God's vindictive wrath is not in it,) yet even they fhrink from it, and loth they are to taste it.

3. Thirdly, Both the one and the other may be impatient and fretful in adverfity; it is the very nature of flesh and blood to be fo.

The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot reft, whose "waters calt forth mire and dirt," Ifa. lvii. 20. It is an allufion to the unftable and stormy ocean: you know there is naturally an estuation and working in the fea, whether it be incenfed by the wind or no: but if a violent wind blow upon the unquiet ocean, O what a raging and foaming is there! what abundance of trafh and filth doth it at fuch times cait out!

Now, though grace make a great difference betwixt one and another, yet I dare not fay, but even a gracious heart may be very unquiet and tumultuous in the day of affliction. Sanctified fouls have their paffions and lufts which are too little mortified; even as sweetbrier and holy-thiftles have their prickles, as well as the worthless bramble. Jonah was a good man, yet his foul was fadly diftempered by adverfe providences; Jonah iv. 9. " Yea, (faith he, and that to his God) Ido well to be angry, even unto death."

4. Fourthly, But the one and the other may be weary of the rod, and think the day of adverfity a tedious day, wifhing it were once at an end. Babylon fhall be weary of the evil that God will bring upon it, Jer. l. ult. And O that none of Zion's children were weary of adverfity too! How fad a moan doth Job make of his long-continued affliction, Job xvi. 6, 7. "Though I fpeak, my grief is not affuaged; "and though I forbear, what am I eafed? But now he hath made "me weary."

And if you look into Pfalm vi. 3, 6. you may see another strong Christian even tired in the way of affliction: "My foul (faith David "in that place) is fore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? I am "weary with my groaning."

5. Fifthly, Both the one and the other may be driven to their knees by adverfity." Lord, in trouble have they visited thee; they have

poured out a prayer when thy chaftening was upon them," Ifa. xxvi. 16. Not that a godly perfon will pray no longer than the rod is at his back; O no; he cannot live long without prayer, how few calls foever he hath to that duty by the rod; but when the rod is on his back, he will be more frequently and more fervently upon: his knees; indeed many gracious hearts are like children's tops, which will go no longer than they are whipt; they cannot find their knees and their tongues till God find a rod to excite them. A dangerous fymptom. The fame affliction may put a gracious and graceless foul to their knees; but though in the external matter of duty, and in the external call or occafion of duty, they seem to agree, yet is there a vaft difference in the principles, manner, and ends of these their duties; as will evidently appear in its proper place in our following discourse. But by what hath been faid in this fection, you may fee how in

fome things the holy upright foul acts too like the unfanctified, and in other things how much the hypocrite may act like a faint; he may be externally humbled, fo was Ahab; he may pray under the rod, Mal. ii. 13. yea, and requeft others to pray for him, fo did Simon, Acts viii. 24.

SECT. III.

UT though the found and unfound heart differ not in fome external carriages under the rod, yet there are effects of adverfity which are proper to either, and will difcriminate them. To which end let us first see what effects adverfity is ufually followed withal in unfound and carnal hearts and we fhall find among others, these five fymptoms of a naughty heart appearing under croffes and afflic

tions.

1. First, A gracelefs heart is not quickly and easily brought to fee the hand of God in thofe troubles that befal it, and to be duly affected with it; Ifa. xxvi. 11. "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will

not fee:" when it has fmitten, or is lifted up to fmite, they thut their eyes; it is the malice of this man, or the negligence of that, or the unfaithfulness of another, that hath brought all this trouble upon me. Thus the creature is the horizon that terminates their fight, and beyond that they ufually fee nothing. Sometimes indeed the hand of God is fo immediately manifefted, and convincingly difcovered in afflictions, that they cannot avoid the fight of it; and then they may, in their way, pour out a prayer before him; but ordinarily they impute all to fecond caufes, and overlook the first cause of their troubles.

2. Secondly, Nor is it ufual with these men under the rod to retire into their clofets, and fearch their hearts there, to find out the particular caufe and provocation of their affliction: “No man repent«ed him of his wickednefs, faying, What have I done?" Jer. viii. 6. What curfed thing is there with me, that hath thus incensed the anger of God against me! God vifits their iniquities with afflictions, but they vifit not their own hearts by felf-examinations. God judges them, but they judge not themfelves; He fhews their iniquities in a clear glafs, but none faith, What have I done? This phrafe, What have I done? is the voice of one that recollects himself after a rafh action; or the voice of a man aftonifhed at the difcovery afflictions make of his fips; but no fuch voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal men.

