any advantage to him, but because it is our greatest happiness and perfection. He bestoweth his mercies to gain our hearts: but, when we begin to doat on the gifts, and forget the giver, he becomes jealous, and takes them away, that he may not have any rival in our affection. And certainly it is no small advantage to have our hearts in any measure loosened from the world, disentangled from every thing here below. Quocunque pretio bene emitur: He makes a good purchase who obtains it, let it cost him never so dear. Another bad effect which prosperity is wont to produce in our corrupt nature, is, that it makes us forgetful of God, and unthankful of his mercies. When second causes answer our expectations and desires, we are seldom wont to look beyond them: we never regard the fountain till the cisterns begin to fail. This it was that made Agur to pray against a plentiful fortune, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? When the weather is fair, and the sails are filled with a prosperous gale, the rough and stubborn mariners are seldom at their devotion; but when the storm is risen, and the sea begins to swell, and every wave threateneth to devour them, then they call to the Lord in their trouble, as on him who can alone deliver them out of their distress. The Psalmist speaking of their stiff-necked and rebellious predecessors, tells us, that when God slew them, then they sought him; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer In their affliction (saith the Lord by the Prophet) they will seek me early t. I doubt not a great many devout persons will acknowledge, that it was some affliction or other that first taught them to pray. And as afflictions contribute to make us remember our dependence on God, and then excite us to seek unto him; so also they render us ** *Psal. lxxviii. 34, 35. + Hos. v. 15. more sensible of our obligations unto him, and more thankful for the mercies he hath bestowed on us. We are so dull and insensible, that we seldom value any of the divine mercies, till we find what it is to want them. We put very little value on our food and raiment, and the ordinary means of our subsistence, unless we have been sometimes pinched with want. We consider not how much we are indebted to God for preserving our friends, till some of them be removed from us. How little do we prize our health, if we have never had experience of sickness or pain! Where is the man who doth seriously bless God for his nightly quiet and repose? And yet, if sickness or trouble deprive us of it, we then find it to have been a great and valuable mercy, and that it is God who giveth his beloved sleep. Once more, prosperity rendereth us insensible of the miseries and calamities of others. Those who were at ease in Zion, did not grieve for the afflictions of Joseph. But afflictions do soften the heart, and make it more tender and kindly; and we are always most ready to compassionate those griefs which ourselves have sometime endured: the sufferings of others make the deepest impressions upon us, when they put us in mind of our own. It is mentioned as a powerful motive to engage the children of Israel to be kind and merciful to strangers, that they knew very well the heart of a stranger, having been strangers themselves in Egypt. Now, this tender and compassionate temper doth well become a Christian, whose duty it is to weep with those that weep, and to have as deep a sense and feeling of the griefs of others, as he is wont to have of his own. These and many more advantages do sanctified and well-improved afflictions bring to a Christian; on the account of which it is good for him that he hath borne the yoke. But I hasten to that which is mentioned in the text. Only by the way (that I may not need to G return) let me take notice of the season which is here mentioned as the fittest for a man to bear affliction: It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. We are all willing to put off the evil day; and, if we must needs bear the yoke, we would choose to ave it delayed till we grow old. We think it sad to have our morning overcast with clouds, to meet with a storm before we have well launched forth from the shore. We are wont to indulge and applaud children and young folks in their frolics and jovial humours; and tell them they will have time enough for cares and troubles when they grow older; we turn that irony of Solomon's into a serious advice, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and the sight of thine eyes. But the divine wisdom, which knoweth what is fit for us, doth many times make choice of our younger years as the most proper to accustom us to the bearing of the yoke. And a little consideration will make us discover the advantages of this season for suffering afflictions; they being at that time most necessary, most tolerable, and most advantageous. First, I say, they are then most necessary. For youth is the time of our life wherein we are in greatest danger to run into wild and extravagant courses: our blood is hot, and our spirits unstayed and giddy; we have too much pride to be governed by others, and too little wisdom to govern ourselves. The yoke is then especially needful to tame our wildness, and reduce us to a due stayedness and composure of mind. Then also it is most supportable. The body is strong and healthful, less apt to be affected with the troubles of the mind; the spirit stout and vigorous, will not so easily break and sink under them. Old age is a burthen, and will soon faint under any supervenient load. The smallest trouble is enough to bring down grey heirs with sorrow to the grave. And therefore, since we must meet with afflictions, it is certainly a favourable circumstance to have them at that time of our life wherein we are most able to endure them. And lastly, the lessons which afflictions teach us, are then most advantageous when we learn them betimes, that we may have the use of them in the conduct of our after lives. An early engagement into the ways of religion is a great felicity; and the means whereby this is to be effected, can never be too soon administered. Youth is more soft and pliable; and evil dispositions are more easily cured, before time and custom have hardened us in them. A tree needs little force to bend it when it is young; and there needeth the less of the rod, if the child be brought unto discipline betimes. And thus on many accounts it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. We proceed to the particular advantage of afflictions which is mentioned in the text: He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. The words are capable of a two-fold interpretation, and both suit well with the purpose : for we may either understand them properly, of solitude and silence; or metaphorically, of patience and quiet submission; both of which are the good effects of sanctified and well improved afflictions: and accordingly we shall say something to both. Nature hath made us sociable creatures; but corruption hath carried this inclination unto excess; so that most persons think it an intolerable burden to be any considerable time alone. Though they love themselves out of measure, yet they cannot endure their own conversation; they had rather be hearing and discoursing of the most naughty and trivial things, than be sitting alone and holding their peace. Outward prosperity heightens this humour. When the heart is dilated with joy, it seeketh to vent itself in every company. When a man is free of trouble and cares, he thinks of nothing but how to please himself with variety of diversions and conversations. Crosses, on the other hand, render a man pensive and solitary; they stop the mouth, and bind up the tongue, and incline the person to be much alone. Sadness makes his company disagreeable to others, and he findeth theirs as little agreeable to him: He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. Thus the same prophet said, I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced: I sat alone because of thine hand*. Now, he who considers, on the one hand, the guilt we are wont to contract, and the prejudice which we sustain, by too much conversation with others, and, on the other hand, the excellent improvement we may make of solitude and retirement, will account it a good effect of afflictions, that they incline and dispose us unto it. In considering the evils of frequent conversation, we are not to prosecute the grosser and more scandalous vices of the tongue. It might seem a poor commendation of solitude and silence, that a man is not swearing, or lying, or scolding, or talking profanely when he is alone, a man may converse enough, and keep himself free from these. We rather choose to mention such evils as are wont to be less noticed, and can be more hardly avoided. And, first, experience may teach us all, that much conversation doth ordinarily beget a remissness and dissolution of spirit; that it slackeneth and relaxeth the bent of our minds, and disposeth us to softness and easy compliances. We find it hard enough at any time to compose our spirits to that stayedness and severity which religion doth require; but if we be too much in company with others, it is almost impossible to maintain it. That cheerfulness and complaisance which is judged necessary to render conver * Jer. xv. 17. |