The Fiery TrialJohn Rusk
As it hath pleased the Lord in His mercy to my poor soul to bring me into the path of tribulation, and in so doing to empty me from vessel to vessel, that I might not settle on my lees, and discriminate me from the many thousands of light and trifling professors in the awful day in which we now live; and having lately waded through deep waters and had heavy furnace work, in which the good work has been tried to the quick, and I have concluded that I should go down altogether-these things which I now have in view, have at such seasons appeared to me to be of the greatest importance, and I have felt a great desire to write upon the subject. Much opposition I have met with from Satan in the attempt, who ever will oppose heart work. But being to-day confined at home through a complaint in my neck, and feeling the desire come again, I opened the Bible, looking up to the Lord; and the words which I have stated as a text were the words I opened on, and which have been on my mind for above a week. If I should find good in writing, and my reader good in reading, may the whole glory be to Him to whom alone it is due, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of all their spiritual seed; for He has taught me, from feeling experience, that without Him I can do nothing. The apostle Paul, both in the first chapter and in this where our text is, doth sharply reprove the church at Corinth for their envyings, strife, and divisions about preachers; and he calls it carnal. Hence one says, "For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." Paul was very tender of God's honour, and therefore says, "So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one" as though he should say, Then, how inconsistent are these divisions which are among you, seeing it is one God that worketh all in all, "dividing to every man severally as he will!" and therefore there is but one faith, one baptism, one heart, one way, one Lord, and His name one. There is plenty of this work (of divisions) in the day in which we live, which I doubt riot in time will bring heavy afflictions on the church, and then they will be glad to cleave more together. After this (verses 10-15) Paul speaks of the important work of the ministry, and says, "according to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation (that is, ministerially) and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest." By gold, silver, and precious stones, I understand God's elect; and the good work of God in them will stand the fire, the same as gold, silver, &c., literally will. By wood, hay, stubble, I understand hypocrites, the reprobate, and non-elect; and as they have not this good work in them, they cannot endure the fiery trial, any more than wood, hay, or stubble literally can. That this is the real meaning is beyond a doubt. If we consider it as to the elect, God says, "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is My people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." (Zech. xiii. 9.) Thus He owns them in the furnace. Now, the others are called, wood, hay, stubble. Hence God told the prophet Jeremiah, "I will make my word in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall consume them." Again, "For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up." (Mal. iv. i.) Now, though the apostle is here particularly alluding to a minister, yet as the Scriptures do not confine it there, neither indeed does Paul, for he speaks of the work (if wood, &c.) being burned, we shall not confine it either, but show that it has to do with both preachers and hearers. And then come in the words of the text; "And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."
I. The work that will stand the fire. That God does begin, carry on, and complete a good work in His elect, and in none else, needs but little to be said to prove. Hence Paul says, when writing to the church of God at Philippi, "being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." And the Psalmist David says, "Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work." Hence God says, "I will work, and who shall let it?" 'But', say you, 'in the text it is called man's work.' Yes, but this is only ministerially. Hence Paul says, "We, then, as workers together with Him," that is, with God, instruments that He uses; but the work, if real, is His own. Now this work lies, firstly, in taking us out of the old soil, wherein we all are by sin; and secondly, implanting us in another soil. We will treat of both these operations. Now, first, we are all fast in the flesh. Every man living is here by nature, birth, and practice; and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. The children of the flesh, these are not (manifestly) the children of God. But here we all are, as Paul says: "By nature children of wrath, even as others." Now, it is God's work to transplant us, to take us out of the old soil, in consequence of His having chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world; and the way in which this is done is not always exactly the same. God is a Sovereign, and no man by searching can find him out to perfection. Hence it is that very fair beginnings, which according to our best views appear to be His work, come to nothing, and we are deceived in many characters; and others that we think lightly of shall stand fast, and be proved at last to be the elect of God. But still, though God works in this way to mortify the pride of our hearts, yet it is all the same in the end. Now, according to God's unerring word, which is our rule, there are two things communicated to the soul; first light; second, life. And this is God's work, and includes every individual thing that can possibly be mentioned, if we were to mention a thousand things respecting the internal work of grace in the heart. Let us notice a few things that may throw a light upon what I have asserted. I. Then, "The entrance of Thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." (Psalm cxix. 130.) Now, take notice, the word enters; and what is the word? I answer, it is life. Hence Christ says, " "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life;" and this word that is life, giveth light. Again: "It giveth understanding to the simple;" and understanding is a wellspring of life. Again: "I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me;" and "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But this is life also, for "the fear of the Lord tendeth to life;" the fear of the Lord is a "fountain of life." And now, before I proceed any farther, you may clearly see the separating work that is going on (manifestly) in such as have this light and life, which is God's work. Have they got this word, which is spirit and which is life? Then they "walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but their delight is in the law of the Lord (that is, His word) and in His law they meditate day and night." They are glad when their day's work is done to have an hour to themselves, to examine themselves and confess their sins, to read, hear, meditate, and converse about God's word. Hence David says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart;" and this the Jewish scribes and Pharisees were destitute of, with all their pretensions to religion. Hence the Saviour told them, "I know that My word hath no place in you." Again. This word of life "giveth understanding to the simple," - then such forsake the foolish and live, and go in the way of understanding; and I told you that understanding is a well-spring of life. Again: this fear, which is God's work, and is a fountain of life, is put in the heart; and "the fear of the Lord is to hate evil," pride, and arrogancy. Thus we are taken out of the old soil, and manifestly transplanted into Christ Jesus. And suppose this never takes place with us? Then, says Christ, "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." Now such are called "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." But I proceed. It is God's work to give faith. "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." "This is the work of God: that you believe on Him whom He hath sent." But life lies here also, for "he that believeth hath everlasting life." This faith differs from all others by feeling; for if I believe the threatenings of God's word against sin and sinners, I tremble at it, and expect the execution of the sentence; and if I believe the promises, I feel His anger removed, as the church says, and that He comforts my soul with the consolations of His most Holy Spirit. This light of life discovers and feels the wretched state man is in by Adam's fall. Every corruption of the heart in God's time will be made manifest, and such will see and feel their need of Jesus Christ, His blood to cleanse them from all sin, and His righteousness to justify them freely from all things, which is God's work. Hence He says, "I will cleanse their blood whom I have not cleansed;" "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin;" "It is God that justifieth;" "By the obedience of one (that is, the obedience of Jesus Christ) shall many be made righteous." Now, life and light lie in all this; for we see and feel the sin of our nature, the sin of our life, the extent of God's law, and the reigning power of Satan, sin, death, corruption, lusts, the ungodly, the law, &c.; in short, every thing to a convinced sinner lords it over him till by faith he lays hold of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the one to cleanse and the other to justify, and then his soul is set at liberty. But does life lie in the reception of these also? Yes; "He that drinketh My blood hath everlasting life;" and if justification takes place, it is justification unto life. I declare I was very heartless to begin to write this morning, for I felt at such a loss to know how to go on, that I thought I would drop it altogether. But the Lord in answer to prayer does help me - to Him be all the glory. Again: this liberty consists in a love to God, to His family, His truth, and His ways; it is not a liberty to live a loose life, to live in sin; no, by no means. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil; " "If ye love Me, keep My commandments;" "Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another;" "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour;" charity "thinketh no evil." Now this also is God's work, and life lies in it also. "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Such serve God out of pure love to Him, in simplicity, honesty, and uprightness of heart; they are not driven to His house of worship, nor to prayer, reading, &c.; but it is the delight of their souls, for they are furnished to, every good work and work. Which brings me to notice the living principles that God has put in them, called the new man, the spirit, grace, holiness, &c. And when under the sweet influence of the new man, wisdom's ways "are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." I can look back and see the delight, happiness, comfort, joy, and peace that I formerly enjoyed in my first love, when I heard Mr. H., now in glory. O the blessed and delightful times I then had in going to chapel, the sweet chain of truth, the precious promises that flowed into my heart, and I enabled to take them to myself with an application! Little did I think at that time of the path I have since walked long in. Now this is God's work; for this new man is produced in us by the Holy Ghost. And you may see it in our Lord's speech, to Nicodemus; hence He says, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And again, it is called "the good treasure of the heart," and "the fruits of the Spirit." "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace." And thus I have very briefly treated of God's work. I might have greatly enlarged; but this I know, that everything lies in light and life, as before observed of God's work; fear, faith, understanding, a feeling sense of need, the blood and righteousness of Christ, love, the new man, and to which may be added a good hope, called a "lively hope " repentance, that is called "repentance unto life;" God's blessing His people, "life for evermore;" God's: covenant, "life and peace; " His Spirit, "the Spirit of life;" Christ, "the Resurrection and the Life," &c. All of which is God's work, and all of which He freely gives to His elect and chosen family. II. The fire that is to try this work. Now this good work, and the happy recipient of it, must and shall go into the fire; and so shall every soul living that professes to have this good work, whether they have it or not. This I hope to make clearly appear before I leave the subject; for our text says, "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Now I have no cause to enumerate various open errors, and show that such characters cannot endure the fire - no, no; we will come nearer home, for Paul in this text is principally alluding to gospel professors; such as understand the letter of the gospel, and have espoused the cause of Christ, who in Scripture bear the following names: "foolish virgins," "old and foolish kings," "false brethren," "false apostles," "false teachers," "preaching Christ out of contention to add affliction to Paul's bonds;" "such preached Christ out of envy, not of goodwill" - "and, like people like priest." They are said "to have a name to live while dead." They are called believers: "Thou seest, brother (Paul), how many thousands of Jews there are - which believe, and they are all zealous of the law of Moses!" They "profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." They profess to be "bought with the blood of Christ, but deny the Lord that (they say) bought them," says Peter. Jude calls them "spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear clouds are they without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth: without fruit: twice dead." And Mr. H., says, "Cursed by the law, and damned by the gospel, plucked up by the roots, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness," &c. Now such characters, according