An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

In the fourth place, I conceive that the most genuine answer is, That Paul doth here speak of his trouble according to the sense and apprehension of his flesh; even as afterwards he saith, It was above his strength, that is, his humane, natural strength, as will appear afterwards. If therefore flesh and blood be consulted with, then Paul saith, It is an affliction above measure; but then at vers. 17. of the 2 Cor. 4. as also in other places, he speaketh according to the workings of faith, and the operations of Gods Spirit within him. So that a godly man speaketh one thing according to the flesh, and another thing according to the Spirit. That is bitter and heavy to the flesh, which may be sweet ¹and welcome to the Spirit. From whence observe,

1. 1Godly men judge otherwise of their afflictions from sense and flesh, then from grace and reason.

That godly men judge otherwise of their afflictions by the principles of sense and flesh in them, then they do by the principles of grace and reason in them.

Paul calleth it, An affliction above measure, in the lower sphere of nature; but again he calleth it, A light one, in the higher sphere of grace. Even as an Astronomer, beholding the Sun with his bodily eye, judgeth it less than the Earth; but then again, beholding it with the instruments of Art, doth conclude, that it is many degrees bigger than the Earth. Thus the godly man, while he thinketh and speaketh according to the law of the flesh within him, he crieth out of his burdens, he is discontented at them, he look at them as destructive: but then again, when the same man considereth them by the principles of faith, and Scripture-grounds, then he seeth that those stones may be turned into bread; and from these thorns he may gather grapes. Even as we see in Christ, because he had two distinct Natures in a personal Union; therefore we say, Christ died, Christ was in agonies, and that because of his humane Nature; yea it is called, The blood of God. And again on the other side, Christ is said to be God, to create the world, to raise himself from the dead, and that because of his Divine Nature. As he was Son of God, so he was full of power and might upon the earth; As he was the Son of man, so he was subject to weakness and infirmity. Now here was no impossibility or repugnancy, that it should be thus different with Christ under several respects. Thus also it is with every member of Christ; As he is born of God, so he puts forth divine and gracious operations; but as he doth still retain some relics of his old birth: So there are sinful and infirm actions coming from him. Therefore when a godly man doth any thing, we must consider from what fountain it is, either the sweet fountain, or the bitter fountain that it sloweth from.