The Art of Contentment, Section 8
SECT. VIII.
Of the Advantage of Afflictions.
1. IT were the work of a volume to give an exact and minute account of the benefit of afflictions. I shall only point at some of the more general and obvious. And first it is one of the most awakening calls to repentance; and to this end it is that God most usually designs it. We see the whole scene of it, Hos. 5. 15. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledg their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early: and in the very next verse we find this voice of God echoed forth by a penitential note, Come 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. Thus we find the Brethren of Ioseph, tho there had a long interval passed betwixt their barbarous usage of him, and his feigned rigor to them, yet when they saw themselves distrest by the one, then they begin to recollect the other, saying, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, Gen. 42. 21. Prosperity is an intoxicating thing, and there are few brains strong enough to bear it; it laies us a sleep, and amuses us with pleasant dreams, whil'st in the mean time Satan rifles our tresures, and spoiles us, by the deceitful charms of sin, of our innocency and real happiness. And can there be a more friendly office don for a man in this condition, then to rouze him, and bring him to apprehend the designs that are laid against him? And this is the errand on which afflictions are sent: so that we have reason to look on them as our friends and confederates that intend our rescue, and to take the alarm they give us, and diligently seek out those intestine enemies of which they warn us. And he that instead of this, quarrels at their interposing, thinks them his enemies because they tell him the truth, Gal. 4. 16. do's miserably pervert the counsel of God against himself, Luk. 7. 30. and may at last verify his own jealousies; and by so provoking an ingratitude, convert those into the wounds of an enemy, which were originally meant as the corrections of a Father.
2. AND as afflictions do thus in general admonish us of sins, so it pleases God most frequently so to model and frame them, that they bear the very image and impress of those particular guilts they are to chastise, and are the dark shadows that attend our gay delights, or flagrant insolencies. The wise man observes that the turning the Egyptian waters into blood, was a manifest reproof of that cruel commandment for the murdering of the Hebrew infants, Wisd. 12. 5. And surely we might in most if not all our sufferings, see some such corresponding circumstances; as may lead us to the immediate provoking cause of it. God who do's all things in number, weight, and mesure, do's in punishments also observe a symmetry and proportion, and adapts them not only to the heinousness, but even the very specific kind of our crimes. The only fixt immutable rule he has given for his Vice-gerents on earth to punish by, is that in the case of murder, which is we see grounded on this rule of proportion, He that sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed, Gen. 9. 6. And tho he have now rescinded the inferior retaliations of the eie for the eie, the tooth for the tooth, Exod. 21. 24. (probably for the hardness of our hearts, because he saw our revengeful natures would be too much pleased with it) yet he has not precluded himself from acting by those mesures, but we see it do's very often signally make men feel the smart of those violencies or injustices they have used to others. Of this the Sacred story affords several examples (as Adonibezek, Jud. 1. 6. and Ahab, 1 King. 21. 19.) and profane many more, and daily experience and observation most of all. And tho this method of retaliation is not alwaies so evident and apparent to the world, because mens sins are not alwaies so, yet I believe if men would duly recollect, it would be for the most part discernable to their own consciences, and they would apparently see, that their calamities did but trace the footsteps of their sins.
3. NOW if we rightly weigh this, we cannot but think it a very advantageous circumstance. We are naturally blind when we look inward, and if we have not some adventitious light to clear the object, will be very apt to overlook it. Therefore since the end of all our afflictions is our repentance, it is a wise and gracious disposal, that they do thus point to us those particular sins of which we are to repent. The body of sin will not be destroied in the whole entire bulk, but must be dismembred, pull'd to pieces limb by limb. He that attaques it otherwise, will be like Sertorius's soldier, who ineffectively tugg'd at the horses tail to get it off at once, when he that pull'd it hair by hair, quickly did it. Therefore as it is a great part of our spiritual Wisdom to know in what especial parts the Sampson-like strength of our corruptions lie, so is it a great instance of Gods care of us, thus by his corrections to discipline and instruct us in it.
