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049 - Heaviness through Manifold Temptations · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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  Speaker 1: Section forty eight of Sermons on Several Occasions First Series.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Renee Lacroix. Sermons on Several Occasions,
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  Speaker 1: First Series by John Wesley. Heaviness through manifold Temptations. Now
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  Speaker 1: for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
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  Speaker 1: through manifold temptations. One Peter, Chapter one, verse six. In
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  Speaker 1: the preceding discourse, I have particularly spoken of that darkness
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  Speaker 1: of mind into which those are often observed to fall
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  Speaker 1: who once walked in the light of God's countenance. Nearly
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  Speaker 1: related to this is the heaviness of soul, which is
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  Speaker 1: still more common even among believers. Indeed, almost all the
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  Speaker 1: children of God experience this in an higher or lower degree.
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  Speaker 1: And so great is the resemblance between one and the
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  Speaker 1: other that they are frequently confounded together, And we are
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  Speaker 1: apt to say indifferently, such as one is in darkness,
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  Speaker 1: or such an one is in heaviness, as if they
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  Speaker 1: were equivalent terms, one of which implied no more than
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  Speaker 1: the other. But they are far very far from it.
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  Speaker 1: Darkness is one thing, heaviness is another. There is a difference,
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  Speaker 1: yea a wide and a sensual difference between the former
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  Speaker 1: and the latter. And such a difference it is as
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  Speaker 1: all the children of God are deeply concerned to understand.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise nothing will be more easy than for them to
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  Speaker 1: slide out of heaviness into darkness. In order to prevent this,
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  Speaker 1: I will endeavor to show one what manner of persons
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  Speaker 1: those were to whom the Apostle says, ye are in heaviness,
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  Speaker 1: What kind of heaviness they were? In? Three what were
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  Speaker 1: the causes? And four what were the ends of it?
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  Speaker 1: I shall conclude with some inferences. I am in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, to show what manner of persons those were
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  Speaker 1: to whom the Apostle says, ye are in heaviness. And first,
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  Speaker 1: it is beyond all dispute that they were believers at
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  Speaker 1: the time the Apostle thus addressed them. For so he
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  Speaker 1: expressly says in First Peter one five, ye who are
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  Speaker 1: kept through the power of God by faith unto salvation.
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  Speaker 1: Again First Peter, chapter one, verse seven, he mentions the
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  Speaker 1: trial of their faith much more precious than that of gold,
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  Speaker 1: which perisheth. And yet again, in First Peter one nine,
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  Speaker 1: he speaks of their receiving the end of their faith
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  Speaker 1: the salvation of their souls. At the same time. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: that they were in heaviness, they were possessed of living faith.
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  Speaker 1: Their heaviness did not destroy their faith. They still endured
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  Speaker 1: as seeing Him that is invisible. Neither did their heaviness
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  Speaker 1: destroy their peace, the peace that passeth all understanding, which
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  Speaker 1: is inseparable from true living faith. This we may easily
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  Speaker 1: gather from the second verse, wherein the Apostle praise not
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  Speaker 1: that grace and peace may be given them, but only
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  Speaker 1: that it may be multiplied unto them, that the blessing
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  Speaker 1: which they already enjoyed might be more abundantly bestowed upon them.
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  Speaker 1: The persons to whom the Apostle here speaks were also
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  Speaker 1: full of a living hope. For thus he speaks in
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  Speaker 1: One Peter, chapter one, verse three, Blessed be the God
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  Speaker 1: and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who, according to
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  Speaker 1: his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again, me and you
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  Speaker 1: all of us who are sanctified by the spirit and
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  Speaker 1: enjoy the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ onto
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  Speaker 1: a living hope, onto an inheritance, that is, onto a
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  Speaker 1: living hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fateth
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  Speaker 1: not away, so that notwithstanding their heaviness, they still retained
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  Speaker 1: and hope full of immortality, and they still rejoiced in
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  Speaker 1: hope of the glory of God. They were filled with
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  Speaker 1: joy in the Holy Ghost. So first Peter one, verse eight,
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle, having just mentioned the final revelation of Jesus Christ, namely,
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  Speaker 1: when he cometh to judge the world, immediately adds in
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  Speaker 1: whom though now you see him not not with your
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  Speaker 1: bodily eyes, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and
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  Speaker 1: full of glory. Their heaviness therefore was not only consistent
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  Speaker 1: with living hope, but also with joy unspeakable. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time they were thus heavy, they nevertheless rejoiced with
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  Speaker 1: joy full of glory. In the midst of their heaviness.
