Chapter 6. Showing That the Day of Affliction Is Evil and in What Respects, Also Unavoidable, and Why to Be Prepared For

IT behoves everyone to arme and prepare himself for the evil day of affliction and death, which unavoidably he must conflict with. The point has three branches.

First, the day of affliction and death is an evil day.

Secondly, this evil day is unavoidable.

Thirdly, it behoves every one to provide for this evil day.

First of the first branch, the day of affliction, especially death is an evil day. Here we must show how affliction is evil, and how not.

First, it is not morally or intrinsecally evil, if it were evil in this sense; First, God could not be the author of it; his nature is so pure, that no such evil can come from him, any more than the Sunnes light can make night. But this evil of affliction he vouchs for his own act, Against this family do I devise an evil, Micah 3:2. yea more, he impropriates it so to himself, as that he will not have us think any can do us evil beside himself. 'Tis the Prerogative he glories in, that there is no evil in the City, but it is of his doing, Amos 3:6. And well it is for the Saints that their crosses are all made in heaven, they would not else be so fitted to their backs as they are. But for the evil of sin, he disownes it with a strict charge, that we lay not this brat, which is begotten by Satan upon our impure hearts, at his door. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man, James 1:13.

Secondly, if affliction were thus intrinsecally evil, it could in no respect be the object of our desire, which sometimes it is and may be. We are to choose affliction rather than sin, yea, the greatest affliction before the least sin. Moses chose affliction with the people of God, rather than the pleasures of sin for a season. We are bid rejoyce when we fall into divers temptations, that is, afflictions.

But in what respects then may the day of affliction be called evil?

First, as it is grievous to sense in Scriprure, evil is oft put as contradistinct to joy and comfort: We looked for peace, and behold no good. A merry heart is called a good heart, a sad spirit an evil spirit, because nature has an abhorrency to all that opposs its joy, and this every affliction does more or lesse. No affliction, while present is joyous, but grievous; it has like Physick, an unpleasing farewel to the sense. Therefore Salomon, speaking of the evil days of sicknesse, expresss them to be so distasteful to nature, that we shall say, We have no pleasure in them. They take away the joy of our life. Natural joy is a true flower of the Sun of prosperity, it opens and shuts with it. 'Tis true indeed, the Saints never have more joy then in their affliction, but this comes in upon another score; they have a good God that sends it in, or else they would be as sadly on it as others. 'Tis no more natural for comfort to spring from afflictions, then for grapes to grow on thornes, or Manna in the wilderness. The Israelites might have look't long enough for such bread, if heaven had not miraculously rained it down. God chooss this season to make the Omnipotency of his love the more conspicuous. As Elijah to adde to the miracle, first causes water in abundance to be poured upon the wood and sacrifice, so much as to fill the trench, and then brings fire from heaven by his prayer, to lick it up: Thus God poures out the flood of affliction upon his children, and then kindles that inward joy in their bosomes which licks up all their sorrow, yea, he makes the very waters of affliction they float on, adde a further sweetnesse to the musick of their spiritual joy, but still it is God that is good, and affliction that is evil.

Secondly, the day of affliction is an evil day, as it is an unwelcome remembrancer of what sinful evils have passed in our lives. It revives the memory of old sins, which it may be, were buried many years ago in the grave of forgetfulnesse. The night of affliction is the time when such ghosts use to walk in mens consciences; and as the darkness of the night addes to the horrour of any scareful object, so does the state of affliction (which is it self uncomfortable) adde to the terrour of our sins then remembred. Never did the Patriarchs sin look so ghastly on them, as when it recoil'd upon them in their distress, Genesis 42:21. The sinner then has more real apprehensions of wrath then at another time; affliction approximates judgement, yea, it is interpreted by him, as a Pursevant sent to call him presently before God, and therefore must needs beget a woful confusion and consternation in his spirit. O that men would think, of this, how they could bear the sight of their sins, and a Rehearsal Sermon of all their ways in that day! That is the blessed man indeed, who can with the Prophet then look on them, and triumph over them. This indeed is a dark parable, as he calls it, few can skill of it, as Psalms 94:3, 4. I will open my dark saying upon the harp; wherefore should I feare in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my heels compasss me about?