4. In all our afflictions therefore it is our concern, nicely and critically to observe them. I mean not to enhance our murmurs and complaints, but to learn by them what is Gods peculiar controversy against us. This is indeed to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, Mic. 6. 9. Let him therefore that suffers in any of his concerns, examin whether he have not some corresponding guilt which answers to it, as face answers face, Prov. 27. 19. He that is impoverished in his estate, let him consider first how he acquired it, whether there were not somthing of fraud or injustice, which like a cancrous humor, mixt in its very elements and constitution, and eat out its bowels: or whether some sacrilegious prize, some coal from the altar have not fired his nest. Or if nothing can be charged upon the acquest, let him consider how he has used it; whether he have not made it the fuel of his lusts, in riot and excesses, or the object of his adoration in an inordinate value of it. In like manner he who is afflicted in his body, groans under the torment of some grievous disease, may very seasonably interrogate himself, whether it have not bin contracted by his vice, whether his bones be not (in a more literal sense then Iob meant it) full of the sins of his youth, Job. 20. 11. and his furfeting and drunkeness be not the cause, that his soul, as the Psalmist speaks, abhors all manner of meat, and is even hard at deaths door, Psal. 107. 18. or at least whether the not imploying his health and strength to those purposes for which twas given, is not the reason of its being withdrawn. He also that is invaded in his reputation, that lies under some great infamy, is to consider whether it be not deserved; whether some part if not the whole guilt of which he is accused, stick not to him: or if he be clear in that particular instance, whether some conceled sin of his would not if it were known, incur as great scandal: for in that case he has in right forfeited his reputation, and God may make the feizure as well by an unjust, as a just accusation. Or if his heart accuse him not here, yet let him farther reflect, whether his vain-glorious pursuits of praise and high conceits of himself, have not made this an apt and necessary humiliation for him. Or lastly let him recollect how he has behaved himself towards others in this kind: whether he have had a just tenderness of his neighbors fame, or have not rather exposed and prostituted it. In these and many other instances such a particular scrutiny, would (in all probability) discover the affinity and cognation between our guilts and our punishments, and by marking out the spring and fountain head, direct us how to stop or divert the current. And he that would diligently imploy himself in this inquisition, would find little leisure and less cause to condole his afflictions, but would divert all his complaints upon himself, accept of the punishment of his iniquity, and thank the Lord for thus giving him warning, Psal. 16. 8.
5. A second benefit which God designs us in our afflictions is the weaning us from the world, to disentangle us from its fetters and charms, and draw us to himself. We read in the story of the Deluge, that so long as the earth was covered with waters, the very Raven was contented to take shelter in the Ark, but when all was fair and dry, even the Dove finally forsook it, Gen. 8. 12. And tis much so with us, the worst of men will commonly in distresses have recourse to God (the very heathen mariners in a storm could rebuke Ionah for not calling upon his God, Jon. 1. 6.) when yet the very best of us, are apt to forget him amidst the blandishments and insinuations of prosperity. The kind aspects of the world are very enchanting, apt to inveigle and besot us, and therefore it is Gods care over us, to let us sometimes see her more averting countenance in her frowns and storms; that, as children frighted by some ugly appearance, we may run into the arms of our father. Alas were all things exactly fitted to our humors here, when should we think of a remove? and had not death some harbingers to prepare us or him, what a surprising guest would he be to us? Tis storied of Antigonus, that seing a soldier in his camp of so dareing a courage that he alwaies courted the most hazardous attemts, and observing him also of a very infirm sickly habit, he took a particular care of him, and by medicines and good attendance recovered him; which no sooner he had don, but the man grew more cautious, and would no longer expose himself as formerly; and gave this reason for it, that now he was healthy his life was of some value to him, and not to be hazarded at the same rate, as when it was only a burden; and should God cure all our complaints, render us perfectly at ease, I fear too many of us would be of the soldiers mind, think our lives too good to resign to him, much more to hazard for him, as our Christianity in many cases obliges us. The son of Syrach observes how dreadful death is to a man that is at rest in his possessions, that hath abundance of all things, and hath nothing to vex him, nay he descends much lower; and puts in him who is yet able to receive meat, Ecclus. 14. 1. The truth is we do so passionately dote upon the world, that like besotted lovers, we can bear a great deal of ill usage, before we quit our pursuit. Any little slight favor atones us after multiplied affronts, and we must be disciplined by repeted disappointments, ere we can withdraw our confidence. But how fatally secure should we be, if God should permit this Siren alwaies to entertain us with her music, and should not by some discordant grating notes, interrupt our raptures, and recal us to sober thoughts?
