verse 11, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?" To the like purpose he speaketh in the next Psalm, verse 2, "Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" then, verse 5, 6, "Why art thou cast down?" So that his inward discouragements did arise very much from his outward afflictions. And thus it is ordinarily with the people of God; for, saith one, Never was any soul afflicted as I have been, and am I confess indeed that national calamities are very great; but besides national miseries, I have many, and many personal afflictions; and therefore now it is that I am thus discouraged, have I not reason for it? No.

I grant, and confess it no new thing for God's own children to be much afflicted:" these are they that came out of great tribulations," Rev. vii. And

When God's people are so afflicted, they are, and will be very sensible of their affliction; in some respects more sensible than wicked men; for the more apprehensive a man is of God's displeasure under affliction, the more sensible he must needs be of the burden of it. Now the saints and people of God, in the day of their affliction, are more apprehensive of God's displeasure than wicked men are, and so in some respects are more sensible of their afflictions. Yea,

As they are, and will be very sensible of their afflictions, so they are very apt to be much discouraged, by reason of them. And therefore said the Psalmist, Psalm cxliii. “Therefore my soul is overwhelmed within me, and my heart is desolate ;"

"Because

why? Read verse 3, and ye shall find the reason, the enemy oppressed me." And was not Joshua thus exceedingly cast down, when a party of his men fell before the men of Ai? See how he lies on the ground, chapter vii, and what language he speaks; even the same for substance, that murmuring Israel had spoken: for they said," Would God we had stayed in Egypt :" and saith he, "Would God we had stayed on the other side Jordan :" yet Joshua, a most gracious, holy, blessed servant of God. So that God's own people are apt to be much discouraged, by reason of their afflictions,and outward sufferings. But now I say, let a man's afflictions be never so great, yet if he be in Christ, and have made his peace with God, he hath no reason to be cast down or discouraged, whatever his afflictions be; for, saith our Saviour, “In the world you have trouble; but be of good comfort I have overcome the world:" And the more a man is discouraged under his afflictions, the less able he is to bear it. So long as a man's hand hath skin upon it, he is able to put it into the sharpest vinegar, without smarting; but if the skin be off, it doth smart exceedingly, and he can hardly bear it. So long as a man's bones are knit together, and in joint, he may stand under a great burden, but if the shoulder bone be out of joint, who can bear a burden? And what do all our discouragements, but disjoint the soul, and put the spirit on the rack? Discouragements make afflictions to stay the longer: an impatient patient makes a cruel physician and the more the child cries under the rod, the longer the rod is continued; what reason therefore, for our discouragements under afflictions?

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But this truth will appear if you consider, 1. What the afflictions and sufferings of the saints are. 2. Whence they proceed. 3. What accompanies them. 4. What follows them, and what is wrought by them.

First: As for the afflictions themselves. 1. They are part of Christ's purchase for you. Look upon Paul's inventory, 1 Cor. iii. 21. "All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come." So that death itself, the king of terrors and afflictions, is here reckoned amongst the goods and chattels which Christ hath purchased for you, and left unto you; and if death be yours, then all afflictions are

yours;

and who will be afraid of that which is his own? 2. They are the gift of God; "To you it is given, not only to believe, but to suffer," saith the apostle. It was the speech of a good man, now in heaven, being once under great afflictions; O Lord, these afflictions are thy pearls, and I will wear them for thy sake. 3. They are but seeming evils; they are real trials and seeming evils. Therefore the apostle saith, "Every affliction seems grievous; " but considering altogether, it is rather a seeming than a real grief. And therefore saith he, 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10, "We are as unknown and yet well known: as dying and behold we live as chastened, but not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as poor, yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." In which words as Austin observes, he puts a tanquam, sicut AS upon his afflictions; as if his sufferings where but as afflictions, and not afflictions. When a man takes any physic, he is sick withal, yet because it is but physic-sickness, you do not call it a sickness; it is as a sickness, but not a sickness. Now all the afflictions of the saints, are but their physic, prescribed and given them by the hand of their Father: and therefore, though they be sick therewith, yet it is but as a sickness, not so indeed all things rightly weighed. When an unskilful eye looks upon the threshing of the corn, he saith, Why do they spoil the corn? But those that know better, say, The flail doth not hurt the corn; if the cart-wheel should pass upon it, there would be spoil indeed, but the flail hurts not. Now there is no affliction, or suffering that a godly man meets with, but is God's flail. And if you look into Isaiah, xxviii, ye shall find the Lord promiseth, under a similitude, that his cart-wheel shall not pass upon those that are weak, ver. 27, "For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin, the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with the rod." God will always proportion his rod to our strength. But though mine affliction be not greater than I can bear, yet if it lie too long upon me (say some) I shall never be able to bear it. Nay, saith the Lord, ver. 28, "Bread-corn is bruised, because he will not ever be threshing it." But what is this to us? Yes, it is a parable, for ver. 26, "His God (speaking of the ploughman) doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach

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him." And if the ploughman have this discretion, much more shall the Lord himself; for, ver. 29, "This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. I am God's corn, said the martyr, I most therefore pass under the flail, through the fan, under the millstone, into the oven before I can be bread for him. And if our chaff be severed from our graces by this flail, have we any reason to be discouraged because we are thus afflicted? The truth is, the day of affliction and tribulation, is a godly man's day of judgment, it is all his judgment day, he shall never be judged again, so as to be condemned at the day of judgment; "Ye are judged with the world (saith the apostle) that ye may not be condemned with the world." And when the godly man's affliction day is, he may say, Now is my judgment day, and I shall never be judged again; why therefore should he be discouraged, whatever his afflictions be?

And in the second place. This will appear also, if you consider, whence their afflictions come. If all the sufferings of God's people do come from divine love, the love of God in Christ to them, then have they no reason to be discouraged though they be much afflicted. Every rod is a rod of rosemary to them, fruits of their Father's love. And if you look into Heb. xii, ye shall find both the thing proved, and the inference. The thing is proved at ver. 6, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Which he illustrates by a similitude. Suppose a man have two sons, one a bastard and the other legitimate; he will rather give education and correction to the legitimate son, and neglect the bastard: and saith the apostle, ver. 8, "If ye be without chastisement, then are you bastards, and not sons." What then? Ver. 12, "Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. As if the apostle should say, If all the sufferings and afflictions and chastisements of the saints, do proceed from love, then have they no reason to hang down their hands or heads. But so it is, that all their sufferings come from love, and therefore no reason for their discouragements.

Thirdly. This will appear also, if you consider, what comes with the afflictions of the saints. There comes much supporting grace, much light, much of God's presence,

fellowship and communion with Christ in all his sufferings. Much supporting grace: "Thy rod, and thy staff comfort me." God never lays a rod upon his children's back, but he first puts a staff into their hand to bear it; and the staff is as big as the rod. It matters not what your afflictions be, great, or small, it is all one, you shall be upheld; and upholding mercy is sometimes better than a mercy that you are afflicted for the want of. But the Lord doth not only uphold his people under sufferings, but he gives forth much light therewithal. The school of the cross, is the school of light.* Affliction is our free-school, where God teacheth his children, and learns them how to write, both their sins and their graces. Their sins: so long as leaves are on the trees and bushes, ye cannot see the birds' nests: but in the winter when all the leaves are off, then ye see them plainly. And so long as men are in prosperity, and have their leaves on, they do not see what nests of sins and lusts are in their hearts and lives; but when all their leaves are off, in the day of their afflictions, then they see them and say, I did not think I had such nests of sins and lusts, in my soul and life. Job xxxvi. 6. "He withdraweth not his eye from the righteous" verse 8, "And if he be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction, then he shews them their works and their transgressions, that they have exceeded." Yea, afflictions do not only discover their sins unto them; but it is God's plaster, thereby he doth heal the same: "Before I was afflicted, I went astray," saith David. And Job xxxvi. 10," He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity." Yea, these afflictions and sufferings of the saints do not only discover and heal their sins; but do put them upon the exercise of grace: "In their afflictions (saith God) they will seek me early.” Yea, they do not only draw out their graces but discover their graces too, which possibly they did never take notice of before. I have read of some foolish youths, that sitting on the water side, upon the bank, and mingling their legs togegether in the water, they did not know their own legs; but one standing by, and smiting them on the knees with a staff, every one then knew his own legs, and pulled them up. And so

* Via crucis, via lucis.