Reply 1. Thou art not alone, others of the saints have been betrayed by friends ; and when they have leaned upon them, they have been as a foot out of joint. This was true in the type David, Ps. Iv. 12, 13, 14, " It was not an enemy reproached me, but it was thou, O man, my equal, my guide, and my acquaintance ; we took sweet counsel together ;" and in the antitype Christ, he was betrayed by a friend ; and why should we think it strange to have the same measure dealt out to us as Jesus Christ had ? " The servant is not above his mas- ter."
Reply 2. A Christian may often read his sin in his punishment : hath not he dealt treacherotisly with God? How oft hath he grieved the Comforter, broken his vows, and through unbelief sided with Satan a- gainst God ? How oft hath he abused love, taken the jewels of God's mercicvS, and made a golden calf of them, serving his own lusts? How oft hath he made the free grace of God, which would have been a bolt to keep out sin, rather a key to open the door to it ? These wounds hath the Lord received in the house of his friends, Zech. xiii. 6. Look upon the unkindness of thy friend, and mourn for thy own unkindness against God : shall a Christian condemn that in another, which he hath been too guilty of himself?
Reply 3. Hath thy friend proved treach- erous ? Perhaps you did repose too much confidence in him. If you lay more weight upon a house than the pillars will bear, it must needs break. God saith, " trust ye not in a friend," Mic. vii. 5. Perhaps you did put more trust in him, than you did dare to put in God. Friends are as Venice- glasses ; we may use them, hut if we lejm too hard upon them, they will break ; be- hold matter of humility, but not of sullen- ncss and discontent.
Reply 4. You have a friend in heaven who will never fail you ; " there is a friend — saith Solomon — that sticketh closer than a brother;" Prov. xviii. 24. Such a friend
ART OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT.
695
IK Ciod : he is vcrv studious and inquisitive in our honalf: lie liatli a dfbatiiijr with him- Rj'If. — a consulting^ and projcotintj how he may do jis ^ood : he is the best tViciul which
' inav e^ive contentment in the midst of all discourtesies of friends.
Consider, 1. lie is a lovinjr friend. " God is love," 1 John iv. 16. Hence he is said sometimes to enfjrave us on the " palm of his hand," Isa. xlix. 16. That we may ne- ver ho out of his eye, and to " curry us in liis bosom," Isa. xl. 11. Near to his heart. There is no stf)p or stint in his love; but as the river Nilus, it overflows all the banks ; Ills love is .IS f;u* beyond our thouo^hts, as it is above our deserts. O the infinite love
•of God, in jjivinor the Son of his love to be made flesh, which was more than if all the anijels had been made worms ! (iod in g'iv- ing Christ to us jjave his very heart to us ; here is love penciled out in all its glory, and engraven as with the ' point of a dia- mond.' All other love is hatred in compa- rison of the love of our Friend.
2. lie is a careful friend ; " he careth for you," ] Pet. v. 7. (1.) He minds and transacts our business as his own, he ac- counts his people's interests and concern- ments as his interest. (2.) He provides for us, grace to enrich us, glory to ennoble us. It was David's complaint, " no man careth for my soul," Ps. cxlii. 4. : a Christian hath a friend that cares for him.
3. He is a prudent friend, Dan. ii. 20. A friend may sometimes err through igno- rance or mistake, and give his friend poison instead of sugar ; but " God is wise in heart," Job. ix. 4. He is skilful as well as faithful ; he knows what our disease is, and what physic is most proper to apply ; he knows what will do us good, and what wind will be best to carry us to heaven.
4. He is a faithful friend, Deut. vii. 9, 10. And he is faithful, 1. In his ])romises, *' in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised," Tit. i. 2. (iod's people are " children that will not lie," Isa. Ixiii. 8. But God is a God that can- not lie; he will not deceive the faith of his people: nay, he canned: he is called ' the Truth,' — he can as well cease to he God as cease to be true. The Lord may sometimes change his promise — a^ when he converts
a tempond promise into a spiritual — but he can never break his promise.
5. He is a compassionate friend, hence in scripture we read of the yearning of his bowels, Jer. xxxi. 20. God's friendship is