Hath God smitten thy child, or friend, and didst thou not foresee some sharp trial coming? Did not thy fond, secure, carnal temper, need such a scourge to awaken, quicken, and purge thee ? Or, if you did not foresee it, it is now your duty to search and examine your- selves. So the church, in her affliction, resolved. Lam. iii. 40. ** Let " us search and try our ways." When God is smiting, vre should be a searching: Surely our iniquities will enquire after us if we will not enquire after them : Yea, in the day of affliction, a gracious soul is inquisitive about nothing more than the procuring and provoking cause of his troubles, Job x. 2. " Shew me wherefore thou contend- " est with me ;" q. d. Lord, what special corruption is it that this rod is sent to rebuke ? What sinful neglect doth it come to humble me for ? O discover it now to me, and recover me now from it.
And having found the root and cause of their troubles, ingenuous souls will shame themselves for it, and give glory to God by an hum- ble submission and vindication of the equity of his proceedings, Job vii. 20. " I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, thou preserver " of men ?" He thinks it no shame freely to discover unto God, and deeply to abase himself before him for his folly.
I remember a choice note that * Mr. Brightman hath in his com^ mentary upon the Canticles.
' Holy men, saith he, after their hearts are renewed by repent- ' ance, are not ashamed to remember and confess their slips, and ' shameful falls to the glory of God ; for they account that the glory ' which such confessions take from them, is not lost, whilst it goes ' to the glory of God.' If his glory may rise out of our shame,
* Nee enim pudet sanctos viros, postquam renovati corde faerint, jyer resipiscentiam iapsus S2ii Si- dedecoris ad Dei gloriam meminisse. NUiil nobis decedil, quod cedit in illiiu honorem. Brightman in Cant, c. 1. v. 4. p. 11.
616 A TOKEN FOR MOUllNERS.
how willing should we be to take such shame to us ? Holy David wa^ not ashamed to acknowledge, Psal. xxxviii. 5. " My wounds stink, " and are corrupted, because of my foolishness." He is the wisest man that thus befools himself before God.
It is true, God may afflict from prerogative, or for trial ; but we may always see cause enough in ourselves, and it is safest to charge it upon our own folly.
Lastly, The afflicted Christian may, in an htimble, submissive man- ner, plead with God, and be earnest Jbr the removal of the affliction.
When affliction presseth us above strength, when it disables us for duty, or when it gives advantage to temptation; then we may say with David, " Remove thy stroke from me, I am consumed by the " blow of thine hand," Psal. xxxix. 10. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, in the day of his troubles, poured out his soul with strong cries and many tears, saying, " Father, if thou be willing, let this cup pass ** from me," Luke xxii. 42. Oppressed nature desires ease, and even our renewed nature desires freedom from those clogs and temp- tations, which hinder us in duty, or expose us to snares. Thus far we may safely go.
But sorrow then becomes sinful and excessive, when.
First, It causeth us to slight and despise all our other mercies ^ and enjoymeiits as small things, in comparison of what xve have lost.
It often falls out, that the setting of one comfort, clouds and be- nights all the rest. Our tears for our lost enjoyments so blind our eyes, that we cannot see the many other mercies which yet remain : We take so much notice of what is gone, that we take little or no notice of what is left. But this is very sinful, for it involves in it both ignorance, ingratitude, and great provocation.
It is a sin springing from ignorance. Did we know the desert of our sins, we should rather wonder to see one mercy left, than that twenty are cut off. They that know they have forfeited every mercy, should be thankful that they enjoy any, and patient when they lose any of their comforts.
Did we know God, even that sovereign Lord at whose dispose our comforts come and go, who can the next moment blast all that re- main, and turn you into hell afterwards, you would prize the mercies he yet indulges to you, at an higher value. Did you understand the fickle, vanishing nature of the creature, what a flower, what a bubble it is; O how thankful would you be to find so many yet left in your possession !
Did you know the case of thousands, as good, yea, better than you, whose whole harvest of comfort in this world is but a handful to the gleanings of the comforts you still enjoy, who in all their lives never were owners of such comfortable enjoyments as you now overlook ; surely you Avould not act as you do.
Besides, what vile ingratitude is in this .'' What, are all your re^ maininp' mercies worth nothing ? You have buried a child, a friend ;
A TOKEN FOR MOURNERS. 617
Well, but still you have a husband, a wife, other children ; or if not, you have comfortable accommodations for yourselves, with health to enjoy them ; or if not, yet have you the ordinances of God, it may be, an interest in Christ and in the covenant, pardon of sin, and hopes of glory. What, and yet sink at this rate, as if all your mercies, comforts, and hopes, even in both worlds, were buried in one grave- Must Ichabod be written upon your best mercies, because mortality is written upon one ? Fy, fy, what shameful ingratitude is here !
And really, friend, such a carriage as this under the rod is no small provocation to the Lord to go on in judgment, and make a full end of all that remains, so that affliction shall not rise up the second time.
What if God, taking notice how little thou regardest the many un- deserved favours thou yet possessest, should say, well, if thou thinkest them not worth the owning, neither do I think them worth the con- tinuing.? Go, death, there is a husband, a wife, other children yet left, smite them all. Go, sickness, and remove the health of his body yet left ; go losses, and impoverish his estate yet left ; go, re- proach, and blast his reputation, which is yet sweet ; what would you think of this ? And yet, if you be out of Christ, you are in danger of a far sadder stroke than any, or all yet mentioned ? what if God should say, Prizest thou not my mercy ? Hast thou no value for my goodness and forbearance towards thee ? Is it nothing that I have spared thee thus long in thy sins and rebellions? Well then, I will stretch out my hand upon thy life, cut off that thread which hath kept thee so many years from dropping into hell.