The ninth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is,
Device (9). By presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, reproaches, sorrows, and sufferings that do daily attend those that wall in the ways of holiness. Saith Satan, Do not you see that there are none in the world that are so vexed, afflicted, and tossed, as those that walk more circumspectly and holily than their neighbours?
They are a byword at home, and a reproach abroad; their miseries f come in upon them like Job’s messengers, one upon the neck of another, and there is no end of their sorrows and troubles. Therefore, saith Satan, you were better walk in ways that are less troublesome, and less afflicted, though they be more sinful; for who but a madman would spend his days in sorrow, vexation, and affliction, when it may be prevented by walking in the ways that I set before him 2
Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these:
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That all the afflictions that do attend the people of God, «ure such as shall turn to the profit and glorious advantage of the people of God. They shall discover that filthiness and vileness in sin, that yet the soul hath never seen. It was a speech of a German divine! in his sickness, In this disease I have learned how great God is, and what the evil of sin is; I never knew to purpose what God was before, nor what sin meant, till now.’ Afflictions are a crystal glass, wherein the soul hath the clearest sight of the ugly face of sin. In this glass the soul comes to see sin to be but a bitter-sweet; yea, in this glass the soul comes to see sin not only to be an evil, but to be the greatest cvil in the world, to be an evil far worse than hell itself.
Again, They shall contribute to the mortifying and purging away of their sins, Isa. 1. 15, and xxvii. 8,9. AfHlictions are God’s furnace, by which he cleanses his people from their dross. Affliction is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make virtue shine; it is a potion to carry away ill humours, better than all the benedictum medicamentuin, as physicians call them? Aloes kill worms; colds and frosts do destroy vermin; so do afflictions the corruptions that are in our hearts. The Jews, under all the prophet’s thunderings, retained their idols; but after their Babylonish captivity, it is observed, there have been no idols found amongst them. Again, Afflictions are sweet preservatives to keep the saints from sin, which is a greater evil than hell itself. As Job spake, Surely it is meet to be said unto God, T have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more. Once have I spoken foolishly, yea, twice, I will do so no more,” Job xxxiv. 31, 32. The burnt eclnld dreads the fire. Ah! saith the soul under the rod, sin is but a bittersweet; and for the future I intend, by the strength of Christ, that I will not buy repentance at so dear a rate? The Rabbins, to scare their scholars from sin, were wont to tell them, That sin made God’s head ache; and saints under the rod have found by wotul experience, that sin makes not only their heads, but their hearts ache also. Augustine, by wandering out of his way, escaped one that lay in 1 Gaspar Olevianus (1586).—G.
wait to mischief him.! If afflictions did not put us out of our way, we should many times meet with some sin or other that would mischief our precious souls.
Again, They will work the saints to be more fruitful in holiness: Heb. xii. 10, 11, But he afflicts us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.” The flowers smell sweetest after a shower; vines bear the better for bleeding; the walnut-tree is most fruitful when most beaten. Saints spring and thrive most internally when they are most externally afflicted. - Afflictions are called by some ‘ the mother of virtue” Manasseh his chain was more profitable to him than his crown. Luther could not understand some Scriptures till he was in affliction. The Christ-cross is no letter, and yet that taught him more than all the letters in the row. God’s house of correction is his school of instruction? All the stones that came about Stephen’s ears did but knock him closer to Christ, the corner-stone, The waves did but lift Noah’s ark nearer to heaven; and the higher the waters grew, the more near the ark was lifted up to heaven. Afflictions do lift up the soul to more rich, clear, and full enjoyments of God: Hosea ii. 14, ‘ Behold, I will allure her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her’; (or rather, as the Hebrew hath it); ‘I will earnestly or vehemently speak to her heart. (od makes afflictions to be but inlets to the soul’s more sweet and full enjoyment of bis blessed self. When was it that Stephen saw the heavens open, and Christ standing at the right hand of God, but when the stones were about his ears, and there was but a short step betwixt him and eternity? And when did God appear in his glory to Jacob, but in the day of his troubles, when the stones were his pillows, and the ground his bed, and the hedges his curtains, and the heavens his canopy? Then he saw the angels of God ascending and descending in their glistering robes. The plant in Nazianzen grows with cutting; being cut, it flourisheth; it contends with the axe, it lives by dying, and by cutting it grows.> So do saints by their afflictions that do befall them; they gain more experience of the power of God supporting them, of the wisdom of God directing them, of the grace of God refreshing and cheering them, and of the goodness of God quieting and quickening of them, to a greater love to holiness, and to a greater delight in holiness, and to a more vehement pursuing after holiness.
I have read of a fountain, that at noonday is cold, and at midnight it grows warm; so many a precious soul is cold God-wards, and heavenwards, and holiness-wards, in the day of prosperity; that grow warm God-wards and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards, in the midnight of adversity.
