THE Lord’s prophet, beloved in the Lord, had to do with very rough and hard timber at this time; he had to do with a stiff-necked people. And not only had the prophet of God to do with the ten tribes, to prophesy to them; but sometimes also he prophesies against the Kirk and the kingdom of Judah. The most part of this chapter is prophesied against the kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes, and the last verse thereof is prophesied against Judah. And because the Lord’s prophet had to do with such a stiff-necked and rebellious people, therefore he uses more threatenings than he does promises; and he has more threatenings than any of the rest of the prophets has. For this prophet lived in a time when the people where he lived had no sense nor knowledge of God. And the kings and princes of these lands, they had set their heads and their shoulders together for bearing down the true worship of God. And ye know an ill and a great knot of timber requires a hard wedge to make it split up. Even so because they had all revolted from God, and had taken them to a false worship, he must speak to them as one who kent very well what was in their hearts; and therefore, for the most part, he speaks to them of the wrath and anger of God. And in this chapter the prophet, inspired by the Spirit of God, begins with a charge and a proclamation: “Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” That is, declare unto them that there is war coming against them from the Lord. And then he gives a reason for it, why he makes this proclamation. Some expone this to be the king of Assyria, Salmanasar, that was to come against this people—“who should come as an eagle against the house of the Lord”; and some expone it other ways. But this is sure, that this was some swift judgment that was to come against them. Some of them thought this judgment is long a-coming; but when it comes, it comes with eagle’s wings. It is a better judgment—if any judgment can be better than another—that comes upon feet than that which comes upon horseback. Against whom shall this judgment come? Not against the wicked folks in the world, but against the house of the Lord—against His own sworn and covenanted people; His main quarrel and controversy that He has is against them. What ails the Lord to come against His own house? He must be very angry when He does so. A father that comes against his own child to strike him, if he be wise, must have a just cause for it, and be very angry at him. And the prophet says that the Lord has just cause to do this. In the first verse He gives one reason of it: “Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” That is a warrantable judgment that comes for such a cause. When there is sin against God’s law and transgressing of His covenant among a people, He has just cause to punish them.
What! will Israel make no apology for themselves when the wrath of God comes thus upon them? Yet, says the prophet, they will have their own excuses at that time. “Israel shall cry unto me, my God, we know thee.” That is the first skonce[^2] that ever the pursued people of God get to hide themselves under, and a hypocritical people, when they are plagued, make this objection against the Lord first. Will the Lord, say they, send a destroying enemy against us, since Thou art our God, and Thou art in covenant with us, and so why should we be put to the worse? Why should Assyria come as an eagle against us, seeing we say, “We know Thee,” and we profess Thee to be our God? In the third verse that objection is answered, as there is nothing that a plastered hypocrite can say to God as an excuse of his ill but the Lord has an answer to it. “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.” It is not said that they have forsaken good, but they have forsaken the thing that is good. They have forsaken the Lord, and taken them to Balaam; they have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and digged to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. And therefore judgment shall come upon them—the enemy shall pursue them.
Now for the first part, that there is a charge given to the Lord’s prophet, “Set the trumpet to thy mouth.” What is the duty of those who are the Lord’s ministers when wrath is coming upon a people? They must either tell them of it, or their blood shall be upon the pastor’s head. Isa. lviii. 1, “Cry aloud and spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” All ministers and prophets of God who would be free of the blood of lost souls, are bound and obliged before God to tell them freely of their sins. The Lord says to the prophet (Ezek. ii.), “Tell them from me what it is that they have deserved.” Then all ministers are heralds sent out in God’s name to denounce woe against all God’s foes, and to speak peace unto God’s friends, and they are messengers sent out from the Lord to tell what is the will of God to His people—to declare whether He be at peace or if He be at war with a nation.
The use of this is—any prophet or minister that changes God’s message by the way, and tells it not as God bids him tell it, is not a faithful messenger, nor a right blower of the Lord’s trumpet. He cries not the alarm at the command of the general, as he should that cries not unto the righteous, “Mercy, mercy unto you for all thy doubting and fainting; salvation to you for all the contrary thoughts thou hast, for there is blood enough in Christ’s wounds to cleanse and to save you”; and that tells not to the wicked man, “Laugh and rejoice as thou wilt, the anger of God is awaiting you, albeit thou seest it not.” That is a false minister that changes God’s wine and puts in his own water instead of it, that changes God’s copy in any point and fills it up with his own devices, that has not his warrant to show you for what he does. As he is a false messenger that will not show his message to you when he summons you, it is a token he is not right. Even so, all these who cannot let you see the copy of God’s Word for anything they speak to you, it is a token that they are bastard trumpeters, and are not sent of God to speak to His people. Such ministers run and God sends them not; they speak the lies of their own head, without the warrant of God’s Word; and whenever there is a service pressed upon the Kirk that is not warranted out of the Word of God—that contains such things therein as bowing before altars, and sets apart days of man’s devising for worshipping of saints—that is a false copy of God’s will, and whoever follows it, they speak and God sends them not.
