' 'Probatio innocentia; nostrac estiniquitas vccitra.' — Ttrlul. in Apol.
' Justin Mart, in Apol. 2, circa finem.
3 Soe HiBt.of the founcU of Trent, p. 418,2(1 edit.
JaS. I. 3.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 31
with a respect to the day of jud<^ment : 1 Peter i. 7, ' That tlie trial of your faith may bo found to praise and honour in the day of Christ's appearing.' God will justify faith before all the world, and the crown of patience is set upon a believer's head in that solemn day of Christ. You see the reasons why God trieth.
Use. Well, then, it teacheth us to bear afflictions with constancy and patience ; God trieth us by these things. For your comfort con- sider four things : — (1.) God's aim in your afflictions is not destruction, but trial ; as gold is put into the furnace to be fined, not consumed. Wicked men's misery is ' an evil, and an only evil,' Ezek. vii. 5. In their cup there is no mixture, and their plagues are not to fan, but destroy. But to godly men, miseries have another property and habi- tude : Dan. xi. 3.5, ' They shall fall to try, and to purge, and to make white ; ' that is, in times of many persecutions, as was that of Anti- ochus, the figure of Antichrist. (2.) The time of trial is appointed : Dan. xi. 35, ' They shall fiill to try, and to purge, and to make white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed.' You are not in the furnace by chance, or at the will of your enemies ; the time is api)ointed, set by God. (3.) God sitteth by the furnace prying and looking after his metal : Mai. iii. 3, ' He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.' It notes his constant and assiduous care, that the fire be not too hot, that nothing be spilt and lost. It is a notable expression that of Isa. xlviii. 9, 10: 'For my praise will I refrain ; I have refined thee, but not as silver ; ' that is, not so thoroughly. Silver or gold is kept in the fire till the dross be wholly wrought out of it : if we should be fined as silver, when should we come out of the fur- nace ? Therefore God saith he will ' choose us in the furnace,' though much dross still remain. (4.) Consider, this trial is not only to approve, but to improve ; we are tried as gold, refined when tried : so 1 Peter i. 7, ' That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth ; ' or more clearly in Job xxiii. 10, ' When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold : ' the drossy and scorious part or matter is severed, and the corruptions that cleave close to us are purged and eaten out.
Ohs. 3. From that, your faith. The chief grace which is tried in persecution is faith : so in 1 Peter i. 7, ' That the trial of your faith, being more precious,' &c. Of all graces Satan hath a spite at faith, and of all graces God delighteth that the perfection of it should be discovered. Faith is tried, partly because it is the radical grace that keepeth in the life of a Christian : Hab. ii. 4, ' The just shall live by faith : ' we work by love, but live by faith ; partly because this is the grace most exercised, sometimes in keeping the soul from using ill means, and unlawful courses : Isa. xxviii. 16, 'He that belie veth doth not make haste ; ' that is, to help himself before God will. It is believ- ing that maketh the soul stand to its proof and trial : Heb. xi. 35, ' By faith those that were tortured would not accept deliverance ; ' that is, which was offered to them upon ill terms, of refusing God and his service. Sometimes it is exercised in bringing the soul to live upon gospel-comforts in the absence of want of worldly, and to make a Christian to fetch water out of the rock when there is none in the fountain. Many occasions there are to exercise faith, partly because
32 AN ExrosiTioN, WITH NOTE??, [Jas. I. 3.
it is the grace most oppugned and assaulted ; all other graces march under the conduct of faith : and therefore Satan's cunning is to fight, not against small or great, hut to make the brunt and weight of his opposition to fall upon this grace : nay, God himself seemeth an enemy, and it is faith's work to believe him near, when to sense he is gone and withdrawn. Well, then : —
Use 1. You that have faith, or pretend to it, must look for trials. Graces are not crowned till they are exercised ; never any yet went to heaven without combats and conflicts. Faith must be tried before it be ' found to praise and honour.' It is very notable, that wherever God bcstoweth the assurance of his favour, there presently followeth some trial : Heb. x. 32, ' After ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions.' Some are cast upon troubles for religion soon after their first conversion, like these, as soon as illuminated. When Christ himself had received a testimony from heaven, presently Satan tempteth him : 'This is my beloved Son;' and presently he coraeth with an, ' If thou be the Son of God '—Mat. iii. ]7, with Mat. iv. 1, 3 : after solenm assurance he would fain make you question your adoption. So see Gen. xxii. 1 : ' It came to pass that after these things God did tempt Abraham.' What things were those? Solemn inter- courses between him and God, and express assurance from heaven that the Lord would be his God, and the God of his seed. When the castle is victualled, then look for a siege.