6. INDEED tis one of the highest instances of Gods love, and of his clemency also, thus to project our reducement. We were all in our Baptism affianced to him, with a particular abrenunciation of the world, so that we cannot without the greatest disloialty cast our selves into its embraces; and yet when we have thus broken the covenant of our God, Prov. 2. 17. he do's not pursue us with a jealous rage, with the severity which an abused rival'd kindness would suggest, doth not give us a bill of divorce and disclame his relation; but contrives how he may reclame and bring us back to himself. The transcendency of this lenity God excellently describes by the prophet in the case of Israel They say if a man put away his wife, and she become another mans shall he return unto her again? but thou hast plaied the harlot with many lovers, yet return unto me saith the Lord, Jer. 3. 1. And this tho a great height of indulgence, is no more then he daily repetes to us. After we have basely adulterated with the world, converted our affections from God to it, he do's not give us over, abandon us to our leud course, and consequent ruin; but still invites our return, and lest that may not serve, he do's with a great deal of holy artifice essay to break that accured League into which we are enter'd, pulls off the disguise in which the world courted us, and makes us see it as it is it self, a scene of vanity and vexation of spirit, Eccles. 1. 14.
6. AND as he do's this in general, so also with a particular application to those temporal satisfactions wherewith we were most transported; the things to which we are more indifferent do not so much endanger us, tis those upon which we have more vehemently set our hearts which become our snares, and awake his jealousy; and accordingly we frequently see that tis in those he chuses to cross us. How often do's it happen that those which are enamoured of themselves, dote upon their own features, do meet with some disease or accident which blasts their beauty, withers that faire flower, and makes their winter overtake their spring? So in our friends and relations tis usually seen, we soonest loose those for whom we have the greatest, the most immoderate passion. If there be one fondling among our children, tis odds but that is taken away, or made as much the object of our grief and sorrow, as ever it was of our joy and love. When God sees our hearts so excessively cleave to any transitory thing, he knows tis necessary to sever them, for whilst we have such clogs upon us, our souls will cleave to the dust. Psa. 119. 1. will not be able to soare up to the higher region for which they are design'd.
7. IN a word God so loves us, that he removes what ever he sees will obstruct that intimate union which he desires with us, and sure this is so obliging, that tho he should bid us to our loss, tho he could not recompence us for what he takes from us, yet we must be very ill natur'd if we can be angry at so much kindness. But when to this is added that all this is principally, nay solely design'd for our advantage, that God takes from us all these emty delusory contentments merely that he may instate us in solid and durable joies; we betray as much ignorance of our interest, as insensibleness of our obligation, if we repine that God makes us so much his care. Tis true indeed, the things to which we have so inordinatly adhered, do stick so close, that they cannot be pull'd away without some pain: yet for our corporal security we can endure the sundring of parts that do not only cleave, but grow to us. He that has a gangrend member suffers it to be cut off to save his whole body, and do's not revile, but thank and reward the Chirurgion. Yet where our souls are concern'd, and where the things have no native union with us, but are only cemented by our passions, we are impatient of the method, and think God deals very hardly with us, not to let us perish with what we love. The sum of all is this, God tho he be abundantly condescending, yet he will never stoop so low as to share his interest in us with the world: if we will devote our selves to it, tis not all our emty forms of service will satisfy him, if he cannot divorce our hearts from it, he will divorce himself eternally from us. And the case being thus, we are sure very ill advised if we do not contentedly resign our selves to his methods, and cheerfully endure them how sharp soever. The only expedient we have for our own ease, is to shorten the cure by giving our assistance, and not by struglings to render it more difficult and painful, let us entirely surrender our wills to him, and when we have don that, we may without much pain let him take any thing else. But the more difficult we find it to be disentangled from the world, the greater should our caution be against all future engagements to it. If our escape hath bin as the Apostle saies, so as by fire, Jud. 23. with much smart and hazard, let us at least have so much wit, as the common proverb allows children, and not again expose our selves: let us never glue our hearts to any external thing, but let all the concerns of the world hang loose about us: by that means we shall be able to put them off insensibly when ever God calls for them, or perhaps we shall prevent his calling for them at all, it being for the most part, our too close adhesion to them which promts him to it.
