Afflictions do lift up the soul to more rich, clear, and full enjoyments of God. Hos. ii. 14; Behold, I will lead her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her, or rather, as the Hebrew has it, I will earnestly or vehemently speak to her heart. God makes afflictions to be but inlets to the soul's more sweet and full enjoyment of his blessed self. When was it that Stephen saw the heaven's open, and Christ standing at the right hand of God, but when the stones were about his ears, and there was but a short step betwixt him and eternity. And when did God appear in glory to Jaoob, but in the day of his troubles, when the stones were his pillows, and the ground his bed, and the hedges his curtains, and the heavens his canopy? Then he saw the angels of God ascending and descending in their glittering robes. The plant in Nazianzen grows with cutting; being cut, it flourishes; it contends with the axe; it lives by dying, and by cutting it grows; so do saints by their afflictions that befal them. They gain more experience of the power of God supporting them, of the wisdom of God directing them, of the grace of God refreshing and cheering them, and of the goodness of God quieting and quickening them to a greater love of holiness, and to a greater delight in holiness, and to a more vehement pursuing after holiness.

I have read of a fountain that at noon-day is cold, and at midnight it grows warm; so many a precious soul is cold Godwards, and heavenwards, and holinesswards, in the day of prosperity, that grow warm Godwards, and heavenwards, and holinesswards, in the midnight of adversity.

Again, afflictions serve to keep the hearts of the saints humble and tender. Remembering my affliction, and my misery, the wormwood, and the gall; my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me, or bowed down in me, as the original has it. So David, when he was under the rod, could say, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

I have read of one, who, when any thing fell out prosperously, would read over the Lamentation of Jeremiah, and who kept his heart tender, humbled, and low. Prosperity does not contribute more to the puffing up the soul,

than adversity does to the bowing down of the soul. This the saints by experience find, and therefore they can kiss and embrace the cross, as others do the world's crown.

Again; they serve to bring the saints' nearer to God, and to make them more importunate and earnest in prayer with God. Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I will tear, and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him; I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early. And so they did. Come, say they, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight, Psalm cxix. 67, 71; Hosea v. 14, 15; vi. 1, 2. So when God had hedged up their way with thorns, then they say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it with me better than now. O the joy, the peace, the comfort, the delight, and content, that did attend us when we kept close communion with God, does bespeak our return to God. We will return to our first husband, for then was it with us better than now.

When Tiribazus, a noble Persian, was arrested, he drew out his sword, and defended himself; but when they told him, that they came to carry him to the king, he willingly yielded. So, though a saint may at first stand out a little, yet when he remembers that afflictions are to carry him nearer to God, he yields and kisses the rod. Afflictions are like the prick at the nightingale's breast, that awakes her, and puts her upon her sweet and delightful singing.

Again; afflictions serve to revive and recover decayed graces. They inflame that love which is cold, and they quicken that faith which is decaying, and they put life into those hopes which are withering, and spirits into those joys and comforts which are languishing. When musk,' says one, has lost its sweetness, if it be put into the sink amongst filth, it recovers it.' So do afflictions recover

and revive decayed graces. The more saints are beaten with the hammer of afflictions, the more they are made the trumpets of God's praise, and the more are their graces revived and quickened. Adversity abases the loveliness of the world, that might entice us; it abates the lustiness of the flesh within that might incite us to folly and vanity; and it abets the spirit in his quarrel with the two former, which tends much to the reviving and recovering of decayed graces.

Now suppose afflictions and troubles attend the ways of holiness, yet seeing that they all work for the great profit and singular advantage of the saints, let no soul be so mad, as to leave an afflicted way of holiness, to walk in a smooth path of wickedness.

Rem. 2. Solemnly consider that all the afflictions that befal the saints, do only reach their worse part; they reach not, they hurt not their noble part, their best part; all the arrows stick in the target, they reach not the conscience. And who shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? says the apostle; that is, None shall harm you; they may thus and thus afflict you, but they shall never harm you. A heathen, when he was commanded by a tyrant to be put into a mortar, and to be beaten to pieces with an iron pestle, cried out to his persecutors, 'You do but beat the vessel, the case, the husk, of Anaxarchus; you do not beat me.' His body was to him but as a case, a husk; he counted his soul himself, which they could not reach. You are know how to apply it.

