OF AFFLICTIONS; THE BEST PREPARATION FOR THEM, AND OF OUR DELIVERY OUT OF THEM. JOB V. 6, 7. ALTHOUGH AFFLICTION COMETH NOT FORTH OF THE DUST, NEITHER DOTH TROUBLE SPRING OUT OF THE GROUND: YET MAN IS BORN UNTO TROUBLE, AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARD. JOB's friends, though in the particular cafe of Job they were mistaken, yet they were certainly very wife, godly, and obferving men; and many of their fentences were full of excellent and useful truths, and particularly this fpeech of Eliphaz, which importeth these two useful propofitions: 1. That the general state of Man in this World, is a ftate of trouble and Affliction; and it is so common to him, fo incident to all degrees and conditions of mankind, that it seems almost as univerfal, as that natural propenfion in the fparks to fly upwards; no perfon of whatsoever age, fex, condition, degree, quality, profeffion, but hath a part of this common ftate of mankind; and although fome feem to have a greater portion of it than others, fome feem to have greater and longer viciffitudes and intermiffions and allays thereof than others, yet none are totally exempt from it; yea, it is rare to find any man, that hath had the ordinary extent of the age of man, but his troubles, croffes, calamities, afflictions, have overweighed and exceeded the measure of his comforts and contentments in this life. 2. That 1 2. That yet thofe Afflictions and troubles do neither grow up by a certain regular and conftant course of nature, as plants and vegetables do out of the ground; neither are they mere accidental and cafual, but they are fent, difpofed, directed, and managed by the conduct and guidance of the most wife Providence of Almighty God: and this he proveth in the sequel of the chapter. And as in all things in nature, the most wife God doth nothing at random, or at a venture, fo in this part of his providential dispensation towards mankind, he doth exercise the fame, with excellent wifdom, and for excellent ends; even for the very good and advantage of mankind in general, and particularly of those very persons that feem moft to fuffer and be afflicted by them; sometimes to punish, sometimes to correct, sometimes to prevent, fometimes to heal, fometimes to prepare, fometimes to humble, always to instruct, and teach, and better the children of men. And indeed, if there were no other end but these that follow, this feeming fharp Providence of Almighty God would be highly juftified: namely, firft, To keep men humble and difciplinable. Man is a proud, vain creature; and were that humour conftantly fed with profperity and fuccefs, it would ftrangely puff up this vain humour: Afflictions and troubles are the excellent and neceffary correctives of it, and prick this fwelling impoftumation of pride and haughtiness, which would otherwife render men intolerable in themselves and one to another. Secondly, To bring mankind to recognife Almighty God, to feek unto him, to depend upon him; this is the moft natural and fpecial effect of Afflictions, In their Afflictions 'they will feek me early!!' The rough and ftubborn mariners in a storm, will cry every one to his God 2. Thirdly, To tutor and difcipline the children of men in this great leffon, that their happiness lies not in this world, but in a better; and by this means, even by the croffes and vexations and troubles of this world, Hos. v. 15. * Jonah i. and and by these plain and fenfible documents, to carry mankind up to the end of their beings. God knows those few and little comforts of this life, notwithstanding all the troubles and croffes with which they are interlarded, are apt to keep the hearts, even of good men, in too great love of this world. What would become of us, if our whole lives here fhould be altogether profperous and contenting, without the intermixture of croffes and Afflictions? But of these things more hereafter. Now fince the state of mankind in this world is for the most part thus cloudy and stormy, and that ordinarily we can expect it to be no otherwise, there are thefe confiderations which become every wife and good mind to acquaint himself with: 1. What preparation is fit to be made by every man before they come. 2. How they are to be received, and entertained, and improved, when they come, and while they are incumbent. 3. What is the best and safest temper of mind when any of them are removed. 1. Touching the first of these, namely, preparation before they come; and the best preparatives feem to be these : 1. A right and found conviction, and confideration of this moft certain experimental truth; namely, That no man whatsoever, how good, juft, pious, wife foever, can by any means expect to be exempt from them, but must be more or lefs fubject to Affliction, of one kind or other, at one time or another, in one measure or another; for man is certainly born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. And this certain truth will be evident, if we confider the feveral kinds of Affliction that are common to mankind: And herein I fhall forbear the inftances which concern our childhood and youth as fuch, which yet notwithstanding are fubject to Afflictions, that though they seem not fuch to men of riper years, yet are as real and pungent, and deeply and fenfibly grievous to them, as thofe that feem of greater moment to men of riper years: But I shall apply myself to those instances which are more evident, and of which those that have the exercise of their reafon may be more capable. Afflictions feem to be of two kinds: 1. Such as are common calamities, befalling a nation, city, or fociety, of men: 2. Or more perfonal, that concern a man in his particular. 1. Touching the former of these, namely, common calamities, fuch as wars, devaftations, famines, pestilences, spreading contagions, epidemical diseases, great conflagrations: experience tells us, and daily lets us fee, that they involve in their extent the generality of men, good and bad, just and unjust, pious and prophane; and although the gracious God is fometimes pleased, for ends best known to himfelf, ftrangely to preserve and rescue, as it were, fome out of a common calamity, yet it is that which I do not know how any man can promise himself, though otherwise never fo pious and just, because I find not that any where under the Evangelical difpenfation God Almighty hath promised to any perfon any fuch immunity; and common experience fhews us, that good and bad are oftentimes involved in the effects and extremities of the fame common calamity. And indeed it would be little lefs than a miracle, and somewhat above the ordinary course of the Almighty's regiment of things, to give particular exception in fuch cases. If a man receive any fuch bleffing from God, he is bound eminently to acknowedge it as a fignal, if not miraculous intervention of the Divine Mercy, but it is not that which a man can reasonably expect; because, although upon great and momentous occafions Almighty God is pleafed not only to give out miracles, but even to promife them alfo, as in the juftifying of the truth of the Gofpel in the firft publication thereof, yet it is not equal for any particular person to fuppofe, that for the prefervation of a particular particular intereft or concernment, God Almighty fhould be, as it were, engaged to put forth a miracle, or little less than a miracle; and the reafens hereof are, 1. Because under the Evangelical Di penfation, the rewards of goodness, piety, and obedience, are of another kind, and of greater moment, namely, eternal happinefs, and not exemption from temporal calamities. If Almighty God grant fuch an exemption, it is of bounty and abundance, not of promife. It is true, under the Old Covenant with the people of Ifrael, their promises were in a great measure of temporal benefits, and the administration of that church, as it was in a great measure typical, so the Divine Administration over them was very usually miraculous, both in their bleffings, prefervations, and exemptions: And there was special reafon for it; for they were to be a monument to all mankind, and also to future ages, of a special and signal Divine regiment; and confequently the obedient might, upon the account of the Divine promife, expect bleffings and deliverances, even in public calamities, that might befall the people in general: But we have no warrant to carry over thofe promises of temporal benefits and exemptions to the obedience under the Gospel, which as it is founded upon another covenant, fo it is furnished with better promises. 2. Because, the best of men in this life, have fins and failings enough to justify the juftice of Almighty God, in expofing them to temporal calamities; and yet his mercy, goodness, and bounty, is abundantly magnified in referving a reward in heaven far beyond the merit of their best obedience and dutifulnefs; fo that though they are exposed to temporal calamities, Almighty God still remains not only a true and faithful, but a liberal and bountiful Lord unto them in their everlasting rewards 1. What are light Afflictions, and but for a moment, in comparison to an eternal weight of glory? And the latter is the reward of their obedience under 1 2 Cor. iv. 17. Rom. viii. 18. the |