Wherefore is a trumpet mentioned here? Because a trumpet is a shrill instrument of war, and a trumpet is ordinarily blown to waken all, and to stir them up, who are not thinking of war, nor has any mind of it. So this is as much as if it were said, “Set thy trumpet to thy mouth; let them hear on the deaf side of their head.” The thing that we are to learn here is that a sleeping world and a sleeping Kirk must have a trumpet blown to waken them, for they will not be wakened with whispering into their ear to tell them that God is angry at them. But we must blow a trumpet, and tell you of the wrath of God and of His anger against you. And there are four reasons wherefore we must blow with a trumpet to waken secure sinners.
First, because they caress their own conscience that it may not accuse them for that which their mind lets them see to be wrong. Even as a father does to a caressed bairn—lets him not know, by correcting him, when he does wrong. Even like unto that spoken by the prophet (Isa. xxx. 10), they “say to the seers, See not, prophecy not,” so that sinners have need to be shouted unto as with a trumpet, that they may be wakened. Woe’s them that can never be wakened with nothing till hell waken them; and if anything in the world be our wreck, that same is it—even a spiritual security and sleeping in sin.
A second reason wherefore there must be blowing with a trumpet to waken sinners is because there is much din, and that hinders hearing when God speaks unto us. Gain is crying so loud in some men’s ears, and court, and the honour and pleasing of kings, and ease, etc. These things, and the like, cry so loud in the ear of the natural man, that all that God’s ministers and His prophets can cry unto him of the Lord’s righteousness, of His justice, of His truth, they will not hear, neither can they hear. They who know what a disease in the ears means say this of it, that when there is a wound within, it makes a crackling there, and it hinders hearing of any sound without; and that is it which makes deafness. Even so, when the day of the Lord’s anger and wrath—of His taking vengeance on transgressors—is spoken of to some, there is something within that cries louder to them, that makes them not to hear the other, and therefore the Lord bids sound a trumpet unto such.
A third reason wherefore the Lord bids sound a trumpet is: it is an ordinary thing for the devil to hold men off their accounts till they be over the score—to keep them from seeing them till they can do no better—until they come to that, that he makes them to think that they are over long a-counting with God. Woe’s them that let their accounts run long, or without taking order with them, for it is a very dangerous thing. Our Lord, again, will have His messengers to set a trumpet to their mouth to tell His people what sin is, for nature will never tell a man what sin is. There are two sorts of convictions for sin that the Lord’s Word tells us of. First, there is a natural conviction, and that never lets a man see what sin is. The natural man is only a patient in that conviction; he never comes to be an agent. The conscience of the natural man may convict him of sin, but for his will and his affections, they are mere patients, and join not at all in the work. They know that there is death and hell; but they would have death and hell to stay away from them, and this is the cause of that which is spoken (Isaiah xxvi. 11), “Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see”; (Amos vi. 3), “They put the ill day far from them”; and since they think the ill day to be far from them, and since they see not the hand of God lifted up, albeit all the world should cry to them, they will not hear nor make them to know what they are doing. Second, the Word of God tells us of a spiritual conviction where God is an agent, and man himself he convicts also; (1 Cor. xi. 31), “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord”; (Micah vii. 9), “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.” There is an evident mark of one who hears the voice of God convicting of sin when they come to that.
A fourth reason wherefore a trumpet must be blown is, because to believe news of the wrath of God and of the Lamb is a supernatural thing, and so the spirit of nature will never make a man to believe them. Nature will never tell a man the thousandth part of the ill and sinfulness of sin, and therefore the Lord must cry it into the soul as with a trumpet.
Use.
Well’s that soul whom the Lord works upon in time, and He makes to hear Him when He cries. Well were Scotland if they wakened in time out of their security! I durst say, if Scotland were wakened in the name of that Lord, who sent me here to speak to you, that mercy should be the end of all these tumults and troubles that have been among us. There is nothing that hitherto has been the wreck of Scotland but only security, and that the sinners of Scotland have never been wakened. There be two things that serve for wakening sinners out of their security, and we have both these to waken us.