3. Thirdly, An unfound profeffor, if left to his choice, would rather chufe fin than affliction; and fees more evil in that than in this. And it cannot be doubted, if we confider the principle by which all unregenerate men are acted, is fenfe, not faith. Hence Job's friends would have argued his hypocrify, Job xxxvi. 21. plication been as right as their rule, it would have (viz. fin) haft thou chofen, rather than affli&tion.

And had their apconcluded it; This

I do not say that an upright man cannot commit a moral evil, to escape a penal evil. O that daily observation did not too plentifully furnish us with fad inftances of that kind! But upright ones do not, dare not, upon a ferious deliberate difcuffion and debate, chufe fin rather than affliction; what they may do upon furprifals and in the violence of temptation, is of another nature.

But a falfe and unfound heart discovers itself in the choice it makes upon deliberation, and that frequently when fin and trouble come in competition. Put the cafe, faith Auguftine, a ruffian thould with one hand fet the cup of drunkenness to thy mouth, and with the other a dagger to thy breast, and say, drink or die thou shouldeft rather chufe to die fober, than to live a drunkard: And many Christians have refifted unto blood, ftriving against fin, and, with renowned Mofes, chofen affliction the worst of afflictions, yea, death itself in the most formidable appearance, rather than fin; and it is the habitual temper and refolution of every gracious heart fo to do, though thofe holy refolutions are fometimes over-borne by violence of temptation.

But the hypocrite dreads lefs the defilement of his foul, than the lofs of his eftate, liberty, or life. If you afk upon what ground then doth the apostle fuppofe, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. a man may give his body to be burnt, and not have charity; that the falamander of hypocrify may live in the flame of martyrdom? The answer is at hand; They that chufe death in the fenfe of this text, do not chufe it to escape fin, but to feed and indulge it. Those strange adventures (if any fuch be) are rather to maintain their own honour, and enrol their names among worthy and famous perfons to pofterity; or out of a blind zeal to their efpoufed errors and mistakes, than in a due regard to the glory of God, and the preservation of integrity. I fear to speak it, but it must be fpoken, (faith Hierom), That even martyrdom itfelf, when fuffered for admiration and applaufe, profits nothing, but that blood is fhed in vain.'

4. Fourthly, It is the property of an unregenerate foul, under adverfity, to turn from creature to creature for fupport and comfort, and not from every creature to God alone. So long as their feet can touch ground, I mean, feel any creature-relief or comfort under them, they can fubfift and live in afflictions; but when they lofe ground, when all creature-refuge fails, then their hearts fail too.

Thus Zedekiah, and the self-deceiving Jews, when they faw their own ftrength failed them, and there was little hope left that they ! fhould deliver themfelves from the Chaldeans, what do they in that ftrait? Do they, with upright Jehoshaphat fay, "Our eyes are unto "thee?" No, their eyes were upon Egypt for fuccour, not upon Heaven; well, Pharaoh and his aids are left ftill, all hope is not VOL. V. 4 A

Timeo dicere, fed dicendum eft; martyrium ipfum fi ideo fiat ut admirationi et laudi habeatur a fratribus; fruftra fanguis effufus eft. Hier.

gone, Jer. xxxvii. 9. See the like in Ahaz, in a fore plunge and dif trefs, he courts the king of Affyria for help, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22, 23. That project failing, why then he will try what the gods of Damafcus can do for him; any way rather than the right way, Flectere fi nequeam Juperos, Acheronta movebo.

So it is with many others: if one child die, what do they do, run to God, and comfort themfelves in this, the Lord liveth, though my child die. If an eftate be loft, and a family finking, do they with David comfort themselves in the everlafting covenant, ordered and fure? No; but if one relation die, there is another alive; if an ef tate be loft, yet not all; fomething is left ftill, and the cafe will mend.

As long as ever fuch men have any vifible encouragement, they will hang upon it; and not make up all in Chrift, and encourage themfelves in the Lord. To tell them of rejoicing in the Lord, when the fig-tree bloffoms not, is what they cannot understand.

are.

