4. This may well be termed a fiery trial: and though it is not the same with that the apostle speaks of in the fourth chapter, yet many of the expressions there used concerning outward sufferings, may be accommodated to this inward affliction. They cannot indeed with any propriety be applied to them that are in darkness: these do not, cannot rejoice; neither is it true, that the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them. But he frequently doth on those that are in heaviness, so that though sorrowful, yet are they always rejoicing.
III. 1. But to proceed to the third point, What are the causes of such sorrow or heaviness in a true believer? The apostle tells us clearly; Ye are in heaviness, says he, through manifold temptations: ποικίλοις manifold; not only many in number, but of many kinds. They may be varied and diversified a thousand ways, by the change or addition of numberless circumstances. And his very diversity and variety make it more difficult to guard against them. Among these we may rank all bodily disorders: particularly acute diseases, and violent pain of every kind, whether affecting the whole body or the smallest part of it. It is true, some who have enjoyed uninterrupted health and have felt none of these, may make light of them, and wonder that sickness or pain of body, should bring heaviness upon the mind. And perhaps, one in a thousand is of so peculiar a constitution, as not to feel pain, like other men. So hath it pleased God to shew his almighty power by producing some of these prodigies of nature, who have seemed, not to regard pain at all, though of the severest kind: if that contempt of pain was not owing partly to the force of education, partly to a preternatural cause; to the power either of good or evil spirits, who raised those men above the state of mere nature. But abstracting from these particular cases, it is in general a just observation,
That “Pain is perfect misery, and extreme
Quite overturns all patience.”
And even where this is prevented by the grace of God, where men do possess their souls in patience, it may nevertheless occasion much inward heaviness, the soul sympathizing with the body.
2. All diseases of long continuance, though less painful, are apt to produce the same effect. When God appoints over us consumption or the chilling and burning ague, if it be not speedily removed, it will not only consume the eyes, but cause sorrow of heart. This is eminently the case with regard to all those which are termed nervous disorders. And faith does not overturn the course of nature: natural causes still produce natural effects. Faith no more hinders the sinking of the spirits (as it is called) in an hysteric illness, than the rising of the pulse in a fever.
3. *Again, when calamity cometh as a whirlwind, and poverty as an armed man, is this a little temptation? Is it strange, if it occasion sorrow and heaviness? Although this also may appear but a small thing, to those that stand at a distance, or who look and pass by on the other side, yet it is otherwise to them who feel it. Having food and raiment indeed (the latter word σκεπάσματα implies lodging as well as apparel) we may, if the love of God is in our hearts, be therewith content. But what shall they do, who have none of these? Who as it were embrace the rock for a shelter? Who have only the earth to lie upon, and only the sky to cover them? Who have not a dry, or warm, much less a clean abode for themselves and their little ones? No, nor cloathing to keep themselves, or those they love next themselves, from pinching cold, either by day or night? I laugh at the stupid Heathen, crying out
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit!
Has poverty nothing worse in it than this, that it makes men liable to be laughed at? ’Tis a sign this idle poet talked by rote of the things which he knew not. Is not want of food something worse than this? God pronounced it as a curse upon man, that he should earn it by the sweat of his brow. But how many are there in this Christian country, that toil and labour, and sweat, and have it not at last, but struggle with weariness and hunger together? Is it not worse, for one after an hard day’s labour, to come back to a poor, cold, dirty, uncomfortable lodging, and to find there not even the food which is needful to repair his wasted strength? You that live at ease in the earth, that want nothing but eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand how well God has dealt with you: is it not worse to seek bread, day by day, and find none? Perhaps to find the comfort also of five or six children, crying for what he has not to give. Were it not, that he is restrained by an unseen hand, would he not soon curse God and die? O want of bread! Want of bread! Who can tell what this means, unless he hath felt it himself? I am astonished, it occasions no more than heaviness even in them that believe!