Thirdly, the day of affliction makes discovery of much evil to be in the heart, which was not seen before. Affliction shakes and royles the creature, if any sediment be at the bottome it will appear then. Sometimes it discovers the heart to be quite naught, that before had some seeming good, these suds wash off the hypocrites paint, Natura vexata prodit seipsam. When corrupt nature is vext it shows it self, and some afflictions do that to purpose. We reade of such as are offended when persecution comes, they fall quite out with their Profession, because it puts them to such cost and trouble; others in their distress that curse their God, Isaiah 8:21. It is impossible for a naughty heart to think well of an afflicting God. The hireling, if his Master takes up a staffe to beat him, throws down his work and runs away; and so does a false heart serve God. Yea, even where the person is gracious, corruption is oft found to be stronger, and grace weaker than they were thought to be. Peter, who set out so valiantly at first to walk on the sea, the winde does but rise and he begins to sink; now he sees there was more unbelief in his heart then he before suspected. Sharp afflictions are to the soul as a driving raine to the house; we know not that there are such crannies and holes in the house, till we see it drop down here and there. Thus we perceive not how unmortified this corruption, nor how weak that grace is, till we are thus search't, and made more fully to know what is in our hearts by such trials. This is the reason why none have such humble thoughts of themselves, and such pitiful and forbearing thoughts towards others in their infirmities; as those who are most acquainted with afflictions, they meet with so many foiles in their conflicts, as make them carry a low saile in respect of their own grace, and a tender respect to their brethren, more ready to pity then censure them in their weaknesses.

Fourthly, this is the season when the evil one Satan comes to tempt. What we finde call'd the time of tribulation, Matthew 13:22. we finde in the same parable, Luke 8:13. call'd the time of temptation. Indeed they both meet; seldome does God afflict us, but Satan addeth temptation to our wilderness; This is your hour (says Christ) and the power of darkness, Luke 22:53. Christs sufferings from man, and temptation from the devil came together. Esau, who hated his brother for the blessing, said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I kill my brother, Genesis 27:41. Times of affliction are the days of mourning, those Satan waits for to do us amischief in.

Fifthly and lastly, the day of affliction has oft an evil event and issue, and in this respect proves an evil day indeed. All is well (we say) that ends well; the product of afflictions on the Christian is good, the rod with which they are corrected, yields the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse, and therefore they can call their afflictions good, that is a good instrument that lets out only the bad blood. It is good for me that I was afflicted, says David. I have read of a holy woman, who used to compare her afflictions to her children, they both put her to great pain in the bearing, but as she knew not which of her children to have been without (for all the trouble in the bringing forth) so neither which of her afflictions she could have missed, notwithstanding the sorrow they put her to in the enduring. But to the wicked the issue is sad, first in regard of sin, they leave them worse, more impenitent, hardened in sin, and outragious in their wicked practices. Every plague on Egypt added to the plague of hardness on Pharaohs heart: he that for some while could beg prayers of Moses for himself, at last comes to that passe, that he threatens to kill him if he come at him any more. O what a prodigious height do we see many come to in sin after some great sicknesse or other judgement? Children do not more shoot up in their bodily stature after an ague, then they in their lusts after afflictions. O how greedy and ravenous are they after their prey, when they once get off their clog and chain from their heeles! when Physick works not kindly, it does not only leave the disease uncured, but the poison of the Physick stays in the body also. Many appear thus poisoned by their afflictions, by the breaking out of their lusts afterward. Secondly, in regard of sorrow, every affliction on a wicked person producs another, and that a greater than it self. The last wedge comes the last, which shall rive him fit for the fire, the sinner is whip't from affliction to affliction, as the vagrant from Constable to Constable till at last he comes to hell, his proper place and setled abode, where all sorrrows will meet in one that is endlesse.

