foul; and though it is true, this judge is oft-times corrupted and bribed, or at least over-ruled in profperity; yet God inftru&teth it to speak good fense, and to speak out, and speak the truth in the time of affliction. I believe they hit the nail upon the head, who cried out one to the other, Verily we are guilty concerning our brother, Gen. Ixii. 21. Another cries verily I am guilty concerning my mafter, concerning my people; guilty concerning my wife, concerning my children, concerning my eftate, my time, my talents; and it be all true. may I believe the Heathen was in the right, who looked upon his hands and feet, and cried out, Judg. i. 7. As I have done, fo God hath requited me; and the Babylonish monarch' harped upon a right ftring after he was come to his right wits again. Dan. iv. 37. Thofe that walk in pride, he is able to abafe. God hath not given to our faculties any infallibility indeed, but he ena bles them to make good gueffes; and I am verily perfuaded, doth many times lay the hand upon the right fore, and order this fecret lottery from heaven: fo that, that faculty, or that frame, or that action which stands convicted in the court of confcience, is feldom held guiltless in the court of heaven. 3. It should work us to bumiliation and reformation; an heart broken, and a converfation bealed of his breaches. By humiliation, I mean, a heart broken purely, properly, and fpiritual for fin. I do not mean by it, an heart broken for loffes and afflictions, and bowing down itself heavily under the burden of its own diftreffes; no, nor an heart broken broken for fin, as viewing it only in the calamitous effects, and bitter fruits of it? Which I doubt is the humiliation of moft. Many may fay concerning their humiliation, to use the prophet's words in a different fenfe, Zach. xiii. 6. These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, by the lofs of my friends, the lofs of my health, the lofs of my goods; these tears that you fee, these groans that you hear, are nothing. but the fcar which the fore hath left behind it, and the wales which the rod hath made. doubt our very forrow for fin, in a time of affliction, admits of a mixture of carnal self and paffion, and fo of fin too. But I mean, a pure, fpiritual, pro'per forrow and hatred of fin; which I know may be broached by fharp afflictions, and have vent given to it by piercing the veffel; but that is not the proper caufe and ground of it. Mofes in his joy, had an eye to the recompence of reward, Heb. xi. 26. And so a christian in his forrow may have refpect to the recompence of his fin, I mean, his afflictions; but it is not primarily and principally caused by thefe; for though thefe dreadful fhowers from heaven fhould ceafe, yet the stream of his eyes, or at least the fountain of his heart would not cease iffuing forth bitter waters. Though the righteoufnefs of God ferves to give vent to godly forrow, yet it is the goodness and holinefs of God that gives it. Do we forrow for fin, because it spoiled us of our comforts, ftripped us of our ornaments? Then fure we think there is fomething in the world worse than fin, for which we fhould bewail it, and hate it; and fo confequently, that there is fomething better than D God, God, for which we should love him. Alas, how apt are we to run into a practical blafphemy before we be aware! In a word then to decide this controverfy, our afflictions, loffes, diftreffes in the world, may poffibly be as a bucket to draw up this water of godly forrow: but they must not be the ciftern to receive and hold it. Serious and fpiritual humiliation is a real converfing with the righteoufness of God. To meet God, indeed to fall down before him; and to converfe with him, is to lie down under him, the truth of which temper is best evidenced by that excellent commentator, the life of a Chriftian: this doth best declare the nature and interpret the meaning of heart humiliation. He that breaks off his fins doth best make it appear that his heart is broken for them. If you would know whether there have been rain in the night, look upon the ground and that will difcover. Oh my friends, if the dust be laid; if all earthly joys, contentments, pleasures, concernments, be laid, you may conclude your forrow was a shower sent into your fouls from heaven. If you fee a boy both fobbing and minding his book,. you may conclude he hath fome right sense of his master's severity. Converfion to God, is the most proper and real converfing with him in the way of his judgments: fo he himself interprets in that complaint made, Ifa. ix. 13. The people turneth not to him that fmiteth them, &c. That which happeneth to Mofes when he had been in the mount with God, Exod. xxxiv. 29. fhould also be the condition of every good Ifraelite, when he hath been with God in the valley, the vale of tears, and afflicted ftate: his, face fhould fhine, his converfation fhould witness that that he hath been with God; the fmell of this fire fhould pass upon his garments, his whole outwardman, The fpirit of mourning fhould be demonftrated by the fpirit of burning. If God from heaven fet fire on the standing corn of our worldly comforts, we muft anfwer him from within, and fet fire on the ftubble of our worldly lufts, and corruptions. Let me change our Saviour's words therefore a little, Matt, vi. 18. and exhort you earnestly: thou chriftian, when thou fafteft, when thou humbleft thy foul for fin, wash thy face alfo, cleanse thy outward converfation from all finfuĺ pollution, that thou mayeft appear to be humbled indeed. And this fhall be accounted as a true and real converfing with the righteousness of God in the time of affliction. 3. Converse with the faithfulness of God. This attribute of God hath refpect to his promifes; and therefore it may be you will think ftrange that I should speak of this in a difcourfe of afflictions, as not having place there at all. Every one will readily acknowledge that God's fovereignty and righteousness do clearly appear in his judgments; but how his faithfulness can be exercised therein, they fee not. What, faithful in punishing, in plaguing, in visiting, in afflicting, diftreffing his creature, how can that be? many will be ready to think rather, that God is not faithful at fuch a time, when he denies what he had promised to give, takes away what he had promised to continue; when he plagues David every morning, when he had promifed him that the plague should not come nigh his dwelling place; when he brings Abijah to the grave, whom he had promised that D 2 his his days fhould be long upon the land; and Job to the dunghil, to whom all the promises were made both of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Is this faithfulness? Doth God fulfil his promises by frustrating them? Notwithstanding all this, it feems that the faithfulness of God hath place in the afflictions of his people: for fo faith David exprefly, Pfal. cxix. 75. I know that in faithness thou haft afflicted me: if indeed faithfulness be taken properly in that place: neither indeed need it feem fo ftrange as fome men make it: for God hath promifed his covenant-people, to vifit their iniquity with a rod, Pfal. lxxxix, 32. The rad of a man; a fatherly chaftifement, as it is explained, 2 Sam. vii. 14. where this feems to be made a branch of the covenant, and is understood by many as a promife, But if that be not a plain promife, I am fure there is one in Pfal. lxxxiv. 11. No good thing will be with-hold from them that walk uprightly and if no good thing, then no correction neither, for that is often good and profitable for the people of God in this world for many excellent ends; which, confidering the nature of man, cannot well be accomplished without it; as might appear in many particulars; but it is not needful to run out into them. God will take more care of his own people, than of the rest of the world; and will rather correct them, than not reduce them. It is their main happiness that he takes sare for, and he will in kindness take out of the way whatever hinders it, and give whatever may promote it. God's thoughts are not as our thoughts: he judges otherwife of health, riches, liberty, friends, &c. than we do. We are apt to measure |