The Mystery of Providence

Now it often falls out that in such doubtful cases we are entangled in our own thoughts and put to a loss what course to take. We pray with David that God would make his way straight before us. Psalm 5 verse 8. Afraid we are of displeasing God and yet fearful we may do so, whether we resolve this way or that. And this comes to pass not only through the difficulty of the case, but from our own ignorance and carelessness. And very frequently from those providences that lie before us in which God seems to hint his mind to us this way or that. And whether we may safely guide ourselves by those intimations of providence is doubtful to us. That God does give men secret hints and intimations of his will by his providence cannot be doubted. But yet providences in themselves are no staple rule of duty nor sufficient discovery of the will of God. We may say of them, Behold I go forward, but he is not there, and backwards, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. Job 23 verses 8 and 9. If providence in itself is allowed to be a sufficient means of knowing God's will for us, then we shall often be forced to justify and condemn the same cause or person, for as much as there is one event happens to all, and as it falls out to the good, so to the wicked, Ecclesiastes 9.2. Besides, if providence alone were the rule to judge any action or design by, then a wicked undertaking would cease to be so, if it should succeed well. But sin is sin still, and duty is duty still, whatever the events and issues. The safest way, therefore, to make use of providences in such cases is to consider them as they follow the commands or promises of the word, and not singly and separately in themselves. If you search the scriptures with an impartial and unbiased spirit in a doubtful case, pray for counsel and direction from the Lord, attend to the dictates of conscience, and when you have done all, you will find the providences of God falling out agreeably to the dictates of your own conscience, and the best light you can find in the word. You may in such cases make use of it as an encouragement to you in the way of your duty, but the most signal demonstrations of providence are not to be accepted as a scripture rule. No smiles or successes of providence may in this encourage us to proceed, and on the other side, no frowns or discouragements of providence should discourage us in the way of our duty, however many we should encounter therein. Holy Job could not find the meaning of God in his works, yet would he not go back from the commandments of his lips. Job 23 verse 12 The like resolution you will find in David to proceed in his duty and cleave to the word, however many stumbling blocks providence should permit to be laid in his way. For I am become, saith he, like a bottle in the smoke, not only black, but withered up by troubles, yet do I not forget thy statutes. Psalm 119 verse 83 And they had almost consumed me upon earth, but I forsook not thy precepts. Verse 87 Paul by the direction of the Spirit was engaged to go to Jerusalem. Acts 20 verse 22 After a clear revelation of the mind of God to him in that matter, how many difficult and discouraging providences beset him in his way. The disciples at Tyre said to him through the Spirit, though in that they followed their own spirit, that he should not go to Jerusalem. Acts 21 verse 4 Then at Caesarea he met Agabus, a prophet, who told him what should befall him when he came there. Acts 21 verses 10 and 11 But all this would not dissuade him. And after all this, how patiently do the brethren beseech him to decline that journey. Verses 12 and 13 Yet knowing his rule and resolving to be faithful to it, he puts by all and proceeds in his journey. Well then, providence in concurrence with the word may give some encouragement to us in our way, but no testimony of providence is to be accepted against the word. If scripture and conscience tell you such a way is sinful, you may not venture upon it however many opportunities and encouragements providence may permit to offer themselves to you, for they are only permitted for your trial, not your encouragement. Take this therefore for a sure rule that no providence can legitimize or justify any moral evil. Nor will it be a plea before God for any man to say, The providence of God gave me encouragement to do it, though the word gave me none. If therefore in doubtful cases you would discover God's will, govern yourselves in your search after it by the following rules. 1. Get the true fear of God upon your hearts. Be really afraid of offending him. God will not hide his mind from such a soul. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Psalm 25 verse 14 2. Study the word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less. The word is a light to your feet. Psalm 119 verse 105 That is, it has a discovering and directing usefulness as to all duties to be done and dangers to be avoided. It is the great oracle at which you are to inquire. Treasure up its rules in your hearts, and you will walk safely. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119 verse 11 3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your duty to practice. If any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. John 7 verse 17 A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. Psalm 111 verse 10 4. Pray for illumination and direction in the way that you should go. Beg the Lord to guide you in straights, and that he would not permit you to fall into sin. This was the holy practice of Ezra. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. Chapter 8 verse 21 5. And this being done, follow providence so far as it agrees with the word, and no further. There is no use to be made of providence against the word, but in subservience to it. And there are two excellent uses of providence in subservience to the word. Providences, as they follow promises and prayer, are evidences of God's faithfulness in their accomplishment. When David languished under a disease, and his enemies began to triumph in the hope of his downfall, he praised that God would be merciful to him and raise him up. Psalm 41 verse 10 And by that, he says, he knew the Lord favored him, because his enemy did not triumph over him. Verse 11 This providence he looked upon as a token for good, as elsewhere he calls it. Psalm 86 verse 17 Also providences give us loud calls to those duties which the command lays upon us, and tells us when we are actually and presently under the obligation of the commands, as to the performance of them. Thus when sad providences befell the church or ourselves, they call us to humiliation, and let us know that then the command upon us to humble ourselves at the feet of God is in force upon us. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. Micah 6 verse 9 The rod has a voice, and what does it speak? Why, now is the time to humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God. This is the day of trouble, in which God hath bid you to call upon him. And on the contrary, when comfortable providences refresh us, it now informs us this is the time to rejoice in God, according to the rule, in the day of prosperity be joyful. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 14 These precepts bind always, but not to always. It is our duty therefore, and our wisdom, to distinguish seasons and know the proper duties of every season. And providence is an index that points them out to us. Thus far with the first case. How may a Christian be supported in waiting upon God, while providence delays the performance of the mercies to him for which he has long prayed and waited? It is supposed in this case that providence may linger and delay the performance of those mercies to us that we have long waited and prayed for, and that during that delay and suspense our hearts and hopes may be very low and ready to fail. Providence truly may long delay the performance of those mercies we have prayed and waited upon God for. For the right understanding of this, know that there is a twofold term or season fixed for the performance of mercy to us, one by the Lord our God, in whose hand are times and seasons, Acts 1 7, another by ourselves who raise up our own expectations of mercies, sometimes merely through the eagerness of our desires after them, and sometimes upon uncertain conjectural grounds and appearances of encouragement that lie before us. Now nothing can be more precise, certain, and punctual than is the performance of mercy at the time and season which God has appointed, however long it is, or however many obstacles lie in the way of it. There was a time prefixed by God himself for the performance of that promise of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, and it is said, And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 12 verse 41 Compare this with Acts 7 17, and there you have the ground and reason why their deliverance was not, nor could be delayed one day longer, because the time of the promise was now come. Promises, like a pregnant woman, must accomplish their appointed months, and when they have done so, providence will midwife the mercies they go big with into the world, and not one of them shall miscarry. But for the seasons which are of our own fixing and appointment, as God is not tied to them, so his providences are not governed by them, and here are our disappointments. We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of health, and behold, trouble. Jeremiah 8 15 And this is why we fret at the delays of providence, and suspect the faithfulness of God in their performance. But his thoughts are not our thoughts. Isaiah 55 verse 8 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. 2 Peter 3 9 It is slackness if you reckon by your own rule and measure, but it is not so if you reckon and count by God's. The Lord does not compute and reckon his seasons by working by our arithmetic. You have both these rules compared, and the ground of our mistake detected in that scripture. