Sharp afflictions are to the soul as a driving rain to the house ; we know not that there are such crannies and holes in tlie house, till we see it drop down here and there. Thus we perceive not how unniortihed this corruption, not how weak that grace is, till we are thus searched, and made more lully to know what is in our hearts hy such trials. This is the reason why none have such humhle thoughts of themselves, and suchpitifvil and forbearing thoughts towards others in their infirmities, as those who are most acquainted with afflictions ; they meet with so many foils in their conflicts, as make them carry a low sail in respect of their own grace, and a tender respect to their brethren, more ready to pity than censure them in their weaknesses.
Fourtlily, This is the season when the evil one, Satan, comes to tempt. What we find called the time of tribulation, Matt. xiii. 22, we find in the same parable, Luke viii. 1,3, called the time of temptation. Indeed, they both meet; seldom doth God afflict us, but Satan addeth temptation to our wilderness : ' This is your hour," saith Christ, ' and the power of darkness,' Luke xxii. 53. Christ's suff'ei-ings from man, and temptation from the devil, came together. Esau, who hated his brother for the blessing, said in his heart, ' The days of mourning fin- my father are at hand, then will I kill my brother,' Gen. xxviii. 4L Times of affliction are the daj-s of mourning ; those Satan waits to do us a mischief in.
Fifthly' and lastly, The day of affliction hath oft an evil event and issue, and in this respect proves an evil day indeed. All is well, we say, that ends well ; the product of afflictions on the Christian is good ; the rod with which they are corrected yields the peaceable fi'uits of righteousness, and therefore they can call their afflictions good ; that is a good instrument that lets out only the bad blood : 'It was good for me that I was afflicted,' saith David. I have read of a holy woman who used to compare her afflictions to her children ; they both put her to great pain in the bearing; but as she knew not which of her children to have been without, for all the trouble in the bringing forth, so neither which of her afflictions she could have missed, notwithstanding the sorrow they put her to in the enduring. But to the wicked the issue is sad ; first, in regard of sin, they leave them worse, more impenitent, hardened in sin, and outrageous in their wicked practices. Every plague on Egypt added to the plague of hardness on Pharaoh's heart : he that for some while could beg prayers of Moses for himself, at last comes to that pass that he threatens to kill him if he came to him any more. Oh, what a prodigious height do we see many come to in sin, after some great sickness or other judgment! Children do not more shoot up in their bodily stature after an ague, .than they in tlieir lusts after afflictions. Oh, how greedy and i-avenous are they after their prey, when they once get off their clog and chain from their heels ! When physic works not kindly, it doth not only leave the disease uncured, but the poison of the physic stays in the body also. Many appear thus poisoned by their afflictions, by the breaking out of their lusts afterwards. Secondly, In regard of soitow ; every affliction on a wicked person produceth another, and that a greater than itself: the greatest wedge comes at last, which shall cleave him fit for the fire. The sinner is whipped from affliction to afSliction, as a vagrant from constable to constable, till at last he comes to hell, his projjcr place and settled abode, where all sorrows will meet in one that is endless.
The second branch of the point follows. This evil day is unavoidable : we may as well stop the chariot of the sun, when posting to night, and chase away the shades of the evening, as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us all. ' None hath power over the spirit to retain it, neither hath he power in the body of death, and there is no discharge in that war,' Eccl. viii. 8. Among men it is possible to get off" when pressed for the wars, by pleading privilege of years, estate, weakness of body, protection from the prince, and the like ; or if all these fhil, possibly, the sending another in our room, or a bribe given in the hand, may serve the turn ; but in tliis war the press is so strict, that there is no dispensation. David could willingly ha\'e gone for his son : we hear him crying, ' Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! ' But he will not he taken, that young gallant must go himself. We must in our own person come into the field, and look death in the face. Some indeed we find so fond as to promise themselves immunity from this day, as if they had an in- suring-office in their breast : they say they have made a covenant with death,
176 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND