IV. Reasons Why Christians Must Be Mute and Silent Under Their Greatest Afflictions

Iv. Why must christians be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest providences, and sharpest trials that they meet with in this world? I answer,

Reas. 1. That they may the better hear and understand the voice of the rod. As the word hath a voice, the Spirit a voice, and conscience a voice, so the rod hath a voice. Afflictions are the rod of God’s anger, the rod of his displeasure, and his rod of revenge; he gives a commission to this rod to awaken his people, to reform his people, or else to revenge the quarrel of his covenant upon them, if they will not hear the rod, and kiss the rod, and sit mute and silent under the rod. w The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it,” Micah vi. 9. God’s rods are not mutes, they are all vocal, they are speaking as well as smiting; every twig hath a voice. Ah, soul! saith one twig, thou sayest it smarts; well, tell me, is it good provoking a jealous God, Jer. iv. 18. Ah, soul! saith another twig, thou sayest it is bitter, it reacheth to thy heart; but hath not thine own doings procured these things? Rom. vi. 21. Ah, soul! saith another twig, where is the profit, the pleasure, the sweet, that you have found in wandering from God? Hos. iii. 7. Ah, soul! saith another twig, was it not best with you, when you were high in your communion with God, and when you were humble and close in your walking with God? Micah vi. 8. Ah, christian! saith another twig, wilt thou search thy heart, and try thy ways, and turn to the Lord thy God? Lam. iii. 40. Ah, soul! saith another twig, wilt thou die to sin more than ever? Rom. xiv. 7,8; and to the world more than ever? Gal. vi. 14; and to relations more than ever, and to thyself more than ever? Ah, soul! saith another twig, wilt thou live more to Christ than ever, and cleave closer to Christ than ever, and prize Christ more than ever and venture further for Christ than ever? Ah, soul! saith another twig, wilt thou love Christ with a more inflamed love, and hope in Christ with a more raised hope, and depend upon Christ with a greater confidence, and wait upon Christ with more invincible patience? &c. Now, if the soul be not mute and silent under the rod, how is it possible that it should ever hear the voice of the rod, or that it should ever hearken to the voice of every twig of the rod? The rod hath a voice that is in the hands of earthly fathers; but children hear it not, they understand it not, till they are hushed and quiet, and brought to kiss it, and sit silently under it: no more shall we hear or understand the voice of the rod that is in our heavenly Father’s hand, till we come to kiss it, and sit silently under it. But, Reas. 2. Gracious souls should be mute and silent under their greatest afflictions and sharpest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from the men of the world, who usually fret and fling, mutter or murmur, curse and swagger, when they are under the afflicting hand of God. “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness,’7 Isa. viii. 21, 22. Ah! how fretful and froward, how disturbed and distracted, how mad and forlorn, are these poor wretches under the rebukes of God! They look upward and downward, this way and that way, on this side and on that, and finding no help, no succor, no support, no deliverance, like bedlams, yea, like incarnate devils, they fall upon cursing of God and their king. “We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us,” Isa. lix. 11. They express their inward vexation and

indignation, by roaring like bears. When bears are robbed of their whelps, or taken in a pit, oh how dreadfully will they roar and rage, tear and tumble! * So, when wicked persons are fallen into the pit of affliction, oh how will they roar, rage, tear, and cry out, not of their sins, but of their punishment; as Cain, “My punishment is greater than I am able to bear!” “Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God,” Isa. li. 20. When the huntsman hath taken the wild bull in his toil, and so entangled him that he is not able to wind himself out, oh how fierce and furious will he be! how will he spend himself in struggling and striving to get out! Such wild bulls are wicked men, when they are taken in the net of affliction.

* The bear, as Aristotle observeth, licketh her whelps into form, and loveth them beyond measure, and is most fierce, roaring, and raging, when she is robbed of them.