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the time it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2 3 God appoints the time, when that appointed time is come, the expected mercy will not fail. But in the meantime, though it tarry, says the prophet, wait for it, for it will not tarry. Tarry and not tarry, how shall this be reconciled? The meaning is, it may tarry much beyond your expectation, but not a moment beyond God's appointment. During this delay of providence, the hearts and hopes of the people of God may be very low and much discouraged. This is too plain from what the scriptures have recorded of others, and every one of us may find in our own experiences. We have an instance of this in Isaiah, where you have God's faithful promise that he will comfort his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted, chapter 49, verse 13. Enough, one would think, to raise and comfort their hearts. But the mercy promised was long in coming. They waited from year to year, and still the burden pressed them and was not removed. And therefore, Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me, verse 14. That is, it is in vain to look for such a mercy. God has no regard to us, we are out of his heart and mind. He neither cares for us, nor minds what becomes of us. So it was with David, after God had made him such a promise, and in due time so faithfully performed it, that never was mercy better secured to any man, for they are called the sure mercies of David, Isaiah 55, 3. Yet Providence delayed the accomplishment of them so long, and permitted such difficulties to intervene, that he despairs to see the accomplishment of them, but even concludes God had forgotten him too. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? Psalm 13, verse 1. And what he speaks here by way of question, he elsewhere turns into a positive conclusion. All men are liars. Psalm 116, verse 11. I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. And the causes of these despondencies and sinkings of heart are partly from ourselves and partly from Satan. If we duly examine our own hearts about it, we shall find that these sinkings of heart are the immediate effects of unbelief. We do not depend and rely upon the word with that full trust and confidence that is due to the infallible word of a faithful and unchangeable God. You may see the ground of this faintness in that scripture, I had fainted unless I had believed. Psalm 27, verse 13. Faith is the only cordial that relieves the heart against these faintings and despondencies. Where this is wanting, or is weak, no wonder our hearts sink at this rate when discouragements are before us. Our judging and measuring things by the rules of sense, this is a great cause of our discouragement. We conclude that according to the appearance of things will be their issues. If Abraham had done so, in that great trial of his faith, he had certainly lost his footing. But against hope, that is, against natural probability, he believed in hope, giving glory to God. Romans 4, verses 18 and 20. If Paul had done so, he had fainted under his trials. We faint not, said he, while we look not at the things that are seen. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16 and 18. As much as to say, that which keeps up our spirit is our looking off from present things and visible, and measuring all by another rule, that is the power and fidelity of God, firmly engaged in the promises. In all these things, Satan schemes against us, hence he takes occasion to suggest hard thoughts of God, and to beat off our souls from all confidence in him and expectations from him. He is the great mischief maker between God and the saints. He reports and exploits the difficulties and fears that are in our way, and labors to weaken our hands and discourage our hearts in waiting upon God. And these suggestions gain the more credit with us, because they are confirmed and attested by sense and feeling. But here is a desperate design carrying on under very plausible pretenses against our souls. It concerns us to be watchful now, and maintain our faith and hope in God. Now blessed is he that can resign all to God, and quietly wait for his salvation. To assist the soul in this difficulty I shall offer some further help in the following considerations. Though providence does not yet perform the mercies you wait for, yet you have no ground to entertain hard thoughts of God, for it is possible God never gave you any ground for your expectation of these things from him. It may be you have no promise to build your hope upon, and if so, why should God be suspected and dishonored by you in a case in which his truth and faithfulness was never engaged to you? If we are thwarted in our outward concerns, and see our expectations of prosperity dashed, if we see such and such an outward comfort removed from which we promised ourselves much, why must God be blamed for this? These things you promised yourselves, but where did God promise you prosperity and the continuance of those comfortable things to you? Produce his promise, and show where he has broken it. It is not enough for you to say there are general promises in the scripture that God will withhold no good thing, and these are good things which providence withholds from you, for that promise, Psalm 84, verse 11, has its limitations. It is expressly limited to such as walk uprightly. It concerns you to examine whether you have done so before you quarrel with providence for non-performance of it. Ah, friend, search your own heart, reflect upon your own ways. Do you not see so many flaws in your integrity, so many turnings aside from God both in heart and life, that may justify God not only in withholding what you look for, but in removing all that you