VeB. 28.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 269
(3.) That it is your part to 2jet benefit by the afHiction, but God's to remove it. For the getting benefit by the afHiction falleth within the compass of our dutj', but the removing the afHiction is a bare €vent belonging to God's providence. We must do what is our part, and then God will do what is his ; not but that God helpeth us in the improvement, for we obtain this grace by prayer, and the supply of the Sjnrit of Christ ; but the removal is wholly God's work, and must be referred to him. Therefore your inquiry should be, What am I obliged unto in such a condition ? and charge yourselves with you own proper work. Elihu telleth you what reflections you should have : Job xxxiv. 31, 32, ' Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastise- ment, I will not offend any more ; that which I see not teach thou me : if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.' This is work proper for us : what sins will God have to be mortified ? what vanities left ? what duties more effectually performed ? what graces strengthened ? and then let God alone to take off the trouble wlien it hath done its errand ; for surely he delights not to grieve and displease his people further than is for their profit, and he would not continue the afiiic- tion if he had not more work to do ; his pity moveth him to spare the wicked when they relent under his strokes, much more to deliver the godly when they seriously profit by it.
(4.) If the constitution of our hearts were right, we would desire to profit by the affliction rather than to get rid of it. This is every- where represented as the temper of the godly: 2 Cor. iv. 16, 'For which cause we faint not ; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day ;' 2 Cor. xii. 10, ' I will rejoice in infirmities.' Surely spiritual and heavenly things should be valued above earthly and carnal, not by a bare speculative approbation, but by a practical esteem. Now a practical esteem is manifested by three solid effects : by our caring or seeking for the one rather than the other : Mat. vi. 33, ' But first seek the kingdom of God and his right- eousness, and all these things shall be added unto you ;' by quit- ting the one for the other when necessity so requireth : Mat. xiii. 45, 46, ' Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seek- ing goodly pearls ; who, when he hath found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it ; ' by our submission to God's dispensation, when he blasteth and taketh away the one, to promote the other. We should be glad that it goeth well with the inward man, by the loss and decay of the outward ; the lowest degree of sincerity is that the loss of outward concernments should trouble us the less ; but surely if grace be in any good degree of strength, we should rejoice and be abundantly satisfied that God thinketh fit to take away earthly things, that thereby he may make us more mindful of that which is heavenly, and doth lessen us in the world, that he may thereby excite us to a more lively exercise of grace, and retrench the interests of the flesh, that the spirit may be enlarged and kept in good plight. Therefore to a child of God an exemption from troubles is not so good as an improvement of them. Our Lord, when he taught us to pray, would have us indeed deprecate the temptation ; but our chief request by way of reserve : Mat. vi. 13, ' And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ;' so in his prayer : John xvii. 15,
270 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXVII.
' I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil ;' teaching us our desires should be not so much to be delivered from the world as the evil of the world, from sins rather than afflictions, and that we should seek grace rather than deliverance. The deliverance is a common mercy, the improvement a special mercy ; carnal men may escape out of affliction, but carnal men have no experience of grace in sanctifying afflictions ; and bare deliverance is no sign of special love, but improve- ment is. Paul rejoiced in this, that Grod would deliver him from every evil work, 2 Tim. iv. 18. Therefore we should submit to endure the evil of chastisement that we may escape the evil of the sin ; it is worse to be sinful than miserable, to be unclean than to be sick, to be voluptuous than to be poor ; and so the affliction bringeth greater good than it taketh from you. Therefore christians should be careful that they murmur not against God's dispensations, for there are two evils that we bewray thereby — (1.) A despising of God ; (2.) A despis- ing of holiness ; and a christian should be tender of either.