8. A third advantage of afflictions is, that it is a mark and signature of our adoption, a witness of our legitimation. What son is he (saith the Apostle) whom the Father chastiseth not? but if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons, Heb, 12. 7. 8. Iacob clad his dearling Ioseph in a party-coloured Coat, and Gods favorites do here wear a Livery inter-woven with a mixture of dark and gloomy colours; their long white robes are laid up for them against they come to the marriage of the Lamb, Rev. 19 7. Indeed we much mistake the design of Christianity, if we think it calls us to a condition of ease and security. It might suit well enough with the votaries of the Golden Calf, to sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play, Exod. 32. 6. but the disciples of the crucified Savior are trained to another discipline, our profession enters us into a state of warfare, and accordingly our very Baptismal engagement runs all in military terms, and we are not only servants of Christs family, but soldiers of his camp. Now we know in a war men must not expect to pass their time in ease and softness, but besides all the dangers and difficulties of the combat, have many other hardships to endure; hunger and thirst, heat and cold, hard lodgings and weary marches: and he that is too nice for those, will not long stick to his colors. And it is the same in our spiritual warfare, many pressures and sufferings are annexed to it, and our passive valor is no less tried then our active. In respect of this it is that our Savior admonishes his Profelytes to compute first the difficulties incident to their profession, and that he may not ensnare us by proposing too easy terms, he bids us reckon upon the worst, and tells us, that he that forsakes not all that he hath, shall not be his disciple, Luk. 14. 26. and that we must thro much tribulatiou enter into the kingdom of God, Act. 14. 22. Indeed twere very absurd for us to expect easier conditions, when these are the same to which our Leader has submitted, the Captain of our Salvation was perfected by sufferings. Heb. 2. 10. and if it behooved Christ to suffer before he enter'd into his glory, Luk 24. 46. it were insolent madness for us to look to be carried thither upon our beds of Ivory, of from the noise of our harps and viols, be immmediatly rapt into the Choire of Angels.
8. THIS has bin so much consider'd by pious men, that they have lookt upon their secular prosperities with fear and jealousy, and many have solemnly petition'd for crosses, as thinking them the necessary attestation of their son-ship, and means of assimulation to their elder brother. Why then should that which was so desirable to them, appear so formidable to us? or why should we so vehemently deprecate, what they so earnestly invited? If we indeed think it a privilege to be the sons of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, why do we grudg at the condition? The Roman Captain tells St. Paul that he obtained the immunities of a Roman with a great sum, Act. 22. 28. and shall we expect so much a nobler and more advantageous adoption perfectly gratis? look that God should change his whole Oeconomy for our ease, give us an eternal inheritance discharged of those temporal incumbrances himself has annexed to it This were sure as unjust a hope as it would be a vain one. When David had that ensnaring proposal made him of being the Kings son in law, 1 Sam. 18. 21. he set such a value upon the dignity, that he despised the difficulty of the condition: and sure we must have very low abject souls, if when so infinitly a higher advancement is sincerely offer'd us, we can suffer any apprehension of hardship to divert us. In a word let us remember that of the Apostle, if we suffer, we shall also reign with him, 2 Tim. 2. 12. And tho our afflictions be in themselves not joious but grievous, yet when they are consider'd as the earnest of our future inheritance, they put on another face, and may rather enamour then fright us.
