Right Thoughts in Sad Hours, Part 1
Doctrine.
The People of God are apt very frequently, but not a little wrongfully to conclude, that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them, are very highly to their Prejudice, or but a little to their Benefit.
The Propositions that may serve to state this Truth distinctly in your Thoughts, are such as these.
Proposition I.
The People of God are sure to be exercised with Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them in the World.
There is in every Generation a Remnant, a Little little Flock of Men, who are effectually called from the Vanities which the biggest part of perishing Mankind is wofully drowned in, unto the service of the Living God; who have chosen God as their Best good, and their Last end; chosen Christ as their Lord Redeemer, and resolved to be for him and not for another. These renewed Children of Adam are the Mystical Children of Israel; they may with an Eye to a Spiritual relation, point at Iacob, and say, A Syrian ready to perish was my Father. Now these must even in a peculiar manner expect to be like their Father Iacob, who in the close of his days was forced to say, Gen. 47. 9. Evil have been the days of the years of my Life. In every Age and in every Place, we may see the most High God afflicting of a Iacob in his Relations; of them, some are Churlish, others are Profane, and others are Taken away. We may behold the Lord …fflicting of an Heman in his Mind; th… Man complains, Lord, Why dost thou cast off my Soul? While I suffer thy Terrors, I am distracted. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Timothy in his Body, he feels a weak Stomack, with often Infirmities. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of a Lazarus in his Estate, he is reduced unto Beggery at the Doors of a wicked Belly-God. We may behold the Lord Afflicting of an Elijah in his Esteem, he is Libelled as a Seditions Boutefeau, always Troubling of his Country. In a word, we may ordinarily behold a David, a Iob, a Paul, Afflicted in all, or most of these regards.
The Christian that promises himself an Immunity from Afflictions in this Evil World, is indeed a Christian only in the Italian, wicked, scoffing usage of the Word, that is, a Fool. It is one of the Names put upon the People of God, in Isa. 54. 11. O thou Afflicted. Nor can any particular Believer escape this common Lot: No, every one that is of Israel, must look to say with Israel, in Psal. 129. 1. Many a time have they Afflicted me from my Youth. Indeed the People of God will at last arrive unto a Quiet Haven. —Sedes ubi Fata quietas Ostendunt—
[Or in a better Dialect] Where all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes: But where? But when? Truly, this Bliss-land is not on this side the Water; it is a Land a far off, and we shall not see it, until we put a-shore on the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, beyond the Stars: We must Sail through a turbid Ocean full of horrible Tempest, here, and, —Vt Fluctus Fluctum sic Luctus Luctum— One Wave will follow upon another, the last Wave still seeming the tenth Wave, untill we drop Anchor within the vail of Heaven it self. When the Ancient Martyr Ignatius was brought to have his Flesh torn from his Bones, and his Bones broken by the Teeth of Wild Beasts, he uttered such a speech as that, O now I begin to be a Christian! Thus our Lord hath laid down this as the A B C of Christianity, in Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me, he must take up his Cross, and follow me. This is the first Lesson for a Disciple in the School of the Lord Jesus, Look for Afflictions here! The Glorious God will lay over our Shoulders that ragged piece of Wood, a Cross; when once we are associated with his people, who all Travel through the Valley of Baca, that is, of Weeping, unto their Everlasting Happiness. This was the condition of our Illustrious Fore-runner; he ran thrô a way all strow'd with Briars and Thorns, as it is said in Luk. 24. 46. He must suffer, and enter into his glory; and all his followers are to drink of his Cup: We cannot escape treading in the Bloody Tracks which he hath left behind him; we have received this warning from our Lord himself, in Ioh. 16. 33. In the World you shall have Tribulation: We have received this Witness from his Apostles also, in Act. 14. 22. Through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God; and the experience of above Five thousand Years, hath now set a Seal to that Observation, in Psal. 31. 19. Many are the Troubles of the Righteous.
Question.
But from whose Hands do the Afflictions of the Lords people come?
This is that which we have said, They are the Dispensations of the most High. Indeed there may often be the Hand of Ioab in our Afflictions, there may be the Malice of Satan and his Instruments. Those fierce Natives of this dark Climate will be often as Thorns in the sides of the Pilgrims, that are Travelling to a better Country.
But still these Rods are all in the Hand of God: We are told in Amos 3. 7. there is no such Evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it. O that every Man would always remember this, the Griefs of thy Heart are all ordered by that God by whom the Hairs of thy Head are all numbred. Not so much as the Tongue of a Dog will ever stir against thee, unless managed by the Hand of the Lord. The King of Assyria himself, by whom a vast part of mankind may be Afflicted, is but a staff of Indignation in that all disposing Hand.
Proposition II.
The people of God are apt very frequently to conclude, that the Afflictive Dispensations of the most High towards them, are very highly to their prejudice.
From the embittered Heart of a Iacob in his exercises, there is often sob'd that melancholy Groan, All these things are against me. Alas! under Affliction we can usually speak no other Language but that in Lam. 3. 1. I have seen Affliction by the Rod of Gods wrath; we see nothing but Wrath and Curse, and fiery Vengeance dispensed unto us in our Bitter things.
Question.
Whence do's this come to pass?