First, the sins of the land wherein we live call upon us to be humbled. And if there were no more but the drunkenness, the atheism, the hypocrisy, the ignorance of God, the sins of the families of the land in not setting up the worship of God, we have just cause to be humbled for these and for the like.
Another thing which calls for humiliation is, when judgment is already begun, and that is among us. And God knows that it be not time for us now to take our pleasure and ease, and to lay down our heads upon a pillow of the devil’s stuffing, when the Lord’s ark is in the fields, and when the Lord’s people of this land are entering into a strange land; and God knows who are their friends or who are their foes into it; and yet we trust that God will make the people of that land to be for their good, and will cause them sell them meat and drink and what they stand in need of, and that He who has said, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm,” will do for them, albeit they should not show themselves friends to them. But when the Lord’s glory is in such hazard, woe to them who are not praying to God for preserving, and for them who are in hazard for it, and are not humbled now for them, for they shall get none of our Lord’s comforts in that day when He shall laugh and rejoice, and shall be set up high above all His enemies. They will not do something now when our Lord must either die, or die when we are like to be an undone people if He die not for us. Woe to them! But we trust that our Lord’s salvation is not far off, but He will help us in time for His covenant’s sake, seeing we are a people that are in covenant with Him; albeit the people of this land were all devils and remedy-less sinners. He will help us now, and take another time for punishing any wrongs of that kind.
There is a reason given for this in the next place why the Lord’s prophet should set the trumpet to his mouth. “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” What king this was that at this time was threatened to come against this people, is differed upon by some of the interpreters. That it was Salmanasar, as some say, it is not likely; and yet it is sure that Assyria was to come against this people and to overcome them, and he was to come against them in a fierce and terrible manner. But we leave that. There are two sorts of judgments that come against the Kirk of God. There are some judgments that come upon four feet to them—that come, as it were, upon eagle’s wings. And some judgments that come at leisure again, such as the wrath of God that came upon the old world. It was an hundred and twenty years coming upon them or it lighted, and yet for all that it came at last. Let the wicked in the world say as they will, yet the wrath of the Lord is long in coming, yet He is aye coming, and His judgment and wrath against the wicked sleep not. Isaiah xxx. 18, “The Lord waits that he may be gracious, therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment.” The judgments of God sometimes go at leisure, but they will come. (2 Peter iii. 4.) There is a reason asked for this—wherefore the Lord’s judgments that He has threatened are so longsome in coming? And it is answered, “The Lord delays it, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” This is referred to the words that are spoken before. He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. So that the enemies of the grace of God can get no ground for their false doctrine.
But the Lord has other judgments that come not slowly but swiftly, and upon four feet, as it were. And the Lord’s Word uses three comparisons to show this swiftness of the Lord’s judgments. This text that we have read says that they come with eagle’s wings, and this is the king of all flying fowls, and comes with a clap upon the prey thereof. So do the judgments of God upon His enemies sometimes. The second word that is said for that is written (1 Thess. v. 3), destruction shall come upon the wicked as pains upon a woman in travail. So is it with those who are wicked men. When they think least of destruction to come upon them, and when they are preaching peace to themselves, and are building their castles upon high, that they think no evil shall come near them, then the wrath and anger of God breaks out upon them and destroys them. The third comparison for showing the swiftness of the coming of the judgment of the wicked is in the Proverbs (i. 27). It is said thereof that their destruction cometh as a whirlwind, and ye know a whirlwind is a thing that comes very suddenly. For presently before it there is a calm, and immediately after the calm there comes a blast of a whirlwind that blows away all light things where it comes. Even so does the wrath of God when it comes upon the wicked. They see nothing but a calm before, and then after their greatest calm immediately the whirlwind of the wrath of God comes, and blows them away, root and branches.
