CHAP V
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces.
4CHAP.
V Shewingwhat probation adversity makes of the sincerity or unfoundness of our hearts.
SECT.
HAT adversity is a furnace to try of what metal our T hearts are, none can doubt, that hath either studied the scuptures, or observed his own heart under afflictions.
When the dross and rust of hypocrisy and corruption hadalmosteaten out the heart of religion among the Jews, then faith
God, " I will melt them, and try them; for what shall Ido " for the daughter of my people ?" Jer ix. 7. Here affliction is the furnace, and the people are the metal cast into it, and the end of it is trial.
I will melt them, and try them , what other course shall I take with them ?
If I let them alone, their lusts, like the rust and canker in metals, will eat them out.
Prosperity multiplies professors, andadversitybring them to the test; thenhirelings quickly become changlings. The guilded potsherdglisters till it come to scouring. The devil thought Job had been fuchaone, and moves that he may be tried this way; being confident he would be found but dross in the trial,
Job i. 11. But though the furnace of affliction discovered some dross in him (as it will in the best of men) yet he came forth as gold.
In this furnace also grace is manifested: it is said, Rev. xiii.
10. " Here is the faith and patience of the saints ;" i e. here is the trial and discovery of it in these days of adversity.
It was a weighty saying of * Tertullian to the perfecutors of the church in his days, Probatio innocentiae noftrae, eft iniquitas veftra; Your wickedness is the trial of our innocency.
Constant i us, the father of Constantine, made an exploratory decree, that all who would not renounce the Christian faith, should lose their places of honour and profit.
This presently separated the dross from the gold, which was his design; for many renounced Christianity, and thereupon were renounced by him ; and those that held their integrity, were received into favour.
In time of prosperity, hypocrisy lies covered in the heart like nests in the green bushes ; butwhenthewinter of adver- * Tertul. inApol.
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces. fity hath made them bare, every body may see them without searching.
But to fall into closer particulars ; it will be necessary to enquire what effects of adversity are commontoboth the found and the unsound; and then what are proper to either in this close trial by adversity.
SECT.
II.
IT will be expedient to the design I manage in this discourse, to shew in the first place what are the common effects of adversity to both the godly and ungodly; for in some things they differ not, but as it is with the one, so also with the other : As,
1. First, Both the godlyand ungodlymayfear adversity before it comes : to be sure a wicked man cannot, and it is evident many godly men do not, come up to the height of that rule, James i. 2. " To account italljoywhen they fall into di- " verse temptations," or trialsbyadversity.
It is said, Ifa. xxxiii. 14. " The sinners in Zion are afraid; " trembling furprizeth the hypocrite ;" namely, under the apprehension of approaching calamities; and it is true also, the \ faints in Zion may be afraid : "My flesh trembleth for fear of " thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments," said holy David,
Psal. cxix. 120. and Job iii . 23. " The thing which I greatly " feared(faith that upright foul) is come upon me." There isa vast difference betwixt a saint's first meeting with afflictions, and hispartingwiththem; he entertains them sometimes with trembling; he parts with them rejoicing, smiling on them, andbleffingthem in the name of the Lord. So that by this the upright, and the false heart, are not discriminated; even sanctified nature declines suffering and troubles.
2. Secondly, Both the godly and ungodly may entertain afAictions with regret and unwillingness when they come. Affictions and troubles are wormwood and gall, Lam. iii. 19.
And that goes notdownpleasantly with fleshandblood, Heb. xii. 11 .
No affliction for the present seemeth joyous, but " grievous ;" he means to God's own people ; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations or trials by the rod,
1 Pet. i. 6.
WhenGodgives the cup of affliction into the hands of the wicked, how do they reluctate and loath it ? How do their stomachs rise at it ? And thought he portion of the saints cup be much sweeter than theirs,(for that bitter ingredient of God's vindictive wrath is not in it), yet even they shrink from it, and loth they are to taste it.
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces.
3. Thirdly, Both the one and other may be impatient and fretful in adversity; it is the very nature of flesh and blood to be fo.
" The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot 65 reft, whose waters cast forth mire and dirt," Ifa. lvii. 20.
