And if this be the meaning, what a glo- rious promise is this ? What can any ra- tional man desire more ? Nothing slijill be- fall him but shall be for his good: he shall be deprived or kept short of nothing, but what he had better be without than have, lie that is unsatisfied with this ])roinise, it is either from lust or unbelief; either he doth not believe that God is true and will perform this word, or else it is because his lustmustbe satisfied, though with the denial of his reason and interest. He that desires an estate in the world, ease, pleasure, liber- ty, or any thing else upon any other terms, but as they may be for his real good, hath as much lost his wits as his faith ; and he that will take upon him to know what is good for him, better than God, may as well take upon him to govern the world. You may with as good reason, desire a fever, or a dropsy, that you may have the j)leasuro of your drink ; as for the pleasures that car- nal things would bring you in, to desire them, when they would be a snare to your souls.
3r/, To whom these things shall work for good ; to them that love God, to them that are called according to his pur])ose, — to the people of God who you see, are here described by their election and vocati(»n, " the called according to his purj)ose," and their sanctification, " they that love (lod." Love (iod, and you will live in the obedi- ence of his whole will. These are the jieo- ple, to whom the promise is made ; prove your calling and election, — prove your sanc- tification,— and you may write your names in this glorious j)romise ; " all things shall work for your good." To those that are rebels, and reprobates from God, all things shall work together for evil. Whilst things hurtful work together for good to the saints ; all good things work together for the hurt of sinners; their peace hurts them, their plenty hurts them, their ])leasure hurts them ; vea, both their prosperity and ad-
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SELECT SERMONS.
versity, their plenty and their poverty, their pleasure and their trouble, their honour and disgrace, everything that befalls them, turns to their prejudice; their prosperity destroys them ; their table is their snare ; their plea- sures are their plagues; and their very pu- nishments are turned into sin ; every thing that befalls them, heightens and hardens them in their wickedness, and ripens them for vengeance. God is not with them, and therefore nothing prospers with them. God is with his saints, and therefore nothing comes amiss to them, but all for their great- er advantage. Christians, this is your por- tion, and your peculiar, wherein the men of this world shall neither partake with you, no^ be ever able to deprive you of it !
Ath, How all things shall work for their good ; in special, how shall the evil things, the sufferings of this life be for their good ? How can this be ? Must we disbelieve our senses, lay down our reason, ere we can be- lieve the scriptures ? Must we call evil good, and good evil ? Must we count dark- ness light, and light darkness? Is pleasure pain, and pain pleasure ? Is loss gain, and gain loss ? Is ease torment, and torment ease ? Doth religion make things cease to be what they are, and to be what they are not ? or at least, must we believe, that darkness is the mother of light, that good is the daughter of evil ? Can we gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Can darkness give light, or death itself bring forth life ? Must we say, that contraries no longer de- stroy, but produce each other, and tliat the womb l)rings forth its own destruction ? How can these things be ?
But must God give a reason of his ac- tions, or else they are not? Though evil cannot bring good, — darkness cannot bring forth light, — yet, cannot God bring forth good out of evil, liglit out of darkness ? Though darkness cannot l)riiig forth light, ■ — evil cannot bring forth good, — by a na- tural causation ; yet, cannot (lod make evil an occasion of good ? Though it do not work efficiently, yet can it not work objectively neither to it ? Though the torment the me- dicine puts men to, be not ease, yet may it not work towards ease ? May not the storm, though it help not, yet hasten the laboui-er oa his work, the traveller on his way ?
May not the darkness of the niffht, make more diligent in the day? May not sickness teach men more temperance, and poverty more frugality ?
But to proceed more distinctly : How can the saints' evil things work to their good? That they do so, cannot be denied, unless we will deny, not only scripture, but common sense, and experience : but how comes it to pass ?
I answer, in four particulars :