It is said of Marcellus, the Roman general, that he could not be quiet, neither conquered nor conqueror. It is so with wicked men, they cannot be quiet, neither full nor fasting, neither sick nor well, neither in wealth nor want, neither in bonds nor at liberty, neither in prosperity nor in adversity. “And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing, without an inhabitant. They shall roar together like lions, they shall yell as lions’ whelps,” Jer. li. 37, 38. When the lion roars, all the beasts of the field tremble; when the lion roars, many creatures, that could outrun him, are so amazed and astonished at the terror of his roar, that they are not able to stir from the place. Such roaring lions are wicked men, when they are under the smarting rod. They gnaw their tongues for pain, and they blaspheme the God of heaven, because of those sores, pains, and plagues, that are poured upon them; and they repented not of their deeds, to give him glory, Rev. xvi. 10, 11. And, therefore, gracious souls have cause to be silent under their sorest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from wicked men, who are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Isa. lvii. 20. Ah! what a stir do wicked men make, when they are under the afflicting hand of God! As the sea is restless and unquiet when there is no storm — it cannot stand still, but hath its flux and reflux — so it is much more restless, when, by tempest upon tempest, it is made to roar and rage, to foam and cast up mire and dirt. The raging sea is a fit emblem of a wicked man that is under God’s afflicting hand.

Rcas. 3. A third reason why gracious souls should be silent and mute, under their sharpest trials, is, that they may be conformable to Christ their Head, who was dumb and silent, under his sorest trials. u He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he openeth not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,” Isa. liii. 7. Christ was tongue-tied under all his sorrows and sufferings. “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,” 1 Pet. ii. 21 — 23. Christ upon the cross has not only read us a lecture of patience and silence, but has also set us a copy or pattern of both, to be transcribed and imitated by us, when we are under the smarting rod. It will be our sin and shame, if we do not bear up with patience and silence, under all our sufferings, considering what an admirable copy Christ hath set before us. The

Holy Ghost hath set before us the injuries and contumelies, the sorrows and sufferings, the pains and torments, the sweat and blood of our dearest Lord, and his invincible patience and admirable silence under all, to encourage us to imitate the Captain of our salvation, in patience and silence, under all his sufferings.

Jerom having read the life and death of Hilarion, (one that lived graciously, and died comfortably,) folded up the book, saying, Well, Hilarion shall be the champion that I will follow, his good life shall be my example, and his good death my precedent. Oh! howmuch more should we all say, We have read how Christ hath been afflicted, oppressed, distressed, despised, persecuted, &c. and we have read how dumb, how tongue-tied, how patient, and how silent he hath been under all. He shall be the copy wThich we will write after, the pattern which we will walk by, the champion which we will follow! The way to honor Christ, is, in patience and silence, to be like Christ, especially when a smarting rod is upon our backs, and a bitter cup put into our hands.

Reas. 4. A fourth reason why the people of God should be mute and silent under their afflictions, is this, because it is ten thousand times a greater judgment and affliction, to be given up to a fretful spirit, a froward spirit, a muttering or murmuring spirit, under an affliction, than it is to be afflicted. This is both the devil’s sin and the devil’s punishment. God is still afflicting, crossing, and vexing him, and he is still fretting, repining, vexing, and rising against God. No sin is equal to the devil’s sin; no punishment to the devil’s punishment. A man had better have all the* afflictions of all the afflicted, throughout the world, at once upon him, than to be given up to a froward spirit, to a muttering, murmuring heart, under the least affliction. When thou seest a soul fretting, vexing, and stamping under the mighty hand of God, thou seest one of Satan’s first-born, one that resembles him to the life. No child can be so like the father, much as this froward soul is like to the father of lies; though he hath been in chains almost six thousand years, yet he hath never lain still one day, nor one night, no, not one hour, in all this time; but is still fretting, vexing, tossing, and tumbling, in his chains, like a princely bedlam; he is a lion, not a lamb, a roaring lion, not a sleepy lion; not a lion standing still, but a lion going up and down; he is not satisfied with the prey he hath got, but is restless in his designs to fill hell with souls. He never wants an apple for an Eve, nor a grape for a Noah, nor a change of raiment for a Gehazi, nor a wedge of gold for an Achan, nor a crown for an Absalom, nor a bag for a Judas, nor a world for a Demas. If you look into one company, there you shall find Satan dishing out his meat to every palate; if you look into another company, there you shall find him fitting a last to every shoe; if you look into a third company, there you shall find him suiting a garment to every back. He is under wrath, and cannot but be restless. Here with Jael, he allures with milk and murders with a nail; there, with Joab, he embraces with one hand, and stabs with another; or, with Judas, kisses and betrays; and there, with her of Babylon, he presents a golden cup with poison in it; he cannot be quiet, though his bolts be always on; and the more unquiet any are under the rebukes of God, the more such resemble Satan to the life, whose whole life is filled up with vexing and fretting against the Lord. Let not any think, saith Luther, that the devil is now dead, no, nor yet asleep; for as He that keepeth Israel, so he that hateth Israel, neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. But, in the next place,

