the use of any just or lawful means, whereby persons may be
meat;' his sighing, like bad weather, came unsent for and unsought:
so Ps. 38:9, 'Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is
not hid from thee.' Ps. 102:5, 'By reason of the voice of my groaning,
my bones cleave to my skin.' Job 3:24, 'And my roarings are poured
out like the waters.' Ps. 38:8, 'I am feeble and sore broken; I have
roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.' Ps. 22:1, 'My God!
my God! why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from
helping me, from the words of my roaring?' Ps. 32:3, 'When I kept
silence, my bones waxed old, through my roarings all the day long.'
He roars, but doth not rage; he roars, but doth not repine. When a
man is in extremity, nature prompts him to roar, and the law of grace
is not against it; and though sighing, roaring, groaning, cannot
deliver a man out of his misery, yet they do give some ease to a man
under his misery. When Solon wept for his son's death, one said to
him, Weeping will not help. He answered, Alas! therefore do I weep,
because weeping will not help. So a Christian many times sighs,
because sighing will not help; and he groans, because groaning will
not help; and he roars, because roaring will not help. Sometimes the
sorrows of the saints are so great, that all tears are dried up, and they
can get no ease by weeping; and therefore for a little ease they fall a-
sighing and groaning; and this may be done, and yet the heart may
be quiet and silent before the Lord. Peter wept and sobbed, and yet
was silent. Sometimes the sighs and groans of a saint do in some sort
tell that which his tongue can in no sort utter. But,
7. Seventhly, A holy, a prudent silence, doth not exclude nor shut out
the use of any just or lawful means, whereby persons may be
delivered out of their afflictions. God would not have his people so in
love with their afflictions, as not to use such righteous means as may
deliver them out of their afflictions: Mat. 10:23, 'But when they
persecute you in this city, flee you into another;' Acts 12:5, When
Peter was in prison, the saints thronged together to pray, as the
original hath it, ver. 12; and they were so instant and earnest with
God in prayer, they did so beseech and besiege the Lord, they did so
beg and bounce at heaven-gate, ver. 5, that God could have no rest,
till, by many miracles of power and mercy, he had returned Peter as a
bosom-favour to them: Acts 9:23–25, 'And after that many days were
fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: but their laying await was
known of Saul: and they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in
a basket.' The blood of the saints is precious in God's eye, and it
should not be vile in their own eyes. When providence opens a door
of escape there is no reason why the saints should set themselves as
marks and butts for their enemies to shoot at: 2 Thes. 3:1, 2, the
apostles desire the brethren 'to pray for them, that they may be
delivered from unreasonable (ἀτοποι, absurd) and wicked (πονηξὸι,
villainous) men; for all men have not faith.' It is a mercy worth a
seeking, to be delivered out of the hands of absurd, villainous, and
troublesome men.
Afflictions are evil in themselves, and we may desire and endeavour
to be delivered from them, James 5:14, 15, Isa. 38:18–21; both
inward and outward means are to be used for our own preservation.
Had not Noah built an ark, he had been swept away with the flood,