The second branch of the point follows. This evil day is unavoidable. We may as well stop the chariot of the Sun, when posting to night, and chase away the shades of the evening, as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us all. None has power over the Spirit to retain it, neither has he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war, Ecclesiastes 8:8. Among men 'tis possible to get off when prest for the wars, by pleading priviledge of years, estate, weakness of body, protection from the Prince, and the like, or if all these fail, possibly the sending another in our room, or a bribe given in the hand may serve the turn. But in this war the presse is so strict, that there is no dispensation; David could willingly have gone for his son, we hear him crying, Would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son: but he will not be taken, that young Gallant must go himself. We must in our own person come into the field, and look death in the face. Some indeed we finde so fond as to promise themselves immunity from this day, as if they had an ensuring office in their breast. They say they have made a Covenant with death, and with hell they are at an agreement, when the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come unto them. And now (like debtors that have feed the Serjeant) they walk abroad boldly and feare no arrest. But God tells them as fast as they binde he will loose: Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; and how should it if God will not set his seal to it? There is a divine Law for this evil day, which came in force upon Adams first sin, that laid the fatal knife to the throat of mankinde, which has opened a sluce to let out his heart-blood ever since. God to prevent all escape has sowen the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature, so that we can assoon run from our selves, as run from death. We need no feller to come with a hand of violence, and hew us down; there is in the tree a worme which grows out of its own substance that will destroy it, so in us, those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust. Our death was bred when our life was first conceived; and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the hour of her travel, (that follows in nature upon the other) so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big. All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturae, groans of dying nature; they tell him his dissolution is at hand. Beest you a Prince sitting in all your state and pomp, death dare enter your Palace, and come through all your guards, to deliver the fatal message it has from God to you, yea, runs its dagger to your heart; wert you compassed with a Colledge of Doctors consulting your health, Art and Nature both must deliver you up when that comes. Even when your strength is firmest, and you eatest your bread with a merry heart, that very food which nourishs your life, gives you withal an earnest of death, as it leaves those dregs in you which will in time procure the same. O how unavoidable must this evil day of death be, when that very staffe knocks us down to the: grave at last, which our life leans on, and is preserved by! God owes a debt both to the first Adam and second; to the first he owes the wages of his sin: to the second, the reward of his sufferings. The place for full payment of both is the other world, so that except death comes to convey man there, the wicked who are the posterity of the first Adam, will misse of that full pay for their sins, which the threatening makes due debt, and engags God to perform; The godly also who are the seed of Christ, these should not receive the whole purchase of his blood, which he would never have shed but upon the credit of thar promise of eternal life, which God gave him for them before the world began; This is the reason why God has made this day so sure, in it he dischargs both bonds.

The third branch of the point follows, That it behoves every one to prepare, and effectually to provide for this evil day, which so unavoidably impends us: And that upon a twofold account; First, in point of duty. Secondly, in point of wisdom.

First, in point of duty. First, it is upon our allegiance to the great God, that we provide and arme our selves against this day. Suppose a subject were trusted with one of his Princes castles, and this man should hear that a puissant enemy was coming to lay siege to this castle, yet takes no care to lay in armes and provision for his defense, and so 'tis lost, how could such a one be clear'd of treason? does he not basely betray the place, and with it his Princes honor into the enemies hand? Our souls are this castle which we are every one to keep for God. We have certain intelligence that Satan has a design upon them, and the time when he intends to come with all his powers of darkness, to be that evil day. Now as we would be found true to our trust, we are obliged to stand upon our defense, and store our selves with what may enable us to make a vigorous resistance.

Secondly, we are obliged to provide for that day, as a suitable return for, and improvement of the opportunities and meanes, which God affords us for this very end. We cannot without shameful ingratitude to God, make waste of those helps God gives us in order to this great work. Every one would cry out upon him that should basely spend that money upon riot in prison, which was sent him to procure his deliverance out of prison; And do we not blush to bestow those talents upon our lusts and Satan? which God graciously indulgs to deliver us from them, and his rage in a dying hour? what have we Bibles for, Ministers and preaching for? if we mean not to furnish our selves by them with armour for the evil day? In a word, what is the intent of God in lengthening out our days, and continuing us some while here in the land of the living? was it that we might have time to revel or rather ravel out upon the pleasure of this vaine world? Does he give us our precious time to be employed in catching such butterflies as these earthly honours and riches are? It cannot be. Masters do not use (if wise) to set their servants about such work, as will not pay for the candle they borne in doing it. And truly nothing lesse then the glorifying of God, and saving our souls at last can be worth the precious time we spend here. The great God has a greater. end then most think in this dispensation: If we would judge aright, we should take his own interpreration of his actions; and the Apostle Peter bids us, count that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation, 2 Peter 3:15. which plate he quotes out of Paul, (as to the sense, though not in the same forme of words) which in Romans 2:4. are these, Or despisest you the riches of his goodnesse, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodnesse of God leads you to repentance? From both places we are taught what is the minde of God, and the language he speaks to us in by every moments patience, and inch of time that is granted to us. It is a space given for repentance. God sees (as we are) death and judgement could bring no good news to us, we are in no case to welcome the evil day, and therefore mercy stands up to plead for the poor creature in Gods bosome, and begs a little time more may be added to its life, that by this iudulgence it may be provoked to repent before he be called to the bar, Thus we come by every day that is continually superadded to our time on earth. And does not this lay a strong obligation on us to lay out every point of this time, unto the same end 'tis begged for.

