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Wherein ye greatly rejoice: That is, in the belief and expectation of which glorious and incorruptible inheritance in heaven, ye now joy and rejoice here on earth; plainly intimating, that a believer may be assured of his title to the glorious inheritance above, and both may and ought to rejoice in it abundantly below.
Observe, farther, By what way and method God brings his people to heaven, it is by heaviness, by affliction, yea, by manifold afflictions. As if he had said, "you that are the present candidates for heaven, the heirs of salvation, must not think yourselves past the rod and the ferula; and that you are to expect nothing but comfort, and to do nothing but rejoice in the hopes of your salvation. But I tell you, you may have need of heaviness before you get to heaven, and of manifold temptations for the mortifying your corruptions, before you enter upon an inheritance incorruptible."
Observe, 3. The supposition made concerning the the necessity of a believer's afflictions: If need be.
Intimating, 1. That we should never feel any affliction from the hand of God, never be in heaviness, if there were not need.
And, 2. That there is need that the holiest in this world should sometimes be made heavy, and that heaviness should be upon them for a season. We should always have calms and fair weather, never any storms and tempests from God, did not our needs call for it. As we need our daily bread, so verily do we need a daily bread, so verily do we need a daily rod, both the rod of God's mouth to admonish and reprove us, and the rod of his hand to chasten and correct us: Ye are in heaviness for a season, if need be, through manifold temptations.
Hence learn, That the trials and afflictions which God exercises his children with, are many, yet they never feel them but when they need them, and then only for a season. As the coldness of the winter kills the weeds in our grounds, so the cold blasts of affliction (under the mortifying influences of the Holy Spirit) kill our corruptions in our souls. Perpetual shinings and fair seasons are reserved for heaven: cold blasts and nipping frosts are needful and useful here on earth: Ye are in heaviness for a season, if need be.
Learn farther, That as God doth not afflict us but when there is need, so he will not afflict us more than there is need. Ye are in heaviness for a season: we shall not be afflicted an hour longer, nor shall our cross be a drachm or a grain heavier, than God thinks needful.
Observe, 4. The happy effect and fruit of the saints' manifold temptations: they all work for their advantage; they receive good and not hurt by them; no more hurt than the gold receives by the fire.
That the trial of your faith: that is, that your tried faith, being more precious than gold. Faith is more precious than gold, because more pure, more durable, especially when purified in the furnace of affliction. A good man is no loser, but a great gainer, by being tried. He, who before had much dross in his, comes out of the furnace as gold, without losing any thing either of its weight or worth; nothing is consumed ut the dross and rubbish of his corruptions. O happy consumption! Grace is not only grace still, but more gracious, yea, glorious, after trial. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Jesus Christ.
Learn hence, That the trial of a Christian's faith in their manifold afflictions and temptations now, will bring abundance of honour and glory to God in the day of Christ; yea, not only to God, but to ourselves. Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment now, will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory then.