5. Fifthly, To conclude; an unfound heart never comes out of the furnace of affliction purged, mortified, and more fpiritual and holy than when he was caft into it; his fcum and drofs is not there feparated from him; nay, the more they are afflicted, the worse they "Why fhould ye be fmitten any more? ye will revolt more " and more," Ifa. i. 5. And, to keep to our metaphor, confult Jer. VI. 29. God had put that incorrigible people into the furnace of affliction, and kept them long in that fire; and what was the iffue? Why, faith the prophet, "The bellows are burnt, the lead is con"fumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain, &c. reprobate fil"ver fhall men call them, becaufe the Lord hath rejected them."

If the fire of affliction be continually blown till the very bellows be burnt, that is, the tongue, or rather the lungs of the prophet, which have fome refemblance; though thefe be even spent in reproving, and threatening, and denouncing woe upon woe, and judgment upon judgment; and God fulfils his word upon them; yet ftill they are as before; the drofs remains: though Jerufalem be made a pot, and the inhabitants the flesh boiling in it, as is noted (pertinently to my difcourfe) in Ezek. xxiv. 6, 13. the fcum remains with them, and cannot be feparated by the fire; and the reafon is plain, because no affliction in itself purges fin, but as it is fanctified, and works in the virtue of God's bleffing, and in purfuance of the promifes.

O think on this you that have had thoufands of afflictions in one kind and another, and none of them all have done you good; they have not mortified, humbled, or benefited you at all: And thus you fee what the effects of adverfity are, when it meets with a graceless heart.

B

SECT. IV.

Y this time, reader, I fuppofe thou art defirous to know what effects adverfity and affliction use to have when they meet with an honeft and fincere heart: Only, before I come to particulars, I

think it needful to acquaint thee, that the fruits of afflictions are mostly after-fruits, and not fo difcernible by the Chriftian himself under the rod, as after he hath been exercised by it, Heb. xii. 11. and calmly reflects upon what is paft; nor doth every Christian attain the fame measure and degree; fome rejoice, others commonly fubmit; but I think thefe feven effects are ordinarily found in all upright hearts that pafs under the rod.

1. First, The fincere and upright foul betakes itself to God in affiction; Job. i 20. When God was fmiting, Job was praying; when God afflicted, Job worshipped: So David, Pfalm cxvi. 3, 4: "I "found forrow and trouble, then called I upon the name of the "Lord." And when the meffenger of Satan buffeted Paul. "For "this caufe (faith he) I befought the Lord thrice," 2 Cor. xii. 8. Alas! whither fhould a child go in diftrefs, but to its father?

2. Secondly, He fees and owns the hand of God in his afflictions, how much or little foever of the inftruments of trouble appear. The Lord hath taken away, faith Job, Job i. 21. God hath bidden him, faith David, 2 Sam xvi. 10. If the blow come from the hand of a wicked man, yet he fees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand, Pfalm xvii. 14. And this apprehenfion is fundamental to all that communion men have with God in their afflictions, and to all that peaceablenefs and gracious fubmiffion of their fpirits under the rod: He that fees nothing of God in his troubles, hath nothing of God in his foul.

3. Thirdly, He can juftify God in all the afflictions and troubles that come upon him, be they never fo fevere, "Thou art just in all "that is brought upon us," faith Nehemiah, Neh. ix. 33. "Thou "haft punished us lefs than our iniquities deferve," faith Ezra, Ezra ix. 13. "It is of the Lord's mercies we are not confumed," faith the church, Lam. iii. 22. Are we in Babylon? It is a mercy we are not in hell. If God condemn him, yet he will juftify God; If God cast him into a fea of trouble, yet he will acknowledge, in all that fea of trouble, there is not one drop of injuftice. If I have not deferved fuch ufage from the hands of men, yet I have deserved worse than this at the hands of God.

4. Fourthly, Afflictions ufe to melt and humble gracious hearts; there is an habitual tenderness planted in their spirits, and a juft occafion quickly draws it forth: And fo ufual a thing it is for gracious hearts to be humbled under the afflictings of God, that affliction is upon that score called humiliation : The effect put for the cause, to fhew where one is, the other will be, 2 Cor. xii. 21 My God will humble me, i. e. he will afflict me with the fight of your fins and diforders; and if a gracious foul be fo apt to be humbled for other men's fins, much more for his own.

5. Fifthly, The upright foul is inquifitive under the rod, to find out that evil for which the Lord contends with him by affliction; Job x. 2. "Shew me wherefore thou contendeft with me:" And