to their own confession and high profession, have got this good work that I have been treating of; but then, you know things are to be proved - it is not my saying so, but whether I speak the real truth; and therefore "the fire shall try every man's work;" that is, every preacher's converts, as well as that which they call conversion - " the fire " shall try of what sort it is. ' But why is the fire to try it? I answer, for the following reasons I. To bring about God's word; for He declares it, as in, the text we are treating of. 2. That His own children may know what this good work will cope with, and never finally give it up. 3. To make manifest hypocrites that are not what they profess to be; and therefore such are called "lead," and "reprobate silver: " The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; " "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." (Jer. vi. 29, 30.) Read carefully Amos ix. all through; it is a very alarming chapter: "The sinners of My people shall die by the sword." (v. 10.) And therefore it will not do to have truth only in the head. In vain is it to have the brightest profession, let it be of ever so long standing; however such may be looked up to, let them be preachers, deacons, members of churches,-whether the established church or dissenters it matters nothing; if destitute of this good work, it will not avail in the least, but such will be consumed in the fire, and proved to be what the prophet declares them: "reprobate silver," and that God has rejected them. "Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross; all they are brass, and tin, and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem as they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it to melt it; so will I gather you in Mine anger, and in My fury; and I will leave you there and melt you." (Ezek. xxii. I8-2o.) "Thus saith the Lord God, set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it; gather the pieces, thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder, fill it with the choice bones, take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein. Wherefore thus saith the. Lord God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it; bring it out piece by piece, let no lot fall upon it." (Ezek. xxiv. 3-6.) Now, as the wrath of God is revealed in a particular manner against those that hold the truth in unrighteousness, we may expect that such heavy calamities will come on them; and God says, "I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh." "The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites." I will, as the Lord shall assist me, treat largely of these fires; and will say nothing but what shall be consistent with the: word of God. And if you and I have been in any or all of these fires, and have come out like gold or silver, it is well for us; and by these things we are to know that the work is of God, and will stand every fire we may go into, for God has promised to bring us through fire and through water, and out into a wealthy place; so that He will not leave us there (that is, in the fire) as He did those of the house of Israel. And not a little satisfaction has it been to me, at certain seasons, only to think what God has brought me through. The first fire I shall mention is this: a poor tried child of God shall be brought in providence to get his bread amongst some of the worst characters living, and their conversation shall be nothing but filthy and unclean, full of blasphemy at all that is good; and these things he is forced to hear. And it will go on from day to day, week after week, month after month, and sometimes for years; hence you read that "Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the ungodly." This I have suffered myself, and have really expected to be consumed in this fire; for my heart is the same as theirs, and if left of God I should go on the same Now where the grace of God is not, an empty profession will give way, and such will be overcome, and will be drawn over secretly; and the reason is, because such are not united to Jesus Christ. Hence Christ says, "If a man abide not in Me he is cast forth as a branch and withereth," and wicked men gather them into their company, and they are buried. Now the prophet Isaiah says, "Wickedness burneth as a fire," and so it does, and will try God's children not a little, for they will lay snares and set traps in order to catch and entangle them. The second fire is persecution and reproach. This is another fire, and this will try the work whether it is true or false. Persecution will sometimes come from the ungodly; and the more stiff for truth, upright, and honest we are, and poor in providence, the more they will persecute and reproach us. These things rise and fall according as Providence places us; for if we are in power over men, this curbs them, and forces them to silence for selfish ends; but if a leader of working men be desperate against the Lord Jesus and His family, a poor honest soul working with him shall suffer greatly. I am now speaking of outward persecution; and I am persuaded it would be worse still if there was liberty granted in the loss of the Toleration Act. God grant that we may never see such times as those, if the Lord will, for the papists to get in power. The human heart is the same as ever, and if they had power they would act as they formerly did; and therefore we find that the ungodly will censure, reproach, speak evil, tell lies, slander, and do all they can to injure a poor child of God. See the cases of Agnes Beaumont and Lawrence Spooner, with several others, in that account given by Samuel Jones, which has just come to my mind. Hence David says, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us." The whole occasion of their malice is this; Jesus Christ is in every believer, and the devil reigns and rules in the ungodly. Now then Satan will stir them up; take it as. follows "For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire, for unto us a Child is born." The burning here mentioned is zeal for the truth and the love of God the fuel of fire is the wooden vessels of wrath fighting against it; and the cause is, there is a Child born, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence He says, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but, a sword." From henceforth there shall be five in one house: three against two, and two against three; and a man's enemies shall be those of his own house. All their malice is levelled by Satan against Jesus; as David says, "They, shoot their arrows, even bitter words, that they may shoot in secret at the perfect;" that was at Christ in David; and though unknown to some of them, yet not to Satan that sets them at it. Paul calls it Christ's sufferings, because God had revealed His Son in Paul, which brought this fire on; hence he tells us of the persecutions which he endured - forty of them bound themselves with an oath that they would neither eat nor drink till they had, killed, Paul; and how the rest of the apostles suffered for His sake also, being beaten and imprisoned. Such is the desperate malice of Satan against the Son of God, who was manifest in the flesh to destroy His works. Moreover, Satan works also by self-righteous Pharisees, as well as by the openly profane; and such I have hinted at already in the sufferings of the apostles, that were so cruelly beaten for preaching Jesus. And so it will be to the end of time, as I myself well know, for none are so desperate as Hagar's family, and therefore Ishmael shall mock at Isaac the child of promise. They that are of the flesh persecute them that are by promise; nevertheless, what saith the Scriptures.? "Cast out the bond-woman and her son." Now, what is to enable us to endure these fires? Is it a set of notions in the head? O no! But will: not a reformed life added to this do? No. What will then! I, answer, The love of God shed abroad in your heart; "Be rooted and grounded in love." And this, as before observed, is God's work. But on the contrary, "When the sun (of persecution) was up it was scorched; and because it had no root,, withered away." Observe here, they were once in a flourishing state, or there would have been nothing to wither; but now the sun of persecution comes on-still they stand a while; but after this it waxed hot-then were they scorched; and at last, having no root, they withered away-either into errors, or else into the world. The Lord keep you and me, for I have often feared, and do fear, that this will be my case. Thirdly. Persecution may come, and yet not from the openly profane, nor from self-righteous Pharisees, but from Satan only. Hence David speaks of the enemy persecuting his soul, enemy in the singular. And if you wish to know who this enemy was, Jesus Christ explains it in the parable of the sower; hence He says, "The enemy that sowed the tares is the devil." And he does this persecution by his suggestions, and reproach, snares and condemnation, accusing us from morning to night, representing God as our enemy, and His chastisements as judgments; suggesting that we are only hypocrites, and that God will make us manifest as such; stirring up the carnal enmity of our hearts against a good God, and against His children from day to day, and then telling us that we hate Zion and shall be desolate, that we are offended at Christ and enemies to Him. O how my soul has gone bowed down from day to day by reason of the oppression of the enemy! Now, trials alone cannot do all this, for I have at times felt these trials, and yet been quite passive under them; but it is when Satan is suffered to have access to our corruptions; and thus in one way or another, and sometimes in all these, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Fourthly. Not only persecution and reproach, and wickedness burning, but God's word shall try men, and is called fire also; hence God tells the prophet Jeremiah, "I will make My words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them." And it is astonishing how this word tries God's people; it is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." But if this word were not believed, we should not tremble at it; and though it -is so trying God has promised to look to and dwell with those that tremble at His word. I have found God's word like a fire in the following way. I. In meditation; my heart has meditated terror-meditating on my ways, works, and the evils of my sinful nature and then on the Scriptures, and what they say against such things; so, that I have viewed God as an angry Judge, as a consuming fire; and though there has been a fear of hating the light; yet I have dreaded to come to it, lest I should be consumed. 2. In reading I have found this word fire; for, according to the views I have then had of myself and of God's word, it has clearly appeared that there was no hope for me. People may say what they will about a child of God living a loose life, but they know nothing of the path I am now treating about. Woe be to that man that trifles with the Scriptures, and can neglect conscience, paying no regard to it, but walking in the imagination of his evil heart! However easily he may at present slide on, he shall one day find that his conscience will be a worm that dieth not and a fire that is not quenched. Again. This fire of God's word is felt under the word preached. I have felt it under Mr. H. and Mr. B., insomuch that I have felt as though I must have come out of the chapel. O how this word will try us, as the psalmist David says, "The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times." And now I will tell you how it will work. Observe, you and I, as Christians, have two natures - an old man and a new man. And this old man will be continually prompting us to some evil thing or another; sometimes a light trifling worldly spirit will get hold of us, and then comes the fire of God's word: he that is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Sometimes joking and jesting: "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient." Sometimes covetousness: "The covetous the Lord abhorreth." The heart shut to God's saints when they are in temporal trouble: he that "hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Indulging a besetting sin: Promise them liberty while they themselves are servants to corruption." Thus, without enlarging, you see how this word will try and burn up everything but the right. In meditation, reading, hearing the word, and I add, in conversing with the saints - for if we do not make straight paths for our feet, and that which is lame is turned out of the way, we shall not at such times find our delight with the excellent of the earth, nor, with those that excel in virtue; and their savoury conversation will try us not a little, and stir up the carnal enmity of our hearts. Then comes God's word "They that hate 'Zion shall be desolate." Poor Job was tried on all hands by God's word: "Thou writest bitter things against me," he says. And so was Joseph, as we find in the Psalms: "Until the time that His word came, the word of the Lord tried him." But when we are led to see God's end in sending His word to try us - that the fruit of all is to take away sin, that it is those whom He loves He rebukes and chastens, and that He will not contend for ever -we then prize this fire, because it turns to good account, it brings to close examination, honest confession, humble petitioning, and entreating the Lord to subdue our iniquities, that sin may not have dominion, that His grace may be sufficient for us; and we loathe ourselves for our past folly, and cry to. the Lord with David, saying, "O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes! " My greatest trials in. this world lie in two things: 1. The old man of sin in me, that is ever rising up in some way or another contrary to. God's word and will; and there is something in me that falls in with these things, so that I am afraid that my spots are not the spots of God's children, but that I am only an Antinomian at best. And 2. That. God's words will for ever be against me, and that He will enter into judgment with me. O this wretched vile nature What a sore trial it is, and how often it calls for the fire I am now treating of! Therefore, "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." And we may see in God's book how some have been made manifest. The spirit and love of the world overcame Demas: ,"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." Covetousness overcame Ananias and Sapphira his wife. The lamp of the foolish virgins went out, and the man without the wedding garment was speechless when the guilt of his conscience arose. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; " and he does it by suffering suitable temptations to come, which will overcome every work, however fair, but God's work; "For the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Ahithophel appeared very fair hence David when speaking of him says, "We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company." But when Absalom arose against his father, Ahithophel turns David's, enemy openly; and thus he is made manifest to be a hypocrite. The fifth fire which I shall treat of is, the lusts of the flesh, which fire tried David, Solomon, Samson, and the incestuous person; and if ever there was a fire to try, surely this is one. And though these men (all being the elect of God) were eternally saved, yet what sore afflictions it procured to them, I mean their falls! David, the sword never departed from his house. Solomon lost ten tribes, besides having heavy calamities from God. Samson lost his eyes, strength and life. And the incestuous person is given up to Satan's temptations, and separated from the church of God for a time. Now, a man may be in a profession of religion, and have been looked upon as a very circumspect and upright character; and as it is only God that searches the heart, we cannot tell but what the man is a good man. But God suffers a suitable temptation to be now laid in the man's way, such as Joseph had with his mistress; and the man finds these lusts stirred up, and, having no grace, he falls, not as the just man, to rise again; but like the wicked, into mischief, and so is found not to be the man he professed to be, by never having a true repentance given him for his folly, but by going on from bad to worse. What numbers of professors and preachers have been quite taken off from a sound profession by this one sin! and a powerful fire it is, which none but God can extinguish. "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet. not be burned? So he goeth in to his neighbour's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent." A wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. The Apostle Paul says, "Mortify, therefore, your members, which are on the earth; " and they are five, and love to sin includes them all: "Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." I once knew a person that was carried away by an object for two years, and what may be called the depths of Satan; inordinate affection with a witness, and carried on in a religious way, corresponding with letters, till at last it made great head, and though he brought no open disgrace, yet he suffered sorely for his backslidings, "For the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." God is a God that forgives His people, but takes vengeance on their inventions. And I knew another that fell into the same temptation, who was never reclaimed, but remains so to this day for aught I know. Now, you and I cannot stand against these fires; and if we are destitute of grace, we shall certainly be overcome by them, and fall to rise no more. "For the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." The sixth fire I shall treat of is, the temptations of Satan, which go in Scripture by the name of fire.. Hence you read of his fiery darts: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." And it is wonderful how God's children suffer by these fiery darts; neither is it possible for them, at the time it is going on, to tell but what such things as they feel come from God. I myself have been for years exercised in this way, and have really expected that God's judgments would overtake me; for I have clearly appeared at such times to be the very hypocrite that God's word has described; and at such seasons text upon text of Scripture have run in my mind to confirm it, and I have been full of confusion. If the wind has blown very hard, it has come, "Your house will be blown down, and your family buried in the ruins, you and all." If it has thundered and lightened, I have been filled with terror. If I have crossed the water, "You will be now drowned." If under much bondage, "You are one of Hagar's family, never made free by the Son of God." If I have fallen by a besetting sin, "You are led captive by Satan at his will." And if the same sin is slipped into again and again, then "You are a servant of corruption, an Antinomian." If enmity has arisen under sore trials, "You hate Zion, God, and His cause." If covetousness has worked up, "You will be in time proved to be like Ananias and Sapphira." If a worldly spirit is fallen into, "You never were separated from this world." Satan first tempts, then accuses, and then shoots his fiery darts. A man must be well fixed or established indeed to stand fast here. Our feeling these corruptions arise is in order that we may be well instructed in the fall of man and our lost estate, and kept sensible of our real need of Jesus Christ, in all His office characters: as a fountain to cleanse us as the end of the jaw for, righteousness, to justify us; and that he; may be all to us, and all in us; wisdom to fools; righteousness to condemned criminals; sanctification to the unholy redemption to them that feel the captivity of Satan and the reigning power of their own lusts; reconciliation to enemies; light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death-; life to the dead; health to the sick; food to the hungry; and salvation to the lost. And not only at first, but these things are kept up; for as I have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so I am to walk in Him, which never could be the case if we lost sight of ourselves, and had not a feeling sense of our need kept up in the soul. And here it is that we greatly err; for we conclude that these feelings altogether, have to do with God's first work in convincing us of sin; and when He is pleased to deliver us, we expect after this to get more holy, and more and more righteous in ourselves. But, alas I when the old man arises, he at once contradicts this, and we find that in ourselves we are very devils. This keeps us out of confidence in our own tabernacle, and the longer we live, the worse we see and feel ourselves to be; and the viler we are in our own eyes, the more precious will Christ Jesus be every time faith is in exercise. Hence the church says in the song, "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar," and yet declares that Jesus Christ her Beloved was "the chiefest among ten thousand and the Altogether Lovely." But now it is, as I say, when the Saviour is hidden, and this ugly monster of iniquity the old man appears, that Satan accuses us, and shoots his fiery darts. Add to this, also, the blasphemous, foul and filthy suggestions that he darts through the mind against God, Christ, and all that is good, tempting us to break through all bounds. I have ere now been terrified lest God should strike me dead for my wretched thoughts. O! if the Arminians had such thoughts as I have, they would drop talking of sinless perfection, and cry to the Lord for mercy every day of their lives. Satan works in various ways. Sometimes by the ungodly, sometimes by professors of religion, and sometimes by hypocrites in Zion; but none of these are so trying as when he works by God's children, and he certainly does this, which we may see in Job's three friends. They were all good men, according to Scripture; and yet they, through blindness and ignorance of Job's case, condemned Job altogether. Now, this is a very trying thing, and very puzzling, too, to make out; but so it is, and therefore Job says, "Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? " Now, that Satan worked by these is plain and clear, and so you will say if you are a watchful, tried Christian, for you will find that the very charges Job's friends brought against poor Job come to you (many of them) in suggestions, and you expect you shall fall a prey to the teeth of your enemies, and that God's vengeance will overtake you; whereas, he is pleased to break the snare, and you make your escape. I have really had the 10th chapter of Job, best part of it, suggested against me and my dreadful downfall, and that chapter is a part of one of their speeches against Job. Now, though Satan works by all these characters, yet, as I have shown, he continually works also without them; from all which we see the cruel rage and malice of Satan against the elect of God. The seventh fire I shall treat of is, the tongue. Hence James says, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell." (James iii. 6.) How often are God's children ensnared by their own tongues! I have watched this very much, and yet it is a trial that has tried me not a little. Such lightness, levity, foolish talking, and jesting; or else such backbiting of others, hasty judgment, &c. O! it is an "unruly member, full of deadly poison." Hence David prays, "Set a watch on my mouth, keep the door of my lips." Sometimes such murmuring, complaining, and rebellion, as is truly shocking; for sin is more aggravating when it breaketh forth into words; and therefore it is remarked, at the beginning of Job's calamity, "that he sinned not with his lips, nor charged God foolishly." But, alas! this fire soon got hold of him, and then he opened his mouth and cursed his day. Now, to have a body of sin and death in all its members, and to be always in fear of these corruptions rising up; and lest when up they should break forth into words, and we should set our mouth against the heavens and our tongue should walk through the earth - I say, the continual fear of these things is trying, because the tongue no man can tame; and Satan will prompt us to join in with the ungodly at the least slip of the righteous, and condemn them. O! it, is a hard world to go through, full of snares, nets, traps, and gins, and we are altogether as weak as water; no internal strength, but often expecting to fall a prey to the teeth of every foe. Now, seeing that the tongue is a fire, "set on fire of hell," what is to guard a light, frothy professor of the gospel? God has not promised to maintain his standing, and therefore he must go down, sooner or later; and such having great light and no grace, are in great danger of the great transgression, which cannot be completed without this fire or tongue. Hence they are said to blaspheme the Holy Ghost! Thus the tongue is a fire, and a dreadful fire some will find it one day, or in the day of judgment, when the ungodly shall be convinced of all their hard speeches. O! there is a dreadful day coming, though thousands put it far away! From what has been already advanced respecting these fires, let it be observed that, when a man or woman espouses the cause of Christ, every thing of godliness may at that time be in a flourishing condition; as Bunyan says, religion may be in silver slippers. Now it is easy to slide into a profession of Christ Jesus, but to endure to the end in reality is another thing. And therefore such, whether false or true; must expect God's word to be fulfilled; and whether they expect it or not, it really will. And so, more or less, they shall find it that wickedness shall burn as a fire; that persecution and reproach will wax hot, scorch and wither their religion, if not real; that God's word will consume wooden vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; that the burning lusts of the flesh will overcome a false-professor, for, "..when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," that the temptations of Satan, called fiery darts, will penetrate through the wolf that is in sheep's clothing-for some are tempted above that they are able; and that the tongue will be a fire that shall break out, so that they shall not be able to bridle it, but deceive their own hearts, which will prove that their religion is vain. Now, till the trial comes a man may think himself secure, and feel so; but "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." But furthermore: the eighth fire I shall treat of is, afflictive providences. This is called fire. Hence you read of the children of Israel under Pharaoh and the task-masters called the iron furnace. And now to labour in the very fire, and to weary ourselves for very vanity, is no small trial getting in debt and no prospect of paying-a weak tabernacle tottering and trembling-half starved; whereas our enemies, "their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish." I say this is a fire that will try the work of what sort it is, particularly if when we call upon God no answer comes, but He appears to shine on the counsels of the wicked. Asaph tells us that his "feet were almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipped." Then it is that Satan comes with a "Where is now thy God?" "You are one," quota he, "that has talked much about your faith, but where is it now?" Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, or a foot out of joint. "You are," saith Satan, that "unfaithful man"; and your confidence now you are in "trouble is like a broken tooth", you cannot feed on the promises God has made; and it is like "a foot out of joint", you cannot walk to God with your trouble, neither will He appear in your behalf. O how this text has tried me in times past! And though the Lord has so often appeared for me and mine, yet I am slow of heart to believe to this day. Now, I say, this is a fire that will try the work, because poverty is closely connected with persecution and reproach, seeing such are crippled. Enemies will arise more and more, and shoot their arrows, even bitter words, and will say, "God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him." God's children suffer also, if even any of their brethren assist them in a way bf providence, for Satan will suggest that they are those hypocrites that God speaks of, that with fair words are making merchandise of God's children, that go about from house to house. And he will say, "You are not like Paul; he did not eat any man's bread for nought, but you follow Christ for the loaves and fishes; you are deceiving others, and being deceived yourself." I can look back, and well remember when my soul was in a flourishing state, and I also had enough and to spare in providence; and only to survey the trials the Lord has brought me through is wonderful, for I have often concluded I should come to beggary and the workhouse in this world, and perish after all. And I am sure we shall certainly fall, unless we are heirs of promise, for there is nothing to hold us up. "Vain is the help of man!" "Who is lie that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" Ninthly. Providential trials is a fire that will try us, as a fire respecting our love to the brethren. It may not be very difficult for a good man, when he has plenty and to spare, to part with a few shillings, or with a pound at a time to a poor saint; but let the scene change, and let God's hand go out against him in providence, and let him labour in the very fire for all he gets, and he will then find it a hard thing to part with what he gets, even to a real saint, insomuch that he will conclude that his love has only been in word and in tongue, and not in deed and in truth; for Satan will suggest, saying, "If you loved God's children, you would freely part with what you have, and want it yourself. No, no; you are one that can talk about love till the trial comes, and then you draw in, and the cause is this: you are a hypocrite, and are deceiving yourself, and others are deceived in you." And really, what he suggests appears right, for if I do in reality love God's children, will not that love appear in showing kindness to them? yea, even though I may be greatly tried on all hands. But, however, for the encouragement of God's poor, tried, and afflicted family, let the following things be carefully attended to. God's people's hearts, even in these things, are at His own disposal, and therefore He opens and shuts as He sees fit. If they always found an open heart, they would get into self-righteousness, as poor Job did; but God will let them feel that they do not naturally love His people. No, but they (like others) are lovers of themselves; and feeling these things, they are forced to cry to God to give them an open, liberal, generous heart; and when He does this, they will give Him the glory. But this will not continue, and" therefore the heart will soon close again; yea, insomuch that they will be sorry for what they have done, and the reason is, because the old man is put on again. But they may be under the influence of other graces, and yet not feel a liberal heart to God's saints; such as rest, peace, faith, hope, comfort; yes, and love too. Say you, "This is strange!" It may appear so, but I believe that love may be felt, and many more graces; but to show kindness is the effect of this love, and it is a particular display of power in which the grace of liberality appears. Now let me explain myself more fully. Did you never meet with one that you were sure was a child of God; and when you have conversed with him, you have felt liberty and much enlargement of heart, and in the midst of it he has told you of his sore trials in providence; and yourself shall have many sore trials; yet at this time you shall have a shilling in your pocket, that, perhaps, if every one had their own, you would not have. Now though you feel comfortable, and believe that he is a real saint, yet you do not give him that shilling, though likely you could spare it for several days. Now how is all this to be accounted for? Are you not both partakers of God's grace? Yes. But why not part with the shilling? Why, this particular grace of liberality was not in exercise, and yet you found other graces were. I am sure if this is not admitted, we shall cut off many real saints that are grieved at heart that they do not find that free, generous spirit that they can see in others. I hope I am understood. I am not vindicating or pleading for a covetous spirit. No; God abhors such. I am only speaking of the weaknesses of God's children. Now, afflictions in providence is a fire that will try real love not a little. Again. A man may be a partaker of God's grace, and have plenty of this world's goods, yea, it shall be pouring in on him, and yet have trials, fiery trials in providence of others, though none of his own; and this will try him as a fire not a little, particularly if he is naturally covetous; for if he withholds his hands he will have such texts as these come against him: "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Again: "That they be rich in good works," "laying up a good foundation against the time to come," &c. And when James speaks of some that say, "Be ye warmed, and be ye filled," and yet do not give them those things that are needful; I say if such that have plenty keep back, these texts will try them a good deal, if partakers of God's grace. And on the other hand, if they part with it, Satan will suggest, "You will come to poverty, you will give away too much; there is no cause for so much as you gave at such a time, less would have done." If such attend to Satan, and so give less, then God's word finds fault, telling such they should open their hand wide to their brother: so that trials in providence, either of their own or of their brethren in the faith, are a fire that is sure to try all God's family. And however lightly some may think of the subject I am now treating of, to me it appears very weighty, and also a. touchstone to try the reality of things, agreeable to our text: "For the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Now let us come to God's word to prove this. Look at the rich man that came to Jesus, speaking very fair words, and with his tongue no doubt he had deceived many. But as the Lord Jesus is a Refiner, He tried this pretended work that the man thought he was a partaker of, saying, "Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come and follow Me;" and the man "went away sorrowing, for he had great possessions." By all which you may see that man in his fallen state, let him profess whatever he may, if destitute of God's grace, never can and never will let this world go. Again: Ananias and Sapphira in primitive ages went on very fairly till the trial came to sell their possessions, and then they were made manifest. Now two men shall be apparently in close union together; they shall be of one judgment in spiritual things, go to one chapel, and be members of one society of Christians, and both be pretty well off in providence; and none can tell but God that they are not one in heart. However, God, that trieth the righteous is pleased to lay His afflicting, hand in providence upon one of these men, and try him sorely; but the other shall prosper in providence more and more. Now the rich one (not having grace) by degrees shakes off his old friend, and Satan suggests, " If you keep him company he will ruin you and your family, and so they all will, for you see what a poor set they are." The man hearkens to Satan, forsakes God's family, goes amongst them that are well off in providence, and is made manifest not to be that which he once pretended to be. O reader! look well to the groundwork; for, believe me, it is one thing to profess Christ, and another thing to possess Christ; "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." "Demas has forsaken me," says Paul, "having loved this present evil world." But again. The fire of afflictive providence will try the honesty and uprightness of God's children not a little. Now observe, there is in us all a legal, self-righteous spirit, and when we are blessed with much of the grace of God, it teaches us to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world." This is the real effect of the grace of God. But as it is not God's intention that we should glory in the flesh, or boast over others who are weak and tempted, He will sometimes leave us to the workings of the flesh, that we may be kept out of self: and then we find that even common honesty between man and man is God's work, and that if He leaves us but for a moment we are capable of overreaching, taking an advantage, &c.; and He will let it be so at times, to teach some of His people that His grace is one thing, and a self-righteous spirit is another. This humbles them in the dust, keeps them dependent upon God; and many honest confessions go up, and much petitioning will go on, that they may never be left to the spirit of this world, to bring a disgrace on the cause and to open the mouths of the enemies of God to blaspheme. Believe me, it is no easy thing to act honestly between man and man, to those that have life in their souls; for they have got the devil, world, and the old man to cope with, and expect to fall from day to day. Hence Paul calls this very thing an exercise, "to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men;" and trying providences will help this on. Here it is that Satan will come in telling us how suitable such and such things will be, seeing we are so tried; but alas! this is a snare, and will come to no good in the end; for as we measure to others, we shall be measured to ourselves. Hence Agur's prayer is very suitable; "Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." Thus "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." The tenth fire I shall treat of is, the fire of jealousy. This is a very hot fire. Now if we get careless, lifeless, and dead in our profession; if we slight the Lord Jesus and His family; if the world gets hold of us, and we drink into the spirit of it; use our liberty for an occasion to the flesh; set up idols in our affections, and thus backslide from God; He will sooner or later bring us into this fire; and the way this will work will be this; seeing others standing high in God's favour (according to our view of things) and we taken no notice of, but as we think slighted this will stir up rage, anger, enmity and desperation, against the one that we suppose to be a rival to us; for we cannot endure to be cast off, and others have place; but the cause is, as before observed, we have provoked God, who is a jealous God, to jealousy, with false Gods, idols that the devil and our corrupt hearts have set up, and He will provoke us to jealousy even by then that are not His people, as He did Solomon, who therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. Hence He says, "Jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts." "Jealousy," He says, "is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." Jealousy is a composition of love and anger; for if there was no love to God, we should not care about others being high in His favour; and the anger burns against our supposed rival. This is called, and may well be called, the injured lover's hell. Now this fire tries the work of what sort it is. The question is this, which do we in heart love the most, God or idols? and at last, after much furnace-work, we are brought to say, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that we love Thee." You and I are in no danger of getting into this fire all the time Jesus Christ is high in our affections; it is the opposite of this that procures this hot fiery furnacework, and will try us to the quick. The eleventh fire. God the Father in Scripture is called Fire; hence Paul says, "Our God is a consuming fire." God the Son is called Fire. Hence you read, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness." And the Holy Ghost is called fire; hence John says, "He," that is, Jesus Christ, "shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Thus God in three divine Persons, is called fire and so is every minister of the Spirit: "He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire." Now, God will try His own family greatly; and Peter calls it a strange thing that they think happening to them, and so it really appears, but in what sense? I answer, in the following way it really appears to us strange: that God should separate us from this world, and give us a spirit opposed to it; convince us of the evil of our way; the error of our life, the awful state of this world, and the dreadful consequences of living and dying without God and without a good hope; show us our evil hearts, the spirituality of His law, and its unlimited demands, the need of an interest in Jesus Christ, and that there is salvation in no other than Him; and at last to bring us nigh to Himself, show us our interest in Jesus Christ, give us faith in His atonement and everlasting righteousness, and fill our souls with joy and peace in believing; so that we feel dead to this world, and as if we had lost all our corruptions, they seem all gone, and everything does appear right and clear, and we long to go out of this world, fully persuaded in our souls that an abundant entrance will be ministered to us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We look within, and can see ourselves in possession of a good hope through grace. We rest on the everlasting love of God to our souls. We feel peace, rest, quietness, and love to God and His family, so that we are at a point respecting our salvation (and this continued with me a good while) and now we conclude that we shall get more and more spiritual, more holy, and more meet for glory than ever, by living to the honour and glory of God, and bringing forth much fruit. But, alas! the scene is changed, and some or all of the fires I have been treating of we are brought into. All the lusts of the flesh appear in full view, and terrify us not a little. Every species of wickedness that is committed in this world we feel in our nature working up, and expect day