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This then is the first weight that is laid upon our afflictions, that they are his, the Lord's; and this weight consists in this, that because they are his, they are inevitable, they cannot be avoided, and because they are his, they are certainly just, and cannot be pleaded against, nor can we ease ourselves with any imagination of an innocency, as though they were undeserved. And the next weight that is laid upon them, is that they are, in virga ejus, in his rod. For, though this metaphor, the rod, may seem to present but an easy correction, such as that, If thou beat thy child with a rod, he shall not die, (it will not kill him) yet there is more weight than so in this rod; for the word here is shebet, and shebet is such a rod as may kill; If a man smite his servant with a rod, so that he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Beloved, whether God's rod, and his correction, shall have the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death, consists much in the hand, that is to receive it, and in the stomach that is to digest it. As in God's temporal blessings that he rains down upon us, it is much in our gathering, and inning, and spending them, whether it shall be frumenti, or laqueorum, whether this shall prove such a shower, as shall nourish our soul spiritually, in thankfulness to God, and in charitable works towards his needy servants, or whether it shall prove a shower of snares25, to minister occasions of temptations; so when he rains afflictions upon us, it is much in our gathering, whether it shall be roris, or grandinis, whether it shall be a shower of fattening dew upon us, or a shower of Egyptian hail-stones, to batter us in pieces, as a potter's vessel, that cannot be renewed2. Our murmuring makes a rod a staff, and a staff a sword, and that which God presented for physic, poison. The double effect and operation of God's rod, and corrections, is usefully and appliably expressed in the prophet Zechary: where God complains, That he had fed the sheep of slaughter, that he had been careful for them, who would needs die, say he what he could. Therefore he was forced to come to the rod, to correction. So he does; And I took unto me, says he there, two staves, the one I called Beauty, the other Bands; two ways of correction, a milder, and a 25 Psalm xi. 6.

23 Prov. xxiii. 13.

24 Exod. xxi. 20.

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more vehement. When his milder way prevailed not, Then said I, I will not feed you; I will take no more care of you; That which dieth let it die, (says he) and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and I took my staff of beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant, which I had made with them. Beloved, God hath made no such covenant with any state, any church, any soul, but that, being provoked, he is at liberty to break it. But then, upon this, when the stubborn, and the refractory, the stiff-necked and the rebellious were cut off, The poor of the sheep (says God) that waited upon me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. It is not every man's case, to mend by God's corrections, only the poor of the sheep, the brokenhearted, the contrite spirit, the discerner of his own poverty and infirmity, could make that good use of affliction, as to find God's hand, and then God's purpose in it. For, this rod of God, this shebet, can kill; affliction can harden, as well as mollify, and entender the heart. And there is so much the more danger, that it should work that effect, that obduration, because it is virga ira, the rod of his wrath, which is the other weight that aggravates our afflictions.

In all afflictions that fall upon us from other instruments, there is digitus Dei, the finger of God leads their hand that afflicts us; though it be sickness, by our intemperance, though it be poverty, by our wastefulness, though it be oppression, by the malice, or by our exasperation of potent persons, yet still the finger of God is in all these. But in the afflictions which we speak of here, such as fall upon us, when we think ourselves at peace with God, and in state of grace, it is not digitus, but manus Dei, the whole work is his, and man hath no part in it. Whensoever he takes the rod in hand, there is a correction towards; but yet, it may be but his rod of beauty, of his correction, not destruction. But, if he take his rod in anger, the case is more dangerous; for, though there be properly no anger in God, yet then is God said to do a thing in anger, when he does it so, as an angry man would do it. Upon those words of David, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, St. Augustine observes, that David knew God's rebukes and corrections were but for his amendment; but

28 Psalm vi. 1.

yet, In ira corrigi noluit, in ira emendari noluit, David was loth, that God should go about to mend him in anger; afraid to have anything to do with God, till his anger were over-passed. Beloved, to a true anger, and wrath, and indignation towards his children, God never comes; but he comes so near it, as that they cannot discern, whether it be anger, or no. A father takes a rod, and looks as angerly, as though he would kill his child, but means nothing but good to him. So God brings a soul to a sad sense of an angry countenance in God, to a sad apprehension of an angry absence, to a sad jealousy and suspicion that God will never return to it again; and this is a heavy affliction, whilst it lasts. Our Saviour Christ, in that case, came to expostulate it, to dispute it with his Father, Ut quid dereliquisti, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do but tell me why. For, if God be pleased to tell us, why he is angry, his anger is well allayed, and we have a fair overture towards our restitution. But, in our infirmity, we get not easily so far; we apprehend God to be angry; we cannot find the cause, and we sink under the burden; we leave the disease to concoct itself, and we take no physic. And this is truly the highest extent, and exaltation of affliction, that in our afflictions we take God to be angrier than he is. For then is God said to take his rod in anger, when he suffers us to think that he does so, and when he suffers us to decline, and sink so low towards diffidence, and desperation, that we dare not look towards him, because we believe him to be so angry. And so have you all those pieces which constitute both the branches of this first part, the generality and extent of afflictions, considered in the nature of the thing, in the nature of the word, this name of man, Gheber, and in the person of Jeremy, the prophet of God, and then the intenseness, and weight and vehemency of afflictions, considered in these three particulars, that they are his, the Lord's, that they are from his rod, and from the rod of his anger. But to weigh down all these, we have comforts ministered unto us, in our text, which constitute our other part.

