HAT adversity is a furnace to try of what metal our hearts are, none can doubt, that hath either studied the scriptures, or observed his own heart under afflictions.
When the dross and rust of hypocrisy and corruption had almost eaten out the heart of religion among the Jews, then saith God, " I " will melt them, and try them ; for what shall I do for the daughter " of my people ?'' Jer. ix. 7. Here affliction is the furnace, and the people are the metal cast into it, and the end of it is trial. / will melt them, and try them ; what other course shall I take with them ? If I let them alone, their lusts, like the rust and canker in metalsj will eat them out. Prosperity multiplies professors, and adversity brings them to the test ; then hirelings quickly become changlings. The gilded potsherd glisters till it come to scouring. The devil thought Job had been such a one, and moves that he may be tried this way ; being confident he would be found but dross in the trial. Job i. 11. But though the furnace of affliction discovered some dross in him (as it will in the best of men) yet he came forth as gold.
In this furnace also grace is manifested : it is said. Rev. xiii. 10. Here is the faith and patience of the saints ;" i. e. here is the trial and discovery of it in these days of adversity. It was a weighty say- ing of * Tertullian to the persecutors of the church in his days. Pro-
544 ADVERSITY A FURNACE TO TRY OUR GRACES.
batio innocentice nostras, est imquitas vestra ; Your wickedness is the trial of our innocency. Constantius, the father of Constantine, made an exploratory decree, that all who would not renounce the Christian faith, should lose their places of honour and profit. This presently separated the dross from the gold, which was his design ; for many renounced Christianity, and thereupon were renounced by him ; and those that held their integrity, were received into favour.
In time of prosperity, hypocrisy lies covered in the heart like nests in the green bushes ; but when the winter of adversity hath made them bare, every body may see them without searching.
But to fall into close particulars; it will be necessary to enquire what effects of adversity are common to both the sound and the unsound ; and then what are proper to either in this close trial by adversity,
JLT will be expedient to the design I manage in this discourse, to shew in the first place what are the common effects of adversity to both the godly and ungodly ; for in some things they differ not, but as it is with the one, so also with the other : As,
1. First, Both the godly and ungodly may fear adversity before it comes : to be sure a wicked man cannot, and it is evident many godly men do not come up to the height of that rule, James i. 2. " Toac- *' count it all joy when they fall into diverse temptations," or trials by adversity.
It is said, Isa. xxxiii. 14. " The sinners in Zion are afraid; " trembling surprizeth the hypocrite ;"" namely under the apprehen- sion of approaching calamities : and it is true also, the saints in Zion may be afraid : " My flesh trembleth for fear of thee ; and I am afraid of thy judgments," said holy David, Psal. cxix. 120. and Job iii. 23. " The thing which I greatly feared (saith that upright soul) is come " upon me." There is a vast difference betwixt a saint's first meeting with afflictions, and his parting with them ; he entertains them some- times with trembling ; he parts with them rejoicing, smiling on them, and blessing them in the name of the Lord. So that by this the up- right, and the false heart, are not discriminated ; even sanctified na- ture declines suffering and troubles.
52. Secondly, Both the godly and ungodly may entertain afflictions with regret and unwillingness when they come. Afflictions and troubles are wormwood and gall, Lam. iii. 19. And that goes not down pleasantly with flesh and blood, Heb. xii. 11. " No affliction " for the present seemeth joyous but grievous ;" he means to God's own people ; the}^ are in heaviness through manifold temptations or trials by the rod, 1 Pot. i. 6. When God gives the cup of affliction into the hands of the wicked, how do they reluctate and loath it ? How do their stomachs rise at it? And though the portion of the saints cup be much sweeter than theirs, (for that bitter ingredient of
ADVERSITY A FURNACB TO TRY OUE GRACES. 54:5
God's vindictive wrath is not in it,) yet even they shrink from it, and loth they are to taste it.
3. Thirdly , Both the one and the other may be impatient and fret- ful in adversity ; it is the very nature of flesh and blood to be so. " The wicked are Uke the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose " waters cast forth mire and dirt,"' Isa. Ivii. 20. It is an allusion to the unstable and stormy ocean: you know there isnaturally an estu- ation and working in the sea, whether it be incensed by the wind or no; but if a violent wind blow upon the unquiet ocean, O what a racrino- and foaminor is there ! what abundance of trash and filth doth it at such times cast out !
Now, though grace make a great difference betwixt one and another, yet, I dare not say, but even a gracious heart may be very unquiet and tumultuous in the day of affliction. Sanctified souls have their passions and lusts which are too little mortified; even as sweet-brier and holy-thistles have their prickles, as well as the worthless bramble. Jonah was a good man, yet his soul was sadly distempered by adverse providences ; Jonah iv. 9. " Yea, (saith he, and that to his God) I " do 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 adversity a tedious day, wishing it were once at an end. Babylon shall be weary of the evil that God will bring upon it, Jer. li. idt. And O that none of Z ion's children were weary of adversity too! How sad a moan doth Job make of his long-continued affliction, Job xvi. 6, 7. *' Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; " and though I forbear, what am I eased .'* But now he hath made "me weary."
And if you look into Psalm vi. 3, 6. you may see another strong Christian even tired in the way of affliction : *' My soul (saith David " in that place) is sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long ? I am ** weary with my groaning.'*'