Reas. 5. A fifth reason why gracious souls should be mute and silent, under the greatest afflictions and sharpest trials that befall them, is this, because a holy, a prudent silence under afflictions, doth best capacitate and fit the afflicted for the receipt of mercies. When the rolling bottle lies still, you may pour into it your sweetest, or your strongest waters; when the rolling, tumbling soul, lies still, then God can best pour into it the sweet waters of mercyp and the strong waters of Divine consolation. You read of the peaceable fruits of righteousness. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Heb. xii. 11. “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace,” James iii. 18. The still and quiet soul is like a ship that lies still and quiet in the harbor; you may take in what goods, what commodities you please, whilst the ship lies quiet and still; so when the soul is quiet and still, under the hand of God, it is most fit to take in much of God, of Christ, of heaven, of the promises, of the ordinances, and of the love of God, the smiles of God, the communications and the counsel of God; but when souls are unquiet, they are like a ship in a storm, they can take in nothing.

Luther saith, God doth not dwell in Babylon, but in Salem. Babylon signifies confusion, and Salem signifies peace. Now, God dwells not in spirits that are unquiet, and in confusion; but he dwells in peaceable and quiet spirits. Unquiet spirits can take in neither counsel nor comfort, grace nor peace, &c. “My soul refused to be comforted,” Psa. lxxvii. 2. The froward patient will take down no cordials; he hath no eye to see, nor hand to take, nor palate to relish, nor stomach to digest any thing, that makes for his health and welfare: when a sick man is impatient, nothing will go down, the sweetest music can make no melody in his ears. “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord,” Exod. vi. 6 — 8. The choicest cordials and comforts that heaven or earth could afford, are here held forth to them, but they have no hand to receive them. Here Moses’s lips drop honey-combs, but they can taste no sweetness in them; here the best of earth and the best of heaven is set before them, but their souls are shut up, and nothing will go down; here is such ravishing music of paradise, as might abundantly delight their hearts, and please their ears, but they cannot hear; here are soulenlivening, soul-supporting, soul-strengthening, soul-comforting, soul-raising, and soul-refreshing words, but they cannot hearken to them.

“And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage,” ver. 9. They were under their anguish, feverish fits, and so could neither hear nor see, taste nor take in any thing that might be a mercy or a comfort to them; they were sick of impatience and discontent. And these humors being grown strong, nothing would take with them, nothing would agree with them. When persons are under strong pangs of passion, they have no ears, either for reason or religion. Reas. 6. A sixth reason wThy gracious souls should be silent under the smarting rod, is this, namely, because it is fruitless, it is bootless to strive, to contest or contend with God. No man hath ever got any thing by muttering or murmuring under the hand of God, except it hath been more frowns, blows, and wounds. Such as will not lie quiet and still, when mercy hath tied them with silken cords, justice will put them in iron chains; if golden fetters will not hold you, iron shall. If bedlamites will not lie quiet, they are put into darker rooms, and heavier chains are put upon them. If Jonah will vex, and fret, and fling, justice will fling him overboard, to cool him, and quell him; and keep him prisoner in the whale’s belly, till his spirit be made quiet before the Lord. uDo they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” Jer. vii. 19. By provoking of me, they do but provoke themselves; by angering me, they do but anger themselves; by vexing me, they do but fret and vex themselves. “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” 1 Cor. x. 22.