after day to put these abominations in practice. This is the fiery trial, the "strange thing" that has happened to us; and we now conclude that the former work, which we thought was God's work, was a delusion; that we were deceived, and that now God' will make it manifest to the world that we were only hypocrites. O this painful path! Our enemies that we triumphed over in God's strength now appear to triumph over us, saying, "Where is now thy God?" and we cannot. open our mouths, but are like dumb men in whose mouths are no reproofs. Add to this, we get in bondage to the law, called a fiery law; as you read, "From His right hand went a fiery law for them." Satan then steps in, and tells us that the son of God never made us free, or we should never get in bondage again, but be free indeed. We are now shut up in bondage, feel a hard heart, and such enmity work against God and His family as frightens us, and we cannot believe that we ever had a grain of real love to God or His family; and such pride and ambition arises as is truly awful. But God is now instructing us by these things more deeply into our fallen estate. Again we try to pray, but are full of confusion; to confess our sins, but know not where to begin, for we appear all sin together; neither can we stay our thoughts upon God. We try to read, but we cannot understand, nor can we know what part of God's word to read. If with God's children, we are not satisfied, for if they are happy, this provokes us to jealousy; that fire then is felt that I was treating of in some measure. But in the midst of all this, God is pleased to visit our souls, and up arises a good hope, love to God, His family, and His truth, and everything appears clear and straight as formerly. Hence David says, "While I was thus musing the fire burned; " his heart was hot within him, and the fire burned. And that, I believe, was the fire of divine love, as the church in the song says, "Ere I was aware, my soul was like the chariots of Amminadab," or God's willing people; and this will go on for a shorter or longer time, and then the scene changes again. God hides His face, and we appear stripped of all that is good again. And thus, as I have described, we shall goon till the day of our death; but at first it appears a "strange thing" happening to us indeed. Again: sometimes we shall feel carnal security and ease for a time, and then in comes a worldly, light, and trifling spirit, and we can joke, and jest, and make free with them that are of a strange language, and this appears strange to us. And now we really conclude that we never were separated in heart from this world, nor from the spirit of it; and when we get by ourselves we do with shame confess all this to God, telling Him how contrary our ways, works, and actions are to His word, which says, "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which is not convenient; " and as we feel an aversion now to these wretched things, and hate ourselves for them, we go in this strength hoping now to keep our mouths shut before the world. But, alas! in five or ten minutes we are gone again into this light spirit, and keep on it against all our light and knowledge as bad as ever. I have been ensnared in this way for weeks together, and this appears strange also, but so it is, and we feel as weak as water. But, again; it appears a very strange thing to us, that God should command so many things in His word to be done by us, and yet leave us to these evil workings within continually, so that we appear to be barren and fruitless all the year round, nothing but cumberers of the ground; and we compare these feelings with God's word, which says, In all manner of holy conversation." Again: "Be ye holy, for I am holy" Zechariah and Elizabeth walked in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord blameless; "He that, is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Now these and many more passages of Holy Writ appear against us, and we cannot make it out, for we appear greater sinners than ever we were. And all this, and much more, is the fiery trial that is to try us. But now it will not be, amiss to show the real use of these fiery trials to God's children, and how the line of discrimination is drawn between them and the ungodly, notwithstanding all their slips, falls, and misgivings of heart, which they feel from day to day. And before I begin, take notice of this one thing; and that is, "God's furnace is in Jerusalem, and His fire is in Zion.". And if you and I belong to God, we never can, and never shall escape these fires in a greater or lesser degree, let our situation in life be whatever it may; and if we do escape in this world, we make it manifest that we are not the elect of God, for God has chosen His people in the furnace of affliction. And as I said, if we escape these fires, then a worse fire will at' last prove that the work -was not real, namely, hell fire. Hence it is called a path of tribulation, and it is said that "many are the afflictions of the righteous." And we have the example of Bible saints now in glory, that came through great tribulation. And now to speak for myself. I have worked with open enemies to God, I have worked, with hypocrites, I have worked with God's children, and, I have worked by myself; and in all these different situations have found this furnace-work as hot as I could well bear it; yes, and As if I should be consumed in it altogether. I have also found it in chapel while under the word preached, and also in, company with God's family when meeting together, walking the street, or shut up by myself, having plenty to live on, or very poor; still God's word stands fast; His fire is in Zion. And now for the uses of this fire. 1. That we may be well taught our fallen state in Adam the first. What is the reason that the Arminians talk about .perfection in the flesh, and living ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years without sin? as I heard a good man once relate, that he heard one of them stand up in a public room, (an old man,) and declare that he had not sinned for I think. twenty years, and if be had he wished his arm to drop off. The cause of all this arises from insensibility, and never having light and life in the soul, never getting into this furnace to know the mystery of iniquity in the human heart. And such are surge to boast; and if we get in their company we can see of what great use. the furnace of affliction has been to us to discover our lost and ruined state; hence the prophet' Isaiah, who was well instructed to know his own heart, says, "As when the melting fire causeth the waters to boil," which plainly shows this fire discovers to us our wretched polluted state; and if you read on in the same chapter, he says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and there is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee; for Thou hast hid Thy face. from us, and hast consumed us (there comes the fire) because of our iniquities." "But," say you, "in what part of God's word are the corruptions of the human heart called waters? because the prophet says," "As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil." I answer, by the same prophet are the corruptions of the heart called waters; hence he says, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." But though God's children can see these foul waters in the wicked, the wicked can never see them in themselves; and God's children, having light and life in their souls, see and feel a thousand times more in themselves, than they can see in the worst characters living, which this fire discovers. And it is the same as when you put a piece of meat in a pot; at first, the water on the top appears clear, but as the fire increaseth powerfully, the scum riseth to the top of the pot. You and I are apt to think we get worse and worse, but the truth is this: we see and feel it more and more than ever we did before. Now, then, it is that all the lusts of the flesh arise, and a love to them, wishing to gratify them to the utmost extent on every suitable object that the devil sets before us; and we fret at times, because we cannot do as our corrupt hearts and the devil would have us, in all lasciviousness, uncleanness, pride, ambition, murder, malice, enmity, revenge, covetousness, selfishness, unbelief, hardness of heart, &c. I am at a loss to describe the aboundings of iniquity that we see and feel working in us from day to day. And I am sure that if a child of God were discovered to another as he is to himself, he would be shut up, and you would never see him in a place of worship, or amongst the saints, from year's end to year's end. Now, here the fire tries the man's work of what sort it is, for all legal hopes, self-righteousness, human confidence, human wisdom, and strength, which the man could boast of before, is now burnt up, and the man appears in his proper fallen state; wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. This was the case with the prophet, and therefore he says, "From the soul of the foot to the crown of the head, we are full of wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores." Job also: "Behold, I am vile!" David: "Born in sin, and shapen in iniquity." Paul also, who before thought that touching the righteousness of the law he was blameless, now cries out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" You see the "melting fire" burning causeth these waters to boil, and was of use to destroy all these fleshly hopes and confidence, and certainly tried the work in these men, as well as it does in all the elect of God, of what sort it is. And when tried it is proved to be of the base sort, and such as God will never own nor honour, for self is at the bottom of it all. 2. The second use of this fire is to discover others to us; I say to discover others to us, for in this fire we learn to read men. And here we are in time brought to a point respecting preachers and professors. If they know their' own hearts as we do, they can describe and dissect it; they can tell us of the path of tribulation, and what an evil and bitter thing sin is; how hard they find it to stand from day to day the sore attacks of Satan, the world, and their own hearts; and that they fear that, after all sin has and will have dominion over them. At times they will tell us of a hope arising in their hearts and of a little faith, peace, and quietness; of love to God, His truth, and His family but shortly this is gone, and iniquity abounds stronger and stronger in them; and their feet are almost gone, their steps well nigh slipped. Then again hope arises, corruption appears gone, and they feel all right, all straight; but, alas! corruption makes head again, and they seem in a worse plight than ever. Do you feel these things, you that call yourselves preachers, teachers, guides? If you do not, we that have had this furnace work can see through you and those that follow you, and are at a point that you are destitute of that good work which will stand the fire; for we know that Satan is not divided against himself. He lets you alone, but fights against God's work. And as neither he, nor the corruptions of your heart, nor the world, oppose you, we know it is not the genuine work of God. You are made manifest to us as Ahithophel was to David; hence he says, " They have no changes, they fear not God." These are the changes I have been writing about; and if you never see and feel yourself in such straits, it is for want of light and life, which is God's work, for all men's hearts are alike. Hence Solomon tells us, that "as face answereth to face in water, so does the heart of man to man. Here it is that all Arminians, Antinomians, Pharisees, Letter Preachers, Bastard Calvinists, as well as all other erroneous men, are clearly discovered. And here it is we are led to discover truth from error in reading of authors; for if they deny the anointing within, or if they cannot describe the fight of faith, we know they are not in the secret, that they never had this fire to try the work of what sort it is. So that it is of use to us 1. To make us to know our own true state. 2. To discover others, in which discovery we find that they are not and never were in the path of tribulation, which all the elect of God are in more or less. Mr. Brooks, of Brighton, used to say that Satan would dispute God's children every inch of the way. I believe it, and the Scriptures abundantly testify the same. See David's Psalms, as well as many other parts of Holy Writ. 3. To teach us to pray to God aright. And hear we discover the folly and emptiness of a form of prayer, bodily exercise, drawing nigh with the mouth, and honouring God with the lip. Were you once a regular formalist? Did you attend your church meeting, &c.? Did you carry your book of prayers in your hand-read them in church, or in your family every night and morning? And has this fire got hold of you to try this work of reading and saying your prayers? If it has, you have found out that the whole of it was solemn mockery; all to be seen of men, to be looked upon as religious characters, singularly devout, and to get a name amongst men. But now the fire has tried it, and you cannot go on in the old way; hence God tells us how His people pray that pray aright: "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call upon My name, and I will hear them." (Zech. xiii. 9.) This is praying to God aright, with the heart, from a deep sense, of our need. Here it was that Peter learned to pray aright "If it be Thou," says Simon to Jesus, "bid me come to Thee on the water;" and the Saviour and he went on for a while till the wind blew hard, and it was very boisterous, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save, or I perish." This was a fiery trial indeed to Peter, and it brought a prayer out of his heart which was answered immediately, for Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? " There are three things that must go together, and that must be found in us. All of which have to do with this fire which I am now treating of, if ever you and I pray to God aright.
