Secondly, That according to these measures you will find it good to be afflicted.
1. It is good as it is minus malum, it keepeth us from greater evils. Afflictions to the righteous are either cures of or preservatives from spiritual evils, which would occasion greater troubles and crosses. They prevent sin : 2 Cor. xii. 7, 'And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buflet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.' They purge out sin : Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged out.' We are apt to abuse prosperity to sek-confidence : Ps. xxx. 6, 7, 'In my prosperity I said.
25G siiiiMoNs UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXIX.
I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.' And luxury : Dent, xxxii. 15, ' But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked ; thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness ; then he forsook God tliat made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.' The godly have evil natures as well as others, which cannot be beaten down but by afHictions. We are froward in our relations. Hagar was proud in Abraham's house, Gen. xvi. 4, her mistress was despised in her eyes ; but very humble in the desert, Gen. xxi. 16. David's heart was tender and smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment, 1 Sam. xxiv. 5 ; but how stupid and senseless was lie when he lived at ease in Jeru- salem ! 2 Sam. xii. His conscience was benumbed till Nathan roused him. Before we are chastened we are rebellious, frail, fickle, mutable, apt to degenerate without this continual discipline : we are very negli- gent and drowsy till the rod awakeneth us. God's children have strange failings and negligences, and sometimes are guilty of more heinous sins. It is a great curse for a man to be left to his own ways : Hosea iv. 17, ' Let him alone ; ' so Ps. Ixxxi. 12, ' I ga,ve them up to th&ir own hearts' lust.' Men must needs perish when left to them- selves, without this wholesome, profitable discipline of the cross.
2. It is good, because the evil in it is counterpoised by a more abundant good. It is evil as it doth deprive us of our natural comforts, pleasure,- gain, honour ; but it is good as these may be recompensed with better pleasures, richer gain, and greater honour. There is more pleasure in holiness tlian there can be pain and trouble in afHictiou : Heb. xii. 11, ' No affliction for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, but afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.' More gain than affliction can bring loss : Heb. xii. 10, ' But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.' More honour than afflic- tion can bring shame, surely then it is good. There is a threefold profit we get by affliction : —
[1.] The time of affliction is a serious thinking time : Eccles. vii. 14, ' In the day of adversity consider ; ' 1 Kings viii. 47, ' Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive.' We have more liberty to retire into ourselves, being freed from the attractive allurements of worldly vanities and the delights of the flesh. Adversity maketh men serious ; the prodigal came to himself when he began to be in want, Luke xv. 17. Sad objects make a deep impression upon our souls ; they help us to consider our own ways and God's righteous dealings, that we may behave ourselves wisely and suitably to the dispensation : Micah vi. 9, ' The man of wisdom will hear the rod.'
[2.] It is a special hearing time; in the text, 'That I might learn thy statutes ; ' and it is said of Christ, Heb. v. 8, that ' He learned obedience from the things that he suflered ; ' he did experimentally understand what obedience was in hard and difficult cases, and so could the better pity poor sinners in affliction : we have an experi- mental knowledge of that of Avhich we had but a notional knowledge before. We come by experience to see how false and changeable the world is, how comfortable an interest in God is, what a burden sin is, what sweetness there is in the promises, what a reality in the word. TiUther said, Qui trihidantur, &c. The afflicted see more in the scrip-
VeR. 71.] SEBMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 257
ture than others do; the secure and fortunate read them as tV.ey do Ovid's verses. Certainly when the soul is humble, and when we are refined and raised above the degrees of sense, we are more tractable and teachable, our understandings are clearer, our afi'ections more melting. Our spiritual learning is a blessing that cannot be valued If God write his law upon our hearts by his stripes on our backs, so light a trouble should not be grudged at.
[3.] It is an awakening, quickening time.
(1.) Some are awakened out of the sleep of death, and are first wrought upon by afliictions. This is one powerful means to bring in souls to God, and to open their ears to discipline. God began with them in their afliictions, and the time of their sorrows was the time of loves. The hot furnace is Christ's workhouse, the most excellent vessels of honour and praise have been formed there : Isa. xlviii. 10, • I have chosen thee in the furnace of afliiction.* Manasses, Paul, the jailer, were all chosen in the fire ; God puts them into the furnace, and chooseth them there, melts them, and stamps them with the image of Christ. The hog's trough was a good school to the prodigal. Well, then, doth God do you any harm by afliiction when he saves you by it ? If we use violence to a man that is ready to be drowned, and in pulling him out of the waters should break an arm or a leg, would he not be thankful ? If you have broken my arm, you have saved my life. So God's children : It is good that I had such an afflic- tion, felt the sharpness of such a cross. Oh, blessed providence I I had been a witless fool, and gone on still in a com'se of sin and vanity, if God had not awakened me.