Let our use of this be to learn to make use of the time which God gives unto us, for if the Lord’s wrath come after such a manner upon His enemies, it is best for all to be looking their accounts in time. Well’s them that have all their accounts laid and examined before the Lord come upon them to call them to account. He is a blessed soul who can learn wisdom from the foolishness of the five sleeping virgins, and so escape the wrath of God that comes upon the wicked in the world. O, but that be a sorrowful saying which that man in the Gospel says: “Soul, take thy rest, for thou hast enough laid up for many years.” “Fool!”—is that well said?—”this night thy soul shall be taken from thee, and then whose shall all these things be?” The very time when he is proclaiming peace and ease to himself—aye, when thou art proclaiming rest every way to thyself—it may be that even then the Lord shall send a messenger to take thy soul from you, as was done to Him. And what will all thy full barns and thy renewed confidence in the world that thou trusted so much unto, do to you then? Well’s them who are prepared again the Lord come to call upon them. They fear not His call when it comes. What if the Lord shall be pleased to send a trial upon this land, and upon us of this congregation who think they shall be most able to stand out against any trial? None shall be able to stand out against the trial as these who can say in effect that there is no new event come upon them but that which formerly they looked might be, and were preparing themselves for the same; who can say there they resolved to be content, and they are content to quit husband, wife, children, life, lands, and rents, and all for their Lord and for His cause. And so let everyone take pains to read over the count of their old sins—the night-drinker for his drunkenness, the blasphemer of God’s name for his blasphemy, and such as were anyways art and part bringing in a new worship in the Kirk of God in this land, who consented unto the five articles of Perth, etc.,[^3] and be humbled before God for them. If ye would have a lap of Christ’s garment to cover you in the ill day—if ye would be safe when the Lord comes against the sinners of Zion as an eagle—count for your old sins and be humbled for them, and ye shall be safe.
Another thing that we have to mark in this comparison is, What is it that leads the eagle to come against the prey? Nothing else but the smell of the prey. What was it, think ye, that led Assyria to come against the people of God when they came? Was it the glory of God? No, it was nothing else but the love of the world and the things thereof, without any respect to God’s glory. Our Saviour, Christ, says (Matt. xxiv. 28), “Where the carcasses are, thither will the eagles resort.” Wherever there is a breakfast for the eagles, they will be there. Even so, wherever the enemies of the Kirk of God may get their vantage against the same, they will be there. It is a plain instinct of nature that leads the eagles to the prey, and hunger is enough to them to make them seek where the prey is. And the thing that leads the enemies of the Kirk of God to come against the Kirk is nothing else but the malice they have against the Kirk and the love of blood. They have such a greedy desire after it. And the Lord’s Spirit tells of Nebuchadnezzar, that was drunk with the blood of His people, and that he coveted after the same. We may thank the Lord for this, that we know what it is that leads on the enemies of the Kirk to come against His Kirk—that it is not the Lord nor His glory. Is the end that they have before them, think ye, the Lord or His glory? No, no; say what they will. They will say the divine service book which our enemies stand for this day—as one of them imprudently has said of it—that it is a divine book, and that there is more sound divinity therein than in all the extemporal prayers of all the ministers, both in our neighbour land and in this land also. But let them say what they will, it is nothing but themselves and the filling of their fat bellies and the pleasures of the world which they have been and are still seeking. It is a foolish thing for the enemies of the grace of God to say that man’s free will is a thing indifferent to choose or to refuse anything as it pleases, whether it be good or ill. Is the eagle’s hunger a thing indifferent for the eagle to seek to have it stayed or not? No; it is natural for it to seek to have it stayed by the prey. They say there be three things that show that the will of man is a thing indifferent. First, they say there is in man a thing which they call indifference to do good or to do ill at his pleasure. Second, they say that there is a conscience within those who are enemies to God as well as these have a conscience who are in favour with Him; but that conscience will not keep them in if so be they want grace. Third, they say they have the awe of the Lord in His Word to keep them from sin, and that will be a restraint to them. But there are other three which we may set against these, which are also in every man by nature, that sets them a work to do, as ill from their conception. First, there is the habit of natural corruption that leads them to commit sin; for natural corruption, as they say, is not like a pirate that comes out of the harbour, and it is a thing indifferent for it to go east or to go west, and so they go where they may best find their prey. Nay, natural corruption is not a thing indifferent, but it leads every man captive to the law of sin. Second, there is in every man the habit of acquired corruption, beside the natural corruption which is in all by nature. He has more sin added to that sin wherein he was born, and that leads him on to commit sin. Third, is an individual induration that is come upon wicked men, whereby God has tied them, in His righteous judgment, to sin, and given them over to their own wicked heart, that whether they will or not by reason of that individual induration that is come upon them, they must sin. Well’s them that have their will guided by the grace of God, and not by another thing. See what it is that makes ye to stand for the cause of God; whether it be because there are thousands and multitudes upon Christ’s side of it, and it would be hard with thee if thou dost otherways. That is a wrong motive, and it will not miss to fail thee if there come any trial. But that is a gracious freewill that resolves to stand in defence of the cause of God, and to stand by the same albeit there were no more upon Christ’s side of it; that albeit all others should turn their backs upon Him, yet they will stand with Christ where He is.