Secondly, in point of wisdom. The wisdom of a man appears most eminently in two things.

First, in the matter of his choice and chief care.

Secondly, in a due timing of this his choice and care.

First, a wife man makes choice of that for the subject of his chief care and endeavour, which is of greatest importance and consequence to him; fools and children only are intent about toys and trifles. They are as busie and earnest in making of a house of dirt or cards, as Solomon was in making of his Temple. Those poor bables are as adequate to their foolish apprehensions, as great enterprises are to wise men. Now such is the importance of the evil day, especially that of death, that it proves a man a fool, or wise, as he comports himself to it. The end specifies every action, and gives it the name of good or evil, of wise or foolish. The evil day of death is as the end of our days, so to be the end of all the actions of our life. Such will our life be found at last, as it has been in order to this one day. If the several items of our life (counsels and projects that we have pursued) when they shall then be cast up, will amount to a blessed death, then we shall appear to be wise men indeed, but if after all our goodly plots and policies for other things, we be unprovided for that hour, we must be content to die fooles at last; And no such fool as the dying fool. The Christian goes for the fool (in the worlds account) while he lives; but when death comes, the wise world will then confesse they mis-call'd him, and shall take it to themselves; We fooles counted his life to be madnesse, and his end to be without honor. But how is he now numbred among the children of God, and his lot is among the Saints? therefore have we erred from the way of truth, Wisd. 5.4, 5. The place is Apocryphal, but sinners will finde the matter of it Canonical. 'Tis true indeed, Saints are out-witted by the world in the things of the world, and no marvel, neither does it impeach their wisdom any more, then it does a Scholars, to be excell'd by the Cobler in his mean trade, Nature, where it intends higher excellencies, is more carelesse in those things that are inferiour, as we see in man, who (being made to excel the beasts in a rational soul) is himself excelled by some beast or other in all his senses. Thus the Christian may well be surpast in matters of worldly commerce, because he has a nobler object in his eye, that makes him converse with the things of the world in a kinde of non-attendance; he is not much careful in these matters if he can die well at last, and be justified for a wise man at the day of the resurrection, all is well; he thinks it is not, manners, to be unwilling to stay so long for the clearing of his wisdom, as God can wait for the, vindicating of his own glorious Nature, which will not appear in its glory till that day, when he will convince the ungodly of their hard thoughts and speeches of him. Then they shall, till then they will not be convinced.

Secondly, a wise man labors duly to time his care and endeavour for the attaining of what he proposs. 'Tis the fool that comes when the market is done; as the evil day is of great concernment in respect of its event, so the placing of our care for it in the right season is of chief importance, and that sure must be before it comes. There are more doors then one, at which the messenger may enter that brings evil tydings to us, and at which he will knock we know not; we know not where we shall be arrested, whether at bed or board, whether at home or in the field, whether among our friends that will counsel and comfort us, or among our enemies that will adde weight to our sorrow by their cruelty. We know not when, whether by day or night, (many of us) not, whether in the morning, noon, or evening of our age. As he calls to work at all times of the day, so he does to bed; may be while you are praying or preaching, and it would be sad to go away profaning them and the Name of God in them; possibly when you are about worse work, death may strike your quaffing cup out of your hand, while you are sitting in the Alehouse with your jovial mates, or meet you as you are reeling home, and make some ditch your grave, that as you livedst like a beast, so you shouldest die like a beast. In a word, we know not the kinde of evil God will use as the instrument to stab us; whether some bloody hand of violence shall do it, or a disease out of our bowels and bodies; whether some acute disease, or some lingring sicknesse; whether such a sicknesse as shall slay the man while the body is alive, (I meane take the head and deprive us of our reason) or not; whether such noisome troubles as shall make our friends afraid to let us breath on them, or themselves look on us; whether they shall be afflictions aggravated with Satans temptations, and the terrours of our own affrighted consciences or not; who knowes where, when, or what the evil day shall be? therefore does God conceal these, that we should provide for all. Cesar would never let his souldiers know, when or where he meant to march. The knowing of these would torment us with distracting fear, the not knowing them should awaken us to a providing care. It is an ill time to calk the ship, when at sea, tumbling up and down in a storme, This should have been look't to, when on her seat in the harbour. And as bad it is to begin to trim a soul for heaven, when tossing upon a sick bed. Things that are done in a hurry are seldome done well; A man call'd out of his bed at midnight with a dismal fire on his house-top, cannot stand to dresse himself in order as at another time; but runs down with one stocking half on may be, and the other not on at all. Those poor creatures I am afraid go in as ill a dresse into another world, who begin to provide for it, when on a dying bed conscience calls them up with a cry of hell-fire in their bosomes: But (alas!) they must go, though they have not time to put their armour on. And so they are put to repent at leisure in hell, of their shuffling up a repentance in haste here. We come to the Application of the Point.

