[Satan, though he can no longer possess the bodies of men as formerly he did, has yet great power over their souls. " His fiery darts " can inflict the deadliest wound. Paul himself was not able to endure " the buffetings " of that malignant enemy, till, by repeated cries to his Divine Master, he had obtained from him augmented supplies of grace and strength"^. As for Job, though he was a perfect man, yet he sank entirely under
the assaults of this great adversary ' Even the Lord of
Glory himself, when he had assumed our feeble nature, was so exhausted in his first conflicts with Satan, that he needed to have " angels sent from heaven to strengthen him'^." And in his last hours, when all the powers of darkness made their united assault upon him, he was constrained to say, " My soul is ex- ceeding sorrowful, even unto death." What wonder then if Christians of ordinary stature be on some occasions unable to bear up under the wounds which he inflicts upon them ?]
5. By spiritual desertion —
[This, after all, is the most overwhelming to a pious soul. With the presence of his God a man may bear any thing : but when " God hides his face from him, he must of necessity be troubled'." In this respect also David shews us what an in- supportable affliction this is, and how impossible it is for the
strongest or most pious mind to endure it°^ But in our
blessed Lord himself we see the most awful exemplification of this truth : for when all his other afflictions together had not been able to extort from him one complaint, this forced from him that heart-rending cry, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ° ?]
Seeing then that many may be fainting under the agonies of " a wounded spirit," we will, IL Administer some balm for its relief —
There is no wound that can be inflicted on the soul in this life, which may not, by an application of the proper remedies, be healed. Consider then,
1. There is no affliction which is not sent by God for our good —
[Afflictions, of whatever kind they be, " spring not out of the ground :" they are all appointed by God, in number, weight, and measure, and duration. If it be disease of body, it is he that inflicts the wound : if the trial come from any other quarter,
h 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9. * Job vi. 2—4. and vii. 2—4, 13—16.
k Matt. iv. 11. 1 Ps. XXX. 6, 7.
m Ps.lxxvii. 2— 4. and Ixxxviii. 3—7, 14 — 16.
n Matt, xxvii. 46.
o2
ion PROVERBS, xviir. 14. [797.
it still is his chastening rod that strikes us, with a view to our spiritual good, " that we may be made peirtakers of his holiness." Convictions of sin are the work of his Spirit, to prepare us for the final restoration of his favour : and Satan himself, as in the case of Job and of Peter, is restrained by God, so as ultimately to display the triumphs of divine grace, and to benefit the souls which he endeavours to destroy : and God himself, in the hidings of his face, seeks only so to humble and purify our souls as to prepare us for the fuller manifestations of his love
and mercy °
Now it must be granted, " that afflictions are not for the present joyous, but grievous : nevertheless, afterwards they work the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby." " If we be in heaviness through manifold temptations," God sees that there is " a needs be" for themP; and that by putting us into the furnace, we shall be purged from our dross, and come out of it as vessels better fitted for his service 1. Well therefore may the consideration of the end for which they are sent, and of the benefit to be derived from them, reconcile us to the pressure of them, and dispose us patiently to wait for the removal of them. Could Job have foreseen the issue of his troubles, they would have been de- prived of more than half their weight.]