enjoy? And besides this limitation as to the object, it is limited, as all other promises relating to externals are, in the matter or things premised by the wisdom and will of God, which is the only rule by which they are measured out to men in this world, that is, such mercies in such proportions as he sees needful and most conducive to your good, and these given out in such times and seasons as are of his own appointment, not yours. God never came under an absolute unlimited tie for outward comforts to any of us, and if we are disappointed, we can blame none but ourselves. Who bid us expect rest, ease, delight, and things of that kind in this world? He has never told us we shall be rich, healthy, and at ease in our habitation, but on the contrary, he has often told us we must expect troubles in the world, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. All that he stands bound to us by promise for, is to be with us in trouble, to supply our real and absolute needs, and to sanctify all these providences to our good at last, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, Romans 8.28. And as to all these things, not one tittle ever did or shall fail. If you say you have long waited upon God for spiritual mercies to your souls according to the promise, and still those mercies are deferred, and your eyes fail while you look for them, I would desire you seriously to consider of what kind those spiritual mercies are for which you have so long waited upon God. Spiritual mercies are of two sorts, such as belong to the essence, the very being of the new creature, without which it must fail, or to its well-being in the comfort of the inner man, without which you cannot live so cheerfully as you would. The mercies of the former kind are absolutely necessary, and therefore put into absolute promises, as you see, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me, Jeremiah 32.40. But for the rest they are dispensed to us in such measures and at such seasons as the Lord sees fit, and many of his own people live for a long time without them. The donation and continuation of the Spirit to quicken, sanctify and unite us with Christ is necessary, but his joys and comforts are not so. A child of light may walk in darkness, Isaiah 50.10. He lives by faith and not by feeling. You complain that providence delays to perform to you the mercies you have prayed and waited for, but have you right ends in your desires after these mercies? It may be that this is the cause you ask and receive not, James 4.3. The lack of a good aim is the reason why we lack good success in our prayers. It may be we pray for prosperity, and our aim is to please the flesh. We look no higher than the pleasure and accommodation of the flesh. We beg and wait for deliverance from such a trouble and affliction. Not that we might be the more ready and prepared for obedience, but freed of what is grievous to us and destroys our pleasure in the world. Certainly, if it is so, you have more need to judge and condemn yourselves than to censure and suspect the care of God. You wait for good, and it does not come, but is your will brought to a due submission to the will of God about it? Certainly, God will have you come to this before you enjoy your desires. Enjoyment of your desires is the thing that will please you, but resignation of your wills is that which is pleasing to God. If your hearts cannot come to this, mercies cannot come to you. David was made to wait long for the mercy promised to him, yea, and to be content without it before he enjoyed it. He was brought to be as a weaned child, Psalm 131, verse 2, and so must you. Your bidders have waited long upon God for mercy, and why should not you? David waited till his eyes failed, Psalm 69, verse 3. The church waited for him in the way of his judgment, Isaiah 26, verse 8. Are you better than all the saints that have gone before you? Is God more obliged to you than to all his people? They have quietly waited, and why should not you? Will you lose anything by patiently waiting upon God for mercy? Certainly not, yea, it will turn to a double advantage to you to continue in a quiet, submissive, waiting posture upon God. For though you do not yet enjoy the good you wait for, yet all this while you are exercising your grace, and it is more excellent to act grace than to enjoy comfort. All this time the Lord is training you up in the exercise of faith and patience, and bending your wills in submission to himself, and what do you lose by that? Yea, and whenever the desired mercies come, it will be so much the sweeter to you, for look how much faith and prayer has been employed to produce it, how many wrestlings you have had with God for it, so many more degrees of sweetness you will find in it when it comes. O therefore, faint not, however long God delays with you. Are not those mercies you expect from God worth waiting for? If not, it is your folly to be troubled for the lack of them. If they are, why do you not continue waiting? Is it not all that God expects from you for the mercies he bestows upon you, that you wait upon him for them? You know you have not deserved the least of them in his hands. You expect them, not as a recompense, but as a free favor, and if so, then certainly the least you