Everyone is obligated to arm and prepare himself for the evil day of affliction and death, with which he must inevitably contend. This teaching has three parts.

First, the day of affliction and death is an evil day.

Second, this evil day is unavoidable.

Third, it is everyone's duty to prepare for this evil day.

First, how the day of affliction — and especially death — is an evil day. We must show in what sense affliction is evil, and in what sense it is not.

First, affliction is not morally or inherently evil. If it were evil in that sense, God could not be its author — for His nature is so pure that such evil could no more come from Him than the sun's light could produce darkness. Yet God openly claims affliction as His own act: 'Against this family I am planning disaster' (Micah 3:2). More than that, He claims it so entirely as His own that He will not have us think anyone else can truly harm us besides Himself. This is the prerogative He glories in: 'If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?' (Amos 3:6). And it is well for the saints that their crosses are all made in heaven — otherwise they would not fit their backs as perfectly as they do. But the evil of sin God disclaims entirely, with a strict warning that we not lay this offspring — conceived by Satan in our corrupt hearts — at His door: 'Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone' (James 1:13).

Second, if affliction were inherently evil, it could in no sense be something we should desire — and yet sometimes it can and should be. We are to choose affliction over sin — indeed, the greatest affliction before the smallest sin. Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. We are told to rejoice when we fall into various trials — that is, afflictions.

In what sense, then, may the day of affliction be called evil?

First, it is evil in the sense that it is painful and distressing. In Scripture, evil is often used as the opposite of joy and comfort: 'We hoped for peace, but no good has come.' A merry heart is called a good heart, a troubled spirit an evil spirit — because our nature recoils from anything that opposes its joy, and every affliction does this to some degree. No affliction, while it is present, is joyful — it is grievous. Like medicine, it leaves an unpleasant impression on the senses. This is why Solomon, speaking of the evil days of sickness, says they are so distasteful to our nature that we will say we have no pleasure in them. They take away the joy of life. Natural joy is truly a flower of the sunshine of prosperity — it opens and closes with it. It is true that saints often have their greatest joy in the midst of affliction — but this comes in through another channel entirely. They have a good God who sends it in. Without Him, they would be as miserable under affliction as anyone else. It is no more natural for comfort to spring from affliction than for grapes to grow on thorns, or manna to appear in the wilderness. The Israelites could have looked a long time for such bread if heaven had not miraculously rained it down. God chooses that season to make the power of His love all the more conspicuous. As Elijah, to magnify the miracle, first had great quantities of water poured on the wood and the sacrifice — so much that it filled the trench — and then called fire down from heaven by prayer to consume it all, so God pours out the flood of affliction on His children, and then kindles inward joy in their hearts that consumes all their sorrow. He even makes the very waters of affliction they are swimming in add a deeper sweetness to the music of their spiritual joy. But still — it is God who is good, and affliction that is evil.

Second, the day of affliction is an evil day in that it is an unwelcome reminder of the sinful evils of our past. It revives the memory of old sins that may have been buried for many years in the grave of forgetfulness. The night of affliction is when such ghosts tend to walk through a person's conscience. And just as darkness makes a frightening thing more terrifying, so the misery of affliction — itself already uncomfortable — deepens the terror of the sins then brought to mind. The patriarchs' sin never looked so awful to them as when it came back to haunt them in their distress (Genesis 42:21). In affliction, the sinner has a more vivid sense of divine wrath than at any other time. Affliction feels like a summons calling him before God — which produces a dreadful confusion and dread in his spirit. O that people would think about this: how they could bear to have all their sins rehearsed before them in that day! Blessed is the person who, like the psalmist, can look at his sins in that moment and triumph over them through faith. This is indeed a difficult mystery — as the psalmist himself calls it, few understand it: 'I will expound my riddle upon the harp: why should I fear in days of adversity, when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me?' (Psalm 49:3-4).