What is the quarrel that this eagle has against the house of the Lord and against His covenanted people, for it would be thought, Who should be free of stroke, if so be that the Lord’s people be not free of it? No; by the contrary, you know it is said, “Judgment must begin at the house of God.” And (Ezek. ix. 1), where those six men are sent out with slaughter weapons in their hands, to slay all in the city save only those that were marked by the man with the pen-case inkhorn, even Christ, they are commanded to begin at the Lord’s sanctuary. Whenever wrath is a-dealing, professors that have gone on in a wrong course shall be sure to get the first dint of it. And so think not with yourselves that a profession will save you when the ill days come. Now there be three ills in a bare profession that will rather hasten wrath upon men than keep it off.
First, Where there is a profession of religion there is more light than where there is not a profession; at least, there should be more light, and that makes the wrath to come sooner and to light fiercer and hotter upon those who have it than upon those who have no profession at all. The more profession and the greater light thou hast, if so be that thou go against the same, thou shalt get the more strokes and the greater wrath shall light upon you. Of all the enemies, he that is an house enemy, ye know, is the worst enemy. A minister that goes with a gown upon him, and bears a Bible about with him, if so be that he be false, is the worst enemy that the Kirk of Christ has. You know who it was that sold Christ, our Lord. Even Judas, who was one of His disciples; and even when he was betraying Him, he seemed to be very kind to Him, for even then he would kiss Him, and our Lord says to him, “Friend, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” And it is very ordinary to be so. The worst enemies that the Kirk of Christ has in our neighbour kingdom are those that are called the heads of the Kirk and the reverend fathers in God—Canterbury,[^4] and those of that kind. Those are the greatest enemies that Christ and our Father and His have, and it is they who betray Him and His cause.
Another ill that comes of a profession is—ye know the Spirit of God in His Word uses to reckon from a profession; (Amos iii. 2), “You only have I known of all the families in the earth: therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities.” “I made you my chosen people beyond all others, and therefore I will not let you gang unpunished.” The Lord cannot endure a people who have a profession of religion to sin against Him as others do. A lord or a laird cannot endure a thistle to be in his garden, but causes it to be plucked up by the roots and cast over the dike. He cares not to let many thistles stand in the mountain, but for a thistle in his garden, he cannot endure that. Those who give themselves out to be the Lord’s beloved people, and yet are barren of any good fruits, if there be a sore judgment in the world, it shall light upon such.
A third ill that comes of a profession is—we believe that a profession makes black sins to become white sins. No; it is not so. David’s adultery is adultery as well as the adultery of the greatest reprobate that is; albeit his adultery is taken away, and theirs is to be kept to the fore against them, yet in themselves they are one. The enemies of the grace of God put a calumny upon us in this when they say that we say, “God hates not the sin of the elect.” No; we say, and affirm it, that the Lord hates their sin, but withal He hates not their persons but loves them; and for temporal judgments—albeit they miss spiritual and eternal judgments—they shall not miss them who are guilty of any sin or goes against the Lord’s covenant, or seem to be for it and are not so in heart; though they were never so dear to God, even as dear as Coniah, as it is said (Jer. xxii. 24): “As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee hence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life,” etc. And so, of all the sore judgments that come upon any people, it shall come upon them who profess the Lord and religion and are not an honour to their profession. I am sure this is Scotland’s note. Some, it may be, will be ready to say, “I am sure the Lord will defend me, seeing I am a covenanter, and it is God’s covenant.” No; but if there be a chosen stroke for any, if thou be not a heart-covenanter, it shall light upon you. The Lord has a judgment prepared for you, albeit thou shouldest never go unto the fields because thou hast no more but a name and a profession thereof. Woe’s them that know no more of religion but only the bare name of it!
The prophet goes on, in the next verse, to tell what a people the people of Israel were, and what they shall do under their trouble. Israel shall say unto me, “My God, we know thee.” “Thou art our God, and we know that thou art our God.” This is an objection to what has been said before: shall Assyria come against the Kirk of God as an eagle? No, it may not be so, for we will tell Him that He is our God and we are His people, and therefore we will cry unto Him in our distress and trouble. There are three things contained in this prayer. First, that Israel, in their distress, will cry. Second, that in their distress they will cry “My God.” Third, they will cry, “My God, we know thee.”