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  Speaker 1: They likewise still enjoyed the love of God which had
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  Speaker 1: been shed abroad in their hearts. Whom says the apostle,
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  Speaker 1: having not seen ye love, though ye have not seen
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  Speaker 1: him face to face, yet knowing him by faith, ye
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  Speaker 1: have observed His word, My son, give me thy heart.
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  Speaker 1: He is your God and your love, the desire of
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  Speaker 1: your eyes, and your exceeding great reward. Ye have sought
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  Speaker 1: and found happiness in Him. Ye delight in the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: and He hath given you your heart's desire. Once more.
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  Speaker 1: Though they were heavy, yet were they holy. They retained
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  Speaker 1: the same power over sin. They were still kept from
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  Speaker 1: this by the power of God. They were obedient children,
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  Speaker 1: not fashioned according to their former desires. But as He
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  Speaker 1: that had called them is holy, so were they holy
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  Speaker 1: in all manner of conversation. Knowing they were redeemed by
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  Speaker 1: the precious Blood of Christ, as a lamb without spot
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  Speaker 1: and without blemish. They had, through the faith and hope
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  Speaker 1: which they had in God, purified their souls by the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: so that upon the whole their heaviness well consisted with faith,
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  Speaker 1: with hope, with love of God and Man, with the
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  Speaker 1: Peace of God, with joy in the Holy Ghost, with
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  Speaker 1: inward and outward holiness. It did no way impair, much
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  Speaker 1: less destroy, any part of the work of God in
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  Speaker 1: their hearts. It did not at all interfere with that
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  Speaker 1: sanctification of the Spirit, which is the root of all
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  Speaker 1: true obedience, neither with the happiness which must needs result
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  Speaker 1: from grace and peace reigning in the heart. Hence we
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  Speaker 1: may easily learn what kind of heaviness they were in.
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  Speaker 1: The second thing which I shall endeavor to show. The
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  Speaker 1: word in the original is leupitheentes made sorry, grieved from
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  Speaker 1: lupe grief or sorrow. This is the constant literal meaning
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  Speaker 1: of the word, and this being observed, there is no
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  Speaker 1: ambiguity in the expression, nor any difficulty in understanding it.
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  Speaker 1: The persons spoken of here were grieved. The heaviness they
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  Speaker 1: were in was neither more nor less than the sorrow
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  Speaker 1: or grief, a passion which every child of man is
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  Speaker 1: well acquainted with. It is probable our translators rendered it heaviness,
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  Speaker 1: though a less common word, to denote two things, first
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  Speaker 1: the degree, and next the continuance of it. It does
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  Speaker 1: indeed seem that it is not a slight or inconsiderable
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  Speaker 1: degree of grief which is here spoken of, but such
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  Speaker 1: as makes a strong impression upon and sinks deep into
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  Speaker 1: the soul. Neither does this appear to be a transient
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  Speaker 1: sorrel such as passes away in an hour, but rather
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  Speaker 1: such as having taken fast hold of the heart is
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  Speaker 1: not presently shaken off, but continues for some time as
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  Speaker 1: a settled temper rather than a passion, even in them
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  Speaker 1: that have living faith in Christ and the genuine love
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  Speaker 1: of God in their hearts. Even in these this heaviness
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  Speaker 1: may sometimes be so deep as to overshadow the whole soul,
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  Speaker 1: to give a color, as it were, to all the affections,
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  Speaker 1: such as will appear in the whole behavior. It may
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  Speaker 1: likewise have an influence over the body, particularly in those
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  Speaker 1: that are either of a naturally weak constitution or weakened
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  Speaker 1: by some accidental disorder, especially of the nervous kind. In
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  Speaker 1: many cases we find the corruptible body presses down the soul.