9. A fourth advantage of afflictions is, that they excite our compassions towards others: there is nothing qualifies us so rightly to estimate the suffering of others, as the having our selves felt them: without this our apprehensions of them are as dull and confused, as a blind mans of colors, or a deaf man of sounds. They that stretch themselves upon their couches, that eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall: that chaunt to the sound of the viol, drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, will not much be grieved with the afflictions of Ioseph. Am. 6. 4. Nay so necessary is our experience towards our commiseration, that we see twas thought a requisite accomplishment of our high Priest (that highest example of unboundnded compassion) and therefore saith the Apostle, It behooved him in all things to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, for in that he himself hath suffer'd being temted, he is able also to succour them that are temted, Heb. 2. 17, 18. But if he whose mere sense of our miseries brought him down to us, chose this expedient to advance his pity, how necessary is it to our petrified bowels? And since God has assign'd our mercies to our brethren, as the standard by which he will proportion his to us, tis more ours then their advantage to have them inlarged: so that when by making us tast of their cup, acquainting us with the bitter relish of their sufferings, he prepares us to a Christian sympathy with them, tis but a remoter way of obliging and qualifying us for a more ample portion of his mercy. Nay besides the profit there is honor accrues to us by it; compassion is one of the best properties of our nature, and we unman our selves when we put it off; nay more tis an attribute of the Divinity, and the more we advance in it, the closer approches we make to him. And therefore we have all reason to bless him for that discipline by which he promotes us in so excellent, so necessary a grace.
10. A fifth benefit of afflictions is that it is an improvement of devotion, sets us with more heartiness to our praiers. Whilst prosperity flows in upon us we bath our selves in its streams, but are very apt to forget its source; so that God is fain to stop the current, leave us dry and parched that our needs may make us do what our gratitude would not, trace our blessings up to the original spring, and both acknowledg and invoke him as the Author of all our good. This effect of afflictions is observ'd by the prophet, Lord in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a praier when thy chastning was upon them, Isa. 26. 16. And I believe I may appeal to every mans experience whether his praiers be not more frequent and more hearty too, when he is under some distress. Then how importunate are we in our petitions? how profuse in our vowes and promises? saying with Israel deliver us only we pray thee this day: and they put away the strange Gods from among them, and served the Lord. Jud. 10. 15. I confess tis no good indication of our temper that we need thus to be put in the press ere we will yield any thing? yet since we are so disingenuous, tis a mercy in God to adapt his methods to us; to extort when we will not give, and if he can have no free will offerings, yet at least to exact his tribute. Nor do's he design the effect of this should cease with the calamity that rais'd it, but expects our compel'd addresses should bring us into the way of voluntary ones, and happily ensnare us into piety. And indeed herein are we worse then brutish if it do not. We think it a barbarous rudeness to engage a man in our affaires, and as soon as we have served our own turns, never take farther notice of him. Nay indeed the very beasts may lecture us in this piece of Morality, many of them paying a signal gratitude where they have received benefits, and shall we not come up at least to their pitch? shall not the endearment of our deliverance bring our deliverer into some repute and consideration with us, and make us desire to keep up an acquaintance and entercourse with him? Yet if ingenuity work not with us, let interest at least prevail, and the remembrance how soon we may need him again, admonish us not to make our selves strangers to him. God complains of Israel wherefore say my people we are Lords? we will come no more at thee, Jer. 2. 31. A very insolent folly to renounce that dependance by which alone they subsisted, and no less will it be in any of us if we stop our recourse to him because we have had advantage by it. We have no assurance that the same occasion shall not recur, but with what face can we then resume that entercourse which in the interval we despised? So that if we have but any ordinary providence we shall still so celebrate past rescues as to continue in a capacity of begging more, and then we cannot but also confess the benefit of those first calamities which inspirited our devotion, and taught us to pray in earnest, and will be ashamed that our thanks should be utter'd in a fainter accent then our petitions; or our daily spiritual concerns should be more coldly sollicited then our temporal accidental ones.
