The duty and benefit of submission to the will of God in afflictions discovered in two sermons delivered upon a special occasion at Stapleford in Leicester-shire / by John Cave ...

The Second Sermon.

SEcondly, That as is his Majesty, such is his Mer∣cy; as he hath a more compleat and absolute Right of Dominion over us, so he hath an infi∣nitely more tender Love and Kindness for us, than the Fathers of our Flesh have: This is implied in their proper Characters and distinctions, Fathers of our Flesh, and Father of Spirits. This bespeaks place by his very Name and Title, which bears Signatures of Goodness, altogether as illustrious as those of Power, which you have seen displayed.

Where Flesh in Scripture is not used to describe Sin either original or actual, it for the most part denotes Weakness, if not the Corruption, the Frailty of our Na∣ture: And Spirit is a word of a quite contrary Import, and carries in the notion of it high degrees of Purity, Knowledg, Power and Goodness. But,

2. The Preheminence of God's Paternal Affection, and the Advantage of his Discipline, is more plainly represented in the last word of my Text, Live, and in the Explication of it by those following words, They indeed for a few days chastned us after their Pleasure, but he for our Profit.

If they design their Childrens Good, they may either through want of Knowledg, or excess of Passion, mistake the measures of their Discipline; but there are none of these Imperfections in the Father of Spirits. His Anger, which is the Product of Love, is also the Subject of Wisdom, and managed by both for a singular Benefit.

He that is the Father of Spirits, knows their frame, and their Frailties, what Medicines they need, and what they will bear, and as his Wisdom prescribes and directs, his Love administers and makes Application.

1. He knows what Medicines they need, what will pre∣judice their Health, and what will purge their Distem∣pers, and therefore accordingly orders them pro jucundis aptissima quae{que} profitable instead of pleasant things, some∣times wholsom Wormwood instead of luscious Honey.

The same Wisdom and Goodness which denies us those things we like, because they are hurtful for us, doth upon the very same reason give us those distast∣ful things which he sees profitable.

A wise Physician doth not only diet, but if occasion be, purge his Patient also. And surely there is not

such a Purifier, such a Cleanser of the Soul, as are Af∣flictions, if we do not (like disorderly Patients) fru∣strate their Efficacy by the irregular Managery of our selves under them.

God afflicts no further than the Necessities of his Pa∣tients require, and what is short of this, is, though un∣der the shew of Compassion, a real Cruelty.

He doth not punish willingly, nor grieve the Children of Men. Now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold Temptations. If our Affliction be sharp and painful, certainly God seeth that we have need of it, otherwise he would handle us more gently.

The Husbandman plows not, but to sow, and he plows and harrows no longer than till the Clods are broken: and God suffers wicked Men, whom the Psal∣mist compares to Plowers, (or any other Harassers of our Ease and Content) no longer to make Furrows upon the Backs, or rather upon the Hearts of his Ser∣vants, than till they are softned and broken, and be∣come a fit soil for his Graces to grow in. For,

2. He that knows our frame, understands our Frailties too, not only what we need, but what we can bear, and remembers not only that our Bodies are Dust, but that our Souls also partake of the Infirmities of their Companions, or rather of the Discomposures of their Instruments, and therefore resolves that he will not con∣tend for ever, neither be always wrath, lest the Spirit should fail before him, and the Souls which he hath made; but he punisheth us less than our Iniquities deserve, and hath pro∣mised to lay no more upon us than we are able to bear, and that we shall not be tempted above our Strength.

If he chasten sore, he will not destroy; if he cause Grief, yet will he have Compassion according to the multitude of

his Mercies. Many times turned he his Anger away, and did not suffer his whole Indignation to arise, for he remem∣bred that they were but Flesh.

God will either enlarge our Grace, or abate our Trouble, so that it shall not overwhelm us.

Who can lift up a Complaint against so compassio∣nate a Father? Who can rebel, so much as in a hard thought, of the Rigor of his Discipline? Especially if we consider that he is altogether as much a Father when he corrects, as when he cherisheth us; and that he designs the same Good in a variety of Conditions. He gives Riches to some, that they may honour him with their Substance, and keeps them from others, lest they should abuse them to Avarice or Riot. To some he gives Children to be the Staff and Solace of their Pilgrimage, and takes them from others, lest they should take them from himself, and draw down their Affections from things above. Some he continues in this World to declare the Works of the Lord, and others he takes out of it to rest from their own Labours. All things, saith the wise Man, are not profitable for all Men. And the Wisdom of the Divine Providence is seen as well in sending Winter, as Summer, Autumn as Spring, foul Weather as fair, Adversity as Prosperity, Sickness as Health, and Death as Life.

