THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLING UNDER GREAT AND HEAVY AFFLICTION.
1. Here it is advised--that afflictions should only be expected.--2. That the righteous hand of God should be acknowledged in them when they come.--3. That they should be borne with patience.--4. That the divine conduct in them should be cordially approved.--5. That thankfulness should be maintained in the midst of trials.--6. That the design of afflictions should be diligently inquired into, and all proper assistance taken in discovering it.--7. That, when it is discovered, it should humbly be complied with and answered. A prayer suited to such a case.
1. SINCE "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward," (Job 5:7) and
Adam has entailed on all his race the sad inheritance of calamity in their way
to death, it will certainly be prudent and necessary that we should all expect
to meet with trials and afflictions; and that you, reader, whoever you are,
should be endeavoring to gird on your armor, and put yourself in a posture to
encounter those trials which will fall to your lot as a man and a Christian.
Prepare yourself to receive your afflictions, and to endure them, in a manner
agreable to both these characters. In this view, when you see others under the
burden, consider how possible it is that you may be called out to the very same
difficulties, or to others equal to them. Put your soul as in the place of
theirs. Think how you could endure the load under which they lie, and endeavor
at once to comfort them, and to strengthen your own heart, or rather pray that
God would do it. And observing how liable mortal life is to such sorrows,
moderate your expectations from it; raise your thoughts above it; and form your
schemes of happiness only for that world where they cannot be disappointed; in
the mean time, blessing God that your prosperity is lengthened out thus far,
and ascribing it to his special providence that you continue so long unwounded,
when so many showers of arrows are flying around you, and so many are falling
by them, on the right hand and on the left.
2. When at length your turn comes, as it
certainly will, from the first hour in which an affliction seizes you, realize
to yourself the hand of God in it, and lose not the view of him in any second
cause, which may have proved the immediate occasion. Let it be your first care
to "humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time." (1 Pet. 5:6) Own that "he is just in all that is brought upon you,"
(Neh. 9:33) and that in all these things "he punishes you less than your
iniquities deserve." (Ezra 9:13) Compose yourself to bear his hand with
patience, to glorify his name by a submission to his will, and to fall in with
the gracious design of his visitation, as well as to wait the issue of it
quietly, whatsoever the event may be.
3. Now, that "patience may have its perfect
work," (James 1:4) reflect frequently, and deeply upon your own unworthiness
and sinfulness. Consider how often every mercy has been forfeited, and every
judgment deserved. And consider, too, how long the patience of God hath borne
with you, and how wonderfully it is still exerted towards you; and indeed not
only his patience, but his bounty too. Afflicted as you are, (for I speak to
you now as actually under the pressure) look around and survey your remaining
mercies, and be gratefully sensible of them. Make the supposition of their
being removed: what if God should stretch out his hand against you, and add
poverty to pain, or pain to poverty, or the loss of friends to both, or the
death of surviving friends to that of those whom you are now mourning over;
would not the wound be more grievous? Adore his goodness that this is not the
case; and take heed lest your unthankfulness should provoke him to multiply
your sorrows. Consider also the need you have of discipline, how wholesome it
may prove to your soul, and what merciful designs our Heavenly Father has in
all the corrections he sends upon his children.
4. Nay, I will add, that, in consequence of all
these considerations, it may be well expected, not only that you should submit
to your afflictions, as what you cannot avoid, but that you should sweetly
acquiesce in them, and approve them; that you should not only justify, but
glorify God in sending them; that you should glorify him with your heart and
with your lips too. Think not praises unsuitable on such an occasion; nor that
praise alone to be suitable, which takes its rise from remaining comforts; but
know that it is your duty, not only to be thankful in your afflictions, but to
be thankful on account of them.
5. God himself hath said, "in every thing give
thanks," (1 Thes. 5:18) and he has taught his servants to say, "Yea, also we
glory in tribulation." (Rom. 5:3) And most certain it is, that to true
believers, afflictions are tokens of divine mercy; for "whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," with peculiar and
distinguishing endearment. (Heb. 12:6) View your present afflictions in this
light, as chastisements of love; and then let your own heart say, whether love
does not demand praise. Think with yourself, "it is thus that God is making me
conformable to his own Son; it is thus that he is training me up for complete
glory. Thus he kills my corruptions; thus he strengthens my graces; thus he is
wisely contriving to bring me nearer to himself and to ripen me for the honors
of his heavenly kingdom. It is, if need be, that `I am in heaviness,' (I Pet.
1:6) and he surely knows what that need is better than I can pretend to teach
him, and knows what peculiar propriety there is in this affliction to answer my
present necessity, and to do me that peculiar good which he is graciously
intending me by it. This tribulation shall `work patience, and patience
experience,' and `experience a more assured hope,' even a hope which `shall not
make ashamed,' while the love of God is shed abroad in my heart, (Rom. 5:3,5)
and shines through my affliction, like the sun through a gentle descending
cloud, darting in light upon the shade, and mingling fruitfulness with
weeping."
6. Let it be then your earnest care, while you
thus look on your affliction, whatever it may be, as coming from the hand of
God, to improve it to the purposes for which it was sent. And that you may so
improve it, let it be your first concern to know what those purposes are.
Summon up all the attention of your soul to bear the rod, and him "who hath
appointed it," (Mic. 6:9) and pray earnestly that you may understand its voice.
Examine your life, your words and your heart; and pray that God would so guide
your inquiries, that you may "return unto the Lord that smiteth you." (Isa.
9:13) To assist you in this, call in the help of pious friends, and
particularly of your minister: entreat not only their prayers, but their advice
too, as to the probable design of Providence; and encourage them freely to tell
you any thing which occurs to their minds upon this head. And if such an
occasion should lead them to touch upon some of the imperfections of your
character and conduct look upon it as a great token of their friendship, and
take it, not only patiently, but thankfully. It does but ill become a
Christian, at any time, to resent reproofs and admonitions; and least of all
does it become him, when the rebukes of his Heavenly Father are upon him. He
ought rather to seek admonitions at such a time as this, and voluntarily offer
his wounds to be searched by a faithful and skillful band.
7. And when, by one means or another, you have
got a ray of light to direct you in the meaning and language of such
dispensations, take heed that you do not, in any degree, "harden yourself
against God, and walk contrary to him." (Lev. 26:27) Obstinate reluctance to
the apprehended design of any providential stroke is inexpressibly provoking to
him. Set yourself therefore, to an immediate reformation of whatever you
discover amiss, and labor to learn the general lessons of greater submission to
God's will, of a more calm indifference to the world, and of a closer
attachment to divine converse, and to the views of an approaching invisible
state. And whatever particular proportion or correspondence you may observe
between this or that circumstance in your affliction and your former
transgressions, be especially careful to act according to that more peculiar
and express voice of the rod. Then you may perhaps have speedy and remarkable
reasons to say, that "it hath been good for you that you have been afflicted,"
(Psa. 119:71) and, with a multitude of others, may learn to number the times of
your sharpest trials among the sweetest and most exalted moments of your life.
For this purpose, let prayer be your frequent employment; and let such
sentiments as these, if not in the very same terms be often and affectionately
poured out before God.
An humble Address to God under the Pressure of heavy Affliction.