Now these three things must go-together, and leave out only one of these, and you cannot pray so as to prevail with God, nor do you pray aright. I have watched these things narrowly, and I have treated largely upon prayer in another part of my books, called The Throne of Grace. 4. The: fourth use of this fire is, to show us the difference between presumption and genuine faith; and this is, evident if. we look at Israel and the Egyptians. Israel had a "Thus saith the Lord" to venture on, but the Egyptians presumed; and presumption is going without a divine warrant but it was the fiery trial in which this faith appeared, and therefore the children of Israel must be hedged in with mountains on either side, and have enemies behind. Now genuine faith shall appear; hence we are told "that by faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Could they not clearly see (those of them that had real faith) the blessed effects of it, and the awful consequences of presumption, after they. got safe over, and saw their enemies every one dead? Surely there mere some amongst them that wondered, and adored the delivering hand of God, and had an opportunity to prove the reality of that faith that had stood the fire. Again. See Hezekiah and Balaam. Hezekiah, God had, begun a good work in him, and into the fire he was put to prove it to himself and others, and dreadful conclusions he drew. Hence he declared, " I shall see man no more in this world nor God in the light of the living. As a lion He will break all my bones, from morning to night will He make an end of me." And it is not to be wondered at that such conclusions are made by God's children, seeing they have a corrupt nature that is so very opposite to the holy nature of God, and calls aloud for divine vengeance; and thus Hezekiah felt it, and calls it "the pit of corruption." I know it is easy to say as many do, O what a bad heart mine is! but I can assure you that to feel it is quite another thing; and to expect to put in practice clay after day what we. feel is truly alarming, as I well know by bitter experience; but God has promised to keep the feet of His saints. Now Hezekiah had a strong faith, hence he told the people, when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came to fight against Jerusalem to "be strong and very courageous; be not afraid, nor dismayed, for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles." (2 Chron, xxxii. 7, 8.) Now here is strong faith. But then if we look at Salaam, he appears to have strong faith also; hence he says, "I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do either more or less." This appears to be strong faith, but it did not stand the fire, for he was manifested to be an enemy to God's saints, and for money would have cursed them all. "Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward," says Jude. But Hezekiah went into the fire, and came out with his faith, and therefore declares, "The living the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day." And what for? Why, "Thou hast brought me up out of the pit of corruption, and cast all my sins behind my back." From all which we see that genuine faith differs much from presumption, because it will come out of the fire; and "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 5. The fifth use of the fire is, to show us what Satan and all our enemies would do if God did not keep us by His own almighty power; and this we may see in poor Job's case. All the time there was this hedge about him, and God was blessing the work of his hands, Satan could do nothing; but God intended to try Job to the end, and therefore the days of affliction took hold of him; and now Satan and his allies show their power, and Job has an opportunity of proving his enemies as well as pretended friends. Job gives us a long account of the malice of these people. (Chap. xxx.) "But now, (that is, now I am in the fire,) they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock." And he goes on and says, "And now am I their song, yea, I am their by-word. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. Because He hath loosed my cord and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. They raise up against me the ways of their destruction;" that is, they raised false reports of Job, and said that he was guilty of that which they themselves were guilty of, and which would terminate in their destruction; as Paul says, "For which things' sake cometh. the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience;" And if we look, at his friends, surely they did not speak right, neither did they understand what God was doing with job. In short, Job had it every way, from friend and foe, young and old; wife, Satan; in body, soul, and circumstances; and here he could see through the flattery of many that before in the days of prosperity was hid from him: for as the Scriptures say, every one will praise thee when thou dost well for thyself. It must be a real friend and real friendship to stand firm in all afflictions, sorrows, trials, troubles, and perplexities. This is hard to find in mortal man. So that this fire will show the power of enemies, and the pretended love of friends; and lam sure that, strictly speaking, there is but one Friend, and He sticketh closer than a brother. And how we have tried Him with our base backslidings, and deep revoltings from Him I and yet He says, "Return, ye backsliding children, I am married to you. I will heal your backslidings, I will receive you graciously, I will love you freely." O! when I consider my abominations, idols, uncleanness, covetousness, hardness of heart, pride, enmity, &c., I am astonished really that I am spared to the present moment, and that He has not cut me down as a cumberer of the ground; but he is longsuffering,, and abundant in goodness and truth, and says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool; " and tells us to take with us words, and turn to the Lord our God; "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mightest be justified." I am sure, when I get to glory, I shall have to sing salvation the loudest, for I see and feel myself to be a very miracle of sovereign mercy and boundless grace. Here I might greatly enlarge, in showing from David, Paul, and others, how the fiery trial has discovered the malice of men and devils, for this is their hour and the powers of darkness; hence they cry out, "God has forsaken him; persecute and take him, for their is none to deliver. And again, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon' Zion," &c. They add to the grief of those whom God wounds; but woe to them that laugh, for they shall weep; but "blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." And I am sure they will, sooner or later, though God may for wise ends cause men to ride over their heads. "For the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 6. The sixth use of this fire is, we learn that nothing can possibly stand but God's work. When I was young in the way, and knew but little then of what I do now, I was foolish enough to think if a man had clear and consistent truth in his judgment, and was a good character, as it respects his outward walk, how could we tell that he was not one of the elect of God? But, alas! there are such peculiar trials, afflictions, and temptations, which God's cause and a profession of His name will bring us into, that I know will try the work to the quick; so that we never can endure, if it is not the good work of God in our souls. And now we will suppose a man to enter into a profession of the Lord Jesus Christ and His cause, and the work that is in him shall be a false work; he shall have much light, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in the Scriptures; he shall have a feigned faith, dissembled love, false peace, false hope, much zeal, and many shall look up to him with wonder. He shall be able to pray in a meeting, and to explain the Scriptures, and shall appear liberal to the cause. Now this being only fictitious, he is still in his sin, never purged, cleansed, pardoned; justified; and when the fiery trial comes on, he has nothing that will stand the fire for the feigned faith only believed in the letter of Scripture, consequently he never believed in heart that he was the sinner that Jesus Christ came to save-I mean he was not a sensible sinner, but assented and consented to the written word, and in this way he took the promises to himself. And thus his faith is in the letter of Scripture, and does not stand in the power of God. In the next place, his love is dissembled, self is at the bottom of all; and let God's family get into sore trials, and that dissembled love is made manifest, for he cannot endure to be burdened with them. It was all very well till they needed His assistance; but now his pretended love waxes cold, and enmity arises, for it was all at the bottom buried deep. And as he himself prospers, so he gets more and more covetous, and persecutes, and at last forsakes the poor in his affliction; and he tries to excuse himself by laying charges against them. If he is told that lie hates Zion, he tries to hide it with a lying tongue. Now his false peace and hope are greatly routed, and he is at times greatly terrified and frightened; but, he goes to those that daub with untempered mortar, and to them he sticks fast; those that are in as good or in better circumstances than himself. But, alas! it is of no use, for there is no place where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. Hence God says, "He that fleeth from the noise of the fire shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the pit shall, he taken in the snare; " "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for what a man soweth, that shall he also reap." And as ,I respects his light, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, what says God's word about that? why, "Take heed lest the light which is in you be darkness; if it be, how great is that darkness!" This never can be our case, if we see all or any part of these four things
