unto the Lord, for he will still hear!-Is this his language? It is then the language of a sanctified heart. 3. Affliction is sanctified WHEN THE WORD OF GOD

BECOMES PRECIOUS.

The man has not only a Bible in his house, but he now takes it down, reads it, and makes it the grand resource of his afflicted soul: it is now read as a reality. When affliction is sanctified, the word of God is leaned on as a staff: it is taken as a cordial. When, in short, the soul can cast anchor on that word, and the man can say, 'Remember thy word unto thy servant, O Lord, on which thou hast caused me to put my trust,' then are his afflictions sanctified.

4. Affliction is sanctified, WHEN IT AWAKENS A ΜΑΝ FROM HIS CARNAL SECURITY; when it drives him from his refuges of lies; when it reminds him of his secret temptations, and sets before him sins unrepented of, and almost forgotten.

Take an instance of this. We are verily guilty,' said the brethren of Joseph, 'we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us and we would not hear: therefore is this distress come upon us.' What language is this? We are guilty! we are verily guilty!' How strange, that the sons of a pious father should not perceive their sin before! So is it with us, my Friends, till the enchantments of this world are broken.

5. Affliction is sanctified, wHEN FAITH IS JOINED WITH REPENTANCE; when the soul, under its sufferings, still clings to the mercy of God in Christ; crying out, with Job, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: or, with Jacob, when he wrestled with God, 'I will not let thee go except thou bless me.' That affliction is not only sanctified, but eminently blessed, which brings a sinner to Christ, which teaches us to wait his time, and to acknowledge his mercy in all things.

II. I propose to consider HOW SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION EXPLAINS GOD'S WORD.

'Before I was afflicted,' says the Psalmist, I went astray; but now have I learnt thy word;' or, as in the text, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." "I never," said Luther, "knew the meaning of God's word, till I was afflicted:" and the preacher can say, "I well know now what it is to have preached from a text, which I did not so much as understand, till it was thoroughly opened to me by experience."

Sanctified affliction puts men on inquiry. It makes them look within, as well as without. It quickens the attention, and sharpens the sight. It stops a man in his mad career; and gives him an opportunity to compare what God has said with what he actually brings to pass.

Let no one mistake me here, as if I asserted that affliction would do this thing of itself. Affliction will only explain and open God's word, as it is an instrument in the hand of his Spirit. When affliction is not sanctified, it will often lead men, like Cain, to complain with anguish and resentment against God: it will harden a man in guilt: it will plunge him into despair.

Brethren, affliction may grind a man to powder, and yet produce nothing like what the Scripture calls a broken heart. How many, instead of leaning on God's word in their afflictions, turn from that word, as the head would turn from the halter!

It is only then, when God sanctifies affliction, that it becomes a teacher of his word; and that it does this the text asserts: It is good for me that I have been afflicted; if it were only for this that I have been taught thy word.

Some illustration of this is afforded from the case of David.

As if David had said: "God had always told me,. in his word, that he was my only portion; and that

vanity and vexation of spirit attend all human pursuits but affliction made me feel this. I see now the sentence of death inscribed on every thing in this transient world. Oh, that I had learned this lesson sooner from his word; and escaped thereby the more painful lessons of experience!"

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As if he had said further: "God had told me, in his word, that sin is a rank poison to the soul, and that none can escape its bitter consequences: yet I rolled it as a sweet morsel under my tongue, till affliction came, and then I fled for my life. Then I said every word of God is pure: for he is not a man that he should lie." I have been taught," we may again suppose him to say, "I have been taught to sacrifice the blood of goats and of bulls, as the shadow of good things to come: but the sin under which I laboured would have deceived me, had not God thundered in my conscience; nor, till I was awakened, did I cry out, 6 Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy upon me; and deliver me by a better sacrifice than I can offer! Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: but I feel such deep depravity in my heart, that, if thou hadst not appointed a priest after the order of Melchizedek, that cleanseth from all sin, there had been no hope for

me.'"

Again, the word teacheth men to pray. Affliction often brought David to his knees; and, after this, he stands forth as a witness, that seeking God in affliction is the first step towards deliverance. This poor man,' says he, 'cried; and the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his trouble.'

David had also seen the ungodly prosper: his foot had hereon well nigh slipped:-but affliction brought him to himself and to the word of God; and then, and not till then, he saw the end of these men. The word by Moses had shown him before the end of the wicked: but it is one thing to read the Bible, because

it is our duty; and it is another thing to fly to that Bible as the relief of our doubts and difficulties.

Once more, after receiving many mercies and many deliverances, David found himself in the midst of a sinful and distracted family: the word of God had taught him to look to heaven alone for comfort; but, like Lot, he lingered-he would fain have found some rest for the sole of his foot in his own house-who does not resemble him herein?-Fain would he have had the young man Absalom spared! But affliction, at length, broke the enchantment, because it was a sanctified affliction; and he looks up, as he was taught, to a Covenant God alone for comfort. He says, 'Although my house be not so with God; yet he has made with me an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation, and all my desire."

Thus we see affliction may, in the hand of God, become an excellent Expositor of his Word. Now,' says David, 'have I learned thy statutes;' now it is that I have learned them from experience and affliction, more practically, more perfectly, more inwardly, more experimentally.

There is one point in which this remark holds especially true for the word of God shows us all how much we are members one of another; and with how much sympathy and tenderness we should feel and act one towards another: yet, even among true Christians, who is the man that has thoroughly learned this lesson before he is afflicted? While I say sympathy, and tenderness, and kindness, and forbearance, and patience, and love are so strongly enforced in the gospel, who is the man that has learned this lesson of sympathy? Is it the man in health? Is it the prosperous man? Is it the strong man? whose neck has never yet bowed to the yoke of affliction? We know the contrary. Even Christ, as the

Is it the man

Apostle speaks, was tempted, that he might know how to succour them that are tempted:' and it is often good for us that we have been afflicted, if it were only that we might know thereby how to sympathize with others; and thus learn, not only the statutes, but the temper of our Master.

Am I, then, speaking to any of you, my dear hearers, as persons now in trouble? Let me ask you whither you are going for relief in your trouble. It is a critical time with you-a time of special teaching: and what have you learned under your affliction?

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Have you heard God speaking to you, as well as the Bible? Have you spoken to him again, as the author of your trials?-for affliction springeth not out of the dust.' Have you, with Hezekiah, prayed unto the Lord with your face turned toward the wall'—in secrecy and solitude? Have you, with St. Paul, carried the thorn in the flesh' to the Saviour?-He knew of no deliverer nor comforter, but Christ; he carried, therefore, his trouble to him; and found his grace sufficient under that trouble. Bring the matter home— Do you thus honour Christ, as the only one ' that openeth, and no man shutteth; that shutteth, and no man openeth?' Above all, have you begged him to sanctify the affliction, that it may thereby become a teacher of the word? Do you go for comfort to your Bible? Do you find that Bible interpreted by facts and your own experience?-then are ye witnesses for God: ye have the witness in yourselves that the Bible is the word of God. If it be so, you know, by your own feelings, better than I can express it to you, how good it is for you that you have been afflicted.

On the contrary, if you have been often in the furnace of affliction, and yet your vanity, your pride, your worldly mindedness, your carnal affections have in no degree departed from you, then hear the word of the Lord-affliction is God speaking to the hear,t one way; and his word now speaks to your conscience 9*

VOL. II.