Affliction Compared to Heat

    AFFLICTION COMPARED TO HEAT

    "Where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon" Song 1:7.

    "A shadow from the Heat" &c., Isa 25:4.

    "And when the sun was up, they were scorched" Mt 13:6.

    THE Afflictions and sorrows of the godly are set forth by extremes, by extreme cold, frosts, &c., and then again by extreme Heat: both are grievous to be borne and endured. Their effects are such, that they aptly illustrate the miseries of the Lord's people in this world. By the Heat, or hot and scorching beams of the sun, in Mt 13:6, our Saviour himself showeth, is meant persecution, verse 21.

    PARALLELS.

    I. NATURAL Heat is from heaven, it is occasioned by the scorching beams of the sun, the earth naturally being cold: "So Afflictions come not out of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground," &c., Job 5:6-7. Though the meritorious cause of all our sufferings is our sin, and so materially they are from ourselves; yet the Lord is the efficient cause of them: is there any evil in the city and I have not done it?

    II. Great Heat, or the continual scorching beams of the sun, are grievous to be borne: so sore Afflictions, and fiery trials, are grievous to God's people, I mean their fleshly part: "No Affliction for the present seems joyous, but grievous,"&c., Heb 12:11.

    III. In a time of great Heat, or in the hottest time of the day, in very hot countries, great labour is unpleasant, and very hard to be undergone: so it is hard to labour and bear heavy burdens in God's vineyard, viz., to stand up for, and maintain the truth, in a time of hot persecution, as many faithful servants of God found by experience in the Marian days, &c.

    IV. Great Heat, or the continual scorching beams of the sun, quickly fade, consume, and spoil the beauty of the body: so cruel sufferings and persecutions spoil the outward beauty of the Church, making her look very black and deformed in the eyes of the world, which made the spouse to cry out, "I am black,"&c., which she attributed to the vehement and scorching sun-beams of persecution: "The sun hath looked upon me,"Song 1:5-6. And as persecution seems to mar the external beauty of the Church and people of God, rendering them the most miserable people in the world to a carnal eye: so likewise other Afflictions have the like effect upon the body: "My skin," saith Job, "is black upon me, and my bones are burnt with Heat," Job 30:30. The skin, and external beauty cannot hold its own against the ill effects of a disease, especially if lasting: "When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for his iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth,"&c., Ps 39:11.

    V. The scorching Heat of the sun is but for a short time, in the heat of the day; so the persecution lasts but for a short time: "Our Afflictions which are but for a moment,"&c. "Sorrow may continue for a night, but joy shall be in the morning,"&c.

    VI. In the time of Heat, and hot scorchings of the sun, men use to betake themselves to some shadowy places for refreshment: so in the day of Affliction, and hot persecution, the Church of God, and each sincere Christian, hath a shadowy place to retire unto; God affords sweet refreshment to his suffering saints.

    VII. In a time of great Heat, the fruits of the earth, and many green things are dried up, and withered away, and a famine many times follows: so by the means of a hot and cruel persecution, many Christians, who seemed zealous for God, and to have much greenness upon them, in a day of liberty and prosperity, are dried up, like the fruitless fig-tree, and wither away; and also sometimes a famine of the word follows.

    VIII. In a time of great Heat and drought, those trees that are planted by the watercourses flourish sweetly notwithstanding: so all faithful and sincere Christians, in the hottest time of persecution, shall flourish, and not cease from yielding fruit: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord. For he shall be as a tree planted by the water-side, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when Heat cometh; but her leaf shall be green, and she shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither cease from yielding fruit," Jer 17:18.