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  Speaker 1: In this the soul rather presses down the body and
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  Speaker 1: weakens it more and more. Nay, I will not say
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  Speaker 1: that deep and lasting sorrow of heart may not sometimes
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  Speaker 1: weaken a strong constitution and lay the foundation of such
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  Speaker 1: bodily disorders as are not easily removed. And yet all
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  Speaker 1: this may consist with a measure of that faith which
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  Speaker 1: still worketh by love. This may well be termed a
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  Speaker 1: fiery trial. And though it is not the same with
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  Speaker 1: that the apostle speaks of in the fourth chapter fors
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  Speaker 1: Peter four. Yet many of the expressions they are used
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  Speaker 1: concerning outward sufferings may be accommodated to this inward affliction.
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  Speaker 1: They cannot, indeed, with any propriety, be applied to them
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  Speaker 1: that are in darkness. These do not cannot rejoice. Neither
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  Speaker 1: is it true that the spirit of glory and of
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  Speaker 1: God resteth upon them. But He frequently doth on those
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  Speaker 1: that are in heaviness, so that those sorrowful, Yet are
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  Speaker 1: they always rejoicing? But to proceed to the third point,
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  Speaker 1: what are the causes of such sorrow or heaviness in
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  Speaker 1: a true believer? The apostle tells us clearly, ye are
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  Speaker 1: in heaviness, says he, through manifold temptations, Poetchilios are manifold,
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  Speaker 1: not only many in number, but of many kinds. They
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  Speaker 1: may be varied and diversified a thousand ways by the
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  Speaker 1: change or addition of numberless circumstances, And this very diversity
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  Speaker 1: and variety makes it more difficult to guard against them.
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  Speaker 1: Among these we may rank all bodily disorders, particularly acute diseases,
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  Speaker 1: and violent pain of every kind, whether affecting the whole
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  Speaker 1: body or the smallest part of it. It is true,
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  Speaker 1: some who have enjoyed uninterrupted health and have felt none
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  Speaker 1: of these, may make light of them and wonder that
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  Speaker 1: sickness or pain of body should bring heaviness upon the mind.
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  Speaker 1: And perhaps one in a thousand is of so peculiar
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  Speaker 1: a constitution as not to feel pain like other men?
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  Speaker 1: So hath it pleased God to show his almighty power
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  Speaker 1: by producing some of these prodigies of nature who have
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  Speaker 1: seemed not to regard pain at all, though of the
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  Speaker 1: severest kind, if that contempt of pain was not owing
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  Speaker 1: partly to the force of education, partly to a preternatural cause,
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  Speaker 1: to the power either of good or evil spirits, who
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  Speaker 1: raised those men above the state of mere nature. But
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  Speaker 1: abstracting from these particular cases, it is in general a
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  Speaker 1: just observation that pain is perfect misery, and extreme quite
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  Speaker 1: overturns all patients. And even where this is prevented by
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  Speaker 1: the grace of God, where men do possess their souls
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  Speaker 1: in patience, it may nevertheless occasion much inward heaviness, the
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  Speaker 1: soul sympathizing with the body. All diseases of long continuance,
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  Speaker 1: though less painful, are apt to produce the same effect
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  Speaker 1: when God appoints over us consumption or the chilling and
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  Speaker 1: burning ague. If it be not speedily removed, they will
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  Speaker 1: not only consume the eyes, but cause sorrow of heart.
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  Speaker 1: This is eminently the case with regard to all those
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  Speaker 1: which are termed nervous disorders. And faith does not overturn
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  Speaker 1: the course of nature. Natural causes still produce natural effects.
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  Speaker 1: Faith no more hinders the sinking of the spirits, as
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  Speaker 1: it is called in an hysteric illness, than the rising
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  Speaker 1: of the pulse in a fever. Again, when calamity cometh
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  Speaker 1: as a whirlwind, and poverty as an armed man, is
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  Speaker 1: this a little temptation? Is it strange if it occasions
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and heaviness? Although this also may appear but a
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  Speaker 1: small thing to those who stand at a distance, or
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  Speaker 1: who look and pass by on the other side, yet
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  Speaker 1: it is otherwise to them who feel it having food
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  Speaker 1: and raiment. Indeed, the latter word skipasnata, implies lodging as
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  Speaker 1: well as apparel. We may, if the love of God
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  Speaker 1: is in our hearts, be therewith content. But what shall
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  Speaker 1: they do who have none of these who, as it were,
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  Speaker 1: embraced the rock for a shelter, who have only the
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  Speaker 1: earth to lie upon, and only the sky to cover them,
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  Speaker 1: who have not a dry or warm, much less a
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  Speaker 1: clean abode for themselves and their little ones, know nor
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  Speaker 1: clothing to keep themselves or those they love next themselves
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  Speaker 1: from pinching coal, either by day or night. I laugh
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  Speaker 1: at the stupid heathen crying out nil habit gillis pauperatos
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  Speaker 1: duartus tensei quam quad neduculos amenies facet has poverty. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: worse in it than this, that it make men liable
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  Speaker 1: to be laughed at. It is a sign this idle
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  Speaker 1: poet talked by wrote of the things which he knew
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  Speaker 1: not is not want of food, something worse than this.
