5. Fifthly, Both the one and the other may be driven to their knees by adversity. " Lord, in trouble have they visited thee ; they have " poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them," Isa. xxvi. 16. Not that a godly person will pray no longer than the rod is at his back; O no; he cannot live long without prayer, how few calls soever he hath to that duty bv the rod ; but when the rod is on his back, he will be more frequently and more fervently upon his knees ; indeed many gracious hearts are like children's tops, which will go no longer than they are whipt ; they cannot find their knees and their tongues till God find a rod to excite them. A dangerous sym.ptom. The same affliction may put a gracious and graceless soul to their knees : but though in the external matter of duty, and in the external call and occasion of duty, they seem to agree, yet is there a vast difference in the principles, manner, and endsof these their duties; AS will evidently appear in its proper place in our following discourse.
But by what hath been said in this section, you may see how in
546 ADVERSITY A FtRNACE Ta TRY OfJR GRACES.
some things the holy upright soul acts too like the unsanctified, and in other things how much the hypocrite may act like a saint ; he may be externally humbled, so was Ahab ; he may pray under the rod, Mai. ii. 13. yea, and request others to pray for him, so did Simon, Acts viii. 24.
XjUT though the sound and unsound heart differ not in some external carriages under the rod, yet there are effects of adversity which are proper to either, and will discriminate them. To which end let us first see what effects adversity is usually followed withal in unsound and carnal hearts : and we shall find among others, these five symptoms of a naughty heart appearing under crosses and af- flictions.
1. First, A graceless heart is not quickly and easily brought to see the hand of God in those troubles that befalit, and to be duly affected with it; Isa. xxvi. 11. " Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will '' not see C when it has smitten, or is lifted up to smite, they shut their eyes ; it is the maUce of this man, or the negligence of that, or the unfaithfulness of another, that hath brought all this trouble upon me. Thus the creature is the horizon that terminates their sight, and beyond that they usually see nothing. Sometimes indeed the hand of God is so immediately manifested, and convincingly discover- ed in afflictions, that they cannot avoid the siglit of it ; and then they may, in their way, pour out a prayer before him; but ordinarily they impute all to second causes, and overlook the first cause of their troubles.
2. Secondly, Nor is it usual with these men under the rod to re- tire into their closets, and search their hearts there, to find out the particular cause and provocation of their affliction : " No man repented " him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done .'*"" Jer. viii. 6. What cursed thing is there with me, that hath thus incensed the anger of God against me ! God visits their iniquities with afflictions, but they visit not their own hearts by self-examinations. God judges them, but they judge not themselves : He shews their iniquities in a clear glass, but none saith, Wluit have I done? This phrase. What have I done ? is the voice of one that recollects himself after a rash action ; or the voice of a man astonished at the discovery afflictions make of his sins ; but no such voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal men.
^.Thirdly, An unsound professor, if left to his choice, would rather chuse sin than affliction ; and sees more evil in that than in this.
And it cannot be doubted, if we consider the principle by which all unregenerate men are acted, is sense, not faith. Hence Job''s friends would have argued his hypocrisy, Job xxxvi. 91. And had their application been as right as their rule, it would have concluded it ; This (viz. sin) hast thou chosen^ rather than ajffliction.
ADVEKSITY A FURNACE TO TRY OUH GRACES. 517
I do not say that an upright man cannot commit a moral evii, to escape a penal evil. O that daily observation did not too plentifully furnish us with sad instances of that kind ! ,But upright ones do not, dare not, upon a serious deliberate discussion and debate, choose sin rather than affliction ; what they may do upon surprisals and in the violence of temptation, is of another nature.
But a false and unsound heart discovers itself in the choice it makes upon deliberation, and that frequently when sin and trouble come ia competition. Put the case, saith Augustine, a ruffian should with one hand set the cup of drunkenness to thy mouth, and with the other a dagger to thy breast, and say, drink or die; thou shouldest rather choose to die sober, than to live a drunkard: And many Christians have resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and, with renowned Mo- ses, chosen affliction, the worst of afflictions, yea, death itself in the most formidable appearance, rather than sin ; and it is the habitual temper and resolution of every gracious heart so to do, though those holy resolutions are sometimes over-borne by violence of temptation.
But the hypocrite dreads less the defilement of his soul, than the loss of his estate, liberty, or life. If you ask upon what ground then doth the apostle suppose, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. a man may give his body to be burnt, and not have charity ; that the salamander of hypocrisy may live in the flame of martyrdom ? The answer is at hand ; They that choose death in the sense of this text, do not choose it to escape sin, but to feed and indulge it. Those strange adventures (if any such be) are rather to maintain their own honour, and enrol their names among worthy and famous persons to posterity ; or out of a blind zeal to their espoused errors and mistakes, than in a due regard to the glory of God, and the preservation of integrity. ' I fear to ' speak it, but it must be spoken, (saith * Hierom), That even mar-
* tyrdom itself, when suffered for admiration and applause, profits
* nothing, but that blood is shed in vain."*
4. Fourthly, It is the property of an unregenerate soul, under adversity, to turn from creature to creature for support and comfort, and not from every creature to God alone. So long as their feet can touch ground, I mean, feel any creature-relief or comfort under them, they can subsist and live in afflictions ; but when they lose ground, when all creature-refuge fails, then their hearts fail too.
Thus Zedekiah, and the self-deceiving Jew^s, when they saw their own strength failed them, and there was little hope left that they should deliver themselves from the Chaldeans, what do they in that strait ? Do they, with upright Jehoshaphat say, " Our eyes are unto *' thee ?" No, their eyes were upon Egypt for succour, not upon Heaven; well, Pharaoh and his aids are left still, all hope is net