affliction is a cup whereinto Jesus Christ hath wrung and prest the juice and virtue of all his mediatory offices; surely that must be a cup of generous and royal wine, like that in the supper, a cup of blessing to the people of God.

And thus I have finished the fourth particular, propounded for the clearing and confirming of the doctrine, viz. the grounds and demonstrations of the point; and with it the whole doctrinal part of this great and blessed truth, namely, that it is a blessed thing when correction and instruction, word and rod, go together.

I come now to the use, for the improvement of the point. And it may serve for information and exhortation.

I. For INFORMATION, and that in these particulars.

1. If they only be blessed whom God chasteneth and teacheth; then affliction alone is not enough to evidence a man to be a happy man; no man is therefore blessed because he is chastened; blows alone are not enough, either to evince or to effect a state of blessedness; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, crieth repenting Ephraim; as if he had said, I have had blows enough, if blows would have done me good; nay, but under all the strokes and smitings of thy displeasure, I have been as a bullock unac customed to the yoke, unteachable and untractable; ́ thou hast drawn one way, and I have drawn another;

thou hast pulled forward, and I have pulled backward; all thy chastisements have left me as they found me, brutish and rebellious. Surely blows only may break the neck sooner than the heart: They are in themselves the fruit of divine wrath, a branch of the curse, and therefore cannot possibly of themselves make the least argument of God's love to the soul. Bastards have blows as well as children, and Fools because of their transgression are afflicted. And yet it is very sad to consider, that this is the best evidence that the most of men have for heaven; because they suffer in this world, they think they shall be freed from sufferings in the world to come; and because they have an hell here, they hope they shall escape hell hereafter, they hope they shall not have two hells yes, poor, deluded soul, thou mayest and must have two hells without better evidence for heaven: Cain, and Judas, and millions of reprobate men and women, have two hells; one of this life, in torments of body, and horror of conscience; and another of the life to come, in unquenchable fire: and so must thou, unless thou get better evidence for heaven, than the present misery which is upon thee: Thou mayest have a prison on earth, and a dungeon in hell; thou mayest now want a crumb of bread, and hereafter a drop of water; thou mayest now be the reproach of men, and hereafter the scorn of men and angels, and of God himself; And therefore be wise to salvation, by working it out with fear and trembling, and giving

all diligence, make your calling and election sure. God forbid that a man should take that for his security from hell, which may be but the foretaste of it: the pledge and aggravation of endless misery.

Objection. But doth not the scripture say, Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth? And again, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten?

Yes: but mark, I beseech you; though the scripture saith, Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, it doth not say, Whomsoever the lord chasteneth he loveth Though it saith, He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, it doth not say, Whomsoever he scourgeth he receiveth as a son: Christ saith, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; but he saith not, As many as I rebuke and chasten, I love. These scriptures include children, but they do not exclude bastards they tie chastening to sonship, but not sonship to chastening: the sons are chastened, but all the chastened are not, therefore, sons: the beloved are rebuked, but all that are rebuked are not, consequently, beloved.

But that place in Job seems to say as much, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth.

It is true; but one scripture must interpret another; David must expound Eliphaz: Happy is the man whom God correcteth, i. e. when instruction goeth along. with correction, when chastisement and teaching ac-. company one another: Blessed is the man whom thou

chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. The scripture doth not usually give things their names, but when they are made up of all their integrals; IVhoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord, i. e. a wife made up of scripture qualifications; otherwise a man may, and many men do, find a plague in a wife, and have her from the Lord in wrath, and not in love.

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Indeed chastening and affliction is an opportunity of mercy, a may-be to happiness, but not (singly) an evidence of happiness; lay no more upon it than it will bear; it is an opportunity, improve it; it is no more do not trust it.

2. his doctrine informs us, that as affliction simply considered, is not enough to make or evidence a man to be happy, so neither is IT sufficient to conclude a man to be miserable; no man is therefore miserable, because afflicted. It may prove a teaching affliction, and then he is happy; and yet this is another mistake among men; and that both in reference to others, and to ourselves.

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(1.) In reference to others; people are very prone to judge them wretched whom they see afflicted: it was the miserable mistake of Job's friends to conclude him miserable,, because smitten: cursed, because chastened.

(2.) In reference to ourselves, it is a merciless mistake, sometimes even of God's own children, to sit down under affliction, especially if sore and of long

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continuance; and conclude, God, doth not love them, because he doth correct them. It seems to be the very case of the believing Hebrews; they judged themselves out of God's favour, because under God's frowns; not at all beloved, because so greatly afflicted and persecuted. And therefore it is that upon which the apostle, after he presented them with a large catalogue and list of the primitive martyrs before Christ, in the eleventh chapter, bestows the first part of the next chapter, to prove by reasons drawn from nature, and instances taken out of scripture; (the first whereof is that unparalleled instance of Jesus Christ) that God's LOVE and God's ROD may stand together. The truth is, my brethren, there is nothing can make a man miserable but sin; it is sin that poisons our afflictions: The sting of death is sin: and so we may say of all other evils, which militate under death as soldiers under their general; the sting of sickness is sin; and the sting of poverty is sin; and the sting of imprisonment and banishment is sin, so of every affliction. Take the sting out, (which is done by the blood of Christ, and evidenced by divine teaching). and they cannot hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain. And therefore let no children of God be rash, to conclude hard things against themselves, and to make evidences of wrath where God hath made none. Let christians on both sides look further than the affliction, itself; the Holy Ghost having long since determined this controversy by a peremptory decision; No man