It was a high Speech of Seneca's (after the manner of the Stoicks) Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adver∣sarum mirabilia: That the good things of Prosperity are to be wished, and the good things of Adversity are to be admi∣red. But to speak the words not only of Truth, but Soberness, great and numerous are the Benefits of Ad∣versity. The Judicious Verulam magnifies and extols them in this Comparison: Prosperity is the Blessing of

the Old Testament, Adversity of the New, which carrieth the greater Benediction, and the clearer Revelation of God's Favour.

Solomon pronounces Sorrow more desirable than Laughter, because by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better.

Our blessed Lord and Master, who began, and lived and died in Sorrows, seeing his own Sufferings to succeed so well, and that for suffering Death, he was crowned with Immortality, resolved to take all his Disciples and Ser∣vants to the Fellowship of the same Sufferings, that they might have a Participation of his Glory.

No Affliction, saith our Apostle, a little after my Text, is for the present joyous, but grievous; nevertheless it produ∣ceth the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to those that are exercised therewith.

Those showers which wet the Husbandman, multi∣ply his Grain, and a dripping Seeds time is usually fol∣lowed with a more plentiful Harvest. If the Servants of God sow in Tears and Blood, those Tears and Blood will but water and manure their Graces, and make them spring up, and blow into a fuller and fairer Glo∣ry: Thick Mists usher in a bright day, and Clouds of Sorrows are usually the fore-runners of a more clear and constant Joy, and Death it self is an inlet to im∣mortal Life, which would bring me to the Conclusion of my Text and Sermon, the great and last end and bene∣fit of all our Crosses, or rather of our patient bearing of them, everlasting Rest, and Exemption from Trouble in the Life to come. But it will not be amiss, not only for the vindicating of God's Justice, but also for the Exaltation of his Mercy, to shew in several Instances, what good Ends, though subordinate to this great one,

he propounds to himself in his most severe Chastnings. One good End is,

1. To make us sensible of our Sins, and thereby to lead us to Repentance. In the warm Seasons of Health and Prosperity, variety of delightful Objects call our Thoughts abroad, and we heighten the Pleasure of our Enjoyments, by the prospect of our Hopes, and easily flatter our selves that when the Sun shines, and the World smiles upon us, God is well pleased with us too; and that our Sins are little because his Mercies are so great: but when stormy Clouds and Thunder are in the Air, we keep within doors, we retire into our selves, and in the time of Adversity consider, what and how great our Sins are which have overcast our Hea∣ven, darkned the Light of God's Countenance, and made our Face foul with Weeping, as Job speaks.

The Goodness of God indeed should lead us to Repen∣tance; but such is the Disingenuity of our Natures, that we too often despise his Goodness, and force him either to leave us in our Sins, or punish us for them, which is the most merciful Cure that our Case will admit of. If they be bound in Fetters, and holden in Cords of Af∣fliction, then he shews them their Work, and their Trans∣gressions, as Elihu speaketh.

When God had taken away from Naomi her two Sons (though by an ordinary and usual Death) she concludes, and so should we in the like Case, that her Sins had deserved it, and that the hand of the Lord was gone out against her. David's Afflictions had this good Effect upon him, When thy Hand was heavy upon me, &c. I acknowledged my Sin unto thee, and mine Iniquity have I not hid. We are all too apt to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness, only impudent and hardned Sinners despise his Judgments.

2. As our Afflictions do in general admonish us of our Transgressions; so (as hath been already intimated) they point us to those particular Sins which provoke God's Displeasure. Joseph's Brethren easily acknow∣ledged their Guilt, because they saw their Sin written upon their Punishment; Their close Imprisonment taught them what it was to cast their Brother into a de∣solate Pit. And the Wise-man observes, that the turn∣ing of the Egyptian Waters into Blood, was a manifest Reproof of that cruel Commandment for the murder∣ing of the Hebrew Infants.

And surely, as one speaks, we might in most, if not all our Sufferings, see some such corresponding Circum∣stances, as may lead us to the immediate provoking Cause of them. God who does all things in number, weight and measure, does in his Punishments also ob∣serve a symmetry and proportion, and adapts them not only to the Heinousness, but even the very specifick kind of our Crimes, which was observed by Quintus Curtius in the case of Bessus, who betrayed Darius. Scelesti haud rarò supplicia luunt ejusdem generis cum illis quae patrârunt flagitiis. Wicked Men are usually paid home in their own Coin, made to suffer in the same way they sinned; in which we ought not only to take notice of the Justice, but of the Mercy of God in giving such Instructive Corrections, which, like Jonathan's Rod, that was dipped in Honey, enlighten our eyes, disco∣ver to us by a very affecting Evidence, both the nature of our Sin, and the necessity of our Repentance.

3. God sends Afflictions to try us. Behold, I will melt them, and try them. Jer. 9.7.

Now this fiery, this melting Trial, hath these two good Ends.