Though God be stronger than we, yet there are those who provoke him to wrath; and certainly there are none that do more to provoke him, than those who fume and fret when his hand is upon them. Though the cup be bitter, yet it is put into your hand by your Father; though the cross be heavy, yet he that hath laid it on your shoulders will bear the heaviest end of it himself; and why then should you mutter? Shall bears and lions take blows and knocks from their keepers, and wilt thou not take a few blows and knocks from the Keeper of Israel? Why should the clay contend with the potter, or the creature with his Creator, or the servant wTith his lord, or weakness with strength, or a poor nothing creature with an omnipotent God? Can stubble stand before the fire? can chaff abide the whirlwind? or can a worm ward off the blow of the Almighty? A froward and impatient spirit under the hand of God will but add chain to chain, cross to cross, yoke to yoke, and burden to burden. The more men tumble and toss in their feverish fits, the more they strengthen their distemper, and the longer it will be before the cure be effected. The easiest and the surest way of cure, is to lie still and quiet, where patience hath its perfect work, there the cure will be certain and easy; when a man hath his broken leg set, he lies still and quiet, and so his cure is easily and speedily wrought; but when a horse’s leg is set, he frets and flings, he flounces and flies out, unjointing it again and again, and so his cure is the more difficult and tedious. Such christians that, under the hand of God, are like the horse or mule, fretting and flinging, will but add to their own sorrows and sufferings, and put the day of their deliverance further off.

Reas. 7. A seventh reason why christians should be mute and silent under their afflictions, is, because hereby they shall cross and frustrate Satan’s great design and expectation. In all the afflictions he brought upon Job, his design was not so much to make Job a beggar, as it was to make him a blasphemer; it was not so much to make Job outwardly miserable, as it was to make Job inwardly miserable, by occasioning him to mutter and murmur against the righteous hand of God, that so he might have had some matter of accusation against him to the Lord. He is the unwearied accuser of the brethren: “The accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before our God day and night,” Rev. xii. 10. Satan is the great make-hate between God and his children; he hath a mint constantly going in hell, where, as an untired mint-master, he is still coining and hammering out accusations against the saints. First, he tempts and allures souls to sin, and then accuses them of those verysins he hath tempted them to, that so he maydisgrace them before God, and bring them, if it were possible, out of favor with God; though he knows beforehand, that God and his people are, by the bond of the covenant, and by the blood of the Redeemer, so closely united, that they can never be severed. Could he but have made Job fro ward or fretful under the rod, he would have quickly carried the tidings to heaven, and asked God whether this was becoming such a person of whom He had given such a glorious character. Satan knows that there is more evil in the least sin, than there is in all the afflictions that can be inflicted upon a person. If he could have made Job a mutineer, he would quickly have pleaded for martial law to have been executed upon him. That devil that accused God to man, Gen. iii. and Christ to be an impostor, will not fail to accuse the saints when they miscarry under the rod. The best way to outwit the devil, is to be silent under the hand of God; he that mutters is foiled by him; but he that is mute overcomes him; and to conquer a devil, is more than to conquer a world.

Reas. 8. The eighth and last reason why christians should be silent and mute under their sorest trials, is this, that they maybe conformable to those noble patterns that are set before them by other saints, who have been patient and silent under the smarting rod; as Aaron, Lev, x. 3; Eli, 1 Sam. iii. 18; David, 2 Sam. xvi. 7 — 13; Job, chap. i. 21, 22; Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, Isa. xxxvi. 11, 12. So those saints in Acts xxi. 12 — 14, and that cloud of witnesses pointed at in Heb. xii. 1. Gracious examples are more awakening, more convincing, more provoking, and more encouraging, than precepts, because in them we see that the exercise of grace and godliness is possible, though it be difficult. When we see christians that are subject to like infirmities with ourselves, mute and silent under the afflicting hand of God, we see that it is possible that we may attain to the same noble temper of being tongue-tied under a smarting rod. Certainly it is our greatest honor and glory in this world, to be eyeing and imitating the highest and worthiest examples. What Plutarch said of Demosthenes, that he was excellent at praising the worthy acts of his ancestors, but not so at imitating them, may be said of many in these days. They are very forward and excellent at praising the patience of Job, but not at imitating it; at praising the silence of Aaron, but not at imitating it; at praising David’s dumbness, but not at imitating it; at praising Eli’s muteness, but not at imitating it. It was the height of Cesar’s glory to walk in the steps of Alexander; and of Selymus, a Turkish emperor, to walk in Cesar’s steps; and of Themistocles, to walk in the steps of Miltiades. Oh! how much more should we account it our highest glory to imitate the examples of those worthies, of whom this world is not worthy! It speaks much of God within, when men are striving to write after the fairest copies. And thus much for the reasons of the point. I come now to the application.

You see, beloved, by what has been said, That it is the great duty and concernment of christians, to be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest providences, and the sharpest trials, that they may meet with in this world.