August 23

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.— Hebrews 3:17.

HERE is a very sad supposition. This is a thing that may come, and, possibly, which the prophet did foresee would come, among other judgments; and it is of all other outward scourges the sorest, most smarting, and most sweeping; cuts off most people, and can least be suffered and shifted. It lieth among the rest in the storehouse of Divine judgments. He who furnished the earth, and gave being by the word of his mouth to all these things, hath still the sole, absolute power of them: they obey his word of command, and, rightly looked upon, in our use of them, and the sweetness we find in them, lead us to him as the spring of being and goodness. He is invisible in his nature; in his works most visible and legible. Not only the spacious heavens and the glorious lights in them, but the meanest things on earth, every plant and flower in their being and growing, yea, every pile of grass, declare God to us.

And it is a supernatural light in natural things to see and taste him in them. It is more pleasant than their natural relish; it is the chief of inner sweetness, the kernel and marrow of all; and they that take not the pains, and have not the skill to draw it forth, lose the far better half of their enjoyments, even of the things of this earth. To think, how wise he is, who devised such a frame, how powerful he who made all these things, how rich he must be who still continues to furnish the earth with these varieties of provisions, how sweet must he be, whence all these things draw their sweetness! But, alas! we are brutish, and in our use of these things, we differ little or nothing from the beast. We are called to a higher life, but we live it not. Man is in honor, but he understandeth it not; he is as the beast that perishes.

Now because we acknowledge God so little in the use of these things, therefore he is put to it, so to speak, to teach us our lesson in the want and deprivement of them, which our dullness is more sensible of. We know things a great deal better by wanting them, than by having them, and take more notice of that hand which hath power of them, when he withdraws, than when he bestows them.

Besides all other provocations, and particular abuses of these things by intemperance and luxury, were it no more than the very neglecting of God in his goodness, this calls for a famine, to diet us into wiser thoughts, and to remind us of our own and all other creatures' dependence on that God whom we so forget, as to serve our idols and lusts upon his bounty. This was the case of Judah and Israel. But when more sparingly fed, and better taught, in the wilderness, those mercies were restored again, and then all acknowledged the dowry of that blessed marriage with himself, which is so far beyond all account. See Hosea 2:8-16.

How wretched ingratitude is it, not to regard and love him in the use of all his mercies! But it is horrid stupidity, not to consider and seek to him in their withdrawing, or in the threatening of it. Few have a right sense of his hand in any thing. They grumble and cry out, but not to him. As in the case of oppression it is said, By reason of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry; they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but none saith, Where is God my maker?—so, of this very judgment of famine, the prophet Hosea speaks, And they have not cried unto me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds: they assembled themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. They did not humbly and repentingly seek to God by prayer, but a natural brutish sense of their wants pressed out complaints; they howled as a hungry dog would do for bread. This is all the most do, in years of dearth, or harvests threatening it. No beast in the mountain or wilderness is so untamed as the heart of man, which, when catched in God's judgments, lies and cries as a wild bull in a net. It is true, they are somewhat nearer sober thoughts in distress; and their grief though merely natural, yet is nearer spiritual grief, than their mirth and laughter; but it must have a touch of that Spirit above, to make it spiritual, to make it change to gold, to turn it to godly sorrow. No scourge carries a power of changing the heart with it; that is a super-added work. Many people, and particular persons, have been beat as in a mortar with variety of afflictions, one coming thick upon another, and yet, are never the wiser, and yet, have not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Therefore, if you be afflicted, join prayer with your correction, and beg by it, that God would join his Spirit with it. Seek this in earnest, else you shall be not a whit the better, but shall still endure the smart, and not reap the fruit thereof. Yea, I believe some are the worse, even by falsely imagining they are better, partly presuming it must be so, and partly, may be, feeling some present emotions and meltings in the time of afflictions, which vanish and presently cool when they are off the fire. Ay, but these two go together to make a happy man; Blessed is he whom thou correctest, and teachest out of thy law.