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.