First, As it is grievous to sense. In Scripture, evil is oft put in contradistinc- tion to joy and comfort: ' we look for peace, and behold no good.' A merry heart is called a good heart; a sad spirit, an evil spirit; because nature hath an abhorrency to all that opposeth its joy, and this every affliction doth more or less. No affliction, while present, is joyous, but grievous, Heb. x. 11 ; it hath, like physic, an unpleasing fai'ewell to the sense. Therefore Solomon, speaking of the evil days of sickness, expresseth them to be distasteful to nature, that we shall say, ' We have no pleasure in them.' They take away the joy of our life. Natural joy is a true flower of the sun of prosperity, it opens and shuts with it. It is true indeed, the saints never have more joy than in their affliction, but this comes in upon another score : they have a good God that sends it in, or else they would be as sadly off as others. It is no more natui-al for comfort to spring from affl.ictions, than for grapes to grow on thorns, or maima in the wilderness. The Israelites might have looked long enough for such bread, if Heaven had not miraculously rained it down. God chooseth this season, to make the omnipotency of his love the more conspicuous : as Elijah, to add to the miracle, first caused water in abundance to be poured on the wood and sacrifice, so much as to fill the trench, and then bring fii-e from heaven by his prayer to lick it up. Thus God poiu's out the flood of affliction upon his children, and then kindles that inward joy in their bosoms which licks up all their soitow; yea, he makes the very waters of affliction they float on add a further sweet- ness to the music of their spiritual joy; but still it is God that is good, and affliction that is evil.
Secondly, The day of affl.iction is an evil day, as it is an unwelcome remem- brancer of what sinful evils have passed in our lives. It revives the memory of old sins, which, it may be, were buried many years ago in the grave of forget- fulness. The night of affliction is the time when such ghosts use to walk in men's consciences; and as the darkness of the night adds to the horror of any fearful object, so doth the state of affliction, which is itself imcomfortable, add to the terror of our sins then remembered. Never did the patriarchs' sin look so ghastly on them, as when it recoiled upon them in their distress. Gen. xlii. 21. The sinner then hath more real apprehensions of wrath than at another time : affliction approximates judgment; yea, it is interpreted by him, as a pursuivant sent to call him presently before God, and therefore must beget a woful con- fusion and consternation in his spirit. Oh that men would but think how they could bear the fight of their sins, and a rehearsal-sermon of all their ways in that day ! That is the blessed man indeed, who can with the prophet then look on them, and triumph over them. This indeed is a dark parable, as he calls it, few can understand it ; as Psa. xlix. 4, 5 : 'I will open my dark saying upon the harp ; wherefore should I fear in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about?'
Thirdly, The day of affliction makes discovery of much evil to be in the heart, which was not seen before. Affliction shakes and exposes the creature ; if any sediment be at the bottom, it will appear then. Sometimes it discovers the heart to be quite naught, that before had some seeming good ; these suds wash oft' the hypocrite's paint. Naiitra vexuta prodit seipsam, when corrupt natiu'e is vexed, it shews itself; and some afflictions do that to purpose. We read of such as are oftended when persecution comes ; they fall quite out with their profession, because it puts them to such cost and trouble ; others, in their distress, that curse their God, Isa. viii. 21. It is impossible for a naughty heart to think well of an afflicting God. The hireling, if his master takes up a staff to beat him, throws down his work and runs away ; and so doth a false heart serve God. Yea, even where the person is gracious, corruption is oft found to be stronger, and graces weaker, than they were thought to be. Peter, who sets out so valiantly at first to walk on the sea, the wind doth but rise, and he begins to sink: now he sees thei'e was more unbelief in his heart than he before suspected.
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