First: That they will cry to God under their distress and trouble. It teaches us this far that hypocrites, when they are under the hand of God, are all very holy folks then. In Judges x. 10, and in divers other parts, it is said of the predecessors of this same people, in their distress they cried unto the Lord, and acknowledged they had sinned against Him. (Jer. ii. 27), In prosperity people turned their back upon God, “and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us.” This is an ordinary way that we use when we can do no better; then we cry unto the Lord for help and deliverance. (Psalm lxxviii. 34), “When he slew them, they sought him; and they returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.” When the vengeance of God was lying sore and heavy upon them, they cried unto the Lord, “Lord, save us.” When anything ails hypocrites they will cry fast to Christ then. O! but there be many who will be content to winter Christ that cannot be content to summer him also. When worldly men see the hand of God to be upon them, O, but they will seem to be holy and to be devout then. But whenever the hand of God is taken off them again, immediately they return unto their old ways. This should make us to examine bed holiness, and holiness that comes by reason of crosses, very well. For there are many that, in their sickness, and when they are under the hand of God any way, will cry fast for the minister then, and seem to be sorry for their former ill-spent time, and will promise very fair, if God will spare them then, they shall be better servants to Him in all time coming; and yet when time is granted to them they will return after that to be as ill every way as ever they were before. There are three things that we should try of our holiness in such a case. First, we should try whether it be our own holiness and ease, or if it be God Himself, that makes us to cry to Him and to humble ourselves. Well’s that soul that humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, and is brought home to Himself by its troubles. Second, in trouble compare these two together—whether you think it better to be guilty or if ye think it best to be miserable. If you had rather choose misery before you choose guiltiness, and if ye be more for sin committed than ye are for the misery that comes upon you because of sin. There are three things that we look not to in our afflictions. First, for the present our punishment or the afflictions of any, they are not grace. Affliction may well restrain the act of pride for the present, but it cannot restrain the habit thereof. As in Ahab and in Cain, when punishment was upon them the act of pride was restrained indeed, but the habit thereof was not restrained. Second, we should consider that all the crosses in the world will do no good unto any if so be they be not blessed unto us by the Cross of Christ. No, they will rather make us worse if He bless them not. The Lord complains of His people (Amos viii.) that the more He struck and plagued them, the more they ran away from Him. Third, we should remember that affliction of itself is not grace at all, albeit it be a means whereby the Lord works grace in the hearts of His own children, and makes them pliable for it. Fire, ye know, changes not the nature of metals, to make one metal of another; it may well make them hot and soft, yet for all that it cannot make iron gold. Even so affliction cannot make the devil’s iron to become God’s gold; it may well make it some softer. And so we had need to try whether our afflictions be blessed of God or not, and we had need to try our holiness then. There are many who make a form to pray to God now, who have their son in the camp, or their husband, that, it may be, never made an errand to pray to God before, and yet for all that have a crooked heart within them. It is not an easy thing to come rightly to Christ. It is no marvel the enemies of God’s grace say it is an easy thing to come to Christ and to believe, because they know nothing of it; but it is not easier than that which is spoken of in John xii. 32, “When I am lifted up, I shall draw all men unto me.” It is a pull of God’s arm that must do our turn to draw us to Him, and not all the afflictions and calamities in the world.
Oh, that the Lord will be pleased to bless our public trials in this land, and that He would let all see that it is not good jesting with the Lord now at this time, when the Lord is taking away the husband from the wife, the father from the children, the child from the parents, the friend from the friends, the minister from the flock, etc. It is time for us to lift up ourselves in prayer to God, now beseeching Him that He would make His hand to work more and more for us. Well is the soul that comes under the hand of God. In Hosea v. 15, it is said, “In their affliction they will seek me early.” Well’s that soul that seeks home to God by its afflictions. There is a blessed word spoken (Hosea ii. 6); when the Kirk is running away from God, and there is a hedge of thorns set in her way that she cannot win away from Him; when she is following her other lovers and cannot overtake them, she says, “I will go and return to my first love, for then it was better with me than now.” Well expended trouble and affliction that come upon any soul when it comes home to the Lord, and all the dross thereof is taken away, and when a people are brought home, as it is spoken (Jer. l. 5) of Israel and Judah: “Come, and let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten.” That is a blessed trouble for evermore that leads us home nearer to our Lord. Now the Lord Himself, who is able to do this unto us, draw us nearer unto Himself by all the crosses and afflictions that come upon us! And to this Lord who can do this for us, to the Son of God, Christ Jesus, to His Father and our Father, and the Spirit of grace, be everlasting praise and glory. Amen.