• 1. To refine our Natures, to purge away our Dross and Corruption.
• 2. To discover and illustrate our Virtues and Graces.

1. To purify our Natures and purge away our Dross and Defilements. The fining Pot is for Silver, and the Furnace for Gold, but the Lord trieth the Hearts.

We are by Nature Massa corrupta, Children of Wrath, being at best but like Gold and Silver in the Oar, till God puts us into his Fining-Pot, and his Furnace, yea after God's Grace hath renewed us in our first Conver∣sion, we have many gross and drossy Intermixtures, which will not easily be cleansed off without a frequent Application of some searching Refiners; the Word of God indeed is an excellent one, Sanctify them by thy Truth, thy Word is Truth. The Word of the Lord tried him: Psal. 105.19. and so it doth many others. But,

2. Affliction is also a great Refiner: I have refined thee, but not with Silver; I have chosen thee in the Fur∣nace of Affliction. The Furnace is not for the hurt of the Gold, but for the Advantage and Improvement of it, it loseth nothing there but its Dross, and becomes more precious, more fit for the Master's use, to be made a Vessel of Service and Honour: So are Troubles and Afflictions God's Instruments, to cleanse and purify our Natures, to work out the Pride and Vanity of our Minds. This is that good end the Apostle refers to im∣mediately after my Text, He chastens us for our Profit; How? That we may be Partakers of his Holiness.

And we should endeavour to gather these Grapes and Figs even from our Thorns and Thistles, these

blessed Fruits of Humility, Holiness, and Righteousness, I mean, from the Tree of the Cross, that so we may com∣ply and close with God's Merciful Purpose in afflicting us, saying with Elihu in all meekness, and true contri∣tion of spirit, I have born Chastisements, I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach thou me: If I have done Iniquity, I will do no more. But,

2dly. Afflictions are sent for tryals of the Truth, and sincerity of our Graces, our Faith, Patience, and the like: That the tryal of our Faith, being much more precious than that of Gold, which perisheth, though it be tryed with Fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, saith St. Peter: and Tribulation worketh Patience, saith St. Paul. To both these, that of Minutius Felix seems to refer, Ʋt Aurum ignibus, sic nos discriminibus argui∣mur; as Fire trieth Gold, so Crosses and Perils disco∣ver the Truth and the strength of Virtue.

This is taught us in the Parable of the Stony Ground. Every forward Hearer of the Word, every specious Professor goes for a good Christian, till he is like to suffer for his Profession, and till Tribulation or Persecu∣tion arise because of the Word.

God indeed sees through our hypocritical Cove∣rings, all our painted and guilt Out-sides, and needs no Touchstone to find out our hidden Faults. But be∣cause we are sometimes apt to mistake our selves, our own Strength, as St. Peter once did, God in Mercy tries us to give us a right understanding of our selves, of the true Habit of our Minds. Seneca reports it as the saying of his admired Demetrius: Nihil mihi videtur infoelicius eo, cui nihil evenit adversi. I think no Person so unhappy, as he who enjoys an uninterrupted Felicity. And he shews his Approbation of it by giving this

Reason for it, Non licuit enim illi se experiri, for he could never prove and know himself, what he was, and what he was able to do or suffer. Agreeable hereunto is that of St. Austin, Tentat Deus non ut ipse hominem inveniat, sed ut homo se inveniat: God therefore thus tries, not that he may find out a Man, but that Man may find out himself, and be sensible of his own condition.

4. Afflictions make us more frequent and fervent in Prayer. Most Men too much forget the God of their Mercies, but in their Affliction they will seek me early. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastisement was upon them. The Sun of Prosperity puts out the Fire of Devotion, which is kindled and enflamed by the Antiperistasis of a Winter Blast, a bleak Season of Adversity. Israel learnt not to mourn until they were sent to Bahel. Jonas sleeps in the Ship, but wakes, and prays in the Whale's Belly.

5. God in Mercy exerciseth good Men with Crosses and Sufferings, to wean them from the World, to discover the Indifferency, if not the Worthlesness of those Persons or Things which they promise themselves most Satis∣faction and Comfort from: In our Friends and Relati∣ons it is usually seen, God soonest takes those from us, for whom we have the greatest and most immoderate Passion, lest they should alienate our Affections from himself, or abate the degrees of them, and cool our pursuit of a Heavenly Happiness.

Yea, when he takes away our Children, the dear Parts of our selves, the Off-sets of our Stock, he doth not only design the better Growth and Fruitfulness of our own Spiritual Life, by removing the Suckers of Piety and Virtue; but he designs also their Improve∣ment

and unspeakable Advantage, by transplanting them into his own Paradise.