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Socrates said of his enemies, 'They may kill me, but they cannot hurt me.' So afflictions may kill us, cannot hurt us: they may take away my life, but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown.

Rem. 3. Seriously consider that the afflictions which attend the saints in the ways of holiness, are but short and momentary. Sorrow may continue for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. This short storm will end in an everlasting calm; this short night will end in a glorious day, that shall never have an end. It is but a very short time between grace and glory, between our title to the crown, and our wearing the crown, between our right to

the heavenly inheritance and our possession of the heavenly inheritance. Fourteen thousand years to the Lord, are but as one day; what is our life, but a shadow; a bubble, a flower, a post, a span, a dream? Yea, so small a while does the hand of the Lord rest upon us, that Luther cannot get diminutives enough to extenuate it; for he calls it a very little cross that we bear. The prophet in Isa. xxvi. 20, says the indignation does not pass, but over pass. The sharpness, shortness, and suddenness of it is set forth by the travail of a woman, John xvi. 21. And that is a sweet scripture, For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry, Heb. x. 36. A little, little, little while.

When Athanasius's friends came to bewail with him because of his misery and banishment, he said, 'It is but a little cloud, and will quickly be gone.' It will be but as a day, before God will give his afflicted ones beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; before he will turn all your sighing into singing, all your lamentation into consolations, your sack-cloth into silks, ashes into ointments, and your fasts into everlasting feasts.

Rem. 4. Seriously consider that the afflictions that befal the saints, are such as proceed from God's dearest love. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Saints,' says

God, think not that I hate you, because I thus chide you.' He that escapes reprehension, may suspect his adoption. God had one son without corruption, but no son without correction. A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud, and see a God smiling on him, as by a rainbow we see the beautiful images of the sun's light, in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud. We must look through the anger of his correction to the sweetness of his countenance.

When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did and how he felt himself, he pointed to his sores and ulcers whereof he was full, and said; ‘These are God's gems and jewels, wherewith he decks his best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.' A soul at its first conversion is but rough

cast; but God by afflictions does square and fit, and fashion it for that glory above, which does speak them out to flow from precious love. Therefore the afflictions that attend the people of God should be no bar to holiness, and no motive to draw the soul to ways of wickedness.

Rem. 5. Solemnly consider that it is our duty and glory, not to measure afflictions by the smart, but by the end. When Israel was dismissed out of Egypt, it was with gold and ear-rings. So the Jews were dismissed out of Babylon with gifts, jewels, and all necessary utensils. Look more at the latter end of a Christian, than the beginning of his affliction. Consider the patience of Job, and what end the Lord made with him. Look not upon Lazarus lying at Dives' door, but lying in Abraham's bosom. Look not to the beginning of Joseph, who was so far from his dream that the sun and moon should reverence him, that for two years he was cast where he could see neither sun, moon, nor stars; but behold him at last made ruler over Egypt. Look not upon David, as there was but a step between him and death, nor as he was envied by some and slighted and despised by others, but behold him seated on his royal throne, and dying in his bed of honour, and his son Solomon and all his glittering nobles about him. Afflictions, are but as a dark entry into your Father's house; they are but as a dirty lane to a royal palace. Now tell me, souls, whether it be not very great madness to shun the ways of holiness, and to walk in the ways of wickedness, because of those afflictions that do attend the ways of holiness.

Rem. 6. Seriously consider that the design of God in all the afflictions that befal his people, is only to try them; it is not to wrong them nor to ruin them, as ignorant souls are apt to think. He knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold, says patient Job, xxiii. 10. So in Deut. viii. 2; Thou shalt remember. all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. God afflicted them thus, that he might make known to themselves and others what was in their hearts. When fire is put to green wood, there