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that he can fpare no longer; yet, how loth is he to give them up to fevere judgment! Hof. xi. 8. "How thall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how fhali I deliver thee, Ifrael? how fhall I make thee as Admah? how fhall I fet thee as Zeboim ? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together." When the Lord hath finners in his arms, ready to give them up to fevere judgments, yet he makes a ftand, and would be willingly prevented before he proceeds to this ftrange work; for fo he calls his acts of judgment, Ifa. xxviii. 21. Acts of mercy are co-natural, moft agreeable and pleafant to God, Mic. vii. 18. "He delighteth in mercy: but judgment is his ftrange act, and his ftrange work."

4. Confider that when at last he fends strokes on us, they are always fhort of the caufe; he exacts not the whole debt that finners owe to his justice, as Ezra doth acknowledge, Ezra ix. 13. "Thou haft punished us lefs than our iniquities deferve." The ftroke he there is fpeaking of, was a moft heavy judgment; fearful ruin and defolation came upon Jerufalem, and the whole of Judah; the city and temple were burnt to afhes, the people carried captive to a ftrange land, and treated as bond-flaves among the Heathen. Yet, faith the holy man, "Thou haft punished us lefs than our iniquities deferve." q.d. It is true we have been carried to Babylon; but, in juftice, we might have been fent to hell: our houses were burned, but our bodies might have been burned too: we have been drinking water, but we might have been drinking blood: we have had grie vous burdens on earth, but we might have been groaning in hell: we were banished from the temple, but we might have been eternally banifhed from God's prefence We think it a great favour among men, when any pu nifhment is mitigated, when the fentence of death is changed into banishment, or when banifhment is turned into a fine, or a great fine into a smaller: And will you think that God deals feverely or rigorously with you, when he lays you on a fick-bed, when he might justly have laid you in hell, and poured out all his wrath upon you there? You but taste of the brim of the cup, when God might caufe you to drink of the bottom and dregs thereof.

Have you not cause then to acknowledge God's jus tice; nay, even his mercy, too, in his dealings with you, however rough they may feem to be! May you not, with good reason, fay, any thing less than hell is a mercy to fuch an ill deferving creature as I am! If even ahard-hearted Pharaoh, under diftrefs, came the length to own the juftice of God, Exod. ix. 27. "I have finned, the Lord is righteous." Shall any profeffed Chriftian fall short of that obftinate Egyptian?

DIRECT. II. Labour ftill to be fenfible of God's hand under heavy Affliction, and beware of stupidity and unconcernedness under it.

IT is a fin to faint under heavy affliction, but it is a duty to feel it, Heb. xii 5. "My fon, defpife not the chaftening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." The apoftle there doth caution against two extremes, which every Chriftian under the rod fhould be careful to avoid: 1. Defpifing or making light of affliction. 2. Sinking or defponding under affliction. We are in great hazard of running into the one or the other. As to the firft, we may be faid to defpife the chaftening of the Lord, when we do not obferve God's hand in our affliction, fo as to reform the things whereby he is displeased; or, when we refolve to abide the trial, by the ftrength of our own refolutions and stoutheartednefs, without looking to God for fupporting grace; or, when we turn ftupid and infenfible under the heavy and long continued rod. This defpifing and flighting of the rod, is not patience, but ftupidity; it is not Chriftian magnanimity, but a ftoical temper of mind, most finful and provoking to God. We fee how angry God is with finners when his ftrokes are not felt, 1. xli. 25. "He hath poured upon him the fury of his anger; and it hath fet him on fire round about, yet he knew it not; and it hath burned him, yet he laid it not to heart," Jer. v. 3. "Thou haft ftriken them, but they have not grieved: Thou haft confumed them, but they have refufed to receive correction; they have made VOL. I. their .

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their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return." There is little hope of a fcholar's minding his leffon, that is regardless of whipping. It is a dreadful fign to be like Pharaoh, fleeping in our fins, when God is thundering in his wrath. He that will fleep when his house is on fire, or lie ftill in bed, as if he was not concerned, may affuredly expect to be confumed in its flames. As David could not bear it, when the messengers he fent to the Ammonites out of good will, were affronted and defpifed; fo neither God will endure it, when the meffengers he fends to finners are flighted; for he that flights a meffenger, affronts his mafter. Thofe who make light of affliction, make light of God that fends it, and make light of fin that procures it.

Queft. "But when is it that people are suitably concerned under a heavy rod ?"