Pliny the eldest, (though he could not see into the Glories of another Life for want of our Revelation, yet had studied the World very much, and for his parts of Nature, Wit and Curiosity, and other great Advan∣tages of Fortune, might be supposed to know as much as any mere Philosopher) made this Observation, that no Wish was more frequent among Men, than the Wish of Death, and thereupon his Conclusion is, that Natura nihil brevitate vitae praestitit melius; that Nature hath not done us so great a Kindness in any thing, as in short∣ning our stay in this Life, that we may not contract too great an Intimacy with the World.

And that we may not too much lament the Condi∣tion of those that leave the World, before it leaves them, who are blasted in the Beauty, and Flower of their Youth, have their Evening before Noon, and die in their first Enjoments of the Pleasures of Life. He else∣where calls Death, Praecipuum Naturae bonum, the chief Blessing of Nature, which cannot come out of Season; because there is no Good in this Life, which is not ei∣ther tempered with some present Evil, or followed with some evil Effects and Inconveniencies: according to that of Pliny the younger, in his incomparable Pane∣gyrick; Habet has vices conditio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex secundis adversa nascantur; Such is the changeable State of us Sejourners upon Earth, that our Com∣forts breed Crosses, and what we reap in Joy, was first sowed in Tears.

This is another good End of God's chastning us, to wean our Affections from this World, while we live in it, and to reconcile us to Death, our last Enemy, and

to make us willing to follow our Friends into another World, who could not stay with us here, and from whom we cannot there be separated.

I say, me-thinks we should not be very fond of such a Life, either for our selves, or those we love best; which is not only so short that it cannot be kept long, but withal, so full of Trouble, that it is hardly worth the keeping; nor by consequence to dote on a flatte∣ring World, which is so little to be enjoyed, and its En∣joyments so very full of vexatious Mixtures.

6. Besides that particular and personal Good which God designeth us in our Chastisements, he reacheth the Be∣nefit of our Example to others, and teacheth them Pati∣ence and Constancy by our Subjection to his Fatherly Discipline. Seneca speaks it of good Men in their Suf∣ferings, Nati sunt in Exemplar, they are born to be Patterns to others. And we are advised in this Chapter to consi∣der our Saviour's Endurance, for the fortifying of our selves, the Confirmation of our Courage and Pati∣ence, lest we be wearied and faint in our Minds. Christ suffered for us, saith St. Peter, leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps.

7. God designs a future Good in our present Cha∣stisements, and the Prevention of a greater Evil, than that which now oppresseth us. The Father of Spirits re∣gardeth principally their Interest, and if he grieve them here it is that he may spare them the better hereafter; When we are judged, we are chastned of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the World. And indeed, what can afford us so firm and solid a Support under all our Losses and Crosses, all our Disappointments and Calamities of this Life, as the comfortable Assurance and Expectation of a blessed Immortality? You have

heard that the Father of Spirits projects many Benefits and Advantages to us in those Afflictions which seem most to express his Displeasure, and that we ought to receive them chearfully at his hand, as the Medicines of our Soul, and the Seasonings of our Fortune, as the Incentives of our Devotion, and the Instruments, Po∣lishers and Discoverers of our Vertue; but that which will enable us not only to bear the Cross with Pati∣ence, but with Triumph, and to glory in Tribulations, as the Apostle speaks, is the Presage of future Joy, and that well-grounded Hope of Glory, which they excite in our Souls. So that in regard of this great and last Be∣nefit of our Sufferings, I may forbear any further Per∣swasions to Patience, and leave you under the Com∣mand and Compulsion of so prevailing a Motive as your own Eternal Life and Happiness. If there are o∣ther very good Reasons, as you have heard derived from the Power and Goodness of God, this may super∣sede them all, How much rather shall we be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits, and live? Live longer and more comfortably in this World, live for ever in an Eternity of Health and Happiness in the next.

Now, the God of all Grace, who hath called us to his Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Notes

• See the Art of Contentment, p. 123, 130.
• Lam. 3.33. 1 Pet. 1.6.
• Isa. 57.16.
• Ezra 9.13.
• 2 Cor. 10.13.
• Lam. 3.32.
• Psal. 102.13,
• Eceius 37.28.
• Essays.
• Eccles. 7 3.
• Job 10.16.
• Job 36.7.
• Ruth 1.13.
• Psal. 35.5.
• Wisd. 12.5.
• The Art of Contentment.
• Quint. Curt. P. 203, 204.
• 1 Sam. 14.27.
• Prov. 17 3.
• Isa. 48.10.
• Job 34.31, 32.
• 1 Pet. 1.7.
• Mat. 13.20, 21
• Lib. de provi∣dentia.
• Hos. 5.15.
• Isa. 26.16.
• Lib. de provi∣dentiâ.
• 1 Pet 2.21.
• 1 Cor. 11.32.