11. NOR is it only our devotion that is thus improved by our distresses, but many other Graces; our faith, our hope, our patience, our Christian sufferance & fortitude. It is no triumph of faith to trust God for those good things which he gives us in hand, this is rather to walk by sense then faith, but to rely on him in the greatest destitution, and against hope to believe in hope, this is the faith of a true child of Abraham, and will be imputed to us (as it was to him) for righteousness Rom. 4. 23. So also our patience owes all its opportunities of exercise to our afflictions, and consequently owes also a great part of its being to them, for we know desuetude will loose habits. What imaginable use is there of patience, where there is nothing to suffer? In our prosperous state, we may indeed imploy our temperance, our humility, our caution; but patience seems then a useless vertue: nay indeed for ought we know may be counterfeit, till adversity bring it to the test. And yet this is the most glorious accomplishment of a Christian, that which most eminently conforms him to the Image of his Savior, whose whole life was a perpetual exercise of this grace; and therefore we love our ease too well if we are unwilling to buy this pearl at any price.
12. LASTLY our thankfulness is (at least ought to be) increa'st by our distresses. Tis very natural for us to reflect with value and esteem upon those blessings we have lost, and we too often do it to aggravate our discontent: but sure the more rational use of it is to raise our thankfulness for the time wherein we enjoied them. Nay not only our former enjoiments, but even our present deprivations deserves our gratitude, if we consider the happy advantages we may reap from them. If we will perversly cast them away, that unworthy contemt paies no scores, for we still stand answerable in Gods account for the good he design'd and we might have had by it, and we become liable to a new charge for our ingratitude in thus despising the chastisement of the Lord, Heb. 12. 5.
13. AND now if all these benefits of afflictions (which are yet but imperfectly recited) may be thought worth considering, it cannot but reconcile us to the sharpest of Gods methods; unless we will own our selves such mere animals, as to have no other apprehensions then what our bodily senses convey to us; for sure he that has reason enough to understand that he has an immortal soul, cannot but assent that its interests should be served, tho with the displacency of his flesh. Yet even in regard of that, our murmurings are oft very unjust, for we do many times ignorantly prejudg Gods designs towards us even in temporals, who frequently makes a little transient uneasiness the passage to secular felicities. Moses when he fled out of Egypt, probably little thought that he should return thither a God unto Pharoah, Exod. 4. 16. and as little did Ioseph when he was brought thither a slave, that he was to be a ruler there: yet as distant as those states were, the divine providence had so connected them, that the one depends upon the other. And certainly we may often observe the like over-ruling hand in our own distresses, that those events which we have entertained with the greatest regret, have in the consequences bin very beneficial to us.
14. To conclude, we have certainly both from speculation & experience abundant matter to clam all our disquiets, to satisfy our distrusts, and to fix in us an entire resignation to Gods disposals, who has designs which we cannot penetrate, but none which we need fear, unless we our selves pervert them. We have our Saviors word for it, that he will not give us a stone when we ask bread, nor a scorpion when we ask a fish, Mat. 7. 9. Nay his love secures us yet farther from the errors of our own wild choice, and do's not give us those stones and scorpions which we importune for. Let us then leave our concerns to him who best knows them, and make it our sole care to entertain his dispensations with as much submission and duty, as he dispences them with love and wisdom. And if we can but do so, we may dare all the power of earth and hell too, to make us miserable: for be our afflictions what they can, we are sure they are but what we in some respect or other need; be they privative or positive, the want of what we wish, or the suffering of what we wish not, they are the disposals of him who cannot err, and we shall finally have cause to say with the Psalmist, It is good for me that I have bin afflicted, Psal. 119. 71.