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  Speaker 1: God pronounced it as a curse upon man, that he
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  Speaker 1: should earn it by the sweat of his brow. But
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  Speaker 1: how many are there in this Christian country that toil
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  Speaker 1: and labor and sweat, and have it not at last,
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  Speaker 1: but struggle with weariness and hunger together? Is it not
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  Speaker 1: worse for one, after an hard day's labor, to come
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  Speaker 1: back to a poor, cold, dirty, uncomfortable lodging, and to
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  Speaker 1: find there not even the food which is needful to
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  Speaker 1: repair his wasted strength. You that live at ease in
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  Speaker 1: the earth, that want nothing but other eyes to see,
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  Speaker 1: ears to hear, and hearts to understand how well God
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  Speaker 1: has dealt with you? Is it not worse to seek
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  Speaker 1: bread day by day and find none? Perhaps to find
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  Speaker 1: the comfort also of five or six children crying for
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  Speaker 1: what he has not to give, Where not that he
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  Speaker 1: is restrained by an unseen hand, would he not soon
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  Speaker 1: curse God and die all want of bread? Want of bread?
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  Speaker 1: Who can tell what this means unless he hath felt
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  Speaker 1: it himself. I am astonished at occasions no more than heaviness,
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  Speaker 1: even in them the belief. Perhaps next to this we
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  Speaker 1: may place the death of those who were near and
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  Speaker 1: dear unto us, of a tender parent, and one not
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  Speaker 1: much declined into the veil of years, of a beloved child,
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  Speaker 1: just rising into life and clasping about our heart, of
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  Speaker 1: a friend that was as our own soul. Next the
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  Speaker 1: grace of God, the last best gift of heaven, and
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  Speaker 1: a thousand circumstances may enhance distress. Perhaps the child the
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  Speaker 1: friend died in our embrace, perhaps was snatched away when
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  Speaker 1: we look not for it, flourishing, cut down like a flower.
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  Speaker 1: In all these cases we not only may, but ought
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  Speaker 1: to be affected. It is the design of God that
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  Speaker 1: we should. He would not have a stocks and stones,
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  Speaker 1: he would have our affections regulated, not extinguished. Therefore, nature, unreproved,
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  Speaker 1: may drop a tear. There may be sorrow without sin,
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  Speaker 1: a still deeper sorrow we may feel for those who
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  Speaker 1: are dead while they live on account of the unkindness,
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  Speaker 1: ingratitude apostasy of those who were united to us in
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  Speaker 1: the closest ties. Who can express what a lover of
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  Speaker 1: souls may feel for a friend, a brother dead to God,
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  Speaker 1: for an husband, a wife, a parent, a child rushing
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  Speaker 1: into sin as an horse into the battle, and in
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  Speaker 1: spite of all arguments and purson Suasians, hasting to work
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  Speaker 1: out his own damnation. And this anguish of spirit may
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  Speaker 1: be heightened to an inconceivable degree by the consideration that
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  Speaker 1: he who is now posting to destruction once ran well
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  Speaker 1: in the way of life. Whatever he was in time
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  Speaker 1: past serves now to no other purpose than to make
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  Speaker 1: our reflection on what he is more piercing and afflictive.
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  Speaker 1: In all these circumstances, we may be assured our great
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  Speaker 1: adversary will not be wanting to improve his opportunity. He
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  Speaker 1: who is always walking about seeking whom he may devour,
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  Speaker 1: will then especially use all his power, all his skill,
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  Speaker 1: if haply he may gain any advantage over the soul
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  Speaker 1: that is already cast down. He will not be sparing
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  Speaker 1: of his fiery darts, such as are most likely to
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  Speaker 1: find an entrance and to fix most deeply in the
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  Speaker 1: heart by their suitableness to the temptation that assaults it.
