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bring gracious and graceless souls to their knees: but though in the external matter of duty, and in the external call and occasion of duty, they seem to agree, yet is there a vast difference in the principles, manner, and ends of these their duties, as will evidently appear in its proper place in our following discourse.

But by what has been said in this section, you may see how in some things the holy upright soul acts too much like the unsanctified, and in other things how much the hypocrite may act like a saint. He may be externally humbled; so was Ahab. He may pray under the rod, Mal. ii. 13; yea, and request others to pray for him; so did Simon, Acts viii. 24.

SECTION III.

But though the sound and unsound heart differ not in some external things under the rod, yet there are effects of adversity which are peculiar to either, and will discriminate them. To which end let us first see what effects adversity is usually followed with in unsound and carnal hearts and we shall find among others, these five symptoms of an ungodly heart appearing under crosses and afflictions

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1. A graceless heart is not quickly and easily brought to see the hand of God in those troubles that befall it, and to be duly affected with it. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see," Isa. xxvi. 11. When it has smitten, or is lifted up to smite, they shut their eyes. It is the malice of this man, or the negligence of that, or the unfaithfulness of another, that has brought all this trouble upon me. Thus the creature is the horizon that terminates their sight, and beyond that they usually see nothing. Sometimes indeed the hand of God is so immediately manifested, and convincingly discovered in afflictions, that they cannot avoid the sight of it; and then they may, in their way, pour out a prayer before him; but ordinarily they impute all to second causes, and overlook the first cause of their troubles.

2. Nor is it usual with these men under the rod to retire into their closets, and search their hearts there,

to find out the particular cause and provocation of their affliction: "No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?" Jer. viii. 6. What cursed thing is there in me, that has thus incensed the anger of God against me? God visits their iniquities with afflictions, but they visit not their own hearts by self-examination. God judges them, but they judge not themselves. He shows their iniquities in a clear glass, but none saith, "What have I done?" This phrase, "What have I done?" is the voice of one that recollects himself after a rash action; or the voice of à man astonished at the discovery afflictions make of his sins; but no such voice as this is ordinarily heard among carnal men.

3. An unsound professor, if left to his choice, would rather choose sin than affliction; and sees more evil in that than in this. And this cannot be doubted, if we consider that the principle by which all unregenerate men are acted, is sense, not faith. Hence Job's friends would have argued his hypocrisy, Job xxxvi. 21; and had their application been as right as their rule, it would have proved it; "This hast thou chosen, rather than affliction.

I do not say that an upright man cannot commita moral evil, to escape a penal evil. O that daily observation did not too plentifully furnish us with sad instances of this kind! But upright ones do not, dare not, upon a serious deliberate discussion and debate, choose sin rather than affliction. What they may do from surprisals and in the violence of temptation, is of another nature. But a false and unsound heart discovers itself in the choice it makes on deliberation, and that frequently when sin and trouble come in competition "Put the case," says Augustine, "that a ruffian should with one hand set the cup of drunkenness to thy mouth, and with the other dagger to thy breast, and say, Drink or die; thou shouldst rather choose to die sober, than to live a drunkard." And many Christians have resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and, with renowned Moses, chosen affliction, the worst of afflictions, yea, death itself in the most formidable appearance, rather than sin; and it is the habitual temper and resolution of every gracious heart

so to do, though those holy resolutions are sometimes overborne by the violence of temptation.

But the hypocrite dreads less the defilement of his soul, than the loss of his estate, liberty, or life. If you ask, Upon what ground then does the apostle suppose in 1 Cor. xiii. 3, that a man may give his body to be burnt, and not have charity? that the salamander of hypocrisy may live in the flame of martyrdom? the answer is at hand-they that choose death in the sense of this text, do not choose it to escape sin, but to feed and indulge it. Those strange adventures, if any such there be, are rather to maintain their own honor, and enrol their names among worthy and famous persons to posterity, or out of a blind zeal for their espoused errors and mistakes, than in a due regard for the glory of God, and the preservation of integrity. "I fear to speak it, but it must be spoken," saith Hierom, "that even martyrdom itself, when suffered for admiration and applause, profits nothing; but is blood shed in vain."

4. It is the property of an unregenerate soul, under adversity, to turn from creature to creature for support and comfort, and not from every creature to God alone. So long as their feet can touch ground, so long as they can feel any creature-relief or comfort under them, they can subsist and live in afflictions; but when they lose ground, when all creature-refuge fails, then their hearts fail too.

Thus Zedekiah and the self-deceiving Jews, when they saw that their own strength failed them, and there was little hope left that they should deliver themselves from the Chaldeans, what do they in that strait? Do they, with upright Jehoshaphat say, " Our eyes are unto thee?" No, their eyes were upon Egypt for succor, not upon heaven. Pharaoh and his aids are left them still, all hope is not gone, Jer. xxxvii. 9. See the like in Ahaz. In a sore distress, he courts the king of Assyria for help, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. That project failing, then he will try what the gods of Damascus can do for him. Any way rather than the right way.

So it is with many others. If one child dies, how do they act? Run to God, and comfort themselves in this,

The Lord liveth, though my child die? If an estate is lost and a family sinking, do they with David comfort themselves in the everlasting covenant, ordered and sure? No; but if one relation dies, there is another alive; if one estate is lost, yet not all; something is left still, and the case will mend. As long as such men have any visible encouragement, they will hang upon it; and not make up all in Christ, and encourage themselves in the Lord. To tell them of rejoicing in the Lord, when the fig-tree blossoms not, is what they cannot understand.

5. An unsound heart never comes out of the furnace of affliction purged, mortified, and more spiritual and holy than when he was cast into it. His scum and dross is not there separated from him; nay, the more he is afflicted, the worse he is. "Why should ye be smitten any more? Ye will revolt more and more," Isa. i. 5. And, to keep to our metaphor, consult Jer. vi. 29. God had put that incorrigible people the Israelites into the furnace of affliction, and kept them long in that fire; and what was the issue? "The bellows are burnt," says the prophet, "the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." If the fire of affliction be continually blown till the very bellows be burut, that is, the tongue, or rather the lungs of the prophet, which have some resemblance; though these be even spent in reproving, and threatening, and denouncing woe upon woe, and judgment upon judgment, and God fulfils his word upon them, yet still they are as before; the dross remains. Though Jerusalem be made a pot, and the inhabitants the flesh boiling in it, as is said in Ezek. xxiv. 6, 13, "the scum remains with them," and cannot be separated by the fire; and the reason is plain, because no affliction in itself purges sin, but as it is sanctified, and works in the virtue of God's blessing, and in pursuance of the promises.

O think on this you that have had thousands of afflictions of one kind and another, and none of them all have done you good, nor mortified, humbled, or benefited you at all, And thus you see what the effects of adversity are, when it meets with a graceless heart.

SECTION IV.

By this time, reader, I suppose thou art desirous to know what effects adversity and affliction generally have when they meet with an honest and sincere heart. Only, before I come particulars, I think it needful to acquaint thee, that the fruits of afflictions are mostly after-fruits, and not so discernible by the Christian himself under the rod, as after he has been exercised by it, and calmly reflects upon what is past, Heb. xii. 11. Nor does every Christian attain the same measure and degree; some rejoice, others commonly submit. But I think these seven effects are ordinarily found in all upright hearts that pass under the rod

1. The sincere and upright soul betakes itself to God in affliction, Job i. 20. When God was smiting, Job was praying; when God afflicted, Job worshipped. So David; "I found sorrow and trouble, then called 1 upon the name of the Lord," Psalm cxvi. 3. And when the messenger of Satan buffeted Paul, "For this cause, says he, "I besought the Lord thrice," 2 Cor. xii. 8. Alas! whither should a child go in distress but to its father?

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2. He sees and owns the hand of God in his afflictions, how much or little soever of the instruments of trouble

appear. "The Lord hath taken away," says Job, Job i

21.

"God hath bidden him," says David, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. If the blow come from the hand of a wicked man, yet he sees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand, Psalm xvii. 14. And this apprehension is fundamental to all that communion which men have with God in their afflictions, and to all the peaceableness and gracious submission of their spirits under the rod. He who sees nothing of God in his troubles, has nothing of God in his soul.

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3. He can justify God in all the afflictions and troubles that come upon him, be they never so severe. art just in all that is brought upon us," says Nehemiah, Neh. ix. 33. "Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve," says Ezra, Ezra ix. 13. "It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed," says the church,

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