(3.) Affliction doth but reach the body, and make that miserable, but sin makes the soul miserable. The soul is the most no- ble part. Hie soul is a diamond set in a ring of clay ; it is excellent in its essence, a spiritual, immortal substance, — excellent in the price paid for it, redeemed with the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. It is more worth than a world ; the world is of a coarser make, the soul of a finer spinning ; in the world we see the finger of God, in the soul the image of (iod. To have the precious soul endangered, is far worse than to have the body endangered. Sin wrongs the soul, Prov. viii. 36. Sin casts this jewel of the soul overboard. Affliction is but skin-deep, it can but take away the life, hut sin takes away the soul, Luke xii. 20. The loss of the soul is an unparalleled loss, it can never be made up again. " God (saith St. Chrysostom) hath given thee two ey<'s, if thou losest one thou hast another ; but thou hast but one soul, and, if that be lost, it can never be repaired." Thus sin is worse than affliction ; the one can but reach the body, the other ruins the soul. Is there not great reason then, that wo should oft( n put up this petition, " Deliver us from evil .''"
(4.) Afflictions are good for us, Ps. cxix..
588
OF THE SIXTH PETITION IN THE LORD'S PRAYER.
71., " It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Many can bless God for afflic- tion. Affliction humbles, Lam. iii. 19, 20., " Remembering my affliction, the worm- wood and tlie gall, my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me." Afflictions are compared to thorns, Hos. ii. 6., these thorns are to prick the bladder of pride. Affliction is the school of repen- tance, Jer. xxxi. 18, 19., "Thou hast chas- tised me, and I was chastised ; I repented." The fire being put under the still, makes the water drop from the roses : the fire of affliction makes the water of repentance drop from the eyes. Affliction brings us nearer to God. The loadstone of mercy doth not draw us so near to God as the cords of affliction. When the prodigal was pinched with want, then, saith he, " I will arise and go to my father," Luke xv. 18. Afflictions prepare for glory, 2 Cor, iv. 17., *' Our light affliction worketh for us an e- ternal weight of glory :" The limner lays his gold upon dark colours, so God lays first the dark colours of affliction, and then the golden colour of glory. Thus affliction is for our good ; but sin is not for our good, it keeps good things from us, Jer. v. 25., " Your sins have withholden good things fi-om you." Sin stops the current of God's mercy, it precipitates men to ruin. Manas- Rch's affliction brought him to humiliation ; but Judas his sin brought him to desperation. (5.) A man may be afflicted, and his conscience may be quiet. Paul's feet were in the stocks, yet he had the witness of his conscience, 2 Cor. i. 12. The head may ache, yet the heart may be well : the out- ward man may be afflicted, yet the soul may dwell at ease, Ps. xxv. 13. The hail may beat upon the tiles of the house, when there is music within ; in the midst of out- ward pain, there may be inward peace. Thus, in affliction, conscience may be quiet ; but when a man commits a ])resumptuous, scandalous sin, conscience is troubled ; by defiling the purity of conscience, we lose the peace of conscience. When Spira liad sinned and abjured the faith, he was a ter- ror to himself, he had an hell in his con- science. Tiberius the emperor felt such a sting in his conscience, that he told the se- nate, he suffered death daily.
(6.) In affliction we may have the love of God. Afflictions are love-tokens. Rev. iii. 19., "As many as I love, I rebuke." Afflictions are sharp arrows, but shot from the hand of a loving father. If a man should throw a bag of money at another, and it should bruise him a little, and raise the skin, he would not be offended, but take it as a fruit of love : so, when God bruiseth us with affliction, it is to enrich us with the golden graces of his Spirit, all is love : but when we commit sin, God with- draws his love, — it is the sun overcast with a cloud, nothing appears but anger and dis- pleasure. When David had sinned in the matter of Uriah, 2 Sam. xi. 27., " The thing that David had done displeased the Lord."