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  Speaker 1: He will labor to unbelieving or blasphemous or repining thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: He will suggest that God does not regard, does not
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  Speaker 1: govern the earth, or at least that he does not
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  Speaker 1: govern it aright, not by the rules of justice and mercy.
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  Speaker 1: He will endeavor to stir up the heart against God,
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  Speaker 1: to renew our natural enmity against him. And if we
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  Speaker 1: attempt to fight him with his own weapons, if we
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  Speaker 1: begin to reason with him, more and more heaviness will
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  Speaker 1: undoubtedly ensue, if not utter darkness. It has been frequently
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  Speaker 1: supposed that there is another cause, if not of darkness,
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  Speaker 1: at least of heaviness, namely God's withdrawing himself from the soul,
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  Speaker 1: because it is his sovereign will certainly he will do
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  Speaker 1: this if we grieve his Holy Spirit, either by outward
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  Speaker 1: or inward sin, either by doing evil or neglecting to
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  Speaker 1: do good, by giving way either to pride or anger,
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  Speaker 1: to spiritual sloth, to foolish desire, or inordinate affection. But
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  Speaker 1: that he ever withdraws himself because he will merely because
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  Speaker 1: it is his good pleasure. I absolutely deny. There is
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  Speaker 1: no text in all the Bible which gives any color
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  Speaker 1: for such a supposition. Nay, it is a supposition contrary
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  Speaker 1: not only to many particular texts, but to the whole
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  Speaker 1: tenure of scripture. It is repugnant to the very nature
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  Speaker 1: of God. It is utterly beneath his majesty and wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: As an eminent writer strongly expresses it, to play at
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  Speaker 1: bo peep with his creatures. It is inconsistent both with
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  Speaker 1: His justice and mercy, and with the sound experience of
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  Speaker 1: all his children. One more cause of heaviness is mentioned
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  Speaker 1: by many of those who are termed mystic authors, and
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  Speaker 1: the notion has crept in I know not how even
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  Speaker 1: among plain people who have no acquaintance with them. I
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  Speaker 1: cannot better explain this than in the words of a
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  Speaker 1: late writer who relates this as her own experience. I continued,
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  Speaker 1: so so happy in my beloved, that although I should
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  Speaker 1: have been forced to live a vagabond in a desert,
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  Speaker 1: I should have found no difficulty in it. This state
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  Speaker 1: had not lasted long, when in effect I found myself
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  Speaker 1: led into a desert. I found myself in a forlorn condition,
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  Speaker 1: altogether poor, wretched, and miserable. The proper source of this
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  Speaker 1: grief is the knowledge of ourselves, by which we find
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  Speaker 1: that there is an extreme unlikeness between God and us.
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  Speaker 1: We see ourselves most opposite to Him, and that our
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  Speaker 1: inmost soul is entirely corrupted, depraved, and full of all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of evil and malignity of the world, and the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: and all sorts of abominations. From hence it has been
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  Speaker 1: inferred that the knowledge of ourselves, without which we should
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  Speaker 1: perish everlastingly, must, even after we have attained justifying faith,
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  Speaker 1: occasion the deepest heaviness. But upon this I would observe
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  Speaker 1: one in the preceding paragraph, when this writer says, hearing
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  Speaker 1: I had not a true faith in Christ, I offered
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  Speaker 1: myself up to God and immediately felt his love. It
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  Speaker 1: may be so and Yet it does not appear that
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  Speaker 1: this was justification. It is more probable it was no
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  Speaker 1: more than what are usually termed the drawings of the Father.
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  Speaker 1: And if so, the heaviness and darkness which followed was
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  Speaker 1: no other than conviction of sin, which, in the nature
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  Speaker 1: of things, must proceed that faith, whereby we are justified. Two.
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  Speaker 1: Suppose she was justified almost the same moment she was
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  Speaker 1: convinced of wanting faith. There was then no time for
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  Speaker 1: that gradually increasing self knowledge which uses to precede justification.