Third, the day of affliction exposes much evil in the heart that was not visible before. Affliction shakes and stirs the soul — and if there is any sediment at the bottom, it will rise to the surface. Sometimes it reveals the heart to be thoroughly corrupt — one that had appeared somewhat good before. Affliction washes off the hypocrite's paint. When corrupt nature is troubled, it shows itself, and some afflictions do this with great force. We read of some who are offended when persecution comes — they break entirely with their profession because it costs them too much. Others, in their distress, curse their God (Isaiah 8:21). It is impossible for a corrupt heart to think well of a God who afflicts it. The hired servant, if his master takes up a stick to strike him, throws down his work and runs away. A false heart does the same with God. Even where the person is genuinely gracious, affliction often reveals that corruption is stronger, and grace weaker, than they had imagined. Peter set out boldly to walk on the water — but when the wind rose, he began to sink. Now he saw there was far more unbelief in his heart than he had suspected. Severe afflictions are to the soul as a driving rain is to a house: we do not know there are cracks and holes in the house until we see it dripping here and there. In the same way, we do not perceive how undefeated this corruption is, or how weak that grace is, until we are tested in this way and made to know more fully what lies within our hearts. This is why those most acquainted with affliction tend to have the humblest view of themselves and the most compassionate and patient view of others in their weaknesses. They have met with so many setbacks in their conflicts that they carry a low opinion of their own grace, and a tender regard for their brothers and sisters — more ready to pity than to judge them in their failures.

Fourth, the season of affliction is also the season when the evil one, Satan, comes to tempt. What one Gospel account calls 'the time of tribulation' (Matthew 13:22), the parallel account in Luke 8:13 calls 'the time of temptation.' The two come together — God rarely afflicts us without Satan adding temptation to our wilderness. 'This is your hour,' Jesus told those who arrested Him, 'and the power of darkness' (Luke 22:53). Christ's sufferings from human hands and temptation from the devil arrived together. Esau, who hated his brother for receiving the blessing, said in his heart: 'The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob' (Genesis 27:41). Times of affliction are the days of mourning — and those are the seasons Satan waits for to do us harm.

Fifth and finally, the day of affliction often has a bad outcome — and in that respect it truly proves to be an evil day. We say all is well that ends well. For the Christian, afflictions produce good fruit: the rod of correction yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and so believers can call their afflictions good — as a good surgeon's instrument that lets out only the bad blood. 'It was good for me that I was afflicted,' says David. I have read of a godly woman who used to compare her afflictions to her children: both caused her great pain in the bearing. But just as she would not have wanted to be without any of her children — despite the pain of bringing them forth — so she would not have wanted to be without any of her afflictions, despite the sorrow of enduring them. But for the wicked, the outcome is grievous. First, in relation to sin: afflictions leave them worse — more unrepentant, hardened in sin, and more violent in their wicked ways. Every plague on Egypt added to the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. The man who for a time could beg Moses to pray for him at last reached the point of threatening to kill him if he came near again. What prodigious heights of sin we see many reach after some great sickness or divine judgment! Children shoot up in height after a fever — and the wicked shoot up in their lusts after afflictions. How voracious and ravenous they become after what they want, once the weight and chain are off their heels! When medicine does not work properly, it not only fails to cure the disease — the poison of the medicine itself stays in the body. Many appear in just this poisoned condition after their afflictions, as their lusts break out more violently than before. Second, in relation to sorrow: each affliction on a wicked person produces another, greater than itself. The last wedge comes last — the one that will split him and fit him for the fire. The sinner is driven from affliction to affliction, like a vagrant passed from one officer to the next, until at last he arrives at hell — his proper place and permanent dwelling — where all sorrows will meet in one that is endless.

