* blossom, and bear fruit."* Behold, then, a sanctified affliction is a cup, whereinto Jesus hath wrung and pressed the juice and virtue of all his mediatorial offices. Surely, that must be a cup of generous, royal wine, like that in the supper, a cup of blessing to the people of God.
Hence may the unsanctified soul draw matter of fear and trouble, even from its unsanctified troubles. And thus it may reflect upon itself: O my soul ! what good hast thou gotten by all, or any of thy afflictions ? God's rod hath been dumb to thee, or thou deaf to it. I have not learned one holy instruction from it ; my troubles have left me the same, or worse than they found me ; my heart was proud, earthly, and vain before, and so it remains still ; they have not purged out, but only given vent to the pride, murmur, and atheism of my heart. I have been in my afflictions, as that wicked Ahaz was in his, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. who, " in the midst of his distress, " yet trespassed more and more against the Lord.'' When I have been in storms at sea, or troubles at home, my soul within me hath been as a raging sea, casting up mire and dirt. Surely this rod is not the rod of God's children ; I have proved but dross in the fur- nace, and I fear the Lord will put me away as dross, as he threatens to do to the wicked, Psal. cxix. 119.
Hence also should gracious souls draw much encouragement and comfort amidst all their troubles. O these are the fruits of God's fatherly love to me ! why should I fear in the day of evil ! or trem- ble any more at affliction ? Though they seem as a serpent at a distance, yet are they a rod in the hand. O blessed be that skilful and gracious hand, that makes the rod, the dry rod to blossom, and bear such precious fruit.
* Correction, Instruction, p. 82.
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Lord, what a mystery of love lies in this dispensation ! that sin, wliich first brought afflictions into the world, is now itself carried out of the world by affliction, Rom. v. 12. Isa. vii. 9. O what can frustrate my salvation, when those very things that seem most to oppose it, are made subservient to it, and, contrary to their own na- ture, do promote and further it ?
IS strange to hear what different censures fall Upon the same affliction ; some do call Their troubles sweet, some bitter ; others meet Them both mid-way, and call them bitter sweet. But here's the question still, 1 fain would see, Why sweet to him, and bitter unto me ? Thou drink'st them, dregs and all, but others find Their troubles sweet, because to them refind And sanctifv'd ; which diflerence is best, By such apt smiilies as these exprest : From salt and brackish seas fumes rise and fly. Which, into clouds condensed, obscure the sky ; Their property there altered, in few hours, Those brackish fumes fall down in pleasant showVs: Or as the dregs of wine and beer, distilFd By limbec, with ingredients, doth yield A cordial water, tho' the lees were bitter, From whence the chymist did extract such liquor. Then marvel not, that one can kiss that rod. Which makes another to blaspheme his God. O get your troubles sweetened and reiinM, Or else they'll leave bitter effects behind. Saints troubles are a cord, let down my love, To pully up their hearts to things above.
The seas within their bounds the Lord contains : He also men and devils holds in chains.
J T is a wonderful work of God to limit and bound such a vast and furious creature as the sea, which, according to the judgment of many learned men, is higher than the earth ; and that it hath a pro- pension to overflow it, is evident both from its nature and motion : were it not that the great God had laid his law upon it. And this is a work wherein the Lord glories, and will be admired. Psal. civ. 9. " Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that *' they turn not again to cover the earth." Which it is clear they >vouId do, were they not thus limited So Job xxxviii. 8, 10, 11.
^54: A NEW COMPASS FOR SEAMEN ; OE,
" Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth as if it had " issued out of the womb ? I brake up for it my decreed place, and " set bars and doors, and said. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no ** further ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed/'
And no less is the glorious power and mercy of God discovered in bridling the rage and fury of Satan and his instruments, that they break not in upon the inheritance of the Lord, and destroy it. " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of *' wrath thou shalt restrain," Psal. Ixxvi. 10. By which it is more than hinted, that there is a world of rage and malice in the hearts of wicked men, which fain would, but cannot vent itself, because the Lord restrains, or, as in the Hebrew, g'u-ds it up. Satan is the en- vious one, and his rage is great against the people of God, Rev. xii. 12. But God holds him, and all his instruments in a chain of pro- vidence ; and it is well for God's people that it is so.
They are limited as the sea, and so the Lord in a providential way speaks to them, " Hitherto shall ye come, and no further." Some- times he ties them up so short, that they cannot touch his people, though they have the greatest opportunities and advantages. Psal. cv. 12, 13, 14, 15. *' When they were but a few men in number; *' yea, very few, and strangers in it ; when they went from one na- " tion to another, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered '^ no man to do them wrong ; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, " saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.'' And sometimes he permits them to touch and trouble his people, but then sets bounds and limits to them, beyond which they must not pass. That is a pregnant text to this purpose. Rev. ii. 10. '* Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may " be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days."
Here are four remarkable limitations upon Satan and his agents in reference to the people of God : a limitation as to the persons, not all, but some ; a limitation of the punishment, a prison, not a grave, not hell ; a limitation upon them as to the end, for trial, not ruin ; and lastly, as to the duration, not as long as they please, but ten days.
O my soul ! what marrow and fatness, comfort and consolation mayest thou suck from the breast of this truth in the darkest day of trouble .'' Thou seest how the flowing seas drives to overwhelm the earth. Who has arrested it in its course, and stopt its violence ? who has confined it to its place ? Certainly none other but the Lord. W^hen I see it threaten the shore with its proud, furious, and in- sulting waves, I wonder it doth not swallow up all : but I see it no sooner touch the sands, which God hath made its bounds, but it retires, and, as it were, Avith a kind of submission, respects those limits which God hath set it.
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