Objection 5: My Afflictions Are Very Great

Object 5. “My afflictions are very great, how then can I hold my peace? Though they were many, yet if they were not great, I would be mute; but, alas! they are very, very greatj Oh! how can I be silent under them? How can I now lay my hand upon my mouth?”

To this I answer, 1. Though they are great, yet they are not so great as thy sins, thyself being judge; therefore hold thy peace. Read Ps. cvi; Neh. ix. “And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast, punished us less than our iniquities deserve,” Ezra ix. 13. They that are under the sense and guilt of great sins, have cause to be silent under their greatest sufferings. Never complain that thy afflictions are great, till thou canst say, that thy sins are not great; it is but justice that great afflictions should attend great sins, therefore be quiet. Thy sins are like great rocks, and mighty mountains; but so are not thy afflictions, therefore lay thy hand upon thy mouth. The remembrance of great sins should cool and calm a man’s spirit under his greatest troubles; and if the sense of thy great sins will not stop thy mouth, and silence thy heart, I know not what will.

2. It may be they are not great, if you look upon them with scripture spectacles. Flesh and blood many times look upon mole-hills as mountains, and scratches upon the hand as stabs at the heart; we make elephants of flies, and of little pigmies we frame giants. Carnal reason often looks upon troubles through false glasses. As there are some glasses that will make great things seem little, so there are others that will make little things seem great; and it may be that thou lookest upon thy afflictions through one of them. Look upon thy afflictions in the glass of the word, look upon them in a scripture dress, and then they will be found to be but little; he that shall look into a gospel glass, shall be able to say, Heavy afflictions are light, long afflictions are short, bitter afflictions are sweet, and great afflictions are little, 2 Cor. iv. 16 — 18. It is good to make a judgment of your afflictions, by a gospel light and by a gospel rule.

Men that look not upon their afflictions in a scripture dress, will be afraid even of the shadow of trouble; they will cry out, No affliction like our affliction, no burden like our burden, no cross like our cross, no loss like our loss; but one look into a gospel glass would make them change their note. Our troubles are not always so great as we fancy them to be. When Hagar’s bottle of water was spent, she sat down and fell a weeping, as if she had been utterly undone; her provision and her patience, her bottle and her hope, were both out together, Gen. xxi. 15 — 19; but her affliction was not so great as she imagined; for there was a well of water near, though for a time she saw it not. So, many christians eye the empty bottle, the cross, the burden that is at present upon them, and then they fall a weeping, whining, complaining, repining, and murmuring, as if they were utterly undone; and yet a well of water, a well of comfort, a well of refreshment, a well of deliverance is near, and their case no way so sad nor so bad as they imagine it to be.

3. The greater thy afflictions are, the nearer is deliverance to thee. When these waters rise high, then salvation comes upon the wing; wThen thy troubles are very great, then mercy will ride post to deliver thee. “For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power” (or hand) “is gone, and there is none shut up or left,” Deut. xxxii. 36. Israel of old, and England of late years, hath often experienced this truth. Wine was nearest, when the water-pots were filled with water to the brim; so oftentimes mercy is nearest, deliverance is nearest, when our afflictions are at the highest; when a christian is brimful of troubles, then the wine of consolation is at hand: therefore hold thy peace, murmur not, but sit silent before the Lord*

4. They are not great, if compared to the glory that shall be -revealed. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us,” Rom. viii. 18. The apostle, upon casting up his accounts, concludes, that all the pains, troubles, trials, and torments, that we meet with in this world, are not to be put in balance with the glory of heaven. As the globe of the earth, which, after the mathematician’s account, is many thousands of miles in compass, yet being compared to the greatness of the starry sky’s circumference, is but a centre, or a little speck: so the troubles, afflictions, and sorrows of this life, in respect to eternal happiness and blessedness, are to be reputed as nothing, they are but as the prick of a pin to the starry heavens. They that have heard most of the glory of heaven, have not heard one quarter of that which the saints shall find there. That glory is inconceivable and inexpressible. Such is the splendor, the brightness, the glory, the happiness, that is reserved for the saints in heaven, that had I all the tongues of men on earth, and all the excellences of the angels in heaven, yet should I not be able to conceive, nor to express, that vision of glory to you; it is best hastening thither, that we may feel and enjoy that which we shall never be able to declare, Jude 6, 7; Matt, x 15; xi. 23, 24.

5. They are not great, if compared with the afflictions and torments of such of the damned, who, when they were in this world, never sinned at so high a rate as thou hast done. Doubtless there are many now in hell, who never sinned against such clear light as thou hast done, nor against such special love as thou hast done, nor against such choice means as thou hast done, nor against such precious mercies as thou hast done, nor against such singular remedies as thou hast done. Certainly there are many now roaring in everlasting burnings, who never sinned against such deep convictions of conscience as thou hast done, nor against such close reasonings of the Spirit as thou hast done, nor against such free offers of mercy, and rich tenders of grace, as thou hast done, nor against such sweet wooings, and multiplied entreaties of a bleeding, dying Saviour, as thou hast done; therefore hold thy peace. What are thy afflictions, thy torments, to the torments of the damned, whose torments are numberless, easeless, remediless, and endless; whose pains are without intermission or mitigation; who have weeping for the first woe, and gnashing of teeth for the second, and the gnawing worm for the third, and intolerable pain for the fourth, and an everlasting alienation and separation from God for the fifth! Ah, christian! how canst thou seriously think on these things, and not lay thy hand upon thy mouth, when thou art under the greatest sufferings? Thy sins have been far greater than many of theirs, and thy greatest afflictions are but a flea-bite to theirs; therefore be silent before the Lord.

Lastly, If thy afflictions are so great, then what madness and folly it will be for thee to make them greater by murmuring! Every act of murmuring will but add unto the load, and burden to burden. The Israelites under great afflictions fell to murmuring, and their murmuring proved their utter ruin, as you may see in Numb. xiv. Murmuring will but put God upon heating the furnace seven times hotter; therefore hold thy peace. But of this I have spoken sufficiently already.