It is an allusion to the unstable and stormy ocean : you know there is naturally an estuation and working in the sea, whether it be incensed by the wind or no; but if a violent wind blow upon the unquiet ocean, O what a raging and foaming is there ! what abundance of trash and filth doth it at such times cast out!
Now, though grace make a great difference betwixt one and another, yet I dare not say, but even a gracious heart may be very unquiet and tumultuous in the day of affliction.
Sanctified fouls have their passions and lusts which are too little mortified; even as sweat-briar and holy-thistles have their prickles, as well as the worthless bramble.
Jonah was a good man, yet his foul was sadlydistempered by adverse providences ; Jonah iv. 9.
" Yea, (faith he, and that to his God) Ido well to be angry, "evenuntodeath."
4. Fourthly, Both the one and the other maybe weary of the rod, and think the day of adversity a tedious day, wishing it were once at an end.
Babylon shall be weary of the evil that God will bring upon it, Jer. li. ult. An dO that none of Zion's children were weary of adversity too! How sad a moan doth
Job make of his long continued affliction, Job xvi. 6, 7.
" Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged ; and though I " forbear, what am I eased ?
But now he hath made me " weary."
And if you look into Psalm vi. 3, 6. you may fee another strong Christian even tired in the way of affliction : "My soul
(faith David in that place) is sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, " how long ? I am weary with my groaning."
5. Fifthly, Both the one and the other may be driven to their knees by adversity.
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee; they have poured out a prayer when thy chasteningwas upon them," Ifa. xxvi. 16.
Not that agodly per ton will pray no longer than the rod is at his back ; Ono, he cannot live without prayer long, how few calls soever he hath to that duty
" by the rod ; but when the rod is on his back, he will be more frequently and more fervently upon his knees; indeed many graceless hearts are like childrens tops, which will go no longer than they are whipt; they cannot find their knees and their tongues, till God find a rod to excite them. A dangerous symptom. The fame affliction may put a gracious, and a grace-
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces. less soul to their knees ; but though in the external matter of duty, and in the external call or occasion of duty, they seem to agree, yet is there a vast difference in the principles, manner, and ends of these their duties; as will evidently appear in its proper place in our following discourse.
But by what hath been said in this section, you may see how in some things the holy upright foul acts too like the unsanctified, and in other things how much the hypocrite may act like a faint; he may be externally humbled, so was Ahab ; he may pray under the rod, Mal. ii.
3. yea, and request others to pray for him, so did Simon, Acts viii. 24.
SECT.
III.
BUT though the found and unsound heart differ not in some external carriages under the rod, yet there are effects of adversity which are proper to either, and will discriminate them.
To which end let us first see what effects adversity is usually followed withal in unsound and carnal hearts ; and we shall find among others, these five symptoms of a naughty heart appearingundercrosses and afflictions.
1. First, Agraceless heart is not quickly and easily brought to see the hand of God in those troubles that befal it, and be duly affected with it; Ifa. xxvi. 11. " Lord, when thy hand is
" lifted up, they will not fee:" when it has smitten, or is lifted up to smite, they shut their eyes ; it is the malice of this man, or the negligence of that, or the unfaithfulness of another, that hath brought all this troubleuponmc.
Thus the creature is the horizon thatterminates their fight, and beyond that they usually fee nothing.
Sometimes indeed the hand of God isfo immediately manifested, and convincingly discovered in afflic tions, that they cannot avoid the fight of it, and then they may, in their way, pour out a prayer before him; but ordinarily they impute all to second causes, and overlook the first cause of their troubles.
2. Secondly, Nor is it usual with these men under the rod to retire into their closets, and search their hearts there, to find out the particular cause and provocation of their affliction :
" Noman repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have " I done ?" Jer. viii. 6.
What cursed thing is there with me, that hath thus incensed the anger of God against me ! God vi fits their iniquities with afflictions, but they visit not their own hearts by self-examinations. God judges them, but they judge not themselves: He shews their iniquities in a clear glass, but none faith, What have I done ?
