VeR. 67.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 231
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.' Wo can subscribe to this in the general ; all will affirm that afflictions are profitable, and that it is a good thing to be patient and submissive under them ; but when any cross cometh to knock at our door, we are loath to give it entrance ; and if it thrust in upon us, we fret and fume, and our souls sit uneasy, and all because we are addicted so unreason- ably to the ease of the flesh, the quiet, happiness, and welfare of the carnal life, and have so little regard to life spiritual.
7. At the first coming of the affliction we do not see this benefit so well as in the review of the whole dispensation : ' Before I was afflicted I went astray ; but now I have kept thy word/ So Heb. xii. 11, ' Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.' There is a per- fect opposition ; the root and the fruit are opposed — affliction and fruit of righteousness, the quality of the root, and the quality of the fruit : ov ')(apa<; eivat aWa \vrr7]<;, Kapirov elprjvcKov, the ap- pearance and the reality, BoKec and cnroSLSoxTL'i,. Then the season, 7r/909 TO irapov and vcrrepov. God's physic must have time to work. At first it may not be so, or at least not appear ; for things are before they appear or can be observed for the present. We must tarry God's leisure, and be content with his blows, till we feel the benefit of them : it is first matter of faith, and then of feeling ; though we do not pre- sently understand why everything is done, we must wait. The hand on the dial doth not seem to stir, yet it keeps its course ; while it is pass- i ng we see it not, but that it hath passed from one hour to another is evi- dent. So is God's work with the soul ; and spiritual renovation and increase is not so sensible at the first though it be carried on r/fiepa kuI Vfiepa, day by day, 2 Cor. iv. 16, but in view of the whole it will ap- pear. What are we the better ? Doth sin decay ? and what sin ? Do we find it otherwise with us than it was before ?
8. This profit is not only when the affliction is upon us, but after it is over the fruit of it must remain. Their qualms and pangs most have : Ps. Ixxviii. 34-37, ' When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and inquired early after God : and they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. Never- theless, they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues ; for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.' Many have a little forced religion in their extremities, but it weareth off with their trouble. Sin is but suspended for a while, and the devil chained up ; they are very good under the rod, they are frighted to it ; but after the deliverance cometh; the more profane. It is true many may begin with God in their troubles, and their necessities drive them to the throne of grace ; and Christ had never heard of many, if fevers and palsies, and possessions and blindness, deafness and dumbness, had not brought them unto him, thanks to the disease. But if a course of godliness begins upon these occasions, and continues afterwards, God will accept it ; he is willing to receive us upon any terms. Men will say, You come to me in your extremity ; but he doth not upbraid us, provided we will come so as to abide with him, and will not turn the back upon him when our turn is
232 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXVI,
served. If you do so, take heed ; God hath other judgments to reach you : as John said, Mat. iii. 11, 12, ' He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ; he shall bap- tize )'0U with the Holy Ghost and wdth fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chafi" with unquenchable fire.' So that which cometh after is mightier than that which went before ; the last judgment is the heaviest : ' The axe is laid to the root of the tree ; therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire/ Mat. iii. 10. He will not only lop off the branches, but strike at the root ; as the Sodomites that escaped the sword of Chedorlaomer perished by fire from heaven. The Israelites that were not drowned in the Eed Sea, were stung to death by fiery serpents : ' As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him ; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him,' Amos v. 19. When you avoid one judgment, you may meet an- other, and find a stroke where you think yourselves most secure.