Now, as the head was abased, even unto extremity ; so it is true of the whole body of the church from the beginning of the world. The church in Egypt was in extremity before Moses came ; therefore, a learned Hebrician Capne (s), that brought Hebrew into these western parts, was wont to say. When the tale of brick was doubled, then comes Moses, that is, in extremity. When there was no remedy, then God sent them deliverance. In what a pitiful case was the poor church and people of God in Esther's time. There was but a hair's-breadth between them and destruction. It was decreed by Haman, and they had gotten the king's decree too. They were, as it were, between the hammer and the anvil, ready to be crushed in pieces presently, had not God come between. And so in Babylon the church was in ex- tremity, insomuch as that when delivei'ance was told them, ' they were as men that dream,' Ps. cxxvi. 1, as if there had been no such matter; they wondered at it. And so in the times of persecution, God hath suflered his church to fall into extreme danger, as now at this time the church is in other parts. I might draw this truth along through all ages. It is true ot the whole body of the church. It is true likewise of the particular mem-
118 COMMENTARY ON
bers. Take the principal members of it. You sec Abraham, before God made good bis promise, be was brought to a dry body, and Sarah to a dead womb, tliat they despaired of all second causes. And David, though God promised him a kingdom, yet he was so straitened that be thought many times he should have died. ' I said in my haste, All men are liars,' Ps. cxvi. 11. They tell me this and that, but there is nothing so. He was hunted as a ' partridge in the wilderness,' 1 Sam. xxvi. 20.
It was true of St Paul. We see what extremity be was brought unto, as the psalmist saith, Ps. cxviii. 18, ' I was afflicted sore, but 1 was not de- livered to death,' even as we say, only not killed. It is and hath been so with all the members of the church from Abel to this day. Sometime or other, if they live any long time, they sball^be like Moses at the lied Sea. We see in what a strait he and bis company was there. There was the Egyp- tians behind them, the mountains on each side of them, the Red Sea before them. What escaping was here for Moses ? So it is with the poor church and children of God ofttimes. There are dangers behind them, and perils before them, and troubles on all sides. God brings them so low as death's door, sometimes by sickness, as there is an instance in Ps. cvii. 18, of those that go down to the sea in ships. ' He brings them to death's door,' saith the psalmist. What is the reason that, by persecution and afflictions, by one grievance or another, God brings his children to such a low ebb ? The reasons are many.
lieason 1. The first may be, he vill thus tnj irhat mettle the;/ ore made of. Light afflictions, light crosses, will not try them thoroughly ; great ones ■will. Jonah, that slept in the ship, he falls a-praying in the whale's belly. He that was pettish out of trouble, and falls a- quarrelling with God him- self in trouble, he falls to praying when he was in the bottom of hell, as be saith himself. Little afflictions may stand with murmuring and repining, but great ones try indeed what we are. What we are in great afflictions, we are indeed.
Reason 2. Again, to try the shicerity of onr estate, to make us to know ourselves, to make us known to the world and knovrn to ourselves, what good we have and what ill we have. A man knows not what a deal of looseness be hath in his heart, and what a deal of falseness, till we come to the cross and to extremity. Whereas before I thought I had had a great deal of patience, a great deal of faith, and a great deal of heavenly-minded- ness ; now I see I have not that store laid up as I thought I had. And sometime a man is deceived on the contrary. I thought I had had no goodness in me ; and yet in extremity such a one goes to prayer, he goes to the word of God, to the communion of saints, he delights in good things, and only in those. Extremity makes him discern and know himself for ill and for good, and makes others to know him too. That is another end.
Beason 3. Again, God suffers us to fall into extremity, to set an edge vpon our desires and our prayers, to make us cry to him. ' Out of the deep I have cried unto thee, 0 Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1. When a man is in the deep, it is not an ordinary prayer will serve, but he must cry. God loves to hear his children speak to him. He loves the voice of his children. It is the best music that be delights in. Therefore, he v/ill take a course that he will be sure to hear from them ; and rather than they shall neglect prayer, be will suffer them to fall into some rousing sin, into such a state and condition, that they may dart up prayers, that they may force prayers out of the anguish of spirit, that their prayers may be violent, that will take no denial, that they may be strivings with God, that they may wrestle with