^ D.in. xi. 35; Mai. iii. 1-3. God's fire is in Zion, ami his furnace in Jerusalem. ' Joscphus, p. G17. The Jews hated and feared idolatry as much as the burnt child dreads the fire. [Josephus, sub voce. — G.]
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 41
admiring the constancy of tlie people in their religion, presently com- manded the statues to be taken out of the city of Jerusalem. All the hurt the fire did the three children, or rather champions, was to burn off their cords, Dan. iii. 23, 24. Our lusts are cords of vanity, but by fiery trials Grod will burn them up : Zech. xiii. 9, ' And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is re- fined, and will try them as gold is tried.' The best of men are but men at the best ; they have much corruption and dross in them, and they need refining ; and therefore God by fiery trials will refine them, but not as dross or chaff which are burnt up in the fire, but as silver and gold which are purified in the fire. He will so refine them as that they shall leave their dregs and dross behind them. Look, what the fire is to the gold, the file to the iron, the fan to the wheat, the soap to the clothes, the salt to the flesh, that shall fiery trials be to- the saints. But what shall be the fruit of their refining? Ans. ' They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, It is my jjeople, and they shall say. The Lord is my God.' By fiery trials God will purge out our dross and make virtue shine. All the fiery trials that befall the saints shall ])e as a potion to carry away ill humours, and as cold frosts to destroy the vermin, and as a tempestu- ous sea to purge the wine from its lees, and as the north wind that drieth up the vapours, that purges the blood, and that quickens the spirits, and as a sharp corrosive to eat out the dead flesh. The great thing that should be most in every burnt citizen's eye and heart and prayers and desires is, that the fire of London maybe so sanctified as to issue in the burning up of their lusts, and in the purging away of the filth of the daughter of Zion, Isa. iv. 4. Jerome reports of Plato, how he left that famous city of Athens, and chose to live in a little ancient village almost overturned with tempests and earthquakes, that, being often minded therein of his approaching desolation,^ he might get more power over his strong lusts, and learn to live a more virtuous life than ever he had lived before. 2 0 sirs ! if God by this fiery dispensation shall make you more victorious over your strong lusts, and help yo.u to live more virtuous lives, you will have cause to bless him all your days, though he has turned you out of house and home, and burnt up all your comforts round about you. But,
(4.) Fourthly, By severe providences and fiery trials, God designs these four things, in respect of his children's graces :
[1.] First, He designs the reviving, quickening, and recovering of their clecctyed gi^aces. By fiery trials he will inflame that love that was even key-cold, and raise that faith that was fallen asleej), and quicken up those hopes that were languishing, and put life and spirits into those joys and comforts that were withering and dying, Kev. ii. 4 ; James i. 2-12 ; 2 Cor. xii. 10. God, under fiery trials, lets his poor children see how that by their spiritual decays he has been dishonoured, his Spirit grieved, rehgion sliamed, the mouths of the wicked opened, weak saints staggered, strong saints troubled, conscience wounded, and their souls and graces impaired ; and by these discoveries he engages them to the use of all those holy and heavenly helps, whereby
1 Query, ' dissolution '?— Ed. ^ Hieronym. contra Jovinian, lib. ii.
42 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
their decayed graces may be revived and recovered. iMany creatures that have been frozen, and even deail with cold, have been revived and recovered by being brouglit to the fire. God by fiery trials will unfreeze the frozen graces of his people, and put new life and spirits into them. As the air is sometimes clear, and sometimes cloudy ; and as the sea is sometimes ebbing, and sometimes flowing ; and as the trees of the field are sometimes flowering, green, and growing, and sometimes naked, withered, and as it were even dead:' so it is some- times with the graces of the saints ; but the Lord by one fiery trial or another will revive, and recover, and raise their graces again. Epi- phanius makes mention of those that travel by the deserts of Syria, where are nothing but miserable marshes and sands, destitute oT: all commodities, notliing to be had for love or money. Now if it so happen that their fire go out by the way, then they light it again at the heat of the sun, by the means of a burning-glass i : and thus if the tire of zeal, if the sparks of divine grace, by the prevalency of some strong corruption, or by the violence of some dreadful temptation, should be put out, or die as to its lively operations, by a burning-glass, or by one fiery dispensation or another, God will infiame the zeal, and enliven the dying graces of his poor people. I know the saving graces of the Spirit — viz., such as faith, love, hope, &c. — cannot be finally and totally extinguished in the souls, wdien they are once wrought there by the Spirit ; yet their lustre, their radiancy, tlieir activity, their shine and flame may be clouded and covered, whilst the season of temptation lasteth ; as living coals may be so covered with ashes, that neither light, nor smoke, nor heat may appear, and yet when the embers, the ashes, are stirred to the bottom, tlien live coals appear, and by a little blowing a flame breaks forth. -^ There are severa' cases wherein grace in a Christian's breast may seem to be hid, cold, dead, and covered over ; as sap in the winter is hid in the roots of trees, or as flowers and fruits are hid in the seeds, or roots in the earth, or as sparks of fire are hid in the ashes, or as bits of gold are liid in a dust heap, or as pearls nuiy be hid in the mire. Ay, but God by one severe providence or another, by one fiery trial or another, will blow that heavenly grace, that divine tire, into a perfect flame : he will cause their hid graces to revive as the corn, and grow as the vine, and blossom as the lily, and smell as the wine of Lebanon, Hosea xiv. 5-7. 0 sirs 1 how many Christians were there amongst us, who were much decayed and withered in their graces, in tlieir duties, in their converses, in their comforts, in their spiritual enjoyments, in their communions Avith God, and with one anotlier ; and yet were not sensible of their decays, nor humbled under their decays, nor indus- trious to recover themselves out of their withering and dying condition! and therefore no wonder if the Lord, to recover them and raise them, hath brought fiery trials upon them.3 But,