roughly even while the poor useth entreaties, maketh his addresses to him with all humility and observance, he holds up his head, or turns his back upon him with scorn and contempt, and thinks himself too good to give his poor neighbour a soft and peaceable answer. Pride is a humour which naturally runs in our veins, and it is nourished by ease and prosperity. And therefore to tame this pride of spirit that is in man, God takes him into the house of correction, puts his feet in the stocks, and there teacheth him to know himself: He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger; hunger brought down Israel's stomach, and did eat out that proud flesh which began to rankle. Hence it is, that if you take the children of God either yet in, or newly come out of the furnace of affliction, you shall observe them to be the humblest, meekest creatures upon the earth; as it is said, A little child may lead them: whereas before it may be they were so stiff and high, that an angel of God could not tell how to deal with them; now the meanest of God's servants may reprove and counsel them. That David who put his poor Ammonitish prisoners and captives to death in cold blood, banishment and persecution made so tame, that not only the righteous might reprove him; but even the wicked might reproach him: and he holds his peace; or if he speaks, it is in words of patience and submission: So let him curfe, because the Lord hath

*

* 2 Sam. xii. 31.-But this is probably a mistranslation: "he put them to the Jews," &c. i. e. made them slaves to work with the Jews, &c. and at the brick-kilns. EDITOR.

said, Curse David. A man by trouble comes to know his own heart, which in prosperity he was a stranger to; seeth the weakness of his grace, and the strength of his corruption; how nothing is weak but grace, nothing strong but sin; and this lays him in the dust. Oh wretch that I am! and truly when a man hath learned this lesson he is not far from deliverance; Seek the Lord all ye meek of the earth, seek righteousness; seek meekness, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. This is God's design, first, to humble his people by affliction, and then to save them from it. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people, he will beautify the meek with salvation.

5. God by affliction DISCOVERS unknown corruption in the hearts of his people. He led thee through the wilderness these forty years to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart; i. e. to make thee know what was in thy heart; what pride, what impatience, what unbelief, what idolatry, what distrust of God, what murmuring, what unthankfulness was in thy heart; and thou didst never notice it. Sin lieth very close and deep, and is not easily dis cerned, till the fire of affliction comes, and makes a separation of the precious from the vile. What shall I do (saith God) for the daughter of my people? they are exceeding bad, and they know it not: what shall I do with them? I will melt them and try them: into the furnace they shall go, and there I will shew them what is in their hearts. In the furnace we see more

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corruption, and more of corruption, than ever appeared, or was suspected. Oh, saith the poor soul, whom God hath taught in the school of affliction, • I never thought my heart so bad as now I see it is; I could not have believed the world had had so much interest in my heart, and Christ so little; I did not • think my faith had been so weak and my fears so strong; I find that faith weak in danger, which I thought had been strong out of danger; little did I think the sight of death would have been so terrible, parting with nearest friends and dearest relations so piercing; Oh how unskilful and unwise am I to manage a suffering condition, to discern God's ends, to find out what God would have me to do, to moderate the violences of mine own passions, to apply the counsels and comforts of the word for their proper ends and uses! Oh where is my patience, my love, my zeal, my rejoicing in tribulation? Ah, did I ever think to find my heart so discomposed, my affections so out of command, my graces so to seek ⚫ when I should fall into divers temptations? What a • deal of self-love, pride, distrust in God, creature'confidence, discontent, murmuring, rising of heart against the holy and righteous dispensations of God; is there boiling and fretting within me? Woe is me, what a heart have I !'

And besides all this, in the hour of temptation, God brings old sins to remembrance. We are verily guilty concerning our brother, could Joseph's brethren say,

twenty years after they had sold him for a slave, when they were in danger to be questioned for their lives, as they supposed; and thus when the Israelites cry to God, in their sore distress, for rescue and deliverance, God puts them in mind of their old apostacies; Ye have forsaken me, and served other gods-Go, and cry to the gods whom ye have chosen. Suffering times are times of bringing to mind sin: If they bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives: (Heb.) If they bring back to heart: captivity is a time of turning in upon ourselves, and bringing back to heart our doings, which have not been good in God's sight: thus David under the rod could call himself to account; I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

6. In the school of affliction God doth TEACH us to PRAY. They that never prayed before will pray in affliction. Lord, in trouble they have visited thee: they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. They that kept their distance with God before, yea, that said to the Almighty depart from us, in their affliction can bestow a visit upon God, in trouble they have visited thee: and they that never prayed before, or at least did but now and then drop out a sleepy sluggish wish, can now pour out a prayer, when chastisement is upon their loins. Rebels, fools, mariners, even the worst of men, can cry to God in their trouble. The very heathen mariners fall to their prayers in a storm, and can awaken the sleepy pro

phet to this duty: What meanest thou, O sleeper! arise and call upon thy God. Hence we used to say, "He that cannot pray, let him go to sea." Thus, I say, affliction opens dumb lips, and untieth the strings of the tongue to call upon God: But whom God teacheth in affliction, they learn to pray in another manner, more frequently, more fervently.

More frequently-God's people are vessels full of the spirit of prayer, and affliction is a piercer, whereby God draws it out. For my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer. David was always a praying man, but now under persecution he did nothing else; I give myself unto prayer: as wicked men givẹ themselves up to their wickedness, so David gave himself up to prayer, he made it his work. Hence you may observe that all the psalms are nothing else almost but the runnings out of David's spirit in prayer, under variety of afflictions and persecutions: as his troubles were multiplied, so his prayers did multiply. The holy man was never in that condition wherein he could not pray. Alas! it is sad to consider, that in our peace and tranquility, we pray by fits and starts many times; we suffer every trifle to come and justle out prayer; but in affliction God keeps us upon our knees, and as it were tieth the sacrifice to the horns of 'the altar.

As he teacheth us to pray more frequently, so also to pray more fervently: even of Christ himself it is said, that being in an agony he prayed more earnestly