Again, Afflictions serve to keep the hearts of the saints humble and
50 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 Cor. II. 11. i tender: Lam. iii. 19, 20, Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me,” or bowed down in me, as the original hath it.! So David, when he was under the rod, could say, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it,” Ps. xxxix. 4. ~ i I have read of one [Gregory Nazianzen], who, when anything fell out prosperously, would read over the Lamentation of Jeremiah, and that kept his heart tender, humbled, and low. Prosperity doth not contribute more to the puffing up the soul, than adversity doth to the bowing down of the soul. This the saints by experience find; and therefore they can kiss and embrace the cross, as others do the world’s crown. Again, They serve to bring the saints nearer to God, and to make them more importunate and earnest in prayer with God. Before I was ‘ afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.” “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes” = “1 will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away: I will take away, and none shall rescue him.” “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.’ And so they did. Come, say they, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and le will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” So when God had hedged up their way with thorns, then they say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it with me better than now, Hosea ii. 6, 7. Ah the joy, the peace, the comfort, the delight, and content that did attend us, when we kept close communion with God, doth bespeak our return to God. We will return to our first husband; for then was it with us better than now.’
When Tiribazus, a noble Persian, was arrested, he drew out his sword, and defended himself; but when they told him that they came to carry him to the king, he willingly yielded. So, though a saint may at first stand a little out, yet when he remembers that afflictions are to carry nearer to God, he yields, and kisses the rod. Aftlictions are like the prick at the nightingale’s breast, that awakes her, and puts her upon her sweet and delightful singing.
Again, Afflictions they serve to revive and recover decayed graces; they inflame that love that is cold, and they quicken that faith that is decaying, and they put life into those hopes that are withering, and spirits into those joys and comforts that are languishing. Musk, saith one, when it hath lost its sweetness, if it be put into the sink amongst filth it recovers it. So do afflictions recover and revive de-
cayed graces. The more saints are beaten with the hammer of afflictions, the more they are made the trumpets of God’s praises, and the more are their graces revived and quickened. Adversity abases the loveliness of the world that might entice us; it abates the lustiness of the flesh within, that might incite us to folly and vanity; and it abets the spirit in his quarrel to the two former, which tends much to the reviving and recovering of decayed graces. Now, suppose afflictions and troubles attend the ways of holiness, yet seeing that they all work for the great profit and singular advantage of the saints, let no soul be so mad as to leave an afflicted way of holiness, to walk in a smooth path of wickedness.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, that all the afflictions that do befall the saints, do only reach their worser part; they reach not, they hurt not, their noble part, their best part. All the arrows stick in the target, they reach not the conscience: 1 Peter iii. 13, And who shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good,’ saith the apostle. That is, none shall harm you. They may thus and thus afflict you, but they shall never harm you.! “It was the speech of an heathen, whenas by the tyrant he was commanded to be put into a mortar, and to be beaten to pieces with an iron pestle, he cries out to his persecutors, ‘ You do but beat the vessel, the case, the husk of Anaxarchus, you do not beat me.” His body was to him but as a case, a husk; he counted his soul himself, which they could not reach. You are wise, and know how to apply it. Socrates said of his enemies, ‘ They may kill me, but they cannot hurt me.’ So afflictions may kill us, but they cannot hurt us; they may take away my life, but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That the afflictions that do attend the saints in the ways of holiness, are but short and momentary. Sorrow may abide for a night, but joy comes in the morning,’ Ps. xxx. 5. This short storm will end in an everlasting calm, this short night will end in a glorious day, that shall never have end.? It is but a very short time between grace and glory, between our title to the crown and our wearing the crown, between our right to the heavenly inheritance and our possession of the heavenly inheritance. Fourteen thousand years to the Lord is but as one day. What is our life but a shadow, a bubble, a flower, a post, a span, a dream? &c. Yea, so small a while doth the hiand of the Lord rest upon us, that Luther cannot get diminutives enough to extenuate it, for he calls it a very little cross that we bear, ro mmngov wingov. The prophet in Isaiah xxvi. 20, saith the indignation doth not (transire) pass, but (pertransire) overpass. The sharpness, shortness, and suddenness of it is set forth by
Bs 52 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 Cor. IL 11 the travail of a woman, John xvi. 21. And that is a sweet scripture, For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” For yet a little while, he that shall come will come, and will not tarry,” Heb. x. 36, 37. Tantillum tantillum adliue pusillum. A little, little, little while!