can do is wait upon his pleasure for them. Consider how many promises are made in the word to waiting souls. One scripture declares, Blessed are all they that wait for him, Psalm 30 verse 18. Another tells us that none that wait for him shall be ashamed, Psalm 25 verse 3. That is, they shall not be finally disappointed, but at last be made partakers of their hope. A third scripture tells us, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, Isaiah 40 verse 31. A promise you had made much use of in such a fainting time, with many more of like nature. And shall we faint at this rate in the midst of so many cordials, as are prepared to revive us in these promises? How long has God waited for you to comply with his commands, to come up to your engagements and promises? You have made God wait long for your reformation and obedience, and therefore you have no reason to think it much if God makes you wait long for your consolation. You have our how longs, and has not God his? We cry, But thou, O Lord, how long? Psalm 6, 3. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Psalm 13, verses 1 and 2. But surely we should not think these things long, when we consider how long the Lord has exercised his patience towards us. We have made him say, How long, how long? Our unbelief has made him cry, How long will it be ere they believe me? Numbers 14, verse 11. Our corrupt hearts have made him cry, How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Jeremiah 4, 14. Our impure natures and ways have made him cry, How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? Hosea 8, 5. If God waits for you with so much patience for your duties, well may you wait upon him for his mercies. This impatience and infidelity of yours, expressed in your weariness to wait any longer, is a great evil in itself. Very probably it is that evil which obstructs the way of your expected mercies. You might have your mercies sooner if your spirits were quieter and more submissive, and so much for the second case. How may a Christian discern when a providence is sanctified and comes from the love of God to him? There are two sorts or kinds of providences which come to men in this world, the issues and events of which are vastly different, yea, contrary to each other. To some, all providences are overruled and ordered for good, according to that blessed promise, Romans 8, 28. Not only things that are good in themselves as ordinances, graces, duties, and mercies, but things that are evil in themselves as temptations, afflictions, and even their sins and corruptions, shall turn in the issue to their advantage and benefit. For though sin is so intrinsically and formally evil in its own nature, that in itself it is not capable of sanctification, yet out of this worst of evils God can work good to his people. And though he never makes sin the instrument of good, yet his providence may make it the occasion of good to his people, so that spiritual benefits may, by the wise overruling of providence, be occasioned by it. And so for afflictions of all kinds, the greatest and sorest of them, under the influence of providence bring a great deal of good to the saints, and that not only as the occasions, but as the instruments and means of it. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, Isaiah 27, verse 9, that is, by the instrumentality of this sanctified affliction. To others nothing is sanctified, either as an instrument or occasion of any spiritual good, but as the worst things are ordered to the benefit of the saints, so the best things wicked men enjoy do them no good. Their prayers are turned into sin, Psalm 109, verse 7. The ordinances are the savor of death, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 16. The grace of God turned into wantonness, Jude 4. Christ himself a rock of offense, 1 Peter 2, 8. Their table a snare, Psalm 69, verse 22. Their prosperity their ruin, Proverbs 1, verse 32. As persons are, so things work for good or evil. Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, Titus 1, verse 15. Seeing, therefore, the events of providence fall out so opposite to each other upon the godly and ungodly, everything furthering the eternal good of the one in the ruin of the other, it cannot but be acknowledged the most important case in which every soul is deeply concerned whether the providences under which he is are sanctified to him or not. For the understanding of this I shall premise two necessary considerations and then give the rules which will be useful for the resolution of the question. First, let it be considered that we cannot know from the matter of the things before us whether they are sanctified or unsanctified to us. For no man knoweth either love or hatred by all the things that are before him. All things come alight to all, Ecclesiastes 9, verses 1 and 2. We cannot understand the mind and heart of God by the things he dispenses with his hand. If prosperous providences befall us, we cannot say, This is a sure sign that God loves me. For who have more of those providences than the people of his wrath? They have more than heart could wish. Psalm 73, verse 7. Surely that must be a weak evidence for heaven, which accompanies so great a part of the world to hell. By these things we may testify