[1.] It is a means of our first conversion. How many begin with God upon the occasion of afflictions ! The time of sorrows is a time of loves. The hot furnace is Christ's workhouse, where he formeth the most excellent vessels of honour and praise for his own use, Manasseh, Paul, and the jailer in the Acts, were all chosen in the fire ; as the Lord saith, Isa. xlviii. 10, ' I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,' where God began to discover his choice by his working on their affections. All men are vessels capable of any form, therefore God puts them into the furnace. Most of us are taken in our month, as the ram that Abraham offered was caught in the thickets. When stout and stubborn sinners are broken with want and distress, then they come to themselves, and think of returning to their Father : Luke xv. 17, 18, 'And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! I will arise and go to my father,' &c. Afflictions make us more serious ; conscience is then apt to work. Before, we were guided by the wisdom of the flesh, and governed by our carnal appetite, never minded heavenly things, till God get us under, and then we bethink ourselves. Have you never known any instance in this kind ? that whilst they were young, rich, strong, noble, all their humour was for vain pleasure, to-day hunting, to- morrow hawking, another day feasting, and then brawling, fighting, drinking, carousing, dancing ; all the warnings of parents, the good counsel of tutors and governors, the grave exhortations of ministers and preachers, will do no good upon them ; they are always wandering up and down from God and from themselves, cannot endure a thought of God, of death, of heaven, of hell, of judgment to come ; but when God casts them once into some grievous disease, or some great trouble, they begin to come to themselves, and then they that would hear nothing,
228 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXVI.
understand nothing, despised all grave and gracious counsel given, as it it did not belong to them, scoffed at admonitions, thought the day lost in which they had not acted some sin or other, when the cross preacheth, and some grievous calamity is upon them, then con- science beginneth to work, and this bringeth to remembrance all that they have heard before, then they come to themselves, and would fain if they could come to Christ. Sharp affliction is a sound, powerful, rousing teacher : Job xxxvi. 8,9, 'And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction, then he showeth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.' Grace worketh in a powerful but yet in a moral way, congruously but forcibly, and by a fit accommodation of circumstances. One place more : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' Truly I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chas- tised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God.' Affliction awakeneth serious reflections upon our ways ; therefore take heed what ye do with the convictions that arise upon afflictions ; to slight them is dangerous. Nothing breedeth hardness of heart so much as the smothering of convictions. Iron often heated grows the harder. On the other side, see they do not degenerate into despair, either the raging despair which terrifieth, or the sottish despair which stupefieth : Jer. xviii. 12, ' They said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagi- nation of his evil heart.' The middle between both is a holy sensible- ness of our condition, which is a good preparation for the great duties of the gospel. The work of conversion is at first difficult and troublesome, but pass over this brunt, and all things will be sweet and easy : the bullock at first yoking is most unruly, and fire at the first kindling casts forth most smoke ; so when sin is revived it brings forth death : Rom. vii. 9, ' For I was alive without the law once, but Avhen the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' But yet cherish the work till God speak peace upon sound terms.
[2.] It is a great help to those that are converted already. How many are reduced to a more serious, lively practice of godliness by their troubles ! We are rash, inconsiderate, inattentive to our duty, but the rod maketli us cautious and diligent. We follow the world, not the word of God ; the vanities thereof take us off from minding the promises or precepts of the word, till the affliction cometli. In short, there are none of us so tamed and subdued to God but that we need to be tamed more. We are all for carnal liberty; there is a w^antonness in us. We are high-minded, earthly-minded, till God come with his scourge to reclaim us. He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10 ; some lust still needeth mortifying, or some grace needeth exercising ; our pride needs to be mortified, or our affections to be weaned from the world. The almond-tree is made more fruitful by driving nails into it, because that letteth out a noxious gum that hindereth its fruitfulness ; so when God would have you thrive more, he makes you feel the sharpness of affliction. You have heard Plutarch's story of Jason of Chorea, that had his imposthume let out by a casual wound. There is some cor- ruption God would let out. We are apt to set up our rest here, and