This is the true light, attended with life, to feel what f discover, the weight and burden of sin; no power to obey God in His law; a humble hope of God's mercy through Jesus Christ; and at last a comfortable persuasion that He died to save me, vile as I am! Again: had the man knowledge? Knowledge shall vanish away; for he knows not God as a pardoning God, as a justifying God, and therefore his knowledge will never stand the fire. Again: has he wisdom? Real wisdom makes a man wise unto salvation; but he never felt himself lost, and therefore his wisdom and knowledge have perverted him. And lastly, as it respects his understanding; a man may understand all mysteries, but if he has not charity, he is nothing. Real understanding terminates in a real union to Jesus Christ; hence John says, "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Thus you clearly see the vanity of a feigned faith, dissembled love, false hope, false peace, head knowledge, light, wisdom and understanding, that are not really the work of God, however fair they' may appear in the eyes of men, and however they may applaud such, look up to them as wonderful characters, and the work which they pretend to as God's work. Yet when the fiery trial comes, the day to declare every-man's work of what sort it is, such are sure to go down, for nothing can prevent it; and therefore the most awful and dangerous characters are those who are well furnished in the head with gospel truth, and the devil deceived them. with a fictitious experience; for they are full of lightness and levity, and never were in heart separated from this world, nor the spirit of it, nor yet from themselves. Hence you read, "They are lovers of their own selves; " and yet have a form of godliness. But God's work will stand all, fires, which I showed in the beginning of this discourse, and have no cause to go over again. But my reader may be ready to ask me a question, and that is this: "As there is a fictitious work, counterfeited by Satan, as you have shown; how shall I find out whether the work in me is genuine or not,, for I am afraid that I am one of those that the devil has deceived? " You have asked me a hard question; and I am sure that none but God can satisfy you on this head; yet there is a great difference, and if you 'are honest in heart, let me ask you -a few questions, Did you ever tremble at God's word believing it to be against you, and yourself the very awful sinner pointed out? And is this a growing discovery? Do you see and feel yourself worse and worse; less and less able to stand against the sin of your nature? And do you at times feel a cry in your soul to the Lord Jesus to subdue these evils, that sin may not have dominion over you, that His grace maybe sufficient for you, that He would put His fear in your heart? "Yes," say you,:" I have done so in private, and have, as I thought, cried; earnestly to the Lord; but shortly after I have been carried away by the very thing I have been praying against, which makes me conclude that I am deceived; for I read, "Let them not return again to folly;" and again, "Go and sin no, more;" and again, "He that forsaketh his sin shall find mercy." Yes, my friend, it would be very desirable, could it be the case for us to have these texts accomplished in our experience in this world; but depend upon it they never will be in the sense you take them, for then you would be delivered from the old man altogether, which never will be the case till death. Then it is that the Canaanite shall not be in the house of the Lord for ever, but not till then. The reason you are suffered to be thus entangled is, to teach you this text in your own experience more and more: "Without Me ye can do nothing." It is to empty all, and keep you more and more self-emptied, sick at heart of yourself; and you will hate, loathe, and abhor yourself at certain times. And when you feel a change take place if only for five minutes such as a love to God, to His family, His truth, and a humble hope in His mercy, while this influence lasts, you do front your heart forsake sin. But let this subside, and you will find the same troubles, and may be overtaken again and again, for it is God's determination to teach us continually our fallen state, our utter weakness, and the need and necessity of being "watered every moment, and kept night and day." Jabez travelled in this path, and therefore cried earnestly to the Lord, "O! that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coasts; and that Thine hand might be with me, and, that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it might not grieve me." And God granted him that which he requested. But I do not doubt that he needed to cry again - and again, after this, to be kept from evil. This must be admitted, or else Arminian perfection brought in, which is a damnable delusion. Again. Do you find at certain times, though they may be but short, a keen appetite for Jesus Christ, to be washed from all sin in His precious blood? Do you at times hunger and thirst after. His righteousness?. Do you love to hear these things at times spoken .of and preached, and is it food for your soul, though but for a little while? If you say, Yes, this is tasting that the Lord is good - it is tasting that the Lord is gracious. Follow on, and you will in His oven time eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus; and those discoveries will keep going on; namely, you will see and feel yourself worse and worse, and every visit the Lord Jesus Christ gives you, you will. find Him more and more precious, so that you will say with the church, "He is altogether lovely." Again. Is there a thirst in you for holiness? Do you wish to glorify God, and bring forth fruit to the honour of is name? And is sin at times your greatest burden? Can you say with David, "O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes!" If you say, Yes, and can, esteem others better than yourself, it is because you are in possession of God's Spirit, and He has begun a good work in you. And though you may and will totter and tremble from day to day, expecting to fall away, yet God will keep you by His mighty power, and bring you safe through every storm, and land you in that desired haven of rest at last. Yes, fellow traveller, if these things are your experience, I believe you are in the footsteps of the flock. And, thus I have briefly answered your question, and may God make it a blessing to you! "And the fire shall try every man's; work of what sort it is." 7. The seventh use of this fire is, to keep us on our watch-tower. Satan is continually "going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." And you and I are apt to get carnally secure, and I will tell you how we get so; it is as follows. We shall have a sore furnace work, and God appears for this, and delivers us out of it; and we shall feel a thankful heart to Him for the same, and tell others of His delivering hand, how He has appeared, and what He has done for our souls and bodies also. But, alas! we soon forget His works, and after this, perhaps, for a time things shall go more easy; Providence shall smile, our former enemies appear more kind to us, and speak freely to us. We, therefore, now, can joke with them, and get light and trifling, and at the same time not bowed down on account of it, but quite carnally secure. Conscience and God's word will at times find fault, but still we go on; and the more favourable things go, as bodily health, family health, Smiling Providence, people kind, &c., the more this secure state is fed for a time. This is a dangerous state of soul; and now we feel dreadful things rise up, such as covetousness, selfishness, pride, ambition, hardness of heart, uncleanness, Now our besetting sins appear pleasing, and we slip and fall into things that would not be convenient to relate to others. And when this is the case, we suck a sweetness from the lusts of the flesh. Now, in all this we are off our watch-tower; we have entered into temptation, we are ensnared, we have broken the hedge, and now it is by these fires that we are set right, and brought again, as Habakkuk was, to sit on our watchtower; and therefore God is pleased to bring us in the fire again, and indeed we secretly choose it; And I will tell how, it is by my own experience. Then observe. We are brought to consider the many awful characters there are that profess to know God, but in works deny Him; and we begin to fear that we are amongst that unhappy number; and many passages of Scripture will, be meet to our mind and distress us much, such as these, "Promising liberty to others, while themselves are the servants of corruption;" "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity; " "His own iniquities shall take him, and he shall be holden with the cords of his Sin; he shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly shall he go astray;" "Their feet shall slide in due time;" "For if, after they have escaped the pollution. of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus, they are again entangled and overcome," &c. Such as these, and many more, are turned: over in the mind, and we begin to fear and tremble at being left to ourselves, and, having the reins on our own neck, and this brings us to the light. Close examination takes place; a heart to confess our abomination to the Lord is given us; we plead the many promises which He has made, such as these: "From all, your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you:" "I will heal their backslidings;" "Peace be to him that is afar off." And we tell the Lord never to leave us to our selves, nor to Satan, nor in the hand of any man living; to crucify us to the world more and more, that we may, be more dead to it, and kept from the spirit and practices of it. And thus we choose affliction at such a time, and accept the punishment of our iniquity, and God meets us in mercy, melts our hard hearts, subdues our stubborn wills, and we feel humble, and can creep into nothing, wondering at the forbearance and long-suffering mercy of God to such hell deserving wretches. And, now the cross comes on at the back of all this. We feel bitterness arise within, and much bondage, frowning providences; a weak body, afflictions in family, enemies lively and strong; God hides His face, and He walks contrary to us, and sometimes a long while; we go forward, but He is not, there; and backward, but we cannot behold Him; on the right and left hand, but we cannot see Him. No access at a throne of grace, barrenness, deadness, and sleepy under the word preached. We shun, the saints, and feel as if we hated them; we kick, murmur, rebel, and complain, and feel as if we should break through all bounds, ridicule all that is good, and rush into the great transgression. Now blasphemies arise, and run through the mind continually; rash judgment of others works up in the heart, and we expect to take an offence. Our enemies now begin to triumph, for they can see that Samson is bound, and therefore they cry out, "Where is now thy God? " And good men, too, that are shallow in the experience of these things, that have not done business in these waters, they will censure and condemn us, as they did poor Job, saying, "Is not this thy fear, thy hope, thy confidence, and the uprightness of thy ways? Now it toucheth thee, and thou faintest." "Who ever perished being innocent? And where were the righteous cut off?" This comes very cutting from such a quarter; nevertheless, though everything appears against us, and we sink deeper and deeper, being perplexed and driven to our wit's end, yet all this is much better than that carnally secure state which before we were in; and we are brought now to our recollection, stand upon our watch, and are set on our tower, and in this watching we see many things.