This phrase, What have I
Adversity & Furnace to try our Graces.
done? is the voice of one that recollects himself after a rath action; or the voice of a man astonished at the discovery afflictionsmake of his fins , but no such voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal men.
3.Thirdly, An unfoundprofeffor, if left to his choice, would rather chuse sin than affliction ; and fees more evil in that, than in this.
And it cannot be doubted, if we confider the principle by whichallunregenerate men are acted, is sense,not faith. Hence
Job's friends would have argued his hypocrisy, Job xxxvi. 21.
And had their application been as right as their rule, it would have concluded it; This (viz. fin) hast thou chosen, rather than affliction.
I do not say that an upright man cannot commit a moral evil, to escape a penal evil. O that daily observation did not tooplentifully furnith us with fadinstances of that kind ! But uprightonesdo not, dare not, uponaserious deliberate difcuffionanddebate, chuse sin rather than affliction ; what they may do upon surprisals, and in the violence of temptation, is of another nature.
But a false andunfound heart discovers itself in the choice it makes upon deliberation, and that frequently when fin and trouble come in competition.
Put the case, faith Augustine, a ruffian should with one hand fetthe cup of drunkenness to thy mouth, and with the otheradagger to thy breast, and fay, drink or die; thou shouldest rather chuse to die sober, than to liveadrunkard: And many Christians have resisteduntoblood,
Ariving against fin, and, with renownedMoses, chosenafflic. tion, the worst of afflictions, yea, death itself in the most for midableappearance, rather than fin; and it is the habitual temper and resolution of every gracious heart so to do, though those holy resolutions are sometimes over-borne by violence of temptation.
But the hypocrite dreads less the defilement of his soul, than the loss of his estate, liberty, or life.
If you ask upon what groundthendoth the apostle suppose, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. a man may give his body to be burnt, and not have charity; that the salamander of hypocrisy may live in the flame of martyrdom? The answer is at hand; They that chusedeath in the fenfeof this text, donotchuse it to escape fin, but to feed and indulge it. Those strange adventures (ifanyfuch be) are rather to maititain their own honour, and enrol their names among worthyandfamous persons to posterity; or out of ablindzeal
VOL. VII.
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces. to their espoused errors and mistakes, than in a due regard to thegloryofGod, and the preservation of integrity. ' I fear to
• speak it, but it must be spoken, (faith * Hierom), That even • martyrdom itself, when suffered for admiration and applause,
*profits nothing, but that blood is thed in vain.'
4. Fourthly, It is the property of an unregenerate soul, under, adversity, to turn from creature to creature for support and comfort, and not from every creature to God alone.
So long as their feet cantouchground, I mean, feel any creature relief or comfort under them, they can subsist and live in afflictions ; butwhenthey lose ground, when all creature refuge fails, then their hearts fail too.
Thus Zedekiah, and the self-deceiving Jews, when they saw their own strength failed them, and there was little hope left that they should deliver themselves from the Chaldeans, what. do they in that strait ? Do they, with upright Jehoshaphat say,
" Our eyes are unto thee ?"
No, no, their eyes were upon Egypt for fuccour, 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 a fore plunge and distress 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, Flecterefinequeam 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 estate be lost, and a family sinking, do they with David comfort themselves in the everlasting covenant, ordered and sure ? No, no ; but if one relation die, there is another alive ; if an estate be lost, yet not all; something is left still, and the case will mend.
As long as ever tuch 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. Fifthly, To conclude; an unfoundheart 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 they are afflic- * Times dicere, feddicendum eft; martyrium ipfumfiideo fiat ut admiration i et laudi habeatur a fratribus : fruftrafanguis effufus eft. Hier.
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces.
" ted, the worse they are.
Why should ye be smitten any " more ? ye will revolt more and more," Ifa. i. 5. And, to keep to our metaphor, consult Jer. vi. 29. Godhadput that incorrigible people into the furnace of affliction, and kept them long in that fire; and what was the issue ? Why, faith the prophet, " The bellows are burnt, the lead isconfumedof 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 these beevenspent in reproving, and threatening, and denouncing woeuponwoe,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 the flesh boiling in it, as is noted (pertinently to my discourse) in Ezek. xxiv. 6, 13. the scum remains with them, and cannot be separated by the fire; and 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 thathavehadthousands 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 agracelessheart.
