Bernard compares afflictions to the teasle, which, though it be sharp and scratching, is to make the cloth more pure and fine. The Jews were always best when they were in an afflicted condition. Well waters arising from deep springs are hotter in the winter than they are in the summer. Stars shine brightest in the darkest nights. Vines grow the better for bleeding, and gold looks the better for scouring. Juniper smells sweetest when in the fire ; camomile, the more you tread it, the more you spread it. O sirs ! this is a real and a rare truth, but seldom thought on, viz. that God will sometimes more carry on the growth and improvement of grace by a cross, by an affliction, than by an ordinance, James i. 3, 4, iv. 8, 9. Afflictions ripen the saint's graces, 2 Cor. i. 5. First or last, God will make every rod, yea, every twig in every rod, to be an ordinance to every afflicted saint. By afflictions, God many times revives, quickens, and recovers the decayed graces of his people. By afflictions, God many times inflames that love that is cold, and he strengthens that faith that is failing, and he puts life into those hopes that are languishing, and new spirits into those joys and comforts that are withering and dying. Musk, say some, when it hath lost its sweet- ness, if it be put into the sink amongst filth, it recovers its sweetness again. So doth smart afflictions recover and revive our decayed graces.
I have read a story of a sexton, that went into the church at night to rob a woman who had been buried the day before with a gold ring upon her finger, according to her desire. Now, when he had opened the grave and coffin, and loosed the sheet, he fell a-rubbing and chafing her finger to get off the gold ring ; and with rubbing and chafing of it, her spiiits returned, she having been but in a swoon before, and she revived, and lived many years after.^ Smart afflictions are but the rubbing and chafing of our graces. The smarting rod abaseth the love- liness of the world, that might entice us ; it abates the lustiness of the flesh within, that might incite us to vanity and folly ; and it abets the spirit in his quarrel to the two former : all which tend much to the recovering and reviving of decayed graces. But,
[6.] The sixth end to which the rod serves, and that is. To try the child, to make a discovery of the spirit of the child. Some parents never see so much of the badness of the spirits of their children as they do when they bring them under the rod ; and other parents never see so much of the goodness of the spirits of their children as they do when
• 'Torches:' which recalls the aiiom, 'Truth, like a torch, the more it's shook it shines.' — G.
' Tjhis actually occurred with Mrs Henrj^ Erskine, who afterwards gave birth to the Erskines, so famous in Scotch ecclesiastical 'Lifetory. See Lives, by Fraser, of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, 2 vols. — G.
1 48 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN.
they chastise them with the rod. It is so here. When God afflicts some, oh the pride ! the stoutness ! the crossness ! the hardness ! the peevishness and stubbornness of spirit, that they discover ! Isa. i. 5 ; Jer. V. 3; Exod. v. 2 ; Jer. xliv. 15-19. When he afflicts others, oh the murmuring ! the roaring ! the complaining ! the howling ! the fretting ! the vexing ! and the quarrelling spirit that they discover ! Amos iv. 6-13 ; Num. xiv. 27, 29, 36 ; Deut. i. 27 ; Isa. Iviii. 3, 4, lix. 11 ; Hosea vii. 14, 15 ; Jonah iv. 1-5, 8, 9. Sometimes when God afflicts his dearest people, oh what a spirit of faith ! what a spirit of prayer ! what a spirit of love ! what a spirit of patience ! what a spirit of meekness ! what a spirit of humbleness ! what a spirit of submissive- ness do they discover ! Job xiii. J5 ; 2 Chron. 1-6, 12 ; Isa. xxvi. 16, 17 ; Hosea v. 14, 15 ; Job i. 20-22 ; Lev. x. 1-3 ; 1 Sam. iii. 18 ; 2 Kings XX. 16-19. And at other times, when God afflicts his poor people, oh what a spirit of unbelief ! what a spirit of slavish fear ! what a spirit of impatiency ! what a spirit of displeasedness, &c., do they discover ! Gen. xv. 2, 3 ; xii. 13, 19 ; xx. 2, 5 ; xxvi. 7-11 ; Ps. xxxi. 22 ; cxvi. 11 ; 1 Sam. xxi. 10-15 ; Job iii. 3-13 ; Jer. xx. 14-18. By smart afflictions, God tries the graces of his people, and discovers what is in the spirits of his people, Deut. viii. 2 ; Ps. Ixvi. 10, 1 1 ; Rev. iii. 18 ; 1 Peter i. 6, 7. The fire tries the gold as well as the touchstone. Diseases try the art of the physician, and tempests try the skill of the pilot. Every smarting rod is a touchstone, both to try our graces and to discover our spirits. Prudent fathers will sometimes cross their children, to try to discover the dispositions of their children, Heb. xii. 5-21. And so doth the Father of spirits deal sometimes with his children.
The manner of the Psylli, which are a kind of people of that temper and constitution that no venom will hurt them, is this/ if they suspect any child to be none of their own, they set an adder upon it to sting it ; and if it cry, and the flesh swell, they cast it away as a spurious issue ; but if it do not quatch* nor cry, nor is never the worse for it, then they account it for their own, and make very much of it. The application is easy. But,
[7.] The seventh and last end of the rod, Is to prepare and fit the chastised for greater services, favours, and mercies. Many a child and many a servant had never been so fit for eminent services as they are, had they not been under a smarting rod. It is very usual with God to cast them into very great afflictions, and to lay them under grievous smarting rods, that so he may prepare and fit them for some high and eminent services in this world. Joseph had never been so fit to be governor of Egypt, and to preserve the visible church of God alive in the world, if he had not been sold into Egypt, Gen. xii. 40-44 ; if his feet had not been hurt in the stocks, and if the irons had not entered into his soul. Gen. xlv. 7, 8. Nor Moses had never been so fit to be a leader and a deliverer of Israel as he was, if he had not been banished forty years in the wilderness before, Exod. ii. 15. Nor David's crown had never sat so well, nor so close, nor so long on his head as it did, had he not for some years before been hunted as a partridge in the wilderness, 1 Sam. xxvi. 20. Nor the three children, or rather the ^ Pliny, lib. xxviii. [Rather lib. vii. c. 2. — G.] * ' Shrink ;' see Vol. I. as above. — G.
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