troubles. Job v. 7. "Yet man is born to trouble, as the spcarks fly " upwards."" The spark no sooner comes out of the fire, but it flies up naturally ; it needs not any external force, help, or guidance, but ascends from a principle in itself; so naturally, so easily doth trouble rise out of sin. There is radically all the misery, anguish, and trouble in the world in our corrupt natures. As the spark lies close hid in the coals, so doth misery in sin ; every sin draws a rod after it. And these sorrows and troubles fall not only on the body, in those breach- es, flaws, deformities, pains, aches, diseases, to which it is subject, which are but the groans of dying nature, and its crumbling, by degrees, into dust again ! but on all our employments and callings also, Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19. These are full of pain, trouble, and dis- appointment. Hag. i. 6. We earn wages, and put it into a bag with holes, and disquiet ourselves in vain ; all our relations full of trouble. The apostle speaking to those that marry, saith, 1 Cor. vii. 28. " Such shall have trouble in the flesh." Upon which words one glosseth thus : Flesh and trouble are married together, whether we V M WJ / marry or no ; but they that are married, marry J •> f ' I f}t " "^^ith, and match into new troubles : All relations ^ " ' have their burdens, as well as their comforts : It
were endless to enumerate the sorrows of this kind, and yet the troubles of the body are but the body of our troubles ; the spirit of the curse falls upon the spiritual and noblest part of man. The soul and body, like to EzekiePs roll, are written full with sorrows, both within and without. So that we make the same report of our lives, when we come to die, that old Jacob made before Pharaoh, Gen. xlvii. 9. *' Few and evil hath the days of the years of our lives been."' Eccl. ii. 22, 23. " For what hath man of all his labour, and of the *' vexation of his heart, -wherein he hath laboured under the sun } ** For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart " taketh no rest in the night : This is also vanity."*"
Neither doth our new birth free us from troubles, though then they be sanctified, sweetened, and turned into blessings to us. We put not off" the human, when we put on the divine nature; nor are we then freed from the sense, though we are delivered from the sting and curse of them. Grace doth not presently pluck out all those arrows that sin hath shot into the sides of nature, 2 Cor. vii. 5. '' When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but i' we were troubled on every side : Without were fightings, and " within were fears."" Rev. vii. 14. " These are they that come out ** of great tribulations."" The first cry of the new-born Christian (says one) gives hell an alarm, and awakens the rage both of devils and men against him. Hence Paul and Barnabas acquainted those new converts. Acts xiv. 22. " That through much tribulation they must " enter into the kingdom of God."" And we find the state of the church, in this world, set out (Isa. liv. 11.) by the similitude of a distressed ship at sea: " 0 thou afflicted [and tossed] with tempests,
NAVIGATION SPIRITUALIZED. 219
and not comforted." [Tossed] as Jonah's ship was ; for the same word is there used, Jonah i. 11, 13. as a vessel at sea, stormed and violently driven without rudder, mast, sail, or tackling. Nor are we to expect freedom from those troubles, until harboured in heaven ; see 2 Thess. i. 7. O what large catalogues of experiences do the saints carry to heaven with them, for their various exercises, dangers, trials, and marvellous preservations and deliverances out of all ! and yet all these troubles without, are nothing to those within them ; from temptations, corruptions, desertions, by passion and compassion; Besides their own, there come daily upon them the troubles of others; many rivulets fall into this channel and brim, yea, often overflow the bank. Psalm xxxiv. 19- '* Many are the afflictions of the righte- " ous."
Hence should the graceless heart thus reflect upon itself, O my soul ! into what a sea of troubles art thou launched forth ! and what a sad case art thou in ! full of trouble, and full of sin ; and these do mutually produce each other. And that which is the most dreadful consideration of all, is that I cannot see the end of them. As for the saints, they suffer in the world as well as I ; but it is but for a while, 1 Pet. V. 10. and then they suffer no more, 2 Thess. i. 7. " But all " tears shall be wiped away from their eyes," Rev. vii. 17. But my troubles look with a long visage, ah ! they are but the beginninor of sorrows, but a parboiling before I be roasted in the flames of God's eternal wrath. If I continue as I am, I shall but deceive myself, if I conclude I shall be happy in the other world, because I have met with so much sorrow in this : For I read, Jude, ver. 7. that the inhabi- tants of Sodom and Gomorrah, though consumed to ashes, with all their estates and relations, (a sorer temporal judgment than ever yet befel me) do, notwithstanding that continue still in " everlasting " chains, under darkness, in which they are reserved unto the judg- " ment of the great day." These troubles of the saints are sancti- fied to them, but mine are fruits of the curse. They have spiritual consolations to balance them, which flow into their souls in the same height and degree, as troubles do upon their bodies, 2 Cor. i. 5. But I am a stranger to their comforts, and " intermeddle not with their " joys,'' Prov. xiv. 10. If their hearts be surcharged with trouble, they have a God to go to ; and when they have opened their cause before him, they are eased, return with comfort, and their " counte- " nance is no more sad," 1 Sam. i. 18. When their belly is as bot- tles full of new wine, they can give it vent by pouring out their souls into their Father's bosom : but I have no interest in, nor ac- quaintance with this *God, nor can I pray unto him in the Spirit. My griefs are shut up like fire in my bosom, which preys upon my spirit. This is my sorrow, and I alone must bear it. O my soul.
gSO A >IEW COMPASS FOR SEAMEN ; OR^
look round about thee ! what a miserable case art thou in ? Rest no longer satisfied in it, but look out for a Christ also. AVhat though I am a vile, unworthy wretch ? yet he promiseth to love freely^ Hos. xiv^ 4. and invites such as are heavy laden to him, Mat. xi. 28.