264 THE FILTH G as the Lord Christ, being the head of thecovenant, all the afflictions and persecutions that befall his members are originally his, Isa. lxiii. 9. Acts ix. 5. Col. i. 24. so they all tend to work us unto a conformity unto him in purity and holiness. And they- work towards this blessed end of purifying the soul several ways. For, (1.) They have in them some tokens of God's displea- sure against sin, which those who are exercised by them are led by the consideration of unto a fresh view of the vileness of it. For, although afflictions arean effect of love, yet it is of love mixed with care, to obviate and prevent distempers. Whatever they are else, they are always chastisements; and correction respects faults. And it is our safest course, in every affliction, to lodge theadequate cause of it in our own deserts; as the wo- man did, I Kings xvii. 18. and as God directs, Psal. Ixxxi. 30, S1, 32. Lament. iii. SS, $4. And this is one difference between his chastisements and those of the fathers of our flesh, that he doth it notfor his pleasure, Heb. xii. 9. 10. Now, a view of sin under suffering, makes men loathe and abhor themselves for it, and to be ashamed of it. And this is the first step towards our purifying of ourselves by any ways appointed for it. Self-pleasing in sin is thehighest degree of our pollution; and when we loathe ourselves for it, we are put into the way at least of seeking after a remedy. (S.) Afflic- tions take off the beauty and allurements of all created good things, and their comforts, by which the affec- tions are solicited to commit folly and lewdness with them; that is, to embrace and cleave unto them inor- dinately, whence many defilements do ensue, Gal. vi. I4. This God designs them for, even to wither all the flowerings of this world in the minds of men, by discovering their emptiness, vanity, and insufficiency to give relief. This intercepts the disorderly intercourse which is apt to be between them and our affections, whereby our minds are polluted. For there is a pollu- tion attending the least inordinate actings of our minds and affections towards objets either in their own nature sinful, or such as may be rendered so by an excess in us towards them, whilst we are under the command of loving the Lordour God with all our minds, souls, and strength, and that always. (3.) Afflictions take off the edge, and put a deadness on those affections where- by the corrupt lusts of the mind and flesh, which are the spring and cause of all our defilements, do act E SIN PURGED, themselves. They curb those vigorous and brisk affec- tions which were always ready pressed for the service of lust, and which sometimes carry the soul into the pur- suit of sin, like the horse into the battle, with madness and fury. They are no more such prepared channels for the fomes of concupiscence to empty itself into the conversation; a& such vehicles for the spirits of cor- rupted lusts and inclinations. God, I say, by afflic- tions, brings a kind of death into the world, and the pleasures of it, upon the desires and affections of the soul, which render them unserviceable unto the re- mainder of defiling lusts and corruptions. This in some, indeed, endures but for a season, as when in sickness, wants, fears, distresses, losses, sorrows, there is a great appearance of mortification, when yet the strength ofsin, and the vigour of carnal affections, do speedily revive upon the least outward relief. But with believers it is not so, but by all their chastisements they are really more and more delivered from the pollutions of sin and made partakers of God's holiness, 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17. (4.) God doth, by them, excite, stir up, and draw forth all the graces of the Spirit into a constant, diligent, and vigorous exercise, and therein the work of cleansing the soul from thepollution of sin is carried on. A timeof affliction is the especial season forthe peculiar exercise of all grace. Forthe soul can then no otherwise support or relieve itself. For it is cut short, or takenoff from other comforts and reliefs, every sweet thing being made bitter unto it. It must therefore live not only by faith and love, and delight in God, but in some sense upon them. For if, in their exercise, supportment and comfort be not obtained, we can have none. Therefore doth suchasoul find it necessaryto beconstantly abound- ing in the exerciseof grace, that it may, in any measure, be able to support itself under its troubles or sufferings. Again, there is no other way whereby a man may have a sanctified use of afflictions, or a good issue out of them, but by the assiduous exercise of grace. This God calls for, this he designs, and without it, afflictions have no other end but tomake men miserable; and they will either have no deliverance from them, or such a one as shall tend to their farther misery and ruin. And so have we taken a viewof the first part of our sanctification and holiness, which I have the more large- ly insisted on, because the consideration of it is utterly neglected by themwho frame us an holiness to consist
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=