our love to God. But from ten thousand such enjoyments we cannot get any solid assurance of his love to us. And from adverse afflictive providences we cannot know his hatred. If afflictions, great afflictions, many afflictions, long continued afflictions, should set a brand or fix a character of God's hatred upon the persons on whom they fall, where then shall we find God's people in the world? We must then seek out the proud, vain, sensuous wantons of the world, who spend their days in pleasure, and say these are the men whom God loves. Outward things are promiscuously dispensed, and no man's spiritual state is discernible by the view of his temporal. When God draws the sword, it may cut off the righteous as well as the wicked. Ezekiel 21, verse 3. Secondly, though the providences of God materially considered afford no evidence of God's love to us, yet the manner in which they befall us and the effects and fruits they produce in us do distinguish them very manifestly. And by them we may discern whether they are sanctified providences and fruits of the love of God or not. Yet these effects and fruits of providences by which we discern their nature do not always appear immediately, but time must be allowed for the soul's exercise under them. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable spirit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12, verse 11. The benefit of a providence is discerned as that of a medicine is. For the present it grips and makes the stomach sick and loathing, but afterwards we find the benefit of it in our recovery of health and cheerfulness. Now the providences of God are some of them comfortable and others sad and grievous to nature, and the way to discern the sanctification and blessing of them is by the spirit in which they come and their operations upon our spirits. I shall consider the case as it respects both sorts of providences and show you what effects of our troubles or comforts will show them to be sanctified and blessed to us. And first for sad and afflictive providences, in whatever kind or degree they befall us, we may warrantedly conclude they are blessings to us and come from the love of God when they come in a proper season when we have need of them, either to prevent some sin we are falling into or recover us out of a remiss, supine, and careless frame of spirit into which we are already fallen. If need be, ye are in heaviness. 1 Peter 1.6 Certainly it is a good sign that God designs your good by those troubles which are so fitted and wisely ordered to meet the need. If you see the husbandman pruning a tree in the proper season, it argues he aims at the fruitfulness and flourishing of it, but to do the same thing at midsummer speaks no regard to it, yea, his design to destroy it. When our troubles are fitted both for quality and degree to work properly upon our most predominant corruptions, then they look like sanctified strokes. The wisdom of God is much seen in the choice of his rods. It is not any kind of trouble that will work upon and purge every sin, but when God chooses for us such afflictions as, like medicine, are suited to the disease the soul labors under, this speaks divine care and love. Thus we may observe that it is usual with God to smite us in those very comforts which stole away too much of the love and delight of our souls from God, and to cross us in those things from which we are raised up to great expectations of comfort. These providences show the jealousy of God over us, and his care to prevent far worse evils by these sad but needful strokes. And so, for the degrees of our troubles, sanctified strokes are ordinarily fitted by the wisdom of God to the strength and ability of our inherent grace. In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. Isaiah 27, verse 8 It is an allusion to a physician who exactly weighs and measures all the ingredients which he mingles in a potion for his sick patient, that it may be proportionate to his strength, and no more. And so much the next words intimate, by this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged. Verse 8 It is a good sign that our troubles are sanctified to us when they turn our hearts against sin and not against God. There are few great afflictions which befall men, but they make them quarrelsome and discontented. Wicked men quarrel with God, and are filled with discontent against him. So the scripture describes them, And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. Revelation 16, verse 9 But godly men, to whom afflictions are sanctified, they justify God, and fall out with sin. They condemn themselves, and give glory to God. O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. Daniel 9, verse 7 And, wherefore doth a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins. Lamentations 3, verse 39 Happy afflictions, which make the soul fall out and quarrel only with sin. It is a sure sign that afflicting providences are sanctified when they purge the heart from sin and leave both heart and life more pure, heavenly, mortified, and humble than they found them. Sanctified afflictions are cleansers. They pull down the pride, refine earthliness, and purge out the vanity of the spirit. So you read, Daniel 11, verse 35 that it purifies and makes their souls white. Hence, it is compared to a furnace which separates the dross from the pure metal. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48, verse 10 But for wicked men, let them be never so long in the furnace. They lose no dross. Ezekiel 24, verse 6 How many Christians can bear witness to this truth? After some sharp affliction has been upon them, how is the earthliness of their hearts purged? They see no beauty, taste no more relish in the world than in the white of an egg. Oh, how serious, humble, and heavenly are they till the impressions made upon them by afflictions are worn off and their deceitful lusts have again entangled them. And this is the reason why we are so often under the discipline of the rod. Let a Christian, says a late writer, be but two or three years without an affliction, and he is almost good for nothing. He cannot pray, nor meditate, nor discourse at that rate he would want to do. But when a new affliction comes, now he can find his tongue and come to his knees again and live at another rate. It is a good sign that afflictive providences are sanctified to us when we draw near to God unto them and turn to him that smites us. A wicked man under affliction revolts more and more, Isaiah 1.5. Turneth not unto him that smiteth him, Isaiah 9.13. But grows worse than before. Formality is turned into stupidity and indolence. But if God afflicts His own people with a sanctified rod, it awakens them to a more earnest seeking of God. It makes them pray more frequently, spiritually, and fervently than ever. When Paul was buffeted by Satan, he besought the Lord thrice, 2 Corinthians 12.8. We may conclude our afflictions to be sanctified and to come from the love of God to us when they do not alienate our hearts from God, but enslave our love to Him. This is a sure rule. Whatever ends in the increase of our love to God proceeds from the love of God to us. A wicked man finds his heart rising against God when he smites Him, but a gracious heart cleaves the closer to Him. He can love as well as justify an afflicting God. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death. Psalm 44 verses 17-19 Here you have a true account of the attitude and frame of a gracious soul under the greatest afflictions. To be broken in the place of dragons and covered with the shadow of death enforces the most dismal state of affliction. Yet even then a gracious heart does not turn back, that is, does not for all this abate one drachm of love to God. God is as good and dear to Him in afflictions as ever. We may call our afflictions sanctified when divine teachings accompany them to our souls. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. Psalm 94 verse 12 Sanctified afflictions are eye salve. They teach us effectually when the spirit accompanies them the evil of sin, the vanity of the creature, the necessity of securing things that cannot be shaken. Never does a Christian take a truer measure both of his corruptions and graces than under the rod. Now a man sees that filthiness that has been long contracting in prosperity, what interest the creature has in the heart, how little faith, patience, resignation and self-denial we can find when God calls us to the exercise of them. O, it is a blessed sign that trouble is sanctified when a man thus turns in upon his own heart and searches it and humbles himself before the Lord for the evils of it. In the next place let us take into consideration the other branch of providences which are comfortable and pleasant. Sometimes it smiles upon us in successes, prosperity and the gratification of the desires of our hearts. Here the question will be how the sanctification of these providences may be known by us. For resolution in this matter, I shall for clearness sake lay down two sorts of rules, one negative, the other positive. Number one, negative. It is a sign that comfort is not sanctified to us which does not come ordinarily in the way of prayer. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his confidence, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Psalm 10 verses 3 and 4 Here you see providence may give men their heart's desire and yet they never once open their desires to God in prayer about it. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video and printed formats. 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And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship commenting on the words of God which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart from his commentary on Jeremiah 7.31 writes God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions since he condemns by this one phrase I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies and attend not to his commands they pervert true religion And if this principle was adopted by the Papists all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions There is an immense number of them as it is well known and as it manifestly appears Were they to admit this principle that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error The Prophet's words then are very important when he says that God had commanded no such thing and that it never came to his mind as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required nay, what he never knew