One reason of this Misprision is; The best people of God are not without bad remainders of Flesh: Now every Affliction will grate hard upon That; the galled Flesh of Afflicted Men, cannot forbear that shreek, I am hurt. This Flesh of ours will cloud our understandings, and beget in us very false Conceptions of our sharp Afflictions. The methods wherein the great God pursues our good, are very Certain, and very Glorious; but they are also very Obscure. Silly shallow Creatures, who dwell in Houses of Clay, cannot fathom the Mysterious proceedings of the God whose Way is in the Deep, and whose Iudgments are a great Deep; and when we go to Contemplate these deep things, then our Flesh offers unto us very injurious Glasses to view them in; listen to this misjudging Flesh, and it will tell us, If thou dost not live surrounded with the Pleasures, and Riches, and Honours of this World, and leave a good Portion of them unto Children of thy own; when thy time shall come to Dye, thou art a Miserable Man. The moan of Iacob in our Text is by some Englished so, All these things are Above me: Truly, 'tis above the Reach, above the ken of our Flesh to imagine, That what impairs our Worldly greatness and glory, is no real Detriment unto us; our Sense, our carnal perverse dim-sighted Sense, will not easily make sence of that Riddle, in Iudg. 14. 14. Out of the Eater came forth Meat.
Another reason of this Error is; The people of God have been guilty of much Sin against God. In the dark doleful days of their Unregeneracy, how many, how mighty, were our doings against the Lord! Yea, and since the Lord made us know wisdom in the hidden Man; how crooked, how faulty have our ways before him been! The Psalmist complained in Psal. 49. 5. In the days of Evil, the iniquity of my heels doth compass me about: Our Heels formerly have step'd awry into dirty Iniquities, and those Iniquities we have been ready to lay at our Heels by our Impenitent forgetfulness: But in our Afflictions those Iniquities rising as it were out of their Grave, haunt us, dog us, and stare us full in the Face; our Hearts now condemn us, and thereupon they likewise condemn God: We are prone to think that Gods designs cannot be good, because we know that our deserts are very bad. Sinful Man will not quickly believe that word of the Lord, My Thoughts are not as your Thoughts: Hence our own first misgiving, and then misjudging Hearts will in Affliction say, Now I feel the wounds of an Enemy: It is not possible that I should suffer these terrible things from one who is the God of my Salvation; the Lord proceeds to Afflict me thus, because he intends to destroy me for ever. When once a thinking Man comes to say, God is Angry, he will soon add, I am undone.
A Third reason (to say no more) of it, is; The Devil of Hell often falls upon the people of God in their Afflictions, that soul Fiend falls foul on them, when he has them thus at a disadvantage. The Powers of Darkness take the Hours of Darkness therein to make their Assaults on the Faith of them that they would annoy. The Accuser of Men to God, is also an Accuser of God to Men; and when it is a Gloomy time without them, then will Satan suggest within them, Terribilia de Deo, very frightful Visions of their Almighty Saviour; he will pour in upon them those things which are call'd, in Eph. 6. 16. The fiery Darts of the Wicked one: He would have us entertain hard and Hellish thoughts of that God, whose Mercy endureth for Ever: Hence he will be still telling of us, God counts thee for his Enemy, and thy God hath forgotten thee, and the Mercy of the Lord is clean gone from thee for ever; thou art before thy Maker as a Vessel wherein he will have no pleasure for evermore; he will undo thee before he has done with thee.
Now, What is the Result of all this? Alas! the people of God now frequently have cause to give that mean, that shameful, that pitiful account of themselves, in Psal. 77. 2. In the day of my trouble, my Soul refused to be comforted.
Proposition III.
The people of God conclude not a little wrongfully, when they think his Afflictive Dispensations to be but a little for their benefit.
When Iacob would surmise, All these things are against me, it might have been reply'd upon him, No, you are greatly deceived, you and yours must have perished, if these things had not happened. When the Afflicted people of God cry out, Vndone! Vndone! they have cause to eat that word, and rather to say, Periissem nisi periissem, I had been quite undone, if I had not been thus undone. Instead of concluding, All these things are against me, we do much wrong, if we do not admit that Thought, in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good.
Question.
How do's this Appear?
One piece of Injustice attending of that conclusion is; There is a wrong thereby done to the Kindness of God. With such a clap of Thunder as this may the Lord reprove your hard opinion of him, You think worse of me than I deserve! Our good God hath assured us, in Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten; why then shall we contradict him with such a vain imagination as this, I am Rebuked only that I may be ruined, I am Chastened only because I am abhorred by the Lord?
Another Injustice expressed in that conclusion is; There is thereby a wrong done to the Wisdom of God. They of Old reflected hard, when they said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Thus do they that say, Can any good thing come out of Affliction? Well, and I pray, Why not? What should hinder Good from coming out of that grievous thing? Is it impossible unto that God, who is wise in Counsel, and wonderful in Working? We are informed in 1 Pet. 1. 6. It is only if need be, that we are brought into Heaviness: The Lord would not let one Affliction give thee any Trouble, if some Occasion did not call for it, if much Advantage did not come by it.
One more Evidence of Vnreasonableness in this conclusion is, The people of God at the Period of their Afflictions, will themselves confess, this conclusion to have been Vnreasonable. What our Lord said unto the Inquisitive Peter, the same he says unto the Afflicted Christian, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter: Verily, when we do hereafter know, how God has at once Afflicted us and Amended us, then we shall say, He hath done all things well. When we have got through the black Vallies, out on the other side, then we shall see what now we will hardly believe, then we see that the Thoughts of God about us were Thoughts of Good and not of Evil; then we see that the Aims of God were to do us Good in the latter end; then do our Triumphing Souls declare as in Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me, that I have been Afflicted. Nothing is more common than to hear a Christian after many Afflictions professing, I could not have been well without any one of all my Afflictions, I had want of them all, I have good by them all: How much more will the Beauty and Benefit of all our Afflictions be thankfully acknowledged by us in the Land of light, where every Labyrinth of providence will be explained; for every one of our Afflictions in this, we shall return a Million of Hallelujahs in another and a better World.
The Improvement of these things remains.