Of these the first is Vidi, I have seen these afflictions, for this is an act of particular grace and mercy, when God enables us to see them: for, naturally this is the infirmity of our spiritual senses, that when the eyes of our understanding should be en

lightened", our understanding is so darkened, as that we can neither see prosperity, nor adversity, for, in prosperity our light is too great, and we are dazzled, in adversity too little, none at all, and we are benighted, we do not see our afflictions. There is no doubt, but that the literal sense of this phrase, to see afflictions, is to feel, to suffer afflictions. As, when David says, What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death, and when Christ says, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption, to see death, and to see corruption, is to suffer them. But then, the literal sense being thus duly preserved, that the children of God shall certainly see, that is, certainly suffer afflictions, receive we also that sweet odour and fragrancy which the word breathes out, that they shall see it, that is, understand it, consider it: for, as when the wicked come to say, The Lord does not see it, it is presently added, neither doth the God of Jacob regard it33, (it is a seeing that induces a regarding) so when the godly come to see their afflictions, they come to regard them, to regard God's purpose in them. Vidisti Domine, ne sileas, says David, All this thou hast seen, O Lord, Lord do not hold thy peace. David presumed, that if God saw his afflictions, he would stir in them; when we come to see them, we stir, we wake, we rise, we look about us, from whence, and why these afflictions come; and therein lies this comfort, Vidi, I have seen afflictions, I have been content to look upon them, to consider them.

The prophets in the Old Testament, do often call those sights, and those pre-notions which they had of the misery and destruction of others, Onus visionis, onus verbi Domini, O the burden of this sight, O the burden of this message of God. It was a burden to them, to see God's judgments directed upon others; how much more is it a burden to a man, to see his own affliction, and that in the cause thereof. But this must be done, we must see our affliction in the cause thereof. No man is so blind, so stupid, as that he doth not see his affliction, that is, feel it; but we must see it so, as to see through it, see it to be such as it is, so qualified, so conditioned, so circumstanced, as he that sends it, intends it. We must leave out the malice of others in our oppressions, and forgive

29 Eph. i. 18.

32 Psalm xvi. 10.

30 Eph. iv. 18.

33 Psalm xciv. 7.

31 Psalm LXXXIX. 48. 34 Psalm xxxv. 22.

that; leave out the severity of the law in our punishments, and submit to that; and look entirely upon the certainty of God's judgment, who hath the whole body of our sins written together before him, and picks out what sin it pleaseth him, and punisheth now an old, now a yesterday's sin, as he findeth it most to conduce to his glory, and our amendment, and the edification of others, we must see the hand of God upon the wall as Belshazzar did3, (for even that was the hand of God) though we cannot read that writing, no more than Belshazzar could. We must see the affliction, so as we must see it to be the hand of God, though we cannot presently see, for what sin it is, nor what will be the issue of it. And then when we have seen that, then we must turn to the study of those other particulars, for, till we see the affliction to come from God, we see nothing; there is no other light in that darkness, but he. If thou see thy affliction, thy sickness, in that glass, in the consideration of thine own former licentiousness, thou shalt have no other answer, but that sour remorse, and increpation, You might have lived honestly. If thou see thy affliction, thy poverty, in that glass, in the malice and oppression of potent adversaries, thou wilt get no farther, than to that froward and churlish answer, The law is open, mend yourself as you can. But Jactate super Dominum, saith David, Lay all thy burden upon the Lord, and he will apply to thee that collyrium, that sovereign eye-salve, whereby thou shalt see thy affliction, (it shall not blind thee) and see from whence it cometh, (from him, who, as he liveth, would not the death of a sinner) and see why it cometh, (that thou mightest see and taste the goodness of God thyself, and declare his loving kindness to the children of men.) And this is the comfort deduced from this word Vidi, I have seen affliction.

And this leadeth us to our other comfort, that though these afflictions have wrought deep upon thee, yet thou canst say to thy soul, Ego vir, I am that man; thy morality, thy Christianity is not shaken in thee. It is the mercy of God that we are not consumed, saith Jeremy here; and it is a great degree of his mercy, to let us feel that we are not consumed, to give us this sense, that our case is not desperate, but that Ego vir, I am the

35 Dan. v. 5.

36 Psalm LV. 22.

37 Rev. iii. 18.

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