When Athanasius’s friends came to bewail him, because of his misery and banishment, he said, It is but a little cloud, and will quickly be gone. It will be but as a day before God will give his afflicted ones beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness for the spirit of heaviness; before he will turn all your sighing into singing, all your lamentations into consolations, your sackcloth into silks, ashes into ointments, and your fasts into everlasting feasts, &e.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan, is seriously to consider, That the afflictions that do befall the saints are such as proceed from God’s dearest love? As many as 1 love, I rebuke and chasten, Rev. iii. 19. Saints, saith God, think not that I hate you, because I thus chide you. He that escapes reprehension may suspect his adoption. God had one Son without corruption, but no son without correction. A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud, and see a God smiling on him. We must look through the anger of his correction to the sweetness of his countenance; and as by the rainbow we see the beautiful image of the sun’s light in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud.
When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did and how he felt himself, he pointed to his sores and ulcers, whereof he was full, and said, These are God’s gems and jewels, wherewith he decketh his best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.” A soul at first conversion is but rough cast; but God by afflictions doth square and fit, and fashion it for that glory above, which doth speak them out to flow from precious love; therefore the afflictions that do attend the people of God should be no bar to holiness, nor no motive to draw the soul to ways of wickedness. Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That it is our duty and glory not to measure afflictions by the smart but by the end. When Israel was dismissed out of Egypt, it was with gold and ear-rings, Exod. xi. 3; so the Jews were dismissed out of Babylon with gifts, jewels, and all necessary utensils, Ezra1. 7-11. Look more at the latter end of a Christian than the beginning of his affliction. Consider the patience of Job, and what end the Lord made with him. Look not upon Lazarus lying at Dives’s door, but lying in Abraham’s bosom. Look not to the beginning of Joseph, who was so far from his dream, that the sun and moon should reverence him, that for two years he was cast where he could see neither sun, moon, nor stars; but behold him at last made ruler over Egypt. Look not upon David, as there was but a step between
despised by others; but behold him seated in his royal throne, and dying in his bed of honour, and his son Solomon and all his glistering nobles about him. Afflictions, they are but as a dark entry into your Father’s house; they are but as a dirty lane to a royal palace. Now tell me, souls, whether it be not very great madness to shun the ways of holiness, and to walk in the ways of wickedness, because of those afflictions that do attend the ways of holiness.
Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That the design of God in all the afflictions that do befall them, is only to trythem; it is not to wrong them, nor to rwin them, as ignorant souls are apt to think. He knoweth the way that I take: and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold,’ saith patient Job, xxiii. 10. So in Deut. viii. 2, And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no.” God afflicted them thus, that he might make known to themselves and others what was in their hearts. When fire is put to green wood, there comes out abundance of watery stuff that before appeared not; when the pond is empty, the mud, filth, and toads come to light? The snow covers many a dunghill, so doth prosperity many a rotten heart. It is easy to wade in a warm bath, and every bird can sing in a sunshine day, &e. Hard weather tries what health we have; afflictions try what sap we have, what grace we have. Withered leaves soon fall off in windy weather, rotten boughs quickly break with heavy weights, &c. You are wise, and know how to apply it. Afflictions are like pinching frosts, that will search us; where we are most unsound, we shall soonest complain, and where most corruptions lie, we shall most shrink. We try metal by knocking; if it sound well, then we like it. So God tries his by knocking, and if under knocks they yield a pleasant sound, God will turn their night into day, and their bitter into sweet, and their cross into a crown; and they shall hear that voice, ‘ Arise, and shine; for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, and the favours of the Lord are flowing in on thee,” Isa. Ix. 1.3
Remedy (7). The seventh remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That the afflictions, wrath, and misery that do attend the ways of wickedness, are far greater and heavier than those are that do attend the ways of holiness Oh, the galling, girding, lashing, and gnawing of conscience, that do attend souls
in a way of wickedness! The wicked, saith Isaiah, are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” There 1s no peace to the wicked, saith my God. There are snares in all their mercies, and curses and crosses do attend all their comforts, both at home and abroad. What 1s a fine suit of clothes with the plague in 1t? and what 1s a golden cup when there is poison at the bottom? or what is a silken stocking with a broken leg in it? = The curse of God, the wrath of God, the hatred of God, and the fierce indignation of God, do always attend sinners walking in a way of wickedness. Turn to Deut. xxviii, and read from ver. 15 to the end of the chapter, and turn to Levit. xxvi, and read from ver. 14 to the end of that chapter, and then you shall see how the curse of God haunts the wicked, as it were a fury, in all his ways. In the city it attends him, in the country hovers over him; coming in, it accompanies him; going forth, it follows him, and in travel it 1s his comrade. It fills his store with strife, and mingles the wrath of God with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain among his cattle, mildew in the field, rot among sheep, and ofttimes makes the fruit of his loins his greatest vexation and confusion. There is no solid joy, nor lasting peace, nor pure comfort, that attends sinners in their sinful ways.2 There is a sword of vengeance that doth every moment hang over their heads by a small thread; and what joy and content can attend such souls, if the eye of conscience be but so far open as to see the sword 2 Ah! the horrors and terrors, the tremblings and shakings, that attend their souls!