Anf. When they fee God's hand, hear God's voice, anfwer his intent, are curious to know his mind, defirous to do those things he requires, and reform those things he is displeased with. Remember every affliction is a meffenger from God, and deferves a hearing from you. It comes to thee with fuch a meffage as Ehud did to Eglon, Judges iii. 20. "I have an errand from God to thee, O King;" I have a meffage from God to thee, O Chriftian, O finner. Well, lend an ear, and hearken with reverence and attention to this errand; fay," Speak, Lord, for thy fervant heareth, what wouldst thou have me to do?" Believe it, that God fpeaks as really to you by his rod, as by his word; therefore he fays, hear ye the rod. God fpoke as truly by his ten plagues to Egypt, as he did by his ten pre cepts to Ifrael. And if the calm voice of the word were more regarded, we should hear lefs of the rough voice of the rod. As Gideon took briers and thorns of the wilderness, and with them taught the men of Succoth, who would not be taught by fairer means, Judg. viii. 16. So God takes the tharp prickles of fore affliction, to teach you his ftatutes, when you will not be taught by fofter methods. Beware then of grieving God's Spirit, by turning ftupid, and infenfible under tharp or long continued trials: But the more pains God is at with

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you by his rod, hearken the more carefully to his voice, and labour to make the greater proficiency in the school of affliction, where he thinks fit to continue you; that fo you may inherit that bleffing, Pf. xciv. 12. Bleffed is the man whom thou chaftenèft, O Lord, and teacheft him out of thy law."

DIRECT. III. Beware of mifconftructing God's deal" ings towards you, and of charging him foolishly.

WE are apt to believe fatan's fuggeftions under heavy trials, and to entertain wrong thoughts of God and his difpenfations. Now, thefe you ought to guard against, as, for instance, 1. Beware of harbouring atheistical thoughts, as if there were no Providence, no wife Governor of this lower world, no diftinction between the good and bad; and that it is to no purpose to be religious, like those mentioned in Mal. iii. 14. " Ye have faid, it is vain to ferve God; and what profit is it, that we have kept his ordinance, and walked mournfully before the Lord of hofts" Yea, even the Pfalmift, when he begins to compare his own fharp trials with the wicked's ease and profperity, is tempted to think all religion is in vain, and fay, Pf. lxxiii. 13, 14. "Verily, I have cleanfed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chaftened every morning." But thefe are nothing but the hellish fuggeftions of fatan, that irreconcileable enemy of God and precious fouls, against which we fhould closely stop our ears.

2. Beware of charging God in your hearts, with rigour and injuftice in his dealings, like thofe, Ezek. xviii. 25. "Yet, ye fay, the way of the Lord is not equal." How highly unjuft, and injurious, are fuch thoughts of him who is the judge of all the earth, and cannot but do right?

3. Beware of thinking that heavy afflictions do always fpeak wrath in God against thee. No, fometimes they fpeak forth love, and God may be carrying on a love-defign thereby to thy foul, viz. to fubdue thy strong

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lufts, and draw thee nearer unto himself. As for those who think that the fmarting rod, and Divine love, cannot dwell together, let them read that paffage, Heb. xii. 5, 6." And ye have forgotten the exhortation, which fpeaketh unto you as unto children, my fon, defpife not thou the chaftening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chalteneth, and fcourgeth every fon whom he receiveth."

4. Beware of defponding and diftruftful thoughts of God under fharp afflictions. Some are ready to raze the foundation; quit their intereft in God, and the promifes, and caft away their hope and confidence, faying, with Gideon, Judg. vi. 13. "Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this evil befallen us?" So David was ready to draw a hafty conclufion, Pf. xxxi: 22. "I faid, in my hafte, I am cut off from before thine eyes." But this was the effect of unbelief; for he that believeth will not make haste.

DIRECT. IV. Under fore Trouble and Diftrefs, labour to exercise a strong and lively Faith.

IT was a noble and heroic refolution in that holy man Job, under his fingular trials, Job xiii. 15. “Though he flay me, yet will I truft in him," q. d. Let my ftrokes be never fo fore and heavy, yet, I will not let go my grips of his words and promifes, I will not raze these foundations of my hope. It was this way the Pfalmist kept himfelf from finking under his heavy burdens, Pf. xxvii. 13. "I had fainted, unless I had believed to fee the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Confider but a little the noble influence that faith hath to ftrengthen and fupport the foul under fore trials.

1. Faith grips to the great gofpel-promifes of falva. tion in and through Jefus Chrift, and fo fecures the foul's main intereft through eternity; which is enough to make the foui eafy in every lot.

2. Faith views God in Chrift at the helm in the greatest storm, and fo it endures, as feeing him who is invifible, Heb, xi. 27.

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