I remember that, one night when I was coming home, I had just got beyond Mile-End turnpike, when a great sinking of soul came over me, (many of which I have had,) and despair of God's mercy to me made head. I felt terror and slavish fear; and then thought to myself how cruel it was for any one to wound and distress one that is weak in faith, O! could you and I see the sore conflicts that they have, I am sure it would teach us to be more cautious, and to try "to lift up the hands which hang down, and to say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come, He will come and save you." But as it is highly offensive to the Almighty either to justify the wicked or condemn the just, so here it is that none but God can lead us aright; for this tenderness is not to be an inlet for every hypocrite to creep in at with a fair story, very plausible and dressed up. No, no; for these, to suit their own purposes, will call themselves weak and of little faith. But, alas! they are little foxes: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vine; for our vines have tender grapes." Now these will say to such that speak faithfully, "You make the heart of the righteous sad, whom God hath not made sad." But in so saying they keep back part of the text, for it reads thus, " With lies they make the heart of the righteous sad," &c. So that they must prove two things before they can make their charge good against us: firstly, whether we speak lies or truth; and secondly, whether they are righteous characters or not. And therefore, if I tell a man that if he is never convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and if he is not led by faith to Jesus Christ for pardon and justification, that he will be damned, this is truth and not a lie; and if he hurts and wounds him, and he fights against it, it is conscience which condemns him, not as a righteous character, but for the want of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by this one thing you may come to a decision as to which class you belong; for if you are cut to the heart by a faithful friend speaking home to conscience, if you belong to God you will fall under it; but if not, you will fight against it. Now let me prove this assertion from God's word, for here we must always go. Hence the prophet Isaiah says, "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because they have no light in them." Now then observe, "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under Thee." And again, they are said to fall down, and there is none to help. And He says, "Turn ye at My reproof;" and we find that God's family are brought here. Hence they say one to another, "Come, and let us return to the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up." You see that there is a falling in with what God's word speaks against us, acknowledging the truth of it; and this is sooner or later attended with a humble hope, and a confidence in His mercy. He will heal, He will bind us up; but not so the hypocrite, not so the false professor; no. He kicks at God's word, despises reproof, rejects the counsel of God against himself, hates the light and the children of the light: and therefore, when Stephen spoke home to their consciences, they knew it was truth, and were cut to the heart. But did they fall under it? No; they fought against it, gnashed on him with their teeth, and stoned him to death. Then how stands it, reader, between God and thy soul? Have you been cut by God's Word? And did you fall under it, as the man did whom Paul speaks of, that was convinced of all, judged of all, and the thoughts of his heart made manifest; and he, falling down (mark that, falling down) worships God, and reports that God is in the preacher of a truth? I say, is this thy case, or art thou fighting against it to this day? Look to it, for here is the turning point. Hence God says, "Because I have called and they refused;" not by this do we for, a moment suppose that there is any power in man no, but this is a description of their character. Those that fall under faithful reproof, God works in them to will and to do; and those that never do fall under it, He leaves to the freedom of their own will in their firstborn state. And thus I have, as the Lord has helped me, snowed the tenderness that is manifested in His children to the lambs of the fold, the weak in faith and that it is brought about by these fires and that such will ever fall, under faithful reproof while the others (though they may call it making the heart of the righteous sad) will ever fight against it; and it is the fire that brings, all this about: "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 10. The tenth use. These fires are needful to our praising God aright. It is true that thousands draw nigh to God with their mouths, and honour Him. with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. Now such as these never were in the furnace of affliction. But look at the saints of old, and see whether this was not the case with them. Look at David, and you will find him sinking in the horrible pit, and in the miry clay. But what is all this for? I answer, that he might praise God for bringing him out, for setting his feet upon the rock Christ, and establishing his goings, and putting a new song in his mouth, even praise to our God. Hence he says, "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; Thou broughtest us through fire and through water, and out into a wealthy place." And this is a "wealthy place" when we, from a feeling sense of God's delivering hand manifested in our behalf, are led to bless and praise His holy name: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies." And all this was for a deliverance from these fires. What discovers sin? I answer, a fiery law. What is it that makes men desperate at God's saints? I answer, the malice and wrath of Satan, called fire, working in them against God's family. Arid when God appears for us, and brings us through these and many more fires, it is that we may praise His holy name. Hence He says, "This people have I formed for Myself, and they shall shew forth My praise; " and Solomon in his Proverbs will bear me out. Hence he tells us, "As the fining-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise." Say you, " What can he mean by these words? " I answer, that I believe he means as follows: as the fining-pot for silver is intended to refine it, and the furnace for gold to purify it literally, so is a man by being in these fires emptied of self, and reduced to nothing, finds all his wisdom, strength, and self-righteousness consumed in a furnace of affliction, till at last he has nothing to glory in. And all this is to His praise, that is, God's praise, for He is pleased to fill such with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. Again. You may see the same in Joshua the high priest; he was clothed in filthy garments, and Satan stood at his right hand to resist him. But here again a fiery law discovers his sin, and the wrath denounced against that sin. In the next place, God's word is called fire, and that was against him; for that declares that nothing shall enter the heavenly Jerusalem that defileth; and he was clothed with filthy garments, and Satan stood resisting him with his fiery darts. But as he was an elect vessel of mercy,. and Jesus Christ had undertaken his cause, the order is to "take away his filthy garments;" that is, wash him in the precious blood of Jesus Christ; and when this is the case we are clean every whit; "and clothe him with change of raiment;" that is, bring forth the best robe, the righteousness of Christ, and put on him, as shall be put upon the poor prodigal; and then Satan, is rebuked, and Joshua is called "a brand plucked out of the fire." You need not wonder at such praising God; hence the church breaks out, saying (when she got this change of raiment), "And in that day O Lord, I will praise Thee; though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation!" And this robe is called "being clothed with the garment of salvation, and covered with the robe of His righteousness." Such are "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." Once more. You may see it again in King Hezekiah. It is said that God left him, that he might know all that was in his heart; and this was putting him into the fire to try the work; in which fire wretched conclusions are drawn. Hence he declares, "I shall see man no more in this world, nor God in the light of the living. As a lion He will break all my bones; from morning to night will He make an end of me; " and many other complaints he made. The good Spirit then leads him to a throne of grace; and in answer to prayer the Lord appears, turns his captivity, brings him out, and puts a song of praise in his heart, which you have in the 38th of Isaiah; "O Lord, by these things men live." What things? Why, going into these fires, in which he sees and feels the mystery of iniquity in his. own heart, a sense of God's anger and wrath in the law, and an expectation of going into the bottomless pit. Now "by these things (with many others, as sickness of body, &c.,) men live, and in all these things is the life of My spirit." "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back." "The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known Thy truth, the Lord was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord." You see the use of these fires, that though for the present they are grievous, yet afterwards they yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those that are exercised thereby. I might mention Hannah as another that was in the fire, and brought out. She had been for years vexed in soul with that Peninah, who was very fruitful, while she was barren, which in those days was looked upon as a judgment from God. And no doubt Satan helped on this calamity not a little by his suggestions. However, at last God hears her cry, and gives her Samuel, one of the brightest characters that ever lived, and then you have her song of praise: "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in Thy salvation!" (i Sam. ii. i.) But let it be observed, that spiritual and temporal deliverances must go together; temporal will not do alone, for if God had appeared and given her a son, and yet left her soul in prison, she could not have rejoiced in God's salvation. Let this be noticed particularly, once for all. Thus you see that this fire is needful to our praising God aright. I I. The eleventh use of this fire is to prove our election.If you and I never were in the furnace of affliction in any sense whatever, how can we prove that we are the elect of God, seeing God declares that He chooses His people in that furnace? That is, infinite Wisdom sees, knows, and approves of the furnace of affliction, as the most proper place for them to be at times in, in order to their bringing forth fruit to the honour and glory of His holy name. And suppose that you are never in the furnace, you cannot prove your election from God's word. "But why?" I answer that God says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, and scourge every son that I receive and if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye are without chastening, of which all (God's elect) are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." You and I need these chastisements. We procure all these afflictions to ourselves, for our hearts are unspeakably vile, abominable, and full of uncleanness and deceit; and it is out of love that God lays on the rod, which could we properly see we should bless Him for it instead of kicking, murmuring, and complaining as we do. See the dreadful growth of sin in those that have their own way; and we are the same by nature; and were God to leave us to ourselves, we should put in practice openly what we feel (of sill) working within. This I am grounded in; and therefore what a mercy to be afflicted, chastised, crossed, and our lives made often very bitter, seeing He chastens us for our profit. And to tell you the honest truth, I can find that if I go for any time without furnace work, I get carnal, light, and trifling; can mix with the world, joke, jest, indulge my besetting sins, and suck a sweetness from those things that God's word condemns. But He declares that He will chasten us in measure, and not leave us wholly unpunished; but the rod of God is not on the wicked. Now, as it respects our election, every blessing of a spiritual nature in God's word is connected with these fires. I have already shown you that chastisement goes along with sonship, and we are predestinated to the adoption of sons. Look at faith, and you will see that this is a proof of our election; for "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." But then you read of the trial of faith, that it is tried with fire. Righteousness imputed is a proof of our election. Hence you read that whom He predestinates He calleth and justifieth; and this justification is in the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ. But the fire attends this also, for you read of being persecuted for righteousness sake. God's Spirit is given to the elect. Hence you read, "I will pour my Spirit on thy seed," &c. And such are pardoned, and have God's covenant name, "gracious, merciful; forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." But the fire is joined with this also; and therefore such are reproached and hated of all men for His name's sake. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth on you." And now suppose you have a strong confidence in the letter of God's word, so that you can lay hold of the four things I have mentioned, you understand them, and apply them to yourself. 1, Sonship; 2, faith; 3, righteousness; and 4, the Holy Spirit and God's covenant name; and if you are never chastened, faith never tried, never persecuted by the world or Satan, and never hated for Christ's sake; but the world loves you - how can you prove your election? I say you cannot with truth on your side. Thus it is evident that these fires do try the work of what sort it is; and if it endure chastening; if when tried our faith is found, it is found to praise, honour, and glory; if when persecuted I am not suffered to take an offence, and forsake Christ altogether and if, when reproached and hated, I am brought out again and again, rejoicing in God's covenant name, and can find my head lifted up above my enemies, - all this proves that the work is of God, that it is genuine, it stands the fire, and that I am an elect vessel of mercy: "For the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 12. The twelfth use of this fire is to keep us sensible of our need continually of Jesus Christ in all His office characters. It is not as I once conceived, and that is that if I was once pardoned, justified, and could see and feel my interest in Christ Jesus, that this would be settled, and I should be happy, and have no more trouble about it. No, no; this is not the way, for could this be the case the old man within would work in another way, as Mr. Hart justly observes in his hymn
And so it certainly would; and therefore the Spirit of God will keep us sensible that we are sinners; not sensible that we were so once, and are now righteous and holy characters. No; but sinners, and therefore we need Jesus Christ every day we live, to save us from the love, power, and dominion of sin; for our lusts will strive hard every day in various directions for the mastery. And no longer will they be kept down than while there is, a manifest union kept up between Jesus Christ and our souls. These things I have lived to prove. Hence "His name shall he called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Do you then, reader, expect daily to be carried away with your lusts, your besetting bosom sins? Do they struggle hard against you, and are you often. secretly taken captive by them? If you are, this is a fire indeed but still there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Hence Paul declares "that the evil he would not, that he did." And again, "But I find a law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing (take notice, he does not say it once brought, but it is a continual act) bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members. O wretched man that I am!" &c. And therefore to those that from day to day feel the power sin has over them, there is a "fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for all this sin and for all this uncleanness" that at times they even indulge, which afterwards becomes their grief and burden; for there is a devilish pleasure in certain sins, and they work in us so strong, that we have no rest till we have gratified them, and soon after we are troubled on account of it. O the sore conflicts that God's children have from day to day with this wretched old nature within! Now this is a fire that tries us much; for what can be more trying than from day to day to be expecting to fall, and to disgrace God's cause, opening the mouths of His and our enemies? Surely this is a sore trial. But then it is of great use, inasmuch as we learn somewhat of the worth and efficacious value of the precious blood of Jesus, and that nothing but faith in His atonement can cleanse us again and again from all sin. And what hundreds of petitions are we putting up for an application of His blood to our consciences, which would not go up were we not kept so sensible that we still are the chief of sinners. I am writing from experience; for every day I see and feel myself worse and worse, and that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not in these fires altogether consumed, and because His compassions fail not. But again. It is God's intention to keep us, by these fires, sensible of our need of the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; and therefore, though you once found in your-conscience the sentence of justification, yet you shall find certain times after this that you are accused by law, conscience, and Satan, as well as many ungodly men and hypocritical professors. Mr. Hart truly observes as follows
This is called by Job "a renewing of our witnesses against us;" but if they n |