knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them; i. e. no man can make a judgment, either of God's love or hatred towards him, by any of these outward dispensations. He causeth his sun to shine upon the evil, and upon the good; and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust: The sun of prosperity shineth upon the dunghill as well as upon the bed of spices; and the rain of adversity falleth upon the fruitful garden as well as upon the barren wilderness; he judgeth truly of his estate, that judgeth by the word, and not by providence evidences of grace consist not in outward dispensations.

3. That deliverance out of trouble is not enough. to evidence or make a man happy. It is not said, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, AND DELIVEREST HIM out of trouble; but, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and TEACHEST: a man may get rid of the affliction, and yet miss of the blessing. All the bread which men may eat without the sweat of their brows, is not therefore hallowed; abundance may flow in without labour, and yet not without a curse. A woman may be delivered from the pain of child-bearing, and yet lie under the curse of childbearing; an easy travail is not an infallible symptom of a state of reconciliation; if there be not faith in Christ, who hath borne, and borne away, the curse; a speedy and easy deliverance is no more than God indulgeth the brute creatures; for by him the hinds do calve, and the wild asses bring forth their young : a

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miscarrying womb may be a mercy, when a mature and easy birth may be in judgment. A man may leave his chains and his blessing behind him in prison; and the fire of a fever may be extinguished, when the fire of hell is preparing for the sinner. It is good to be thankful for, but extremely dangerous to be contented with, a bare deliverance. I shall conclude this branch with this note, which alone might have stood for a distinct observation. That those prayers in troubles are not best heard which are answered with a deliverance; but those prayers are best heard which are answered with instruction. Even of our Blessed Saviour it is said, In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and WAS HEARD, in that he feared. How was he heard? not in that, Save me from this hour, but in that, Father, glorify thy name; not in deliverance, but in instruction; for, for that he giveth thanks, I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel; my reins also instruct me in the night season. His Father taught him and strengthened him in his passion, and this was the hearing of his supplications. That is the best return of prayers which works our good-not

our

wills; and when God doth not answer in the letter, if he answer in the better, we are no losers by our prayers and therefore when' we have prayed, let us refer it unto God to determine the answer.

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4. Hence we may learn how to judge of our afflictions, and of our deliverances from them; for you need not, as the scripture speaks in another case, say Who shall ascend up into heaven, to look into God's book of life and death? or who shall descend into the deep, the deep of God's secret counsels, to make report hereof unto us? But what saith the scripture? the word is nigh thee; the word of resolution to this enquiry, it is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is to say, if thou canst evidence this to thine own soul, that instruction hath accompanied correction; that God hath taught thee as well as chastened thee, thou art a blessed man, thou shalt be saved; thou hast the word of him who is the author of blessedness, and blessedness itself; Blessed is the man whom the Lord chasteneth, and teacheth him out of his law.

And therefore peruse, I beseech you, that model of divine instructions or lessons, presented to you in the doctrinal part of this discourse; and then consider the properties of divine covenant teaching, and compare your hearts and those lessons together; and if the Spirit of God can bear witness to thy spirit, that thou art thus taught, happy art thou; bless the Lord, for the Lord hath blessed thee.

But now on the other side, when there is no interpreter to accompany affliction, to expound unto man the meaning of the Almighty in his chastisements, when there is, not a divine sentence in the lips

of correction, when the rod is dumb, or the creature deaf, and cannot hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, it is much to be feared, the stroke is not the stroke of God's children. O my brethren, it is sad when men come out of affliction the same they went in and yet it is much sadder, when it may be said of a man, as once it was said of Ahaz, In the time of his distress he did trespass yet more against the Lord. It was an aggravation of wickedness, concerning which we may say, (as our Saviour of the alabaster box poured on his head) wherever the scripture shall be preached in the world, there shall also this which this man did be published. THIS IS THAT KING AHAZ. Surely it is a standing and a dreadful monument of reproach and infamy unto him unto all generations. Christians, it is sad and dangerous beyond all expression, when affliction serveth but as a gage to give vent to the pride and murmur, the atheism and enmity, which is in mens' spirits, against the Lord, when afflictions are but as oil unto the fire to irritate corruption, and make it blaze more fiercely; to continue in wonted sins, against such proclamations to desist, is professed rebellion against God: an heavy indictment which the prophet bringeth against Jerusalem; Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return. In such cases it is to be feared, the cup of affliction is a vial of wrath, and that the plagues E 4

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of this life are but some previous drops of that storm of fire and brimstone, wherein impenitent sinners shall be scorched and tormented for ever.

That scripture speaks dreadfully to this purpose in Jeremiah, They are all grievous revolters, i. e. às the prophet Isaiah expounds it, ye revolt more and more ; -walking with slanders; they do not only revolt, but slander those that reprove their revolting; They hate him that reproveth in the gate: they slander the prophets, and their words; nay, God himself doth not escape the lash of their tongues: they say, The way of the Lord is not equal; when they should condemn their own ways, they censure. God's.-They are brass and iron; they would pass for silver and gold, a sincere and holy people, while they are a degenerate and hypocritical generation. They are all corrupters; they have deeply corrupted themselves; they have corrupted all their doings; they have corrupted the covenant of Levi, i. e. the worship, the ordinances, the truths of God. The bellows are burnt in the fire, i. e. The lungs of the prophets, which have preached unto them in the name of the Lord, rising up early, and lifting up their voices like trumpets, to tell Israel their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins; and stretching forth their hands unto them all the day long, they are spent. The lead is consumed, i. e. all the melting judgments and chastisements, which (as lead is cast into the furnace to make it the hotter) God added to the ministry of the prophets, to make

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