The second part of the teaching follows: this evil day is unavoidable. We might as well stop the sun's chariot as it races toward night and drive away the shadows of evening as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us all. 'No man has authority over the wind to restrain the wind, or authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in time of war' (Ecclesiastes 8:8). Among men, it is possible in some circumstances to get out of military service — by claiming the privilege of age, wealth, physical weakness, or the protection of a powerful patron. Or if all else fails, sending someone in your place or offering a bribe might do it. But in this war the draft is absolute — there are no exemptions. David would gladly have gone in place of his son; we hear him crying, 'Would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son!' But his son would not be spared — that young man had to go himself. We must in our own person enter the field and look death in the face. Some are foolish enough to promise themselves immunity from this day, as if they carried a guarantee inside their chest. They say they have made a covenant with death and reached an agreement with hell — that when the overwhelming flood passes through, it will not reach them. Like debtors who have bribed the sheriff, they walk about boldly, fearing no arrest. But God tells them that as fast as they tie the knot, He will undo it: 'Your covenant with death will be canceled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.' And how could it stand, if God will not seal it? There is a divine law behind this evil day, which came into force at Adam's first sin. That sin laid the fatal blade at the throat of the human race and has been draining its lifeblood ever since. To prevent all escape, God has sown the seeds of death in our very nature and constitution. We can no more run from death than from ourselves. No violent hand need come to cut us down. There is already a worm within the tree, growing from its own substance, that will destroy it. So it is with us: the frailties of our nature will bring us down to the dust. Our death was bred at the moment our life was conceived. Just as a pregnant woman cannot hold back the hour of labor — which follows naturally from conception — neither can man prevent the death his life is carrying. All the pains and aches a person feels throughout life are but the groans of dying nature — signals that dissolution is approaching. Even if you are a prince sitting in all your state and splendor, death dares to enter your palace and come through all your guards to deliver its fatal message from God — running its blade to your heart. Were you surrounded by a college of physicians consulting over your health, both art and nature must surrender you when that moment arrives. Even when your strength is at its fullest and you eat your bread with a glad heart, the very food that sustains your life carries within it an advance payment toward death — leaving in you the residue that will in time accomplish it. How inescapable must this evil day be, when the very thing our life leans on and is sustained by is the same thing that ultimately knocks us down to the grave! God has a debt to pay to both the first Adam and the second. To the first He owes the wages of sin. To the second He owes the reward of His sufferings. Both debts are paid in full in the world to come — and so death is necessary to carry each person there. Without death, the wicked who are the offspring of the first Adam would not receive the full payment for their sins that the divine threat requires and God is bound to execute. And the godly — the seed of Christ — would not receive the full purchase of His blood, which He would never have shed except on the guarantee of eternal life God promised them before the world began. This is why God has made this day so certain: in it He discharges both bonds.

The third part of the teaching follows: it is every person's duty to prepare and effectively provide for this evil day that so inevitably approaches. This obligation rests on two grounds: first, in terms of duty; second, in terms of wisdom.

First, in terms of duty. We owe it to the great God as an act of loyalty to prepare and arm ourselves for this day. Suppose a subject were entrusted with one of his prince's castles, and this man heard that a powerful enemy was coming to besiege it — yet took no care to stockpile weapons and supplies for the defense, and so the castle fell. How could such a person be cleared of treason? Has he not basely betrayed the fortress — and with it his prince's honor — into enemy hands? Our souls are the castle each of us is called to keep for God. We have clear intelligence that Satan has a design on them, and that the evil day is the time he intends to come against them with all the powers of darkness. To be found faithful to our trust, we are obligated to stand on our guard and equip ourselves with whatever will enable us to make a vigorous defense.

Second, we are obligated to prepare for that day as a fitting response to and use of the opportunities and means God provides for exactly this purpose. We cannot, without shameful ingratitude toward God, waste the helps He gives us for this great work. Everyone would cry out against a man who spent in reckless living the money sent to secure his release from prison. Should we not blush to spend on our sins and Satan the gifts God graciously extends to deliver us from them and from His wrath at the hour of death? What are our Bibles for? What are ministers and preaching for — if not to equip us with armor for the evil day? In short: what is God's intention in lengthening our days and continuing us for a time in the land of the living? Was it so we might have time to revel in the pleasures of this empty world? Does He give us our precious time to be spent chasing such butterflies as earthly honors and wealth? It cannot be. Wise masters do not set their servants to work that will not justify the cost of a candle to do it by. And truly, nothing short of glorifying God and securing the salvation of our souls is worth the precious time we spend here. The great God has a far greater purpose in this arrangement than most people realize. If we would judge rightly, we should take His own interpretation of His actions. The apostle Peter tells us to 'regard the patience of our Lord as salvation' (2 Peter 3:15). And Paul in Romans 2:4 says: 'Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?' Both passages teach us the mind of God and what He is saying to us in every moment of patience He extends and every inch of time He grants. It is time given for repentance. God sees that as we are, death and judgment could bring us no good news. We are in no condition to welcome the evil day. So mercy pleads within God's heart for the poor creature and asks that a little more time be added to its life — so that by this extension it may be moved to repent before being called to the bar. This is how we come by every additional day that continues to be given to us on earth. And does this not lay on us a strong obligation to use every moment of that time for the very end for which it has been pleaded and granted?

Second, in terms of wisdom. A person's wisdom shows itself most clearly in two things.

First, in what he chooses to make his primary concern.