SECT.
IV.
Y this time, reader, I suppose thou art desirous to know meet with an honest and sincere heart : Only, before I come to particulars, I think it needful to acquaint thee, that the fruits of afflictions are mostly after-fruits, and not sodifcernableby the Christian himself under the rod, as after he hath been exercised by ir, Heb. xii. 11. and calmly relects upon what is past; nor doth every Christian attain the fame 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. First, The sincere and upright foul betakes itself to God -in affliction ; Job i. 20. When God was smiting, Job was praying; when God afflicted, Job worshipped:
So David, Plalm cxvi. 3, 4. " I found sorrow and trouble, then called I U2
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces.
"upon the name of the Lord." And when the messenger of Satanbuffered Paul, " For this cause(faith he) I be fought the " Lord thrice," 2 Cor. xii. 8. Alas ! whither should a child go in distress, but to its father ?
2. Secondly, He fees and owns the hand of God in his afflic tions, how much or little soever of the instruments of trouble appear.
The Lord hath taken away, taith 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 apprehension is fundamental to all that communion men have with God in their affl étions, and to all that peaceableness and gracious submission of their spirits under the rod : He that lees nothing of God in his troubles, hath nothing of God in his soul.
3. Thirdly, He can justityGod in all the afflictions and troubles that come upon him, be they never so levere. " Thou
" art ju in all that is brought upon us," saith Nehemiah, Neh. ix. 33. " Thou hast punished us less than our iniqui- " tiesdeferve," saith Ezra, Ezra ix. 13. " It is of the Lord's
" mercy we arenotconfumed," 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 justify God; if God cast him into a sea of trouble, yet he will acknowledge, in all that feaoftrouble, there is notonedrop of injustice. If I have notdeferved such usage from the hands of men, yet I have deserved worse than this at the hands of God.
4. Fourthly, Afflictions use to 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 : effect put for the cause, to shew where one is, the other will
The be, 2Cor. xii. 21. My God will humble me, i. e. he will afflict me with the fight of your fins and disorders ; and if a gracious foul be so apttobe humbled for other mens sins, much more for his own.
5. Fifthly, The upright foul is inquisitive under the rod, to find out that evil for which the Lord contendswith him by affliction ; Job x. 2. " Shew me wherefore thoucontendestwith
" me:" And Job xxxiv. 32. " That which I see not, teach thou me :
If I have done iniquity I will do no more." So Lam. iii. 39, 40. " Let us search and try our ways, and turn a- "gain to the Lord." In afflicting,God searches them, andupder affiction they search themselves : Willingtheyare to hear
Adversity a Furnace to try our Graces.
the voice of the rod, and glad of any discovery it makes of their hearts.
Sixthly, The upright heart chuseth to ly under affliction, rather than to be delivered from it by fin.
I say, this is the choiceandresolution of every upright heart, however it maybe sometimes over-borne by the violence of temptation, Heb. xi.
35. Notacceptingdeliverance, viz. upon sinful terms and conditions.
They are sensible how the flesh smarts under the rod, but had rather it should finart, thanconfcience should smart 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 so dear for it, how much soever Idefire it : Nolo tanti emere poenitentiam : Outward ease is sweet, but inward peace is sweeter.
7. Seventhly, He prizeth the spiritual goodgottenby afflietion, above deliverance from it, and can bless God from his heart for those mercies, how dear soever his flemhath paid for them; Psalm cxix. 67, and71. " 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, whatever 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 haveenduredunder the rud.
Is patience improved, self-acquaintance increased, the vanity ofthecreaturemore effectuallytaught, longings after heaven enflamed ? O blessed afflictions, that are attended with such blessed fruits !
It was the saying of a holyman, under a fore trouble for the death of anonlyfon,when inthatdarkdayGod hadgraciouslymanifestedhimself to his soul ;
'O, (faith he) I 'wouldbecontented, if it were possible, to layanonly son in the grave everyday I have to live in the world, for one such
*discovery of the love of God as I now enjoy.'