Chapter 11
Section 11 of A Spiritual Antidote Against Sinful Contagion in Dying Times by Thomas Doolittle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. DUTY 10. Improve Afflictions. Improve afflictions.
If God put you into the furnace, let it be for the brightening of your graces, and for the poaching away of your sin, that you might be more humble, holy, heavenly, not so passionate as before, not so unprofitable under, not so unthankful for the means of grace as before. The great improvement of affliction will be in getting a sanctified use thereof. Be not so desirous to have them removed as to have them sanctified.
A carnal heart would have them removed, but a gracious soul would have them sanctified. Wicked men would have the rod removed, but godly men would desire first to learn the lesson God is teaching them thereby, and afflictions are sanctified and so improved, when, one, you are by them more weaned from the world, and more mortified there too, when you are not so much taken with the pleasures and profits thereof. Two, when you are more diligent to find what is amiss in your soul, and are more sensible of your sin, and more humbled for it.
Three, when you learn obedience by the things you suffer, and walk more close with God, that though before you went astray, yet since you have learned to keep God's commands, when you say to God, show me wherein I have done foolishly, I firmly resolve to do so no more. Four, when heaven is more in your eye and aim, and you make God more the ultimate end in all your actions, and do resolvably seek his glory, and more cordially choose him for your treasure, and esteem him as your chiefest joy.
Five, when God by them makes you more willing to die, not so much to be freed from the affliction itself, the fruit of sin, but from sin the cause of your affliction. Six, when God by them has taught you more patiently to bear greater afflictions now, then you could lesser convictions formerly, and willingly wait God's time of deliverance, and not dare to use any indirect and unlawful means to get from under God's afflicting hand.
Seven, when God has taught you by your affliction to set a higher price upon the mercy, that by your affliction you are deprived of, and more thankfully to enjoy it, and more carefully improve it for God, than before you did, if he give it to you again. If God visit you with sickness, he teacheth you to see what a mercy health is, and that when you are restored you spend your strength in filling up the duties of your place
more than you did before. Eight, when God teacheth you by your afflictions to serve God more cheerfully, and more willingly than you could before in your prosperity, and do God more service with a little health than before you did with more, and if God make you meaner in the world, you honor him more with your little
than you did when you had a full and a plentiful estate. End of section 11