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  Speaker 1: In this case, Therefore it came after, and was probably
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  Speaker 1: the more severe the less it was expected. Three, it
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  Speaker 1: is allowed, there will be a far deeper, a far clearer,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and fuller knowledge of our inbred sin, of our total
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: corruption by nature, after justification, than ever there was before it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: But this need not occasion darkness of soul. I will
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: not say that it must bring us into heaviness. Were
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it so, the apostle would not have used that expression.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: If need be, for there would be an absolute, indispensable
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: need of it for all that would know themselves. That
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: is an effect for all that would know the perfect
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: love of God and be thereby made meet to be
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. But
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: this is by no means the case. On the contrary,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: God may increase the knowledge of ourselves to any degree,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and increase in the same proportion the knowledge of Himself
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and the experience of His love. And in this case
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: there would be no desert, no misery, no forlorn condition,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: but love and peace and joy gradually springing up into
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: everlasting life. For what ends, then, which was the fourth
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: thing to be considered? Does God permit heaviness to befall
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: so many of his children? The Apostle gives us a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: plain and direct answer to this important question, that the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: trial of their faith, which is much more precious than gold,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, may be
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: found onto praise and honor and glory at the revelation
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. First Peter, Chapter one, verse seven. There
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: may be an allusion to this in that well known
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: passage of the fourth chapter, although it primarily relates to
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: quite another thing, as has been already observed, Think it
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: but rejoice that ye are partakers of the sufferings of Christ.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: That when His glory shall be revealed, you may likewise
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: rejoice with exceeding great joy. First Peter, Chapter four, verse twelve.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Hence we learn that the first and great end of
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: God's permitting the temptations which bring heaviness on his children
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: is the trial of their faith, which is tried by these,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: even as gold by the fire. Now we know, gold
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: tried in the fire is purified thereby is separated from
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: its dross. And so is faith in the fire of temptation.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: The more it is tried, the more it is purified. Yea,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and not only purified, but also strengthened, confirmed, increased abundantly
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: by so many more proofs of the wisdom and power,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the love and faithfulness of God. This, then, to increase
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: our faith, is one gracious end of God's permitting those
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: manifold temptations. They serve to try to purify, to confirm
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and increase that living hope. Also where unto the God
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, hath begotten us
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: again of his abundant mercy. Indeed, our hope cannot but
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: increase in the same proportion with our faith. On this
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: foundation it stands believing in His name. Living by faith
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: in the Son of God, we hope, for we have
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: a confidence expectation of the glory which shall be revealed.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And consequently, whatever strengthens our faith increases our hope. Also
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: at the same time it increases our joy in the Lord,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: which cannot but attend and hope full of immortality. In
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: this view, the Apostle exhorts believers in the other chapter,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: rejoice that ye are partakers of the sufferings of Christ.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: On this very account, happy are you. For the spirit
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of glory and of God resteth upon you, And hereby
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: ye are enabled, even in the midst of sufferings, to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. They rejoice
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the more because the trials which increase their faith and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: hope increase their love, also, both their gratitude to God
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: for all his mercies and their good will to all mankind. Accordingly,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the more deeply sensible they are of the loving kindness
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of God their Savior, the more is their heart inflamed
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: with love to Him who first loved us. The clearer
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and stronger evidence they have of the glory that shall
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: be revealed. The more do they love Him who hath
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: purchased it for them and given them the earnest thereof
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in their hearts. And this, the increase of their love,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: is another end of the temptations permitted to come upon them.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Yet another is there advanced in holiness, holiness of heart,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and holiness of conversation, the latter naturally resulting from the former,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: For a good tree will bring forth good fruit and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: all inward. Holiness is the immediate fruit of the faith
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: that worketh by love. By this, the blessed Spirit purifies
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the heart from pride self will passion, from love of
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the world, from foolish and hurtful desires, from vile and
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: vain affections. Besides that, sanctified afflictions have, through the grace
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of God, an immediate and direct tendency to holiness. Through
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the operation of His spirit, they humble more and more
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and abase the soul before God. They calm and meet
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: in our turbulent spirit, tame the fierceness of our nature,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: soften our obstinacy and self, will crucify us to the world,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and bring us to expect all our strength from and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to seek all our happiness in God. And all these
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: terminate in that great end that our faith, hope, love,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and holiness may be found, if it doth not yet
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: appear unto praise from God himself, and honor from men
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and angels, and glory assigned by the Great Judge to
