In that famous battle at Leuctrum,1 where the Thebans got a signal victory, but their captain, Epaminondas, a little before his death, demanded whether his buckler were taken by the enemy, and when he 1 Rather Leuctra, and to be distinguished from Leuctrum. — G.
394 THE MUTE CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 9.
understood thai it was safe, and that they had not so much as laid their hands on it, he died most willingly, cheerfully, and quietly. Well ! ( "nristians, your shield of faith is safe, your portion is aafe, your royal robe is safe, your kingdom is safe, your heaven is safe, your happiness and blessedness is safe; and therefore under all your afflictions and troubles, in patience possess your own souls. But,
Sixthly, It'you would be silent and quiet under your sorest troubles and trials, then set yourselves in good earnest upon the rnortifioation of your last*.1 It is unmortified lust which is the sting of every trouble, and which makes every sweet bitter, and every bitter more bitter. Sin unmortified adds weight to every burden, it puts gall to our wormwood, it adds chain to chain ; it makes the bed uneasy, the chamber a prison, relaxations troublesome, and everything vexatious to the soul. James iv. 1, 'From whenee come wars and fightings amongst you? come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members?' So say 1, from whence comes all this muttering, murmuring, fretting, and vexing, &c., come they not hence, even from your unmortified lusts? Come they not from your unmortified pride, and unmortified self-love, and unmor- tified unbelief, and unmortified passion, &c. ? Surely they do. Oh, therefore, as ever you would be silent under the afflicting hand of God, labour for more and more of the grace of the Spirit, by which you may mortify the lusts of the flesh, Rom. viii. 13. It is not your strongest resolutions or purposes, without the grace of the Spirit, that can over- master a lust. A soul-sore, till it be indeed healed, will run, though we resolve and say it shall not be. It was the blood of the sacrifice, and the oil, that cleansed the leper in the law ; and that by them was meant the boood of Christ and the grace of his Spirit, is agreed on all hands, Lev. xiv. 14-16. It was a touch of Christ's garment that cured the woman of her bloody issue, Mark v. 25, et seq. Philosophy, saitfa Lactantius, may hide a sin, but it cannot quench it ; it may cover a sin, but it cannot cut off a sin. Like a black patch instead of a plaster, it may cover some deformities in nature, but it cures them not ; neither is it the papists' purgatories, watchings, whippings, ivc, nor St Francis his kissing or licking of lepers' sores, which will cleanse the fretting leprosy of sin. In the strength of Christ, and in the power of the Spirit, set roundly upon the mortifying of every lust. Oh, hug none, indulge none, but resolvedly set upon the ruin of all ! One leak in a ship will sink it; one wound strikes Goliah dead as well as three- and-twenty did Csesar ; one Delilah may do Samson as much spite and mischief as all the Philistines; one broken wheel spoils all the whole clock ; one vein bleeding will let out all the vitals as well as more ; one fly will spoil a whole box of ointment ; one bitter herb all the pottage. By eating one apple Adam lost paradise, one lick of honey endangered Jonathan's life, one Achan was a trouble to all Israel, one Jonah raises a storm and becomes lading too heavy for a whole ship ; so one unmor- tified lust will be able to raise very strange and strong storms and tem- pests in the soul in the days of affliction. And therefore, as you would have a blessed calm and quietness in your own spirits under your sharp- est trials* set thoroughly upon the work of mortification. Gideon had
' Austin saith, If thou kill not sin till it die of itself, sin hath killed thee, and not thou tliy siu.
PS. XXXIX. 9.] UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. 395
seventy sons, and but one bastard, and yet that bastard destroyed all his seventy sons, Judges viii. 30, 31, chap. ix. 1, 2. Ah, Christian ! dost thou not know what a world of mischief one unmortified lust may do ? and therefore let nothing satisfy thee but the blood of all thy lusts.
(7.) Seventhly, If you would be silent under your greatest afflictions, your sharpest trials, then make this consideration your daily companion, viz., That all the afflictions that come upon you, come upon you by and through that covenant of grace that Goal hath made vnth you. In the covenant of grace, God hath engaged himself to keep you from the evils, snares, and temptations of the world ; in the covenant of grace, God hath engaged himself to purge away your sins, to brighten and increase your graces, to crucify your hearts to the world, and to prepare you and preserve you to his heavenly kingdom ; and by afflictions he effects all this, and that according to his covenant too : Ps. lxxxix. 30-34, ' If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my commandments ; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments.' In these words you have a supposition that the saints may both fall into sins of commission and sins of omission ; in the following words you have God's gracious promise : ' Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes/ God engages himself by promise and covenant, not only to chide and check, but also to correct his people for their sins : ' Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' Afflictions are fruits of God's faithfulness, to which the covenant binds him. God would be unfaithful, if first or last, more or less, he did not afflict his people. Afflictions are part of that gracious covenant which God hath made with his people ; afflictions are mercies, yea, covenant mercies, Ps. cxix. 75. Hence it is that God is called the terrible God, keeping covenant and mercy, Neh. i. 5 ; because, by his covenant of mercy, he is bound to afflict and chastise his people. God by covenant is bound to preserve his people, and not to surfer them to perish ; and happy are they that are preserved, whether in salt and vinegar, or in wine and sugar. All the afflictions that come upon a wicked man come upon him by virtue of a covenant of works, and so are cursed unto him ; but all the afflic- tions that come upon a gracious man, they come upon him by virtue of a covenant of grace, and so they are blessed unto him ; and therefore he hath eminent cause to hold his peace, to lay his hand upon his mouth.