Chapter 14: Seawater Sweetened Through the Earth — God's Grace in Afflictions

Sea-waters drained through the earth, are sweet; So are th' afflictions which God's People meet.

OBSERVATION.

THE Waters of the Sea in themselves, are brackish and unpleasant, yet being exhaled by the Sun, and condensed into Clouds, they fall down into pleasant Showers; or if drained through the Earth, their property is thereby altered; and that which was so salt in the Sea, becomes exceeding sweet and pleasant in the Springs. This we find by constant experience, the sweetest crystal Spring came from the Sea, Ecclesiastes 1:7.

APPLICATION.

Afflictions in themselves are evil, Amos 2. 6. Very bitter and unpleasant, See Hebrews 12:11. Yet not morally and intrinsically evil, as sin is; for if so, the holy God would never own it for his own act, as he does, Mic. 3. [•]2. but always disclaimeth sin, Iam. 1. 3. Besides, if it were so evil, it could in no case, or respect, be the object of our election and desire; as in some cases it ought to be, Hebrews 11:25. But it is evil, as it is the fruit of sin, and grievous to sense, Hebrews 14:11. But though it be thus brackish and unpleasant in itself, yet passing through Christ, and the Covenant, it loses that ungrateful property, and becomes pleasant in the fruits and effects thereof to believers, Hebrews 12:11.

Indeed, such are the blessed fruits thereof, that they are to account it all joy, when they fall into divers afflictions, Iam. 1. 2. David could bless God, that he was afflicted; and many a Saint has done the like. A good woman once compared her afflictions to her children: For (says she) they put me in pain in bearing them; yet as I know not which child, so neither which affliction I conld be without.

Sometimes the Lord sanctifies affliction to discover the corruption that is in the heart, Deuteronomy 8:2. It is a furnace to show the dross. Ah! when a sharp Affliction comes, then the pride, impatiency, and unbelief of the heart appears. Matura vexata prodit seipsam. When the Water is stirred, then the mud and filthy sediment that lay at the bottom rises. Little (says the afflicted Soul) did I think, there had been in me that pride, self-love, distrust of God, carnal fear, and unbelief, as I now find. O where is my Patience, my Faith, my Glory in tribulation? I could not have imagined the sight of Death would have so appalled me, the loss of outward things so have pierced me. Now what a blessed thing is this, to have the heart thus discovered?

Again: Sanctified Afflictions discover the emptiness and vanity of the Creature. Now the Lord has stained its pride, and vailed its tempting splendour, by this or that affliction; and the Soul sees what an empty, shallow, deceitful thing it is. The World (as one has truly observed) is then only great in our eyes, when we are full of sense and self: But now Affliction makes us more spiritual, and then it is nothing. It drives them nearer to God▪ makes them see the necessity of the Life of Faith, with multitudes of other benefits.

But yet these sweet fruits of Affliction do not naturally, and of their own accord, spring from it: No, we may as well look for Grapes from Thorns, or Figs from Thistles, as for such Fruits from Affliction, till Christ's sanctifying Hand and Are have past upon them.

The reason why they become thus sweet and pleasant (as I noted before) is, because they run now into another channel; Jesus Christ has removed them from Mount Ebal to Gerezim; they are no more the effects of vindictive Wrath, but paternal Chastisement. And (as Mr. Case well notes) A teaching affliction is to the Saints, the result of all the Offices of Iesus Christ. As a King, he chastens; as a Prophet, he teaches, namely by chastening; and as a Priest, he has purchased this grace of the Father, that the dry Rod might blossom, and bear fruit. Behold then, a sanctified affliction is a Cup, whereinto Jesus Christ has wrung and prest the juyce and virtue of all his Mediatory Offices. Surely, that must be a Cup of generous, Royal Wine, like that in the Supper, a Cup of Blessing to the people of God.

REFLECTION.

Hence may the unsanctified Soul draw matter of fear and trouble, even from its unsanctified troubles. And thus it may reflect upon it self; O my Soul, what good hast you gotten by all, or any of your afflictions? God's Rod has been dumb to you, or you deaf to it. I have not learned one holy Instruction from it: My troubles have left me the same, or worse than they found me; my Heart was proud, earthly, and vain before, and so it remains still: They have not purged out, but onely given vent to the pride, murmur, and atheism of my heart. I have been in my afflictions, as that wicked Ahaz was in his, 2 Chron. 28. 22. Who in the midst of his distress, yet trespassed more and more against the Lord. When I have been in storms at Sea, or troubles at home, my Soul within me has been as a raging Sea, casting up mire and dirt. Surely this Rod is not the Rod of God's Children. I have proved but dross in the Furnace, and I fear the Lord will put me away as dross, as he threatens to do by the wicked, Psalm 119:119.

Hence also should gracious Souls draw much encouragement and comfort amidst all their troubles. O these are the fruits of Gods fatherly love to me! Why should I fear in the day of evil? or tremble any more at affliction? though they seem as a Serpent at a distance, yet are they a Rod in hand. O blessed be that skilful and gracious hand, that makes the Rod, the dry Rod to blossome, and bear such precious fruit.

Lord! what a mystery of love lies in this dispensation! That sin which first brought afflictions into the world, is now it self carried out of the world by affliction, Romans 5:12. Isaiah 7:9. O what can frustrate my Salvation, when those very things that [•]eem most to oppose it, are mad subservient to it; [•]nd contrary to their own nature do promote and [•]urther it?

THE POEM.

[•]Tis strange to hear what different censures fall

Vpon the same affliction; some do call

Their troubles sweet, some bitter; others meet

Them both mid-way, and call them bitter-sweet.

But here's the question still, I fain would see,

Why sweet to him, and bitter to me?

You drink'st them Dregs and all, but others find

Their troubles sweet, because to them refin'd,

And sanctifi'd; which difference is best,

By such apt Si[•]ilies as these exprest.

From Salt and Brackish Seas Fumes rise and fly

Which into Clouds condens'd, obscure the skie,

Their property there alter'd in few hours

Those brackish fumes fall down in pleasant showers:

Or as the dregs of Wine and Beer distill'd

By Limbeck, with ingredients, does yield

A Cordial water, though the Lees were bitter,

from where the Chymist did extract such liquor.

Then marvel not that one can kiss that Rod,

Which makes another to blaspheme his God.

O get your troubles sweet'ned and refin'd

Or else they'll leave bitter effects behind.

Saints troubles are a Cord, let down by love,

To pully up their hearts to things above.