tainly there is a generation amongst us, who, when they are under the afflicting hand of God, have no mouths to plead with God, no lips to praise God, nor no tongues to justify God. These are possessed with a dumb devil ; and this dumb devil had possessed Ahab for a time : 1 Kings xxi. 4, 'And Ahab came into his house, heavy and displeased, and laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.' Ahab's ambitious humour, his covetous humour, being crossed, he is resolved to starve himself, and to die of the sullens. A sullen silence is both a sin and a punishment. No devil frets and vexes, wears and wastes the spirits of a man, like this dumb devil, like this sullen silence.
Some write of a certain devil, whom they call Hudgin, who will not, they say, hurt anybody, except he be wronged. I cannot speak so favourably of a sullen silence, for that wrongs many at once, God and Christ, bodies and soul. But this is not the silence here meant.
Fifthly, There is a forced silence. Many are silent per force. He that is under the power of his enemy, though he suffer many hard things, yet he is silent under his sufferings, because he knows he is liable to worse ; he that hath taken away his liberty, may take away his life ; he that hath taken away his money, may take off his head ; he that hath let him blood in the foot, may let him blood in the throat if he will not be still and quiet : and this works silence per force. So, when many are under the afflicting hand of God, conscience tells them that now they are under the hand of an enemy, and the power of that God whom they have dishonoured, whose Son they have crucified, whose Spirit they have grieved, whose righteous laws they have transgressed, whose ordinances they have despised, and whose people they have abused and opposed ; and that he that hath taken away one child, may take away every child ; and he that hath taken away the wife, might have taken away the husband ; and he that hath taken away some part of the estate, might have taken away all the estate ; and that he who hath inflicted some distempers upon the body, might have cast both body and soul into hell-fire for ever ; and he that hath shut him up in his chamber, may shut him out of heaven at pleasure. The thoughts and sense of these things makes many a sinner silent under the hand of God ; but this is but a forced silence.1 And such was the silence of Philip the Second, king of Spain, who, when his invincible Armada, that had been three years a-fitting, was lost, he gave command that all over Spain they should give thanks to God and the saints that it was no more grievous. As the cudgel forces the dog to be quiet and still, and the rod forces the child to be silent and mute, so the appre- hensions of what God hath done, and of what God may do, forces many a soul to be silent, Jer. iii. 10, 1 Kings xiv. 5-18. But this is not the silence here meant : a forced silence is no silence in the eye of God.
Sixthly, There is a despairing silence. A despairing soul is Magor- missabib, a terror to himself ; he hath a hell in his heart, and horror in his conscience. He looks upwards, and there he beholds God frowning, and Christ bleeding ; he looks inwards, and there he finds conscience accusing and condemning of him;2 he looks on the one side of him, and
1 Ocnlos quos peccatttm cluudit, poena aperit. — Gregory, The eye that sin shuts, afflic- tion opens. s Psalm xciv. 7 ; xxviii. 1.
298 THE MUTE CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 9.
there he hears all his sins crying out, We are thine, and we will follow thee ; we will to the grave with thee, we will to judgment with thee, and from judgment we will to hell with thee ; he looks on the other side of him, and there he sees infernal fiends in fearful shapes, amazing and terrifying of him, and waiting to receive his despairing soul as soon as she shall take her leave of his wretched body ; he looks above him, and there he sees the gates of heaven shut against him ; he looks beneath him, and there he sees hell gaping for him ; and under these sad sights, he is full of secret conclusions against his own soul. There is mercy for others, saith the despairing soul, but none for me ; grace and favour for others, but none for me ; pardon and peace for others, but none for me ; blessedness and happiness for others, but none for me: there is no help, there is no help, no, Jer. ii. 25, xviii. 12. This seems to be his case who died with this desperate saying in his mouth, Spes et fortuna valete, farewell, life and hope together.1 Now, under these dismal apprehensions and sad conclusions about its present and future condition, the despairing soul sits silent, being filled with amazement and astonishment : Ps. lxxvii. 4, ' I am so troubled that I cannot speak.' But this is not the silence here meant. But,
Seventhly and lastly, There is a prudent silence, a holy, a gracious silence; a silence that springs from prudent principles, from holy prin- ciples, and from gracious causes and considerations ; and this is the silence here meant. And this I shall fully discover in my answers to the second question, which is this :
II. Quest. 2. What doth a prudent, a gracious, a holy silence in- clude ?
Ans. 2. It includes and takes in these eight things : First, It includes a sight of God, and an acknoivledgment of God as the author of all the afflictions that come upon us. And this you have plain in the text : ' 1 was dumb, I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it.' The psalmist looks through secondary causes to the first cause, and so sits mute before the Lord. There is no sickness so little. but God hath a finger in it, though it be but the aching of the little finger. As the scribe is more eyed and properly said to write, than the pen; and he that maketh and keepeth the clock, is more properly said to make it go and strike, than the wheels and weights that hang upon it; and as every workman is more eyed and properly said to effect his works, rather than the tools which he useth as his instruments. So the Lord, who is the chief agent and mover in all actions, and who hath the greatest hand in all our afflictions, is more to be eyed and owned than any inferior or subordinate causes whatsover;2 so Job, he beheld God in all: Job i. 21, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' Had he not seen God in the affliction, he would have cried out: Oh these wretched Chaldeans, they have plundered and spoiled me ; these wicked Sabeans, they have robbed and wronged me ! Job discerns God's commission in the Chaldeans' and the Sabeans' hands, and then
1 As that despairing pope said, the cross could do him no good, because he had so often sold it.
a In second causes, many times a Christian may see much envy, hatred, malice, pride, &e. But in the first cause he can see nothing but grace and mercy, sweetness and good- ness.
PS. XXXIX. 9.] UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. 299