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: all that have endured unto the end. And this will
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: be assigned in that awful day to every man according
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: to his works, according to the work which God hath
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: wrought in his heart, and the outward works which He
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: has wrought for God, and likewise according to what he
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: had suffered, so that all these trials are unspeakable gain.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: So many ways do these light afflictions, which are but
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: for a moment, work out for us a far more
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Add to this the
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: advantage which others may receive by seeing our behavior under affliction,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: we find by experience example frequently makes a deeper impression
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: upon us than precept And what examples have a stronger
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: influence not only on those who are hearttakers of light
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: precious faith, but even on them who have not known
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: God than that of the soul, calm and serene in
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the mist of storms, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, meekly, accepting
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: whatever is the will of God, however grievous it may
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: be to nature, saying, in sickness and pain, the cup
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: it in loss or want? The Lord gave the Lord
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I am to conclude with some inferences, And first, how
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: wide is the difference between darkness of soul and heaviness,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: which nevertheless are so generally confounded with each other even
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: by experienced Christians. Darkness or the wilderness state, implies a
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: total loss of joy in the Holy ghost. Heaviness does not.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: In the midst of this we may rejoice with joy unspeakable.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: They that are in darkness have lost the peace of God.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: They that are in heaviness have not so far from
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: it that at the very time, peace as well as
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: grace may be multiplied onto them. In the former, the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: love of God is waxed cold, if it be not
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: utterly extinguished. In the latter, it retains its full force,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: or rather increases daily. And these faith itself, if not
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: totally lost, is however grievously decayed. Their evidence and conviction
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of things not seen, particularly of the pardoning love of
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: God is not so clear or strong as in times past,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: and their trust in Him is proportionably weakened. Those though
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: they see him not yet have a clear, unshaken confidence
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in God and an abiding evidence of that love, whereby
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: all their sins are blotted out. So that as long
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: as we can distinguish faith from unbelief, hope from despair,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: peace from war, the love of God from the love
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: of the world, we may infallibly distinguish heaviness from darkness.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: We may learn from hence secondly, that there may be
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: need of heaviness, but there can be no need of darkness.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: There may be need of our being in heaviness for
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a season in order to the ends above. Recite it
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: at least in this sense, as it is a natural
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: result of those manifold temptations which are needful to try
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and increase our faith, to confirm and enlarge our hope,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to purify our heart from all unholy tempers, and to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: perfect us in love. And by consequence, they are needful
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: in order to brighten our crown and add to our
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: eternal weight of glory. But we cannot say that darkness
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: is needful in order to any of these ends, it
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: is no way conducive to them. The loss of faith, hope,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: love is surely neither conducive to holiness nor to the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: increase of that reward in heaven, which will be in
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: proportion to our holiness on earth. From the Apostle's manner
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of speaking, we may gather thirdly that even heaviness is
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: not always needful now for a season, if need be so,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: it is not needful for all persons, nor for any
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: person at all times. God is able. He has both
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: power and wisdom to work when he pleases the same
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: work of grace in any soul by other means, and
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in some instances he does so. He causes those whom
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: it pleaseth him to go on from strength to strength,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: even till they perfect holiness in his fear, with scarce
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: any heaviness at all, as having an absolute power over
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the heart of man and moving all the springs of
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: it at his pleasure. But these cases are rarer. God
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: generally sees good to try acceptable man in the furnace
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of affliction, so that manifold temptations and heaviness more or
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: less are usually the portion of His dearest children. We
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: ought therefore, lastly, to watch and pray, and use our
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: utmost endeavors to avoid falling into darkness. But we need
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: not be solicitous how to avoid, so much as how
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to improve by heaviness. Our great care should be so
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: as to behave ourselves under it, so to wait upon
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the Lord therein that it may fully answer all the
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: design of his love, in permitting it to come upon us,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: that it may be a means of increasing our faith,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: of confirming our hope, of perfecting us in holiness. Whenever
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: it comes. Let us have an eye to these grecious
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: ends for which it is permitted, and use all diligence
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: that we may not make void the counsel of God
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: against ourselves. Let us earnestly work together with Him by
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the grace which he is continually giving us, in purifying
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: ourselves from all pollution, both of flesh and spirit, and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: daily growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: till we are received into His everlasting Kingdom. End of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: section forty eight. Recording by Renee Lacual Woodstock, Ontario, Canada.