Second, in choosing the right time for that primary concern.

First, a wise person makes the matter of greatest importance and consequence the subject of his chief care and effort. Only fools and children are intensely occupied with toys and trifles. They are as busy and earnest building a house out of dirt or cards as Solomon was in building the temple. Those childish games are just as satisfying to their limited understanding as great enterprises are to wise men. Now, such is the importance of the evil day — especially the day of death — that how a person responds to it proves him wise or foolish. The end of a thing gives all the actions leading to it their name — good or evil, wise or foolish. The evil day of death is the end of our days, and so it is to be the end — the defining purpose — of all the actions of our life. Our life will ultimately be judged by how it was oriented toward this one day. When all the items of our life — the plans and pursuits we followed — are finally tallied up, if they add up to a blessed death, then we will be seen as truly wise. But if, after all our clever schemes and strategies for other things, we are unprepared for that hour, we must accept the verdict of dying as fools. And there is no greater fool than the dying fool. The Christian goes through life labeled a fool in the world's estimation. But when death comes, the wise world will admit it mislabeled him and will turn the title on itself: 'We fools regarded his life as madness and his death as without honor — but how is he now counted among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints? We have gone astray from the way of truth' (Wisdom of Solomon 5:4-5). That passage is from the Apocrypha — but sinners will find its substance to be quite canonical. It is true that the saints are often outwitted by the world in worldly matters — and no wonder. Nor does this reflect poorly on their wisdom, any more than it reflects on a scholar's ability that a cobbler is better at his own trade. Where nature intends higher excellence in a person, it tends to be less attentive to lower things — as we see in humans, who are made to surpass the animals in rational thought, yet are themselves surpassed by one animal or another in each of the physical senses. In the same way, the Christian may well be outpaced in worldly commerce, because he has a nobler object before his eyes that makes him engage with the things of the world with a kind of intentional detachment. He is not very anxious about such matters. If he can die well at last and be vindicated as a wise man at the day of resurrection, all is well. He considers it no shame to wait until then for the public clearing of his wisdom — God can wait even longer for the vindication of His own glorious nature, which will not be fully displayed until that day when He will convict the ungodly of all their harsh thoughts and words about Him. On that day they will be convinced — not before.

Second, a wise person works to time his efforts rightly in pursuing what he has set as his goal. The fool is the one who arrives after the market has closed. As the evil day is of the greatest consequence in what it will bring, so placing our preparation for it in the right season is of the highest importance — and that season must be before it arrives. There are many doors through which the messenger bearing bad news may enter — and we do not know which one he will knock on. We do not know where we will be arrested: in bed or at table, at home or in the open field, among friends who will counsel and comfort us or among enemies who will add cruelty to our sorrow. We do not know when — by day or by night. Many of us do not even know whether it will come in the morning, the noon, or the evening of our lives. As God calls people to work at all hours of the day, so He calls them to their final rest. Death may come while you are praying or preaching — and how sad to depart in the middle of profaning those sacred things and the name of God in them. Or it may strike your drinking cup from your hand while you sit in a tavern with your companions, or meet you as you reel home and make some ditch your grave — so that as you lived like a beast, you die like a beast. In a word, we do not know what form of evil God will use as His instrument to bring us down — whether a violent hand, or a disease rising from within our own bodies; whether some acute illness or a long, lingering sickness; whether a sickness that destroys the mind while the body still lives — depriving us of our reason — or not; whether such wasting afflictions that our friends are afraid to breathe the same air or look us in the face; whether our afflictions will be accompanied by Satan's temptations and the terrors of an alarmed conscience, or not. Who knows where, when, or what the evil day will be? God conceals these things precisely so that we will prepare for all of them. Caesar never let his soldiers know when or where he intended to march. Knowing those things would torment us with paralyzing fear — not knowing them should awaken us to active preparation. It is a bad time to caulk a ship when she is already at sea, tossed in a storm. This should have been done while she sat safely in harbor. It is equally bad to begin preparing the soul for heaven while tossing on a sickbed. Things done in haste are rarely done well. A man roused from sleep at midnight by a fire blazing on his roof cannot stop to dress properly as he would at any other time — he runs out with one stocking half on and the other not on at all. Those who begin to prepare for eternity on a deathbed, when conscience wakes them with the cry of hell-fire in their chest, I fear go into the next world just as poorly dressed. But they must go, even without time to put on their armor. And so they are left to repent at leisure in hell for having scrambled together a hasty repentance here. We now come to the application of this teaching.